9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 160 - The Crack (4)

Truly endless days of trading human lives to secure just a few hundred setins of ground per day.

Sometimes they were pushed back by Rubellia army counterattacks, but the next day they would advance again.

Commander Redan had muttered about “human wave tactics,” and Ralph thought the phrase was quite fitting.

The platoon leader’s praise that the commander was indeed a genius and an unparalleled hero went in one ear and out the other.

Yesterday Henry fell down, ah ha!

Today Max went far away, ah ha!

Who will be gone tomorrow? Ah ha!

It might be me! Ah ha!

It might be you! Ah ha!

Nobody knows! Ah ha!

In that damned trench, ah ha!

Even those blockheads, ah ha!

How many days had passed since the first charge began? A week? Ten days? Perhaps it had been over two weeks.

A song was stuck in Ralph’s head. A tune that had been passed from mouth to mouth at some point.

In cruel and miserable battlefields, entertainment for lifting spirits was always necessary. No matter who composed the melody or wrote the lyrics, it stuck to their tongues so well that the soldiers often sang it.

After the platoon leader flew into a rage a few days ago, they only sang it secretly or hummed it in their heads.

Still, Ralph and his squad members, though they might curse the platoon leader behind his back as a war maniac and bootlicker, never openly rebelled against him.

The fact that 12 out of 50 squad members had survived was certainly thanks to the platoon leader’s leadership.

Besides those who died or were left behind due to injuries, many soldiers had lost their minds from the incessant explosions.

Even so, the platoon leader tried to keep as many alive as possible and bring them along. He made sure they didn’t see the corpses of their fallen comrades.

Who will be gone tomorrow? Ah ha!

It might be me! Ah ha!

Ralph hummed the song under his breath as he looked at the enemy trenches finally coming into view.

As soon as they revealed themselves, the other side unleashed a barrage of bullets, forcing them to take cover again.

Another crater, another damned crater.

Ralph hurriedly scrambled aside and crouched in the crater, pressing his body close to his squad members.

“Men, the high ground isn’t far now! Let’s summon a bit more strength and savor this moment of glory! We shall become heroes!”

The platoon leader was boosting morale with half-crazed eyes.

‘Maybe that man has gone insane too. Perhaps his mind has snapped in a different direction.’

The thought suddenly occurred to him.

The platoon leader had everyone take out their remaining grenades.

“I’ll assess the situation and signal when to run! Target is that trench!”

He shouted loudly and counted the time.

“One, two…! Now!!”

“Waaaahhhhh!!!”

As soon as the machine gun fire ceased, the platoon leader and 11 squad members burst out of the crater.

Through his vision, narrowed extremely by fear, he could see Rubellia soldiers frantically loading ammunition belts into their machine guns.

Really not far now. Twenty setins! No, five setins!

Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tang!

A soldier wildly cranked the machine gun handle. Bullets flew wildly from the improperly aimed muzzle.

Ralph felt blood seeping from his clenched teeth. Salty. The salty taste was suffocating.

The guy running to Ralph’s left collapsed with a thud. No, more like screeeeeech, slow and drawn out. And the guy running to his right too. Each running step felt heavy. Everything in the world, his arms and legs, was moving so terribly slowly.

“Throooooow!!”

Suddenly the platoon leader roared. In that moment the world returned to normal.

Ralph swung his arm with enough force to cramp his muscles. The grenade flew in an arc and dropped right into the trench.

Kabooooom!

“Aaaahhhhh!!”

“Hiiik! Ahhhhh!!”

A massive explosion erupted. The soldiers firing the machine gun vanished without a trace. Screams echoed from the crater. Blood sprayed through the air.

“Let’s go!!!”

The platoon leader’s eyes flashed as he charged forward with his rifle. They leaped over the broken wooden stakes and twisted barbed wire into the trench.

Rat-a-tat!

Rat-a-tat-a-tat!

Not knowing whether any survivors remained, they fired wildly. When the sporadic gunshots died down, silence fell.

“Wh-whoooooo!!!”

