Cohen of the Rebellion Volume 9.5-Chapter 6

Translated by Tianic, edited by Grammarly

Note 0: Click for the series page and the table of contents.
Note 1: An of this chapter is provided in case of eye cancer.
Note 2: Comments and likes are appreciated.
On the first day of the Samgha's vacation, Commander Anemia was doing his obligated debriefing in the reconnaissance center while the rest of the rookie members initiated a spontaneous round of training at their old place.
It shocked them tremendously to know that enemies as few as 3~4 have terminated 2 of their elite recon squadrons.
Thus after covering the blades with pieces of cloth and woods, the rookies started fighting jointly in pursuit of the fastest speed and the sharpest reflection. The initial shoutings and cryings even attracted the guards down the hill. Though after, they didn't make much noise knowing the sound makers were the Samgha members.
At the break, Ranger, Scarlet, and Fallen were sitting in a circle. Fallen had a piece of letter, one he found on the dead Flame officer. Commander Anemia mentioned that personal letters were usually confiscated by the corps., so he wanted Fallen to deal with the paper as he will.
"Turns out he's called Lancelot." The all-time emotional Fallen said with sorrow, "Last night, I dreamed of the fight with them again. In the pub last time, I buttoned a stew upon his head, again. After the fight, they all left. He's not actually a bad guy."
"Unlucky for him. He has 2 kids." Ranger took over the letter, "What about his children?"
"Orphans, I suppose." Scarlet shook his head, "Aren't there many no-father orphans after each War? Blame the evil Protoss race and the despicable PUFs!"
"But…" Fallen asked Ranger in a low voice, "The enemies that we killed last time, they have loved ones, don't they?"
"That's the question, Fallen." Scarlet scratched his head, "Let me put it this way. Indeed, they might have relatives, but we can't hold back at our enemies, which they are."
"I guess. If something happens to us, my parents will weep for us." Ranger put a hand on Fallen's head, "Well, in this way, our loved ones concern me more. As for the enemies, since they're opposing us, I can't care that much."
"You have a point…"
"Let's train." Scarlet stood up, "The letter has an address. We can always deliver it to his families. So we can tell Lancelot's kids that their father was an honorable AUF soldier."
"So be it. Let's go together." Fallen retrieved the letter and put it carefully away."
Nevertheless, today's spontaneous training accidentally ended with a thrill.
Claypool stabbed Cooks' ass with a spear. After a few jumps, Cooks fell by a hugely exaggerated posture.
"Not on purpose!" Claypool said with an innocent tone. He hinted the blade tip between the gap of the protective wood, "Not on purpose! The wood was loosened!"
"Go away!" Scarlet punched off Claypool with a fist, "Why something like this always happens to you?" Ranger lowered his body and started checking Cooks' wound.
"Ahhhhh, it hurts!" Cooks jabbed around his hands and yelled, "I'm dying!"
"Not today. It's only half a finger deep." Ranger said softly, "Though there's a bleeding problem. Claypool, you dumbass, time to use your spells!"
Claypool was playing dead on the ground. He bounced up after hearing Ranger's words. However, the weird look on his face told Ranger that he would instead not heal Cooks.
"No, I don't want him! He'll stab me again." Cooks kept on crying, "Take me to the real physicians…"
After this, some smart rookies have come to understand the situation. Ranger and Scarlet shared a look. Both of them knew that Cooks was fooled by Claypool to be the unlucky bastard.
"Get him, Claypool." Scarlet was both annoyed and amused, "You dishonest man! You two had an agreement! What were you doing?"
"Er, blame him!" Claypool was in Rut's arms, he complained, "Cooks asked me to do it, said only in this way can he hit on a physician lady."
"I did not. I did not!" Cooks yelled, "Claypool said that! He said he'll only touch a finger deep!"
"Fool! Are you kidding me? Stabbing your teammate!" Without any concern for manner, Scarlet stepped forward and give each of the two a slap, "Commander Anemia will skin you if he knows!"
Ranger, on the other hand, stopped Scarlet from implementing further punishment.
