“The protection of the civilian populace is one of the greatest tasks of the Army. It is unacceptable for any Confederate soldier to abandon this mission. First and foremost, before even our stated mission to preserve the state, a soldier must prioritize the people.”

- General Elsa Ludendorf

+++

+++ Lieutenant Hans Hoffman +++

Ygeian Countryside

AUG 26, 1538 CE

Hans’ Wanderfalke stopped right beside a treeline, as he opened up his thermals, scanning the flat open fields ahead of them. He moved his turret and sights left and right, checking for any signs of that demon if it somehow managed to be ahead of them.

No such sightings came to Hans’ attention.

“Nothing’s on my end. The route ahead is clear, over.”

“Copy. I’m relaying it to the mayor. Warn me of any changes.”

“Gotcha, Captain.”

Hans frowned.

He wasn’t going to be complacent with this anymore. In front of them, or in their rear, he had already instated full paranoia in his mindset. That demon could and would chase them. That was why he was both scouting ahead and behind them.

Soon, he passed by on the road, as the lines of clearly tired, hungry, and afraid civilians trudged forward. Hans’ Wanderfalke sped beside them like a knight on horseback, giving them a brief resurgence of hope at knowing that a metal beast was watching over them. Yet, just like Hans, it wasn’t perfect. Fear. Fear had been everywhere, ever since the attack.

And for Hans and Adelyn, that fear was compounded by the sheer scale of lives that were relying precariously on their actions today. That, and the two absolutely had no ounce of sleep since yesterday, so Hans was already starting to feel foggy with the fatigue that he was dealing with.

Nope, power through it. Hans told himself, as he continued driving to the rear end of the mass of civilians. Just keep going. You did it in the war. You can do it here.

As the day continued, the two continued circling the people they were protecting deliriously. Quite frankly, it was the blessing of having a high-mobility vehicle in their hands. Their carriages advanced slowly, and many who were on foot lagged behind. This meant that Adelyn and Hans needed to patrol a few kilometers around the group constantly.

But that charged a lot of fuel. Really, really lots of fuel. By 14:00 hours, Hans stopped his vehicle on the side, as he used up his AP to refill his fuel tanks with the auto fabricator. During that time, he checked on the people lagging on the rear, asking questions from them.

“Hey!” He called, approaching groups of civilians that were clearly barely hanging by. “Are you guys alright down there?”

They turned at him, and many just shook their heads.

“No!” One of them shouted. “I’m thirsty!”

“My son is hungry, and…my baby—”

Hans frowned, as he shouted back at them.

“Just keep going! We’re going to keep that demon out of our tail. But you have to keep going!”

Hans then rushed back to his vehicle and grabbed a few cans of treated water that he bought with him. Going down the slight hill, he carried his cans to them, especially to the families that had children with them. He placed the three cans on the road, as the civilians surrounded him.

“Alright, alright! We’ll do this quick and easy. Form two lines, on me. Bring cups or whatever you have. I’ll try to stretch what I have for everyone!”

Someone suddenly tapped him from behind. It was the Priestess that they had met earlier. Behind her too was her two companions handling their horses, both of them looking at Hans as well.

“Lieutenant,” she said. “We can help.”

“Really?”

“I can do some water magic,” she turned to her two companions. “You two, fetch water from the river nearby when he empties those things. I’ll purify it.”

“You got it, Priestess!” the man who Hans remembered as Mathieu saluted with a grin.

Hans turned back to the woman.

“Alright. It’s good that you three aren’t dead then,” Hans said. “I admit, I rejected your attempt to offer help, but if you’re a good mage, I’d like to get your help, Miss Laura.”

“Point us to the place that needs protecting and we’ll join you two,” she said with determination. “We can do it. Somehow. I think.”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“Alright…”

The four then proceeded to distribute water at the lines of civilians. It was a quick process. They would present whatever cups they had to Hans, and Hans filled them with water. Each person only received one cup, with the more dehydrated children and elderly receiving slightly more from Hans. But once they were done, they moved forward, at pace, to catch up with the rest.

Then, Laura’s two companions would grab Hans’ empty cans, and refill them with water from the river. After that, Laura would do whatever magic she somehow conjured with her staff. Hans was quite impressed at the glowing blue lights the first time she did it, but soon, he returned to the repetitive task of distributing water. By the time they were done with it, Hans just carried his refilled cans back to his Wanderfalke, placing them back inside, before turning back to the trio.

“Alright, here’s the deal,” Hans said, taking his personal radio with him, and showing it to Laura. “This is a radio.”

“...Interesting,” the Priestess said, eyeing it.

