The Japanese army that attacked this time was the Second Army, which had never participated in a battle in these days and had remained unscathed, that is, the direct troops of the shogunate.
Although in terms of combat effectiveness, the shogunate's direct troops were not much better than the armies of various fiefs, and might even be slightly weaker than powerful fiefs such as Aizu and Sendai, they had the advantage of never participating in a battle in recent days, so their physical strength and fighting will were more abundant.
Having been troubled one after another and now even his precious artillery formation was destroyed in the sea of ​​fire, Inamori's anger has been directly ignited.
He just wanted to quickly capture this hateful fortress and kill all the damn barbarians inside - so he almost without thinking sent out his own troops that had not been sent into battle in order to preserve their strength in the past few days, in the hope of ending this battle as quickly as possible. In his expectation, it should have been a very easy battle.
On the other hand, the important outer wall of the Red Moon Fortress has now been destroyed, and they only have the inner wall as the last line of defense.
They could no longer use the tactics of "resisting the enemy with the outer city wall and long-range shooting with the inner city wall" that had caused the Japanese army a lot of trouble in recent days.
There weren't enough fighters.
There is only one last line of defense left.
There is no way out.
The intensity of this battle is unbearable to imagine.
…
…
In the sky where the wind and snow had just stopped, beams of sunlight shone through the slightly dispersed dark clouds, sprinkling like light dust on the snowy field and on the city walls where shouts were now ringing and blood was splattered.
Under the sunlight that was as dim as yellow fog, there were hacking, fighting, defense, encirclement and assault everywhere.
Arrows flew back and forth around the crowd and over their heads.
The Ainu people's spears and the Japanese people's swords fought against each other.
The sound of a blade chopping on armor.
The sound of wooden shields colliding.
The sound of stepping on the "soft floor" paved with human flesh.
Because of the injury, I couldn't believe that this was a sound a human could make...
On the not-so-wide inner wall, on the inner wall filled with dim sunlight, on the inner wall of the Red Moon Fortress that is destined to leave a heavy mark in the history books of later generations, the Ainu and the Japanese - two kinds of people who grew up on the same land, are now like a pair of bears and wolves entangled with each other.
They kept rolling, entangled and fighting on this small city wall.
The "bear" opened its bloody mouth and bit the "wolf's" leg tightly.
Although the wolf was not as strong as the bear, it fought to the death, using its own weapons, which were far inferior to the bear's - teeth and claws, to tear the bear apart. The blood of the bear and the wolf splattered everywhere. The battle was so fierce that the battle lines of the two armies were constantly changing.
Suddenly, somewhere, Kazuto made a big advance, but was then pushed back.
Suddenly, the Ainu people gathered together and prepared to launch a sharp attack on the Japanese, but were immediately dispersed.
This place was where the fighting was most intense just now, but in the blink of an eye, another more intense battle took its place.
The dim sunlight illuminated the fighting figures of the warriors of the two tribes, their ferocious faces, and the painful expressions after being injured.
Light and darkness, blood and fire, battle and defeat, life and death, Japanese and Ainu - this is the scene on the inner city wall.
This small inner city wall is like a microcosm of the millennium-long struggle between the two ethnic groups.
The two ethnic groups grew up on the same land, but had different faces and different cultures, and they fought for the land.
Over the past thousand years, the territories of the two ethnic groups have changed, and the people have also changed for countless generations.
In this world where everything has changed and people have changed, the only thing that remains unchanged is the greedy heart.
The only thing that remains unchanged is that the blood flowing in the bodies of the two ethnic groups, after mixing together, is actually indistinguishable from each other.
He Ren is determined not to give up until he captures the Red Moon Fortress.
The warriors of Red Moon Fortress vowed to defend their last line of defense and never retreat.
In this struggle where they could no longer retreat or lose, Chanup had already used the last means he could.
…
…
With agility that did not match his age, Chanup pulled an arrow from the quiver on his back, put the arrow on the bow, drew the arrow and shot, hitting a Japanese soldier who had just raised his head from the ladder - all in one smooth move.
"Mr. Chanup!" At this time, a young man standing next to Chanup said hurriedly, "Please step back!"
"Many people were moved by your fighting spirit and took up arms to follow you!"
"If anything happens to you, we..."
Before the young man finished speaking, Chanup interrupted with a smile:
"Retreat? Young man, where can we retreat to now?"
"Once the inner city wall is lost, our hometown will be completely lost."
