No Beast Girls on the Western Front

Page 4

The square-faced man raised an eyebrow: "Don't you know perfectly well?"

As Payne ate, he continued, "But why can't she eat here?"

"She hadn't rested for two consecutive nights, keeping watch the whole time. Yesterday, she ran back and forth five times in the trenches amidst the gunfire to deliver ammunition and food to the soldiers. She even dragged me back from the no-man's land to the trenches. Before leaving today, she even helped deliver a telephone line to the command post."

"Tell me, with such a great contribution, why can't we even sit down for a meal?"

The square-faced soldier completely ignored the question and continued, "You have broken the tradition. From the moment you put these beasts in uniform, you have disgraced the great army of the Dexter Empire with its glorious traditions."

"Therefore, I have an obligation to continue to prevent the decline of tradition—in any case, animals should not sit at the table to eat."

Seeing the increasingly somber tone on the other end of the line, Lacey leaned closer to Payne, a hint of worry in her voice, and said, "Maybe... we should just leave?"

But Payne refused to back down. He stopped eating, looked up, and launched into a barrage of questions: "How long have you been fighting? Have you ever been in trenches like canals? Have you ever fought the enemy with bayonets? Do you know what the front lines are like?"

Seeing that the other person was momentarily speechless, Lacey worriedly grabbed Payne's arm, "Never mind, never mind..."

But Payne completely ignored her and raised his voice to continue:

"Since this army is so glorious and righteous, invincible in every battle, then don't force me, a commoner, to go to the battlefield, and don't force orcs to come either. It's not like anyone would want to come to this mud pit."

"What bullshit 'Great War'? You believe everything they say, right? They also said 'the orcs will become our loyal allies,' why don't you believe that? Is your brain filled with sieves? Why do you need to sieve what you believe first?"

These words completely enraged the square-faced group. The four of them stepped forward, knuckles clenched, and shouted, "You want to fight? Believe me or not, I'll twist your arm off!"

Just as tensions were running high in the cafeteria, and it seemed the two groups were about to clash, a low, guttural groan suddenly rang out.

The four soldiers who had started the trouble didn't realize what was happening for a moment. They felt not only their hair standing on end, but even their individual hairs standing on end.

Their innate sense of danger is frantically warning them!

As for Payne, he immediately realized what was happening:

This is Lacey protecting her master.

Chapter 5 V. The Beast Girl's Dilemma

It wasn't until two seconds later that the troublemaking quartet realized the terrifying, low growling sound was coming from the orcs that the kid had brought.

Although Lacey kept her head down, all five of them could see her ashen face, her mouth slightly open revealing a set of sharp, beast-like teeth, and her trembling throat emitting increasingly loud threatening sounds, even causing the windowpane to tremble.

Under this beast-like threat, not only did none of the four troublemakers dare to move, but even the other people in the cafeteria seemed frozen in place, cautiously observing the source of the sound, fearing that the other party would pounce on them and bite their necks off.

This is the predator's suppression of the prey.

Faced with this situation, Payne could only sigh, then skillfully took out a dog muzzle from his bag, expertly put it on the unsuspecting Lacey, stacked their plates with one hand and carried them away, while expertly pulling the dog leash with the other to drag Lacey outside.

The troublemaking quartet: "...?"

Lacey: "???"

Payne: "Enjoy your meal, everyone. I won't disturb you. I'm leaving now."

It wasn't until the man and dog had run quite a distance that the square-faced leader of the four troublemakers finally seemed to realize what was happening, rushing to the cafeteria entrance and waving his fist at the two men.

"Don't let me ever see you again!!"

"Huh? You said the wind was too strong and I couldn't see!"

……

They didn't stop to catch their breath until Pine dragged Lacey behind another building.

After removing the gag from Lacey, Payne gave her a sharp rap on the head before she could even speak, and growled fiercely, "How did I teach you?!"

