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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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Republic of Bostania.
Woodland, a small city near Saint Francis.
“Brigade Commander Heinz, we’ve completed the clearing of the rebel-occupied area. Wesley Street is now under the control of our Holy Cross Brigade.”
“Good work, 3rd Battalion Commander. Make sure your subordinate soldiers get rest and reorganization.”
Brigadier General Heinz Bismarck, commander of the Empire’s expeditionary force, the Holy Cross Brigade, greeted his battalion commander with a smile.
Although the Holy Cross Brigade originally had the image of a relief unit, as the civil war in Bostania intensified, they could no longer remain comfortably idle.
Countless refugees flooded into their camp, and as they were clearly a government force, attacks from rebels intensified.
While it had been just sporadic guerrilla rifle fire when they were first deployed, as recently as two weeks ago, their base had been exposed to large-scale mortar shelling.
Even Heinz, who had tried to avoid combat as much as possible, had to make decisions as the field commander.
Since President Mikhail Bismarck had already entrusted full authority and responsibility for the expeditionary force to him.
Heinz launched ‘Operation City Defense’, the Holy Cross Brigade’s first offensive operation.
He not only completely recaptured Woodland, which had been surrounded by rebels, but also brought the roads used as the main supply route with government forces back under control.
From then on, the Holy Cross Brigade was no longer just a relief unit.
Of course, while it might be good that they could save more people by acting more proactively…
It was never easy to point guns at other humans rather than Titans.
It wasn’t for nothing that the number of personnel complaining of PTSD at the medical unit set up at the brigade headquarters was increasing as time passed.
“Thank you! Oh! And should we hand over the thirty prisoners we secured to the government forces like last time?”
Heinz snapped back to attention at the 3rd Battalion Commander’s words.
Right, there were prisoners.
“…Are they currently being protected within the base?”
“Yes, that’s right. They’re being managed by my 4th Company.”
The battalion commander answered readily.
“Their commander was captured too, they say.”
“We were lucky. We barely caught him as he was trying to commit suicide by taking pills.”
“Well done. I’ll make sure to mention this to His Excellency the President.”
“…!! Thank you, Brigade Commander!!”
Wesley Street was a road connected to Highway 117, which linked Woodland and Los Diego, a large city under rebel control.
From the rebels’ perspective, it was a strategic point that had to be defended at all costs, being the gateway to Los Diego.
Despite such struggles, they had fallen to the overwhelming firepower and advanced weapons of the Holy Cross Brigade.
The fierce resistance had resulted in quite a few casualties within the Holy Cross Brigade as well.
Seven had died and twenty-five had been injured.
“But don’t be too happy. The battle is still ongoing.”
“Ah, um. I’m sorry.”
The 3rd Battalion Commander’s attitude fluctuated according to Heinz’s words.
He was quite capable in tactics and strategy… if only he could reduce his greed for power a little.
Heinz Bismarck swallowed his bitter thoughts.
“What about the funeral procedures for our people?”
“We plan to send them back to our country on the transport plane arriving today. The simple funeral we’ll hold within the unit is in two hours.”
“We have some time left then.”
It had already been two weeks since the Holy Cross Brigade had formally intervened in the civil war.
The thirty deaths that had occurred during that time were by no means a small number.
Including the wounded, it well exceeded a hundred, so the shoulders of Heinz, the field commander, were growing heavier day by day.
‘How on earth did Luthers Edan, that man, manage it?’
At times like this, his amazement at his former superior only grew.
The legendary war hero Luthers Edan.
No matter how skilled the rebels were, they were nothing but children compared to Titans.
Most were armed only with light weapons, and even the armored equipment and heavy weapons they had scrounged up were far past their prime.
As the Holy Cross Brigade was originally a “mechanized brigade,” most weapons couldn’t inflict effective damage on them.
This was why the brigade’s fatalities were relatively fewer compared to the Bostanian government forces, even though they had entered urban warfare, which was unconditionally advantageous to the defenders.
Yet Luthers had repelled all the offensives of that powerful enemy at the Graveyard, a poor frontline fortress, with minimal supplies and support.
It hadn’t felt real when viewed from afar, but now that he had taken up the command baton in earnest, he couldn’t help but realize how impossible it had been.
‘…Maybe I should try to get in touch when I return to the country.’
It was when Heinz Bismarck was having such thoughts.
“Um, Brigade Commander. May I ask you one thing?”
The 3rd Battalion Commander, who had been carefully watching his reaction, cautiously opened his mouth.
“Go ahead.”
