No Beast Girls on the Western Front

The idea that "beautiful girls always smell sweet" is definitely a lie!

I've decided, the first thing I'll do after I've slept like a log is take a nice, refreshing shower!

Just as he was stroking the little squirrel's muddy tail and dreaming about the future, he felt his hand loosen and Ruby pulled her tail back.

"If you want to touch it, then touch your own tail."

"Where do humans get their tails...?"

Seeing Ruby clutching her tail to her chest, seemingly determined not to let anyone touch it, Payne thought for a moment and decided to teach her a lesson, to make her realize who her master really was.

In response, he decided to make some use of his "depressing joke" system.

Payne immediately pulled up the system interface, spent thousands of points to buy a can of food, and magically produced it from behind his back.

Troy, who had been slightly disappointed that Payne had let him go, widened his eyes when he saw the canned goods and rushed forward, exclaiming, "What is this?...Canned corn?! Is it for me?!"

Generally speaking, animal girls cannot read, but they can still look at the pictures on the cans.

As Troy cried out, Payne was pleased to see that Ruby, though still lying still, immediately perked up her little ears.

So he deliberately raised his voice and said, "Yes, yes, you did all the heavy and tiring work before, it would be too much of a waste not to give you something good to eat."

"Wow, thank you so much, boss! Thank you so much, boss! You're so great, waaaaah!..."

Troy's gratitude was overflowing; he immediately hugged Payne and kissed him twice, then snatched the can and tried to bite open the tin with his teeth...

"Hey, hey, let go! I told you to let go! How many times have I told you to open cans with your hands! Be careful not to break your teeth!!"

After a chaotic scene, Troy finally learned how to open cans with his hands again, and incidentally, he also mastered the art of scooping corn kernels out with his hands...

Seeing her messy eating habits, Payne also pursed his lips and moved slightly to the side.

He didn't want the soup to splash onto his clothes.

Although his clothes were so dirty they were practically indistinguishable from Ruby's tail...

Only then did Ruby sit up lazily, stretch, and slowly walk over to Payne to sit down, casually asking, "Where did this canned food come from?"

Because things like "time travel" and "systems" were far too terrifying, and people of this era couldn't understand them, he simply said:

"Remember the flares and parachutes I asked you to collect? There used to be someone who collected those things, so I traded them for some food."

Why would you collect that stuff?

"It is said that someone in the rear will use parachute fabric to make clothes."

Payne was telling the truth. Shortly after the war began, the entire country began to implement a rationing system, so anything that could be used, as long as it could be transported from the battlefield to the rear, would be collected.

"Ah, I see..."

Ruby nodded. Her large tail was like a giant fan, and a gentle sway would create gusts of wind.

Although the wind smelled bad, it didn't bother Paine, who had been on the front lines for so long. He immediately seized the opportunity to give Paine another bear hug and started stroking him with both arms.

"Whoosh—ah...so soft~~"

Ruby just rolled her eyes at him and said, "Looks like I deserve some credit for this can of corn. It wouldn't be fair if I didn't get a taste."

"No problem, no problem." Payne, who was enjoying himself immensely, nodded repeatedly. "Troy! Leave some for Ruby!"

"Mmm!" Troy, whose mouth was already stuffed with corn kernels, nodded repeatedly, but his hands showed no sign of stopping.

Seeing that she might lose her share, Ruby got a little anxious and quickly swooped down to pounce on the can, taking turns with Troy, each holding one hand, to snatch the food.

Having had his fill of petting them, Payne stopped bothering the two beasts and simply sat quietly in place, watching the scene with the satisfaction of a zookeeper feeding his animals.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the clouds, casting dappled shadows and adding a touch of golden radiance to the green grass.

Soon, he felt something wet rubbing against his hand. Looking down, he saw, sure enough, it was Lacey licking his hand.

Payne immediately burst into laughter, rubbing the dog's head angrily as he said, "Don't be in such a hurry, everyone gets a share, you won't be left out~~"

“I’m not in a hurry…” Lacey’s protest was completely unconvincing.

After rubbing her head and ears, Paine rubbed her cheeks, then tickled her chin and stomach until she couldn't help but whimper comfortably. Only then did he stop, and the two of them lay down side by side on the grass.

Meanwhile, Troy and Ruby were locked in a fierce tug-of-war over the last bit of corn at the bottom of the can. Each held one end of the can, and Troy, with her incredible strength, even managed to crush the can...

Seeing that the two beasts were completely focused on the food, Lacey whispered in Payne's ear, "Have you been paying attention to what's happening in Troy?"

"What's wrong with her?" Payne asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Ever since Norma was sent away, she's been unusually agitated... I know this is actually a sign of her sadness..."

As Lacey spoke, she lowered her eyelids. "Have you...have you received any messages from Norma?"

Chapter 7VII. Troy's Silent Grief

Payne remained silent for a moment.

Before long, his comrades from Company B also satisfied their hunger and found the same soft grassy area. They immediately gathered in groups of three or five and lay down near Payne and the beast girls, enjoying a rare moment of peace.

Once someone has fought alongside a beast girl, even the most prejudiced person will find it difficult to feel any aversion.

A few white pigeons occasionally flew across the azure sky, while in the distance, yellow reconnaissance balloons and several plumes of white smoke from anti-aircraft guns hung on the horizon.

Payne went over and asked Paul for a cigarette. After exchanging pleasantries for a while, he returned and whispered to Lacey as if he had just discovered some incredible secret: "I asked around, but nobody knows where Norma is."

