The Camp Kitchen

"Given the current situation, we need to adjust our plan a bit," Uncle Urian said, playing with the poorly crafted spearhead in his hand. His face lit up with excitement. "First, we need to fortify the camp to ensure everyone has a safe place to stay. Then, we must locate the kobolds' lair and find a way to seize it. The rest can wait."

After everyone else had left, only Urian and Leo remained. Leo frowned and asked, "What's the point of finding the iron mine first? We can't eat iron ore, and we don't have a blacksmith. There's no road to the western outpost for more than thirty miles, so we can't transport the ore. Our priority should be to secure food, right?"

Leo knew he couldn't voice these doubts in front of everyone else. The morale boost from discovering the iron mine would be crushed otherwise.

"What do you know? Don't worry about it. Once you're healed, scout the area, find the kobold lair, and see if we can take it down," Urian dismissed Leo with a wave, not bothering to explain.

Leo had no choice but to leave the tent, shaking his head.

Once everyone had gone, Urian slumped down heavily, the excitement and confidence fading from his face to reveal sheer exhaustion. A blonde girl with an impressive figure, Olivia, entered the tent. Seeing her father's worn-out expression, she knelt beside him, laying her head on his lap and whispering softly, "Papa…"

She lifted Urian's trouser leg, revealing skin marred by dark veins spreading from his shin to his boots, emanating a faint odor of decay.

"It's nothing, just a minor issue. I can handle it," Urian reassured her.

…

Leo returned to his small tent, where he found Little Mouse had finished bathing and was now struggling to hang a freshly washed bear pelt on some wooden poles to dry. She had also neatly organized the tattered furs Leo had discarded, stacking them in a corner of the tent. Not a single piece was wasted, and even the scattered animal hairs were saved.

Little Mouse wore a thick, old wool sweater under a coarse linen tunic, finally looking less frail. However, the clothes Olivia had lent her were too large, resembling a religious robe, with the hem dragging on the ground. This made her movements clumsy, yet endearingly amusing.

It was the first time Leo had seen her clean. The bath had given her face a slight flush, and her black hair and eyes stood out against her fair skin. Still, she was painfully thin, her cheeks and eye sockets sunken from prolonged hunger, giving her a somewhat eerie appearance.

Even when she was covered in dirt, it was clear that Little Mouse was a girl. But the original Leo hadn't cared about her gender. In fact, Leo believed that, given his predecessor's nature, he wouldn't have cared about her species either. 

One day, he might rescue a creature out of sheer kindness, and the next, if he ran out of that kindness, he might cook it for dinner.

Leo handed Little Mouse her silk nightgown, freshly cleaned but not yet dry. It felt like holding a small piece of a cloud, its texture soft and warm.

"Wear this secretly. Don't let anyone see it, or it will be stolen," Leo warned.

Little Mouse clutched the gown, nodding silently.

"By the way, where have you been sleeping while I was injured? And what have you been eating?" Leo asked, curious.

"Olivia… she set up a tent for me," Little Mouse stammered. Her Empire tongue was pleasant but bore a distinct accent unfamiliar to the Northern Territories, beyond Leo's experience.

Olivia's kindness was surprising, given her apparent indifference to Little Mouse. However, it aligned with Leo's memories: Olivia often cooked the snow hares Leo caught, but sometimes she couldn't bear to kill them, especially when food was plentiful. At one point, she had seven rabbits and a fawn living in her home.

Despite the villagers' resistance to taking in a stray child, Olivia couldn't stand to see Little Mouse freeze to death.

With the sun high overhead, Little Mouse hid her nightgown and led Leo toward the camp's center. The camp was bustling with activity: people were erecting tents, dismantling wagon planks, and setting up fences, clearing away branches, weeds, and stones.

The villagers seemed more relaxed and lively than they had been on the road. Rows of wooden palisades were being erected around the camp, and the tents leaned against these barriers, providing some protection against the elements. If attacked, these makeshift walls would serve as temporary defenses, shielding against arrows and spears.

At the camp's center, a large open space was occupied by a semi-open tent set up between two wagons, serving as the camp kitchen. Cages filled with chickens, ducks, and rabbits were tucked under the wagons. In total, there were fourteen animals with thirty-eight legs.

Several elderly and young women were busily preparing food for the caravan, while a group of girls, led by a stout woman, returned from outside the camp with baskets of plants Leo recognized but couldn't name.

Although it wasn't mealtime yet, several large pots were already boiling, filled with wild greens, beans, chopped radishes, and dried meat. The smell of baking bread wafted from the tent nearby.

The bread wasn't freshly baked but was hardtack being reheated. Without this treatment, the rock-hard loaves, mixed with bran, beans, acorns, and cassava, were nearly impossible to cut.

The so-called "meat soup" was intended to soften the hardtack, making it edible. The scene suggested plenty of food, but Leo, knowing the truth, realized these were the last of their supplies.

Little Mouse pulled Leo to the kitchen wagon, where a dozen other children had gathered, all thin and ragged, eyes full of hope. They greeted Leo with respect, calling him "Big Brother Leo" and "Captain."

These children, all villagers' offspring, had faced Leo's wrath at some point, yet they admired his strength. However, unlike Little Mouse, they dared not get too close, fearing Leo might kick them away.

Due to the hardtack's difficulty to digest, the caravan prepared a special meal for the younger children, as the regular food could cause serious digestive issues.