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Initially, Payne was starting to suspect that something was wrong with her because she didn't react much. But now that she said she would have nightmares that night, Payne was actually relieved.
Thankfully, it seems this horse hasn't gone mad yet.
Chapter 127 CXXVI. Attempting to Solve the Problem
Even in the days since B Company was withdrawn from the front lines, they haven't been idle.
According to information obtained from various sources, although B Company's flanking attack greatly disrupted the French deployment, the enemy reacted within a few days and launched a renewed offensive. Therefore, Minston is not yet safe.
So, with the idea that "since they're idle anyway, they might as well let them help out," a large number of decimated troops entered Minston and helped the local garrison build fortifications in the streets and alleys.
Payne couldn't remember the last time he had entered a city that represented civilization. If it weren't for what happened with Grace, he would have really liked to take a city walk.
Unlike Earth or Fasforo, the Dexter Empire follows a biotechnology route. They don't solve many problems by creating machines, but rather by artificially creating plants and animals.
For example, as an alternative to automobiles, Germany has created horses that far surpass natural horses in speed, endurance, and obedience. These artificial horses, named "carriage horses," can pull ordinary carriages or long, bus-sized passenger and cargo wagons with ease. The joke that "a hundred kilometers of travel consumes a bundle of grass" has become a reality here.
For example, the Germans also improved carrier pigeons, training an animal called the "high-speed bird" to deliver small packages at extremely high speeds within or between cities. This was something that could not be replaced in France.
In addition, plants are also within the scope of modification and utilization. For example, the work that Payne and his team were assigned to do, building fortifications, was more like gardening work than moving bricks on a construction site.
Because Minston is a border city, the plants in the green belts are not ordinary plants, but a type of modified plant called "wall shrub".
This plant looks no different from an ordinary shrub under normal circumstances, but when needed, people use a lot of clay and limestone instead of ordinary soil. At this time, the wall shrub will be activated and grow rapidly, even faster than bamboo.
People would build a steel frame inside the bushes and use wooden planks to enclose the shape of the fortifications. Within a week, the wall shrubs, which use clay and limestone as their growing materials, would completely fill the space enclosed by the wooden planks and immediately harden themselves.
Finally, people removed the wooden planks, and they successfully created a defensive fortification with a hardness comparable to reinforced concrete.
Although the construction speed is far inferior to the industrialized casting in France, it has the advantage of simple technology. As long as there are enough raw materials, almost anyone can participate in the construction.
The work that Payne and his team did every day was indeed quite simple: they would remove the soil from the original green belt and replace it with clay and limestone, the raw materials for cement, build a steel frame and wooden planks according to the blueprints, and then water it every day.
Even if the defenses outside the city can't hold out, they can at least hold out for a few more days, which is plenty of time for the fortifications to be completed.
The only minor problem is that it's already the height of summer, and there's not a cloud in the sky; the sun is shining brightly right above everyone's heads.
The exposed skin became painfully sunburnt within minutes, while the parts hidden under the clothes were drenched in sweat, and the clothes never dried all day.
The air was filled with the smell of melting asphalt, and the clanging and banging of construction noises made people drowsy.
The tasks were assigned based on the number of defensive fortifications to be built each day, without specifying working hours. As a result, the soldiers unanimously chose to get up early, work all morning, rest in the afternoon, and finish the remaining work after sunset.
During this afternoon break, with the tacit approval (or rather, the encouragement) of officers at all levels, the soldiers flocked to bars, markets, circuses, and red-light districts to while away the time and wait for the unbearable heat to pass.
But these days, every time his short half-hour nap ends, Payne will wake up his beast girls in an almost inhumane manner and drive them to the construction site to continue working under the scorching sun.
Of course, he himself was no exception.
In order to continue working under such harsh conditions, Payne asked his brothers to buy straw hats, towels and gloves from the market, and to draw water from a nearby well, making all the necessary preparations.