"This is our last line of defense."
"There is no place for us to retreat!"
"Fighting alongside you - this is my last resort."
After that, Chanup drew another arrow from his quiver and shouted:
"Five people, come! Follow me!"
Chanup's last resort was to go into battle himself, increasing their defenses as much as possible while boosting the morale of those who were still alive.
Retanoë, who had repeatedly tried to stop Çanup from going to the front line, did not jump out to stop Çanup.
Because Retanoë is now also holding a bow and arrow, fighting on the front line.
It's not just Chanup and Retannoe.
Now almost everyone in Red Moon Fortress who can climb up the city walls to fight is fighting on the walls.
Including——Ating.
Before the enemy climbed up, Chanup advised A-Ting to take refuge in a safe place, but A-Ting refused without hesitation.
Seeing that he could not persuade Ating, Chanup could only send people to protect Ating, just like he protected other archers, because Ating had dealt a heavy blow to the Japanese soldiers after they launched a charge.
Just as Ah-Ming had just destroyed the Japanese artillery formation, she and her "shooting team" killed or wounded all the Japanese soldiers who looked difficult to deal with one by one.
The Japanese army naturally discovered Ating, who was a "strong firepower point", and tried to launch attacks on Ating's position several times - but because Ating was in the deepest part of the inner city wall, and these archers had a large number of soldiers to protect them, so unless they killed all the soldiers in front of them, or took the opportunity to shoot an arrow to kill Ating, otherwise they were destined to have no way to deal with Ating.
Ah-Ming wasn’t the only female warrior on the city walls.
In this fierce battlefield, Chanup's only daughter, Aisuma, was also fighting.
…
…
"hiss……"
Aisuma covered his right arm, and the constant pain in his right arm made Aisuma gasp.
Since three days ago, their military forces have been stretched thin, and even capable female heroes like Aisuma have had to go to the battlefield.
After three days of hard work, Aisuma felt like three years had passed.
The fierceness of the battle was naturally accompanied by corpses of people with tragic deaths.
The dead body next to Asuma's left foot was her compatriot - the man's skull had been opened by a spear.
The dead body at her right foot had a cut in the abdomen, and the intestines were flowing out of the wound, piled on his folded hands as he tried to stuff the intestines back in.
A Japanese soldier not far away had his left leg seriously injured. Only a little flesh was left on the knee of his left leg . He fled backwards with the remaining limbs.
Another Japanese soldier, both of his legs were seriously injured, so he could only crawl on the ground using his hands.
Aisuma has long been indifferent to these tragic situations.
The biggest change that these three days of fighting brought to Asuma was that she completely became a person who would no longer react to dead bodies of any shape.
She now had only one thought in her mind: to drive all these people away.
Even though Aizuma's arms were sore from days of shooting arrows, even though every time he raised his right arm, his facial features twisted in pain and he groaned in pain, even though he could die at any moment, Aizuma still gritted his teeth, pulled out a new arrow from the quiver, and put the arrow on the bow...
…
…
A slash from the upper right to the lower left chopped off the face of a very strong Japanese soldier.
In addition to the murderous touch that was transmitted to Tang Shen's arm along the knife, there was also the reaction force caused by the blade's slash.
This reaction force was transmitted to Tang Shen's shoulders in one breath, piercing his nerves like fine needles.
“Hmm…”
After taking the knife back from the Japanese soldier whose face was chopped, Tang Shen raised his left hand to cover his right arm.
Tang Shen's right arm is now extremely congested due to the intense exercise, with every muscle tense and veins bulging.
The non-stop hard fighting had left Tang Shen's right arm in a state of overwork, reaching the limit of what his old body could achieve.
Now, every time Thompson swung his knife, his muscles and bones would feel severe pain, protesting against him.
"Quick! Kill this old man!"
"This old man has killed quite a few of our people!"
"Surround him! Surround him!"
The five Japanese soldiers nearby noticed something was wrong with Tang Shen, so they approached him with their guns pointed.
However... they had just stepped within three steps of Tang Shen when an arc-shaped knife light enveloped them all, passing over every vital part of their bodies.
…
…
The passage of time will not be sped up or slowed down by anything.
The originally dim sunlight slowly turned into the orange-yellow light unique to the sunset.
In this era when all lighting depended on fire, the Shogunate army obviously did not have the ability to fight at night.
The troops that are able to engage in night battles in pitch darkness are basically the elite among the elite.
