Chapter 57: The Captain’s Order

Under Luka’s shocked and slightly weirded-out gaze, this sergeant major of the Tenth Battalion, Dream Sleep, kept nodding off, drooling, and squeezing out slurred words from her mouth:

The Tenth Battalion… how are things… I don’t know…

I ran and ran… and then everyone went who knows where… when I came back to myself, only I was left.

This sergeant major, constantly sleepy and with completely muddled logic, had none of the bearing of an officer or an elite. Her words were careless and startling.

What kind of officer commanding a hundred-person battalion didn’t even know where her own unit had gone?

For a moment, Luka felt like he wasn’t on a tense, serious battlefield, but back in a children’s magical girl anime from his previous life. Even the art style had changed.

Dream Sleep was this unreliable. What did everyone else think?

Luka’s startled gaze quickly swept across their faces.

To his surprise, aside from him, everyone including Captain Nore didn’t show the slightest bit of surprise. Instead, they nodded slightly, as if they were used to the drowsy girl’s strange antics.

This… is this right?

Since the officers weren’t saying anything, what could Luka say?

He could only swallow his overflowing urge to complain and hold it in until his small face flushed red.

Beside him, Nore sighed after hearing the four reports.

She glanced toward the Sky Eye Demon.

Five Stone Statue Demons were guarding it closely, showing no intention to attack.

The enemy was clearly planning to stall for time, waiting for strong reinforcements to arrive and wipe them all out at once.

Nore narrowed her slender eyes, as if pondering something.

After a moment, she beckoned Heartflow, the sergeant major of the First Battalion, closer and whispered a few words in her ear.

Heartflow’s eyes widened a little, and her expression was hesitant.

She said in a low voice, “Ma’am, my exclusive spell, Wide-Area Telepathy, can reach extremely far distances, but it costs a tremendous amount of mana, and the message reaches everyone regardless of camp or allegiance. Do you really want to activate it now?”

“Don’t worry about that. The Sky Eye Demon’s long-range telepathy has already been sent. Who knows how soon unknown demon reinforcements will arrive.”

Nore said seriously, “We no longer have the time or the conditions to gather our forces and slowly form a detailed plan. We must send my orders to all nearby troops as quickly as possible. Send it, directly broadcast the telepathic message to the airspace within twenty kilometers!”

“Understood!”

Seeing that Nore had made the call, Heartflow stopped doubting and nodded.

She closed her eyes, pressed her hands against her temples, and began to channel her mana.

Hum…

As Heartflow pushed with all her might, the air around them faintly vibrated. A psychic force that was almost becoming solid turned into ripples that spread outward from her brain.

Luka could clearly sense from the mana leaking into the air that the maturity of her magic flower seed was not something a two-star could show. It was absolutely and solidly at the three-star level.

Even compared with the other three sergeant majors, Heartflow’s mana was more refined and pure, not at all like someone newly arrived at three-star. She had probably advanced quite far in that rank.

After a short charge, Heartflow suddenly opened her eyes.

Swoosh!

Her eyes released sharp light, and the psychic force contained in them almost turned solid, gushing out of her pupils.

Hum…

A powerful telepathic message spread outward from Heartflow as the center at an incredible speed.

At the same time, Heartflow’s clear and bright voice rang in Luka’s mind:

[Captain’s Order]

[Three-star and above, come to high-altitude support immediately]

[Below two-star, with less than two years since enlistment, and the severely wounded, break through and retreat on your own]

[The rest, form ranks and intercept the enemy reinforcements]

Luka’s expression changed.

From the content of the message, besides ordering sergeant major-level powerhouses to come support and veterans and elites to stop the demons from approaching, Nore had directly ordered that those below two-star who had enlisted not long ago, plus the severely wounded, did not have to fight and could retreat immediately.

This was obviously to preserve the last embers of the regiment.

But could it be done?

Luka couldn’t help doubting.

After all, this order had been sent through wide-area telepathy to every magical girl’s ears in the surrounding area.

That is to say, every magical girl who would risk death to intercept the demon reinforcements knew the full contents of the order.

Facing danger, the weak fighters could avoid battle and leave directly, while they, the elites and veterans, had to give everything to buy time for those others?

Moreover, almost all sergeant major-level magical girls were gathered in the high altitude. Almost no one below had enough strength and status to supervise the execution of this order.

In such a critical situation, issuing an order that tested human nature like this, what in the world was Nore thinking?

When he thought of this, Luka hesitated again and again, but finally decided to speak up and try to warn Nore of the danger of this order.

However, something he could hardly believe happened.

Under Luka’s extremely shocked gaze, the nearly one hundred magical girls in the distance who had not yet arrived quickly reacted to the order.

One third of the figures immediately changed their flight paths.

They turned south, went around the demon air forces coming to reinforce, and retreated toward the imperial defense line south of Iron Mountain Plain.

The remaining two thirds of glowing figures, as soon as they received the interception order, quickly moved to their nearest companions and spontaneously formed temporary squads of three or five.

As soon as these squads formed, they immediately pounced toward the nearest large groups of demon air forces, trying to stop the enemy reinforcements and keep them from approaching or interfering with the high-altitude battle.

Luka clearly saw some lone magical girls whose body light was already extremely dim still charging into far stronger enemies without regard for their own lives.

Other squads had only a few people, yet they directly blocked Batwing Demon squads several times their number, trying to intercept them with a viciousness that traded one life for another.

What’s more, some people clearly were not within the strength range required by the order, and they were almost out of the battlefield themselves. But when they saw their comrades fighting desperately behind them, they gave up escape and turned around to support their friends.

Seeing this, Luka’s heart clenched.

Whether it was Nore, as the regiment captain, taking the initiative to preserve the regiment’s last embers with her human touch, or the magical girls of the Canary Regiment, who knew the odds were slim yet still threw themselves into battle with a spirit of sacrifice and fighting will, it all far exceeded his imagination.

Thinking back to the cruelty and darkness he had seen and heard over the few days since he had crossed into this unreasonable world, the contrast with what he was seeing now was stark.

These lovely and respectable magical girls, most of them had been caught up in a despicable plot because of him.

And after this battle, he had no idea how many would survive.

Luka clutched his chest in pain.

He felt the tears he had long held back nearly burst from his eyes, impossible to suppress!

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