Volume 1 Chapter 41 Lieutenant Louise’s Agony, Part ①
Edited by: Kanaa-senpai
The former church was an exercise in wasted space. Its ceilings were needlessly high, covered in gaudy decorations meant to force a sense of majesty onto a room that now served as a gathering hall for a legion of female Soldiers.
Even in the dim interior, the morning light piercing through the stained glass was sharp enough to illuminate every face from the pulpit to the back row.
”The Grand Commander is here. Listen up!”
At the Vice Commander’s bark, the hundred and fifty Soldiers snapped to attention. A petite Elf officer ascended the podium, her military cap so oversized it looked like it might swallow her whole.
”Salute!”
As one, the Soldiers moved with surgical precision. Arms snapped up, elbows tucked, palms angled just above their ears in a crisp salute. At the command to order, their arms dropped back to their sides in a synchronized thud, returning them to a state of rigid silence.
”I will now outline our objectives,” the small Elf began. Her voice was high-pitched but carried a sharp edge that commanded the room. “The Kiridal Kingdom bastards who raided our border towns took a base of ours – Vod Fortress. Our allies seized it back, but lost it again two weeks ago. Our mission is simple: we reoccupy the fort, push into their territory to make sure they don’t get any bright ideas, and level their supply lines. The First and Second Companies of the 101st Golem Battalion¹ handling the heavy lifting.”
The tiny officer took a breath, her eyes scanning the ranks. “That’s the long and short of it. Compared to our usual track record, this is a walk in the park, but don’t get cocky. The enemy might pull some unconventional crap. Stay sharp, follow your Commanders’ lead, and I want every single one of you back here in one piece. No casualties. Clear?”
A murmur rippled through the ranks, a mix of excitement and tension.
”Don’t underestimate them just because they’re weak,” she snapped. “Crush them with everything you’ve got. If I see anyone getting lazy out there, I’ll be the one to give you your final rites. Am I understood!?”
””YES, MA’AM!””
The response was a deafening roar that shook the old church walls.
”Who are we!?”
””The 101st Golem Battalion!””
”Who brings the victory!?”
””The 101st Golem Battalion!””
”Who owns the future!?”
””The 101st Golem Battalion!””
”Glory to the Kingdom of Schuberitz!” the Commander shouted, thrusting a fist into the air. The Soldiers mirrored her, their collective heat filling the hall. Satisfied, the Commander lowered her hand and gave a small, dry cough. “Departure is the day after tomorrow. Briefing details are with your Company Commanders. Dismissed.”
* * *
’Battalion Brief: 101st Golem Battalion’
Established in the year 3860 by the First Sage, Baron von Schwaben Paul. Originally a small unit of sixty men led by the Elf Captain Latour Ferris, it has spent the last 140 years evolving.
The current Ninth Commander is Major Kittinoa Sonya – better known as the ‘Witch of the Black Forest’². Under her, the unit has ballooned to ninety Golems and nearly four hundred personnel. The organization is clinical.
The core unit is the Squad: one Mage (Level 3 or higher) and five engineers. These Mages are the heart of the machine, giving the squads their names – like the Louise Squad.
Maintenance is a visceral affair; Golems are built from monster muscle and tendon, requiring constant biological upkeep.
Rookie Mages spend their days sweating over extra-large Amber stones, pumping them full of Mana Weaving³ to keep the beasts moving.
* * *
Hours before the assembly, Major Kittinoa Sonya arrived back at the Thomasgen Garrison from a meeting with the General Staff.
”Welcome back, Major,” said Neumul Erna. The administrative head opened the carriage door with a practiced, deferential bow. “The others are expecting you.”
Erna placed a step stool down so Sonya could dismount. It was a clear jab at Sonya’s height, though framed as ‘consideration.’ Sonya didn’t ignore it, but she didn’t offer a thank you, either.
She stepped down onto the grounds of the former Universal Church estate. A century ago, the Religious Reformation had stripped the church of its land, turning this cathedral into a military hub.