If a night battle was launched against an army like the Shogunate Army, which had long been corrupted and fallen in peaceful life, they would suffer large-scale "non-combat casualties" due to various reasons before they even saw the enemy.
Inamori looked at the sky above his head which had turned orange, and the military uniform in his hands and his teeth in his mouth were creaking.
The inner wall of Red Moon Fortress—has not fallen yet!
"...Lord Inamori." A confidant beside Inamori was afraid that Inamori, who had threatened to capture the Red Moon Fortress within a day yesterday, would act on impulse and force the troops to continue fighting at night, so he plucked up his courage and continued, "Night is coming, we..."
"I know!!"
Before the confidant could finish his words, Inamori interrupted him with an angry roar.
After being yelled at by Inamori, the confidant immediately shut his mouth, straightened his back, and dared not say anything more.
Inamori looked as if he was about to spit fire as he poured flames towards the fortress in the distance.
After a long while, Inamori finally said in a deep voice:
"…Retreat. Prepare for the night."
…
…
"The Japanese... retreated..." Chanup murmured in a low voice as he watched the Japanese army slowly retreating like the tide.
Like Chanup, everyone looked at the retreating Japanese army, and the expressions in everyone's eyes and faces were extremely complicated.
After watching the Japanese army retreat, they looked at each other.
You look at me, I look at you - everyone is covered in blood, and everyone looks tired.
Although they had successfully repelled the attack of the Japanese army once again and held out for another day, almost no one looked happy.
Everyone would have had a happy look on their face, but after seeing that many familiar faces were gone and that the people who were still alive had an expression that was unbearable to look at any longer, that joy would completely vanish.
Although they had successfully repelled the Japanese troops that had climbed up the city walls, the atmosphere on the city walls was so heavy that it was hard to breathe.
"Chanoup, are you hurt?" At this time, Retannoe, who came to find Chanoup, looked at Chanoup's face with surprise.
There was now a huge scar on Chanup's profile, running from the left corner of his eye to the right corner of his eye.
"It's okay. I was just accidentally scratched by a Japanese spear."
After saying that, Chanup withdrew his gaze from Retannoe and looked around with a complicated expression: "A lot of people are missing again..."
"... Let's get the children out first." Reitannoe said softly, "I see many children who can't even stand steadily..."
"Let the children who are still strong stay on the wall to stand guard, and let the rest of the children who are about to collapse from exhaustion go to the bottom of the wall to rest and prepare for dinner." Chanup said, "Let's divide the work. I will assign the people who will stand guard tonight, and you will take a group of people to carry the wounded down and clean up the wall."
Retannoe nodded and quickly left Chanup's sight, and Chanup began to command the soldiers who could still walk well to evacuate from the city wall in an orderly manner.
"Ms. Atachi."
After the soldiers withdrew from the city wall in an orderly manner according to Chanup's arrangements, Chanup found Ating.
The other members of Ating's "sniper team" have now all withdrawn, with only Ating left sitting there.
She raised her head and looked outside the city - as if she was looking into the distance, but also as if she was looking at something else.
"You've worked really hard today, and I'm very grateful to you." Chanup did not hide his gratitude in his words, "Now that the army has retreated, you should also go down and have a rest."
Today, when A-machi found him and told Chanup that she wanted to try to use her musket to fire long-range shots at the Japanese artillery, he finally agreed to let A-machi go into battle, in large part because A-machi was Ogata's wife.
"Mashima-kun is an incredible person, so his wife might not be an ordinary person either" - this was what Chanup thought at the time.
In addition, A-Ting insisted on letting her go into battle, and no one could convince her. In the end, Chanup let A-Ting go into battle with the idea of ​​"let's give it a try".
In the end, it was proven that she was worthy of being the wife of a hero like Majima-kun.
"Mr. Chanup, you have to thank me all the time." Ating smiled at Chanup, "You and I are now in the same boat. If your fortress helps, it will be a disaster for me."
"What's more, you have done us a great favor."
"First, he helped us find the doctor couple. Then, he treated my injuries."
"There is no reason for me to sit back and do nothing."
"I haven't been outdoors for a long time. I've been stuck in Kunoya's clinic all this time."
Having said that, Ating turned his head and refocused his gaze toward the distance outside the city.
"I want to stay here for a while, and then I will go down to rest."
Seeing that Ating said this, Chanup naturally couldn't say anything else. After reminding Ating, "It's very cold at night, be careful not to catch a cold," he went on to direct the children to withdraw from the city wall in an orderly manner.