Lacey's animal ears were pressed tightly against her head, and she covered the spot where she had been hit with both hands, saying aggrievedly, "But those four guys wanted to twist your arm off, I was just trying to protect you..."

Payne was speechless. "I've said it so many times, it's just talk! I won't actually do it!"

"When humans fight, the worst that happens is a few days of solitary confinement. But if you bite a human, do you know what will happen to you?!"

Lacey kept her head down and didn't say anything.

She was well aware of this situation—orcs who harmed people without cause, or even those who merely claimed to have been threatened by orcs, could be "de-escalated."

In this respect, orcs are treated even worse than real beasts.

Ultimately, although the Dexter Empire's biotechnology is highly advanced, the world's first beast girl was born around the same time as Payne, and it has only been about ten years since beast girls were allowed to participate in the operation of society.

Similar to the emergence of machines during the Industrial Revolution, the unemployment caused by the participation of animal girls in social production also caused a temporary social upheaval, so many people have ample reason to dislike animal girls.

In addition, even though the Dexterians are naturally quite receptive to advanced biotechnology, creatures like beast girls, who have human appearances, non-human characteristics, and human intelligence, are still quite groundbreaking in the entire history of biotechnology development.

For the Dexterians, who had only ever seen "high-speed birds" delivering packages and "crane elephants" carrying heavy loads, the appearance of a beast girl with intelligence similar to humans and the ability to communicate with them without barriers was still a bit too stimulating.

Finally, even those who most readily accept the appearance of beast girls still have reservations about letting them participate in battles.

After all, a person can confidently entrust their back to a human comrade. But beast girls, no matter how you look at them, seem to be a completely different species…

"Beware of cigarettes offered to you by people on the other side of the mountain." This is a Dexter proverb, which is similar in meaning to the Earthly saying "Those who are not of our kind are sure to have different intentions."

That's why even after Payne led his beast girls through a whole year of hardship on the front lines, he only had a handful of beast girls with him.

If they learn to stick together for warmth, what will become of them?

Moreover, the physical abilities of beast girls far surpass those of humans, so the authorities have always forbidden teaching them to use guns, or even melee weapons, for fear that if they learn to use weapons, they will go from being "already strong" to "absurdly strong."

In addition, the lack of popularity of beast girls is reflected in various aspects. For example, some canteens do not allow them to enter, some hospitals refuse to admit them, and sometimes they are not even allowed to ride in troop transport vehicles.

Payne had seen it more than once: trucks carrying human soldiers running ahead, with beast girls chasing after them carrying large and small bags.

It is precisely because of so many precedents that Payne seems to be overreacting.

Seeing that Lacey had already lowered her head and admitted her mistake, he found it hard to stay angry. He reached out and patted her head, "Okay, I know you were trying to protect me. It's alright, it's alright."

“I got a little carried away this time too. I’ll try to be more careful next time. If this happens again, you must firmly pull me away.”

"okay!"

Lacey's ears perked up again, and she happily let Payne stroke them.

Payne wasn't too angry to begin with, but the fluffy, warm feel of the meat instantly dispelled the last bit of his bad mood. He handed over the plate of raw meat, saying, "Let's go, Troy and Ruby are still waiting."

After a small cheer, the man and the beast, each carrying their own food tray, ate as they walked toward a meadow next to the camp.

……

From afar, Payne saw two figures, one tall and one short, lying on a grassy hill, the green sea rippling gently in the breeze.

The two beasts were probably so comfortable they were almost asleep when the person and the beast walked up to them. Troy, who had horse ears on his head, rubbed his sleepy eyes and excitedly pounced on Pain when he saw that it was Pain.

So Payne rubbed her head and asked with amusement, "Alright, alright, it's only been a few minutes, why are you so excited?"

Troy didn't speak; she simply rested her head on Payne's arm, her beautiful black ponytail swaying comfortably from time to time.

Troy, without a surname, was a comrade-in-arms who had accompanied Payne for more than half a year. He was a Marco soldier in the first generation of bio-engineered beastmen project of the Dexter Empire and also his research subject.