"You two have pretty good thoughts. We're on vacation. As long as we don't break the rules, we're free to do whatever we like." Ranger laughed, "But Claypool, we're a team. Next time, if you tell everybody about your little plan, you might as well spare the pain."
"Ah? Spare the pain. My blood is for nothing!?" Cooks was so depressed, "My poor first blood…"
"That's how you end up, dumb." Baham laughed, "You can't trust Claypool!"
Scarlet looked at Ranger, "What's on your mind?"
"We all need a decent vacation to loosen up. I mean we should all go as a team." Ranger said, "The Samgha members do everything together."
"The problem is we have only 1 wounded." Scarlet certainly grasped Ranger's idea, so he complied, "We don't need 11 men to carry a single ass."
"You have a point." Ranger pretentiously scratched his head, "So… in this case, we need one more casualty."
One more casualty. Thus the crowd eyed around, and all the eyes stopped on Claypool. The next moment, he was already pinned on the ground.
"I'm innocent! Help!!!"
Claypool was only able to yell once before a cut appeared on his buttock. The shape and depth resembled that of Cooks. Rut did it.
"Err, why is not bleeding?" Rut hatefully stamped on the wound, "Should I give him another one?"
Claypool yelled even harder, "NOOO! Rut, it's bleeding, I know it's bleeding…"
"Good, now on my command." Ranger grinned and turned his body to the camp door, "Carry these two. Our destination: the physician's camping site! March forward!"
There were two healing spots in the Champion Legion: one was the shaman physician's site; the other was the mage physician's site. Generally, a shaman's treatment procedure was comparably rough and weird, which was why they were assigned mostly to regular GIs. On the contrary, a mage physician's care was more gentle and targeted to military officers of all ranks and special combat units.
As a reconnaissance squadron with a long historical standing and impressive military deeds, Samgha was naturally categorized as an elite special unit.
Thus Samgha including its 2 'wounded' recklessly rashed down the hill, entered the gate, crossed the training ground and burst into the mage physician's camp. They hence became the first batch of casualties after the physicians have quartered here due to the War has not initiated officially.
"Injured! Two injured!" A rather young female mage shrilled. She has never met any practical casualties, so she was in a total confusion after Ranger and the rest burst in.
At the sound of the cry came an aged, also female mage physician from the inner pavilion. A suit of well-crafted dark robe told the rest that she was of unordinary status; a face full of wrinkles has proven that she had abundant experience, "Where're they coming from?"
"Reconnaissance." The young physician jabbered, "Two of them."
The dark-robbed physician came over. It took a glance for her to draw the conclusion, "Light wound. You don't need to be here. Aren't there soldiers with healing capabilities in your squadron?"
"The only one that fits is here!" Scarlet slapped Claypool's ass, which made the latter screeched, "He also has a condition."
The eyes of the physician wore black hovered on Scarlet's chest plate, then she nodded, "Settle yourselves inside. Your healers are on the way."
Hence the Samgha rookies packed into a giant pavilion like a swarm of bees and tossed their two miserable 'wounded' on a bunk bed. What was left was merely anxious waiting and pacing.
As a matter of fact, the guys excluding the injured were in this incident with a playful kind of a heart. Due to the monotonous army life as well as the threat of life whenever they were on the job, the guys were under constant stress. Both Ranger and Scarlet were well aware of this thus they had not put an end to this farce.
"Say, the cut stopped bleeding." Rut lowered his voice, "Baham, why don't you chop him again?"
"Me? Nah. I'm too heavy-handed." The honest Baham replied, "Edmond is a better man for it."
Thus…
"OUCH…" A man's voice screamed, "EDMOND! IMMA GONNA SLAUGHTER YOU!"
"Shush!" Scarlet approached for a few steps, "You brought this to yourself! If you're gonna act, be a professional. Hold that pain!"
Ranger had his arms crossed while pacing around the bunk bed. He enjoyed Claypool's misery as he started measuring this pavilion on the other hand.
