Chapter 67 – The Commander’s Proposal
The young soldier clears his mind and faces the combat homunculus talking to him. She had slightly heterochromatic eyes and a varied skin tone.
＜Nah, my shoulder’s aren’t particularly stiff… why the sudden proposal?＞
To his question, the homunculus looked down a little and said,
＜I heard from Katamimi. That Captain sees us as 「partners.」 As a partner, I want to help as much as I can.＞
The young soldier’s expression grew strange at those words, as he answered,
＜…Now that I think about it, they might be a bit stiff… should I ask for a massage after all?＞
The homunculus looked up, and at that time it seemed as if her face grew brighter as well. The young soldier sat down on the bed and the homunculus sat down behind him. Just as she started to massage the youth’s shoulders, he noticed something. It was a large number of gazes piercing his back.
When the young soldier turned his body, he saw the eyes of all the homunculi in the room. Without a single homunculus making even the slightest of movements, they stared at his shoulders,
As one would, he was surprised by this tactic coordination.
（Somehow… I feel like a prey targeted by a pack of carnivorous animals… … Maybe the other girls want to do something too?）
He gave his thoughts a try, and said to the homunculi staring at his shoulders,
「Ah, actually my whole body is stiff. All that running around these two days must have tired out my body!」
He felt many presences coming closer from behind. As they approached step by step, he gave a bitter smile.
????
A small knock came from the door.
＜Excuse me.＞
Katamimi entered the room of the young soldier.
Immediately after, she froze.
The moment Katamimi entered, what she saw was the bed of the young soldier surrounded by combat homunculi. He was lying down shaped like a 大 character. Everywhere from his limbs to his neck, even each of his fingertips were carefully massaged by the army of homunculi.
The moment she「understood」what was going on, Katamimi froze.
Why, why did she freeze?
Not even Katamimi knew.
She desperately tried to resist, but her legs set on an inevitable march to the side of the bed. She placed some documents on the small table beside the bed and left the room.
Standing in the corridor, Katamimi stared at her immovable legs with hazy thoughts. Then, without saying anything, she returned to the standby room.
????
Even after Katamimi took her leave, the homunculi continued to massage him. Being massaged by this army, he could not read the documents placed beside the bed.
As he couldn’t read the message himself, he ordered a homunculus roaming around the bed to read the letters aloud for him. She quickly spread out the letter and began reading in a clear voice,
「I want the homunculus soldiers, who are not officially registered, to perform maintenance around the garrison.
If your results are adequate, I can yield you some unoccupied buildings.」
The document was not a formal military order, but closer to a「request」from the Colonel. After all, as Katamimi said, for the homunculus soldiers who were supposed to be discarded but were repaired and reused, those homunculi did not exist on record. f reewe bnovel
In a way, they could be considered a foreign existence to the military. No matter how large an army is, an army is controlled by a group of officials.
Government officials can only act when there are corresponding foundations and regulations. Conversely, without the applicable regulations, they cannot act. The same goes for the military, a form of government office. For the combat homunculi that the young soldier owns himself, No regulations allow the Colonel to issue orders for their use.
Moreover what the youth did was also unprecedented.
As they had no justification, and also did not have a precedent, the military could not use these homunculi. As a result, the Colonel could only「request」the boy with a personal letter rather than an order.
With the contents of the letter in mind, the young soldier thought about what to do.
（The number of combat homunculi will increase steadily in the future. If that’s the case, there must be some limit to them aiding me in logistical support. If I deploy more homunculi in the rear depot than necessary, the veterans will surely find trouble with me.
…no, that’s not the only problem. After a certain threshold, this room alone will not be enough. For that, I might be in trouble if I get on the Commander’s bad side. I’ll just accept the proposal here.）
He accepted the proposal and sent several homunculi to perform maintenance around the garrison from the next day on.
Meanwhile, he took the homunculi who were accustomed to logistical support to the front line rear depot once again.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel