No Beast Girls on the Western Front

Page 98

She would take the initiative to teach knowledge to the younger generation, which was something Payne had never expected.

After all, this sheep has always given the impression that it can barely take care of itself, so how could it have the energy to care about others?

Her transformation was probably triggered by Grace's death.

This may be one of the few positive effects of Grace's death—making the living (and the beasts) cherish their own lives and the lives of others (the beasts) more, and realize what they can and should do.

As beast girls belonging to the same family Bovidae (yes, sheep are biologically classified as sheep species in the genus Algiers of the family Bovidae), the two beasts' diets and habits of eating multiple times a day also highly overlap.

Perhaps because Xiao En felt safe by Grace's side, and Grace was willing to take care of this timid senior, Payne could see that the two beasts were almost always inseparable.

Although he rarely observed their interactions, Payne knew they must have a good relationship.

It is certainly not easy to get over the loss of such a close friend, but Xiao En, who has always been timid and cowardly, actually took the initiative to start her own efforts, and with Payne's help, she also avoided exhausting herself.

Although Payne neither believed in God nor in the existence of souls, he couldn't help but look up at the sky at this moment.

Grace, can you see this?

Xiao En, and all of us, including the beasts, are emerging from the shadow of losing you and continuing to strive to live on.

You can rest in peace now.

Although he knew that even if he could see Grace, it would only be a hallucination, Payne still looked around, hoping to see a familiar figure.

But he saw nothing, only felt a gentle breeze sweep across the trench.

She won't even show her face. When did Grace become so stingy?

With a slightly regretful smile, Payne walked toward Ella, who was monitoring the enemy positions through the firing port, ready to begin another idle day.

"Ella, have you found anything?"

"Yes, Master, come and see."

Well, it seems he wasn't just doing nothing.

Chapter 154 CLIII. The officers are having coffee.

Just when Payne thought it was another ordinary day of working together in perfect harmony, Ella took the initiative to move aside from the firing port and pulled Payne over.

"Master, come and see what they are doing."

"Hmm? Besides randomly dropping shells, are the French up to something new again? Let me see..."

Payne peered through the firing ports made of sandbags and saw that although there were no people in sight on the French lines, it looked like a construction site was underway, with lots of dirt flying up and down, creating quite a lively scene.

Is this an expansion of the trenches?

Or are they digging new cover trenches?

Are they planning to increase troop numbers?

However, this doesn't seem to be a big deal.

So Payne patted the dog's head, casually said "Good, keep focusing," and was about to leave when Ella grabbed him again, "No, no, Master, look again, they're still setting up guns on the breastwork."

"...Armor mounted on the breastwork? Are they? What are they trying to do?"

At first, Payne hadn't noticed, but after Ella's reminder, he squinted and observed carefully, only then realizing that what the dog said was indeed true.

The mound of earth dug from the trenches and piled up in front of them is called a breastwork—as the name suggests, a low wall about chest-high, used to increase the area of ​​protection for soldiers.

As Ella said, the French trenches opposite, in addition to digging soil to reinforce the breastworks, also had quite a few rifles mounted on them.

However, Payne did not see any soldiers. It seemed that the other side was just setting up guns and did not intend to aim at any specific target.

Moreover, after placing the guns on the breastwork, they simply poured soil onto the breastwork to raise it, leaving only the muzzles exposed, seemingly trying to embed the guns into the breastwork.

This behavior was completely beyond Payne's comprehension, so he immediately rubbed the dog's head vigorously.

"Good boy, that's great. Even if I don't ask, you should still report all the details you notice to me like this."

"Hey hey hey~~"

As Payne reported the anomaly Ella had discovered, the soldiers, who had become accustomed to the relaxed, unspoken cooperation, immediately sprang into action—

Notify each other, conduct further observations, and share intelligence...

They soon realized that the French army was doing the same thing across almost the entire front.

After writing a status report as ordered by the company commander, Payne, thinking that "since we have beast girls, we should make use of them and have a reasonable reason to train them," sent Stephen and the other beast girls to the command post.

"Orcs must not act alone without their tamers," but few people on the front lines care about this, especially when it's necessary to leverage the orcs' strengths.

The beast girls went to report the situation, and the soldiers also observed nervously for a long time, but did not find any further moves by the enemy.

Perhaps... this is just like the French throwing artillery shells behind the front lines, or Payne leading the orc squad in grenade throwing training, all to appease the superiors' antics.

So they quickly relaxed and returned to the bottom of the trench to continue resting.

For once, Payne felt a bit lonely and unaccustomed to the absence of several beast girls around him.

Since he had nothing better to do, he simply took out paper and pen, intending to write a work report on Ella's situation and protest to his superiors about the orc training base's practices.

Judging from Ella's experience, it's questionable whether any orcs trained in the future will be of any use, given her dual physical and mental disabilities.

He had actually wanted to write such a report for a long time, but he had been busy with Ella's treatment and training, moving to the front lines, and dealing with the Xiao En splitter, so he hadn't had the energy.

