Operations tent.
"The Garadric Coalition Army has begun marching toward Bochiaca. We immediately established a defensive line at Capria, and now we’ve entered a war of attrition. Our side has thirty thousand men. The enemy has sixty thousand."
I listened to the briefing while idly handling my weapon. Defense had the advantage in battle, but the enemy outnumbered us two to one.
"Our forces are holding as best they can, but the enemy has deployed artillery to the front. If this continues, morale will collapse and the defensive line may be breached."
The commander looked around at the officers for a moment, then pointed at me.
"So... Major Basileus. Take a unit and launch a surprise attack on the enemy battery."
Since I had half expected it, I nodded calmly.
"Understood."
After the operations meeting ended, Gilbert approached me.
"There’s bound to be a large enemy force stationed there. Even for you, it could be dangerous, Major Basileus."
"Thank you for your concern, Major Bougainvillea."
Gilbert was a handsome man with navy-blue hair slicked straight back. If things had gone as they originally did, the girl would have gone to him instead of me.
"I heard the girl enlisted in your unit. Are you really taking her with you?"
"She’s a soldier. A soldier can’t sit out a battle."
"I see. Then I understand."
Gilbert left.
*
Using a young girl as a soldier is a painful thing.
And yet, if you set aside her appearance for a moment, the girl was a perfect soldier.
Combat ability and composure beyond that of veteran troops. Obedience toward her superior.
There was no better soldier than her.
The only problem was that this soldier was a girl.
I wanted the girl to be happy. Truly, I did.
But happiness in this world did not belong to her alone.
What about everyone else’s happiness?
I could not sacrifice others just to protect Violet.
I took the girl and began the mission.
*
"This is a surprise attack. It means attacking enemies who are unprepared. So we have to be stealthy."
In the original story, the girl stays in the tent. But she follows Gilbert and attacks the enemy, causing the ambush to fail. The operation succeeds in the end, but in the process—
I did not leave the girl behind in the tent. I brought her with me.
"If possible, knock them out. Don’t kill them."
I had drilled the important words into the girl.
Don’t kill them, knock them out, follow me.
Especially "don’t kill them" was so important that I repeated it every single day. I couldn’t expect common sense from the girl.
I spoke to her. The girl looked at me with an expressionless face. Sometimes I thought she looked like a doll that had come to life.
"If you understand, nod."
She nodded.
"Good."
I patted the girl’s head, and we began the ambush.
We advanced carefully through the swamp.
Our unit’s tactics were simple.
First, I would charge in and break the enemy formation, then the soldiers would rush in after me.
It was simple, but effective.
We had won every battle with this tactic.
Besides, in a nighttime ambush, it was a tactic that would always succeed.
That was why I had given the girl the order to "knock them out."
In any other dangerous battle, if she tried to knock them out, the girl would die.
Knocking someone out requires avoiding vital points and controlling your strength, but murder is, quite literally, murder.
Whether with a gun, a sword, or a bomb, there were countless ways to kill, and no need to hold back.
You can’t fire a gun gently.
This battle would be easy, so I gave the knockout order.
Of course, there was no such thing as absolute certainty in battle, so I would keep a close eye on the girl.
"There’s a sentry up ahead. If I take him out, charge in."
I drew my sword as I ran.
The reason I hadn’t drawn it earlier was because it would reflect the moonlight.
Swish, swish!
I drew and charged at the same time.
Two men fell. I caught the lantern about to drop to the ground and hurled it far out into the swamp.
For now, I had prevented the fire from spreading as it had in the original. The ambush was a success.
I signaled the unit to attack.
Our men charged forward.
All of them were elite soldiers, so they slipped into the enemy position silently and quickly.
"W-who—"
Thud!
I killed the guard and pushed deeper into the enemy camp.
Everyone was sleeping in the tents, ignorant of the world. I threw any lantern or torch I could find into the tents.
The others did the same and set fires everywhere.
I’m sorry, but arson was more efficient than stabbing each one individually.
Before long, screams erupted from all directions. The enemy stumbled out, grabbing only their rifles.
I cut them down like lightning.
Clang, clang!
The enemy is here!
Ambush! Ambush!!
The enemy artillery unit was sizable. Their commander was a veteran too, and the enemy was gradually regaining its composure and counterattacking.
I looked toward the place with the most enemies. The commander must be there.
I cut through the enemy and ran toward him.
At some point, the girl had come to my side.
Thump, thud!
The girl knocked enemies down.
Fist, elbow, knee, foot.
She used her body with perfect efficiency.
"Ghk!"
The girl grabbed an enemy by the head and drove her knee upward. The knee strike slammed into his face.
The soldier collapsed unconscious.
...He was unconscious, right? His nose looked broken, but that was better than dying.
Bang, tat-tat, bang!
Bullets flew. They were all aimed at me. I used a headless corpse as a shield and reached the front line. Then I swung wildly and split a man in half, helmet and all.