…
…
It was a moonless and starless night.
During the day today, after the terrible snowstorm, the dark clouds that had been piling up in the sky still had not completely dispersed.
At the beginning of this struggle, the people of Red Moon Fortress would celebrate every night for successfully keeping the Japanese out of the city.
But now - there are no similar scenes happening in the fortress.
After night fell, except for the soldiers who needed to stand guard on the city wall, everyone else withdrew from the wall.
There was less laughter.
Even the sound of walking became much lighter.
Everyone was like a group of soulless walking corpses. They mechanically took their dinner for the day, found a place, and ate quietly.
There was only the sound of chewing food, and the occasional cries and wails of pain coming from the "treatment area".
Aisuma held her sore right arm, sat in an inconspicuous corner at the base of the inner city wall, kneading and massaging the muscles of her right arm.
At this moment, Aisuma suddenly felt the light in front of him dim—someone was standing in front of him.
Before she could even look up, she heard a familiar voice with a clear smile coming from above her head:
"Aisuma."
"Puccina?" Asuma raised her head and looked at the owner of the figure standing in front of her with a look mixed with surprise - Puchina, the only son of Retannoe and also her childhood sweetheart.
Unlike Aisuma who had just been on the city wall for three days, Puchina had been fighting on the city wall since the first day of the war - perhaps because the battle was too difficult, Puchina's somewhat strong body now seemed a little thinner.
"I have forgotten when I last saw you." Asuma patted the ground beside him and motioned for Puchina to sit down.
"Where is your brother?" Puchina asked as he sat down.
"He is currently helping out under Kunoya. I have visited him a few times. The work he is responsible for is quite exhausting."
After this conversation, both of them fell silent.
However - although both of them were silent, no one felt that the atmosphere between them was awkward.
After an unknown amount of time, the silent atmosphere was finally broken, and the one who broke the silence was Aisuma.
"...Puchina, I have a new respect for you."
"Hmm? Why do you say that?"
"I heard that when my father was still hesitating and didn't know whether to fight to the death with the people, you brought a dozen like-minded people to find my father and expressed your determination to fight to the end no matter what."
"Ah... Thinking back on this matter, it was quite rude to Mr. Chanup and his colleagues at that time... They were in the middle of a meeting, but we interrupted them..."
"My father later told me that the reason why he finally made up his mind to fight the war was largely because he was touched by your words and eyes at that time."
"Huh? Really?"
"Yeah. Really. That's why I said I've come to respect you. My impression of you is that you always have a silly smile on your face, and you're either hanging around me or following your friends around doing nothing."
"So you've always looked at me like this..."
Aisuma ignored Puchina's joking words and turned her head to look directly into Puchina's eyes.
"Puccina, I really want to ask you - why did you think of leading like-minded people to show my father your determination to fight to the end?"
"There was no particular reason... I happened to be there at the time and heard Mr. Upanu saying something like 'surrender is good' in public. I was furious and felt the blood rushing to my head. When I came to my senses, I had already returned home, grabbed my weapons, gathered some like-minded people, and ran to find Mr. Chanup in a rage."
"Just because of this?"
Puchina nodded: "I too... experienced the migration to the south 10 years ago. Although I was still a little kid at that time, I still remember the painful memories of the migration to the south in search of a new home..."
Puchina looked up at the night sky with nothing but dark clouds above his head. "This is our new home that we built with so much hardship. If we give this new home to others... I can't pretend nothing happened no matter what."
Aisuma stared into Puccina's eyes, then laughed happily: "...You seem to have some of your father's style."
"You make me panic when you say that... I always thought my father was so vicious, and I don't want to be a person like him..."
"I'm not saying you've become as vicious ..."
After letting out a sigh mixed with a hint of helplessness, Aisuma turned his gaze to the front not far away - in front of them, there were four very young people, who were not sure whether to call them "teenagers" or "young men", who were leaning against each other and taking a nap with tired faces.
One of them was holding a half-eaten piece of jerky in his hand - he must have been halfway through his meal and fell asleep out of exhaustion before finishing it.
"I have a feeling... we may not survive until tomorrow..." Although Asuma tried to use a light tone, her voice still trembled uncontrollably as she spoke, "There are... not many people left who can stand properly."
"Those who are still alive are all exhausted now..."
“And the Japanese troops outside the city seem to be unable to defeat the enemy no matter how hard they try, and they show no sign of retreating.”
