The fragrance of after-dinner coffee wafted through the room, but its distinctive roasted aroma did not bring a sense of warmth. Instead, the atmosphere was dominated by gravity and anxiety within this temporary family.
"Join the military? Why?"
The moment of daze only lasted for a brief instant; Minerva quickly regained her composure.
The gap between expectation and reality had certainly left her somewhat at a loss, but it wasn't entirely unexpected either.
Children who have only ever known the battlefield often find it hard to forget war even in peaceful societies. The bloodshed, wailing, pain, and death from the battlefield are etched into their memory more deeply than anything else. While eating, drinking, walking, or sleeping, fragments of those crimson landscapes still echo and haunt their minds.
It's almost as if they've been cursed.
Thus, choosing to join the military and breathing in the smoke-scented air of a barracks to seek inner peace is hardly surprising.
