Welcome to Hell!

Chapter 163: Short Break

(TN: Kelf is a demon child that was part of Zald’s unit; he is the same age as Leo. I believe he wasn’t mentioned in the story much so people may have forgot him.)

“Asumi, is it okay if the two of you don’t talk privately?”

After finishing our report to Marcellus, we returned from the building where he was located to the barracks. Along the way, Tigar confronted Asumi with the question that seemed to have been bothering him.

Among the Special Operations squad, it was common knowledge that Marcellus and Asumi had feelings for each other. The only person in the Imperial Army who knew about this was Decius. He supported the two of them from a distance to help Marcellus, to the extent that he kept ‘that man’ away.

Initially, Decius expressed disapproval to Marcellus, who was attracted to Asumi when she was just a prisoner of war. However, it seemed that he judged it as acceptable now that she had become a demon and couldn’t oppose the Empire. If Decius hadn’t been so tolerant of demons, he would have definitely opposed it.

“It’s fine. If he’s okay, that’s all that matters.”

“…He seemed like he wanted to spend a little more time with you, though.”

Asumi smiled and shook her head, but I caught a glimpse of Marcellus looking disappointed as we left through my rear compound eyes. It seemed that Marcellus was the more regretful one.

The four of us returned to the Special Operations unit barracks, and we informed our comrades that we would have a short period of rest without any battles. Everyone was delighted, and discussions about how to spend this short break began.

“Big brother, give us some training!”

“Nope. Big brother is going to play with Lawqum and Reese.”

However, it seemed I didn’t have the freedom to choose what to do. Leo asked me to join the younger group for training, and Lappy asked me to play with the babies. Well, I didn’t have any particular preferences, so as long as they decided together, it was fine.

As a result of Leo and Lappy’s discussion, it was decided that I would play with the babies first and then join Leo’s training session. It wasn’t so much a discussion as it was Leo giving in, which was a common occurrence.

“Look look, it’s Daddy’s tail~! Ouch, that hurtssss!?” Linardo shouted.

“Yes, big brother has a tail too,” Lappy said.

“Gya gya!”

“Uuu…”

“Oh? Are tails not your thing?”

Leo and the other young demons tightly gripped wooden swords and spears for their training as they headed outside. Zald and Sophie went along to supervise their training. With the two of them there, any accidents were unlikely to happen.

Lawqum loved tails, but it seemed that Reese wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about them. While Lawqum continued to grab my tail and Linardo’s with his incredible strength, Reese seemed uncomfortable with tail movements and buried her face in the chest of her mother, Sharl, to escape.

I couldn’t force something Reece disliked onto her, so I made sure that my tail wouldn’t get too close to her. By the way, Linardo seemed to have returned to his normal form, possibly because he was about to have his precious tail crushed by his beloved son. Surprisingly lacking in guts, that one.

“Uwaa!?”

“Hey! What are you doing!?”

Our peaceful time was interrupted by the screams of children and Zald’s angry shouts from outside. We exchanged glances and rushed outside in a hurry. What we saw was Bolts straddling Kelf, who was leaning on the ground on all fours, like a horse while Zald held his wrist.

Zald fully displayed his anger which was rare, while Bolts, who had been stopped, tilted his head in a strange manner. Sophie wore a stern expression, and Kelf, who had been pinned down, had a look of confusion and astonishment on his face.

“Zald, what happened?”

“We were doing a mock battle after warm-up exercises, but Bolts broke the rules of the mock battle.”

I didn’t move my head and observed Leo and the others with my compound eyes. Without exception, they were all armed, so it seemed they had been training in combat techniques.

However, Bolts was different. His sword and shield were discarded nearby, and it looked like he was trying to pummel someone while straddling them. This was a clear violation of the rules, and more importantly, if left unchecked, Kelf might have gotten injured.

But still… Straddling someone and trying to strike them down like this, it was almost like a fight to the death. Bolts, what on earth were you thinking?

“Bolts, why did you do something like this?”

“I’d rather ask, why are you stopping it? If it’s supposed to be training, it should involve real combat scenarios.”

“Just because of that doesn’t mean you should take it too seriously! Hey, get up and come out already!”

“Uh, okay.”

Tigar shook his head in disbelief and urged Kelf on. In response, Kelf hastily wriggled out from under Bolts in a flash. Apparently not expecting him to escape, Bolts stared wide-eyed in surprise.

Bolts appeared surprised, but to us, it was a scene that seemed quite expected. Like Leo and Lappy, Kelf had been diligently training since he was little, and he had also experienced real combat. Although this last one had been a significant battle, Kelf possessed skills in weaponry and hand-to-hand combat far superior to Bolts, who had only seen one real battle.

The fact that Bolts managed to push Kelf down was merely due to a delayed reaction to an unexpected situation. Even if he had stayed straddled and been hit, he would have likely wriggled out just as swiftly while defending himself. He might have ended up with a few bruises, but it wouldn’t have been a major injury.

Perhaps realizing this, Bolts contorted his face in frustration. It was somewhat pitiful to see Bolts spinning his wheels like this. It seemed like I should definitely take this opportunity during our rest to have a talk with him.

“Bolts, there’s a reason for every rule in training. So, follow those rules. If you want training that simulates real combat, talk to the adults. We don’t want any accidents causing injuries.”