"With the loss of the outer wall, today's battle has been very difficult."
"I already... don't know what to do tomorrow..."
After saying this, Asuma lowered her head, her eyes dim.
"...Cheer up, Asuma." Puchina chuckled, which was out of tune with the current atmosphere between the two of them. "My father always told me that if you live long enough, you are likely to encounter anything."
"Maybe a miracle will happen tomorrow."
"For example, a huge snowstorm suddenly hit, destroying the Japanese army's supplies and troops."
"Or maybe reinforcements suddenly came from fellow countrymen who disliked me."
"I never thought that I would be comforted by you who always follows me around..." Asuma showed a helpless expression, "A sudden heavy snowstorm and reinforcements... Such an exaggerated miracle is impossible to happen..."
Puccina wanted to say something else - but he seemed to be refuted by what Asuma had just said, or he didn't believe what he had just said. He slowly closed his lips and lowered his head with a look of loss and helplessness, just like Asuma just now...
…
…
"Shendu, is your right hand... okay?"
Thompson raised his head and looked at Chanup standing in front of him, then looked at his right hand which was resting on his knee and was shaking constantly.
"It's no big deal." Tang Shen said softly, "I'm just a little overworked. Have you finished your work?"
"Yeah. Now I can finally take a break."
After speaking, Chanup sat next to Tang Shen, and sat side by side with Tang Shen in this inconspicuous corner of the city.
"…I kind of miss the days when people would cheer enthusiastically every evening, 'Just made it through another day.'"
Tang Shen raised his head and looked at the darkness ahead without a sound.
"This kind of silence now makes me feel very depressed..."
"There's nothing we can do about it." Chanup gave a bitter smile. "So many people were killed or injured, and countless families lost their loved ones."
"After 10 days of bloody battles, everyone's body and spirit have reached their limits."
"The most important thing is... I don't see any hope of winning."
"The reason why it's so quiet now is mainly because everyone feels like they can't hold on any longer and there's no hope of victory..."
"If it were me, I wouldn't have the mood or energy to cheer or anything like that."
"...Do you also feel there is no hope of winning?" Thompson turned and looked at Chanup.
"If the outer wall had not fallen, I think there would still be some chance of victory." Chanup said slowly, "But now that the outer wall has fallen, our defense power has been greatly reduced."
"to be honest……"
Chanup laughed at himself.
"We may not even survive tomorrow... It will be the day after tomorrow before the '10-day deadline' I told you about... and it seems we can't survive until then..."
Chanup rested his arms on his legs, crossed his fingers, and pressed his forehead against his crossed fingers, with an unstoppable look of fatigue and guilt on his face.
"I feel a little... sorry for that person..." He said this in a voice that only he could hear.
After mumbling, Chanup returned to his normal voice.
"Shendu. If the city is breached, you can seize the opportunity to steal a horse from the enemy and then break out on your own."
"With your ability, breaking out should not be impossible."
"Then what will you do?" Tang Shen asked back.
"Why do you ask a question you already know the answer to?"
"..." Tang Shen stared at Chanup with a meaningful look, "You are in a very bad state now. You exude pessimism from head to toe."
Chanup was silent.
There was no rebuttal to what Thompson had just said - after all, Chanup was powerless to refute what Thompson had just said.
Tang Shen stared into Chanup's eyes as if he wanted to say something to Chanup.
He stared at Chanup until he felt a little uncomfortable, then he looked away.
Then he said slowly:
"Chanoop. Don't despair so quickly."
"I have lived for so many years and have learned many truths."
"Among the many truths I have learned, there is one that I firmly believe in - as long as you are alive, there is hope."
"Keep going. Who knows - a miracle might happen tomorrow."
"Miracle?" Chanup laughed dumbly, "What kind of miracle can there be?"
"Hmm..." Chanup thought hard, "For example... a huge snowstorm blew up and destroyed the supplies of the Ainu army, or some reinforcements arrived. Many Ainu troops hate the Ainu people. Maybe some Ainu people who hate the Ainu people will gather together and come to support us."
"Reinforcements..." Chanup muttered the word softly, with a gleam in his eyes.
However, this glimmer of light was fleeting. In the blink of an eye, it dimmed.
"This kind of miracle... simply... can't possibly happen..."
"Anyway, let's try praying first." Tang Shen smiled, "Since you don't know what to do next, just pray to your Kamui. Praying will lead to miracles. Maybe it will really come true?"
