Over fatigued and excruciating pain in his spine can be felt rushing inside Kazuto as he first slowly opened his eyes, opening his consciousness to his now new reality.
He tried to gaze towards Hanz with his vision feeling hazy, while he's having a hard time not seeing doubles of the blond soldier standing in front of him. He also had a hard time looking at Otto who was sitting in the chair, writing something in his quill placed on the table, with his at most focused on whatever he was writing.
Kazuto still wanted to take at least a few more minutes to close his eyes and enjoy the little luxury he wanted, but he couldn't.
Hanz was painfully glaring towards him as if he would actually punch him to the face if he would try to close his eyes, even once.
He sighed and sat down on the wooden hard bunk bed, with his body completely weary, moving from left to right from time to time like a drunk old man, as if, at any moment he would collapse.
His body was not the only thing that got impacted due to his heavy fatigue, but also his face that completely looked deprived.
Beneath his pupils were eyebags completely blackened, hanging like they want to be released, and his eyelids still feeling heavy, wanting to force his eyes to be imprisoned for good.
"Ugh, What time is it?" Kazuto complained lazily, as he gazes towards Hanz waiting for an answer.
"Around 1:45 AM in the morning, I think. or maybe it is still 1:40 AM. The point is the time is around a quarter an hour or so before 2:00 AM," Hanz replied, unsure of what he was even saying anymore.
Kazuto sighed in frustration, leaning down to the wall made of hardened soil, gazing up to the ceiling of the bunk bed as he could see dust packing up to the corners.
"Ugh... We only have four hours of sleep. That's human cruelty. I thought we would attack around five in the morning..." Kazuto continued complaining, with his hand covering his eyes.
"That's what I thought too, but the others just started waking up men around 1:10..." Hanz replied.
"AAAAHHHH!!! I want more sleep!!" Kazuto continued complaining as he rubbed his eyes, hoping it would stop the haziness he was feeling in his head. It didn't.
"Well, complain all you want, but judging from the troops gathering to the trenches by each minute that won't happen," Hanz replied with a small grin on his face.
He then looked at Otto who's mind and attention still focus on whatever he was writing on the quill, with each word he wrote it seemed like his fingers are lighting speed, not even stopping to think even once.
"Try to convince Kazuto to stop whining about sleep, will you. I still have to wake up other troops to the other rooms," Hanz requested, as he grabbed Otto's shoulder.
Otto stopped writing after he received the request, as he slowly closed his quill. He slowly gazes back towards Hanz and nods, with a small smile on his face.
"Thanks."
Hanz released his grip from Otto's shoulder and waved goodbye, walking out of the room with no haste. However, before he could leave, Kazuto called his name with a weak tone.
"Hanz..."
Hanz decided to stop and wait, as he gazed back to the room with a confused expression with his right eyebrow raised.
"I'm sorry for what I did back then to the fields... please forgive me," Kazuto apologizes, still with a lazy tone.
Even though he acted a bit childish, he still had the time to apologize for what he did back then. He knew what he did was foolish and caused more lives than it should initially have, and the least he could only do is to apologize to the people he brought trouble the most.
"Everyone has their first time... I guess, so I'll forgive you," Hanz replied with a bitter expression, and walked away.
A moment of silence entered the room, with Kazuto closing his eyes and resting his consciousness, while Otto pondering as he watched the hardened soil in front of him.
"All right, that's probably enough," Otto suddenly yelled, breaking the silence, as he stood up stretching his back, straightening it to reduce the chances of more back pain.
"Your yelled almost terrify me, Otto, you know that," Kazuto muttered lazily as he yawned.
"Well good thing your senses are slowly regaining back to your head. That would make my work much less stressful than Hanz'," Otto replied as he put the quill and other papers to the side of the table.
"Well good luck at waking my body up to the full extent," Kazuto scoffed in a lazy tone, still in his position like a sloth.
"Here, this would hopefully help you stay awake," Otto replied with a small smug on his face, gazing towards Kazuto as if he already has something in plan.
"Oh, what is it—"
Before Kazuto could even finish his sentence, Otto grabbed the cup from the table quarter full of cold water and threw it into Kazuto's face, spilling it all over his uniform and his head.
"AAAAHHHH!!! It's cold! IT'S COLD!!" Kazuto yelled.
He's tired and lazy eyes instantly open in shock, with his arms and legs shivering from the cold. Each and every second, Kazuto could feel the fluids slowly slipping down to his skin.
"Yup, that fixed the problem," Otto muttered, gazing towards Kazuto.
Kazuto hurriedly cleaned his face using his uniform. However, it didn't relieve him that much from the cold air lingering around him in every inch of his face, and the upper part of his chest.
"What the hell was that! That's not how you play the game!!" Kazuto yelled furiously, with his eyebrows furrowed down, glaring towards Otto as if he just did something unforgivable.