The priests were kicked out, the serfs became yeomen, and the ‘spears’ of the Gothic architecture now just looked like weapons pointed at the sky.
Sonya marched into the former priest’s quarters. Inside, a group of women were lounging, but they snapped to a salute the moment the door swung open.
”At ease,” Sonya said, sinking into a plush sofa at the head of the room. The Vice Commander took her post behind the sofa, while the others settled back into their seats – two Company Commanders to the left, clerks to the right.
Sonya sighed, rubbing her temples as she looked at her officers. “Muller Sara, did you seriously add more metal to your face?”
The First Company Commander grinned, the gold studs in her eyebrows and the new piercing in the side of her nose catching the light. She looked more like a punk rocker than a soldier, her makeup thick and aggressive. “You noticed? It’s cute, right?”
(Does this girl even know she’s a Second Lieutenant?) Sonya thought. She’d spent the morning being lectured by a Duke about the ‘unprofessional’ look of her unit. She’d defended them as ‘eccentric specialists,’ but looking at them now, she wondered if she’d lied.
Then there was the Second Company Commander, Schuttler ZoFee. She looked plain enough in her uniform, but Sonya knew what was underneath. ZoFee was a walking gallery of degenerate dragon tattoos – dragons peering into her crotch, dragons licking her breasts… a perverted mess of ink.
Even the logistics head, Roche Veronia, had dyed her uniform a loud, offensive pink. They were a disaster, but Sonya couldn’t blame them entirely. When you’re a Mage who feels every disgusting emotion of the people you touch, you tend to go a little crazy just to feel something of your own.
”Commander, come on! Give me some feedback!” Sara said, flicking her nose ring.
”Yeah, yeah. It’s adorable,” Sonya deadpanned.
”Rude! Put some feeling into it!”
”Sara, maybe stop poking holes in yourself for five minutes. Meinecke Chris just sent word – she’s getting married.”
The room went dead silent. Chris was the Fourth Company Commander, currently stuck on the Rus border.
”Louise, over here,” Sonya said, ignoring the stunned silence of the others. She patted the spot next to her on the sofa.
”I’m fine here ssu, Major,” replied Louise.
Sonya patted the seat again, harder. “Sit.”
”Yes… of course. Excuse me ssu.”
Louise sat. She was a giant of a woman, nearly seven feet tall with shoulders like a linebacker and short-cropped red hair. Her face was all sharp angles and deep-set eyes, completely devoid of makeup. If it weren’t for the massive, logic-defying rack stretching her uniform to its limit, she’d be a ringer for a palace guardsman. Sonya leaned back, putting her full weight against Louise’s side.
”Commander…” Louise muttered, sounding pained, though she didn’t move.
”You guys curious?” Sonya asked, looking at the others. “Chris’s guy is some commoner. Elite Academy grad, though. A Lieutenant. Same age as her.”
Sonya slid an arm around Louise’s waist, mostly to see Sara’s face turn red.
”No way!” Sara yelled. “Chris is a total freak! She’s got piercings in her… well, you know! Down there!”
”And that skull tattoo on her back?” ZoFee added, leaning forward. “No decent guy is gonna stay in the room once the clothes come off. He’s gonna pull a disappearing act the second he sees that ‘masterpiece’ on her spine.”
Sonya let them vent. They were probably just jealous. For an Elf, you’ve got a century of fertility, but for humans, the clock is ticking. These girls were in their late twenties – prime ‘get married or have a kid and retire’ age. Being shown up by Chris, the youngest of the bunch, was a massive blow to their egos.
”Louise,” Sonya said, sliding her hand up to give one of the woman’s massive breasts a firm, playful squeeze. “We’re gonna have to find you a partner for some baby-making soon, too ssu.”
