Chapter 34: Discord
* I don't know what happened during my sleep but when I woke up I was at home, it was certainly less cold but it was still winter. I had left the north beyond the north and was back home. But then why was there this fucking stench around me? I woke up with a bang, pressed for time, especially since night was about to fall. I had smelled it, the smell of war at my doorstep, why is that? Why now ? How long have I slept and what did I miss? My first reflex was trying to reach for my rifle, my hand touching something sharp, very sharp. I looked and saw the sword I had brought back from the cave, it was there. After putting my head under cold water and getting dressed I will retrieve the sword that I put right in front of me. It did not change any more, nothing more, neither in m16 nor in MG it remained a sword. It was nothing more than a regular sword now. Some would find it strange, but I felt a great relief. Bringing such a supernatural entity home scared me. I hope Arianne * ....
-Arianne. * I was shouting *. Where is she ?
* I put the sword back in my closet and retrieved my lever action rifle before practically stepping out in a tank top. I tried to feel her presence with my 6th sense but nothing helped she was nowhere in the house. She had run away? Elysion got her back? No to the nose and beard of Lars and a Dimitri who watches it was impossible. I soon found myself outside in the middle of all this snow and saw some guys coming in and out of the barn that was supposed to be used as an airplane hangar. When they saw me their expression was very happy and threw themselves on me. I didn't need further explanation that "Elysion is attacking us" so I followed without even asking questions. This is how I found myself involved in the counter-offensive and we repulsed Elysion for the umpteenth time. I was always upset with the way he attacked us. Nothing has changed in 8 years, no tactics, no strategy, they were content to send us troops, troops that they even did not know or to send precisely. And I was just discussing it with Lars from the balcony of the factory *.
-All that to say that even an idiot like you can fend off an Elysian battalion with the right tactics. *I said*.
-It's not tactics, it's guerrilla warfare. And it does not lead to anything, we win but our losses are considerable. * He told me with a jaded air *.
-Yes, but as long as they do not know how many of us they are getting down, their morals will always be at their lowest. For them it will be like facing an infinite enemy.
* Or go to war with China, it's just as terrible as the Korean or Manchurian war. That said Lars didn't seem convinced, the losses from these latest attacks were enormous *.
-I don't know Keith, the Elysians know how to aim better and better I think. Look at all these deaths.
* I watched Oslo and his gang cart corpses along the yard and there were a lot of them. As usual he will have to bury ours and use the Elysian corpses as fuel. Except that there were a lot of ours there. Until then, I never really thought about the losses we suffered because it seemed to affect neither the moral nor the combativeness. As long as the enemy was wiped out that was enough for me, but was it the right way to act *?
-Hey what are you thinking girls? * Asked Jessie who arrived with cups of coffee *.
-It's Lars who is still giving me the blues. I hate you for that buddy. * I say, grabbing a coffee *.
-No thank you I do not want. * Lars said without even looking *. What I meant to say ...
* His sentence was interrupted by a huge crash. The sound of a man coming through the window, it was a man in a tank top with black skin, one of ours. Coming out of the building opposite, my father still tall and imposing with his hair bleached by age and not abinism like me. During the last assault he gutted an Elysian with a saw and it was he who insisted on taking my place and waiting for the enemy at the ambush point, thus endorsing the name "SEB". But then they explain to me why he was fighting with this guy *.
-Yeah that's it hits me as long as you want Rashford. It's always been the same with you. * He shouted *.
-Listen, there's no point in putting on a show, don't you think?
-Who do you think the boss is for? What do you think, that you and your son are our masters just because you built it all?
*Ok he's already starting to run over the bean*.
- Another one who will get badly messed up. * Lars sighed *. We bet your daddy smashes it or not?
-We bet nothing at all.
* I grasp the bar firmly and leap from the balcony *.
-Nahel damn it's the 3rd floor. * Jessie shouted *.
* Such a height was not a problem with my gift. I walked over to my father and the other stared at me *.
-Oh but who is it? The prodigy son. The mastiff.
- Get out of there before I blow your mouth off. * I say threatening *.
-Be careful how you talk to me kid. I kicked big asses like that with you not coming out of your mother tuberculosis.
