Hope took one look at Ye Tang’s face and knew that this woman probably hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep in days. She most likely hadn’t remembered to eat much either.
Ye Tang, who had returned to the house with the two pigeon spirits, had no mind to chat idly with them. “How’s the situation?”
Fian looked heartbroken, while Hope responded without much reaction. “Not too good. Duke Wilson was dispatched to Kuks Port to intercept Tartafu’s main force, but the royals didn’t provide the duke with sufficient military supplies.”
“Tartafu threw the corpses of those who died in battle and from disease into the water, polluting the seas around Kuks Port on a massive scale. Soldiers secretly caught sea fish to stave off hunger, only to eat human corpses that had died from disease. Duke Wilson ordered soldiers and civilians not to catch sea fish privately anymore, to avoid eating diseased human corpses. The army’s morale was extremely low. Even among the civilians, voices calling to surrender to Tartafu began to emerge.”
The situation was pretty much as Ye Tang had expected. This made her sigh softly.
“To what extent would that idiot royal family keep courting death? If the duke dies in battle, who will hold off Tartafu’s invasion afterward? That useless king and his three good-for-nothing sons?”
“I don’t know if the royals are courting death. But if you don’t sleep soon, you might actually die.”
As Fian spoke, he pinched Ye Tang’s chin and stuffed a biscuit into her mouth.
These two pigeon spirits, Fian and Hope, claimed to be “symbols of peace” and informed Ye Tang that their attribute was “good.” Magical creatures with the “good” attribute had once sworn together not to interfere in human history. If Fian and Hope caused too great an impact on the human world, they would be struck by lightning for breaking the oath their ancestors had made, turning into roast pigeons.
Fortunately, Ye Tang had never planned to rely on magic or magical creatures.
In this era, communication was inconvenient. It wasn’t easy for Ye Tang to keep an eye on everything and listen in all directions. Fian and Hope couldn’t interfere in human history or cause major impacts on the human world. But as observers, there was no problem.
Thus, Ye Tang sent Hope and Fian to different places to bring her the latest news from all sides.
Hope restrained her from behind, while Fian made an “ah—” sound toward Ye Tang from the front.
“…I would eat even if you didn’t do this.”
Ye Tang spoke the truth. The aroma of the biscuit made her feel hungry.
But the two pigeon spirits didn’t let her go because of that.
Resigned, Ye Tang opened her mouth and took a bite of the biscuit. Tasting the rich milk flavor and the sweetness of flower honey, her persistently low mood improved a bit.
When they had been male servants at Hedelin House, Hope and Fian had been diligent. Now, as they served Ye Tang, they were equally competent.
Sleepiness came over Ye Tang as she rinsed her mouth after eating. Not understanding how she could be this exhausted, she forced herself to finish rinsing before losing consciousness.
“Aiya… You’re really worn out, huh.”
Fian smiled and poked Ye Tang’s cheek, then undid the collar of her shirt.
…
After Fian and Hope left, no one except Ye Tang remembered the existence of these two pigeon spirits.
Perhaps thanks to the two pigeon spirits making Ye Tang sleep soundly for a night, her spirits improved somewhat.
After days of research, the female workers and apprentices at the distillery quickly produced the alcohol Ye Tang wanted. The Pulheli boy soldier saved by Noel also recovered rapidly. In less than five days, he was fully healed.
The only problem was that the boy soldier recovered too quickly, making Bastia’s soldiers suspect he was a spy sent by Pulheli.
“So that’s it. You don’t want to be treated as a spy, do you?”
Ye Tang asked the boy soldier.
The boy nodded immediately. “I hate war! I don’t want to kill! I don’t want to go back to Pulheli! Pulheli’s officers… they have no humanity! They’re… not human at all!”
Thinking of everything he had seen in the trenches, the boy said tremulously, “I don’t want to become like them, or like the other Pulheli soldiers, just waiting to die… and even after death, be used to kill…!”
“Then what would you do for Noel, who saved your life?”
Ye Tang looked into the boy’s eyes without sympathy. “How far are you willing to go to prove your words are worth believing?”
The boy was stunned.
“If I say that only if you climb onto the city walls and wave Osnabrock’s flag at your former comrades will I believe you, what then?”
“Madam!?”
Noel was almost scared stiff by Ye Tang.
“Then… then I’ll do exactly as you say!!”
The boy was, after all, a soldier. Even if he hadn’t truly killed any enemies, the cruel battlefield had forged in him the courage to burn his boats.
Holding a flagpole taller than himself, he stood on Bastia’s city walls. He watched as catapults on the opposite positions were loaded with things into their baskets. Pointed at warily by Bastia’s soldiers with guns, the boy soldier tremblingly unfurled Osnabrock’s flag.