Troy, with her long, straight black hair and dark eyes, is almost as tall as Payne. But despite her cool and edgy appearance, she has the personality of a child and always likes to stick close to Payne after they become close.

In this respect, he's even more of a dog than Lacey.

As for little Ruby, she simply looked up at Payne, then rolled over and continued sleeping on her big tail.

Ruby, without a surname, has been with Payne since military training. She is his comrade-in-arms for a year and a half and is still his research subject. She is a squirrel-type soldier in the first generation of bio-engineered beastmen project of the Dexter Empire.

Ruby truly deserves her "squirrel" classification. Not only is she smaller than Payne's chest, she's as small as a little girl, and she's even weaker than Payne, easily overpowering him.

Perhaps her only redeeming quality is her agility and unparalleled climbing ability.

But there aren't that many climbing tasks on the front lines. I really don't understand what the people up there are thinking...

If you can't figure it out, then don't think about it anymore—Paine decisively gave up thinking, watched as Lacey lay down on the grass next to him, and continued to rub Troy's head, asking, "Have you two eaten enough?"

Chapter 6, Section 6. Hairy and smelly

Troy had a lot to say about this:

"Sigh... We went to the stable to ask for some oats, but that stingy stableman kicked us out... so I'll have to eat grass now."

Payne only learned this after arriving on the battlefield: the animals there, like humans, had a set diet.

For example, the rations for warhorses are usually a combination of barley, soybeans, hay, and straw.

If the fighting takes place in a foreign land, the warhorses may suffer from acclimatization problems. In such cases, it may even be necessary to prepare special compressed horse feed in the rear and transport it to the front lines.

However, the people who sent the beast girls to the front lines clearly treated them as completely human beings. Not only were their food standards exactly the same as those of humans, but they also ignored Payne's repeated requests to provide rations that were more suitable for the beast girls' physiques.

Firstly, this would save me trouble; secondly, it would reduce the pressure on logistics; and thirdly, there are currently too few beast girls in service, and different species of beast girls require different foods, making centralized production impossible...

Animal girls aren't incapable of eating human food, but it's still inappropriate—humans can survive by eating raw meat every day, but how many people could stand it?

Another issue is that warhorses are different from ordinary wild horses.

Wild horses only need to eat grass to provide the energy they need to run, but warhorses don't have as much time to eat. Furthermore, warhorses need to run long distances, transport heavy loads, and pull cannons, and they cannot cope with such heavy work without eating nutritious food.

Helpless, Payne had no choice but to find a way to feed the beast girls himself.

Ask the cook for some raw meat, ask the stableman for some feed; as long as you don't encounter someone who particularly dislikes beast girls, you can usually solve the problem.

As for Ruby, although there is no precedent in this world for having squirrels serve in the military, squirrels are omnivores and are relatively easy to raise.

When Payne asked Ruby how she had eaten, she simply waved her hand without looking up and said, "I picked some chestnuts from the chestnut tree over there."

Unfortunately, Ruby is rather aloof by nature, and since she doesn't rely entirely on Payne for food, she's not very clingy to him.

Except for the branching device.

Squirrels typically only go into heat twice a year, in spring and autumn, and it's only early summer now, which means... we'll have to wait at least three more months...

The thought filled Payne with grief.

Humans are such fickle creatures; they quickly tire of the beautiful girls who throw themselves at them, while the guys who are indifferent are surprisingly alluring.

What's even more deadly is that Ruby has a huge, fluffy, and warm tail that no other beast girl can match!

But she doesn't like being touched!

Except for the branching device.

Thinking of this, Payne unconsciously let go of Troy's head, turned around and crawled to Ruby's side, pulled her huge, furry tail out from under her, and buried his face in it like hugging a pillow, taking a deep breath.

Yeah, it stinks.

After crawling and rolling around in the mud for a whole month, it's no wonder it smelled terrible.