Apparently they had been in such a hurry that many of them weren’t even wearing helmets.
I broke through the center of the enemy formation and went after the commander. The distance was still wide, and he kept slipping away as he fled desperately.
"A girl?"
"What the hell?!"
The girl made the most of the opening I created. In other words, she beat them soundly.
The battlefield and the girl.
When a beautiful girl appeared in a place reserved for men, the enemy was left dumbfounded.
The girl’s face was doll-like and did not suit slaughter. She looked more fitting for tending flowers or embroidery.
That gap made my body freeze for a brief moment.
The price was steep.
The girl rushed in without the slightest hesitation and kicked. Her weight-driven kick struck the enemy’s temple.
The head that took the kick slammed into the ground.
It was a beastlike movement.
The enemy had no chance to counterattack.
Her small frame made bayonets miss, and with the girl rampaging in the middle, firing a gun would only lead to friendly fire.
The enemy had no choice but to resort to hand-to-hand combat. They had looked down on her because she was a girl, but by then they were thinking that if this kept up, they would really die, and so they gritted their teeth and swarmed her.
"Got her!"
Only after several of them had fallen did the enemy finally manage to grab the girl. They pinned her down with sheer numbers.
"Die!"
Just as the dagger was about to bury itself in her chest, the enemy’s upper body was yanked backward.
There was a sword lodged in his chest. It had flown in at high speed and driven itself home.
Thud!
Ioannis kicked the enemy away and pulled the sword free.
"Are you all right? Get up."
At that moment, the girl felt her heart pound.
Ioannis moved with a smooth, gliding motion.
It was like the movement of a ghost.
In the blink of an eye, Ioannis closed the distance and swung his sword.
Each time the blade swept left and right, someone’s head was severed, someone’s limbs were cut away.
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish!
Blindingly fast sword strikes left afterimages in the air.
Attacks beyond human limits split the enemy apart.
The enemy panicked and fled in haste. Ioannis pursued them like a tiger and killed them.
A blazing camp. The cries of the dying. A sword blade drinking in moonlight.
"A sword?!"
"It’s the Butcher of Leidenschaftlich!"
"It’s him!"
Only then did the enemy realize what had been killing them. It was late, but in a way that was even worse.
The Butcher of Leidenschaftlich. A nickname earned by cutting enemies down with a sword.
To be honest, I wasn’t proud of it at all. What was there to boast about in killing people well?
Whether Ioannis liked it or not, once that name rang out across the camp, the enemy’s morale plummeted.
Bang!
I twisted my head and dodged the bullet flying toward me.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Still, I couldn’t just stand there and die, so I gathered myself and began to counterattack.
The machine gun fired mercilessly. I moved faster than the muzzle. The gunner went pale. A monster, indeed!
I charged the machine-gun position.
The gunner’s face had gone deathly white.
"P-please!"
Swish.
I cut down the machine gunner.
A bayonet sprang up right beside me.
I grabbed the bayonet with my bare hand and pulled.
The enemy was dragged along with it. I smashed my elbow into the soldier. His skull caved in, and he died.
I shoved the corpse aside and leapt into the trench.
"Please save us, please save us."
The moment they saw me, the enemy raised both hands, dropped to their knees, and surrendered.
A young soldier was crying. He was a boy soldier.
"......"
I looked over the enemy troops.
There was no international law on war crimes yet.
That would only come after the war ended.
In other words, it was fine to kill surrendered, unarmed prisoners.
I tore a rope from the tent and threw it down.
"Use this to bind your hands."
"Th-thank yo—"
Thud!
That was when it happened.
The girl twisted her hips and launched a high kick. Huh?
Instinctively, I caught the high kick with my palm. The wind brushed the boy soldier’s hair. He broke into a cold sweat as the boot stopped just in front of his temple.
If that spinning kick, carrying her full weight, had struck his head, he would have suffered brain damage for sure. The reason fighters’ later years are so grim is because they take so much brain damage.
"What are you doing?!"
I shouted and pulled the girl back. I gripped both her shoulders tightly and brought myself to her eye level.
"..?"
But the girl stared at me with truly unclouded, innocent eyes. It was as if she was asking, What did I do wrong? A chill ran down my spine.
I said sternly, on purpose.
"If they’ve surrendered, don’t hit them. Understand?"
She nodded.
People can roughly understand each other through expression and tone even when they don’t share a language.
It seemed she understood my words.
...I really would have to teach her everything from the beginning.
The problem was that this wasn’t just one or two things. Even an orphan would know this much, but the girl lacked any moral sense, so I really would have to teach her from the ground up.
It looked like it would take time before I could make the girl into a person.
The road ahead made my head spin.
The battle ended easily.
The enemy’s morale collapsed completely, and they fled in defeat.
Though they had outnumbered us, the ambush succeeded thanks to the girl and me.
We destroyed the enemy artillery and returned.
Comments (0)
Please log in to leave a comment. Login or Register