“…Yes.”

“For now, I’m joining the training too. Bolts, I’ll be your sparring partner. Of course, I won’t complain no matter what you do.”

“T-Thank you.”

Even though Bolts said that he wanted to have a combat-style spar and I had accepted the challenge, he wore a reluctant expression as he lowered his head. Despite my puzzlement at his demeanor, I handed Bolts his weapon and assumed a defensive stance.

From then on, I trained with Leo and Bolts until the sun set. Bolts, who had been given the freedom to fight as he pleased, put in a commendable effort. His attacks were laced with a sense of lethal intent, and he didn’t hesitate to use trip maneuvers or bites in combat.

However, he still had a long way to go to match my skills. Bolts had received training from Tuhru on how to wield a war hammer and shield, but he was far from reaching her level of expertise. While Tuhru seamlessly flowed between attacks with her war hammer and shield, Bolts had not yet achieved that level of skill. On top of that, he tried to incorporate too many techniques, resulting in everything being done half-heartedly.

While I provided feedback and deftly parried Bolts’ attacks, he remained visibly regretful from the beginning to the end. Leo, Lappy, or Kelf would typically experiment and strive to correct the areas pointed out, but in his case, Bolts seemed more inclined to find alternative ways to tackle the situation. As a result, it was uncertain whether he was making any improvements.

For the next few days, we enjoyed our short break. While we didn’t slack off on our daily training to keep our bodies sharp, it was a relief not to have to go into battle. Thanks to Marcellus’s considerate care, I felt like we were able to recover from fatigue adequately.

However, I couldn’t get Bolts to open up about his concerns, and it seemed he remained tight-lipped no matter who tried to initiate a conversation.

There were opinions suggesting that forcefully prying it out of him would backfire, and in the end, we couldn’t uncover his true feelings until the day we were deployed. We decided to wait for the invasion war to conclude; surely, he would speak his mind then.

◆◇◆◇◆◇

“Boss, that battlefield earlier was a breeze, bumo.”

“Brrrrrr! The enemy didn’t seem motivated at all!”

After that short “vacation”, we promptly headed back to the frontlines. However, every battlefield we encountered was relatively easy. This was mainly due to the visible lack of morale among the enemy forces.

In each battle, the Republic’s troops chose not to engage in open-field combat and instead fortified their positions within their forts. In response, they didn’t make a strong stand to defend their bases, and, when faced with the Empire’s offensive, they would withdraw rather than counterattack. It wasn’t just Shuu and Apao who thought it was easy. It was something all members of the special operations unit felt.

“I’m sure that the rumors must be spreading. The descendant of the gods has been taken down.” Asumi said.

“Does news from the central front spread that quickly?”

“Tigar, the Republic’s technology surpasses our imagination by far. Their information transmission speed is on another level.”

“Yeah, Zald is right. But even concealed information will spread quickly. I mean, he was killed on the battlefield, right? Trying to hide that is pretty much impossible.”

During our short break, Asumi had been expounding on her theory near the wagon. It seemed that sometimes the morale of lower-ranking soldiers could drop when they learned information they didn’t need to know. As a fellow lower-ranking soldier, I could relate to them…. even though it was a topic that had little relevance to us, given our limited means of gathering information.

The information we had access to was mostly limited to stories Marcellus had told us or rumors we had overheard from Imperial soldiers. It was quite inconvenient. The other side even had the luxury of worrying about information spreading too much.

“Is that so? Advanced technology is quite something to consider… What’s the matter, Mika?”

“Yes. I succeeded in overhearing the orders sent by the messenger soldier. It appears that the Imperial army is launching a full-scale attack on Niuglo Port, located at the northernmost edge.”

Silently approaching us was Mika. Among the special operations unit, Mika possessed the keenest sense of hearing. Although “that man” kept his distance to keep the demons at bay, even when listening to reports, Mika could eavesdrop from afar. His actions were rather pointless.

Nevertheless, speaking of the northernmost edge, isn’t that practically the Republic’s stronghold? It seems that the Republic is being pushed to the brink. The tide has certainly turned in our favor since that descendant of the gods was defeated.

“Could this war finally be coming to an end? It feels like it’s been an eternity…” Tigar said.

“Don’t jinx it. Every time you say something that puts your mind at ease, something unexpected happens.”

“Come on, isn’t that a bit harsh for a joke?”

“Regardless, don’t let your guard down. I think it goes without saying.”

After briefly watching the exchange between Tigar and Zald, I stood up before the break ended, ready to move at any moment. It was essential to be prepared, as unfounded blame could sometimes be placed on us.

And so, we continued our march northward towards Niuglo Port at the northernmost edge. Along the way, we passed through towns and villages that were recaptured from the Republic, and the army resupplied itself. We were able to breeze through most of them with very little actual participation in the fighting.

As the season edged closer to winter, we arrived at Niuglo Port. The battle there had already concluded, and the once formidable walls that must have guarded the port had been ruthlessly shattered. The interior of the port bore the marks of blood throughout, and the entire city had a lingering scent of charred wood as if there had been a recent fire.

However, despite our victory and the recapture of the northernmost port, the faces of the Imperial soldiers did not reflect relief. The reason for this was…the presence of a battleship, roughly the size of a small island, floating on the open sea.