“It’s about the prisoner interrogations. Couldn’t we increase the intensity a bit? They’re not giving up any information.”
It wasn’t just this battle.
The number of rebel prisoners captured by the Holy Cross Brigade was increasing day by day, but the brigade was treating them all according to ‘humane’ procedures.
The prisoner interrogations consisted of only simple identity checks and light questioning in compliance with international law.
Even though these were people who wouldn’t talk even if their faces were dunked in water or thrown into fire, as long as Heinz treated them leniently, they naturally had no reason to give up information.
Heinz knew this fact.
But he simply didn’t do it.
Thinking this question had crossed a line, Heinz’s eyes sharpened.
“3rd Battalion Commander.”
“…Colonel Max Rommel!”
“We’re carrying out combat missions out of necessity, but our fundamental purpose is still relief. Torturing prisoners and obtaining information is not our job.”
“I’m sorry, Brigade Commander. I asked an inappropriate question.”
“Be careful from now on. I won’t tolerate this kind of question again, no matter what else happens.”
“Yes!”
At least he was quick to pick up on such things.
Heinz sighed deeply and stood up.
“You said there was one high-ranking person?”
“Yes, he’s said to be a brigade commander in the rebel army. A former soldier…”
“Then let’s go to the interrogation room together. There are some things I want to ask him directly.”
“Understood.”
Thump, thump.
Heinz Bismarck slowly walked out of his room.
In the city visible beyond his casually turned gaze, acrid black smoke was still rising.
Heinz thought that scene looked frighteningly similar to the battlefield he had experienced in the past.
The youngster who had been just a field-grade officer then was now a general, a brigadier general commanding nearly five thousand personnel.
So much had changed in less than a year.
Of course, some things hadn’t changed.
War.
War hadn’t changed at all.
It was still brutal, still horrific.
He had long since grown tired of the military, yet why was he the only one still here?
If it weren’t for his unnecessarily strong sense of responsibility, he would have quit and returned home long ago.
Heinz tried to suppress the boiling feelings inside him as he headed towards the place where the prisoners were being temporarily detained.
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“So you’re the one in charge.”
“Pleased to meet you, General Robert Walker. I’m Brigadier General Heinz Bismarck, commander of the Holy Cross Brigade. I’ve heard a bit about you.”
Heinz bowed politely to the old man wearing the general’s uniform of the former Republic of Bostania.
Robert Walker.
He had heard that he was a soldier who had achieved great military merits during the war against the Titans.
Of course, he hadn’t known other countries even existed during the height of the war, except for the Empire, so it was natural he hadn’t known.
But it certainly wasn’t a bluff.
Heinz could see the fighting spirit and conviction in the old general’s eyes.
The kind of aura that no soldier who had truly experienced war could ignore.
“So… what business does the young general of the great Empire have with a defeated old man?”
“I didn’t come for anything in particular. I just wanted to have a conversation.”
“Everyone says that.”
“I’m sorry, General, but I’m someone dispatched here for relief. Relief, not war.”
“Then why on earth did you attack us?”
“…We had to break through the city’s siege to procure relief supplies. That’s all.”
Robert snorted at Heinz’s words.
“You tell an interesting story. If your intention was to tease an ugly loser who couldn’t win even with several times the troops, you’ve succeeded splendidly.”
Despite being sufficiently polite, Robert was still hostile.
Heinz could understand.
From his perspective, no matter how much they claimed to be a relief force, they were just foreign troops fighting on the side of the corrupt government.
“Get to the point. The point. There’s no way the person in charge came without any reason. If you really intended to have a conversation, wouldn’t you have brought out some simple tea?”
“Indeed, you’re right. Bring us two cups of warm tea.”
“Yes, Brigade Commander.”
Heinz ordered his aide to bring tea.
And then, as Robert had said, he got straight to the point.
“It’s really a trivial question. It’s not related to the war situation, and even less about internal information of the rebel army.”
“Then?”
“By any chance, do you know anything about the rumors currently coming from Saint Francis, General?”
“Rumors?”
Robert asked back.
Saint Francis was still completely closed off even now, months after the radioactive fallout.
Forces for decontamination couldn’t even be deployed due to the civil war that had broken out not long after.
Now it had become an otherworldly scene where only a very small number of people in protective gear entered to sell abandoned items.
As was often the case with such otherworldly scenes, ominous rumors about Saint Francis were growing day by day.
Among them, there was clearly—
“There are stories that Titans are roaming around the completely destroyed abandoned city.”
“What?!”
There was content that no soldier living in this era could ignore.
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