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"Don't worry, the chances of you getting hit by the explosion are very low..."
Halfway through her sentence, the nurse realized something and immediately stopped talking—
They came from the rear, not from the front.
She didn't say anything more, but instead, she and the nurse who brought the second bucket of water wet towels and wiped Xiao En and Stephen down.
The nurse's brief explanation plunged Payne into a profound sense of absurdity:
The French only fired a few shells at the rear each day, probably just to create panic, not to cause any casualties, and they even stopped firing for a few days after we came to Minston to help.
As it turned out, on the very day I took the beast girls to see Mary, they resumed their shelling.
And then it just so happens that the gunman hit the grove of trees where we met?
And then Grace was blown to bits?
What the hell is going on here...?
"Paine."
As he was lost in thought about these things, Mary approached him with a towel in her hand, asking with a worried expression, "Would you like... me to wipe you down too?"
It was only then that Payne remembered that he had tackled Shawn to the ground earlier.
He looked down and saw that part of Grace was sticky and damp on his clothes and hands.
Chapter 124 CXXIII. Grace-chan
Like a petri dish covered in germs, Payne practically ripped off his coat and collapsed to the ground, utterly exhausted.
At this moment, Mary showed extraordinary resilience. Although her face was full of nausea and she felt like vomiting, she still carried a bucket of water and came forward to help Payne wash his arms.
A stream of bright red water, carrying dark red meat flakes, flowed across the emerald green grass.
Payne stared blankly at the stream on the ground, while Mary watched him with concern and used a dusty towel to wipe the parts that hadn't been rinsed clean.
After a long pause, he suddenly spoke in a somewhat dazed tone, "Ah... Grace has flowed away..."
"
Hey~
The host's depressing jokes were detected.
Depression level: 400%
Funny level: 400%
Freshness: 400%
Note: 4-hit combo! Critical hit!
Points increased by 1200
"
"Don't say such things!"
Mary immediately patted Payne on the head, but then touched his face with some concern. "Are you... alright?"
In her mind, Payne had always been a strong, calm, knowledgeable, and rational figure, seemingly invincible in the face of any difficulty.
But today, for the first time, she saw the symptoms of ballistic shock in this man.
"...Oh, it's nothing, of course I'm fine."
As if suddenly waking from a nightmare, Payne's tone became light again, "These clothes are no longer suitable, I need to get myself a new outfit... Oh right, and so are Shawn and Stephen..."
"Ugh, the awful feeling still lingers on my hand. If I could, I'd cut my hand off too..."
Mary, who had already wiped all the blood off Pine's hands, sighed sadly, "Is there anything I can do for you?"
"no need."
"Don't be stubborn."
"I wasn't trying to be brave."
“But you’ve never been in such a bad situation! I just want to help you! I can do it!” Mary raised her voice.
Payne had no doubt that she was a capable girl. You could tell from her simple clothes, her tanned skin, and the calluses on her hands that she was fully capable of supporting herself on her own, and probably never even asked her family for money.
But Payne just smiled and shook his head, half-jokingly saying, "How can you help me? Write a letter to the company commander saying that I'm sick and need to go to the rear to recuperate?"
"It's okay, don't worry about me. I can overcome this little difficulty on my own."
"Besides, I have several other orcs and my brothers from B Company with me."
"Look, here they are."
Payne pointed, and Mary turned to look. A slender figure approached with an empty lunchbox, waving at them. "Hey Payne, where have you been? And who is this beautiful lady...?"
“Haha, she’s the war correspondent I told you about before, Miss Mary Rose.” Payne forced a smile. “The previous shelling frightened her a bit, so I brought her here for refuge…”
Since the nurse who had helped Xiao En and Stephen wash up had already left, and Mary hadn't refuted this reason, Garden didn't notice anything unusual. He simply cheerfully tapped his lunchbox with his spoon and said:
"Welcome, Miss Mary, to sample our frontline delicacies!"
Pine joked with him, "Why did it take you so long to line up for dinner this time? This isn't like you."
Gaden immediately puffed out his belly proudly, "Are you kidding! I should be eating my third serving!"
Watching the foodie Garden walk to the end of the line, Payne pulled Mary up from the ground. "Let's go eat."