”I… I have no interest in such things, Major,” Louise stammered, her face turning as red as her hair. “I’ve dedicated my life to being your shadow. I’d much rather just retire into a desk job under you…”
That’s right; the civil servant sitting to my front-right was the perfect example of what happens to a woman left on the shelf. In this unit, anyone else capable of using Advanced-tier Mana⁴ had already been shipped off to serve as a dedicated Medical Mage.
”Could you please stop talking about civil servants like we’re some dumping ground for old maids?” Louise snapped.
The pink-haired Veronia reacted to the comment. Louise was capable, certainly; when it came to procurement and inventory management, nobody could touch her.
It was the same for Erna, our resident gold-maniac. She handled the military personnel with a deft hand, and aside from managing the facilities, she’d been busy having the men transcribe volumes of war history she’d borrowed from the Royal Library.
I’d been leaning on her vast knowledge to help draft our actual operations.
”If you say so, Louise. I’ll keep an eye out for a young guy who’s your type,” I said.
I glanced at her. For someone who claimed she just wanted to be a bureaucrat, she didn’t look particularly upset by the suggestion.
”Good grief,” one of the others chimed in. “The Commander has some nerve, saying that after he’s already broken Louise in to suit his own perverted tastes.”
”Seriously! Introduce some guys to the rest of us, too. You’ve been working us to the bone lately,” another added.
The wind was starting to blow in an unfavorable direction.
”Yeah, yeah, I hear you. If I’m in the mood, I’ll look. Happy?” I replied.
”You totally have no intention of looking, do you?”
”Alright, enough. Let’s talk business,” I said. (I can’t let them keep bickering forever. It’s time to get to the point.)
”Two whole companies against Kiridal?” Sarah asked, her piercings glinting as she spoke for the group. “I know the Fourth Prince was killed, but are you really planning to wipe Kiridal off the map?”
Veronia, our materials lead, didn’t look convinced either.
”The possibility is on the table,” I said. “If the Empire of Rus swallows them up like they did Larland, things are going to get messy for us.”
The Empire of Rus was the great power to the east, a nation with terrifying military might. We didn’t used to share a border, but after the Kingdom of Larland was annexed ten years ago, our buffer zone vanished. While it wasn’t as intense as the Western Front, the border had been a powder keg ever since.
”So, you’re seriously going to crush them?”
”No. Annexation is the long-term goal, but for now, we’re just testing the waters. More importantly, this is a move to keep the Eastern Palace⁵ in check,” I explained.
The Eastern Palace⁶ was where the Crown Prince had established a shadow government to study politics. They didn’t have formal executive power, but their “suggestions” to the King carried a lot of weight.
”Are you saying the Crown Prince was involved in the Fourth Prince’s assassination?” Erna asked.
It wasn’t a question I could answer immediately, but we were all family here. “It was likely his mother’s side of the family.”
”You mean… Marquis Herlitz?”
”Shh! Keep your voice down!” Sarah hissed at Fee, the 2nd Company Commander.
It was no secret that the Fourth Prince, Oscar von Reinfelden, had been a prodigy. Aside from being the firstborn, Crown Prince Abelard didn’t have a single talent to his name. Rumors about making Oscar the heir had sparked and fizzled out more times than I could count.
The Crown Prince’s mother was the King’s favorite, having secured her position by providing him with the Second and Third Princes as well. Her father was the “Third Sage,” Oscar von Herlitz, the man behind the kingdom’s financial reforms.
”The current Marquis Herlitz is just a pampered fool living in his father’s shadow,” I said bluntly.
”Is it really okay to say that? He’s the grandfather of the next King,” Sarah said.
”A fool is a fool. The Royal Government is trying to centralize power and increase the Crown’s land, and here he is, demanding we hand more territory back to the nobles. His own ‘Great Sage’ of a father was the one who started the centralization policy in the first place. I guess being a genius doesn’t mean you know how to raise a son.”
He was probably just a puppet for the snakes in his inner circle, but if that was the case, this country’s future was looking bleak.
