Musket Girls! ~Tensei Sanbou to Senretsu Otome-tachi~ - Vol. 4 Ch. 22 - The Grim Reaper at the Funeral

[Goldenzeal]

Only the dead have seen the end of war.

 

[Bibliothecarius]

Thanks for the chapter!!!!

 

[DeusExCalamus]

Ah. It's a terrible day for rain.

 

[Mieglen]

The only silver lining I can see is that, unlike most troops that were left onto the field, dead and abandoned, at least the girls had the chance to be properly buried, and mourned within their homeland/hometown

 

[meinakalla]

rest in peace girls we shall forget about u four when the next chapter drops : D

 

[Grabzky]

I just hope next chapter title doesn't foreshadow making 6th brigade the scapegoats

 

[tigerstar186]

It would be nice to see the commander get some wins of her own. Currently it kinda just feels like she's riding on his coattails.

 

[RanmaChaos]

THanks for the chapter

 

[mrboxeater]

damn, we had a marriage proposal and a funeral in the same chapter!

 

[RobOsakaTQQ]

rest in peace girls we shall forget about u four when the next chapter drops : D

I will never forget poor Lela, Liza, Shuna, and Piola.

 

[Virtualplayer]

That chapter hit hard. The entire premise of the series is underpinned by the old-fashioned idea that females are to be protected. It's only in the latter half of the 20th century that women came into their own as legitimately recognized combatants. In this manga at least, everyone is equally lethal and vulnerable on the battlefield.

It's probably appropos to give the Mercenary's Toast: We're all going home.

 

[MagnaDrake]

It would be nice to see the commander get some wins of her own. Currently it kinda just feels like she's riding on his coattails.

Well, Krombertz' wins are her wins in the end. He could do his things precisely because Alzer rides on his coattails.

 

[lowarctic]

 

[jarjaxle]

o7

RIP

 

[BanzaiYuri]

Damn, Nu kyr’adyc, shi taab’echaaj’la. Maybe that's also a part of his power? His einherjar watch over him and welcome the newbs? 🥲

 

[kuzunagi13]

o7

 

[Oneogous]

Wait so they are the invaders? Yea Don't care about them or mc if they die. Invaders all should die

 

[Solandri]

That chapter hit hard. The entire premise of the series is underpinned by the old-fashioned idea that females are to be protected. It's only in the latter half of the 20th century that women came into their own as legitimately recognized combatants. In this manga at least, everyone is equally lethal and vulnerable on the battlefield.

Two things had to happen before women were legitimately recognized as combatants.

1) Combat moved to weapons which weren't as dependent on physical strength. Mainly, guns. It doesn't matter if the person holding the gun is a man, woman, or child. If they aim it at you properly, you're just as dead.

2) Populations grew to the point that further population growth wasn't as important. The rate at which your population can grow is proportional to the size of the female population, not the male (because one male can impregnate multiple females, but not vice versa). That's why e.g. crab harvest regulations require releasing all females, only keeping males. With respect to the maintaining your population growth rate, the males essentially end up being disposable.

So the MO in olden times was to shelter your women at home, send your men off to war, and have the women give birth to new men to replace the men who died fighting. But once your population grows large enough, a smaller fraction is lost during wars, and sheltering the women becomes less important to maintain your population size. Freeing you up to allow women to participate in combat.

Practically, women probably could have fought during WWII without issue. But around the same time, the tooth-to-tail ratio began skewing. That's the ratio of people who fight, versus people who support those who fight. Some armies in ancient times had a 1:1 ratio. During WWI it was about 1:2.6 (2.6 people involved in logistics and support for every 1 combatant). In WWII it rose to 1:4.3. (Korea and Vietnam saw it rise past 1:10.) So more people were needed to support the combat troops during WWII. And since women were staying home for cultural reasons anyway, it made sense to shift them into production and support roles, rather than combat.

Wait so they are the invaders? Yea Don't care about them or mc if they die. Invaders all should die

That's one of the things the author tries to convey via this story. That even though they are the invaders, most of the soldiers who fight and die had no say in the matter (including MC). That decision was made by stupid / corrupt higher-ups. And it's innocent soliders who pay the price with their lives.

This is what led to the modern thinking that wars are fought between governments, and the individual soldiers are hapless participants with little power to refuse. So we try to treat captured prisoners humanely. And once the war is over, we just repatriate all the POWs. Even help rebuild the defeated side.