Chapter 1752: Wounded

เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 มี.ค. 2569 14:49

Chapter 1752: Wounded Ning led the undead toward one of the tents up on the hill and stuffed it inside. He placed his talisman on the undead to keep it completely concealed while it was there. As for himself, he summoned one of the other 12 beasts from the bracelet. Luminous Lemming: a small rodent with fluffy white fur that could control all properties of light. Upon the lemming’s summoning, Ning quickly used it to turn himself invisible. He could’ve used the lemming on the undead and taken the talisman instead, but he needed the undead to remain hidden, while he had ways of escaping should the invisibility from the lemming fail somehow. Ning discreetly moved out of the tent and made his way down the hill toward the coalition campsite. Walking in, he could feel the absence of people. The smell of fresh mud filled the place, along with a hint of a pungent smell of blood and something else. The seemingly abandoned campsite was void of noise, other than the shuffling of tent flaps and the occasional people that walked close by Ning. The ones that walked out of the tents were mostly women, walking around with dirty laundry. It was only when one of them walked past Ning that he saw what the laundry was dirty with. They were walking around with bloody sheets. There was also a nasty smell of urine and perhaps even defecation. He saw bandages too, making him wonder if the women were walking out of the tents where they kept their wounded. Compared to the women, there were fewer men there. He only saw them occasionally walking around in uniforms. Some of them even looked wounded. Ning now wanted to check what was really going on with the campsite, so he walked up to a tent. Getting close, he could hear the soft cries and wails coming from inside, like a haunted mansion trying to warn people to stay away. Ning even managed to see a flicker of a spirit fly out of the place, almost as if someone had just died inside of the room. Walking in right then would’ve perhaps given him away to people who would want to know how the tent flaps opened on their own, so Ning waited until someone walked out. A woman did walk in carrying fresh laundry, and Ning followed behind, walking into the tent. As soon as he was in, his senses were violated by the sight, scent, and smell of the place, as well as the overwhelmingly negative mood that was in the room. Beds lined up on the floor, leaving only a few paces for people to walk by. All of the beds were filled with wounded men, who were being treated for their injuries. There were two men that seemed to be the doctors in that place, along with about six nurses that followed their commands. The two men would run through the room, looking at the wounded. When someone cried out in pain, one of them would go over to them and try to help the man. If it wasn’t anything serious, he would leave the man to be dealt with by the nurse and instead walk over to the next one. Ning was stunned by the sight, which could’ve only been the result of war. He counted the people there and realized there were close to a hundred wounded in just that tent alone. When no one was looking, he left the tent, walking over to another large one. He had seen people walking in and out of here as well, so he walked and peeked inside. There too were wounded people being treated. ’More wounded? How many people are wounded?’ Ning wondered. He went through about ten tents, and in them, he found nearly 500 wounded. And from what he could tell, there were more wounded there than what he had seen. ’How the hell are there so many wounded?’ Ning wondered. ’And where are the rest?’ Were they perhaps in active battle? His guess that the battle was one of attrition must’ve been wrong. But then, how could they take so many people through the Largan Pass? He went through the camp slowly and ended up in a kitchen where they cooked food for thousands of people every day. He walked in to find a group of people peeling potatoes. He sat by for a second to hear what they were talking about. "My wife will want us to buy a new house. I’m not sure I have that sort of money." "Gotta get my sister married when I go back. She’s of age." "Hey, I’m of age too. Why don’t you introduce your sister to me?" The others laughed and continued. Ning was surprised. The conversation felt so... chill. There were men dying in the tents just 50 meters away from them, and these men were joking as if there was no issue. Were they in denial of their situation? "Honestly, once we are allowed to go back, the first thing I will do is sleep for three days straight." "Me too." "I am quite tired too." Ning turned to leave to go find more from the other tents. Just as he was about to walk out, he heard one final sentence from someone. "Just a few more days, boys. Now that the war is over, it is only a matter of time before we’re dismissed from this hellish place." Ning froze in his steps, stunned. He slowly turned around toward the cooks, wanting to ask them to reiterate. The tent flaps opened right then, and a burly man walked in with a large sack over his shoulders. He walked over to the men and lightly kicked one of them on the behind. "Less talking, more working." The men chuckled. "Let us take a break, Major. We don’t have to cook that much anyway. It’s not like we have to feed our soldiers. They’re halfway to the capital already." The burly man looked back. "And what? Does that mean you can slack off?" he asked. "Until the day we have a new Emperor, you won’t be returning home. Now, those wounded from the final battle need food to heal. So get to it."

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