Requests for rescue, reinforcements, and retreat orders came in from the front lines. Kisaraibis was the chief magician. Handling such menial tasks was supposed to be someone else’s job. She’d gone to check the situation at the front lines and had ascended to a far higher position, thus she was absent. She considered delegating the work to others, but if she assigned it to someone incompetent and the border was breached, she wouldn’t be able to take responsibility. Therefore, she reviewed the reports from the Magic Chemistry Academia, the Weapons Development Department, and the medical institutions, among others.
“Hmm. What is this, ‘Get the head of whoever made this dull blade’?”
There’s no way a fool would send a dull blade to the front lines, she thought, examining the blacksmiths at work. She re-read the documents. All of them were skilled. She understood the importance of the soldiers defending the border. The dull blade must be a mistake. If it wasn’t a mistake, then it was someone’s malicious prank. It could destroy the country. She decided that as soon as she found out who was responsible, she’d send them to the front lines or turn them into a tool to fill magic stones with magic power.
*Rustle, rustle.*
Kisaraibis asked if the report on that particular knife was ready yet. She searched through the pile of documents on her desk.
“It’s not here.”
She’d filed the previous report. It had been nearly a week. It should have been ready for the first submission by now.
“Was the performance not drawn out?”
She supposed it was futile to expect much from a soldier with little magic power, especially a woman.
“Send it to the front lines. Let a suitable owner choose that knife. That will also strengthen our combat power at the border and, in a way, will have answered the reinforcement request.”
She was sending a soldier. Retreat was forbidden. Alright.
She pulled Fatiah’s document from her desk drawer and stamped it with a “Thud,” transferring her to the front lines.
***
Later, Fatiah found herself in front of her room door, summoned by a knight.
“Nooooooooooooo!”
Without any trace of sleepiness, confusion, or shame. She beat the floor of her room, rolled around, and complained to the heavens.
“It’s decided. You can protest if you want. Go to Kisaraibis.”
At the knight’s voice, Fatiah, who had been in a frenzy, stopped to listen.
“I can’t do that!”
She started making noise again. The knight said he was done and closed Fatiah’s room door, returning to report that he had delivered the transfer document with Kisaraibis’s stamp. Fatiah, for her part, had to prepare for her immediate transfer to the front lines. If she didn’t, she’d be shoved into a cart bound for the front lines in her pajamas, forced to take the knife with her.
“No, no! Why am I being sent to the front lines?! This is a bad dream, that’s it! This is just a bad dream that’s too close to reality…”
*Knock, knock.*
“Private First Class Fatiah. Are your preparations complete?”
“You are being sent to the front lines. Come out of your room immediately.”
“Nooooooooo!”
It wasn’t a dream!
Fatiah was completely unprepared. But the people who had come to escort her didn’t care.
“We’re coming in.”
“Is that the knife?”
They barged into the female soldier’s room, grabbed Fatiah and the knife, and led them to the cart waiting outside.
“Wait, please! I-I need to change…”
“We had the time.”
It’s your fault for not being prepared. Give up and get in the cart outside.
“…No way.”
*Front lines?*
Rayos, who had been working on Fatiah’s physical transformation to make her beautiful, was taken by surprise. Being sent to the front lines, where lives were at stake, was a complete shock. She hadn’t even submitted her report yet. Shouldn’t they have at least submitted the report twice and tested it?
“Someone help me—”
“Hey! Don’t try to escape. It’s for your country. If you’re a soldier, obey your superior’s orders!”
Fatiah tried to escape. But those who had come to escort her were stronger. She couldn’t break free from their grasp and was shoved into the barred cart waiting outside.
*Clang.*
“Let me out! Sending me to the front lines is a mistake!? Actually, I…”
“Alright.”
“Let’s move out.”
*Slap.*
*Screech.*
The onlookers who had heard Fatiah’s commotion thought, “It could be us tomorrow,” and resolved to train and discipline themselves so they could resist forced transfers if they happened.