The dog girl didn't seem particularly sad; she just sighed softly, "I know that Norma's condition... she might not even make it to the hospital."

Payne, however, comforted her, saying, "Don't think like that. Since there's no definite news, maybe... she's currently resting happily in a hospital that's friendly to orcs."

But Lacey just shook her head. "Let's not talk about Norma. What we should be most concerned about now is Troy's mental state."

The man and the beast turned their heads at the same time and saw that the battle for the can had ended, and the two beasts and the can, which had been twisted into a twisted iron rope, were lying haphazardly on the grass.

Lacey continued, "Although she seems quite naive, she is actually a very sensitive person."

"Seven or eight horse girls came and went in this squad, but in the end, she was the only one left... Sigh, should we say she was lucky or unlucky..."

"If this continues, she'll go crazy sooner or later."

"Master, can you think of a solution?"

Payne immediately said, "Don't worry, I'll stay with her. I won't let her go crazy."

But despite saying that, Payne had no way to change the situation.

He knew absolutely nothing about psychology, so it was no surprise that there were no psychologists in this world. Even if the system's store had psychotropic drugs, he wouldn't dare give them to Troy.

Like all beast girls, Troy was just a quiet, reserved horse girl who had been tormented by the training officers when she first arrived at the front. Although she obeyed Payne's orders, she kept her distance from everyone.

Payne disliked this cold, hierarchical relationship. Knowing how to get along with animals, he made a lot of effort, trying to find her favorite food, brushing her fur, and getting her to run with him, finally making her look a little more like a normal animal, rather than a cog in a war machine.

She no longer exhibits stereotypical behaviors like chewing on wooden planks, and she will actively play with other beast girls, even rubbing her head against Payne—a remarkable feat for someone who has always treated Payne as her superior.

However, this is basically the limit. Once she came out of the incubation chamber and was taken to the military camp, some of her habits were hard to change.

Things changed after another female horsewoman who had come to the front lines with her was killed in action.

Payne remembers clearly that she was depressed for a few days, and then suddenly became unusually lively, as if she had turned into a beast.

The situation was far from optimistic. The entire front was retreating day and night, and everyone was dejected and demoralized.

Only Troy seemed to have transformed back into a newborn foal, oblivious to everything. Even while carrying a massive bundle far exceeding her own height, she would happily leap and bound through the marching ranks, offering a rare solace during those gloomy days.

But Payne knew, as Lacey had said, that this was actually a sign of her sadness—

If we don't actively seek out things to make us happy, then life will truly be hopeless.

Payne also felt that this change wasn't a bad thing, so he let her have her way.

Aside from the fact that she's become incredibly clingy, which is a bit exhausting...

And getting to the brancher is even more of a torture...

However, her current state of "creating fun for herself" is probably nearing its limit.

That being said, what can I do? I'm just an ordinary, unremarkable soldier...

As Payne finished his last puff of cigarette, he tossed the cigarette butt through the air in an elegant parabola.

Because the projectile landed right next to Paul, he immediately noticed that while everyone else was lying flat in a half-dead position, only Paul was sitting cross-legged, drawing something on a piece of paper with a weathered pencil, and occasionally looking up at him.

He knew that Paul was having an urge to draw.

Fortunately, Paul was persuaded by his teacher to join the army right after graduating from high school. He didn't like growing a beard, had no connection with art school, and only liked to draw animals. His name wasn't Adolf either. Otherwise, he would have thought that Paul was going to become the world's mustache.

Thinking about this, Payne suddenly had an idea.

He went over to take a look, and luckily, Paul had drawn Troy lying on the ground.

As someone from a generation where kemonomimi (animal-eared girls) have existed since birth, Paul doesn't exactly like them, but he's not averse to them either.

According to him, before joining the army he only liked to draw animals because "I felt disgusted as soon as I started drawing human bodies."

In response, Payne, who occasionally experiences the beauty of the human body with the beast girls, said that he doesn't understand art.

Note: Often or occasionally.

After fighting alongside the kemonomimi for a whole year, Paul suddenly had an epiphany and announced that he saw the beauty of the human body in the kemonomimi, and from then on he actually started drawing kemonomimi!

For a self-taught artist, Paul's drawing skills are quite impressive. The proof is that he has already earned a considerable amount of money on cigarettes, alcohol, and bread by selling his paintings of young women's nudes.

I really envy people who can draw.jpg

Upon noticing a shadow looming over him and looking up to find it was Payne, the captain of the beast girl squad, Paul, a veteran who had been fighting on the battlefield for a year, smiled shyly like a big boy and asked, "You don't mind if I draw Troy, do you?"

Payne shrugged. "Just don't draw her sketches."

"?"

"Wait a minute... if I were the male lead, it doesn't seem like a bad idea..."

"……what?"

Paul wasn't shocked by Payne's shamelessness; he simply didn't understand what he was saying at all...

After muttering a few words to himself, Payne quickly got down to business: "Could you do me a favor? Well, could you go and tell Troy that you'd like her to be your painting model?"

Upon hearing this good news, Paul immediately beamed with joy. But then he realized something was amiss—

Although he rarely shows it in front of outsiders, Payne cherishes his beast girl, almost like a daughter... no, no... almost like a wife... no, no... almost like a wife!

But now he's actually offering up his beast girl wife as a model! What's he thinking?