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The Mang River flowed serenely, its surface shimmering with ripples.
Occasionally, fish would leap from the water, creating concentric circles that seemed born of the wind.
Just yesterday, fishermen had navigated these very waters, casting and retrieving their nets with a tranquil grace that painted a serene landscape.
Today, however, the river lay deserted, its banks bristling with long rifles and short cannons, manned by wary, helmeted soldiers crouched in vigilant readiness.
On the left bank, bathed in an eerie blue light, death hung heavy over the trenches.
All who had miraculously survived exhaled a collective sigh of relief, their gazes fixed on the retreating Lanforthian forces in the distance.
Even though she had contributed little to the brutal close-quarters combat, Lin Yu slumped against the breastwork, utterly exhausted.
Beside her, her most loyal warrior had carried the entire fight (TL Note: “C-rank” is gaming slang for a player who performs exceptionally well and leads their team to victory), wielding an entrenching tool with such furious skill that it seemed impenetrable, splitting the skulls of at least a dozen Lanforthians.
Lin Yu’s primary contribution had been to provide covering fire from behind him and to warn him of any approaching enemies.
Had time rewound several centuries, this man would undoubtedly have been Diacla’s foremost martial saint, capable of starring in an epic like ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’.
“How are your wounds now? Do you need them bandaged…?”
She glanced at his open shirtfront, which she had torn open earlier to inspect his wounds, now further loosened by the relentless close-quarters combat.
He peered out one last time to confirm the Lanforthians’ retreat, then pulled back, telling Lin Yu, “I should be fine now. Go ahead and bandage them.”
Granted permission, Lin Yu carefully lifted his shirt once more, placing the pristine white gauze over his wounds.
He was incredibly fortunate; the scorching shrapnel had not penetrated his chest, leaving only a gash that looked quite gruesome.
With his pleura intact, such a wound could be categorized as a “laceration,” explaining how he could still swing his entrenching tool with sparks flying.
The impact against a Lanforthian’s saucer-shaped helmet truly did send sparks showering.
“By the way, how are your wounds healing so quickly?”
“Aren’t yours too? You cut your hand yesterday, and today the bandage is off.”
“That’s different.”
When she had used a healing spell on her forehead yesterday, some of the magic must have seeped into the bandage, repairing her wound.
Thus, it wasn’t her strong self-healing ability, but the power of magic at work.
Having countered his point, Lin Yu reached around his back, wrapping the gauze from behind.
“Then I suppose it is different.”
‘Tsk… why does this guy have so many scars…’
After winding two layers of gauze around his chest, Lin Yu knelt to pull up his trouser leg, revealing a piece of shrapnel embedded in the muscle on the side of his calf, already faintly crusted over.
“This needs to be taken care of. Wait a moment.”
Lin Yu unclipped her canteen from her waist, rinsed her right hand with clean water, poured a little onto his wound, and then prepared to pull out the shrapnel by hand.
“It might hurt a little, bear with it… Oh, right, you never used to be afraid of pain.”
With a firm pull, Lin Yu extracted the shrapnel, then rinsed the wound again with water before producing a needle and thread from her field kit and promptly stitching the wound closed.
‘It’s good that he doesn’t scream like the other wounded when his skin is pierced.’
Retrieving trauma shears, Lin Yu deftly snipped the sutures, completing the emergency treatment.
As for infection, she could only hope his ‘always only gets injured’ talent would continue to hold true.
“Thank you.”
“…”
Lin Yu shook her head. “I told you not to thank me…”
Treating the wounded was her duty.
No, that wasn’t right.
Bandaging the man who had protected and saved her so many times should be called repayment.
After that close-quarters battle, she had unwittingly accumulated a debt of over a dozen lives to him; it seemed impossible to ever repay.
The usury of this other world was truly terrifying; she needed to find a way to end this relationship once and for all.
Retreating to a corner of the trench, Lin Yu rested for a few minutes to calm her mind and steady her breath before rising again to bid him farewell.
“Now I should return to the rear. And you should finally tell me what you were saying before the shelling interrupted us, shouldn’t you?”
“What was that?”
“What’s your name? I can’t keep calling you ‘hey’ every time we meet, can I? Or do you prefer me calling you ‘that idiot’?”
“Id… idiot?”
An expression of bewilderment flickered in his dark eyes, not because Lin Yu couldn’t understand him, but because he couldn’t understand Lin Yu. “I haven’t done anything to anger you, so why would you use such an insulting term to address me?”
“Not yet?! Since our first meeting two months ago, we’ve encountered each other so many times, and I’ve treated you countless times! Even if you’re completely oblivious, there’s no way you could still mistake me for a man!”
