CH 79

***

He was fluent in Padania language. For a moment, Annette almost raised her head, thinking he was an ally. But she stopped moving when he said something in French.

“….. confirm survival…..”

The man’s command sent soldiers rushing into the building. Annette was face down on the floor, unable to breathe.

“Wake up! Wake up!”

The enemy ordered in French. Annette hesitantly raised her head. But the people around her were still hunched over. The enemy kicked one civilian and shouted.

“Get up!”

The old man who had been kicked in the stomach squealed, grabbing his stomach and groaning.

Only then did people finally understand the meaning of the words and hurried to their feet.

“You see…… he is a …… resident..”

“A lot of these guys… died…”

The enemy seemed to dissuade him, but his hostility remained clear. Annette moved her eyes and surveyed her surroundings quickly.

The allies who had come with them had already been killed in the previous gun fight.

Suddenly, the French soldier who had mentioned “the rats” clapped his hands twice. All eyes were on him. He stepped forward and smiled.

“Now, everyone, if you cooperate with us, we will return you safely. We had no choice in the situation now. There is quite a bit of damage on our side due to those little rats that hide and attack here and there.”

Annette went still.

She heard it again, but he was fluent in Padania language. The man’s words had none of the intonation characteristic of foreigners.

It was almost believable that he was a Padanian.

The man asked with a smiling face and narrowed eyes.

“So, what were you doing here?”

“…ugh, we’re just a bunch of wounded people hiding here! The enemies are out there…….!”

“Oh, really? With the Padania soldiers?”

“They thought we were surrounded and came to our rescue. And babies, children, we are civilians to begin with. We have nothing to do with them.”

“Yes!”

The nurse who came with Annette exclaimed.

“I am a nurse! International agreements give civilians and health care workers the right to be protected……..”

“Ah, the Collective Agreement.”

The man cut off the nurse’s words coldly.

“That was when you guys didn’t violate the right of belligerency first.”

“Yes…..?”

“Now that we’re in a war and the soldiers and the people of this town are all firing their guns as one, who is the rat now? How do you compartmentalize who is an innocent civilian?”

“Well, that.”

“The bastards who throw bombs at our camp pretending to be civilians are also civilians, so should we let them live?”

The man’s voice seemed sarcastic in a way, and also in a way he was just making a light joke.

Annette quickly examined his military uniform. His rank was Captain, and his name was inscribed on a nameplate with the spelling of French. She read it slowly.

Elliot …… Sidow.

It was certainly not a name or surname from Padania. She thought he might be one of the Padanians who defected to France, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Of course, he could have changed his name, but his accent, expressions, and too much like someone born and raised here forced her to repeat her confirmation.

“Well, okay, I heard that the Padania army is fortifying one of the buildings here, where is it?”

“…”

People didn’t answer and only looked at each other. As for Annette, she didn’t even know if they knew the answer to that question.

At that moment, an ally who had thought he was dead groaned. Elliot pointed the gun at him without even looking at him.

Bang. His shaking body stopped moving.

Everyone sucked in a breath. Annette immediately bowed her head and pulled the child tight to prevent the child from seeing the scene. Elliot mumbled.

“If I don’t get answers, I won’t be able to distinguish whether these people here are soldiers or civilians…….Should I keep you here until I get one?”

The international agreement to which the nurse had previously referred explicitly stated the protection of civilians, of course. However, it was “a treaty limited to those who do not participate in hostilities”.

So what Elliott was saying was that the people here today were considered participants in hostilities.

“…here……….”

A trembling voice came out. Elliott’s dark brown eyes rolled over her.

Annette squeezed the words out.

“…… There are old people and children.”

The words were choked with cynical sarcasm. In fact, most of the French soldiers had very hostile looks in their eyes.

From a third party’s point of view, civilians were literally just ordinary people who were innocent, but not so for the soldiers who went from limb to limb every day with the fear of death.

“So I don’t see what you want me to do about it.”

They turned enemy civilians into friends with enemy troops. They killed their comrades and were also targets of vengeance that threatened their own lives.

While the act should never be defended, the war was. Historically, wars in which there was no massacre of civilians were

rare and could be seen as nonexistent.

The Battle of Huntingham in particular was a battle in which civilians were quite deeply involved. Nothing was supposed to be easy, as the damage on the enemy side was equally devastating.

For every enemy army that killed its allies, its allies killed more enemy troops. Too many people died and were injured to impose agreements and humanity. Like the French boy soldier who happened to be treated………..

“ Eh?”

One of the French soldiers walked up to her, pointing at her. Annette looked at him, her shoulders shaking.

“Catherine!”

The man laughed brightly and raised his hands. In one hand he held a rifle. He was the French soldier who had followed her and wanted her address.

“Why the church…treatment………….”

“…What?”

“Why are you here?”

“I took a different path earlier,  a different direction.”

The man cocked his head. She obviously went the other way when they parted, so he wondered why she was here.

Annette struggled for a moment to find a suitable excuse.

Should she say that she arrived here while wandering around looking for a patient to treat? That she heard there were injured people here?

But what if they asked how she found those hiding?

“What is it, Nicolo?”

Elliot questioned him. It seemed that the man’s name was Nicolo. Then the other French soldiers giggled and said.

“That nurse …… Do us a favor—by the way, Nicolo told the woman………..”

“Nurse?”

Elliot frowned as he muttered to himself.

He looked alternately at Annette and Nicolo and said something to the soldiers in French. Annette could only understand the word ‘woman’.

What in the world did he say? Elliot’s words startled the faces of the French soldiers. They stared at Annette at once with expressions of disbelief.

Annette could not grasp the situation and looked anxious. Something unexpected had certainly happened.

The French soldiers whispered among themselves. Nicolo had his mouth wide open. Elliot turned his head to look at Annette and said flatly.

“Isn’t that right, Annette? You’re the commander-in-chief’s ex-wife, aren’t you?”

***

*past

“Hey, is it true what you said earlier?”

“What, go to sleep.”

Jackson exclaimed loudly as he sat down next to Heiner. Heiner glanced at him, picking up some firewood and tossing it in the bonfire.

“Is it true that you will just destroy something precious to you?”

“I don’t know either…”

“Oh, my God. This bastard will be miserable for the rest of his life.”

“It’s been that way from the beginning anyway. You and I both.”

“Why?”

Heiner chuckled at Jackson’s blunt question.

“We will never live in normalcy. That was obvious from the very beginning.”

“Bullsh*t. I’ll be so damn happy when this is over.”

“What are you going to do when this is over?”

“After I succeed and gain momentum, I will meet a nice, kind-hearted woman, get married, have children, and live.”

“You have a big dream.”

“Bastard.”

Amy’s small moans came from inside the cave. She seemed to be treating an injury she had sustained earlier.

Jackson glanced inward and lowered his voice. Everything sounded louder because the space was quiet and enclosed.

“…I don’t know about marriage, but I will succeed.”

“Success in what?”

“Hmmm, winning?”

“Then what you’re saying is the success of this operation?”

“Well… it’s ‘this mission’ and I want to make a merit in a proper battle later. I will definitely be an officer. I’ll even get a house in my country and a medal.”

Jackson pulled a cigar from his pocket and held it close to the bonfire. Soon the tip of the cigar burned red. He took a puff and muttered, 

“We need to be recognized, too.”

As the smoke scattered, Jackson smiled faintly.

“Shouldn’t we do that sometime?”

****