The place was huge. So supposedly, this location was prepared for the fiercest battle. There were a total of 50 bunks. The ceiling was through the sky, the door was broad, and the one standing by the door was not so bad at all.
The one? A woman? Could she be a healer?
Ranger continued pacing unhurriedly while peering the girl without any emotions. However, he could apparently feel his heartbeats went into disorder; he also accepted the fact that he'll never fail to remember this moment.
The sun gently cast its beams of light through the trees outside the tent and onto her skin.
The girl wore a light-purple mage's cloak. The hood casually rested upon her shoulder, leaving the girl's soothing and smooth hair staying calmly behind her head. The color of her wearing set off the fairness of her skin. Ranger continued pacing. He suddenly discovered the beauty of his counterpart's face as well as the continuity of her facial outline. Nevertheless, the importance lied otherwise.
Ranger thought she was full of vitality just by standing there quietly by the door. In this stressful and oppressive army camp, Ranger has never wildly hoped to meet such a dynamic lady.
The girl was currently blinking her pair of azure eyes as if she was considering to start talking.
Still, Ranger did not make a sound. He intended to prolong this moment for just a few seconds further as he has never experienced such a beautiful silent instance.
Nevertheless, the girl was upset. She opened her mouth, "Where're the wounded?"
As her silvery voice resounded in the room, the rookies hovering around the bunk bed on the other side were attracted. The girl was as if she's never been peered by so many attention, two pieces of flush arose on her cheeks. He eyes also lowered.
"They're there." Ranger then talked, "You're the healer?"
"I am." She replied and walked over.
"What's your name?" As the girl walked by, in spite of himself, Ranger opened his mouth.
"My name?" The girl stopped and tilted her head to look at Ranger. She answered this not-so-amiable-to-her-eyes soldier with her melodious voice, "It's irrelevant."
A few giggles came immediately from the sickbed. Ranger glanced over. Even Cooks and Claypool were snickering with their twisted faces despite that they were in pain. As for the rest, Fallen's tittering was so innocent; Rut's was straightforward, Scarlet's was reckless.
Comparably, Ranger was still acting seriously.
The female physician approached the sickbed and demanded to have a look at the wound. Instantly, the other bleeding men were frightened and tried to bounce away while murmuring 'No, thank you.'. The two ended up firmly pressed in bed by the rest. Thus they were forced to cover their faces while the physician was examining their butts.
"Tiny cuts." The female physician said, "They'll get better really fast."
The girl required that the rookies give her some space as she leveled her hands and started healing. As she chanted gently and devotedly, light and luminous purple spots began to show around her figure. As the spots danced, they slowly encircled the healer as well as the 'wounded' under the healer's hands.
Ranger considered the scene to be incredibly touching. He even imagined that the scene will be even more moving if the wounded people had more severe injuries.
"What's on your mind?" Scarlet approached and asked softly, "Your eyes were strange.?"
"Was it apparent?"
"Negative."
"Good." Ranger replied with comfort.
The girl finished the procedure and walked over to Ranger. Scarlet, on the other hand, went to check the result, leaving Ranger to face this problem.
"They're healed." The girl gazed at Ranger without emotions, "Are you the captain?"
"Deputy."
"They're in good conditions now, and they're free to rest here for a while." The girl didn't show any value or contempt to Ranger's position, neither she fluctuated on her tone, "You needed to sign this form."
"On it." Ranger replied straightforwardly. Such a phrase was short and neat, but he said that simply because he couldn't found another better word.
After entering a smaller tent, the physician sat by a desk and fetched a pen. Ranger felt comfortable watching her doing all these.
When she was ready, the girl raised her eyes, "Why were they injured?"
Ranger was certainly not stupid to tell the real reason. Thus he vaguely replied, "They were because of a classified training session."
The girl apparently was not content with the answer.
"Do you have a lot of weird cuts in your squadron? The cut positions were the same and clearly double-impaired."
"I wish I can tell. And I'm not aware of the number of such cuts. It depends." Given a thought, Ranger answered carefully to the girl's fair face. And she noted carefully.
"Thank you." After all were marked, the girl said, "You're free to leave."
