My Platoon is Fucking Hopeless – Chapter 54

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Wjin
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“Oh? Chief Debra Bennett…”

“Hmm?”

Lumia and Belle, who were following me, also seemed surprised by the unexpected guest. Debra smugly snatched my luggage and personally carried it into my room.

“Tired from the long trip? Well, there’s something you need to see right now.”

“I’m not a second lieutenant anymore.”

“Huh?”

Debra’s gaze shifted to my shoulder boards. She looked back and forth between the two diamonds and my face, then…

“What!?”

She jumped back as if she’d seen a ghost. I could see her pupils trembling.

“First Lieutenant Enoch Levandal! F-First Lieutenant!? Promoted to first lieutenant after just one month—!?”

“Didn’t you hear from the personnel officer? Knowing him, he wouldn’t have kept it to himself.”

“I’ve been cooped up in my lab for five days, doing nothing but research…”

“You’ve worked hard.”

I offered Debra a word of comfort.

“So, how should I address you? Mutual respect? Can… I mean, can you also drop the formalities…?”

“Why the sudden change? You’re far senior to me. Please treat me as you always have.”

She probably already knew, but seeing the fledgling second lieutenant from just a few days ago appear with the same rank must have been a shock.

“Oh, right! That’s right, seniority!”

“But what did you say I needed to see? If it’s about the magic barrier we discussed, tomorrow morning would…”

“Now, now! Don’t be so dismissive. It’s not just ‘a magic barrier.’ You won’t say that after you see it.”

Debra Bennett grabbed my arm and tried to drag me out of the barracks.

“Chief, you can’t do this here.”

“What do you mean I can’t! I can!”

Debra Bennett brushed past Lumia and Belle before they could react.

“Sorry for the late hour~! I’m just borrowing your platoon leader for a bit~! You all worked hard today~!”

Having been cooped up in a carriage for so long, I was too exhausted to resist.

Please, just leave me alone…

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“Ta-da~!”

Debra Bennett dragged me to a solitary cell in the basement of the Facilities Management Department. Since the 3rd Battalion building itself was an extension of an old fortress, there were quite a few basement facilities.

Our platoon had lived in the basement before moving to the old officer’s quarters where I was now staying.

“What is this place?”

“Apparently, it used to be a torture chamber.”

“…”

Debra casually uttered chilling words. She nonchalantly tapped a magic stone embedded in the wall.

“But now it’s my personal lab.”

Click, click, click.

Lights flickered on, dispelling the darkness. The red magic stone emitted a soft, flickering glow.

“My specialty isn’t offensive magic, but defensive. If I want to climb higher, I need to find an area with low supply and high demand.”

“Ah… so that’s why.”

It would be a mistake to think only offensive magic was important in war. Ukraine itself was a prime example, focusing on defense until their lines crumbled, leading to their demise. It was the result of prioritizing offense and neglecting defense as a weak nation.

In that sense, Second Lieutenant Debra Bennett’s choice was both wise and forward-thinking. If Ukraine had a few dozen more officers like her, their defensive tactical doctrines wouldn’t be inferior to even Valter III.

“Anyway, I did some reverse engineering based on the idea you mentioned,” she said.

“Yes.”

“Deploying the barrier at a 45-degree angle and deliberately concentrating mana density at the top is efficient, but it has a fatal flaw.”

“What flaw?”

“The top part is too thin. If the attack comes in at an arc, or if the penetration power of the offensive magic is slightly increased, it’ll break through immediately.”

I nodded at her explanation. If this was indeed a ‘sloped armor’ concept applied to magic, it made sense that it wouldn’t be a perfect all-rounder. If it were that effective, wouldn’t tanks with sloped armor on all sides have been developed?

Naturally, such a monstrous thing didn’t exist, even in reality. It would be incredibly inefficient.

“And if I increase the mana density at the top, the mana efficiency becomes worse than deploying a flat barrier.”

“That makes sense.”

It was only natural. The advantage of sloped armor was providing superior defense compared to flat armor with thinner plating. So, increasing the mana density and thickness of the barrier would only result in continuously increasing the thickness – that is, increasing the density of the magic barrier itself.