“Hurray! Hurray!”

Cheers erupted. Ralph also raised his arms and shouted until his throat was raw. Forgetting the filthy dandruff and sweat smell, he even embraced his squad members.

After jumping around cheering “Hurray!” for a while, sudden fatigue crashed over him. Ralph collapsed into the wrecked trench with a thud.

Looking around belatedly, only 7 men remained, including the platoon leader.

An emotion that was either elation or revulsion flared in his heart, and he covered his mouth with both hands. The other squad members were in similar states.

Only the platoon leader seemed fine. Instead of scolding his weak subordinates, he was rummaging through various useful items.

“Damn it.”

He cursed quietly and then froze. Ralph crawled over to him and swayed from dizziness.

A map was attached to a wooden board that had fallen from the wall.

Behind the trench they had captured were the 2nd trench, 3rd trench, 5th, 8th, 12th… a map showing densely packed defensive lines.

***

Trench warfare is endless attrition.

A massive city of 500,000 Schufaben soldiers had emerged in the border region.

Through the advance routes we had pioneered, people and supplies flowed endlessly. The home country had even brought construction materials with the resolve to lay railway tracks.

I didn’t have much to do.

All the miscellaneous practical work was handled by Deputy Commander Eisler. The air force had been deployed, but Second Lieutenant Ian Keller seemed to have been sent far away to bomb the Kashan Principality. After Hakleon’s fall, Ferint had disappeared somewhere.

With no one to monitor me and no one to chat with in a friendly manner, what was there for me to do?

I just spent all day in the tall watchtower, looking through binoculars at the battlefield situation.

The mages taking turns casting protective barriers beside me must be dying, but what could be done.

The mages said they weren’t needed either, but Captain Himmel insisted on bringing them. After all, bombing this place with air force or magic wasn’t entirely impossible.

I knew the Queen wouldn’t do such a thing, but Captain Himmel didn’t know that.

Today too, for hours now, I’d been observing the battlefield from the watchtower that towered above the barracks.

Though it was supposedly early spring now, at 25 setins—25 meters high in Earth units—the cold wind made my cheeks ache.

“Commander.”

While I was deeply absorbed in viewing mode from my comfortable armchair, a voice came from beside me.

“What is it, Captain Himmel.”

“Are you alright?”

I took the binoculars away from my eyes for the first time in hours. Rubbing my reddened eyes, I looked up at Captain Himmel standing at attention beside my chair.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I apologize.”

She bowed her head slightly.

“No, don’t apologize, tell me what you really mean.”

“People.”

Complex and subtle emotions seeped through her blunt tone.

“Continuously watching people die isn’t very good.”

“……”

I was momentarily stunned by the unexpected answer.

“R-right. It’s not very good, is it? Stimulating, disgusting. But still, shouldn’t I be getting used to it by now? No, I should get used to it.”

I should get used to it, shouldn’t I?

The latter words barely flowed out.

“Getting used to it means becoming numb. Becoming numb means enduring it. That’s not good.”

Captain Himmel was unusually talkative today. Her gaze, warm to the point of being hot, felt burdensome, so I lowered my eyes.

Around me, Captain Himmel was the only one with such eyes now. Erika and Daniel were too far away.

So listening to Captain Himmel would be good for my well-being. But why did I keep wanting to rebel?

“That’s not like you, Captain. Are you that worried about me? When we first met, I thought your mouth was sealed with concrete.”

I joked with a grin, but her expression didn’t soften.

“I apologize. I overstepped.”

“You don’t need to be so formal. What good comes from insincere words between us? Captain Himmel, you’re right. If I spend all day staring at scenes of blood splattering and guts being torn, I’ll either go insane or become numb. No, becoming numb is also just slowly going insane.”

“Yes, so—”

“But Captain, have you ever thought about why I continue this self-destructive behavior?”

“No, I haven’t.”

How firm her answer was.

“……To not forget.”

I muttered, ignoring my right cheek that had been stinging for hours and the skin on the verge of being crushed by the binoculars.

