radicalducati Page 37
Page 37
Payne's tone suddenly turned malicious. Before Ruby could do anything, she was suddenly hugged tightly, so tightly that it was difficult for her to breathe.
"To express my gratitude and apology, how about we make up for what we owed you over the past few days tonight?"
Hearing this, Ruby couldn't help but shiver, and pleaded again, "Please...please be gentle with me..."
I'll try my best~~
"Woo..."
Payne dismissed her pleas because he no longer intended to deal with serious matters.
Ruby quickly sensed his determination, so she could only close her eyes, her face gradually turning rosy.
Well, judging from his appearance, he must have already forgotten about the punishment.
I was so lucky! I got to talk back to him pretty hard, but I didn't get punished like the other three beasts. Hehehe~~
Unfortunately, perhaps because her smug expression was too obvious, Payne immediately saw through her little scheme and added:
"Oh right, punishment is a must too. Hmm... let me think... how about I punish you by not letting you sleep tonight?"
"……what?!"
……
In the quiet night, without the sounds of gunfire, explosions, or rumbling trucks, a sudden, soft cry rang out from a small village near the front lines. The horses in the stable stirred slightly before falling silent again.
Only a small number of soldiers still on patrol noticed the anomaly, but they simply glanced at each other, shrugged, and decided to pretend nothing had happened.
Although most of the villagers had fled, a considerable number of women remained in the village, doing whatever work they could to earn a living for the army.
Of course, some of them are also willing to help the young men in the army solve their problems.
Such incidents happen every night, and as long as they aren't too loud, the patrolling soldiers usually turn a blind eye.
Chapter 55 LV. Writing letters to other girls in front of Ruby.
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Payne woke up after Lacey licked his face twice.
It's time to take her for a walk—or rather, walk the dog.
After a hard-fought night, Payne felt almost no fatigue. Stepping out of the tent, he took a deep breath and felt refreshed.
Ha, I don't know who gave Ruby the confidence to provoke me.
Squirrel-like orcs are inferior to humans in both endurance and strength, so Ruby started begging for mercy last night before Payne had even had his fill.
If it were before, Payne would definitely have let her go if he saw her looking so pitiful.
But since she had defied her superiors first, Payne felt much less burdened and retaliated by giving her a super-duper punishment, continuing the farce until she fell into a deep sleep.
Thinking about what happened back then made Payne feel great, and even his steps became lighter.
Lacey, who was originally sniffing around in the village, was delighted to see her master so happy that she came over and kept circling around him until she spotted the bloodstain on his neck.
"Master, what happened to your neck?"
Payne dismissed it: "Oh, it's nothing, I got chewed up by a dog last night."
Lacey: "...A dog? But I smell Ruby's scent!"
However, to be fair, squirrels have really impressive incisors.
If he hadn't deliberately held back last night, he was worried Ruby would have bitten his neck off.
So later he specifically changed to a position where Ruby couldn't bite him.
Squirrels are definitely better; dealing with her is much easier than dealing with other animal girls of different species.
Payne was happily thinking like this until the sun peeked over the horizon, at which point the man and dog ended their walk and returned to their tent.
When he saw Ruby slowly emerging from the tent, rubbing her back, he became even happier and went over to ruffle her hair. "Good morning, little one~ How did you feel last night?"
Ruby visibly trembled and said somewhat hesitantly, "Uh... um, I... my condition has improved a lot, thank... thank you..."
"Oh, there's no need to thank me. It's just what I should do."
"So... what I mean is... you don't need to work so hard anymore, you've been working pretty hard too..."
"It's nothing, it's nothing! We're friends who've been through thick and thin together. It's just a little hardship and fatigue, but I have to help with this small favor! Don't worry, I'll make sure you feel completely comfortable for the next week!"
"babble!……"
Hearing Ruby let out a cheerful (?) shriek, Payne laughed and carried her on his back towards the kitchen cart.
……
Because Ruby's back and legs were aching, she could only stay wherever it was cool (meaning she was resting in the shade), so only three beasts were in class today.
It hasn't rained for the past few days, and the height of summer is gradually showing its power. The weather has become dry and hot, making both people and animals drowsy.
Xiao En, in particular, had a head full of cashmere hair that looked very warm. She was so hot that she looked listless and about to suffer from heatstroke.
Of course, it's also possible that he was tired because he was throwing stones until late at night yesterday...
Sheep are indeed not as strong as dogs and cows; Lacey and Grace don't look tired at all.
However, once the sun was fully up in the sky and its scorching sunlight was relentlessly shining on the earth, Payne had no choice but to move the frontline classroom to the stable next to the tent, and the course content changed from throwing grenades to the use and maintenance of firearms.
Payne firmly believes that the bigwigs who started the war will not end it easily, so things will eventually come to the point where the beast girls will take up arms and go to the battlefield. Therefore, it is better to prepare as soon as possible.
Anyway, there's no need to worry about the horses snitching.