”So, you think Marquis Herlitz and the Kingdom of Kiridal are in bed together?”
”Yeah. Count Plzenid of Kiridal is a relative of the Marquis. But here’s the kicker: Count Plzenid has reportedly vanished,” I said.
”Did our intelligence boys take him out?”
”I got the intel from Major Sigmund himself, so I doubt it. Besides, there are too many ‘strange’ things about this conflict,” I replied.
Normally, royalty isn’t killed on the battlefield. You capture them and trade them for a mountain of gold. Even with the succession drama, killing a prince doesn’t benefit Kiridal. Schweilitz isn’t going to just take back Vod Fortress and call it a day after their prince’s blood has been spilled. Kiridal is weakened by plague; they need ransom money, not a corpse.
Then there are the arrows. The ones that killed the Prince and the ones used to slaughter the militia during the retreat… they aren’t from around here. They look like the work of the Eastern nomadic tribes. And then there’s the fact that Kiridal abandoned the fortress at the start of the war without even putting up a fight. That’s not how we fight in the West.
Word is traveling from the far East about the rise of a nomadic tribe called the Blue Wolf—the Boltechino⁷. I don’t think Kiridal has allied with them, but they’ve clearly been influenced. We need to prepare for the fact that our standard tactics might be useless here. If we underestimate them as some weak nation, they’ll cut our legs out from under us.
I used Erna’s historical data to hammer the Eastern nomads’ tactics into my brain. I started mapping out the contingencies and deciding on our unit formations.
”I want fifty Golem repair units, one hundred and twenty Giant Amber⁸, and three days of portable rations. Logistics will handle the rest. We move out the morning after tomorrow. I’ve already put in the request for ten transport ships,” I ordered.
”Understood,” Louise replied. “We only have thirty-two repair units in stock, but I’ll lean on the workshop to produce the rest. We have ninety-five Giant Amber⁹ fully charged. Everyone will have to charge the remaining twenty-five themselves during transit. Rations aren’t an issue.”
”As for the Golems, we’re taking twenty-one Type 95s and five Type 98s. As for the rest…”
”Louise and I will handle our personal units,” Sarah cut in.
When things got tactical, these girls flipped a switch. Despite being a bunch of perverts, they were damn efficient. It was almost a headache.
—
Summary:
Major Sonya Kittinoa rallies the 101st Golem Battalion for a counter-offensive against the Kiridal Kingdom.
Returning to the Thomasgen base, she confronts her eccentric and ‘morally broken’ officers about their unprofessional appearances.
The tension shifts to the surprising news of a fellow officer’s marriage, sparking envy among the group while Sonya exerts physical dominance over the stoic Louise
Moving from lighthearted banter to a high-stakes military briefing, the Commander outlines a plan to engage the Kingdom of Kiridal.
Suspicion falls on Marquis Herlitz and potential involvement from the Eastern Palace in the assassination of Prince Oscar.
The mystery deepens with the disappearance of Count Plzenid and the appearance of foreign arrows from the nomadic Boltechino
—
Trivia:
- The Golems’ construction specifically involves monster tendons and muscle, implying a biological or necromantic element to the world’s technology.
- Sonya’s empathy-touch power is why she tolerates the chaotic personalities of her subordinates; she understands their underlying trauma.
- The Thomasgen Garrison is a repurposed church, highlighting the secularization of the Kingdom of Schuberitz.
- The mention of ‘Medical Mages’ suggests a high degree of specialization for magic users in this world.
- The term ‘gold-maniac’ for Erna implies she might be motivated by profit or funding for her research.
- The Fourth Prince was specifically killed by arrows not seen in neighboring countries.
- The King’s favoritism toward the Crown Prince’s mother has massive political ramifications
—
Character Insight:
Sonya displays a mix of maternal leadership and predatory physical intimacy, using Louise as a physical anchor and a target for her frustrations with human aging and social norms.
The female leads shift instantly from playful and sexually charged banter to cold, tactical efficiency once the briefing starts.