“If I don’t do this, I feel like I’ll eventually run away. From this carnage. What would happen then? Of course, becoming numb to violence isn’t good, but I think escaping from reality is worse.”

A brief silence fell.

The faint sound of artillery reached my ears, and through the binoculars I could see soldiers fighting desperately.

This was only part of it.

In the sky, dragons clashed with each other whenever you least expected it. In the forests and mountain shadows beyond my sight, in swamplands and beyond, there would be endless fighting.

Honestly, I felt like I might lose my mind at any moment.

It was all too surreal.

The grandeur of hundreds of thousands fighting from sunrise to sunset every day. The desperation of charging again and again until limbs flew off and heads cracked from sheer fury.

‘It’s just like watching a movie.’

So I’m careful not to think such thoughts. I try my best to look at the disgusting and sad aspects of war.

One day I might suddenly snap and burst into laughter like a Colosseum spectator, shouting for popcorn.

But after doing this for over two weeks now, I’ve realized something.

Captain Himmel’s worry is unfounded. I could never get used to this reality.

“Captain, if it’s painful being beside me, you don’t need to follow me up to the watchtower.”

“It’s not painful.”

“Well, spending all day standing and watching such scenes isn’t exactly pleasant, is it? You don’t have binoculars so you can’t see as clearly.”

“It’s not painful. That’s why I said something.”

Ah.

It seemed Captain Himmel was genuinely worried about me.

Afraid of becoming accustomed to it herself, worried I might become the same. That’s probably why she spoke up first, unlike her usual self.

I felt warmth in her thoughtfulness.

“Thank you, Captain. But I won’t give in. If I had such a weak mental state, I wouldn’t have accepted the commander position in the first place.”

“Is that so? Thank you.”

Captain Himmel didn’t say what she was thankful for, but I could guess.

Maybe she felt warmth from this honesty itself. Proof that I hadn’t gone insane yet and had no intention of doing so.

Time passed and the sun was beginning to set.

It was time to end today’s battle.

Except for the occasional surprise night air raids or sporadic acts of deviance.

“Shall we go down now? Don’t your legs hurt, Captain?”

“I’m fine.”

“Your body really must be made of steel. Even if someone paid me, I couldn’t do this.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Of course.”

We exchanged trivial banter while preparing to climb down the ladder.

When I first climbed the watchtower, it was so high I nearly fainted, but remembering visits to high-rise restaurants in Korea somehow made it bearable.

Suddenly someone shouted from below.

“Commander! It’s the Deputy Commander! Orders have arrived from the homeland!”

Eisler was indeed a proper soldier—his voice was tremendously booming. A very important ability now that Rubellia’s constant sabotage had disabled magical communications.

I quickly sat back in my armchair and shouted down.

“I’m busy right now! Come up here and report!”

Then I gestured to the exhausted mages.

“You may go inside now. The sun will set soon anyway.”

“But Commander…”

“You need to rest too. See you tomorrow.”

“Sir!”

The mages nimbly launched themselves into the air.

After they glided away gracefully, Eisler began climbing the ladder with heavy steps. Unlike me, who ended up trembling and exhausted after climbing the ladder daily, he moved without hesitation like King Kong.

“Long live our Great Supreme Leader!”

He saluted me without even breathing hard.

“Long live the Supreme Leader. What’s the matter? Orders, you said?”

He handed me documents stamped with a top secret seal.

Kruger’s brief command was, as always, simple and clear.

“You must have read it already, but he’s ordering us to use canil.”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

I glanced at the battlefield where dusk was falling.

The Schufaben army had barely managed to break through the first trench line and was fighting back and forth with the Rubellia army over those miserable craters.

Being pushed back by the Rubellia army and losing even the temporary trenches built during days of advance wasn’t rare either.

In this situation, administering canil was… honestly, a reasonable measure. If only defeating the Rubellia army was the consideration.

I stared at the expressionless Deputy Commander Eisler.

“What do you think, Deputy Commander? Do you believe we should follow the Supreme Leader’s orders?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed at the blunt question.