Chapter 187

April 22, 1941

Eastern Front, by the Bug River

Sergeant Karina Juhlińska sat atop a tree as always, covered in a camouflage suit plastered with leaves and grass.

A typical sniper might prefer a more stable spot, like on top of a building, but climbing a tree by digging in her knife to secure her position was practically her trademark.

Karina lifted her Kar98k rifle, which was also haphazardly wrapped with leaves and devoid of any style, and brought the scope to her eye.

'I heard that a sniper in Finland who recently surpassed 1,000 kills said not to use a scope because of the risk of being spotted by the back-glare, and to use the naked eye instead.

If I could do that, I would.’

With that absurd thought, Karina slowly scanned the other side of the river and, unfortunately, spotted an enemy platoon on guard.

Until someone reached a position that gave them the hope of being rescued, as it wasn't too far from cover, but where no one could try to save them without entering her line of sight.

After a patient wait, a target settled into the perfect position.

Karina held her breath and pulled the trigger.

A gunshot rang out, and the target fell.

The target was down but not dead. I shot him deliberately so he couldn't move but wouldn't die instantly.

The enemy soldiers panicked, and two of them rushed toward the target. For convenience, I decided to think of them as 2 and 3.

New recruits.

Karina thought briefly and pulled the trigger again.

2 was an instant death. That makes 198.

3 was trying to get up with the target's arm over his shoulder when he was shot in the leg and collapsed.

Even from a distance where no sound could be heard, the sight of the soldier who tried to save his comrade screaming in pain and fury was vivid through the scope.

Now, the real part begins.

The target and 3 would find it hard to move on their own, but it would be a while before they bled out.

Karina felt sweat trickling down her cheek.

'It'll be tough to use this camouflage suit when summer comes.

'

The target and 3 were writhing on the ground, but there was no sign of anyone else trying to help.

Several minutes passed, but the enemy still didn't move.

Karina briefly considered provoking them a little more but quickly changed her mind.

After they’d already seen two men get hit for rushing out without thinking, would anyone else run out just because I shot off their hands and feet?

There might be such a fool, but…

[Karina, a hunt without respect for the prey is nothing but slaughter.

]

The voice of her grandfather, who had taught her to hunt, came to mind.

Hunt, prey.

Karina put her eye to the scope and watched the scene of the blood from the target and 3 pooling on the ground.

There was almost no movement now.

Even if someone rushed over to perform first aid right now, they would most likely die from shock due to excessive bleeding.

By now, there might be an enemy sniper looking for her, and the enemy, unaware that she might have left, would have no choice but to abandon their comrades to die.

Karina checked the enemy’s movements one last time through her scope, then skillfully leaped down from the tree, avoiding any angle from which the enemy could see her, and retrieved the knife she had used as a foothold.

199, 200.

The first digit had changed.

There was a surprising lack of emotion.

-

"You're the first female sniper to surpass 200 kills. Good work."

"Thank you, Battalion Commander, sir."

Her direct superior, the major and battalion commander, looked at Karina with disapproval as she answered listlessly.

"This is more than enough. Why don't you stop wandering around alone so dangerously?"

Karina slightly narrowed her brow at the battalion commander's question.

"It is my duty, Battalion Commander, sir."

When the Sikorski Line collapsed under the Soviet Army's major offensive and the Polish Army retreated to Warsaw, even the medics working in the rear area were caught up in the fighting.

Karina, who had been working as a medic, picked up a rifle dropped by another soldier and eliminated enemy soldiers. An officer who had noticed her great performance had her reassigned as a sniper and even granted her operational autonomy.

"Ah. Well, you are excellent, but there is a limit to what a single soldier can change about the war situation.

Your face is already known to the public and the soldiers, so wouldn't it be a big problem if something bad happened to you on the battlefield?"

And as she showed remarkable feats as a sniper, her superiors, who had been impressed by the sniper Simo Häyhä that Finland was promoting as a hero, had appointed her as a sergeant and used her for propaganda.