Chanup was amused by what Tang Shen said.
"I understand... Then I will... pray for a miracle to happen..."
…
…
"Ms. Atachi!"
Ating, who was concentrating on watching the outside of the city, suddenly heard a familiar voice. He showed a surprised expression, and then looked towards the owner of the voice.
"Ayi Zan? Yashili?"
On the left side of A-machi are Aizan .
These two were probably the two people that Ogata and Atachi knew best in the Red Moon Fortress.
The two of them walked quickly to A-Ming with smiles on their faces, and then sat down in front of A-Ming.
Ah-ching asked the two why they were here, and then learned that Ayizan would be taking over the sentry duty on the city wall.
The two heard that Ah Ting was still on the city wall, so they went to talk to Ah Ting while there was still some time before Ayizan took over.
"Yashili, did you participate in the battle today?" A Ting noticed that Yashili was dirty now, with some blood stains on his body and clothes.
After Ai Zan finished translating, Yashili nodded:
"I have been helping out on the inner city wall since yesterday. I heard yesterday that the troops on the city wall are very weak, so I volunteered to help out along with some other girls from our Qina Village."
"Although we can't fight the enemy in close combat with spears, we can still shoot arrows with bows. (Ainu language)"
“I see…” Ating showed a complicated expression, “Even a girl like you went to the battlefield…”
"In front of the enemy, there is no distinction between men, women, old and young." Yashili showed a strong smile, "This is our new home in Qina Village."
“I don’t want our new homeland to be lost like this… (Ainu)”
At this time, Ayi Zan on the side added at the right time:
"Some people in our village have told our village chief a few days ago that we in Qina Village have just moved to Heyezhe not long ago and have no feelings for this land, so there is no need for us to fight to the death with Mr. Chanup and his men."
“And these people were immediately reprimanded by our village chief.”
"Our village chief said: Mr. Chanup lent us a helping hand when our Qina village was at its lowest point and allowed us to live in Heyezhe."
"He Yezhe is in trouble now, how can we just pat our butts and walk away?"
After saying this, Ayizan let out a long sigh.
"Our village chief is also a very passionate person..."
"Not long after the war started, he personally led the remaining young and strong men in our Qina Village to participate in the defense."
"Many people have fallen, but the village chief is still fighting on the front line... He is indeed the village's number one warrior..."
"Ms. A-machi." Yashili suddenly interrupted, "Where is Mr. Majima now? Why can't I see him these days? (Ainu)"
As soon as Yashili finished speaking, Ai Zan immediately cast a look towards Ating that was mixed with curiosity and a bit of anxiety.
In order to prevent the enemy from stealing Ogata's battle plan, Chanup, Ating and others kept secrets to the utmost - until now, the only people in the entire fortress who knew what Ogata was doing were Chanup and Ating.
In the eyes of Yashili, Ayizan and others, Ogata was no different from someone who had suddenly disappeared. The two had been anxious about the "missing" Ogata these days.
"Sorry." Ating smiled apologetically and shook his head. "I can't tell you too much about what my husband is doing right now."
"All I can tell you is that my husband is working hard to save us."
"Save us...? (Ainu)" As soon as Yashili finished listening to Aizen's translation, he cast a surprised look at Ating.
She looked at Ating with such surprise for a long while, and then the surprise in her eyes slowly turned into bitterness.
"Save... do we still have a chance to turn the tide now...?" (Ainu)
As Yashili spoke, he slowly lowered his head.
Although Ai Zan was slightly startled by Yashili's pessimistic words, he was still translating for Ating diligently.
"There aren't many people left who can take up arms and fight."
"The important outer city walls were also breached."
"Everyone's mood is very low now. No one sees hope of victory... Listen - everything is quiet around."
"In this situation... do we still have hope of turning defeat into victory...?" (Ainu language)
After saying this, with slightly red eyes, Yashili slowly raised her head and looked at Ating with a sad gaze.
Although Yashili's eyes were filled with sadness, there was a hint of hope and desire in this sadness.
"If we can turn defeat into victory in this situation... it would probably be called a miracle... (Ainu language)"
"...Ashiri." said Ating.
"Yes." Yashili's voice rose unconsciously.
"Do you believe in miracles?"
Yashili stared blankly at Ating in front of him.
After pursing his lips and changing his expression several times, Ashley, still with red eyes, nodded vigorously:
“…I believe it!”
"I believe that, too."
A gentle smile spread across Atachi's face.