In a World of Reversed Chastity, I Strive to Become an Honorable Male Knight, but Lustful Women Keep Targeting My Body - 319

Chapter 319: The Stepsister Knight and Life in the Trenches

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“Mm…”

I, Karina Blondin, couldn’t help but groan. I poked at the contents of the wooden bowl in my hands with my spoon. Today’s menu was a local dish from the elves: potato stew. Well, it was basically like army stew. Inside the bowl was one round slice of sweet elf potato with the skin on, two salted-looking grasshoppers, and one small river fish about the size of my pinky. The rest was some leafy weeds. That was it. No side dishes, by the way.

It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. More importantly, why were there bugs in the food? Was this some kind of harassment? My stomach growled pitifully, but honestly, I didn’t feel like taking a bite.

“Ugh… this again…?”

“… ”

My subordinate Lotte beside me and Lenael-sensei, the military-affiliated hunter, were both making quite the faces. We were eating in a corner of the trench. Since we were in the middle of an operation, we weren’t doing anything refined like sitting at a table and saying “Let’s eat” together. We took our food from the mess unit and returned to our posts to eat.

“Even trainee soldiers from commoner backgrounds were supposed to be able to eat their fill. That was supposed to be the best thing about the Liseben army… this is just awful…”

Lotte grumbled as she stirred the contents of her bowl in circles with her spoon. “Hey, that’s uncouth,” I warned her, but honestly, I agreed. This amount wouldn’t even take the edge off hunger. And it had bugs in it.

Recently, both the quantity and quality of the rations had clearly dropped. I figured our food reserves were running low. Our group was huge right now, after all. I’d heard there were around a thousand elves alone, which made us larger than some villages. If they didn’t conserve, the food would disappear in no time.

“I wonder if it’s really safe to eat something like this…”

Frowning, I scooped up a grasshopper with my spoon. It was about the size of my thumb, the kind you’d commonly see in fields or grasslands. Of course, I had never once considered something like this to be food. Just looking at its dull compound eyes somehow killed my appetite, even though I was hungry…

“… ”

Lenael-sensei, the fox beastkin, silently bit into the grasshopper. Her thick tail shot upright with a snap and trembled.

“…It’s not… inedible.”

“I see…”

So it wasn’t tasty, huh? Well, it would be strange if something that looked like that was delicious… Still, even something like this was a valuable source of nutrition. Better than not eating. Thinking that, I steeled myself and stuffed the grasshopper into my mouth.

“…………”

This is really not good! 

The taste wasn’t as bad as I expected, but the shell was so hard it was unbearable. When I tried to chew it, fragments of the shell got stuck between my teeth, which was incredibly unpleasant. 

Ugh! This is rough!

“… ”

Careful not to grimace, I rinsed my mouth out with warm water. A proper officer shouldn’t show agitation under any circumstances, as my brother always said. Thanks to the nearby river, at least we had plenty of water to drink.

“Ah, yeah. Well, it’s… not bad, not bad.”

Saying that, I bit into a slice of sweet elf potato as a palate cleanser. …Yeah, this wasn’t bad. Maybe a bit bland, though? I pulled out a small pouch of salt from my bag and sprinkled a pinch over it. After another bite, I nodded. Yes, yes, this made it taste better.

“Ugh, this is still nowhere near enough…”

Lotte, who had already finished her stew, complained while tapping her bowl with her spoon. I told you to stop doing such uncouth things. Honestly, no matter how many times I warned her, she never fixed that habit…

Still, it was true that this amount wasn’t nearly enough. Well, it seemed like my brother, Sonia, and even Bishop Fiorenza were eating the same thing in the same portions, so it was hard to complain. But we were still growing, weren’t we? Naturally, we wanted to eat a bit more…

“…Sigh.”

I rummaged through my pouch to see if there was anything that could fill me up, but not even a single biscuit came out. I’d already eaten everything I brought. This expedition had dragged on much longer than expected…

This was really a problem. Last night, my stomach growled so much I couldn’t sleep at all. Thanks to that, I was completely sleep-deprived, and my head wasn’t working well. On top of that, my feet were starting to go numb from being soaked in cold water inside my boots all the time.