To prevent heatstroke, he even adopted the Pomodoro Technique, stipulating that he must rest for 5 minutes every 25 minutes of work.
While the beast girls had some complaints about this almost unreasonable arrangement, they did not object.
This is because they have been trained to be absolutely obedient to their tamers, and because Payne had consulted with them before making this decision, and they accepted all the reasons he gave.
Although Pine traveled from Earth in the more information-rich 21st century, he was not a professional and did not know much about specialized issues such as how to solve PTSD.
He vaguely remembered that one solution was to have the patient concentrate on doing one thing, preferably a heavy, strenuous task that would leave no energy for daydreaming.
He felt this should be effective; after all, ever since he forced himself and the beast girls to keep working even on sweltering afternoons, he felt that the number of times he flashed back had indeed decreased.
For many days after Grace's death, he did not eat meat. Because whenever he smelled meat, his first reaction was not to be tempted to eat, but to flash back to that noon when he was covered in bits of Grace's meat.
Just when he was worried that he might become a vegetarian, this increased workload pulled him back: he simply couldn't keep up without eating high-protein foods.
Not only him, but even Ruby, who rarely eats meat, ate two pieces of meat with him.
As for Xiao En, Paine first cooked vegetables in a heavily seasoned broth for her. When she didn't react, he cooked vegetables in broth that had been used to cook meat and fed them to her. When she still didn't notice, he secretly wrapped a few pieces of meat stewed with heavy seasonings inside a cabbage and fed them to her. She still didn't react at all.
It's good that there's no reaction. Even sheep need to supplement their protein intake after such intense labor.
Contrary to popular belief, there are actually no strictly "herbivorous animals" in nature.
Herbivores may temporarily become omnivores if forced to survive or to supplement their mineral and protein intake.
But Pine thinks the main reason Sean didn't realize she ate meat is because her brain, in order to protect itself, was forced to operate at a low power level, not thinking about anything and not reacting to external stimuli.
What a poor child, sigh...
Chapter 128 CXXVII. Relics
Looking at the little lamb, Payne actually felt quite bad.
Having suffered such a great psychological trauma, she should rest properly instead of continuing to torment her body here.
But Payne was also afraid that once she had free time, she would start overthinking things, which could lead to something even more uncontrollable.
Not only Pine's beast girl squad is implementing this operational policy, but in recent days, many new recruits who arrived in B Company two months ago have also joined the team that continues to work.
They were building fortifications under the scorching midday sun, not to show off, but simply to escape their inner trauma.
Veterans aren't without such problems, but firstly, they've become somewhat numb, and secondly, they have some savings and rarely get to go into the city, so they go to taverns to drown their sorrows.
Most of those who joined the army were children from poor families and were reluctant to spend money recklessly.
However, to be fair, these new recruits can hardly be considered new recruits anymore. They have already been on the battlefield for two and a half months, and the next batch of new recruits will be arriving soon.
Just as Payne was casually thinking about these things, a shirtless, blond-haired young man walked towards him, raised two beer bottles in his hand, and asked somewhat awkwardly:
"Um...excuse me, are you Payne? May I say a few words?"
Payne looked him up and down, then, after installing the last plank, glanced at his watch, clapped his hands, and said, "Take a five-minute break!"
So the four beasts immediately pounced into the shadows under the building, panting heavily with their tongues lolling out.
After wiping the sweat from his brow with the towel around his neck, Payne took the bottle of liquor from the blond-haired man and raised an eyebrow. "Iced?"
"Yes, I bought it at the market next door," the blond-haired man replied with a shy smile.
"Thanks then." Payne said, tilting his head back to take a sip. "Then I'll give you a piece of advice: when you're working in this kind of weather, don't complain about the heat. You have to cover yourself up well, otherwise the sun will get there before the Frenchmen can beat you to a pulp."
"Haha, it's nothing." But the blond guy just shrugged nonchalantly.