* So he pissed me off. I was about to hit him when my mother knocked out his jaw with her fist. I'm not exaggerating this guy had his jaw deformed by this blow, I was all going back even I was not there yet. My father brought him to his knees and pulled out his machete. Everyone at the factory stopped working and stared at him in amazement *.
-That man. * Will he say *. Came to me in my office, at our headquarters, and he said, "We don't need you anymore Rashford."
-He dared. * Lars sighed *.
-He may be right I'm getting old after all, that's why my only son is going to fight for me. The truth is not that he is angry with me, the truth is that he believes himself superior, all these victories all these recent successes have made you forget an essential thing.
* He slipped the machete under the throat of the man who suddenly began to beg him. My father raised the machete and lowered it at high speed, thus beheading the unfortunate *.
-I'AM in charge Here. * He announced firmly *. How many of you were still living in caves when they were collected, how many of you knew how to shoot a gun, hunt, fish, build a house, run a factory? Nlbody ? Or very few ...
* A terrifying silence was heard in the square, it was the first time in a long time that my father had demonstrated his authority *.
- I will not go so far as to say that without me you are nothing, you have your lives and I respect that. On the other hand, do not come and fuck yourself in front of me and tell me that you no longer need me.
* He stuck the blade into the ground and screamed, hitting his chest *.
-It was I who taught you to fight, I was the one who urged you to revolt, it was I who made you fight. I'm your fucking general and I win your Battle. Me and my son NAHEL.
* War cries were heard everywhere in front of my father's cheerful speech. The prevailing tension vanished as it screeched and waved guns in the air. The charisma of my father will always surprise me, he has just committed an act of great cruelty but he succeeded in federating them with that again. Everywhere in the factory it was shouting "Rashford" or "Seb" *.
-Nahel your rifle.
* I passed it to him without thinking too much and he aimed at the fence, opening fire, barely looking. One of the Elysian workers who was trying to escape was seen to collapse to the ground and then he gave me my weapon back *.
-Oslo fuel. * He said *.
-Yes boss.
-Him too. * He said pointing to the guy on the ground *.
-Are you sure ?
- Do what he tells you Oslo. *I said*.
* I had promised Athy to change the North into Neo-Vietnam, but I began to realize that it was not Vietnam, it was not a country, there was no city to defend no people fixed, no patriotic spirit. The bonds that we'd killed each other in establishing my father and I were as fragile as that, all that was needed was for a major chieftain to decide to leave and everything we had built was going to go up in smoke again. And that I just couldn't take it. As I stared into space at the corpse of this Elysian soldier, I stared around me, wondering certain things *.
-It might be time to take it to the next level.
* I went to the shelter where Arianne was held, she was again a stranger and had been locked in a corner. The refuge had the minimum guard required since all the others had been mobilized, I entered the hut where Arianne was. She was sitting hand tied totally exhausted, or just pretending. No matter what her condition seemed serious so I gave her water *.
-Thank you. So tell me, why did you come to see me?
* I explained to her the incident at the factory and how a man tried to challenge my father. I omitted the execution of the fugitive on the other hand *.
-Haha, I see, that's the JEB Stuart effect. * She said exhausted *.
*Eh ? Where does she know the name of this guy *.
-To tell the truth, it's common among some officers. If I have to sum up what is happening to you, it is that you are earning way too much. You win over and over and over again.
-He ... I'm not following you what's wrong with winning? * I asked *.
-There are two problems here. The first is that as you are only winning they will end up believing that it is easy, they have no real opponents so they will believe themselves to be invincible and worse, some will want to go it alone, lulled by this illusion that 'They are capable of winning without you the Rashford.
-Are you telling me that I should have made some battles harder? * I asked *. Bloodier more deadly?
* She looked me straight in the eye and answered without batting an eyelid *.
-Yes.
* This response barely shocked me from her. I crossed my legs and stared at her *.
-I note.
-The second point is the lack of decisive victory.
-The lack of decisive victory?
-You know this saying that says whoever wins the last fight is the strongest? * She asked *.
-A little too well even. When I played football as a kid, we often said that. The last goal wins.
-I haven't seen any kid playing soccer here yet. * She said in astonishment *. Who cares Stuart I was talking about was a cavalry officer. He had many victories and military success, he even proved decisive which made him feared by his enemies.
