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Chapter 290: Dawn - Markets and Multiverses
🕑 Added 2024-09-04 05:47:31 +0000 UTCThe next morning, when I went to breakfast, I was glad to see Anise and Felix eating their meal together. Anise seemed a little tired, but I couldn't see any wounds on her. After I got my food, I moved over to her table and gave her a big hug.
Anise gave me a tired smile when she saw me, and then returned the hug before turning to her meal.
<Anise! Are you all right? Did anything happen after I went to sleep?> I asked.
<Nothing much happened. We returned to our rooms after marching back to the fort.> Anise grimaced as she slurped down a few noodles from her breakfast. <After project Nightsong took off, the fort commander that we were reinforcing told us to go home. We had finished our part in the battle that night.> This time, Anise looked distinctly unhappy. <I didn’t even have some sort of edge role in a battle. We just marched around and fought nothing. I can’t help but feel like the entirety of yesterday was just… a waste.> She grabbed her bowl of soup and then tilted it towards her mouth to drink the broth.
<On the bright side, your reinforcement squad still scared some of the Worldstriders off,> said Felix. <You still contributed in a way. Without the help of you and your squad, many more soldiers would have died yesterday.>
<I guess that's true.> Anise brightened up a bit at Felix's words, before she set down her bowl. <Where do you guys think the military’s secret projects went last night, anyway?>
I started thinking. Project Nightsong had only appeared to ‘reinforce’ a fort before flying off last night. Where had it gone after scaring off the worldstriders? Had it gone to reinforce other forts?
But Anise’s squad had been sent back after Project Nightsong appeared. If that was the case, it was hard to imagine that the Worldstriders kept attacking forts during the night. Especially since Nightsong had trounced them every time daylight faded.
<Maybe they decided to attack one of the Worldstrider’s camps?> Said Sallia, as she jumped into the conversation. <I mean, the worldstriders also need rest and places to rest and resupply. You ambushed several of their camping sites when you went to Verne. If the military found some camps, Project Nightsong might have attacked them yesterday.> Then, Sallia fell into thought. <I doubt the Worldstriders are unaware of this. They must have some sort of counterattack planned. Perhaps they will blow up the camps that Nightsong attacks, in order to rid themselves of this threat? Or they could have other plans. It's hard to guess.>
Sallia's guess made more sense than mine, so I shrugged. Instead of thinking about it, I gave Anise a second hug.
<That makes more sense than my guess. Either way, I’m glad you came back safe, Anise. I don’t want you to die too.>
<Yeah, I can confirm, being dead sucks,> said Sallia. <I want to swing a sword again. I’m so bored every time I wake up.>
I winced. I had already assumed that being stuck in a void with only our conversations and TV to distract her was boring. Still, hearing Sallia complain made me wish I could do something for her. Sadly, I wasn't sure what I could do for her. If I had the option, resurrecting her would have been the best solution. But I had no idea how to resurrect someone. I suspected it was possible, based on how the Market worked and how Felix had been born in the body of an artificial baby. But knowing something was possible and knowing how to do it were two different things.
Before I could sink further into thought, Sallia started asking us other questions about what she had missed while she was asleep. The four of us caught her up to date on the war. Then, we chatted and speculated about the military’s recent movements as we finished breakfast. After eating, Sallia fell back asleep, and I headed towards the makeshift hospital.
Nobody had died while I was asleep, which was a relief. A few patients had taken turns for the worse, but I didn’t run into many cases where my healing magic was useless. However, I did run into one case where a patient had problems I couldn't heal. While I was asleep, there had been some sort of issue that cut off blood flow to his brain. It hadn't totally shut it down, but it had definitely caused some problems. The resulting brain damage had weakened his soul-body connection. I felt more than a little guilty when I saw that, even though I suspected there was nothing I could have done to fix it yesterday. There had been way too many patients to give every patient my full attention. Still, even if it had been unavoidable, seeing a patient with permanent injuries felt terrible. Next time we returned to the Market, I needed to up my Alteration essence capacity.
Most of the other patients were much more treatable. After a few hours of healing, I felt exhausted again, but most of the patients had stabilized. Within another few days they would make full recoveries. I also got another System notification, saying I had contributed to the war between the humans and the Worldstriders. I had no idea when all of these System rewards would turn into actual Achievement, but I was looking forward to it.
As I melted into a chair and started relaxing, a smiling soldier made his way into the hospital room. Seeing the four of us resting, he waved at us. He had far more energy than soldiers usually did on the front lines. That alone piqued my curiosity.
“Are the four of you done treating the patients?”
“We are, at least for now,” said one of the doctors. “Why do you ask?”
“Come to the field in front of the fort. It's good news!”
I blinked in surprise, before I grinned. It seemed like we would finally learn what Project Nightsong had done last night.
One of the doctors volunteered to stay behind, and the other three of us made our way to the front of the fort. There, we saw a congregation of hundreds of other soldiers. Standing in front of everyone was the fort commander, with a strange expression on his face.
It was glee. The man had a look of barely-restrained glee and excitement on his face as he gazed at us.
As more soldiers drifted out of the fort, the man started cackling, almost like a witch.
“All of you have spent a long time fighting on the front lines. We’ve seen many brothers and sisters die fighting the enemy. For the first weeks of the invasion, we suffered defeat after defeat. In the past few weeks, we’ve finally found some breathing space. But it wasn’t enough on its own, as many of you may recall from yesterday. Two forts were destroyed, and many others suffered major damage.” I saw a few of the soldiers who had marched yesterday shudder at the commander’s words. However, the man’s barely restrained glee remained, making me wonder why he was so happy. The Fort Commander was beaming like he had won the lottery.
“Today, I’m here to convey the words of the higher ups. The primary base of the enemy in Damilius has been destroyed! Last night, Project Nightsong and a major assault force attacked their primary camp. The enemy has many smaller camps, of course, but the biggest one has is gone. This doesn’t mean an end to the fighting - but it is our first major victory against the enemy. This isn't a mere skirmish or ambushing party that we wiped out. We have won a proper, solid victory!”
I blinked in surprise, and then I also smiled. Sallia’s speculation had been right. The military had raided one of the Worldstrider’s camps last night. Perhaps it had only happened last night because the military finally tracked down the enemy’s base?
It was also possible that the military had always known where the enemy’s main base was. yesterday may have simply been the opportune time to attack. After all, yesterday the worldstriders had exhausted themselves attacking several human forts. There was no better opportunity to attack an enemy than after they were exhausted.
“Not only that, our country isn’t the only one that struck a decisive blow against the enemy last night. Most allied nations managed similar victories on their fronts. While Verne failed in their counterattack, everyone else has pushed the enemy back. The war is finally moving in the right direction.”
I blinked as I analyzed the commander’s words. Verne's attempt to take down the Worldstrider primary camps had failed. So the enemy had created countermeasures against project Nightsong. They had simply failed in most cases. I grinned. The fort commander's words weren't wrong. The war was finally moving in the right direction.
There was silence, as the other soldiers absorbed the commander’s words. Then, unbridled cheering started to spread through the soldiers.
Despite my misgivings about Project Nightsong, I was also happy. For the first time, humanity was winning against the extradimensional invaders.
Author’s Note:
The week of September 23rd, 3 weeks from now, I will be moving. I anticipate missing 1-2 MaM chapters that week, depending on how much time and energy it takes to move everything, set up/rebuild furniture, and basically just get everything settled. Budding Scientist chapter for that week may also be shorter than usual, depending on how things go.
Join my Discord! (I’m much more active there than in the comments section).
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