Rune Troopers: Self-Defense Forces Adventure - Chapter 4: In the Midst of War (Part 4)
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- Rune Troopers: Self-Defense Forces Adventure
- Chapter 4: In the Midst of War (Part 4)
“Hey, Third Lieutenant Kuze, I received a call from the fleet. As soon as the courtyard is secured, they will send a helicopter unit over here. Let’s get the wounded on it.”
“Roger that, sir.”
Kato, who was working as a radio operator in the rear of the unit, provided a report, and Kuze finally took a breath.
The barricades had been erected, and although they did not look good, an improvised interception posture was in place. All that remained was to see whether the enemies would step forward or retreat.
Kuze provided instructions to his subordinates.
“Sergeant Ueno, Sergeant Yamakawa, set the machine guns to the left and right. Sergeants Kotegawa and Sasajima, attach the sighting attachments for the rifle rounds. The rifle ammunition cannot be used at close range. When the attack starts, shoot as hard as you can. Each of you, attach your hand grenades in a position that makes them easy to remove. Be careful not to expose the safety pin.”
He then looked through his binoculars at the Imperial troops across the courtyard. Perhaps the stalemate would not last long.
Kuze noticed a tall woman – Carda – was standing next to him. The barricade was hiding her, so he had to look up at her.
The barricade was designed to protect Kuze from arrows that were being shot at him from the front. The barricade was only high enough to completely cover her body, so she had to stand on her midriff.
There was a Knight standing proudly beside the defensive formation of the modern infantry, as if she were clinging to the ground.
“Commander Carda? What’s wrong?”
Calda turned her cold, emotionless gaze toward Kuze. It did not look like hostility, but it did not look like favor either.
“Why would you go that far?” She asked in a low voice.
“Does one need a reason to save lives?”
“Yes, you do. Especially if you’re a soldier… Well, okay.” She sat down next to Kuze.
Right now, his men had just left to distribute ammunition and set up positions, so it was just the two of them.
Her long grass-colored hair fluttered in the sea breeze. A sweet fragrance wafted through the air. Kuze involuntarily stared at her profile.
She would be a very beautiful woman if it weren’t for this sharp atmosphere and the black cloak that made her look like she was in mourning.
“Are we going to hold off the Imperial Army here?”
“I intend to. It is the only way to save these refugees.”
“Righteousness…?
“What?”
“You fight with chivalry. Believing in the way of God, in that kind of righteousness?”
“I don’t know the small details, but… we are the Self-Defense Forces. We are allowed to fight only in one condition: to protect. Maybe that’s why.”
“You protect… My people?”
“In the end, yes.” He answered the question as if dodging a close bullet.
Carda made eye contact with Kuze.
“Thank You.”
“We have no right to receive the gratitude, since we are not supposed to be a part of the Marysea army.”
“No, these are my personal feelings.”
The unexpected words made Kuze roll his eyes.
“If you cannot accept the gratitude of a Knight from another world as a nation, then I will honor you as an individual.”
“That is an exaggeration, Commander Carda.”
“Carda is fine, Mister Kuze.” She broke her amiability a little.
She then said in a slightly teasing tone, “Mister Kuze, by the looks of it, you’ve never been in a real war before, have you?”
“Is it that noticeable…?”
“Yes.”
Then, Carda hugged her spear and looked up at the sky. She continued talking quietly, staring up at the azure sky.
“Because my fiancée was like you now. He was a man who had nothing but kindness.”
“Your husband?”
Calda gave a wistful smile.
“No, not my husband.”
She cast down her eyes and muttered somewhat forlornly, perhaps reminiscing about that time.
“He met me on the battlefield before he became my husband. He was only seventeen when he and I both met.”
Kuze couldn’t find the right words to say. Seeing through his confusion, she said something jokingly, “That’s why I started wearing military uniforms that look like mourning clothes.”
Listening to this, she suddenly became mysterious.
“That’s why you must not die. A Knight’s Chivalry is important, but for the sake of your lover or your wife, you must live through it.”
Hearing this, Kuze couldn’t help but chuckle, making Carda ask, “What’s wrong? What’s funny?”
“My girlfriend dumped me before I was deployed overseas. She broke up with me when I joined the SDF. Your words felt like I had been gouged out of an old wound that hadn’t even been… healed.” Kuze explained.
Carda huffed in response and added, “You’re going to… the war zone, and she’s leaving you?”
“It’s not a war zone, it’s the PKF. I don’t take it that seriously.”
“Still, she didn’t think of supporting you, who was on his way to serve his country?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know what really happened…”
Carda was at a loss for words at Kuze’s answer.
“I see, maybe there is…”
She looked as if she was regretting getting so pissed off.
“My fiancée was the same way…”
As she said this, she stood up to see Kuze’s men return. Then, as they left, she muttered quietly.
“If only he had come back alive, that would have been all I needed…”
It was whispered so sadly that it was almost blown away by the wind. For a moment, Kuze saw her profile like that of a little girl. The time when she was seventeen naturally emerged in his mind.
A pure and innocent maiden, standing by the window of a mansion, waiting for her fiancé to return.
But her fiancé never returned.
Then she began to wear mourning clothes. Among the nobles who competed with each other for the most glittering decorations, she was the only one dressed in black.
And then, in order to eliminate the existence of the war that took her fiancé, she chose to stand on the battlefield herself.
(Why did she come all the way to talk to me? A woman who never displayed her emotions? Perhaps it was because she saw an image of herself in her late fiancé.)
Kuze was thinking about this as he watched her slender back as she walked away. He was a man whose only merit was his kindness.
She looked somewhat happy when she said that. She must have loved her fiancé.
“I have… at least, never lost someone I loved. That might have been a very happy thing.”
(I shouldn’t be so broken up about being rejected. ……)
—It was then
“What is it? Some kind of whistle?”
A heavy, gut-wrenching sound emerged from the Imperial Army position. Kuze rushed out of the barricade and looked through his binoculars.
Movement was taking place among the enemy forces.
A decisive battle was approaching.