***
The front lines are far away, aren’t they?
Rayos’s question was valid, but with auxiliary skills related to the driver’s operation and the horses’ power, they arrived at the rear base of the front lines before noon.
“One transfer from the homeland.”
“Here are the documents for this person, and an order from the chief magician.”
“Then, we’ll be going.”
They gave the horses feed that infused them with stamina and recovery medicine and quickly returned to the homeland. What remained was a woman in ill-fitting pajamas holding a cheap, unsheathed knife.
“The homeland sends only this…”
“They won’t allow us to retreat…”
After the cart was gone, the staff of the General Staff voiced their resentment towards the homeland. Fatiah felt the same way as the General Staff, but first, she demanded clothes! Just then, a messenger ran in from the front lines.
“An army of Corrupted soldiers! They are numerous and we are few! We urgently need reinforcements!”
The General Staff immediately considered who could be sent. The sleeping-pajama-clad female soldier just sent from the homeland? Those who disrupted the order of the General Staff. Those who intended to send the messenger back to the homeland.
Fatiah had a bad feeling. She averted her gaze from the adults’ eyes as they looked at her. Rayos considered how to protect Fatiah. Also, if he could meet the mad scientist he’d gotten information about in the locker room yesterday, he wanted to somehow get Fatiah to negotiate. The negotiation would be to agree to be restrained without resistance, and then be confined to the General Staff as an important source of information. He would be the supervisor. If it went well, it would be perfect.
Three people, three different thoughts.
The staff members pointed out various individuals to the messenger, including the messenger himself. The messenger asked them to confirm the General Staff’s consensus. No matter how many times he asked, their choices were scattered. He wondered whose orders he should follow. He did know, however, that his own designation could be ignored.
Fatiah, while the adults were arguing and focused on the messenger, moved away from the crowd, towards a less populated area. If no one was around, she wouldn’t be found, which meant she wouldn’t be sent to the front lines. This was already the rear base of the front lines. She averted her eyes from that fact and slipped behind stacked wooden boxes, intending to steal a horse and escape. She searched for the sounds of horses and the smell of manure.
*Shrill cries.*
She could still hear the shouting and arguing from the General Staff.
“I absolutely have to escape from here…”
This must be some kind of mistake, sending me here.
She was in denial. But this was the rear of the front lines. No matter how much she refused to accept reality, it was undeniably the front lines. Rayos separated from the knife and began tracking Fatiah’s escape. It was a win-win situation, raising her affection and searching for a place to nest for his dream.
“A horse, right? Wait… Ah! The stable must be over there.”
Rayos discovered a stable where several horses were tied up. He repossessed the knife and began to guide Fatiah, even if it meant she would become suspicious.
*”Neigh.”*
“There really are horses… ♪”
*As I said. ♪ Now, let’s get away from here quickly.*
“Yeah! ♪”
Fatiah immediately untied the reins and stole a horse. She had learned to ride during training. It didn’t matter if there was no saddle or if the saddle size wasn’t right.
“Hah!”
*Heeeh.*
She rode the horse at full speed. Fatiah was overjoyed that her escape was successful. Rayos was also pleased, thinking that if she could escape like this, he would gain her trust.
But the battlefield is a place that crushes even such small wishes. The front line base went up in flames, a pillar of bright red fire. Black smoke billowed up.
*Help me—*
The soldiers fighting on the front lines were fleeing. Behind them, carts pulled by horses with no eyes and scarred bodies were approaching. The drivers and those riding in the carts were soldiers equipped with weapons, corpses. Corrupted soldiers. Corrupted warriors.
*Oooooh!*
Fatiah yelled at the soldiers fleeing towards her, “Don’t come this way!?” If things continued like this, she would be swept away by the fleeing soldiers and caught by the pursuing enemy!
“You’re in the way!”
“Don’t run so slowly!”
Fatiah changed her escape route several times, but it only resulted in her slowing down and being engulfed by the wave of fleeing soldiers, getting caught in a race against the enemy.
