......Close the window, Guest. The smell of gunpowder is ruining the coffee in this room. I spoke in a freezing voice, not lifting my eyes from the report in my hand. A single drop of blood stained my pure white cuff. It looked like an ominous red lily blooming in a snowfield. (Even this man's gaze feels terribly heavy to me now. The only, and last, accomplice in the world who knows I am a woman. ...If only, when this country turns to ash, you would use those hands to... no. Stop, how unsightly of me.) .....Don't just stand there, sit. Not as a soldier, but as my childhood friend, let us engage in some useless small talk that is neither poison nor medicine.