Thanks to that, she was now somewhat famous, so it would be a problem if she were to be killed in action…

There’s a limit to such a reversal of roles.

"With all due respect, Battalion Commander, sir, the one who entrusted me with this mission was General Stanisław Sosabowski, who was the regimental commander at the time."

In the end, the only thing that worked on the battalion commander was a higher-ranking soldier.

The battalion commander cleared his throat uncomfortably at Karina's response.

"Ahem, I merely wanted to respect your opinion. I understand your thoughts well. You must be tired, yes? You are dismissed."

"Yes, sir!"

Karina still gave a polite salute to her direct superior and then walked out of the barracks.

Then, she sighed as she saw a dopey-looking German officer waiting for her awkwardly.

'I just dealt with a major, and now another one's in front of me.

How many times is this…'

"Major Fleck, you've come to the wrong place. I'm not in a great mood right now."

"H-Huh, r-really?"

Karina tried to ignore the flustered Clemens Fleck in annoyance and head to her quarters, but she paused when she saw the plate in his hands.

Noticing Karina's gaze, Clemens showed it to her so she could see it better and said.

"They issued some meat since an operation is imminent, so I tried making some Schweinshaxe (a Bavarian dish, German-style pork knuckle) to eat with you, Sergeant.

I'm actually a pretty good cook, you see, ahahahat!"

To her, who had been roaming the front lines all day in a camouflage suit chewing on hardtack to carry out her mission, the smell wafting from the plate in Clemens's hands was overwhelmingly stimulating.

The Polish Army was suffering from a severe food shortage because most of the farmers and laborers had been conscripted, making it hard to even eat a full meal, yet here was meat on the front line, and a large pork dish at that.

Karina felt her mouth water.

Looking again, he didn't seem so dopey, but rather handsome in his own way.

-

"Wow, honestly, I thought you were bluffing, but you're a great cook. I thought all German food was bad!"

"Hahat, only the food of those Prussian hicks is bad.

Bavarian cuisine is delicious!"

Clemens Fleck beamed with pride as he watched Karina, her face full of bliss, ravenously eating the food he had cooked.

He felt a bit of self-pity, as it felt like taming a wild beast with food, but it was a good sight, so it didn't matter.

"Wow, the skin is crispy, the meat is tender, and the potatoes are cooked just right. It's so delicious!"

Karina was a person far removed from any sort of coyness.

She picked up the pork leg by the bone and gnawed on it eagerly, then sucked her fingers clean.

Clemens, who had watched the entire process, thought quietly.

"Ah, it would make me so happy to cook for her every day and watch her eat so deliciously."

'But if I ask, she'll say no, right? Ah, wait a minute.

'

Clemens froze stiff.

"Gasp, my thoughts just slipped out as words, it was a mistake, a mistake! Haha! The weather's great today, isn't it? You'd never think an operation was about to begin-"

"Major."

"Y-Yes, ma'am?"

Clemens answered, standing at attention as he saw Karina, who had finished her delicious meal, looking at him with a serious expression.

'I went through all that trouble cooking and brought it here while my subordinates gave me pitiful looks, and now I've ruined it…'

But the question that came from Karina's mouth was a bit different from his prediction.

"You don't sleep well at night, do you?"

"Gasp, how did you know?"

"There are people like that. People who are scared by the shock of battle, who hide that shock and act overly cheerful."

"Uh, uh… No, I'm not? I'm perfectly fine! Hahat, a proud officer of Germany is no coward!"

Instead of reacting to Clemens's words, Karina took out a cigarette, put it in her mouth, and lit it with a lighter.

Clemens grew sheepish and stopped his fuss.

'Am I in shock?'

He was familiar with the sight of people who were frightened and withdrawn from the shock of battle.

Such sights among common soldiers were too common to faze him, but the image of Habenstein, a fellow second lieutenant in the Condor Legion, was memorable because he was also an officer.

While Dietrich was dispatched to the Luftwaffe, Habenstein had become so incapable of performing his duties as a platoon leader that Clemens had to clean up his messes, which had infuriated him, so he had denounced him as a coward…

He remembered thinking that he would never become like that.

