They're Giving Food Away For Nothing?

“Younger than I thought, isn’t she?”
“So she is.”

A lord young enough to pass for a little sister of theirs only deepened the unease. Her eyes went busily over the open ground, taking everything in, and it looked as though at any moment she might tell them in a peevish voice to clear off this instant.

The young lord ran her gaze slowly across the whole gathering of mercenaries, then put her mouth to the ear of the knight beside her, whispered a few words, and disappeared again. Henry and his friends were certain now that there would be no work for them. Disappointment weighed their heads down.

A little while later the knight who had come out onto the ground with the lord shouted to the crowd.

“I am Red Bear, commander of the Grace estate’s knights!”

The voice carried force enough to fix every eye in the place at a single stroke. Henry swallowed dryly. The friends were no less tense, for they clasped their hands as though in prayer and stared hard at Red Bear, wishing with all their hearts for any work at all, so long as it was something they could do.

Once he had the whole yard’s attention, Red Bear went on.

“From this moment I will select the mercenaries who are to go into the Black Forest tomorrow with the Grace knights.”

He had barely finished when the knights waiting at the right of the ground formed a crisp line in front of the murmuring mercenaries. The mercenaries, who had been standing about anyhow, took one look at that discipline and shuffled into ranks of their own, pulling themselves straight. Then the knights walked up and down the rows, picking out those who looked to have some strength in them and sending them off to the left of the ground.

“Over there!”
“You there. You here. Over there with you.”

The sound of the knights choosing carried from every part of the yard. Those picked made no attempt to hide their delight and went quickly to the spot they were pointed to; those passed over hung their heads, their disappointment just as plain.

Henry, too, looked at the approaching knight with pleading eyes, but the knight ran a quick glance over Henry and his friends and moved on without a second thought to a mercenary standing behind them.

“Over there!”

Henry stared after the chosen man, eyes all but dripping with envy. Relief at being picked had lit up the man’s whole face.

“Ah…”

Tears stung Henry’s eyes. If he could not find work here either, there was no telling how many days the little sister at home would go hungry. He had asked the woman next door to look after her before setting out, but going back empty-handed only meant more grain to be paid back, and he could hardly ask a woman so plainly hard-pressed herself to feed his sister for nothing.

Henry was not the only one whose heart had sunk. The friends who had come all this way saying they would try their hand at anything at all hung their heads, faces on the verge of tears.

“Looks like we have to go back.”

Ned whispered it in a voice on the edge of crying. No sooner were the words out than Henry and the friends, who had been standing there blankly, began to sniffle.

It was then that the knight commander, who had been running a sharp eye over the mercenaries, raised his voice.

“Those who have not been chosen as mercenaries may go home as you are!”

— Drip-drop.

The tears that had been welling gave way at last and ran down their cheeks, drop after drop.

But there was more.

“Instead, our estate is very short of workers for the labor. If work other than a mercenary’s will do, then stay where you are!”

At the knight commander’s voice Henry and the friends, tears still dripping from their chins, looked at one another and let out a cheer.

“Whooaaa!”
“They say we can work! What a relief!”
“Sob, sob!”

They were not the only ones. All over the ground others passed over in the selection were flinging their arms around the companions they had come with and bouncing on the spot.

The surprises did not end there. Henry, hearing that the work began tomorrow, had already resolved to sleep on the road that night; the quarters set aside in the annex for the workers and mercenaries left him open-mouthed all over again.

“Are we really allowed to sleep here?”

Five to a room was the arrangement, and there were even plain blankets laid out to sleep under. Henry and the friends had steeled themselves to sleep out under the night dew; quarters alone were enough to bring them near tears.

They were given a room, and when they came back outside a temporary serving table had gone up on the open ground, which had been standing quite empty a moment before. A great pot of soup stood on it giving off a rich, savory smell, and beside the pot a dish of steamed Dural, mashed up to make it easy to eat. At the smell they swallowed hard without meaning to, and their stomachs let out a loud growl.

“I want some so badly. But we’ve no money to buy any.”

