Lenalee hasn't been very friendly since then.
Even when I tried to talk to her, she would respond only with dry, minimal replies while throwing out sarcastic comments.
Her attitude isn't just directed at me; she appears to be disliked by her fellow communications officers as well.
I wonder how Lenalee would react if I told her that her attitude of spewing hostility in all directions is just like how Rodri used to be.
Deep down, I felt that they were truly brother and sister.
"Thank you for coming, Touri."
"No, thank you for the invitation."
After that, I received an invitation from Verdi for tea.
"…I see. Lenalee hasn't changed her attitude towards you, has she?"
"Yes."
"She has just lost her family and is probably still unstable. …If possible, please look out for her."
Verdi wanted to discuss Lenalee with me. She's also a source of worry for him.
"Even now, Lenalee brings in a request to be transferred to the infantry almost every week."
"That's…"
"She must really hate the Flamer soldiers."
Verdi has taken on the role of Lenalee's guardian and is taking care of her.
In addition to Lenalee, he also provides personal support to the surviving families of the former Garback Platoon.
"I have no intention of making her an infantry soldier. …It wouldn't be good for anyone."
"I think so too."
"With the war almost over, I hope she can explore her way of life after the war."
Verdi apparently rejected Linari's request for reassignment to the infantry due to her age.
And he plans to continue rejecting her reassignment requests until the end of the war.
According to military regulations, soldiers who fight on the front lines must be at least 15 years old. Minors generally cannot participate in combat.
The reason is simple: those under 15 are still physically developing.
The regulation states that soldiers should be sent to the front lines only after they have grown and are capable of fighting.
As an exception, minors can be sent to the front lines if they are appointed as assistants to officers of lieutenant rank or higher, but… such precedents only appear if we go back several decades.
That's why 14-year-old Lenalee can't go to the front lines.
Her assigned job as a communications officer involves administrative work, not combat.
Communications officers are a relatively new branch, handling magical communication tools developed after the invention of magic-based communication.
Their main job is to document and relay information sent from magical devices to the higher-ups.
I was worried if it was appropriate to assign such work to a low-ranking soldier like Lenalee, but the communications are properly encrypted.
In this era, communication magic is easily intercepted, so encryption is necessary to prevent enemy eavesdropping.
Thus, communications officers need to accurately record meaningless strings of characters, which isn't suitable for rough people.
On the other hand, you can perform the job once you memorize the characters, so communications soldiers are often women or minors.
Though the pay is low, it guarantees basic necessities: like food, clothing, and shelter, making it a suitable job for orphans like Lenalee.
It is hard to imagine someone wanting to give up this job and go to the dangerous front line.
"It's okay. No matter how hard Lenalee tries, military regulations state she can't become an infantry soldier until she's 15."
"…Will the war end before she turns 15?"
"Almost certainly."
Verdi answered with confidence in response to my question.
***
I was also taught about the history of the war up to that point.
Right after the war began, the enemy Allied forces were overwhelmingly superior.
At the time, Austin's main forces were in the midst of the Battle of the North and were unable to do anything against the rampaging Flamer-Aerys Allied forces.
The enemy thought, "Austin is a country on the brink of destruction, so there's no problem with anything we do."
As if it were just a practice drill, they burned village after village and committed acts of extreme brutality.
In their assumption, Austin was supposed to be defeated by the Sabbath in the Battle of the North and destroyed. At best, the two countries would have ended up destroying each other in mutual destruction.
They never imagined that Austin would overturn the odds with twice the military strength and achieve victory.
The Allied forces, underestimating Austin, ran wild as they pleased.
Even the militia that rose up was suppressed by the overwhelming numbers, with women and food reserves being seized, and everything being ravaged according to their desires.
Around this time, the enemy commander apparently reported back to his home country that: "The war has already been won and we are currently wiping out the remaining enemy forces."
They thought they had won and were now discussing how they could expand their territory with minimal damage.
…According to post-war documents from the Flamer side, they mistook armed civilians for "regular troops."
They thought that by defeating the militia, they had destroyed Austin's main forces.
Austin meticulously prepared to confront the enemy.
From the moment the war began, Fogman Jr. mobilized the citizens of Winn to prepare for the decisive battle.
He spent six months transporting large quantities of steel and ammunition and established multiple layers of trenches and sandbags around Winn.
