“Magic is one of the greatest beauties offered by the world. Its cultivation should bring, first and foremost, not violence and harm, but art and beauty. Productivity and bounty. Many eschew the learning of a spell that keeps the blight off one’s farm, in favor of magic to scare off bandits. While indeed there is more use of combat magic in life and death situations, life…requires more than weapons.”

- Excerpt from “A Compilation of Useful Spells for One’s Farm”.

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Rousselot City

AUG 2, 1538 CE

“Get the hell off her!”

Hans’ shout against the other children scattered them off from picking on Alizée, who silently sat with an empty stare at the gardens on one of the benches. He had just returned from another meeting with the officers of the 4th, which was his constant day-to-day task. To advise them on better gunpowder tactics.

Except, this time, Hans tried his best to piss off as quickly as possible from his task and get back to St. Heka church.

He needed to check on her more.

Naturally, Alizée turned her head in Hans’ direction upon hearing him, and just as immediately, Hans saw the girl muster up a cheerful smile. He had been observing her for many seconds before he struck though, and he knew she looked extremely distraught by the annoyance of the other children against her, yet she had not acted, and simply kept to herself.

Now, those expressions were gone, replaced by that smile she would always give him. But Hans now knew it was nothing but bull. Quite frankly, it was scary how this girl could so efficiently put such a mask on her emotions at this age.

Hell…it almost shattered her heart.

“Sir Hans,” Alizée stood up. She almost bowed at him respectfully. “I…was just looking at the flowers.”

“That so? I swear those kids were…”

“It’s okay!” She squeaked out. “Also…you’re early today…”

“What?”

“Nothing!”

“You sure?”

She nodded rapidly. Hans sighed to himself. This was really difficult. He kinda wondered whether he should start learning her language or just wait until she was fully fluent in “continental”. Then again, he had a translation pocketbook with him.

He kneeled to her level and began flipping through it. Skimming past the more “useful” pages at the start, he settled for the more peaceful phrases and words. Awkwardly, he said it in an almost grade-one manner.

“So…how are you?”

“Good!”

He flipped through his pocketbook.

“Re…really?” Crap, did he even pronounce that right?

“Yes!”

“How so?”

“Because good!”

He flipped back up again.

“Why…” he continued flipping to find another word. “Ah, there…why good?”

Alizée paused, a faint, subtle hint graced her face of her earlier discomfort. It seemed that she almost wanted to stop lying, but then, the smile on her face returned, as she answered in her own language.

“Because you’re here.”

What? Crap, he didn’t catch that. He began flipping through his pocketbook, trying to remember exactly what she said in order to check, but, just as rapidly, his short-term memory betrayed him. He looked back up at her, trying his best to remember, but his mind was empty-handed.

“Can you repeat that?”

She frowned.

“Can…I…what?”

Hans looked back down at his pocketbook, searching for the right phrase.

“Would you please repeat…that?” Hans asked.

“I said because you’re here!”

Hans tried to pick it up again, but…he realized he really wouldn’t be able to pick up any long phrases unless he had studied her language a bit. Still, looking at the eager smile on her face, it must be something…decent, at least.

Well, we can’t do anything about that.

Hans stood up and sighed, giving her a head pat. “Alright, alright. I guess I’ll just tell you, that I won’t let those miscreants come near you when I’m around, okay?”

“I don’t understand, but…” she smiled again. “Okay, Sir Hans!”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The two sat back on the benches.

It was…really, a peaceful garden, Hans could say. Quite frankly, being inside the city, he was surprised that such a well-maintained one could be inside. Then again, the Countess’ estate was well-designed, and so was the St. Heka church. For a while, the two just stayed silent, watching either the chirping birds on the trees or the butterflies on the flowers.

Really…he just wanted to accompany the girl for a while. Nothing much really. He didn’t know, again, how to convince her that everything was alright. This was about the best he could do, to be quite frank. It was almost lamentable how little means he had of keeping the girl away from the torment and fear of being left behind in a dangerous situation.

“You know…” Hans tried, and the girl perked up to look at him. He didn’t continue speaking for a while, just watching her curious eyes look at him.

What can I even tell her?

“I…well, I tried…you know,” Hans said. “Do you even understand me?”

She looked down, as her smile turned a bit more melancholic. He watched as she began playing with her feet, swaying it slowly in a childish way.

“Bit by bit, but not really. I wish I could fully. But…maybe I know you’re trying to be nice, Sir Hans.”

“Well…that’s a pretty long speech,” Hans said. “Well, I’ll still start speaking then. You don’t really need to understand each of my words. Maybe you’ll pick up on it by listening. Well, assuming you even listen. You would, wouldn’t you?”

No answer.

Hans smiled a bit. “As I expected. Well, as I was saying, I tried, you know. I tried to find…every way to get out of that bind. Quite frankly, I’m still trying right now. You know, it’s a bit hard to keep…trying, and always failing.”

Hans looked back at his past platoon mates. So many of them…that he failed to save, or fight for. So many died, and he was unable to change it. Really, over there, in that war, once it happened, there was no going back. A blunder. A slight miscalculation. A word said too callously and too recklessly.

When a fight went awry.

When a wrong order was given.

When a wrong turn was taken in the winding city blocks.

