Chapter 163: Short Break

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. Discover new chapters at novelhall.com

“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.

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.