Arc of Fire

Orachi City, currently under the control of the Ante Army, 1030 hours.

In the distance, the dull rumbling of thunder could be heard, which was actually the enemy preparing artillery fire for the defensive positions outside the city.

Nelly, carrying a basket, left the command post through the side door—the general’s dormitory and the command post were together, so naturally, Nelly also lived there.

Because she lived there, she could make full use of the kitchen of Lord Boye to prepare meals for everyone at the command post.

Now she was getting ready to go out and gather ingredients for dinner.

Of course, the command post of the 151st Division was stocked with enough food, as it was designated to be the last phase of the city’s hand-to-hand combat defense support point, so it was essential to have plenty of food and water.

But Nelly didn’t like military rations much, and as long as there was a supply, she planned to try to make some food besides the military rations.

Besides gathering ingredients, she also prepared to deliver the mixed salad she had made last night to Miss Ludmila.

This was the young lady’s favorite food.

The guards knew she was the general’s orderly and let her through without even checking her identification.

As soon as she stepped out, Nelly was stunned, because the entire row of houses directly opposite the command post was engulfed in raging fire, and the residents of Orachi were working together to fight the fire.

After watching for a few seconds, Nelly ultimately decided to ignore the firefighting and continue with her errands.

Just then, a house on the edge of the fire collapsed with an explosion.

The blast startled Nelly, causing her to take a step back.

The sentry at the command post said, “Don’t worry, they are blasting a firebreak—demolishing buildings that catch fire easily first, so the fire won’t spread here.”

Nelly nodded and, clutching her basket tightly, moved on.

She passed a bomb crater and saw a child sitting on the edge of it, looking lost and seemingly deep in thought.

Next to the crater lay the bodies of people who had died in the bombing, with a priest in the midst of the corpses conducting a mass.

Nelly quickened her pace, her footsteps pattering as she moved through the city cloaked in the flames of war.

Soon she arrived at the northwest corner of the city at a building and nodded to the soldiers guarding the door.

The soldiers opened the door and stepped aside.

The soldier manning the machine gun smiled at Nelly: “You’re still so punctual, maid Miss.”

“I’m the general’s orderly,” Nelly said.

“Then you should at least be wearing your side cap. Want to wear mine?” The machine gunner took off his own cap.

Nelly showed a look of obvious disgust.

The machine gunner dejectedly put the cap back on: “Alright, alright, I get it. Go on up, don’t let the Divine Arrow missy go hungry.”

Nelly entered the building and took the stairs all the way to the attic.

In the attic, one window frame had been removed to set up a Divine Arrow launcher, and Ludmila was sitting on the sill of the other window.

There were also two female soldiers in the attic, checking the spare Divine Arrows.

Ludmila, with a book in hand, was reading in the gradually brightening noon sunlight.

Nelly: “Miss? The battle has begun.”

Ludmila put down her book and looked at Nelly: “But it’s none of our business, is it? Nelly, come here, see the sound array on the roof over there? They’re supposed to call on this phone when they hear the sound of enemy reconnaissance planes.”

Ludmila pointed to the telephone on the chest of drawers next to the window; the telephone line was pulled in from outside and was pinned down at the edge of the windowsill with a large brick.

Ludmila: “Then my battle task will begin. Until then, I can only watch them, powerless to do anything.”

As she spoke, Ludmila looked out towards the northern fields.

Ludmila: “The north is rather calm today, isn’t it?”

Nelly glanced at the plumes of smoke rising continuously from the north and asked doubtfully, “Calm?”

“Extremely calm, don’t be fooled by the enemy’s vigorous shelling, but Alyosha must have withdrawn his troops.”

“Eh?” Nelly exclaimed in surprise, “Alyosha… young master?”

“Yes, the current Alyosha,” Ludmila laughed, “The current Alyosha would never let his troops be swallowed up by the enemy’s artillery preparation. His forces must have already withdrawn to the third defensive position, which has better protection against artillery.”

Nelly “huh”ed in response, then after a brief silence she asked, “Miss, after all…”

“Alyosha is Alyosha, don’t you like the current Alyosha?”

Nelly nodded: “I do like him, I’m just not quite used to it.”

“Men grow up.”

Just as Nelly was about to reply, her attention was drawn to the situation in the west side of the city.

There seemed to be a major battle breaking out in the west, with tracer rounds flying chaotically.

Nelly curiously watched over there.

“Nelly,” Ludmila called softly, “here, for you.”

Nelly looked down in surprise and discovered Ludmila offering her a pair of binoculars.

Taking the binoculars, Nelly looked towards the west. The Rokossovsky family was a military family—in fact, it is rare for a noble family in Ante not to be a military family, as per the empire’s rank system, titles were generally tied to military ranks.

However, the Rokossovsky family was one of those “true” military families, so most of their servants had some military knowledge.

Nelly knew how to operate binoculars and adjust its magnification.

Thus, Nelly clearly saw that on the western highway, Ante Army tanks were in a major battle with the enemy tanks.

These were the small tanks that had just arrived in Orachi two days earlier to join under the command of Major General Rokossovsky, much smaller than the T34s.

Opposing these little tanks was a group of little tanks as well.

