No Beast Girls on the Western Front

Page 78

"Ah, of course. He certainly didn't expect I'd one day be fighting, so he didn't teach me how to fight. From now on, it's all up to you, Trainer~"

“That’s natural.” Payne nodded.

Grace was right. Ever since this tough girl was assigned to her, whether it was pulling cannons, digging trenches, or carrying ammunition, she could do it all perfectly well without Pine having to say anything.

This training officer is truly a rare find; he doesn't beat or scold the beast girls arbitrarily, and he teaches them real skills and practical abilities.

And that real estate tycoon too, he can get the workers to praise him, and even the beast girl thinks he's a good person. He's a truly conscientious capitalist.

If we have the chance to meet again, I must treat them to a meal.

Having seemingly said everything she wanted to say, Grace breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and said one last thing:

"Overall, I think I'm a pretty lucky beast."

"Although I have met a lot of bad people, and some really bad ones, I have also met a few good people, especially you, who are the really good kind of people."

"I want to discern who everyone I come into contact with truly is. This is not only because I want to protect myself, but also because I don't want to let down anyone who is kind to me."

Grace's words struck Payne as quite moving: "You are indeed luckier than other beasts in that you can recognize that people are different."

"And after encountering so many wicked people, they are still willing to express friendliness to good people... Well, should I say that cows are indeed gentle animals?..."

"I think that even if you leave me and try to make a living with other people, you can still find more opportunities than other orcs by relying on this understanding and mindset."

Grace tilted her head: "Why do you want me to leave?"

Payne paused, then shook his head with a smile. "That's not what I meant... I was just saying, just in case. I'd be sad if you wanted to leave. Where can you find an orc as obedient and strong as you?"

Grace laughed too: "Yes, I don't want to leave you either. You're the best human I've ever met."

The man and the beast were silent for a moment, then laughed at the same time.

They all felt like they hadn't had such a pleasant chat in a long time.

Just then, Xiao En's voice came from behind the little house: "Grace, would you like some alfalfa? I'm almost finished eating, do you want me to save some for you?"

“Okay, then leave some for me,” Grace replied.

Payne stood up and stretched, just in time to see a blonde figure walking towards them in the distance—Miss Mary had finally arrived.

“Go on, Grace, have some grass with Shawn, and come back when I call you,” Payne said.

Okay. Please continue to guide me in the future.

"Yes, I will teach you combat skills, teach you to read and do arithmetic, tell you historical stories, and introduce you to all sorts of people I have met."

“Great. Aren’t you an expert on orcs? I have a lot of stories I want to tell you, like what kind of life the orcs in the coal mine lead, what kind of topics we usually talk about… These things should be very useful, right?”

"Grace, are you coming or not? If you don't come, I'll eat it all!"

Before Payne could answer, Shawn's urging voice came again.

"Okay, okay, I'm coming..."

With that, Grace disappeared behind the little house.

Payne smiled unconsciously, no longer paying attention to the two herbivores, and turned to look at the blonde girl who had walked dozens of meters away, waving to her.

Miss Mary is really good at stalling for time; it looks like she won't be able to get back for lunch on time.

Hopefully she brought some food.

Just as Payne was thinking about these far-fetched things, he suddenly heard a sound that should never have been heard here.

"Whoosh-"

Payne's judgment was entirely subconscious, so fast that it didn't even go through his mind:

It was a shell from a light field gun; it wasn't coming straight at me. The impact point should have been more than twenty meters away, so there wasn't much danger.

...A shell? Twenty meters away?!

He had just instinctively crouched behind the tree trunk when he heard an explosion coming from not far away!

It's not Miss Mary's direction, it's Grace and Shawn's direction!

Immediately after the explosion, there was another crashing sound. He immediately looked up and saw smoke rising not far away. The red brick house, covered with moss and ivy, collapsed in the direction where Grace and Shawn were, as if it had died of old age!

"Xiao En!!!! Grace!!!!"

Payne nearly shouted himself hoarse. After getting up and running a couple of steps forward, he seemed to remember something, turned around, and frantically waved to Miss Mary: "Mary!! Lie down!! Lie down..."

"Whoosh-"

"Whoosh-"

"boom!!"

"boom!!"

Before Payne could finish his roar, a series of howls and explosions resounded through the forest, sending wood chips and dirt flying, and leaves falling like rain, being swept up by the shockwaves and pelting him.

But none of these things stopped him; he simply ran as fast as he could to the collapsed little house and, almost instantly, spotted a white figure amidst the chaotic green.

"Xiao En!!"

Seeing that Xiao En seemed to be trying to get up, Payne immediately pounced on her and pinned her to the ground.

The next second, several more shells landed on the ground not far away, sending large amounts of soil and plant debris flying into the air. The shockwave swept over us, carrying the smell of scorching soil and burning leaves.

