No Beast Girls on the Western Front

Page 81

"Then... let's do it."

Payne's mind was still blank; his body shrugged on its own, then plunged the dagger into Grace's right back, slicing off a piece of flesh like cutting a rice cake.

Throughout the entire process, Grace did not cry out in pain, and the wound did not bleed much. Payne did not feel anything unusual about the touch, nor did he think there was anything wrong with the behavior of the man and the beast. He simply cut off a piece of flesh covered with whip marks.

Then, Payne naturally accepted the barbecue grill that appeared next to him, put the beef on it, and immediately a sizzling sound that made people's mouths water rang out—but he couldn't smell anything.

Grace stood up like an unharmed cow, standing with Pine, watching the beef on the grill shrink as it lost moisture and its surface color gradually darkened.

It's so hot.

Payne felt that only a few seconds had passed before the beef was cooked to a edible state, so he used his dagger to fork the beef, blew on it to cool it down, and held it out to Grace.

"We were all able to come back safely this time, all thanks to you! Would you like to try a bite first?"

...Wait a minute, is everyone back safely?

At this moment, Payne's brain, which was almost rusted solid, finally started to work again.

He stared intently at Grace's expressionless face, and finally, his mouth and vocal cords moved on their own: "Why are you missing a horn on your head?"

"Pine, stop scratching!! It hurts so much!!"

Before the shrill scream had even faded, Payne felt a sharp slap on his face, and his body rolled off the bed like a log... no, it didn't seem to be the bed.

Payne, who had rolled to the ground, sat up abruptly, only to realize that he was not sleeping in a bed, but on a pile of straw.

On the haystack, the dogs, horses, sheep, and squirrels had all woken up and poked their heads out, looking worriedly at themselves sitting on the ground.

Ruby was even tenderly grooming her big tail.

It was only then that Payne realized—this was reality, and everything he had just seen was nothing but a nightmare.

The thought of what his mind had just shown him made Payne feel nauseous, and a warm feeling welled up in his throat, which he forcibly suppressed.

Ugh... having nightmares is one thing, but why are the dreams so disgusting...?

Surely it's not because I always tell indecent and depressing jokes that the gods are punishing me...

But it's not my fault; I was just trying to accumulate points to exchange for survival materials! ...

No, no, gods and such are all fake, made up by people. If Iya really exists, the most likely time He would appear is when I traveled here from Earth…

With his mind a bit muddled, Payne rubbed his temples.

Lacey was the first to slide down from the haystack, sidling up to Payne and licking him with some concern. "Master, are you really alright?"

Ruby said impatiently, "This is the third time tonight, how can it be okay!"

As the squirrel continued its relentless complaints, Payne, becoming more lucid, recalled even more things:

On the day Grace died, after Payne nervously finished telling that depressing joke about beef sauce, he started vomiting.

Moreover, the way he vomited was quite horrifying. First, he vomited a large amount of his breakfast on the ground, then he started vomiting pale yellow stomach acid. After that, he dry-heaved for a long time, and finally even vomited orange-brown bile...

Upon seeing his reaction, the already fragile sheep immediately recalled the scene of watching Grace being blown to pieces right before its eyes. It immediately put its hands on the ground and vomited up all the undigested hay, which soon piled up into a small mound.

It's hard to imagine how she could fit so much stuff into such a small body.

Influenced by Pine and Shawn, Stephen, Lacey, Ruby, and Mary, who were present at the time, all felt nauseous and bent over to vomit.

Although they didn't vomit much, the feeling of nausea was overwhelming for everyone (and the beasts). Tears blurred their vision, snot blocked their breathing, and saliva kept dripping from their mouths, making them look extremely disheveled...

This scene immediately drew astonishment from the allies. The comrades who were already surrounding Payne quickly carried the two men and four beasts into the nearby hospital. Meanwhile, the onlookers further away, unaware of the situation, only saw several people (and beasts) vomiting and immediately assumed it was a food poisoning incident, almost causing an even bigger commotion...

Afterwards, the doctor didn't diagnose any illness, but gave Payne and Shawn, who vomited the most, IV drips, told them to eat something easily digestible, and then discharged them from the hospital.

Mary wanted to stay with Payne a little longer, but Payne advised her to leave with excuses like, "You're a girl, you shouldn't stay in this place full of roughnecks." Then he turned his head away, trying to act as if nothing had happened.

Mary knew very well that this was probably one of the most vulnerable moments in the man's life, and she wanted to spend more time with him. But at the same time, she also knew that his behavior clearly meant he didn't want her to see his vulnerability.

Their relationship wasn't that close yet.

Having figured this out, Mary knew that there would be no good outcome if she forced herself to stay, so she left a letter for Payne.

“I will be staying in Minston for a while. If you have the opportunity to enter the city, you can find me based on the clues in the letter. Don’t rush, come whenever you feel ready. I will be waiting for you.”

After giving her final instructions, Mary left.

To this day, Payne still feels a little guilty towards her.

The two of them finally managed to meet, but not only did they not conduct the interview or the forensic examination, they also dragged her into such a terrifying incident, and in the end, they even had to trouble her to take care of herself...

B Company had also suffered heavy losses in the previous battles, with more than thirty brothers killed or wounded. After retreating to the rear, an orc was killed by an explosion. Therefore, they were quickly ordered to retreat to a military camp further back on the outskirts of Minston to rest and await reinforcements.

Although there were annoying officers supervising the soldiers' discipline and appearance, Paine had no desire to deal with those matters now that he had just lost Grace and Shawn was emotionally devastated.

Every day after the patrolling soldiers left, he would sneak out of his dormitory and go to the stables where his beast girls lived to sleep with them.

This wasn't just because he felt at ease having the beast girls in his sight, but also because he was somewhat worried about Xiao En's situation.