He has fair skin, a muscular build, and was willing to buy me an ice-cold beer, so his family must be quite wealthy. He clearly hasn't been exposed to the harsh sun.
Based on the idea that "you can't teach someone by just talking, but you can learn it in one go by doing something," Payne was too lazy to persuade him any further and instead asked, "So, what do you need me for?"
The blond-haired man unconsciously wiped the condensation off the glass bottle. "Actually... I came to thank you."
"Thank you? What's the matter?"
"Hmm... I don't know if you remember, but when I first came to B Company two and a half months ago, I said a lot of arrogant things and looked down on orcs."
"If you hadn't reminded me, kept me on my last shred of vigilance, and led the orc forces into battle many times afterward, I think... I might have already died."
"Hmph, it's nothing to worry about." Payne waved his hand dismissively.
But the blond-haired man continued speaking to himself: "Do you remember the last battle when your bovine orcs used stones to destroy the barbed wire?"
Payne paused for a moment. "Don't use honorifics, it sounds weird... Go on."
"Ah, okay... Actually, I was hiding behind that boulder at the time... You, um... can you understand that feeling? The feeling of having your solid hiding place lifted up by a force that could never be moved by human power..."
"In short, at that moment, I felt as if I had seen Superman with my own eyes."
"You know what? She not only saved B Company, but also gave me back my courage."
"With such a superhero fighting alongside us, what difficulty can't we overcome?"
Payne grew increasingly melancholy as he listened, and finally had to light a cigarette to relieve his boredom. "Yeah, Grace really is like a superhero... it's just a pity she isn't."
Huang Mao visibly deflated, lit a cigarette, and said, "Please accept my condolences."
The two young people sat on the roadside, watching the asphalt road, which was so hot it could roast meat, steam with astonishing heat. Occasionally, a carriage pulled by a beast girl would pass by.
Only after the cigarette had burned out and the drink was finished did Payne check his watch again. "Break time! Time to get back to work!"
Just as the four beasts were reluctantly dragging their weary bodies back to the Sun Land, Yellow Hair called out to Payne again:
"Um... actually, I just ran into the orc squad that helped us store our supplies before we left at the market, so they entrusted B Company's things to me and asked me to bring them over."
"I was wondering... could there be any of Grace's belongings among them?"
Payne paused again, cursing as he looked to the side, "Damn it, these bastards aren't planning to smuggle everything in if they can't find anyone from B Company, are they...? Where is it?"
"Haha, that shouldn't be the case... They said they found out that B Company was stationed here, so they brought the supplies over specifically." The blond guy laughed to smooth things over, then pointed to the side, "I put the bags over there."
"Hmph, that's for the best." Payne said, walking towards the backpack placed in the corner. "By the way, what's your name?"
"Ah, my name is Frederick, Frederick Henry."
"Thank you so much this time, Frederick. Ruby! Come check if anything's missing!"
The dog, horse, and squirrel immediately returned to the shade. Only Xiao En looked up briefly before bending down again to continue working, as if trying to escape.
And Payne soon found Grace's only remaining possession in the world in their package: the paper and pen she used to practice calligraphy.
Are these things truly the most precious to her? ...
Looking at the crooked, childish handwriting, Payne hesitated for a moment, but finally put the crumpled paper into the notebook and the pencil into the pencil holder.
In this way, the paper and the pencil are just like any other paper and pencil, and there is nothing special about them.
Let's save it for the next beast girl.
Frederick, who hadn't gone far, saw this scene and couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you going to keep it as a souvenir?"
Payne instinctively replied, "The orcs here come and go too quickly, how could they possibly leave a souvenir for every one that leaves..."
"I once tried keeping a tuft of fur from each animal and hanging it on my bag, but I ended up hanging more and more on it until one day people from other companies asked me why I was hanging a mop on my bag..."
"
Hey~
The host's depressing jokes were detected.
Depression level: 100%
Funny level: 100%
Freshness: 100%