Though we had won the battle, cleaning up afterward was always a filthy affair. The city streets were blocked by burning tanks and the wreckage of collapsed buildings, and acrid smoke rose from everywhere, obscuring visibility.
The one fortunate thing was that the earlier bombing and fighting had turned the city into an even more complicated maze. From a defensive standpoint, it was actually good news.
“2nd Company! Don’t just stand there gawking—dig! Break through the walls on the first floor of the buildings and make firing positions for the gun barrels!”
I directed the scene personally as I passed.
“Gunter! Push the men if you have to, but speed up the work. We need to finish before sunset!”
“Yes, sir! Don’t worry! Hey, you bastards! Didn’t you hear the company commander? Bring the pickaxes!”
And the place I headed next was the entrance to the underground bunker where a temporary clinic had been set up.
“Aaaagh! Help me! My leg… my leg!”
“Calm down! We’re stopping the bleeding!”
The moment I stepped inside, the stench of blood hit me. The cramped space was packed full of wounded soldiers.
In the middle of that hellish scene, I saw a medical officer in a white coat soaked with blood.
Honey-blond hair braided to one side, intelligent brown eyes. A beauty with sensual curves that even the bloodstained coat could not hide.
It was Captain Elise von Kleist.
“Gauze! Bring more! We need to clamp this vessel first!”
‘Status analysis.’
[Name: Elise von Kleist]
[Status: Extreme physical fatigue, mental overload]
[Emotion: Compulsion to save them, despair over insufficient supplies]
Extreme fatigue and overload. There were far too many wounded for a single military doctor to handle.
“Gghhh…! Cough, kuheuk!”
Sure enough.
“He’s going into shock! Hold him so he doesn’t bite his tongue!”
It was a cot in the corner. The soldier lying there rolled his eyes back, then his whole body began thrashing like a live fish.
Elise immediately rushed to him. She tried to press down on the soldier’s shoulders, but she couldn’t possibly overpower a grown man gone berserk.
“No! He’s too strong…! Sedative! Don’t we have any sedative?!”
Thud.
Without hesitation, I stepped forward and pressed the soldier’s chest down with one hand.
“L-Lieutenant Jaeger?!”
Elise was startled to see me appear out of nowhere.
“Step aside. I’ll hold him.”
‘Touch of Attunement.’
[Skill ‘Touch of Attunement (Lv.2)’ has been activated.]
It was impossible to mend torn flesh or reconnect severed blood vessels.
But the essence of this skill was the “attunement of biological energy.”
Just as I had stabilized Serafina’s [Mana Backflow], calming a nervous system rampaging from pain was within the realm of possibility. Like an anesthetic injection.
[Stabilizing the target’s biological energy.]
“Haa… hah….”
The soldier’s body, which had been thrashing like a beast, went limp like a doll.
“Huh…?”
Elise’s eyes widened.
“J-Just now, what did you….”
“He seems to have lost consciousness from shock. Now, Captain!”
Instead of explaining, I urged her on.
“Ah, right! Yes!”
Elise snapped back to her senses and leaned over the soldier. Her movements were precise. She clamped the ruptured vessel with forceps and skillfully finished stopping the bleeding.
“Phew….”
Only then did Elise relax and look at me.
“Lieutenant Jaeger… no, are you a captain now? You truly saved us just now. I thought you were only good at commanding in battle, but the way you handle patients…”
“You flatter me. That only worked because your medical skills were perfect, Captain.”
I grinned and continued.
“How are things here?”
Elise gave a bitter smile as she replied.
“As if they could be fine. The situation is truly… awful. We’re short on anesthetics and bandages. At this rate, half of them may die from shock.”
I looked around for a moment. Groaning soldiers. A dire lack of personnel and supplies. It seemed morale needed to be managed at least somewhat.
‘Charming Speech.’
[Skill ‘Charming Speech’ (Lv.3) has been activated.]
“Don’t worry. I’ve just given orders to secure a supply route. And…”
I spoke calmly.
“We won. We wiped out their vanguard. Dozens of tanks have been turned into scrap metal. Reinforcements will arrive from the rear soon.”
“…Really?”
“Have you ever seen me lie?”
In truth, there was no telling when reinforcements would come, but right now, even giving them false hope was necessary.
[Skill ‘Charming Speech’ is affecting nearby targets.]
[The wounded soldiers’ fear decreases, and their sense of relief increases.]
“Ah, we won…?”
“We’re alive… We survived….”
The groans died down, and life began returning to the soldiers’ eyes. Elise’s expression also brightened considerably.
“As expected… Captain Jaeger, you’re incredible. You don’t just fight battles. You even heal people’s hearts.”
[Name: Elise von Kleist]
[Status: Willpower recovered, trust in Max Jaeger increased]
“Healing is your role, Captain. I merely peddled some medicine.”
I grinned and patted her shoulder.
“…Yes. I’ll do my best.”
Then Elise’s gaze followed my hand, and suddenly slid down from my shoulder to my upper arm. Her eyes trembled.