For example, right now, after being woken up by Payne's commotion, Xiao En, back in the real world, covered her face and sobbed softly again.

Chapter 126 CXXV. Stabilizer

Many days have passed since Grace passed away.

In the past few days, Xiao En has either been looking dejected or crying all the time. Today, her eyes are so swollen that she can barely open them.

This poor little lamb watched helplessly as its fellow herbivores, strong and reliable, were blown to pieces right before its eyes, with bits of flesh splattering all over it...

Payne didn't even dare to think about what he would be like if he were in that situation.

He can only be thankful that he wasn't the one who suffered this. Although he has been going through a lot these past few days, he can at least hold on and do what a leader should do.

If even he breaks down, then this team is not far from breaking down.

Seeing Xiao En crying so sadly, Payne and the other three beasts were also very sad. They rushed forward and surrounded her, gently patting her back to comfort her.

"Okay, okay, it's alright now, it's all over..."

Xiao En rubbed her eyes with both hands, and although she cried very softly, she was still sobbing uncontrollably: "Waaah... It's... it's all my fault... Waaah..."

"You did nothing wrong. What did you do wrong?..."

"If...if I hadn't told Grace to go eat grass...then...it wouldn't have happened...waaaaah..."

"No, that's not true. It was just an accident. Nobody could have predicted that something like that would happen... It's not your fault..."

"Waaaaah... But... but if I..."

“If that’s what you’re saying, then I’m also at fault. I shouldn’t have taken you to the woods to see Miss Mary, nor should I have let you hide behind the little house and eat grass.”

"But...but...sob sob sob..."

Although Payne knew very well that Shawn was caught in survivor's guilt, and although he tried to comfort Shawn in this way, his own words were also burning him intensely.

If I had been able to grab Grace at the last moment, would she have survived?

But if that happens, the dead beast will definitely become Xiao En...

If I had kept the two herbivores away from the little house, would Grace have survived?

If I had more time to teach them about artillery shells, wouldn't they be able to detect sooner that the shells were aimed at them and take countermeasures sooner?

in case……

Payne felt as if his mind had become a battlefield between two armies:

A fierce, relentless wave of guilt washed over her day and night. Thoughts like, "It's all your fault!" "Why didn't you do anything back then?!" and "Why did she die and you survive?!" kept exploding in her mind.

In order not to be overwhelmed by guilt, a slightly weaker sense of reason had to struggle to push it back time and time again:

"It's not my fault at all! Who could have predicted that something like that would happen!" "What could I do? There was nothing I could do!" "Hiding in a trench could mean being blown to pieces, while enduring ten hours of artillery fire in an open field could mean surviving unscathed. A soldier's fate is just that random!"

Although Payne could barely keep his mind from collapsing through rational counterattacks, this daily internal struggle was consuming a great deal of his mental strength.

In order to keep an eye on Xiao En and the other beast girls, he dared not drink too much alcohol and could only maintain this painful sobriety.

Having cried for so long these past few days, and with her tears almost dried up, Xiao En stopped crying and collapsed onto the haystack in a nearly limp state.

Payne even thought she hadn't fallen asleep, but had fainted from crying.

The sheep were asleep, but the people, dogs, horses, and squirrels couldn't sleep. They could only slip off the haystack and stroll around the stable.

"Sorry, did I hurt you just now? What did I do?" Payne scratched his head and turned to ask Ruby.

The little squirrel glared at him fiercely, then began to groom its tail fur. "I was woken up by a squeaking sound, and when I got up, I found it was you clenching your teeth."

"Not only that, your face was contorted, your muscles were tense, and your fists were clenched so tightly that I was worried you were going to break your own hand in the next second."

"I was a little worried, so I wanted to fan you with my tail, but you couldn't stay still even in your dream. Suddenly you reached out and grabbed my tail tightly... Sigh, what kind of dream are you having?"

Payne smiled awkwardly, hesitating whether to speak or not, when Ruby waved her hand again, "Never mind, I don't want to hear it, don't say it."

Payne was more than happy that the little squirrel wouldn't listen. These past few days, he'd been dreaming about Grace either jumping into a meat grinder or being smashed into a beef patty. Just thinking about these things was mental torture, let alone telling anyone else...

Fortunately, there was a silly dog ​​in this team who could liven things up a bit. All I heard was Lacey say:

“It wasn’t you who grabbed Ruby’s tail, I saw it all. Ruby saw you were in pain, so she took advantage of me licking your face and started making noises with her tail…”

Before she could finish speaking, Stephanie covered the dog's mouth with a swift gesture.

The white horse's eyes were filled with an expression that seemed to say, "Is this something that can be said?"

Surprisingly, Stephen, who doesn't seem to have a very high IQ, actually has a pretty good EQ. He's only been here a short time and he's already figured out what kind of beast Ruby is.

As for Ruby, the animal in question, she simply turned her head away without batting an eye and said something that seemed to be an attempt to change the subject, but didn't quite manage to completely shift it away:

"A squirrel's tail is very sensitive!"

The implication is that it must have been extremely painful, right?

"I'm so sorry," Payne apologized again. "Don't do anything so dangerous next time."

"So you know it's dangerous for you to have my tail in your hands!"

As they spoke, the man and his three beasts arrived at the stable door. Payne looked up at the moon, which was still hanging high in the night sky.

The satellite in this other world is no different from the full moon on Earth. No matter what happens on the ground, it consistently shines its pale, cold light upon this world.

A few seconds later, Payne yawned and turned around. "It's still early, I'll sleep a little longer. I have to go to work again tomorrow morning, yawn—"

"To be honest, I'm even a little afraid to sleep..." Stephen said, looking a bit dejected.

When the white-haired horse carried Xiao En back, her back was covered in bits of meat.