One of the shells seemed to have hit a large tree directly. Even from twenty meters away, Payne could see the flying wood chips scattering like a shower of flowers, shooting in all directions like countless darts, hitting the ground, tree trunks, grass, and even his and Shawn's clothes and exposed skin.

Fortunately, after flying such a long distance, the irregularly shaped wood chips had been greatly slowed down by air resistance, and when they hit the skin, they only caused a burning pain and did not embed themselves.

But before Payne could even catch his breath, he suddenly realized that the tree that had been blown in half looked like the very tree Ruby had climbed!

Chapter 122 CXXI. The Survivors

Within seconds, the tree that had been directly hit tilted slowly, as if it had been felled by a lumberjack, amidst a series of creaking and groaning sounds of structural collapse, causing the crowns of other trees to rattle even more violently.

Payne immediately spotted a brown figure falling amidst the lush greenery, and it looked like it was about to be flung out of the canopy!

"Ruby!!"

Payne desperately wanted to learn the Shadow Clone Technique. He had no choice but to let go of Xiao En, turn around and run towards Ruby, stretching out his hands to catch the squirrel that might fall from the sky at any moment, completely disregarding the possibility of getting hurt himself.

However, it turned out he was completely overthinking it; the animal girl's motor skills were far superior to those of a human.

Although Ruby's fall from the treetop was heartbreaking, she herself seemed completely unfazed and quickly and nimbly moved to another branch.

Payne couldn’t tell the difference between the tangled branches and the one she was on, but as he anxiously watched the massive canopy about to crash to the ground, he saw Ruby and the branch beneath her slow their descent.

When the squirrel was still three meters from the ground, the fallen tree crown had already crashed to the ground.

But after she leaped down, the branch quickly bounced back up.

It was only then that Payne realized that the branch she had chosen actually belonged to another tree, but had been bent down by the fallen tree.

Ruby rolled on the ground to dissipate the impact, dusted herself off, walked up to Payne, glared at him, and said, "Don't worry about me! What about the other beasts?!"

It was only then that Payne realized that he had only seen Xiao En, but had not seen Grace at all!

"Grace!! Grace, where are you?!"

Payne immediately ran back to the collapsed little house, but still couldn't see Grace. He only heard Shawn coughing uncomfortably.

He could only run to Xiao En's side first, checking her body while anxiously asking, "Xiao En, are you hurt?! Where is Grace?!"

The shelling had stopped at some point, and his voice was now the loudest sound in the grove.

Xiao En is currently at least five or six meters away from that small house. Paine initially deduced that she was pushed away by the blast wave—if she was blown that far, it would be difficult for her not to get injured.

However, after checking her over thoroughly, Payne found that although she looked dazed from the explosion, apart from a few tears in the edges of her clothes, she didn't actually have any wounds on her body.

Perhaps the only strange thing was that, for some reason, she was covered in filth; her pants, clothes, face, and even her hair were covered in a sticky, dark red substance.

"Xiao En?...Xiao En! Xiao En!! Xiao En, can you hear me?! Where is Grace?!"

She finally regained consciousness after Payne called her name several more times.

But instead of answering any questions, she made a series of meaningless, fearful noises, scraping the dirt off her body and shuffling backward on the ground.

It seems this sheep is completely stunned.

"Boss, we're back!"

"Master, are you alright?!"

The sounds of a horse and a dog came from not far away. Payne immediately shouted, "I'm fine! Stephen, you go check on Shawn! Lacey, you go check on Mary!"

"Okay, I'm coming!"

"Wang!"

After assigning the tasks, Payne rushed to the collapsed little house, digging through the rubble and calling out, "Grace!! Grace, can you hear me?!"

Poor Sister Niu, the shell must have hit the roof directly, and then the collapsing wall buried her.

She must be injured, otherwise this weight wouldn't have trapped her.

Thinking this, Payne called out again, "Come help!!"

But Ruby just squatted down beside her, looking dejected, "It's pointless now..."

“What the hell is meaningless!!…” Payne glared at her, then looked up and shouted, “Stephen! Lacey! If Shawn and Mary are alright, come and help!!”

"understand!"

"Wang!"

The man and the two beasts worked incredibly fast, clearing all the bricks off the ground in less than two minutes, leaving behind a crater one meter in diameter and half a meter deep.

Inside the crater, there was nothing but a layer of charred bricks and rubble.

A burnt smell gradually filled the air.

Only then did Payne realize that things weren't as he thought:

The shell didn't enter through the roof and explode inside the house; it exploded in the open space in front of the door.

The house was quite sturdy; the close-range explosion did not completely collapse it. It was the unstable foundation caused by the crater that caused the walls to collapse towards the crater.

In other words, the shell hit directly where Grace and Shawn had just been standing.

As if sensing something, Payne inexplicably raised his head and looked at the surrounding trees.