"I need to know your rank." Ranger said, "In order to decide whether to salute you."
"I don't have a rank, soldier." The girl stood up, "I come from the mage guild. We're here to help during the war."
"Very well, so long."
Ranger forced himself to not engage more casual talk with the girl. He nodded to her and exited the tent.
During such a short while, the rookies who were left in the pavilion have already gotten familiarized with a few young girl physicians there. Even the two 'wounded' who were supposedly resting were now full of vitals. Ranger was a little surprised. Scarlet threw his eyes of questions to Ranger, the latter smiled in reply.
Then, out of nowhere, Commander Anemia's towering and mighty figure appeared at the pavilion door.
Thus the team assembled once again on the hill. Commander Anemia was able to know the origin and development of the incident with only a few words.
"I'm aware of your eagerness to recover for your training; I'm not gonna say no to you going to the physicians to learn advanced healing methods." Anemia pondered and he doped out an extremely barbarous idea with his barbarian brain, "So then, during your vacation, I will create a chance to be healed only by magic for each of you.
At the end of the sound, the rookies could see only darkness in front of their eyes.
Anemia was a barbarian of his words. In the days that came later, the Samgha rookies thus kept obtaining injuries. Averagely once per soldier per day. The physician's giant tents nearly became the second dorm for the Samgha members during their vacation.
On the 5th day of the holiday, Commander Anemia once again put down the entire team. Then he dusted the dirt on his uniform and told the laborers on the side to carry the rookies for healing.
The physicians have already saved the best bunks for the soldiers and looking forward to the 'vigourious' soldiers. For these mage physicians at the similar age, these soldiers' wounds were not hard to cure, let alone they were very amusing men.
Today, Ranger was on the innermost bed.
There she came and with the calm and indifferent voice, she said, "How are you, captain."
"Deputy."
"Have you displeased anyone today? These are some serious wounds: 3 cuts, 4 bruises, and a dark eye." The girl examined Ranger's ‘achievements’ while saying, "You'll need a full-day recovery after the treatment."
"They're indifferent." Another physician on the other side was checking Fallen's wounds, "This cute werewolf little one has to stay in bed for a day."
"Maria! Fallen is a soldier with honor and he's with many medals." Cooks refuted, "You can't call him a 'cute little one'."
"Aha, yes?" The physician named Maria laughed, "Then who was addressing me as a big sister the other day?"
"Me? No." Baham left himself out, "It might be Claypool."
The crowd laughed.
"Your wounds are all serious today. You cannot do any training tomorrow." The girl turned to Ranger, "Your commander did this?"
"We've not offended our commander." Ranger endured great pain and said, "We only offended PUF, since we were born."
"Alright, stop talking." She leveled her hands, "I'm going to start the treatment. Could you please close your eyes?"
"Why close my eyes?"
"It's medically relevant."
"Very well."
"You can't open them during the procedure!"
She left as black as thunder.
The rookies kept on laughing about Ranger opening his eyes during the procedure for quite a while. However, no matter how hard they extorted, Ranger kept the things he saw when he opened his eyes as a secret only to himself.
Nevertheless, on the last day of Samgha's vacation, the rookies got along well with the girls from the mage guild. Thus when Commander Anemia was called to the HQ for briefing, and the rookies started packing, all were too reluctant to part.
She was still standing by the door to farewell each and every Samgha rookie. When Ranger was left alone, her eyes were lowered again.
Ranger cannot find a proper word for this situation. He could only say, "Farewell."
She replied softly, "Take care."
In his heart, Ranger yelled out 'STUPID ME!'. Then he turned away and was ready to leave.
"Hey…"
Ranger once again turned his head. The girl was a little panic, "I… My name is Elaine."
"I'm Ranger." Ranger said with a smile, "Free and easy and wandering Ranger."
The two gazed each other until Rut came and yelled, "Get moving or Anemia'll skin you!"
"Farewell."
"Take care."
Ranger exited the tent. He overheard the girl's friends was mimicking how she said her name earlier.
"Elaine, the name is cool."