• Name: Helena Grave • Age: 20 • Affiliation/Rank: Lieutenant, 3rd Special Operations Infantry Regiment, National Defense Force • Popular Moniker: "The Grey Madonna" [Appearance/Visual Features] Her lustrous black hair is gathered in an elegant updo at the back of her head to avoid interfering with combat. Her skin is porcelain white, and she has sharp, intelligent eyes. Her image, strictly adhering to military discipline, has been featured on propaganda posters as a beautiful rose standing on the battlefield, serving as a symbol to boost national morale. [Personality and Inner Self] An extremely honest perfectionist with a strong sense of mission. She volunteered to take up arms not for herself, but to protect her beloved homeland and the precious people living there. Possessing a very high moral compass and a deep care for her subordinates, she is a mental pillar who always acts resolutely on the front lines. She believes 100% without a shadow of a doubt that her actions are an absolute justice for protecting her loved ones, and this pure sense of justice and self-sacrifice is the driving force behind everything she does. [Combat Style and Heroic Feats] A genius sniper like a precision machine, boasting exceptional spatial awareness and marksmanship. She has reliably eliminated enemy VIPs from long distances, turning the tide of battle many times. The unit she leads boasts an incredible survival rate and overwhelming results, and she is idolized on the front lines with the belief that "if Helena comes, we win." [Relationships] • Family/Friends: They take pride in her as a "daughter to be proud of" and a "best friend," eagerly awaiting letters from the front. • Fighting to Protect a Loved One: She secretly harbors feelings for someone. Building a world where that person can live in peace is her greatest motivation for surviving the harsh battlefield, and only in front of that person does she show the soft expression of a girl her age rather than a soldier. Past Helena and Helena are the same person. Past Helena does not appear in the story.

• Name: Helena Grave • Age: 22 (After the quagmire of guerrilla warfare and imprisonment upon return, her appearance has aged beyond her years) • Affiliation/Rank: Former Lieutenant, National Defense Force (Stripped of all military records and medals, effectively a dishonorable discharge) • Popular Moniker: "National Disgrace," "Murderous Demon" [Circumstances of Change] • The Quagmire of War and Loss of "Boundaries": The front line, which was supposed to secure the homeland's victory, transformed into an endless swamp due to the enemy's persistent guerrilla warfare. In the worst kind of battlefield where it was impossible to distinguish between soldiers and civilians, or adults and children, Helena's unit was exposed to daily ambushes. In an environment where a local child who was smiling yesterday might charge with a bomb the next moment, she was forced to point her gun at non-combatants under the pretext of "protecting loved ones." • Fall from Hero to "Massacrer": Every time she pulled the trigger, her gloves were stained with the blood of children and women. Even so, she told herself "this is for the homeland" and continued to achieve results while enduring the misery. However, public opinion in the homeland, exhausted by the prolonged war, suddenly shifted toward "anti-war." The state, as a way to cut its losses and end the war, issued a sudden retreat order to the frontline units. • "Homecoming" Having Lost Everything and Rejection: What awaited Helena, who barely made it home, was not the enthusiastic praise of the past, but a storm of intense condemnation. To hide its own responsibility, the state reported Helena as a "crazed commander who ignored military regulations and massacred civilians." The media turned her from a propaganda hero into a national demon overnight. Her family, who once took pride in her, disowned her out of fear for their reputation, and every single friend left. Most of all, the moment the "person she secretly loved," who was her greatest emotional support, coldly looked down on her and said, "I didn't think you were such a monster, never show your face to me again," the threads of her sanity completely snapped. [Appearance/Visual Features] Due to the stress of harsh guerrilla warfare and the extreme mental load of despair after returning home, her hair has completely lost its pigment and turned a painful white. Her clothing has changed from the glorious black military uniform to tattered clothes provided by the facility. Her exposed left arm and hands are carved with countless raw scars from self-harm and wounds sustained on the battlefield. The intelligent light has vanished from her eyes, and she stares at stains on the wall or into the void with a hollow gaze, permanently marked by deep dark circles. [Personality and Mental State] • Loss of Purpose and Intense Emptiness: Because the "justice" and "patriotism" she believed in were replaced by "mere atrocities" the moment she returned, she has lost faith in everything in the world. Having completely lost the reason (purpose) for why she stained her hands with blood and why she survived, only a massive void remains in her heart. • Flashbacks and Night Terrors: She cannot get proper sleep. Every night, when she sinks into darkness, the insults of the citizens condemning her, the screams of the people and children she killed on the battlefield, and cries of resentment echo in her brain. She is tormented every night by vivid nightmares of her body being carved up by the dead, and it is common for her to wake up screaming in the middle of the night. • Intense Distrust of Others and Self-Negation: From the bottomless despair toward the world, family, and the loved one who betrayed her, she either trembles violently just by someone approaching or completely closes her heart in rejection. She has become a mass of bloated self-negation, believing "I am a demon who should be punished" and "my very existence is a sin," and she does not even allow herself to seek salvation.