*Fatiah! Use me to attack the surrounding horses!*
“What? Where did that come from… the knife? Hey, hey, that’s a pretty harsh knife, young lady in pajamas~.”
Rayos, in his good intentions, had told her she could escape by using the fleeing soldiers as decoys, but he had spoken too loudly in his haste. It was too late.
“Oh, oh, we’ve been fighting on the front lines until now! And what about it?! A little girl in pajamas like you! You must have slept with someone in the General Staff. You’re trying to use us as decoys and escape. You’ve got some nerve, huh!?”
“Uh, um. I haven’t accepted that plan, and I’ve never thought about anything like what you all fighting on the front lines are thinking.”
She recalled the faces and figures of the adults in the General Staff and felt disgust, but not a shred of affection. How refreshing it would be if she could say, “Anything but being taken!” But given the atmosphere here, it was impossible.
“Huh~?”
“Then, throw away that knife?”
“That’s right!”
They offered to write off the decoy plan if she threw away her only weapon, Fatiah’s knife. Conversely, it was clear from the expressions of those around her that they would use Fatiah, who was without a weapon, as a decoy.
“No! If I don’t have this, how am I supposed to fight them (the Corrupted soldiers)!?”
This is absurd.
“Can’t you listen to your seniors, huh!?”
“Weren’t you the one who tried to use us as decoys first!?”
The soldiers on horseback moved towards Fatiah, trying to drag her off her horse.
“Don’t come near me! No! Let go of my arm!”
*Swish, swish.*
She defended herself by swinging her knife. Meanwhile, behind them, screams and the sounds of flesh being crushed by horses and wheels reached her ears clearly.
*Creeeak.*
Fatina and the others stopped their exchange and slowly looked back.
*Oooooh…!*
*Nngh!!!!*
Those on foot who couldn’t get horses were being gnawed at by the wave of Corrupted soldiers, their noses bitten off, their arms and necks torn, their spines crushed by the hooves of Corrupted Horses, and trampled. Trampled. The trampling was approaching them (about 100 meters away). It wasn’t the time to argue about decoys.
“Go faster!”
“Come on, horse!”
“You can do it!”
The soldiers gently stroked the horses’ necks, asking them to help them escape this dire situation. Fatiah just gripped the reins tightly. Rayos detached himself from the knife and moved to slow down the approaching wave of Corrupted soldiers.
“Possess.”
He possessed a cart and rotated its wheels in the reverse direction.
*Gak-kun.*
The driver and horse, not suspecting anything unusual about the sudden drop in speed, moved to kill nearby enemies. The cart, which had slowed down, was rammed by the subsequent carts. A chain reaction. The third cart leaped over the second and crashed, failing to land and becoming inoperable. The Corrupted soldiers in the cart, even with broken limbs or drooping necks, crawled forward to kill the enemy. The Corrupted Horses also advanced similarly, moving their first joints.
Rayos repeated the same thing.
*Clang!*
*Dosuuun.*
Multiple cart accidents occurred in the rear. The soldiers didn’t know what was happening, but they shouted “Hooray, we’re saved!” and galloped their horses at full speed.
“…Are we saved?”
Fatiah, a few seconds later, shouted the same thing as the soldiers and urged her horse forward, holding the reins tightly to put more distance between herself and the enemy. Seeing this, Rayos temporarily left the knife and observed the situation.
*Oooooh!!*
Whether they had emotions or not, the Corrupted soldiers did not falter in their pursuit, even as the carts were destroyed.
This was on Fatiah’s first day being sent to the front lines. Fatiah thought, “I’ll never come to a place like this again,” and fled with the other soldiers.
“Fools—”
“Don’t run—”
The voices of the General Staff officials could be heard. But they were quickly drowned out by cries of agony. This border line was finished. It couldn’t be sealed. They would retreat. Whether the superiors in the homeland would accept that was unknown to Fatiah and the others who had managed to escape.