-But it lacked real impact.
-Exactly. * Said she smiling *. Apparently he was winning his battles, but very few of them had any bearing on the war he was waging. To be honest he was absent at the crucial moments. And not always decisive.
-Jeb Stuart was a bad officer? Is that what you're telling me?
-No I'm just saying that Stuart was a good officer but lacked what it took to end a war or change the heart of it. Proof of this is his cavalry charge stopped by a new one in the area at Gettysburg. A certain George Armstrong Custer.
* I widened my eyes in surprise. I had almost no doubts, Arianne had just given me the proof I wanted. I didn't know what so I slowly pulled my machete out of its sheath and put it on my lap *.
-Said Arianne. How do you know these strange guys there? Custer ... Stuart. Where do they come from?
* She began to laugh lightly then at the top of her lungs before wiping a few tears under her eyes *.
-You'll laugh, my fiancee likes to tell me war stories like this. He says he would like to avoid a career like Custer's. When we were children he told me all the great conflicts he had imagined like that.
* Except that he did not imagine anything these conflicts happened in my world *.
-I admit I got addicted to it by force.
* No wonder these are true stories *.
- Besides, he has an imaginary friend by the name of .... Ah I remembered his name though, a very Inglesian name though .... "Churchill". He says he imagines his fate line similar to his.
* Baffled I practically let go of my machete. I messed up from the start but I knew she was special, Arianne's fiancée was my Target. Oooh i love you arianne. Daisuki as the Japs would say. She looked at me like I was mad as I stared at her with the greatest fascination *.
-Nahel you're scaring me there.
-Arianne .... * I tell her *.
-What ?
-Tell me more about your fiancée ... * I made a big smile on my lips *.
* As I was about to hear more I saw Tribe enter the hut *.
-Nahel, your father wants to talk to you.
-Scheisse. Ok I am coming back. Keep an eye on her nothing should happen to her it's a case of force majeure you hear me.
-I would do anything for you Seb.
-Well.
* I gave him a few slaps on the cheek, all exhilarated I left the hut smiling as if I had just pulled my shot. After 18 years of existence in this world I finally had a fucking track, it's Athy who would be happy. I found my father on a rock peak not far from the hut where my mother was sleeping. To tell the truth, it had been a long time since he had summoned me like that to one side. I put down my gun and sat down on the rock next to him *.
-What's the matter ? Dad.
-The guy I killed today, his uncle was the leader of the Melagde. They decided to leave us and go it alone.
-He ... What did you not know?
-Calm down. Obviously I knew it, but better to lose one clan than ten because some troublemaker decided.
-Tch damn, the Meladges know how to fight, they're tough.
-Yeah, I'm in a good position to know that.
-Truly ?
-You know when I was young your uncle Omar and I were mobilized for war.
* After all these years spent here I almost forgot that I was born in Elysion *.
-To tell the truth I spent a large part of my life at the front in a group called Ducale Marines or Dukam.
-I knew you had fought but you never told me about it.
-The Dukams are a world apart, they're tough guys, we give them the most daring missions, the most desperate battles, but you know what's the craziest? It's because they never dispute orders. They never go there and they win. "We do not retreat, we do not flee, we advance and we execute" is the credo of the Ducale Marines.
* Wow, this is the first time I've heard of it, and these guys look badass, they remind me of the Italian "Arditi" from ww1. And my father was one of them *.
-And you were one of them? * I asked *.
-Ouaip. Sergeant Major Elias Kelly Rashford at your service. Your uncle Omar Staff Sergeant Omar Tim Rashford was a tough guy and a good soldier too.
-Uncle Omar too?
* Considering how he has aged him, I find it hard to imagine *.
-Yeeees, but I was a fucking good soldier.
-Haha I don't doubt it.
* We both laughed. You have to believe that he gave me the soldier gene too. His face suddenly tightens *.
-The guy you met in the forest ... This ... Steinberg. It was one too. We fought together in Fort Lothar on the other continent. Ascheritz.
* Lino Steinberg was one of them, why I'm half astonished. My father stared at me gravely *.
-Nahel ... Since the beginning of this conflict ... Elysion has not sent us a single regiment of Dukam yet.