However, while these completely illiterate beast girls are passable at using firearms, disassembling and maintaining them is really beyond their capabilities.
Although Payne could tell they were studying very seriously, sometimes he still couldn't help but want to give them a big shove.
For example, when he was disassembling the gun, Grace saw the spring and assumed that the bullet was propelled by that spring...
For example, when Xiao En asked why the muzzle flashed when the gun was fired, she said she was afraid of fire...
For example, Lacey's question was: since modern warfare emphasizes firepower density, why not just give everyone a machine gun...?
Payne raised his hand and lowered it, clenched his fist tightly and then relaxed it, finally managing to cure his low blood pressure to a considerable degree.
Calm down, stay calm. Everyone (including animals) goes through a learning process when it comes to knowledge. It's perfectly normal to ask these strange questions at the beginning. Be tolerant, be tolerant!
Let alone illiterate beast girls, even if you randomly pick someone off the street right now, or even someone with higher education but no interest in military matters, they will have the same problem.
Ruby was the only one who gave him peace of mind—because she hadn't recovered from last night's battle and didn't even want to talk.
After finally managing to teach them to a fairly good extent, Payne, whose blood pressure was about to explode, tossed the assembled gun to the three beasts, letting them practice disassembling it themselves for a while.
Of course, he had checked the gun several times to make sure it was empty and had put all the bullets away.
After that, he leaned against the haystack, took out a notebook and pen from his pocket, and began to write something while deep in thought.
The three beasts, who were playing with guns, did not notice his actions. Only Ruby, who was idle, had her gossip spirit burning brightly. She dragged her legs, which were as soft as noodles, to Paine's side and leaned in to see what he was writing.
Payne didn't try to hide anything; he simply used Ruby's tail to prop up his notebook and continued writing.
Under the influence of the girl's inherent superpowers (including the beast girl), Ruby, after watching for a while, asked, "You're not calculating our divergence device, are you?"
Payne rolled her eyes at her. "Divergent, divergent, do you think I'm that kind of person?"
"Ah."
“You still say ‘hmm’?!” Payne pinched her cheek. “Look for yourself, is there even a single number on this?”
Ruby looked at it for a few more seconds. "So, you're writing a letter to Miss Mary?"
Payne raised an eyebrow. "Not bad, you know so many words now?"
"No, it's just because the letter format is easy to recognize, and I've seen you write 'Miss Mary' many times before..."
At this point, Ruby wagged her tail slightly, trying to stop Payne from continuing to write. "I'm still using the diverging device. It's one thing for you to write to other women without my knowledge, but you even have to use my tail as a pad for your notebook?"
Chapter 56 LVI. Pulling
"Hey, hey, stop fooling around..."
Payne tried to control the big tail, but Ruby was determined to cause him trouble, so he could only reluctantly push the tail aside and continue writing with his legs propped up on the notebook.
However, Ruby still wasn't going to let him off the hook. She tickled his neck with her tail while verbally interfering, "Tell me, how did you meet Miss Mary?"
Payne was annoyed, but he still answered, "Didn't I already tell you? We met at the hospital."
"She's a nurse?"
"Correct."
"Oh? But I remember you first said she was a reporter?..."
"Yes, she started as a reporter, but after realizing the cruelty of war, she wanted to help wounded soldiers, so why didn't she choose to become a nurse?"
"Oh? So how did you fall for her?"
"Well, I wouldn't say I liked her. I just shared some of my views with her, and she agreed with them, so she decided to keep in touch with me through letters. That's all."
"Tsk."
"What are you tutting?"
“It’s nothing,” Ruby said, turning her head away. “You remember other people’s things so clearly. I asked you several times and you gave the same answer. You even said it’s not because you like them.”
"...Hehe, if my answer is different every time, are you going to say 'You're just making things up to fool me'?"
Although he knew Ruby was just stirring up trouble during the splitter phase, he couldn't help but continue, "You were there when I first met her, right? You forgot? She was the blonde girl."
"Norma was so excited. It was the first time she had ever seen me talking so intently with a human girl. She immediately rubbed her nose against her back, which startled her."
"Wait a minute, what number is Norma again? I vaguely remember it being the one with chestnut hair..."
Ruby remembered these things, of course, so she wasn't interested in asking further. Instead, she asked, "So what were you writing to her? Love letters?"
"I've already told you, there's nothing between me and her. We were just having some sociological discussions..."
This is also a traditional aspect of time travelers leveraging their information advantage—
Even if one is only at the level of a keyboard warrior or troll on Earth, in a world a hundred years behind Earth, even a rudimentary explanation of Earth's ideas is enough to inspire the locals.
Payne could tell that Miss Mary also had a lot of grievances about the war and was eager to find a solution, which was why he was willing to discuss it with her.
He also considered whether to tell Miss Mary that he was a time traveler, because after several in-depth conversations, she had wondered more than once how he came up with these ideas that were ahead of their time, and he could not explain the origin of these ideas.