No Beast Girls on the Western Front

Page 45

Ruby is already a seasoned veteran and doesn't need much care. Xiao En is the one who needs the most attention.

"Ah...uh...um, I...I feel okay..." the sheep said timidly.

Although she had just participated in combat for the first time in a real sense, braving gunfire to cross the no-man's land and throwing dozens of grenades to inflict some casualties on the enemy, she herself did not seem to realize this.

She simply let Payne hold her, then looked up and asked expectantly, "Um...did I...was I any help?"

Although it wasn't very obvious, Payne could see that there was a different look in her eyes than usual.

At first, the sheep would be so frightened by the sound of an explosion that it would lose control of its bladder. It was almost scared to death when it saw Troy being gutted. Even when it saw Payne about to be killed, it would have to go through a fierce internal struggle before daring to go forward to rescue him.

But now, she dares to fight alongside her comrades amidst the thunderous artillery fire, and even sitting next to the French soldiers she had blown up, she doesn't show much emotional fluctuation.

For a timid sheep, this is undoubtedly a huge step forward.

“Of course, you really helped us a lot this time.” Payne didn’t hold back his praise, pointing to the Frenchman’s corpse beside him, “Your achievement is right there over there!”

"Hehehe... Ee-me-ya?!—"

Before Xiao En could even feel happy for a second, she looked in the direction Payne was pointing and almost jumped up from the ground. She suddenly burrowed into Payne's arms and hugged him tightly, almost choking him to death.

Payne simply couldn't understand it. This wasn't the first time she'd seen something like this; she'd even just helped move these corpses. Why was she reacting so strongly all of a sudden?

Xiao En was completely oblivious to Payne pulling at her arm, trying to loosen the bindings. She was simply trembling as she stared in horror at the French corpses, and asked in a shaky voice:

"This...this...all of this...was...all done by me...I did it?..."

Anyway, at least the helmet stopped rattling.

Payne, grimacing, finally managed to pull her arm away and comforted her, saying:

“I know that herbivores are generally docile, and you certainly wouldn’t want to do these things.”

"But... there's nothing we can do, that's war. Everyone is caught in the crossfire, even the beasts."

"Everyone has a first time with a beast. Once you get over that mental hurdle, it's much easier to accept the rest."

"It's okay, it's okay. If you feel nauseous, just throw up."

Seeing Xiao En arch her back and convulse involuntarily, covering her mouth with her hand, Payne quickly helped her bend down and gently patted her back.

In past battles, it was indeed very rare for beast girls to personally fight the enemy, because they were generally not allowed to go to the battlefield.

However, according to Pine's observations, carnivores usually act as if nothing happened after killing someone for the first time. This is most likely due to the strong adaptability to cruelty and bloodshed inherent in the genes of predators.

That's how Lacey was. When she bit a French soldier to death for the first time to protect Payne, her fierce expression even startled Payne, but the beast herself had an expression that said, "What's so surprising about that?"

As for herbivores, their reactions are generally the same as those of humans who kill for the first time; they will feel distressed for a period of time.

Even a squirrel as shameless as Ruby couldn't escape this fate. When she casually tossed a dagger and it ended up piercing a French soldier's eye, she was in a daze for two whole days.

Hopefully, Xiao En can recover soon and move on.

Seeing that all the soldiers of B Company had gone down into the trenches and disappeared around the corners on both sides, and that the sound of gunfire and artillery had once again filled the sky, Payne gently patted Shawn's back and asked, "Feeling any better?"

Xiao En raised her head, but not only was her lower body clean, clearly indicating that she hadn't vomited, but her mouth was even moving, as if she were chewing something!

Seeing Payne's increasingly shocked gaze, Sean chewed faster and faster, swallowing his food forcefully before Payne could speak, as if afraid his image in Payne's eyes would collapse. He cried out:

"I...I did feel a little nauseous just now! But...but then I realized it was just an uncontrollable urge to vomit! It was absolutely...absolutely not intentional!..."