* I stared my dad in the eye and my blood started spinning around inside. How's that not a single one. Steinberg didn't command a unit? But then we were really fighting against amateurs? No, it's the Elysian army we're talking about *.
-The Elysian soldiers are maybe Shits but the Dukams are not kidding, it's like having assholes like Steinberg or me in a whole regiment. Snarling, hateful, nervous, whatever the race from where it does the job.
* Damn this shit might fall on us. But as my dad spoke, the thrill turns to excitement *.
-Of 100 men who go to war 80 are of the cannon pulpit, 10 should not be there and only 10 know how to fight. And in this set of 10 only one is a true warrior.
* My father stood up and patted me on the shoulder before giving me a proud smile *.
-Nahel you are a warrior because you are also the son of a warrior. Do not forget it.
* Then he moved away from me. Certainly this day had been very instructive. Between Arianne who had almost revealed to me the identity of my target and my father who had just told me about the best of Elysien I was served. As I sat on this rocky peak I watched the fir forest in the distance as the cold mountain wind blew. I felt a presence behind my back and then the click of a pistol *.
-I heard your conversation with Arianne. * Said Lars *. So before you give me a bogus excuse like "I saw it in a book" let me ask you when and where because we're always stucked together FUCK.
* Damn, I knew he was insightful but to think that I would undergo his interrogation today *.
- Already your military knowledge was abnormal for a kid, at the beginning I thought it was because your father was a soldier, but even he was surprised by your ingenuity. I brought some of your claymores and other inventions to our Elysian guests, they themselves see nothing but fire. You are also the only one to pick up this mystical gibberish from these ruins.
-Lars ... I don't see what ...
* A gunshot echoed in the air and my hand retracted *.
- Speak who are you? You really are Nahel or just a spirit that takes possession of him when it suits him. You come out of crazy things like the earth is round, the sun burns for miles and so on.
* I let out a sigh and lean back slightly *.
-I guess I have no choice.
* I told him everything. Absolutely everything, but in a version his brain could digest, after all even though Lars is smart the human brain cannot conceive or imagine things that he barely realizes is possible. The people of this world are less open-minded than mine *.
-So if I summarize correctly, you have memories of another life, a life that is not yours and it takes place in another world. This world is pretty much similar to ours and in the future people go to the moon, travel in space orbit around the earth, there is a tool called the internet that own all the knowledge of the world without talk about the weapons that have become so deadly that no one dares face each other.
-Do you believe me ?
-Of course not. * He shouted *. Man you're crazy.
* In the meantime he had put down his gun and sat down next to me *.
-Nahel it's crazy you're saying that you have all the military knowledge of the future.
-It's a warrior goddess who helps me you know.
* He hid his hands behind his back like I've seen in a lot of movies *.
-How many fingers?
-I saw the future not I see the future. * Say I jaded *. Stop it getting ridiculous man. And you have 4 but you will change to 3.
* He burst into laugh and I admit that I understood his reaction. Between the goddess and the military knowledge that I possess, the world that I made him imagine, his mind had cracked *.
-Ok ... Actually that makes sense. You dreamed of the future, we'll say that if someone ever asks. Besides, why are you telling me that now?
* I stared at him angry *.
-You're crazy ? Have you seen your Dumbass reaction? You threatened me with a gun.
- Man you are you. If you were really possessed you would have broken the back of my neck.
-Even owning I would never hurt you you're crazy.
-You talk but you're a thick bully at the bottom.
* We laughed a lot. In truth, it was liberating to be able to share your secret with a friend. I never really had a problem keeping it a secret, but I was glad I got to talk about it. But let's avoid being taken for crazy by revealing it to others. The days passed but still no attacks, some thought that Elysion had finally given up, but not me. I had locked the accesses installed anti-aircraft defenses, undermined strategic places and so on. No Elysian could go in and out without my knowing, but then why did I have this lump in my stomach? This feeling that everything was wrong. A radio message got me out of my reverie *.
-Seb they arrive on the rails as you predicted.
- I suspected it. *I said*. Blow them um and come back to position yourself. This time we hit a big blow that Elysion will remember.
* I had no idea then that I was going to fight the most difficult fight since I was born *.
* End of chapter *
- By the way Nahel. What is Hentai?
-Hahaha you are not yet a man of culture my brother.