Arc of Fire

So you’re aware of your bad reputation, huh.

Wang Zhong thought just that, while Yegorov outright said, “So you’re aware of your bad reputation, huh?”

Wang Zhong widened his eyes at Yegorov, wondering if he was always this bold.

Pavlov’s expression was as if he were complaining, “What is this peasant talking about!”

The Judge laughed, “Our job is to instill fear. If everyone saw us and wasn’t scared, then the lurking enemies wouldn’t be scared either. They’d become reckless, right? So it’s better for us to be feared.”

Wang Zhong and his officer squad, which really consisted only of Yegorov and Pavlov, exchanged glances.

He decided to skip over this matter and straightened his body, saying to the Judge, “Lead the way. By your car?”

"Alyosha!” Before the Judge could respond, a call came from behind.

General Wang turned around to see Ludmila jogging over, holding a plate in her right hand with bread, grilled sausages, and pickles, and carrying a cup in her left hand.

"Have something to eat,” Ludmila said, “The last time you ate was at dawn, and you’ve walked so much since then, you must be hungry.”

Wang Zhong nodded, he indeed was hungry.

He first bit into the bread, then silently put it back. It was said to be a fragrant large loaf, but this piece of wood obviously wasn’t one.

With apprehension, Wang Zhong picked up the grilled sausage and after one bite, stuffed the rest in his mouth without another word.

He made a note to remember in the future, to trust sausages—likely all meats were trustworthy.

Finally, Wang Zhong picked up a pickle.

It tasted like—well, like a pickle.

After eating, Wang Zhong wiped his mouth and took the cup from Ludmila. After a sip, he noticed it wasn’t water in the cup, but milk.

Wang Zhong: “Where did the milk come from?”

"There’s a whole bucket over there,” Ludmila said, pointing to a large bucket with a faucet in the distance near the kitchen.

Wang Zhong: “Ah, cow’s milk.”

"Yes, what else would it be?” Ludmila asked, confused.

Wang Zhong tried not to let his eyes wander and answered, “I thought it was mare’s milk.”

Ludmila was even more perplexed, “You want to drink mare’s milk? Isn’t that difficult to get now?”

Wang Zhong drank the rest of the liquid in the cup in one go and handed it back to the girl, “Cow’s milk is fine. I’m off.”

"Right,” Ludmila added, “Monk Yeca Neiko has gone to the Army Group church; we might be deployed somewhere else. Alyosha, I…”

Upon hearing that his Divine Arrow squad might be taken away, Wang Zhong became furious. He hadn’t even secured a tank yet, and now they wanted to take his Divine Arrow? He raised his voice, “Without my permission, none of you can leave! I’m going to see the Army Group Hierarch now, I’ll speak to him!”

Ludmila breathed a sigh of relief, and her expression softened.

She seemed pleased.

Wang Zhong, still fuming with anger, got into the Tribunal’s car and sat in the back, muttering, “Taking my Divine Arrows, what a joke.”

Without the tank and my “short-range” anti-tank missile group (referring to the Divine Arrow squad, which Wang Zhong saw as an anti-tank missile group) being moved, this war can’t be fought. I need to have a serious complaint to the Brigade Commander—no, to the Army Group Hierarch!

The two Judges also got in the car.

Yegorov intended to get in the car as well, but the Judge said, “You don’t need to come. Write a report on the combat process, staff will come to get it.”

Yegorov clicked his tongue and looked back at Sergeant Grigori.

The Sergeant immediately understood, picked up the captured MP40, and sat in the backseat of the jeep, next to Wang Zhong.

"I’m a guard,” the Sergeant said, “It’s normal to bring a guard, right?”

The Judge nodded and started the vehicle.

The car thus left the school.

————

After the Judge had left, all the soldiers from the Third Rear Amur Group breathed a sigh of relief, and the scene quickly livened up again.

The young girls from the field cooking team began to discuss the Count who had just left.

They were all girls conscripted from the local area of Bogdanovka; some were even born after the civil war ended, and many were too young to remember anything during the civil war.

Even though Bogdanovka had been bombed by the Prussians, the Prussian attacks were focused mainly on the train station and the locomotive repair factory next to it, so most of the people from Bogdanovka had not really seen someone wounded or killed by Prussian planes.

Therefore, these girls had little concept of the cruelty of war, and their imaginations of war were mainly influenced by movies, music, and poetry.

They passionately discussed the words the Count had just said:

"Natasha, did you hear? The Count said ‘Then I can introduce you to the road back from hell’, so cool!”

"Yes, when he said those words, his expression made my heart almost jump out!”

"Right, who was that girl who just brought food to the Count? She seemed just a bit older than us.”

As the girls chattered excitedly while working, the auntie in charge of stirring the pot knocked the edge of the pot hard with her large spoon, “Stop chattering and focus on work, girls! Natasha, look at the potatoes you peeled; I can see spots where you didn’t peel off the skin!”

No sooner had she spoken than someone from the soldiers yelled out, “I’ll eat that potato!”

This caused a round of laughter.