24. Natural Freezer

Anne laughed. "You have no idea what this winter will be like. By making preparations for the worst, wouldn't it be better instead of being silent?" He said.

We got back on the train. The coachman began to direct the creature, and then the carriage slowly started moving again. I spread my arms, enjoying the cool breeze mixed with ice crystals. I felt warmer after lifting the two sacks.

I took out an apple that I had picked earlier, which happened to be nearby, then opened the lunch that we had brought, compacted rice with curry meat filling, and also delicious sweet egg rolls. I shared my lunch with Mickey, who curled up in the bamboo basket I had brought with me.

"Tha, will you come again the day after tomorrow? To buy meat and fish," Ane asked, who was also opening her lunch.

"Okay!," I said excitedly. I was happy when someone invited me to take a walk like this, Getting out of that place, looking for new experiences and adventures. I felt like the time that was once lost came back again.

When we arrived at the Azalea residence, it was unusually dark. No torch lit. The insect lantern on the front was extinguished. I got off the carriage in confusion. "What happened?" I asked Ane.

Ane didn't seem to know it either, and she looked confused as well. The light in the sky was gone. The torches and lighting should have been lit. But this time, it was really dark here. 'This can't be a blackout, can it?' I thought. There was no electricity here, and we used insects such as fireflies, whale oil, and kerosene for lighting.

"Let me check first," said Ane. She seemed to be in a hurry to run inside. I saw several maids also immediately following her.

As Ane left, some of Azalea's subordinates immediately helped unload things. They took them to a room next to Alpha Camp, a simple building made of an uncemented stone structure. I helped them because, honestly I was curious.

The room was very simple, consisting of one room without a partition. Probably ten by ten, with a roof made of red clay tiles. There was no heating here, but it was warm.

The lower part of the room was covered with dry leaves and straw. All food ingredients were placed here. At the far end of the room was a place resembling an igloo, with a metal chimney running through the roof of the building. Vegetables and fruit were placed in that section through a small entrance, while potatoes, wheat, and tubers, such as; taro and cassava, were placed on a haystack and then buried with straw and dry leaves.

"Ah!" I know what it was. It was a natural freezer. They took advantage of the cold outside to keep perishable vegetables and fruit at room temperature. While the foods that did not stand the cold, such as taro, were put in a room where the temperature was kept warm with straw and dried leaves.

On the other side of the room, I saw rows of dried meat and fish that seemed to be smoked before being hung dry. "Wow!" I was amazed by their excellent storage method.

"Hey!" Someone shouted while touching my cheek.

I was about to scream in surprise, but I seized it after knowing who dared to shock me. "What?!" I said, annoyed.

"Would you like to come or not?" Instead of feeling sorry for shocking me, he said in a spoiled tone.

"Don't act cute! It doesn't match with your appearance!," I scolded. "Don't make me laugh as well as the urge to beat you!" I meant it when I said that.

Shashin looked surprised. "You don't like me that way?" he asked innocently.

I took a deep breath and then exhaled roughly. "Just don't do that again, will you?"

After Shashin said 'okay,' he explained that Ane asked us to get whale oil from a merchant outside Alpha Camp. I looked at him suspiciously. "You?" I thought he was stealing someone else's assignment again. "I believe this isn't the job of the main bodyguard. This should be Ane's job. What did you do to make her give her job to you?" This was not good. I knew it.

"Don't do this again, because if Azalea finds out, you'll be in trouble. Besides, your job as the main bodyguard should always be with Azalea and guard Alpha's camp. What if while you were gone, something bad happened here?!" I was indeed proud that he could be this brave, but if he continued to take over tasks that didn't belong to him, that wouldn't be good either. "Don't do it again, okay?!"

"It is somewhere nearby, it won't be long, anyway" He explained. "Just wanted to get off work for a while" He smiled, showing off his teeth, acting innocently as if it was a simple thing.

I knew that I would not be able to win over his innocent smile. I snorted while looking at him, annoyed. "So you! You can always find excuses."

…

Yesterday's trip was exhausting, especially when we had to walk so far and lift sacks of apples from the middle of the garden to the carriage. My palms immediately reddened at that time. However, it was quite a pleasant experience, in my opinion.

I tried to remember other pleasant things so that I didn't have to taste the blunt porridge in front of me at the moment. There were only chunks of vegetables and too much gravy with little wheat, potatoes, and meat. We had to be thrifty on food. That's what Azalea said because winters were usually pretty bad. Ane, along with some servants, were buying coal in the village and I, after training, had to take whale oil, which I didn't know where it was. Yes, of course, with that astral being.

"Hah!" I put my head on the table. This was awful. It felt a lot worse than cycling to school every day, then having to bathe Mickey, who was afraid of water. I could not give, though. This was my own decision, anyway. Nothing was gotten for free.