They had set out empty-handed, and Henry and the friends had not so much as a single coin between them. Better to go straight inside, they were thinking, than to stand there watching other people eat, when a maid well on in years rapped on the pot and called out.

“The serving is starting! Form a line!”
“Are you meaning to put us in debt for our food before we’ve even had a day’s wage?”

Somebody bellowed it, thoroughly angry. The answer that came back out of her mouth was one they could not believe.

“What are you talking about? This food is being given to you all free of charge by the lord.”
“They’re giving food away for nothing?”

Even having heard it, Henry could not credit it and could do nothing but blink. Their stomachs, having caught the smell of the food, set up a racket, pleading with them to hurry over. But they had been swindled in just this way often enough before, and landed with debts they had never meant to take on, so Henry and the friends did not stir an inch from where they stood.

“Is it really being given away for nothing?”

Henry’s group were not the only ones who thought so, for a voice thick with mistrust shot out abruptly from the back of the crowd.

“What do you take our lady for! If you don’t want to eat, then don’t! I shall take the lot back where it came from.”

Delma, who had been rapping on the pot, said it in a voice thoroughly sulky.

The first to move was a mercenary who at least had the look of someone with a little to spare. They ambled up to the serving table in no hurry at all, beaming all over their face, took a generous helping of what the maids were dishing out, and settled down wherever they pleased on the open ground.

Every eye in the place was on the mercenary. As though the crowding attention pleased them, they began slowly to eat, and the savory smell of the soup set throats swallowing on every side.

“Oho! This is good!”

One spoonful of the soup and their eyes went round; they fell on the mashed Dural as well and wolfed it down.

“I want some too!”

Ned, who was short on patience, went past Henry and ran for the serving table. One after another followed, and before long the table was thick with people. Henry hung back, and before he could get any the food had run out.

Half the crowd had still not been served and were standing about in blank dismay when a cart loaded with food rolled straight into the yard.

“Right! Those who have not been served yet, come this way; those who would like more, go over there.”

At the shout of a servant with a straggling beard the crowd split in two and swarmed up in front of the cart.

“Was there enough food to go round?”

She asked it as she sank into the warm bath Anna had drawn for her.

“No fear of that, my lady. Thanks to your ladyship laying in so much, there was food left over. The people were so delighted that even I found my own shoulders going back with pride.”

Anna answered in an excited voice, rubbing carefully at Chloe’s shoulders and back with a soft sponge. Dong-hui caught herself growing used to lavish attention that had only ever felt awkward, and a snort of laughter escaped her.

Taking the lord’s smile to mean she was pleased with the bath service, Anna spoke on with a confidence that had never been in her voice before.

“Every last one of the people gathered there was in a to-do about how grateful they were to you, my lady.”
“Is that so? That is a relief.”

Thanks to the Dural she had come upon by chance, every mercenary and worker who had gathered could be fed until they were full. On top of that the grain brought in from other estates, bought at a premium though it had been, was filling the storehouse to the brim. With food overflowing in the castle, Dong-hui and the servants alike felt wonderfully at ease.

Savoring the swell of satisfaction, she spoke with her eyes closed.

“Tell the butler to have tomorrow’s meals prepared in plenty as well.”
“Yes, my lady!”

Anna moved on to washing Chloe’s hair. To Dong-hui there was no luxury in the world like it. The heart that had hoped at first this was all a dream was slowly coming round to fearing that it might be one.

Just then the status window appeared with a ding.

Dong-hui thought it over for a moment and decided that, since she had given them food after all, adding them in was hardly going to come out a minus. The favorability was set to rise in any case, so there was no reason to put it off. Even if the minus figure grew larger, it was nothing to worry much about.

Yes. Add them in.

The estate residents’ favorability rose in units of ten; these workers, come in from outside, varied from one to the next. She was thinking it a relief that nothing had fallen when the status window carried on with its explanation.

The number was higher than she had expected. She had thought the minus favorability of the workers newly swarming in would send the whole total plunging sharply once more. But perhaps because favorability kept climbing in Morta and Enol, the minus had not deepened at all. It had in fact shrunk.

Dong-hui, who had been enjoying her bath at leisure, felt her heart thumping at the status window that had popped up out of nowhere.