The distance of these defenses stretched around 50 km, with barbed wire and magical traps set up everywhere.
And the preparation didn't end there.
Many military factories were relocated and became operational within Winn.
With most of the country's land burned, Winn was the only place with the labor force needed to operate proper production facilities.
Under the slogan of: "The number of weapons equals the number of infantry," Fogman Jr. implemented a massive weapon and ammunition manufacturing plan.
Although food production decreased in exchange, the population had declined more than expected, so the stored supplies were sufficient.
And last fall, just before the fire of war reached Winn, the main forces of Austin returned.
Fogman Jr. personally greeted the returning soldiers, congratulated them on their military achievements, and embraced Lieutenant Colonel Henri before handing over command.
The soldiers returning to Winn were astonished by the well-prepared and high-quality defensive lines.
Lieutenant Colonel Henri, upon receiving command, also admired the preparations, saying, "With this level of preparation, anyone in command would win."
They say wars are decided in the preparation phase. This battle turned out to be exactly as that saying suggests.
***
Now, it was the end of winter, around the same time that I was marching to invade Josegrad.
The Flamer-Aerys Alliance forces finally set their sights on the capital, Winn.
If Winn fell, Austin would be destroyed, and the war would come to an end.
The Allied forces must have been determined, thinking: "This is the final battle."
However, the Allied forces would face unimaginable hardship at Winn.
The main forces of Austin executed a thorough and prudent defense.
They kept their heads down in the trenches, concealed their presence, and shot down the enemy in an instant.
They utilized grenades and magical traps to prevent the enemy from approaching the trenches.
The soldiers who had survived the Western Front were well-versed in trench warfare and incomparably better trained.
At this point, the Allied forces were finally fighting the 'real Austin soldiers.'
In this era before tanks and airplanes, there is no way to capture a trench other than by assault.
And taking down a trench filled with highly trained soldiers would require significant casualties.
The enemy was shaken by the disparity in damage compared to previous battles.
"Damn, the resistance is on a whole different level from before!"
The advantage was significantly in favor of the defenders, causing tremendous casualties to the Allied forces who continued to make futile assaults without any strategy.
It took them a week to capture the first layer of trenches with over 10,000 casualties reported.
However, it was still a battle between 200,000 and 40,000. The Allied forces took advantage of their abundant resources and manpower and gradually took control of the trenches.
At this time, it was still barely the case that the Allied forces were pushing forward, despite the staggering amount of blood being shed.
"Hey, what's that?"
"Is that a gun?"
However, one month into the battle…
The allied side had finally managed to capture several layers of trenches, suffering countless casualties.
Austin introduced a weapon that marked the start of a new era, which finally halted the Allied forces' advance.
It was a weapon that had been in development for several years and was intended to be deployed on the Western Front and could be described as an "evolved rifle."
"No, it's not a gun. That can't be a gun; it's way too big."
"Don't go near that! You'll be killed instantly!"
The new weapon unleashed a hailstorm of bullets from its bulky barrel while mounted on a cart.
This weapon, called the Austin 50-round rifle, was a new-era firearm capable of continuous firing of 50 rounds. In other words, it was a machine gun.
The bullets fired from the machine gun turned many Flamer soldiers into heaps of flesh.
The concept of a "gun with incredible rapid-fire capability" had been proposed before, but this was the first time it was fully deployed in combat.
Development of such a weapon had been ongoing in the Sabbath and Austin from the mid-Western Front era, but it had not yet reached a practical level for combat.
Unfortunately, the machine guns deployed at this time were far from finished products, prone to overheating and malfunctions.
Nonetheless, the introduction of the machine gun brought significant changes to the war.
A seasoned soldier could kill an average of about 10 enemy soldiers by holding out in a trench for a week.
On the other hand, this weapon could turn dozens of enemies into mincemeat in just 10 seconds.
The overwhelming power of the machine gun made the soldiers who first used it turn pale and wonder, "What was the war we had been fighting?"
"Getting close to that gun is certain death!"
Appearing in front of a machine gun was a reckless act that would only increase the number of corpses.
The Allied forces were terrified by its performance and began to avoid trenches where machine guns were set up.
That's why even if a machine gun broke, it was often left in place as a deterrent to the enemy.
Thanks to the machine gun, which was still extremely effective even when broken, the Allied advance was completely halted.