Payne: "..."

I almost forgot that sheep are ruminants.

He hasn't had much contact with ruminants yet (horses are not ruminants), but he has heard that the training officers at the rear are disgusted by the ruminant behavior of beast girls, so they strictly forbid them from ruminating in front of humans, and violators will be punished by being starved or even whipped.

It's only thanks to the fact that regurgitation is a behavior actively controlled by the beast girl; otherwise, Payne doubted that many regurgitating animals would survive to go to the battlefield.

Perhaps it was because he had spent so much time with the beast girls, but Payne didn't find their rumination at all disgusting.

He would brush their teeth before kissing them, because otherwise he would always taste a sour and bitter flavor—the smell of fermented grass.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but rub Xiao En's horn with sympathy, "What a pitiful child, even her normal physiological activities are being interfered with."

"……Eh?"

Shawn was somewhat surprised by Payne's reaction, but mostly he breathed a long sigh of relief.

Wow...you won't dislike me for this? Phew—that's great...

This human is indeed fundamentally different from the other trainers!

As long as you follow him, it seems there's nothing to worry about.

I want to be with him forever...

"Hey hey hey~~"

Just as Xiao En was about to hug Paine's arm, she suddenly caught a glimpse of a pair of eyes staring intently at her—it was Ruby!

Moreover, Ruby is at the stage of divergence and has an extremely strong possessive desire for males!

Xiao En immediately broke out in a cold sweat and awkwardly withdrew her hand.

It seems Payne really treats every beast well... Meow...

Payne himself seemed completely unaware of the interaction between the two beasts. With Byshaun's rumination interrupting the conversation, the tense atmosphere vanished without a trace, and he stood up, using his gun as a support.

"Xiao En, are you feeling better? Okay, let's move on then."

But just as the woman and her four beasts put their helmets back on and prepared to set off, Lacey, who had finally calmed down from the previous carnage, suddenly turned fierce and began sniffing around intensely.

"Lassie? What's wrong?" Seeing her like this, Payne nervously raised his gun and looked at the top of the trench.

Could it be that an enemy has sneaked in?

However, Lacey ultimately didn't make any threatening growls; she simply said, "I think... I smell poison gas again!"

Chapter 69 LXIX. Capturing Prisoners

Payne had already experienced firsthand how sensitive a dog's nose was, so he didn't hesitate to put on the new gas mask issued before the trip and asked, "What does it smell like?"

"It seems... it should still taste like almonds, apples, and rotten hay," Lacey said as she put on her gas mask.

Payne already had a plan in mind. He poked his head out of the trench and looked around.

He first looked ahead, and what he saw most on the French positions was dirt blown up by artillery shells. Occasionally, he could see a few Germans and Frenchmen fighting each other, but he did not see any strangely colored fog in the air.

It seems this time it's phosgene.

He then turned to look back and saw that the next wave of German soldiers was already on their way, forming several skirmish lines and moving swiftly through the no man's land with their bodies low to the ground.

Many engineers have already arrived and are working on cutting barbed wire and clearing mines to clear obstacles for the main force behind them.

Payne waved to them and shouted twice, but there was too much noise on the battlefield, and they didn't notice at all.

He had no choice but to throw a piece of wood at the nearest sapper, who was so startled that he quickly rolled into a nearby crater and only cautiously raised his head after a long while.

Payne exposed his upper body, pointing frantically at his head covered by a gas mask. Worried that he wasn't showing it clearly enough, he grabbed the gas mask that Xiao En hadn't had time to put on and held it high, waving it around.

He didn't return to the trench until he saw the sapper also pull out a gas mask and put it on himself. He quickly put the gas mask on Xiao En and then gave her a light tap on the head.

"You're moving so slowly, you'd be dead already if it were an emergency!"

"Waaah... I'm sorry..." Xiao En covered her head, looking aggrieved.

