TFOA Chapter 10

Her colleagues in the platoon called Niksi the 'Goddess of Fortune.'

Fortune and goddess. A nickname with two good words.

Of course, just because good words were put together didn't mean the meaning was good, but Niksi quite liked that nickname.

She got that nickname from that time.

After five deployments to the German-French front lines, surviving three firefights and six bombardments.

"I stepped away to fetch water and a shell hit the outpost. I came right back. It was chow time, so nearly everyone was bunched together in one spot—you remember, sir? Well, a shell landed right there, so nobody could've walked away clean. I grabbed whoever looked most likely to make it and carried him out. Got on the radio to HQ right away. A third of our platoon was combat ineffective, but lucky for us the 1st platoon rolled up fast and we held the line. After that? Hell, I don't recall much."

"Now I understand why you're called the walking grim reaper."

"Wow, senior, that's too harsh. But hey, shouldn't I be able to get a medal and return home by now? I helped defend against the surprise attack."

"Let's return home first, Niksi. The front line is right in front of us. Our lifeline is hanging by a thread."

"Got it. The great Noel Hugger senior's orders are absolute."

"Are you being sarcastic again?"

"Hehe."

Dark jokes about lives hanging in the balance were the funniest comedy in the world.

Tragedy from a distance, tragedy up close.

Cackling with your buddies about how you'd die tomorrow, whether deserting or slugging a sergeant might buy you more time. Those stupid little moments were the best times back then.

In those days, being alive was considered the greatest medal.

What could bottom-rung soldiers accomplish with rifles? Not eating their own bullets was achievement enough.

A long time ago, she'd seemed pumped up about it. Hero complex stuff.

Saving dear comrades, serving her country. Still waking up each morning.

Of course, it didn't last long.

By the time the battlefield became familiar, such feelings had dulled too.

The Goddess of Fortune, Niksi, survived six years of war, but the other comrades who were just ordinary soldiers 1 and 2 were buried in mud, ditches, cliffs, and memories.

Heroes, pride, such things were meaningless.

An honorable death was as useless as finding a gold coin in the middle of a battlefield. The only thing to be proud of was stubbornly surviving for a long time.

Eventually, when those silly conversations from the old days grew dim, stars piled up on her chest one by one.

Medals.

After that, she never brought up being called the Goddess of Fortune or Lucky Niksi, not even as a joke.

Because the stars she'd come to bear, this star and that star, were heavy.

Sometimes comrades who used to joke around appear in her dreams.

When that happens, she thinks she's lost her mind.

—Thud.

Niksi threw him down in the middle of the painter's room.

It was hard enough carrying his droopy body, but the man she was carrying was burning like a fireball, making her feel feverish too.

He definitely hadn't been running this fever when they first met.

Could a person with healthy limbs deteriorate this rapidly in such a short time?

Niksi sat in front of the fireplace, gathering firewood. Fizz, fizz. The waterlogged matches were weak.

Eventually, Niksi scrunched up her face and threw the matches away.

'This looks like a drug side effect.'

Among people who overdosed on this medication, some suffered from fever.

Either the poppy root powder that was the sleeping medicine's main ingredient didn't agree with them, or their liver couldn't process the antibiotics in the drug, bringing on fever.

Niksi stripped the lamp down and pulled out the wick, touching it to the kindling.

Click click, a few scraping sounds. Before Niksi's makeshift tinder could catch, the fireplace mercifully sparked to life.

She boiled water, removed wet clothes, wiped his body, and put on new clothes.

There wasn't a single common fever reducer in the house.

'Then I'll have to make it.'

Niksi took out a medicine bottle from her inner pocket.

It was her long-standing habit to carry various medicines in a palm-sized container.

'When did I start carrying this around?'

She picked up white and red pills. She skillfully opened the capsules and diluted the appropriate powder thinly in water.

Ah, she remembered. It was from the Battle of Compiègne.

That day it was also raining, like today.

It was chaos everywhere.

They fought in mud so thick you couldn't tell friend from foe.

She was sobbing, clutching the arm of Noel Hugger, pinned under the rubble.

The front was collapsing, and the retreat order had come hours ago. Her foot was busted too, so escape would be rough.

She was just waiting to die alongside Noel.

But her senior pulled a medicine bottle from his jacket and pressed it into her hands.

"There should be a white pill inside. I was saving it to take myself, but I'll give it to you specially. Take it."

He forced the medicine bottle into her hands as she sat dazed.

His lip movements were vivid amid the ear-splitting explosions.

[Take it and run.]

His orders were absolute to her.

She took that pill and ran.

Everything around her was shaking.

The ground shook violently, rain was chaotic, she felt nauseous, bang bang. Haha, hahaha.

Running through the rain, she laughed wildly.

Was my ankle broken? Until just now, who was I fighting with, who did I abandon? She couldn't remember anything.

Like a child running to get rained on, she laughed like that and ran frantically.

She transferred the medicated water to a mug.

Now she just had to make him drink this, but the patient was still groaning with fever.

To make him drink the medicine properly, the only way was to feed it to him mouth to mouth.

But Niksi wasn't someone who could do such romantic things.

So she just poured it in.

Benjamin, who was coincidentally being waterboarded, scrunched up his face even while unconscious.

Half spilled, half consumed.

"I knew that would happen, so I made enough medicine to fill a big pot."

She wasn't sure if he'd actually consumed the medicine as he coughed, but Niksi crouched down next to him.

"......"

"......"

"......So don't die."

Only later did she learn what medicine she'd taken. Narcotic painkillers that prevented you from feeling pain even if your limbs were severed.

Probably Noel Hugger died in agony.

—Clatter.

Niksi set down the mug and wiped the bitter taste from her lips with her sleeve after her awkward act of kindness.

She placed her hand on Benjamin's neck. She could feel his heartbeat.

He was alive.

His expression also looked much better than before.

'Of course. Who do you think made this medicine?' Only then did Niksi stretch her legs out and settle down.

She looked out the window. Still overcast, but the rain had quit.

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