On the frontmost battlefield, full of putrid smell of corpses that fell silent after the sunset.
Thanks to helping Salsa, I was severely punished by Platoon Leader Garback until my whole body had turned into a mush.
At night, I got permission to be healed, but as I wasn't in a state to go to the medics, I somehow fixed my body using my unskillful [Heal] and dropped down on the ground like a collapsed log.
"…"
One way or another, I was able to survive another day.
Will these fights where one must put their lives on the line continue every day from now on?
These thoughts make me feel even more depressed than I am now.
"I almost thought that I'd die…"
"Salsa."
Beside me, who gazed at the night sky with hollow eyes, Salsa, who was also beaten, plopped down.
He, too, was healed just now.
"Salsa, why did you volunteer to be a foot soldier?"
Sitting in a dim trench, I asked such a question of him.
"What's with you, asking this out of the blue?"
"…Well. I just wanted to hear an answer."
There was no deep meaning to my asking this question.
Since my body still hurt, as a distraction from pain, I brought up this topic.
"Let's see. For my mom, I guess."
"For your mother, huh?"
"Yeah."
With a sleepy voice, Salsa answered.
"We had, y'know, my pops die in war. So my mom had to raise me all alone."
"Is that so."
"For a little while, we were able to live on thanks to pop's KIA benefits and inheritance. When our savings ran dry, mom started working at a factory."
"…It must have been hard."
"But see, mom's not in very good health. She surely pushed herself hard, and every day, she started looking worse and worse."
"…"
"I tried to stop her, saying that it's better to take it easy for a while, but no dice, so she continued to work to put food on the table for me… and in the end, last year, there was an accident."
Salsa went on with his story, fully engrossed.
I listened to his tale silently, without interrupting.
"While at work sewing, mom collapsed due to anemia. The sewing machine swallowed up her palm and split it in two. And so, on that hand that held me close when I was small, she lost all fingers."
"That's…"
"When mom heard that she couldn't work anymore, she turned as pale as a ghost. My youngest brother is still in his growing phase, and during a war, all prices only ever go up and up. So I… decided to volunteer in the army."
Saying so, Salsa raised his hand up to the sky as if to grasp the moon hanging up there.
Dirt staining his arm started falling in large drops and stained his front and chest.
"Mom tried to protest with all her might, as if half-crazy. Thinking about fees for her treatment and food expenses for my brother, there's no better way left for us to earn money other than for me to volunteer."
"So it would seem. Nowadays, any work has low pay, so my seniors from the orphanage were all troubled."
"After we talked it out, I promised, 'When I earn enough to repay our debts, I'll resign,' and mom relented. I don't plan to live as a soldier all my life, so it's all good for me."
"Would you really be able to leave the military that easily?"
After hearing my question full of doubt, Salsa only smiled and, "There's a thing called volunteer conscription service. I decided to be conscripted by my own volition."
"Conscription, you say."
"Right. So I just need to serve for two years, and I'll be able to resign. Also, I wouldn't be eligible for compulsory drafting."
He told me about his situation.
"…I didn't hear anything about such a system existing, though."
"It must be because you're a medic, Touri, no? Surely things would be different for you."
"Then you are going to stop being a soldier after two years, right?"
"That's the plan. Sorry for leaving you alone, Touri."
With an unreadable smile on his face, Salsa said,
"I want to repay everything my mom went through for me in full. I don't wanna be ungrateful."
"…"
"For that reason, I must survive in this hell. And I will definitely bring my earned money back to my hometown."
After this, almost falling asleep, he sleepily yawned.
"Then you also need to show your thanks to the person who saved your life, namely me."
"Yahhh… will do…"
"Now, goodnight, Salsa."
"Yeah."
With these last words, our talk has come to an end.
And a couple minutes later, I could hear his snoring from where he sat just before.
"…"
I suddenly thought that I shouldn't have listened to his tale.
In the most likely case, Salsa won't be able to survive for two years.
He's a careless, absentminded, and not really battlefield-savvy soldier.
He will surely end up making another error and be gravely injured right before me.
…I, on the other hand, had been driven into the order of 'don't use magic
on your own' by Platoon Leader Garback.
That person wouldn't think twice about letting someone heal a new recruit
like Salsa.
For that reason, I won't ever have another chance at saving the boy.
"A convenient pawn to be thrown away at one's own leisure…"
Heaving a deep sigh, I decided to forget what Salsa just told me.
If you start listening to such stories, you will dither at the critical moment.
When the time to forsake Salsa comes, it would be dangerous to be
paralyzed by inaction.
"…"
I spared a glance in the direction of his happy-go-lucky snores.
And, so as not to think about him anymore, I turned away.
I don't have any leeway to worry about Salsa's life.
Leaving such thoughts plaguing my mind, I wondered if I would be
the next to die.
"…Let's just sleep."
Tomorrow, there's a fair chance that we will be joining the attack.
Properly resting our bodies is a soldier's important job.
Turning my back on the unreliable comrade, I laid down on a freezing cold ground and silently eased my grasp on consciousness.