After checking that the other three beasts had put on their gas masks, Payne immediately led them along the winding trenches deeper into the position.

"We need to hurry. If the gas is drifting slowly, the company commander and the others could easily be taken down without them even realizing it..."

The man and his four beasts moved forward in silence for nearly a minute. Along the way, they could see traces of battle and a few corpses, but the only living creatures they could find were rats.

Despite being on the front lines of intense fighting, with the sounds of gunfire and occasional artillery explosions sending down a shower of dust, not a single enemy soldier or comrade-in-arms could be seen alive.

It's really creepy.

Payne remained on edge. After turning two corners, he saw a dark doorway in the wall ahead, which should have led to a sheltered trench for soldiers.

Thinking that the area must have already been cleared by B Company soldiers, Payne only planned to take a quick look and leave, but then Lacey suddenly grabbed him and said in a muffled voice through her gas mask, "There's movement!"

Payne assumed the room contained his comrades collecting loot and was about to go say hello when he felt Lacey pull him back even more firmly. She sniffed all the way to the door and whispered again, "They're not on our side!"

How could any fish possibly slip through the net?

Just as Payne hesitated, reaching for the grenade at his waist, he heard the sound of footsteps on the wooden stairs—this guy seemed completely unaware that someone was at the door and was planning to walk straight out!

Payne sensed something was amiss, but he didn't have time to think about it. Instead, he raised his gun and gestured for Lacey to restrain the other man.

The nerves of the man and the four beasts were stretched to the limit. The moment the gray-blue figure appeared at the door, Lacey barked and pounced on the other party, pressing his hands hard to the ground.

The French soldier was clearly terrified by this sudden turn of events. He immediately started kicking his legs wildly and shouting, but no matter how much he struggled, his upper body was pinned down and unable to move.

The other person wasn't wearing a mask, and Payne could clearly see that he had a short, blond haircut and a pair of large blue eyes staring in terror at Lacey, who was barking at him as she pounced on him. His thin face was contorted with intense fear.

It was another blond guy, and he looked a bit malnourished.

As Payne walked over with his gun, the other man immediately recognized him as a human being and, as if grasping at a straw, shouted in broken German, "Surrender! I surrender!"

When he came out, Payne saw that he was not only not wearing a helmet, but also not carrying anything in his hands, so he waved for Lacey to step aside.

With a gun still pointed at his head, he immediately raised his hands high above his head, not daring to get up, and just kept saying "I surrender" over and over again.

In the past, Payne would have had Ruby, who was a specialist in the field, search him first, and then ask him how he had managed to avoid the fight.

But he was very worried about the safety of his comrades, so he simply had Ruby pick up a broken piece of rope and tie the prisoners' hands and feet together.

After thinking for a few seconds, he took a gas mask from the French soldier's corpse next to him and put it on him. Finally, he warned him in French, "Stay where you are and don't move. The troops behind you will send you to a prisoner-of-war camp," and then left with the beast girl.

The young man was terrified; he had no fighting spirit whatsoever and looked like he was about to cry.

This must be a countryman who has no concept of war and joined the army just to have enough to eat and receive military pay.

Payne had witnessed far too much killing and death, and as long as he could ensure his own safety, he simply couldn't bring himself to kill an ordinary person who had already laid down his weapons and surrendered.

The four beasts had no objection to his actions, only Grace came forward and asked in surprise, "You can actually communicate with him?"

Payne casually replied, "The school curriculum was too easy, so I taught myself a few foreign languages."

"As one of only two superpowers on the main continent, the official language of the Fasfulo Empire—French—is naturally my first choice for learning."

"I never imagined that my foreign language skills would come in handy in a place like this."

Even through the two lenses, Payne could still see that Grace's eyes were wide open, which made him very proud.

Similar to the situation with humans, the more a beast girl realizes that her superior is not ordinary, the more obedient she will become—this is also due to the worship of the strong in the genes of high-level animals.