Chapter 154: One Chicken a Week (2)
When I returned home, the first to greet me was Erika.
“Welcome back, my lord, and congratulations on your victory,” she said with a graceful yet adorable curtsey, holding the sides of her skirt and bowing her head slightly.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Well, I wasn’t directly on the battlefield. I had no reason to get hurt or overly exhausted. At most, the only discomfort I faced was muscle pain from sitting on a horse for too long,” I replied.
Due to the nature of my role as a military supply officer, I accompanied the troops to the battlefield but didn’t have to engage in combat. Of course, if we had been overwhelmed and forced to retreat, I might have had to use a weapon for survival. But this war had ended so smoothly that such concerns never arose.
'Riding a horse was the hardest part,’ I thought.
Horse riding looks simple—just sitting on a saddle—but unlike the steady ride of a car, a horse’s movements jostle you up, down, and side-to-side. While stirrups help with balance, sitting in the saddle for extended periods requires absorbing the impact with your entire body. It turned out to be an unexpectedly rigorous workout.
Erika smiled warmly. “I’m glad you didn’t get hurt or go through anything too difficult.”
“Well, I worked in a position where there wasn’t much chance of getting hurt,” I replied.
“Even so, a battlefield is unpredictable, isn’t it?” she said.
True, a battlefield is a place where unimaginable things happen all the time. Squads surrounded by the enemy, with no choice but death whether they surrendered or fought, might launch a reckless banzai charge and break through an entire German battalion without casualties. Or like a certain daimyo of Japan in dark history, whose reckless pursuit and neglect of defense cost Admiral Yi Sun-sin his naval forces.
“You’re right,” I said, handing Erika my coat.