Ultimately, the fundamental principle was the same. It would consume more concentration and mana to precisely control the mana at a 45-degree angle. In that case, it was better to deploy a flat magic barrier and create two layers.

In this world, the magic ‘sloped armor’ theory was nothing more than a ‘disposable shield’ that maximized efficiency with minimal mana. Still, it was usable, and with further refinement, it could significantly contribute to developing the complex magic barriers unlocked later in the game.

I looked at Debra Bennett’s 3rd-grade magic barrier and thought, “Isn’t this enough for the platoon evaluation?”

It was just a platoon evaluation. Even with a harsh evaluator, deploying a barrier with a unique structure, different from conventional magic barriers, would earn us considerable bonus points.

However, Debra Bennett drew a firm line.

“No, this isn’t enough.”

“It’s already novel enough.”

“We’re dealing with Colonel Viktor Zelensky. You don’t know him, but he’s not an easygoing man.”

Just how harsh was he to warrant this reaction from Debra Bennett?

“Do you know how bad it was during the evaluation of the neighboring battalion last month? It was a defense against cavalry scenario. They formed a defensive formation and successfully repelled the attack numerically.”

Debra Bennett shuddered, as if reliving the experience.

“It was perfect, even in my eyes. Quite impressive for officers who usually don’t care about defensive doctrines. But then Viktor suddenly asked, ‘What if they were magic cavalry instead of regular cavalry!?'”

Magic cavalry…? Mages on horseback? Seeing my puzzled expression, she explained.

“Basically, mages who approach at high speed like cavalry. Such a thing doesn’t exist in this world. Unless they’re riding in carriages.”

…What? Unlike Debra Bennett, who shrugged dismissively, I couldn’t laugh. Because five years later, magic tanks would actually appear. Not modern tanks covered in steel plates, but something resembling ancient chariots.

A ‘cavalry unit’ unlocked and produced after developing wheel stability and advancing the mechanical research tree. While they would quickly become obsolete with the arrival of true tanks, before that, they were effective at countering enemy magic troops protected by infantry, thanks to their superior breakthrough power.

‘Did she foresee the future? Or was it just a lucky guess from an absurdly stubborn perspective?’

I was intrigued by Colonel Viktor Zelensky, the man Debra Bennett described.

“…He mercilessly deducted three points for not having an answer—!”

“I understand what kind of evaluator he is. So how do we improve this further?”

I interrupted her rambling. She cleared her throat and returned to the main topic.

“Ahem, ahem. No need to improve. I’ve already created a prototype.”

“What?”

“Watch this.”

Debra Bennett snapped her fingers. A baseball-sized flame appeared on her palm.

Beginner Red Magic, Fireball. A spell I was now tired of seeing.

“You said 3rd-grade barrier, right?”

“It can easily block this, can’t it?”

“That’s right. But what if it gets hit by five Fireballs in a row?”

“The mana density would be disrupted, and it would break.”

“Exactly. The solution was simpler than I thought. If it can’t withstand it, just don’t let it get hit.”

“????”

What kind of nonsense was this?

“I thought outside the box. What if, right before the magic collides with the barrier, we use Anti-Elemental magic to reduce the power of the offensive magic?”

“Wait a minute, Chief Debra Bennett… don’t tell me…!!!”

“Just watch.”

She threw the Fireball towards the barrier. The fireball cut through the air and reached the barrier’s surface in an instant. Just as the Fireball’s flames were about to explode and scatter, a slightly protruding magic circle on the upper part of the barrier unfolded and fired a Magic Missile.

BANG—!!!

The sound of mana colliding with mana reverberated in my ears. I froze on the spot. This was a Defense-Dispel spell that wouldn’t appear until airships were developed. In this world, it was technology equivalent to an active defense system.

From sloped armor to an active defense system. In just five short days, she had single-handedly achieved technological advancements that would normally take years?

“Oh dear, the formula isn’t fully stabilized yet, so the activation was a bit late!”

“Facilities Management Chief Debra Bennett…”

“Hmm?”

“What exactly are you?”

I had to seriously consider whether she was a transmigrator, as she casually scratched her head.

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