—
Glossary:
Notes:
• Commander – A man leading the mercenary press-gang at the south gate.
• Ferris – Granny, an ageless elf who appears as a 30‑year‑old but is centuries old, runs the village pharmacy with deep magic and elf‑style healing. She claims to have known Larry’s grandfather, speaks bluntly, and is the elderly woman Martin hopes to marry.
• Witch of the Black Forest – Hexa Death Schwarzwalds, the runt‑like commander of the Golem Battalion, is first labeled ‘runt’ by Larry. Known as Hexa Death Schwarzwalds, he appears at the chapter’s end, leading golems and gaining wary respect from his troops while Larry watches with cautious curiosity.
• Kittinoa – The Kittinoa family name, carried by Sonya. The lineage is associated with the Ninth generation of commanders within the Kingdom of Schuberitz’s specialized Golem units.
• Sonya – A petite, flat-chested Elf woman with a small frame and long lifespan, she serves as Ninth Commander of the 101st Golem Battalion, known as the Witch of the Black Forest, often wearing an oversized military cap; she wields telepathic empathy through touch, uses mana as a physical tool of dominance, and maintains a sadistic, triumphant dynamic in her intimate relationship with Louise.
• Louise – A towering seven-foot-tall Captain and Vice-Commander of the 101st Golem Battalion, she boasts a massive, muscular build, broad shoulders, short-cropped red hair, a long face, deep-set eyes, a hooked nose, and a protruding jaw—features inherited from her father, surpassing her mother and eldest brother in height by age eight. Once a Corporal with immense mana reserves, she rose through diligent service as a silent, hardworking squad leader. Though now replaced as commander after an arrow wound, she retains deep, one-sided affection for Larry, offering him her quarters upon his return, her obsession with procreation rooted in genuine, if unreciprocated, devotion.
• Neumul – The Neumul family name, carried by Erna. The family is of commoner status without a significant allowance. The Neumul family name, carried by Erna. The name is associated with the administrative management of the Thomasgen Garrison.
• Erna – A research student from the magic school in the Sabaski capital who served as Louise’s tutor. She is a commoner with a fondness for expensive gold jewelry and later became a colleague of Louise in the military. An administrative head and facility manager at the Thomasgen Garrison who wears excessive gold accessories including bracelets, cufflinks, and buckles.
• Muller – The Muller family name, carried by Sara. The name is linked to the leadership of the First Company within the Golem Battalion.
• Sara – A woman with numerous gold piercings in her ears, eyebrows, and nose, often wearing thick, aggressive makeup. She serves as the Second Lieutenant and Commander of the First Company.
• Schuttler – The Schuttler family name, carried by ZoFee, associated with the command of the Second Company.
• ZoFee – The Commander of the 2nd Company. She is outspoken and occasionally needs to be reminded by her peers to keep her voice down during sensitive political discussions. The family name carried by Larry. The lineage is associated with the militia of Mauer Village. family name of Larry. A woman with a plain appearance while in uniform who conceals a body covered in elaborate dragon tattoos, including a large severed dragon head on her back. She serves as the Second Company Commander.
• Veronia – The materials lead for the unit with distinctive pink hair. She is highly capable in logistics and stock management.
• Al – Alberto, a massive red‑haired man recently married to Mary, just finished his village wedding. He is a companion of Hans, helping intimidate and gather elders as a villager and leader working alongside him.
• Sarah – The Commander of the 1st Company who wears distinctive piercings. She acts as a representative for the group during briefings and maintains a sharp, observant attitude.
• Mar – A comrade of Larry who teases him about being pampered by his sister-in-law upon his return.
• Sigmund – A Major in the Royal Army General Staff with full authority over Vod Fortress. He is short, plump, balding, and has a baby face.
Please bookmark this series and rate ☆☆☆☆☆ on here!
Edited by Kanaa-senpai.
Thanks for reading.
Leave a Reply