"Are you... really okay?" Mary asked worriedly, she could tell that the man in front of her was forcing himself.
Moreover, although there was indeed a meaty aroma in the air, Mary had just experienced that kind of thing and not only had no appetite, but even felt a little nauseous.
She couldn't believe that Payne could eat at a time like this.
But Payne's stomach did rumble, and as he rubbed his belly, he called to the beast girls, "Let's go, no matter what happens, we have to fill our stomachs first," and turned to walk toward the cooking cart.
Lacey and Ruby followed with worried expressions. Xiao En seemed to have finally come to her senses a little, but she was still being helped by Stephen to walk slowly.
“Oh, right, this isn’t a restaurant, we don’t have any extra cutlery…” Payne said, turning back to his seat. “Just use my lunchbox, it’s all clean, no problem, right?”
"Um...no," Mary answered instinctively. "Then what about you?"
“I…” Payne scratched his head, “I’ll use Grace’s.”
Okay, since he seems to be able to handle it, I'd better not try to persuade him anymore.
After all, I can't stay by his side forever...
Feeling somewhat disappointed, Mary followed after them.
……
Tomato Head's rigidity almost provoked everyone's anger again—he refused to serve Mary rice, arguing that "Miss Mary is not a member of B Company, and I'm cooking for B Company."
Everyone was utterly baffled by his tomato-like thinking: how could he not even do something as simple as serving such a beautiful lady an extra serving of rice?!
If Payne hadn't been in a bad mood today, he would definitely have given the brothers a good dressing down.
So he chose to exploit a bug: he took Mary's lunchbox and said he had a big appetite and wanted to eat two meals, which directly caused Tomato Head's brain to crash, and he successfully got two meals.
However, Payne was clearly distracted when he received the food. He didn't even bother to look at what was in the lunchbox. He led Mary and the beast girls to sit down on the grass nearby and then started to stare blankly.
Normally, the brothers in B Company would have noticed his abnormality very quickly, but perhaps because a beautiful lady had come today, their IQs had all dropped to zero.
Instead of showing concern for Payne or leaving him alone, they chose to put their arms around him and engage in conversation in an extremely excited manner in order to get closer to Miss Mary.
"Hey Payne, why aren't you eating? The noodles are really delicious today!" Gaden said, trying his best to present an elegant eating posture in front of Mary.
"...Oh right, I think I heard from Camerich that there would be a main dish for lunch."
Payne forced a smile and looked down at the lunchbox in his hand, but he couldn't make out what the dark blob was, or even smell its aroma.
After staring at it for several seconds, he finally decided to ask, "What is this?"
"Beef sauce noodles! And the version with as much meat as noodles!" Garden said, glancing around as he ate. "Oh right, what's that incredibly strong cow lady's name again... Grace, right? Where's she?"
Upon hearing this, Mary, Lacey, Ruby, and Stephen were all taken aback and looked at Pine and Shawn respectively.
Xiao En, whose face had just regained some color, turned deathly pale again, and her hands began to tremble uncontrollably once more.
After an unbearable silence, Payne suddenly burst into a nervous laugh:
"Hehe...haha...hahahaha, Grace, beef sauce, hahahaha...Oh dear Gaden, you can't call her Grace anymore, you have to call her Grace sauce, hahahahahaha..."
"
Hey~
The host's depressing jokes were detected.
Depression level: 500%
Funny level: 500%
Freshness: 500%
Note: 5-hit combo! Critical hit!
Points increased by 1500
"
Chapter 125 CXXIV. The Aftermath Has Not Yet Subsided
"Paine, have you made your choice?"
Grace's voice brought Payne's attention back to the present.
At this moment, he was holding a dagger, and in front of him was Grace, who was lying face down on the bed, exposing her broad back covered with ugly scars to him.
Payne felt like his brain wasn't working at all, and his mouth and vocal cords seemed to have escaped his control as he started talking: "Then can you give me some advice?"
“How would I know? Isn’t this what you humans love to study the most?” Grace said again.
"I'm not the kind of person who really enjoys researching food. I only know about things like beef tendon and tenderloin..."
"Hmm... the tenderloin should be on the back, right? Why don't you try making a couple of cuts?"