The flag, made of red, blue, and white, fluttered in the wind. In response to the boy soldier came corpses hurled over.
The boy was nearly scared to the point of wetting himself, but he held back tears and shook the national flag even harder.
“It’s Paul… Paul is still alive—”
Among Pulheli’s soldiers, someone spotted the boy’s face through binoculars. This soldier’s words immediately caused a commotion among those dragging corpses.
“Paul? How could Paul be alive! Didn’t he anger an officer by moving too slowly and get thrown out with the corpses? That kid was already sick anyway; he wouldn’t last long!”
The speaking soldier snatched his comrade’s binoculars and looked toward Bastia’s walls.
Sure enough, the one waving Osnabrock’s flag was really Paul, whom they thought long dead.
“My god… a miracle, this is a miracle… Only a god could snatch a life back from the Death God’s hands…
The murmuring soldier suddenly lost all strength. Not only did he let go of the corpse he was dragging, he collapsed to the ground.
“You there! What are you doing!? Get up now!”
An officer wearing a beak mask stormed over angrily. Seeing the soldiers staring blankly toward Bastia, rage surged, and he drew his sword to slash at a soldier’s back!
“Ah…!!”
He hadn’t been grazed by “enemy” bullets, but he was slashed deep into the bone by his own side’s saber. The soldier screamed and collapsed to the ground. Tears and blood flowed together.
Taking advantage of the officer being distracted disciplining other soldiers, one, two, three, four soldiers dropped the corpses in their hands and sprinted toward Bastia’s gates.
Paul hadn’t been killed! Paul was saved! Did that mean if they could enter Bastia’s walls, they too would receive divine protection—no more dying from the Spanish Flu, no more being driven to their deaths by black-hearted officers!?
“What are you doing over there…!!”
The officer hadn’t expected the chicken meant to warn the monkeys to survive while the monkeys ran first. Enraged, he shouted at the other soldiers, “Shoot them! Shoot the deserters!!”
Gunfire rang out. No enemies fell bleeding to the ground; only fellow countrymen and comrades died on the spot.
“…Uwaaaaaaaaahhhhh!!”
After extreme suppression came explosive breakdown. The soldier whose back had been slashed clawed ten deep furrows into the blood-splashed mud with both hands. He first blinded the officer with a handful of dirt, then pounced like a mad beast and strangled the officer’s neck.
Unanimously, Pulheli’s soldiers split into two factions. Those who had just killed their own compatriots soon died to their compatriots’ attacks, and the officers were killed by several soldiers together.
Paul on the city walls had, at some point, stopped waving Osnabrock’s flag. Having witnessed his compatriots slaughtering each other, he collapsed crying, sobbing uncontrollably.
Bastia’s governor couldn’t help but glance at Ye Tang beside him. He wondered if this woman had foreseen such an outcome.
In the year 325 of the Osnabrock calendar, in May, Bastia survived the outbreak of the Spanish Flu. Chaos erupted within the Pulheli army besieging Bastia. The infighting caused heavy casualties among Pulheli’s senior officers. Moreover, two senior officers led remnants to defect to Bastia, claiming their willingness to surrender was because Osnabrock had “divine protection.”
They had failed to steal the chicken and lost the rice instead. Pulheli lost its main force, and the three Osnabrock cities it occupied became dead cities due to the plague’s spread. Pulheli announced withdrawal and declared it would no longer participate in the conflict between Tartafu and Osnabrock.
In June, the Hedelin Medical Team brought supplies to the cities once occupied by Pulheli. The only survivors in these near-dead cities were those dug out from piles of corpses by the Hedelin Medical Team.
In August, Osnabrock’s king died suddenly from unknown causes. The Crown Prince and Second Prince accused each other of poisoning the king, while the Third Prince was killed en route fleeing Capital Vitril by men sent by his two brothers.
Vitril became the arena for the Crown Prince and Second Prince’s showdown.
In September, Kuks Port fell, and Duke Wilson was severely wounded, withdrawn to Tarafa Port by subordinates. Vitril’s nobles fled in panic. But the Crown Prince and Second Prince saw this as them defecting to the other brother and killed the fleeing nobles.
In November, two more countries announced withdrawal from the war—the cities the “Hedelin Angels” passed through had the Death God repelled time and again. The miracles created by the “Hedelin Angels” had reached the ears of the Holy See. Even the Pope began to believe Osnabrock truly had divine protection.
The Holy See’s inclination influenced these two countries. After they withdrew, the other nations watched their alliance dwindle and began to doubt if exhausting their national strength to aid Tartafu was beneficial to themselves.