When a wrong coordinate was sent.

When a battle was lost.

When a friend…was lost.

He wouldn’t have control of all of it. All he would be able to do…was accept those losses. All he would be able to do was bear it, waiting for all of it to end. And he tried. He did try. He always tried. Even when he only had one life there, and in the end, had that taken too.

There…fate was unchangeable.

“I failed hard a lot of times,” Hans said. He looked at her. She was simply looking at the flowers. “I failed you too, you know? I failed you…a lot.”

Hans sighed. “Of course, you wouldn’t know. Just as Adelyn wouldn’t know how much I failed her many times. Just like this city won’t know its fate all because of a blunder I didn’t have the foresight to avoid. Well…I still tried though, with what I did know.

“I tried defending this city. I tried. I…really did. I thought it was all going to work out. I mean, the last one, we killed it when we used a prepared defense position. It went…oh so perfectly well. You know, if you were a soldier, you would have appreciated how well we took it down. It was…a good methodology.

“Back in the place I came from, a good methodology could always be applied…well, relatively, in a lot of situations that may arise, so we use that a lot. We even call it doctrines, you know. We apply it to most combat situations because it works. Sure, there will be variations depending on the situation, that is natural, but I doubt we have to burn it down every engagement.

“Hell, we could even apply blanket rules that while imperfect, we can usually follow, and it’d, a lot of times, usually work. Like Rules of Engagement. RoE, we called it. You know? With those rules, for example, we shouldn’t shoot civilians, or someone clearly unarmed, because, well, they’re not a part of the fighting. It’s predictable that we’d just waste bullets on it. And it’s predictable that it’s bad and unnecessary.

“Not a lot could change in those situations, really. What we are trained on, what doctrines we have, what we experienced, we could…create a certain…preconceived standard operating procedure to everything we fight. It feels nice. Sure, being shot at, bombed, whatever, it’s crazy, but, that’s really just what happens where I come from. It’s hellish, but it’s predictable hell, for the most part, except for the unfortunate times where it isn’t, in which case, people sometimes die, but, hey, it’s war.

“This is a different war I’m fighting, Alizée. Bit of a…crazy war, I should say. It’s kinda hard, you know? The enemies are always…all different. I mean, if I had to fight a Murat MBM, a vehicle that my nation’s enemy uses, well, it’d always be a Murat MBM. Its weak points will stay the same. Its speed will stay the same. So would its weapons. I also know that usually, the pilots who use it can’t be arsed to even drive properly.

“You know, there’s less…fancy gimmicks. It’s a tank on legs, just like my allies, and a tank is a tank and will act as a tank. Just like a soldier with a rifle will act like a soldier with a rifle. Or a jet with CAS as its mission will do close air support. Out here, there are friggin rats with…flying magical active defense systems, friggin wolves with these…sharp tails that can cut through steel. Steel, Alizée, can you believe it? How’s that even possible?

“There are even eels with…with tentacles as its head, and it fires water that kills. How the hell can water even kill? It’s ridiculous. I haven’t tried it yet, but I bet that would damage and kill even my Wanderfalke. What? Does it turn into acid? Does it melt people? I don’t even know yet. And all I would have to fight it is the equivalent of a peashooter or a vehicle I can’t just use willy-nilly. And…and then there’s girls who can freeze an entire city by herself. How the hell can I even account for all that?”

Hans sighed. Alizée, for her part, simply continued listening. She definitely understood nothing about Hans’ sudden endless rants.

“Still…I’m trying, Alizée. And damn it would I continue trying. I’ll…I know I have to. Because it’s my duty. That’s…I don’t know…”

Hans buried his head in one of his hands and breathed out.

“What am I even doing? I went into a full-on rant about military tactics on a ten-year-old who doesn’t even speak my language. I went here to give her some company, but all I did was vent out to her like some moron.”

Hans laughed at himself. “How hopeless.”

He looked back at Alizée. Suddenly, she smiled eagerly.

“I don’t know what you were saying, Sir Hans, but more! Your voice sounded cool!”

Hans laughed. “Well, I guess at least I sound half-comical when I’m whining. Actually, I almost forgot something.”

He pulled something out of his pocket. It was a chocolate bar, straight out from his rations. Quite frankly, he had a lot of MREs he wouldn’t touch due to the fact that fresh meals always existed here. Still, he decided to open one of them just to find some sweets to give her.

“Here, chocolate. Want some?”

Immediately, her eyes shined, as her hunger spiked up.

“Yes! Give please!”

Well, I guess she cares more about chocolates than some officer’s bellyaching. Hans opened it and gave it to her. Immediately, she focused everything on enjoying the treat. Whatever…

Hans looked up. The clouds looked kinda funny today.

“You know what, screw that. How about we just talk about my favorite food? Shrimp. Yeah, that’s right. You know, Alizée, there’s actually so many ways you can cook shrimp. Back when I was a kid, I would always ask my momma to cook it in certain ways…”

And for hours, he went…on and on and on. Just speaking and speaking to her one-sidedly about random topics she knew nothing about.

For some reason…Hans felt at peace.

And Alizée, for some reason, stuck with him till the skies and clouds looked pink.

Even when she couldn’t understand Hans.

She listened.