"There were no such rules implemented in this 'game', so technically I win. Besides, your body is now moving more energetically than before," Otto said, pointing his finger towards Kazuto's hand which was shaking.
"I guess your right, though it pains me that you forced my body to wake up in such a way," Kazuto said as he slowly stood up from the bunk bed, stretching his body and relieving the pain in his spine that was still stinging in his back.
Otto soon grabbed a rifle beneath the table and gave it to Kazuto, as it looked like the same rifle Kazuto used during his first day in this world.
"You already prepared the weapons?" Kazuto asked, gazing towards Otto with a confused expression.
"Well, as a soldier you should always need to keep your weapon by your side at all times. Especially during wartime," Otto replied, with a small smirk on his face called.
Kazuto grinned and accepted the weapon, as he grabbed from Otto's hand.
The two soon armed themselves with bullets and strip pings filling up their pockets, as the two walked out of the tunnels and into the trenches.
***
As they walked out of the tunnel, Kazuto and Otto could see the hundreds, probably thousands, cramping up the trenches, with not even a single room left to move from, as each one of them gazes towards whatever was in front of them waiting for a command to be upheld.
Most of the lights were put off as well, with not even a single lamp illuminating the area. The only source of light they had was the moon, as it seemed that it was giving enough light for an average person to see.
Noises of metal clanking into one another can be heard behind the trenches, as artilleries were slowly being loaded, hoping that they would create minimum noises so the enemy from afar couldn't hear them.
The two continued walking forward with no troubles so far until Kazuto suddenly heard a shout coming from his right.
"The three of you!! Walk forward!" General Braun ordered with a firm expression.
Kazuto gazed towards the General in curiosity, thinking he was called. However, he wasn't.
The three men soon approached the General with haste, one of those men was Hanz, as they created a single straight line, with every single one of them having the same solemn expression.
"You three will be using this prototype that the Capital had sent us. Try not to die with it, as these weapons are still expensive to reproduce," General Braun informed them with a strict tone.
The three soldiers nodded in response, with their expressions unchanged.
The General gave a small grin in every one of them, and gaze behind. He then nodded towards the soldier who was standing in the corner, as the General walked away giving the signal.
The soldier saluted in response and soon approached the three men, giving them a special kind of weapon.
It looked like a metal cylinder backpack, connected using a long tube hose to the metal shaft with a nozzle end.
"A flamethrower..." Kazuto muttered, gazing towards them with his mouth slightly open.
He looked like he was mesmerized, not realizing his attention had been taken away from him, and instead he indulged himself gazing towards the weapon.
Hanz accepted the weapon with a firm look, and so did the other two men, as they gently wore the gas tank behind him like it wasn't even heavy at all.
"Kazuto, come on, the rest are waiting for us," Otto said, gazing back.
"Ah! right!" Kazuto responded, following Otto as he soon realized that his attention had completely distracted him.
The two continued walking further, as they reach the last and third layer of the trenches, as they could see that most of the soldiers actually cramping up.
"You guys took long enough," A man said in front of them with a stern tone.
At first, Kazuto couldn't recognize the man as he was wearing a helmet that hid most of his hair. However, when he gaze towards them, Kazuto could instantly recognize the man that it was Gunther by his facial features alone, as some strands of his 'chocolate' hair can be seen.
"Kazuto complained a lot that he almost acted like an utterly spoiled brat," Otto said, as Kazuto gazed down in shame, hoping Otto would stop talking. "We also have to reload our weapons from the armory. So that's why we took long," Kazuto informed.
"I see..."
Gunther nodded and gaze back towards the direction of the front lines in silence, waiting for the order to be called together with the hundreds of men.
"Um... Gunther. What I did yesterday—" Kazuto said with a guilty tone. However, he was quickly interrupted.
"It's okay. Hanz already told me that you apologized to him, and I think that enough of an apology that you truly are sorry for what you did," Gunther said with a serious tone, still gazing forward with a firm expression.
"Thank you for understanding," Kazuto thanked him with a lighter tone. However, Gunther didn't look back with a smile, nor anything similar to being genuinely forgiving.
He instead put his focus on the front lines, with his face gazing at the wooden wall in front of him. His eyes darkened and his hands gripping tightly to the rifle he was holding.
"I think all of them are here. We should start the signal," General Braun muttered towards General Rhine.
General Rhine nodded with no objections, as he gazed as each and every soldier standing and gazing towards the wooden walls in front of them, swallowing their fears in whole.
General Braun soon raised his whistle that was wrapped around his neck and blew it once.
The noise flew around the trench, reaching every ear of the soldiers who were lining up, as each troop started climbing up the ladders in front of them, still maintaining their stealth.
"So what's the plan here?" Kazuto asked, gazing towards Otto climbing up the ladder with a worried expression.
"Charge to the enemy. Try not to die."