Recalling the mortifying experience from the day before yesterday, a faint blush involuntarily crept across Lin Yu’s face.
In truth, it wasn’t merely that he hadn’t recognized her as a woman; more critically, he had presumptuously suggested taking her to ‘scrub off’ (TL Note: A cultural practice in some public bathhouses where people assist each other in washing).
For such a peculiar development to occur under those circumstances, Lin Yu dared not imagine what other embarrassing situations might follow.
If she were a man in this life too, she would have gladly become sworn brothers with this guy; with his combat prowess, following him would guarantee absolute domination, earning every medal from the lowest to the highest.
But as a person of the opposite s*x, getting too close would inevitably lead to their friendship changing, just as it had with Commander Yang.
Lin Yu, who had no desire to marry yet, could not afford to get too close to such a man.
‘What a pity.’
“I’ll tell you my name. In exchange, please don’t call me ‘idiot’ anymore, alright?”
“Of course,” Lin Yu tilted her head slightly. “I won’t call you ‘idiot’ anymore, Mr. Idiot.”
He had made a small request, and Lin Yu readily agreed, though her heart remained entirely indifferent.
‘At worst, I’ll just curse him silently in my mind from now on. If I don’t say it, who will know what I’m thinking?’
“His Majesty requires warriors who possess both wisdom and courage. To be perceived as a dull idiot could easily lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.”
Seemingly satisfied with Lin Yu’s agreement, he let out a long breath. “My name is Yang Xi.”
“Which Yang? Which Xi?”
“The ‘Yang’ as in poplar wood, and the ‘Xi’ as in hope.”
The scene of them exchanging names was utterly ordinary, much like their first encounter.
Nothing felt particularly special; the breeze continued to blow, the water still rippled, and all around them remained the shell-cratered trenches and the battlefield.
The brown-eyed girl gazed at the dark-eyed young man, her face betraying little emotion, or perhaps an even more placid expression than when they first met.
Last time, she had been surprised by the Lanforthian being killed.
Now, she no longer found it unusual for such a person to bear such a name.
Like the dying gazing upon the dead, no further exchange passed between them.
“Alright, I’ve got it. Good luck—Private First Class Yang Xi, Assault Trooper.”
Having committed the name to memory, Lin Yu waved her hand and turned away, as if clocking out from work.
****
Just as she was about to leave, someone suddenly blocked her path, handing her a bag. “Take this. Start collecting.”
“Huh?”
Staring blankly at the cloth bag thrust into her arms, she met the gaze of the suddenly appearing staff sergeant. “Collecting what?”
“…Why do we have a female soldier in our regiment?”
The staff sergeant from Reserve Regiment 104 immediately recognized Lin Yu’s gender, a stark contrast to ‘that idiot’.
‘…I should call him Yang Xi now.’
“I’m a medic, I used to serve in other units,” Lin Yu explained.
“I was just here at the front lines looking for someone, but I happened to run into the Lanforthian devils attacking, so I joined the defense.”
“So you’re new? No wonder you don’t even know about dog tags. Ask the person behind you.”
The staff sergeant pointed directly at the private first class behind Lin Yu, then turned and walked towards the trench on the left, carrying two identical small burlap pouches.
Lin Yu cast a puzzled glance at him.
She knew what dog tags were, but she had never seen anyone issued one to wear around their neck. “Does the army issue things like this?”
The dark-haired young man looked left and right. “At least I never have.”
Lin Yu had no choice but to search for clues herself, starting with the deceased casualty nearby.
After some searching, she finally found a metal tag beside a talisman on his chest, engraved with a name and place of origin.
“Ji Da, Xuyang County, Jiangzuo Province… Reserve Regiment 104…”
As she read the inscriptions obscured by bloodstains, Lin Yu suddenly understood something.
The main force defending the position consisted of soldiers from Reserve Regiment 104.
This Reserve Regiment 104 had an official designation, proving they were a unit of the Central Army, vastly different from Lin Yu’s ragtag ‘cannon fodder’ under King Qi.
Casualty identification and pension distribution—these tasks had to be meticulously carried out; otherwise, who would die for His Majesty for three thousand coins a month?
‘Someone’ being the exception.
Detaching the dog tag and dropping it into the cloth bag in her hand, Lin Yu rose from beside the corpse.
Beyond the trench’s bend lay more bodies—Lanforthian, Diaclan, some even with blood still fresh.
They had not survived the battle, lacking Lin Yu’s luck or Yang Xi’s martial prowess, and thus had perished first in the war.
Sometimes she wondered how long her luck would last—ideally, “forever.”
She would willingly sacrifice her own life force to maintain it.
She collected an entire bag full of those rusty tags.