“Wait a moment, Captain.”
Elise’s gaze fixed on the area around my shoulder. Her expression instantly hardened.
“Your arm… You’re hurt.”
“What?”
Only then did I turn my head and check my left shoulder.
“Ah.”
Bright red blood was seeping through my torn uniform. I could see a metal fragment lodged fairly deep inside. It must have been shrapnel from when we were setting up the anti-aircraft gun position earlier.
[Skill ‘Indomitable Spirit’ is active.]
No wonder my left arm had felt a little stiff. Thanks to adrenaline and the skill, I hadn’t noticed.
“Come here and sit down. Right now.”
Elise, with none of the gentle demeanor from moments ago remaining, forced me down onto a folding chair.
Snip.
She picked up scissors and ruthlessly cut away the sleeve of my uniform.
The exposed wound was rather gruesome. A piece of metal about the size of a finger joint was buried deep in the muscle.
“There’s shrapnel embedded in you. I need to remove it and suture the wound, but…”
Elise bit her lip and looked around.
“We’re out of anesthetic. That last one was the end of it…”
“It doesn’t matter. Just pull it out.”
“What? B-But it’s deep… You could go into shock.”
“We don’t have time, Captain Elise. There are still wounded soldiers overflowing outside. We can’t waste time on one of my arms.”
I deliberately put on a grave expression.
“…Understood. I’ll finish as quickly as possible.”
Seeing my expression, Elise also put on a solemn look and picked up tweezers and a scalpel.
I quietly closed my eyes.
‘Touch of Attunement.’
[Skill ‘Touch of Attunement (Lv.2)’ has been activated.]
[Stabilizing the target’s biological energy.]
Slice. Squelch.
I felt Elise’s tweezers dig into my flesh and grasp the fragment. But there was almost no pain.
What bothered me instead was the change in the skill.
‘…Huh?’
When it had been Lv.1, it had felt like I was merely adjusting mana in a blunt, imprecise way. But now, that sensation was much clearer.
Come to think of it, I had never used [Touch of Attunement] on myself before. Well, I had, but this was the first time since it became Lv.2.
I could distinctly feel the faint stream flowing through my body—the flow of mana. The torrent of pain rising from my shoulder was being completely blocked.
‘If I try just a little more with this…’
It felt like I might be able to cause some fundamental change in the flow coursing through me.
But I had no time to concentrate deeply.
Squelch. Clink.
I opened my eyes slightly.
Right in front of my nose, my flesh was torn open, and the tweezers were rummaging through the wound.
[Skill ‘Indomitable Spirit’ is active.]
‘It’s deeper than I thought.’
Of course, thanks to the skill, I was perfectly fine… but concentrating on something else while my wound was being cut open was too much of an eccentric feat.
Instead, I simply stared impassively at the blood gushing from my shoulder.
Clatter!
At last, Elise tossed the bloodied tweezers onto the tray. At the tip of the tweezers was a sharp piece of metal tangled with clots of blood.
“…It’s out.”
Her voice was filled with disbelief.
“Are you really… all right? I tore through living flesh without anesthesia… and you didn’t even let out a single groan.”
It was pain that would have made an ordinary person faint or leap out of their seat, but I answered calmly.
“Your touch was so delicate, Captain, I didn’t even realize it hurt.”
“Th-That’s…”
A hint of fluster spread across Elise’s face.
“…I’ll suture it now. It will sting a little.”
“Please.”
The suturing was finished quickly. The sensation of bare flesh being stitched together was, again, nothing much.
“…It’s done. You mustn’t overuse that arm for the time being.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thank you, Captain.”
After one last look around the temporary clinic, I left the underground bunker.
Not long after, Sergeant Gunter ran up with his face covered in dirt and reported.
“Company commander! 1st and 3rd Platoons have completed deployment! We’ve also finished laying anti-tank mines 200 meters to the front!”
“Good work. The men?”
“I told them to get a bit of sleep. We don’t know when the bastards will come charging in.”
“Well done. You get some rest too.”
I patted Gunter on the shoulder and headed for my temporary quarters on the first floor of the collapsed hotel building.
The moment I stepped inside, the tension left my body. I barely managed to steady my staggering body with [Touch of Attunement]. Even so, a dense fatigue that could not easily be erased pressed down on my entire body.
My mouth tasted bitter.
Even though we had defended Rosenheim, it was only a temporary reprieve. The front had already collapsed, and the enemy’s main force remained intact. It wouldn’t be strange if they came crashing in again tomorrow—no, even a few hours from now.
‘One miracle is enough.’
There was no guarantee that an irregular move like the 88mm anti-aircraft gun would work again. If I wanted to survive, I needed something more certain.
Suddenly, my gaze turned toward my left arm. That strange, vivid sensation I had felt during the treatment earlier.
Perhaps that would become the only variable.
As I walked down the dark corridor, I clenched and unclenched my fist.
Ding!
It was time to settle the results.
[Your level has risen to 14!]
[You have obtained 1 new skill point.]