Nathalie Toussaint was a female Crossdresser in the French Grand Army, during The Napoleonic Wars in the war of the sixth coalition in which France was at war with the leading powers at the time, namely; Great Britain, Prussia, Russia and Austria. She had joined the army and the war for her own personal reasons, accompanied by her best friend and fellow cross-dresser, Claire Descoteaux. During the war the French were defeated in the massive and bloody Battle of Leipzig, also known as the Battle of Nations, and Nathalie was separated from her unit and the entire army after the bridge over the Elster River was destroyed by a massive explosion.
It seemed that her fate was sealed during her desperate attempt at escape from the devastated and war-torn city until she met a Prussian: Reinhard Jaeger, a young man and hunter who just happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time hunting for food and resting. Her meeting with him essentially saved her life from the enemies that was relentlessly pursuing her.
Together, the female soldier and the hunter, along with their friends, tried to survive and get away from as far as possible from the Napoleonic Wars only to be dragged back in by circumstances beyond their control. As the two tried to live their lives as best as they could with the chaos around them, they will learn that their pasts had been more intertwined than they ever could have imagined.
The novel series is a light novel/ historical fiction style work written by YumehaMinakami
, who had announced that she was working on the second and third volumes of the novel.The first volume of the novel is incomplete as of yet but it is being updated in one week intervals. The story had began since early July 2014 but had been taken down by the author first because she wanted to edit and streamline the work. It had been re-posted again online in September 1st, 2014 and is currently being updated every weekends.
The novel can be read here and/or here.
Tropes found in the novel:
- Action Girl: Nathalie and her best friend, Claire.
- Bling of War: The soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars wore very elaborate and colorful uniforms, this was done partly for aesthetics and grandeur but for the most part it was done so that soldiers and, more importantly, their commanders, could see their and identify their troops. The uniforms' colors also tend to help the troops' morale.
- Catchphrase: Nathalie's "Prussian Idiot!".
- The Cavalry: The Russian Hussars were fought repeatedly by Nathalie and Reinhard, then later, they fought the cavalry of the Bavarians.
- Chekhov's Gun: A whole lot is scattered in the first few chapters alone.
- Childhood Friends: Nathalie and Claire. Reinhard and Erich.
- The Dog Bites Back: Bavaria; essentially a vassal or protectorate of France since 1806, Bavaria turned on France and fought with the sixth coalition after Napoleon's disaster in Leipzig. The Bavarians tried to block Napoleon's line of retreat at Hanau, let's just say they did not have a good day.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Saxony. Explicitly said by Claire when their army fought the Saxon army during the battle of Leipzig itself while they were their allies just the day before!
- Colour Coded Armies: The French and Prussians wore dark blue uniforms, the British wore red, the Austrians wore white, the Russians wore green and the Bavarians wore light blue. This only counts largely in their infantry formations. Cavalry and artillery formations also vary in uniform colors and designs for identification and aesthetics.
- Heroic BSoD: Claire had a really bad one after her lover, Denis, was killed in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Leipzig.
- Nathalie also had this after her best friend's revelation, only she decided to be the stronger one at that moment as Claire had the greater loss.
- Plunder: Nathalie and Claire wanted to plunder a nearby house when they reached Hanau. Understandable because they were soldiers who had few supplies on their backs. Napoleon's armies were infamous for living off the land and as such, his soldiers were trained and taught to essentially plunder the countryside.
- Cry into Chest: When Claire revealed her lover's death.
- War Is Hell: While many of the officers and noblemen of the armies in the war thought of the war as glorious, Nathalie and Claire thought otherwise. The same could be said with most of the soldiers that were doing the fighting and the dying.