I followed my brother’s advice and tried to dry and warm them from time to time, but it was still quite painful. I might be coming down with something called trench foot. Ah, honestly… I hated this. This battle might be the hardest one I had experienced so far.

“Hey, you lot.”

Just as I was about to cry, someone called out to us. When I looked up, I saw an elf soldier standing there. She looked about my age, maybe a little younger. Even as another woman, I couldn’t help but be taken aback by her beauty. A bold, confident smile was on her face.

Lotte and I instinctively stiffened. Lenael-sensei wiped the expression from her face and slid her hand toward the knife at her waist. The elves looked like fairies, but apparently Lenael-sensei’s younger brother had been treated terribly by them.

In fact, just watching how the elf soldiers fought from the sidelines was enough to send chills down your spine. The poncho this elf was wearing was stained with blood in several places. She had the aura of a murderer straight out of a horror novel. I was completely intimidated.

“L-Lenael…”

Even so, I somehow managed to tap Lenael-sensei’s shoulder to stop her from doing anything rash. The elves were our allies, after all. I absolutely had to prevent her from drawing a blade first.

…Besides, we were overwhelmingly outnumbered in this group. If anything happened, we would be the ones beaten to a pulp. In that sense too, causing trouble was a bad idea.

“W-What can I help you with, Miss Elf?”

Standing up as if to shield the two of them, I responded with a smile. …Was I okay? Was my face twitching?

“No need to be so scared. I ain’t some wasteful mantis that’d go and bite your heads off.”

The elf snorted as she said that. …What’s a “wasteful mantis”?

“More importantly, you all hungry?”

“N-No, not at all…”

According to what my brother told me, the elves were suffering from severe food shortages. In fact, even a meager meal like today’s seemed to delight the elf soldiers, so it was probably true that their situation was quite dire. If we said something like “This isn’t nearly enough! We’re starving!” in front of them, it would obviously offend them. We had to play it off here… or so I thought…

“… ”

My stomach let out a loud growl. I instinctively clutched it and glanced at the elf soldier, who burst out laughing.

“So you are starving! Can’t be helped. Don’t tell the others.”

Saying that, the elf soldier pulled something out from inside her poncho and pushed it into my hands. It was a large bundle wrapped in leaves, containing dried sweet potatoes.

“You short-lived folk are weak, especially the young ones. You go hungry and you drop dead real quick. Can’t have you dying before old folks like me.”

“Th-Thank you very much!”

With that, the elf soldier turned on her heel and left. All that remained was us, standing there dumbfounded, and the bundle of dried sweet potatoes.

“…W-What was that about?”

Tilting my head, I opened the bundle and picked up a piece of dried potato. I sniffed it, but there was nothing suspicious about it. It looked a bit old, but still edible. There wasn’t nearly enough for the three of us to share, but it was still a huge help.

“A care package… maybe?”

“Those starving barbarians, sharing food with others…”

Lotte and Lenael-sensei exchanged looks and groaned. …What were elves, really? They were certainly savage, but maybe not all of them were bad people…

“Enemy attack!”

Just as I was thinking that, I heard a lookout shout. A moment later, the distinctive whistling of signal arrows filled the air from all around. From the enemy camp, the sounds of conch shells and war drums began to echo.

Ah, here we go again. 

I stood up with a complicated feeling. The battle had completely stalled, but the enemy kept launching attacks day and night. Still, they were half-hearted harassment attacks. There was almost no damage, but since the enemy retreated immediately, we couldn’t counterattack either.

Even so, we couldn’t just ignore them. Holding back a sigh, I quickly shoveled the rest of the food into my mouth. The bugle signaling combat preparation was sounding, so I had to hurry back to my brother.

“Ah, geez…”

After slinging my cavalry rifle over my shoulder, I glanced at the dried sweet potatoes I had just received. I bit one piece and shoved the rest at Lotte and Lenael-sensei. I wanted to eat more, but it couldn’t be helped. Showing generosity at times like this was part of a noble’s duty, after all.

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