Mission 101 (
Summary[]
Martha cuts her hair
Making her way back to Ostania, Martha heads to the East-West Border in Westalis. Feeling hungry, she tries to use the money given to her by Anabel to buy some food at a store, but quickly leaves to avoid drawing suspicion to her identity when she lacks a ration card. Fearing being caught as an Eastern woman by Westalian soldiers, Martha disguises herself as a man, cutting her hair in a barn and finding some men's clothes.
Martha learns that the war is over
Martha sits down with her map to plan her return to Ostania while evading the West's army, knowing that she is somewhat close to the border and that the Ostanian army is currently retreating. After getting some food, Martha continues on her long walk to the border, fighting the cold and her hunger while fearing an enemy attack. Despite being determined to return home to her loved ones, Martha collapses on the road in exhaustion. A military vehicle occupied by Westalian soldiers approaches her and identifies Martha (who they mistake as a man) to be an Ostanian. To Martha's surprise, they spare her life and mention that the war is over.
Motivated by this revelation, Martha presses on her journey back home, to the point of crawling on the ground. She is eventually found by Ostanian troops cleaning up near a forward outpost and is taken to the border alongside her fellow soldiers. On the way there, Martha meets a kind soldier named Paul, who also hails from Berlint and recognizes her from the paper as a member of the Women's Battalion. While most soldiers lament the pointlessness of the war as neither side won nor lost, Paul remains optimistic about the war being over and the reasons that they were able to protect their homeland.
Martha returns to Berlint
After crossing the border, the soldiers board a train back to their homes in Ostania. Although the notion of returning home alive revitalized the soldiers, it receded as their health began to fail aboard the train. Paul proposes to Martha once they return home to Berlint, but Martha turns him down as she tells him her heart belongs to someone else. With Henry in mind, Martha wonders what to tell him once she returns. Martha and Paul remain on the train for several weeks as more and more soldiers return to their homes until it finally arrives in Berlint. As the soldiers exit the train, Martha goes to wake up Paul, who she discovers had died the day before, as well as other soldiers who could not hold on much longer. After sorrowfully mourning the death of her comrade, Martha steps onto the streets of Berlint for the first time since her deployment.
Characters[]
Trivia[]
- The map featured at the start of the chapter corresponds with a section of the border between Hesse and Thuringia in real life. The river that swept Martha matches the shape of the Weidbach stream and the Weid river.
References[]