These little tanks seem to be able to fire continuously—with most of their tracer rounds being green (the No. 1 only had machine guns, while No. 2 tanks were equipped with autocannons).

And Ante Army’s small tanks could fire, so the enemy quickly fell into disadvantage.

Nelly held binoculars, watching and saying, “Looks like… we have the advantage? So are we going to win?”

Ludmila gave a bitter smile, “Alyosha said it might take three to four years and millions of casualties.”

At the mention of casualty numbers, Nelly shivered, almost dropping the binoculars, but she immediately caught them.

“Oh!” Ludmila clapped her hands, and the other women of the Guardian Army joined in applauding.

Ludmila: “Is this the reaction speed you developed to avoid breaking dishes and bowls?”

Nelly blushed a little.

She changed the subject and said, “Look, the enemy’s tank is smoking!”

“That’s smoke, the Prussians like to use smoke, it’s said mainly to defend against Divine Arrow. In Ronied, the smoke did indeed block our field of fire. We had thought we could control a whole street with Divine Arrow, but when the smoke came, we could only control five hundred meters.

“Then Yeca Neiko, who wasn’t Deputy Knight at the time, ordered us to move forward, and we encountered Prussian infantry on the way. The God’s Arrow Company was nearly wiped out, leaving only a few of us.”

“Ah, don’t tell Alyosha. I haven’t told him about it yet to keep him from worrying.”

As Ludmila spoke, she gently stroked Nelly’s head.

Nelly: “That’s dangerous…”

“The battlefield. Whether it’s me or Alyosha, one never knows when one might be gone. You should be careful too, Nelly. I think you should go back, I heard the Rokossovsky family bought a new estate at Mount Raoul. If you go there…”

Nelly shook her head like a tambourine: “No, I’m not going anywhere. I want to stay with you all!”

Ludmila: “Then you need a garrison cap, or you won’t look like an orderly.”

Saying that, she took off the headband from Nelly’s head and put her own garrison cap on the maid’s head.

“Hmm, it looks pretty good,” Ludmila said with a smile.

That’s when the telephone rang.

Ludmila shouted “Battle stations” while picking up the telephone: “God’s Arrow Company, Brother Peter? Which direction? Okay!”

After hanging up the telephone, Ludmila instructed the Guardian Army, “They’re coming straight at us, we’ll hit them head-on.”

Then she lay at the attic window and shouted outside, “Ivan! Prepare to move!”

Nelly: “Move?”

“Yes, after firing, we must move immediately. Before, we were nearly hit by a Prussian remote-controlled bomb—I don’t know what Alyosha meant by remote-controlled bomb, but it’s powerful; it almost killed our entire Divine Arrow.”

Nelly: “Then I’ll help too!”

“Okay, take that! Get going first!”

At that moment, one of the Guardian Army called out, “Target sighted!”

Ludmila immediately looked outside the window and indeed saw a twin-engine reconnaissance plane flying this way.

Then the next moment, a Divine Arrow rose from the forest and struck it.

Ludmila was stunned: “Eh?”

Nelly: “What’s wrong?”

Ludmila stomped her foot in anger: “Damn Katyusha (Ekaterina’s nickname), she stole my target!”

One of the Guardian Army said: “As long as the general isn’t snatched away, targets and such don’t matter.”

Ludmila looked at the Guardian Army, “Check Divine Arrow! Report combat readiness status in ten minutes!”

“Yes!”

Nelly: “Ekaterina has her eye on the young master too?”

Ludmila: “Yeah, right now he’s a hot commodity; it’d be strange if she didn’t.”

Nelly: “Miss, you seem pretty proud.”

“I am very proud.”

Nelly clicked her tongue, when suddenly she remembered a piece of “military common sense”: “Wait, so miss, are you now dedicated to air defense? Wasn’t Divine Arrow invented to deal with tanks?”

“Alyosha likes to use Divine Arrow for air defense,” Ludmila shrugged her shoulders, “In terms of wild ideas, he’s just the same as before.”

————

At the same time, Wang Zhong sneezed several times.

Then the radio transmitted a call from the 13th Armored Battalion: “Lame Wolf calling White Horse, Lame Wolf calling White Horse!”

Wang Zhong: “This is White Horse, go ahead.”

“Lame Wolf has taken out number one and two that cut off our supply line, now preparing to enter the tank hide and meet with number three and four.”

Wang Zhong immediately switched to the troop perspective.

Although ally vision was not highlighted, checking out the situation on the battlefield was not a problem.

And he saw a pile of number two and one’s wreckage near the highway.

Goodness gracious, I asked you to get into the hide and line up against enemy number three and four, but you went ahead and gobbled up number ones and twos reserved for the tank gun?

This combat spirit, good!

Wang Zhong: “Lame Wolf, well done, Lame Wolf, well done! Continue the operation.”

Wang Zhong meant to say it three times, but he said it once less in his excitement.

“White Horse, leave it to us. Even if we fight until we run out of ammo, we’ll ram the enemy till they’re paralyzed.”

Wang Zhong: “No, I order you, achieve victory and then return alive. Repeat, I order you, achieve victory and then return alive!”

The other side was silent for a few seconds, then answered, “I’ll try my best. Lame Wolf, over!”

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