Chapter 111: Beginning of the second day

I finished eating the supper Oyasan had prepared, returned the dishes and then I went to bed. If tomorrow is a full-scale subjugation, there is no doubt that I will be busy. If I don’t go to bed early and regain my energy, this 30-year-old body will not be physically fit for it. When I returned to our tent and lay down with a blanket on, drowsiness came over to me quickly, probably because I am tired.

The next morning,

When the sun rises, I get up and do some light exercise, get myself ready and then I head to the kitchen area. Oyasan and the others have already finished preparing the breakfast and they are already waiting for us to come to eat.

“Good morning Oyasan.”

“Oh, good morning!”

“Oyasan is quite energetic from the morning huh.”

“Of course! It’s no good sharing your energy if you look grouchy!”

“Oh, Oyasan is indeed a professional.”

“That’s a given!”

Oyasan’s energy is definitely something to learn from. I took my breakfast of soup and bread and then I went to a simple table that is vacant.

The soup had a lot of ingredients in it and it is a solid meal for breakfast. A soldier would have to eat something like this to be able to survive. The bread was softer than the one we had eaten on the way here, probably because it was baked after we arrived here.

There’s a possibility that I’ll be busy by noon so I’ll have to eat well too. Looking sideways at the soldiers who are eating in a hurry, I eat slowly and steadily. I felt a little bad for them, but I’m sure they’ll understand that my age and the work I have to do are different.

While I was eating like this, Miss Frederica came over to me with her breakfast.

“Good morning, Eizou-san.”

“Good morning, Frederica-san.”

Miss Frederica puts her meal across from me but she looks very sleepy.

“You look so sleepy. Did you stay late last night?”

“Yes. The Count had been planning the strategy until late so I calculated the supplies accordingly.”

After saying that, Miss Frederica yawns, looking fluffy and cute.

“Thank you for your hard work. But you shouldn’t stay up that late. I heard it’s the archenemy of young women’s beauty.”

“Thank you. However it can’t be helped even if I care about my beauty.”

Miss Frederica says so, but she’s basically prettier compared to the noble ladies I saw at Marius’ party. I’m sure there are many woman who wouldn’t be relieved if they weren’t dressed like they do now.

“I think Frederica-san should be more confident. You are prettier compared to those noble ladies.”

I said that while carrying the soup to my mouth.

“N-No, that sort of…”

Miss Frederica is mumbling to herself. I can’t tell whether she’s embarrassed or not. However, it’s no good if we felt awkward from the morning, so let’s change the topic.

“By the way, is it likely that there will be more repairs today?”

“Hmm…”

Miss Frederica thinks while holding a wooden spoon (that she used to scoop some soup) in her mouth. She’s looking straight ahead, but her focus is not on me. This is one of the things I’ve learned about her over the past few days, she has a tendency to look into the distance when she’s thinking.

“I think it will probably increase. The Count said that he was prepared for some “loss” you see.”

“I see…”

Either there are many or there are strong enemies. I think they came back yesterday after they figured it out to some extent.

Well, I think Miss Frederica was also thinking about how much she could share to me, a mere blacksmith, but I guess she told me a part of her supply plan.

“If that’s the case, it would be better to bring about two more barrels of charcoal. The fire bed also uses quite a lot of charcoal. In that situation, it may not be that easy to ask for help.”

“I understand. I’ll arrange for it.”

Miss Frederica looked up at the void and muttered three times, “two barrels of charcoal at Eizou-san’s place”. This is the second habit of her, when she have something important and she can’t write it on a paper, she memorizes it three times.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, but I’ll leave it to you.”

“No problem.”

Today as well, Miss Frederica responded to me with a smile like that of a small animal. After that, we talked about a few trivial things as we finished our meal. In the end, I didn’t ask her why she was chosen to be the civilian in charge of supplies this time. Well, she mentioned that she didn’t have any actual combat experience, so I guess the purpose of why she’s here was to give her some real combat experience.

On my way to the branch office after I had my breakfast, I saw a group of fully armed soldiers. They were not lined up, probably because their departure was not yet scheduled. And among them, there are some figure that I had not seen yesterday. They were slim, long-eared men ―elves to be precise.

“Just as I thought huh.”

I wasn’t surprised to see an elf. As I tried yesterday, I realized that there is a lot of magical power around here. In that case, it’s no surprise that elves, who need to absorb magical power on a regular basis and can only live in such a place, have settled down in this area. It is natural to think that if there is a concern about monsters in one’s own home, it is a given that they would offer their help to eradicate those monsters.

They need a supply of magical power, but if there is a cave or other space nearby where magic is stagnant, there will surely be a risk of monsters wandering around.

Feeling a little sympathetic towards them, I headed back to the branch office to focus on my work for today.

This is translated by Yume Neiji. Kindly read at yumeineijiworks.wordpress.com.

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