However, just as Payne was racking his brains about how to start his report, he was surprised to see Xiao En return alone, a single beast.

"How come it's so fast? Where are the other beasts?" he asked.

Stephen was probably running too fast, and Shawn, who was in the split device, wasn't in good physical condition, so even after running only these two steps, she was already panting heavily.

"Ha...the situation is a bit complicated...ha..."

"How complicated is it? Don't worry, sit down first."

Payne immediately handed over his water bottle, wanting Xiao En to rest and talk slowly.

But Xiao En took the water bottle, gulped down two mouthfuls, wiped her mouth with her sleeve, and then pulled him up, saying, "No, you should come with me first."

"Has someone caused trouble?" Pine's heart immediately tightened. "Lassie? Or Stephen?"

"No, no, no beast caused any trouble." Xiao En quickly waved her hand. "Listen to me first, the situation is a bit complicated..."

"When we delivered the intelligence to the command post, I noticed that the officers reacted strongly; they seemed to know something."

"Then they gave Stephen a letter, instructing her to send the message to the rear command post as soon as possible..."

Payne immediately noticed a key point, but it wasn't about the battle: "But Stephen doesn't know where the rear command post is, and I haven't had time to teach her how to read a map..."

"Yes, when the officer took out the map and pointed it out to Stephen, she looked confused, but Ruby subconsciously stepped forward and explained a few words to her, revealing that she could read a map, and then the officer had Stephen carry her on his back."

Payne: "..."

Hopefully Ruby won't get a headache from all the jostling.

Xiao En continued, "Besides that, it seems the command center has another project that needs people to do, so they kept us all here."

"But they also said it was against the rules for orcs to work without a tamer supervising them, so they asked me to call you over."

Payne: "…………"

He admitted that his earlier statement that few people on the front lines cared about the rules in the rear was hasty.

Judging from Xiao En's description, these officers, who clearly knew something, were probably preparing to deal with the French, which is why they asked the beast girls who came to help.

However, this is for the best. Although both sides are fighting in tacit agreement, being far away from the first trench is definitely safer.

I just hope the work they have to do isn't too strenuous.

As it turned out, these officers were indeed a group of good people, and the work the beast girls had to do was not only light, but extremely easy:

Their task was to polish the officers' boots, repair the nearly broken tables and chairs, and clean the messy command post!

And what were these officers doing at that moment? They were busy making coffee!

Moreover, the coffee they make isn't regular instant coffee; it's freshly brewed coffee made by first grinding coffee beans into powder, then adding milk and sugar!

Payne: "………………"

Hey, wait a minute, don't you guys have your own orderly? You called me here just to supervise the beast girls doing this kind of thing for you?!

Why don't you just let me grind the coffee beans for you, make the coffee, and then drink it for you too?

Chapter 155 CLIV. Now it's time for fantasy.

The air was filled with the rich aroma of coffee and milk. As Payne reinforced the chair leg that was about to break with wooden chips and nails, he glanced at the officers drinking coffee in the trench outside.

Seeing that they were chatting and laughing and not looking in the direction of the command post, Payne turned back and asked Shawn, who was wiping the officers' boots one by one, "Are you sure their reaction was strong?"

“I’m sure! Absolutely!” Xiao En immediately whispered. “Although I couldn’t understand what they were saying, they were speaking very loudly and kept urging Stephen to deliver the intelligence.”

"Who knows why they suddenly became so relaxed!"

To make sure that Xiao En wasn't seeing things because of the splitter, Payne asked the three dogs who were cleaning up the command post, and they all said that Xiao En was right.

Payne was completely baffled by this phenomenon—he simply couldn't fathom what could possibly cause these officers to behave so drastically differently before and after.

However, at least one thing is certain: this front is safe.

This command post was located in the third reserve trench. Although the battle would not spread there immediately, it was definitely within the front line area.

The officers seemed quite relaxed, not only brewing coffee but also having the beast girls clean up, clearly confident in holding the line.

...Forget it, if I can't figure it out, I won't think about it anymore. I'll just do some work. As long as I can live, that's more important than anything else.

Moreover, even though they were officers and had access to premium coffee, Pine had a form of entertainment that they couldn't enjoy at the front!

Thinking of this, a sense of superiority, as if he had outshone the general, welled up within him. Payne turned smugly to the sheep beside him and said, "Shawn, you'd better have a good time tonight!"

“…Huh?” Xiao En paused for a moment, then her face gradually turned red. “Ah… um, if… if my branching device hasn’t finished yet…”

Even by the longest possible time, Xiao En's divergence device would only take two days at most.

Yesterday, because she was overworked, the battle ended in a dismal fashion. Today, we must fight to our hearts' content!

Thanks to the topic he had started, Payne realized that he could actually consult on the divergence issue and provide more examples for the work report.

So he got right to it: "By the way, Xiao En, do you remember if your divergence started in July or August, or in September?"

"...Huh? Why...why are you suddenly asking this?"