The introduction of machine guns brought the battlefront to a stalemate. Yet, the Allies continued their offensive.
No, they were unable to make the decision to stop.
The Alliance launched attacks every day as if it were a daily routine, continuing to dye the earth red with the blood of their comrades.
The enemy commander, who had already reported victory, couldn't admit defeat now.
The Commander's pride and stubbornness claimed the lives of many young Flamers.
For the Allied forces, this was undoubtedly a nightmare.
They had not expected such fierce resistance or the enormous number of deaths.
They approached the capital city of Austin, Winn, with an army of 200,000.
Victory was almost certain with such a large force.
"…"
However, the front line stagnated 5 kilometers from Winn, and their numbers fell below 100,000.
Despite the damage suffered so far, the Allied forces have not yet decided to withdraw.
The soldiers forced into reckless battles continued to be slaughtered like animals.
The morale of soldiers ordered to undertake pointless assaults dropped, and eventually, they began to refuse orders.
"…It's over."
The Alliance had invaded Austin's territory, trying to benefit from the ongoing war between the Sabbath and Austin by committing mass killings.
As a result, they themselves became mired in the dark, deep "quagmire of war" that Austin and the Sabbath had been drowning in.
It took the Alliance a full year to realize the predicament they had gotten themselves into.
Eventually, winter came to an end.
The Allied forces recognized their failure and decided to retreat in order to regroup.
"This time we'll withdraw, but next time it won't be the same."
"We'll come back after properly researching guns."
The Alliance told their soldiers that this was not a defeat but a temporary truce and withdrew all their forces.
They planned to put some distance between them and Austin's forces and set up a defensive line in front of Winn.
"…Huh?"
"Are those guys chasing us?"
However, Bern Valou would not allow such an easy retreat.
Seeing this, Austin's soldiers began to pursue them as if they had been waiting for this.
In a pursuit battle, the retreating side is generally at a disadvantage because there is no time to fortify defenses as in a defensive battle.
Austin soldiers, having endured the Alliance's tyranny, pursued with a desire to vent their frustration.
"Austin territory is their territory. We're in a bad position."
In this counteroffensive, the Allied forces had to abandon almost all of the Austin territory they had captured.
Under Bern Valou's command, they exploited the enemy's weaknesses, cut communication lines, and systematically defeated them.
"Damn it, they keep coming after us."
"Quickly, escape to Flamer territory!."
The Allied forces proved to be fragile once their formation collapsed.
They were unable to coordinate and were pushed back significantly.
"All right, we're finally in Flamer territory."
"They shouldn't have followed us this far."
"They shouldn't follow us this far."
The surviving allied soldiers fled into Flamer territory in a pitiful state.
They were confident that Austin would not attack Flamer territory.
They probably thought that we, who were at war with the Sabbath, did not have the resources to launch an invasion.
"Let's seek protection in the village ahead."
"It's been a while since I've had a decent meal…"
However, around the same time…
The battle for Josegrad had been concluded and Remi Ulyakov had achieved the Sabbatian Revolution.
Remi has declared an alliance with Austin and expressed her support in the war against the Flamer-Aerys Alliance.
With this, Austin had no reason to hesitate in invading Flamel.
The soldiers stationed on the Sabbatian border were now available for mobilization. This led the Austin government to decide on an invasion of Flamer.
The Flamer villages near the border were brutally massacred.
"What a bunch of barbarians. This is beyond savagery!"
"We'll make them regret crossing the border!"
The Flamer people were enraged by the slaughter of their fellow countrymen and quickly sought to fight back.
They were not informed of the atrocities committed by their own soldiers.
The perception is that the Austinites had committed crimes within Flamel. When they attacked in retaliation, the Austinites became enraged and invaded the country.
In this situation, the people believed that Austinites were incarnations of the devil. Many young people volunteered for the military.
"The enemy's new guns are too strong; we can't even get close."
"The range is so different that we can't advance within shooting distance."
"Dammit! This is just like what happened when we attacked Winn."
But no matter how many soldiers they gathered, they were essentially amateurs.
The difference in training and technical ability was so great that Flamel's territory was gradually carved away from them.
The Flamer government could not have anticipated how weak their own military was.
It was when Engei, one of the Flamer's major cities, fell that they realized they had stepped on the tiger's tail.