And yet, he himself…?

While Clemens was lost in thought, Karina took a drag from her cigarette and opened her mouth.

"You're lucky, Major. People like that are usually the first to die among the frontline soldiers."

"Uh, no… I'm really okay…"

Clemens said so, but he lacked confidence.

"Do you have to be okay?"

"Huh?"

Karina asked indifferently, then took out her cigarette and placed it in Clemens's mouth.

Then she lit his cigarette with her lighter and added.

"It's a damned war. Do you really have to be okay?"

"Uh…"

As Clemens was at a loss for words, Karina, who had inhaled a puff of smoke, continued speaking with the cigarette in her hand.

"I've already shot and killed seven people today, Major. And with these hands, I eat a delicious meal, smoke a cigarette… I'm lucky, so I get to roam around alone, but it's still hard when I see my comrades being buried in the ground, Major.

Is there really a need to pretend to be okay?"

Clemens tried to speak with his usual fuss, but there was a cigarette in his mouth.

In the end, he quietly inhaled the smoke.

Karina smirked and smoked her cigarette, facing him.

Clemens couldn't help but think that she would have been a good medic.

After smoking for a while, Karina stubbed it out with her foot and opened her mouth.

"Major, you're looking for a source of consolation right now. You're just exhausted from the battlefield, and it just so happens that I'm the one you ran into, so you're clinging to me."

Clemens couldn't say a word.

"We have different nationalities, and we don't know each other well. Besides, you're a battalion commander, and I'm a sniper. It's unlikely you'll be in life-or-death situations on the front lines from now on, but it wouldn't be strange if I died anytime while roaming around alone."

Karina stood up, leaving Clemens behind.

"I'm just a life devoted to the freedom of the motherland, a life that can be paid as a price at any moment. The only difference between me and the enemies I've shot dead is that I'm not dead yet."

Karina, still with a cigarette in her mouth, looked at the silent Clemens and added.

"So, promising officer of Germany, don't get more hurt by getting attached to a chance connection. Someday, when the war is over, and, well, if we're both lucky enough to survive. Then we'll meet better people and live our own lives, and we probably won't even remember each other."

Clemens felt the heat of the cigarette that had burned almost to the end and stamped it out.

"The meal was delicious, Major. I wish you good luck."

As Karina said that and turned to leave, Clemens's voice came from behind her back.

"Can't it be for consolation?"

When Karina turned back with a puzzled look, Clemens was wearing a serious face for the first time.

"It's possible I fell for you just because you happened to be the one who saved me. But it just so happens that you were the one who saved me, and I was the one you saved."

This time, it was Karina who was speechless.

"Yes, you're right. I don't think I'm okay. It's unfair enough having to roll around in this damned battlefield, but I should at least be allowed one source of comfort."

Clemens looked straight at Karina and said.

"At the very least, I hope I can survive this wretched war with someone I met by chance, and we can think together that there were good things that happened even after this war ended."

Karina stared at him, then let out a smirk.

"What, I never knew you were someone who could say things like this."

"Hey, I'm a pretty successful officer, you know! I have thoughts too!"

"Still, I refuse."

Seeing Clemens's face rapidly turning gloomy as he protested, feeling wronged, Karina chuckled and added.

"All I know about you is that you're a young major in the German Army, with a kind of cute butt-"

"Aaargh! Sergeant!"

Karina burst out laughing at Clemens, who was flailing with a beet-red face.

"Consolation, how can you say something so unappealing, just like a German. Neither of us knows anything about each other yet. So if we both survive after the war is over, and if you still feel like finding me then, maybe we could start by dating."

Clemens felt a jolt of clarity and shouted.

"Y-You can't take that back! I'm friends with a high-ranking guy, you know! When the war is over, I'll beat him up if I have to, to make sure you can return to your homeland, so you must, you must!"

Instead of an answer, Karina let out a deflating sound and gave him a two-fingered salute before walking away.