Chapter 12: Chapter 10 – What Used To Be

Second Sergeant, Wilhelm von Habsburg, Russiva Imperial Year 782 Month 3, Day 9, No Man's Land, Deutsche Imperial Army

Wilhelm looked at the figure of his 2nd Adjutant on the ground.

He wondered what could she be feeling, What face was she making under her hair?

Was it a face full of Anger? Frustration? Grief? Or maybe all three?

He saw what happend earlier, but couldn't intervene.

'She spoke up about her thoughts to Liutenant Colonel Radnitzer after he already gave the order to move out, knowing that it could potentially endanger her position in the army.' Wilhelm let his thoughts run.

'Is this really what the Empery should be doing?' Wilhelm asked himself.

Reichel Schwertspinne was not even 18 yet, Does the Empery really have to enlist child soldiers? Moreso young women?

Wilhelm had serious doubts about the abilities of a soldier who had not reached adulthood yet, much less a soldier who has never been to Officer School.

Wilhelm then remembered the words of Chlust from earlier this morning.

'Lance Corporal may have not come of age as an adult yet, But out of everybody in this camp she is the one that thinks the most mature. She may look cold and apathetic, but that's just her way of saying she cares about her own people.'

His thoughts were interrupted by Reichel's raspy, and almost metallic voice.

"Yes...sir..." The young girl said, as she looked up to the sky while moving her hair out of her place.

Reichel had put up a beautiful smile on her face, It was her signature smile that would move both men and women to at least gasp when shown the extravagant aesthetics of herself.

It was a cheery smile, of an innocent playful girl who you'd never think made a living by turning people into corpses.

*gulp*

But why?

Why was his body hair standing on edge?

Why had the colour of his skin, which had been lightly tanned from his days in the Officer School, turned a shade paler?

Why were his knees, which were used to running laps from endurance training, shaking so feebly?

And why, Why did he feel a tight pain in his chest, As if somebody had grabbed his heart and was tightly squeezing it?

"Sergeant Habsburg." Reichel called out to him, in the same metallic voice that she used earlier.

'!?' Wilhelm almost screamed out when he saw Reichel, Or more specifically what was around her.

In ever direction, There was a black haze that seemed to loom over her. The black haze floated on the ground and seemed to be clinging to her figure. Another figure formed itself from the haze, adopting more colours than just the black it started with.

Colours formed inside the haze, until it had the recognizable shape of a human. It had the same ebony and jet black hair as Reichel, It had the same ruby and blood coloured eyes as Reichel, and all the other facial features mimicked Reichel's looks perfectly.

If he ignored that she didn't have the same scar underneath Reichel's left eye, It was like he was staring into a mirror-perfect image of Reichel.

The mirror-perfect haze model of Reichel seemed to be licking at her with her gaze, and when Reichel seemed to be oblivious of how the haze was looking at her as if she were some form of food.

'Reichel, Watch out!' He wanted to scream, But it felt like there was an immense pressure building up in his lungs that prevented any air from coming out, or coming in.

Suddenly, as if realizing the presence of Wilhelm, the mirror-projection of Reina turned her gaze towards Wilhelm. And after a few moments of her eyeing Wilhelm, He finally realized what that look means.

His hairs stood even more at edge, and cold sweat dripped down his neck.

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He was being seen as food, as sustenance.

And just when he was about to pass out from fear, The haze's smile seemed to get more...soft. It manipulated his fear and cast it away, making Wilhelm be able to look at it like a normal human.

The haze brought up her index finger to her perfect lips, which needed no cosmetics to bring out their true beauty.

'Shush.' The haze seemed to say, as she moved her lips, but no sound came out.

"Sergeant Habsburg?"

Wilhelm was brought out of the trance by the familiar sound of Reichel's voice, the girl was now fully standing and her hair was once again arranged into a neat ponytail on the back of her head.

It seemed like Wilhelm had been in a daze, and he was unable to focus on his surroundings during that time.

'Who was that?...What was that?' As Wilhelm thought about the scene that happend earlier he could not help but think of those questions.

'Was it real? Or was my mind playing tricks on me?' Wilhelm started to question his sanity.

"Adjutant Reichel, You wouldn't have happend to see a beautiful black-haired lady around here haven't you?"

"..."

"What?"

"Sergeant Habsburg, With all due respect, Even if I like compliments I would prefer if you didn't flirt like this out in the open and start acting like a real soldier. People might get the wrong idea." Reichel said with a scowl, after she reverted her expression back to its normal and unreadable state.

'Crap! Now that you think about it that did sound like I was hitting on her!'

"Ah Adjutant Schwertspinne, I..."

'...apologize.' is what what he was about to say, but Reichel had already seperated from him with a formidable distance in such a short amount of time.

"Ah wait!" Wilhelm said, as he ran off to chase after Reichel.

And just like that, Wilhelm had forgotten about the mysterious haze that enveloped Reichel earlier.

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A force was taken to survey Urganschoft and possibly if there are enemies remaining, engage.

At first Lt Colonel Radnitzer wanted to take all of the 6,000 troops from the camp to march to Urganschoft, but after more than just a few complaints he was eventually forced to move with 2,500 soldiers as the other authorities in the Sturm army camp thought that Urganschoft could be a diversion to attack the Sturm army camp while they were away.

And left with 2,500 men instead of the full might of the Sturm army camp he marched on to the village of Urganschoft, which was 2 hours away from the Sturm army camp on foot.

This was a military movement unknown and unsupervised by the will of the General Staff back in the Empery's capital of Beirlien, it was a movement that could potentially provoke another country which was a right not given to the reaches of a Lt General, However it is stated that the Lt General can act to defend the Empery's borders, which was what Lt General Radnitzer was taking advantage of.

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Lots of panting could be heard all around Wilhelm, It was the recruits of the Sturm army camp who only knew how to walk around inside their own camp at night time.

These recruits only knew how to waste away using the people's taxes, and had no combat experience and could only barely hold a weapon straight. They had the minimum amount of any kind of training and were very much almost useless in a fight against a professional army.

Wilhelm did not expect much from these people, seeing their incompetence encompasses what the Army usually allows.

'Well even if they're like that we'll at least have numbers in our list of advantages.'

With the Czuch Union's forces being spread so thin already in their Northern War Thatre against the Polski Confederacy, it was estimated that there would only be less that 1,500 soldiers that were actually on the borders of No Man's Land.

Wilhelm looked back to see his squadmates who were in the back and marching along with the rest of the army.

None of them were slowing down on their march, each of them were as lively as the moment they set foot out into No Man's Land from the army camp.

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