“Look, I’m gonna let you borrow this, but essentially, your task is to keep an eye on the rear. You three will stay here, behind the civilians, and act as our early warning. You will be able to hear me speak here. To speak back, you just press this button. Understand?”

Hans demonstrated it for a bit before Laura nodded.

“Okay.”

“Okay, good,” he then handed it to her. “Now, do not try to fight the demon alone. Hide. Retreat. Whatever. Just warn us and we will come here. Immediately. We will deal with it. As for the civilians, if you see the demon at a distance, you will warn them and make them run or hide. Is that clear?”

“Yes,” Laura replied. “And…can we please talk later, once this is all over? I know you don’t believe me yet, but…”

“Look, I’ll listen to what you have, but outside of this, I still cannot in good conscience drag you and your companions into a fight with that Calamity. The only difference here is that you’re actively in a survival situation, so that leaves me without a choice. Otherwise, just tell us what you know, and we’ll take it from there.”

+++

Adelyn’s speech to the gathered crowds ended. The mayor himself reluctantly gave the order, but, to Hans’ surprise, the civilians reacted to it positively. One after another, they emptied their carriages of their belongings, placing them on the side of the road to let those walking on foot in.

Hans smiled.

“Damn…so that worked.”

“We should have done this at the start,” Adelyn replied, as she looked down. “We could have avoided more casualties.”

“Well, we did try, but they refused. That’s just how people are. They can’t easily leave their belongings to help the poor. Not unless…”

“Not unless they see many die behind them.”

Hans looked back at Adelyn, who was standing beside her parked Wanderadler. Soon, after the town’s guards organized everyone to mount the carriages, their lines began moving again, leaving a trail of various bags, clothes, and crates on the side of the road. It was already a hard afternoon, with the sun beginning to set on them.

Which meant darkness soon. It wasn’t a big problem to Hans though, as they had thermal sights to see almost just as well at night, but for the rest of the convoy? They wouldn’t be able to see things properly.

“Hey, I’ll position myself at the rear of the convoy,” Hans said. “I’ll stay there and cover them. You stay at the front.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” Hans said. “I got support there too. Just radio me if need be, alright?”

Adelyn nodded.

“Okay. Oh, by the way, we’re close to a nearby settlement. Just thirty kilometers away from us. We can actually drive straight there already to check it out if we have to.”

Hans looked down at the carriages driving forward.

“It’ll still take us a day or two to reach it safely if we have to protect them.”

“I’m just worried about the safety of that place,” Adelyn said. “I thought…we might need some forward scouting. But we can’t exactly separate ourselves too much.”

“Yeah. We’re basically already driving around them a kilometer or two apart. That’s not…good. With the new arrangement, you’d be nearly a kilometer ahead of me and those at the rear.”

“Yeah…yeah…about your munitions. Are you doing alright there?”

“Yeah, I have enough AP for now to keep things stable. Twelve APFSDS and six HEAT. Should be fine during an engagement, I think.”

“Mhm…alright,” Adelyn shook her head. “You go back to the rear. I’ll just give Alizée a chow. And, yeah. Keep in touch, please.”

“I know.”

+++

It was already night.

Yet, Hans’ Wanderfalke trailed the rest of the moving column just as alertly. In front of him, Laura’s group rode with their horses, which walked moderately. Hans himself maintained a walking speed for now, just shy of twelve kilometers per hour, as he tried to battle his ever-gnawing need for sleep.

However, it was clear that everyone was too tired, too fatigued, and too sleep-deprived to continue, with the horses themselves barely even managing to continue pulling the carriages. He could even see Laura softly checking her horse for a while, which clearly had been trotting slower compared to its speed late afternoon.

Suddenly, a transmission from Adelyn came. Hans immediately accepted it.

“Lieutenant, the mayor is calling for a temporary halt,” Adelyn said. “The horses…they…”

“They’re all tired.”

“Yep. They need a few minutes or an hour of rest. Can we conduct combat patrols for a while?”

“Yeah, I’ll see what I can do,” Hans said. “Hey, are you still alright out there?”

“Don’t worry. I took some coffee and uhh…well, I’m a bit dizzy.”

“Dizzy, huh?”

She chuckled on the other end.

“Yeah, I guess. What about you?”

“I can still do the combat patrols.”

“Alright, I’m telling the mayor that we can halt.”

“Roger that.”

The comms closed, as Hans temporarily stopped his Wanderfalke on the road, leaning back to his seat.

Hopefully, it isn’t chasing us anymore. He sighed, tiredly. But, we’ll probably have to fight it again tonight. Goddess…if you exist, why did you even send us two here?

He looked at the stopping column in front of him.

Is it just to hopefully save these people? Surely you could have done a better job than dragging us here, no?