Engei was Flamer's largest commercial city, and many food supplies were gathered there.
Austin, suffering from food shortages, immediately attacked and seized Engei to capture the food reserves.
Anyone who resisted was killed. For several days, there were no nights without the sounds of gunfire and death cries.
When Engei fell, the response from the Flamer government was not anger but fear.
The fall of the major city made the occupation of Flamer's capital seem increasingly realistic.
It was around this time that Flamer threw away their pride and desperately sought a ceasefire.
They proposed generous conditions, including food supplies and large reparations, to negotiate peace.
"We will not accept an end to the war unless your country surrenders unconditionally. We will use all of Flamel's resources and manpower to rebuild Austin."
"Such ridiculous demands cannot be accepted!"
However, Austin's demand was not for peace but for Flamel's unconditional surrender.
Accepting Austin's terms would mean the citizens would become slaves and the nation would be effectively colonized.
Unable to agree to these terms, Flamel attempted various methods to negotiate with Austin's diplomats.
…It is said that Fogman Jr., whose father was murdered by Flamel, rejected most of these demands with a smile.
"Mr. Flamer Ambassador. Our Aerys forces are returning to our homeland to regroup."
"What!?"
Even Aerys, who was supposed to be an ally, seemed to have realized that Flamel had lost and began withdrawing their soldiers from Flamer territory.
Abandoned by their ally, Flamel faced a crisis where their survival was at stake.
Since continuing the fight would eventually force them to surrender unconditionally, Austin had no reason to stop the war.
They had to keep fighting at least until they had secured the resources to rebuild their country, such as mines and grain-producing areas.
Austin was enjoying unprecedented success like never before.
So all the soldiers, including myself, felt a sense of relief.
Seeing the advancing front lines every day, we could feel our country's victory coming closer.
"Another day with many casualties."
"I need a break soon."
The medical department was still busy, but it was nowhere near as busy as it had been on the Western Front.
The scale of the medical department had not changed, but the number of soldiers had halved.
The amount of work was simply half of what it used to be.
"I haven't had a vacation for a month."
"I wonder when the next holiday will be."
Something that would have been unthinkable on the Western Front, medics were sometimes given time off.
The Austin military had more leeway than ever before.
The war would soon end.
Once Flamel surrenders, there would be no country left to threaten Austin's peace.
The ideal future of peace for Austin was almost within reach.
At least, that's what I believed at the time as I spent each day working diligently.
***
"Ah, it hurts. Sorry, but could you check me out?"
"Oh, yes."
So maybe this was punishment.
"If you wish to be examined, please go to the infirmary, not here. This is a hospital bed."
"No, only you can cure my illness, Warrant Officer Touri Lowe."
I know very well how evil the massacre of civilians is.
I have seen this cruelty first-hand, not only in my hometown of Noel, but also in Othello Village and the city of Josegrad.
And yet, I continued to turn a blind eye to the brutality of Austin soldiers advancing while committing massacres.
"…My illness is that you're not by my side."
A certain man appeared before me the day after my tea party with Lenalee
Behind his gentle smile, the man possessed the cunning of a snake and the cruelty of a child; he was known as a generation talent.
"What is this? Are you trying to hit on me?"
"Actually, yes. I'm completely infatuated with you."
"I'm on duty and I'm married. Sorry, but I'd rather not."
"How cold of you."
To my suprise, I later learned that this man had actually suppressed information about my survival.
It was only through a series of coincidences that I ended up being taken in by Verdi's unit…
I would have been sent under this man's command had I gone to the front lines via the original route through Winn.
"I'm not going to eat you or anything. This is a good opportunity for you as well."
"Does this involve your work?"
"Yeah. I hear you did a lot in the Sabbath, isn't that right?"
"…"
────Major Bern Valou.
Austin's greatest villain, who alone fantasized and brought to reality the tragedy of Josegrad.
"I thought it would be a waste to keep such a talented person as a Warrant Officer."
"Um, what do you mean?"
"Hey, Warrant Officer Touri…"
He knew what I did in the Sabbath.
Fighting under Sylph with the government forces, being part of an assault unit and moving across the front lines.
"I can offer you a more suitable position. Why don't you become my subordinate?"
I'm not sure what exactly about it struck a chord with him.
But on that day, he went out of his way to visit the medical department to scout me as his subordinate.
"No."
"…Eh?"