Chapter 18
Lucius the First’s army didn’t immediately march down south. Instead, it restocked its supplies, rested, and treated its injured in Aehas and Kukda. Poliana expected the army to stay where they were for a while longer before continuing its conquest but Lucius the First had another idea. Against the unspoken rule of war on this continent, he planned on marching down in this upcoming spring.
She understood that this did mean they were going to have an advantage. The kingdom of Bebero wouldn’t be expecting any kind of attack from them at all. They would be sighing in relief that the winter was almost over.
Every kingdom already knew about what happened to Aehas and Kukda. It did make sense to attack Bebero now rather than giving them the chance to become prepared for the war. In spring, their defense would be down as well.
‘A war in spring…’
It was hard to get her head around the idea. It sounded like a nonsense phrase, like “a pregnant man,” or “a bearded woman.”
As Poliana pushed around the fire with the metal poker, the black coals turned bright red. She was preparing a brazier for Sir Baufallo’s tent. This was one of the responsibilities of his personal help, Donau, but Donau claimed that it was a woman’s job and ran away. It was such an Acreian thing to say.
In Acreia, men would go out to hunt while women stayed behind to keep the house warm.
Poliana wanted to beat Donau up with the brazier, but she remained patient.
When she was in the Aehasian army, she had to build her own tent, which was supposed to be handled by a lot of people. She expected something similar here, but to her surprise, she was given a private tent without any fuss by Sir Baufallo and he even had the other soldiers set it up for her. He also told her to take as many supplies as she needed from their storage.
Poliana couldn’t repay his kindness by beating up his son. She just kept it to herself, saying, ‘That’s my superior’s son. That’s my superior’s son. That’s my superior’s son. That’s my superior’s son. That’s my superior’s son.’
Donau was an a*shole.
One of the supply unit soldiers came to her with a pot and a ladle and told Poliana,
“I was told that you are going to be cooking for a while now.”
“I said that?”
“I heard it from that boy, Sir Baufallo’s personal help.”
“Wow, we get to eat the food prepared by a woman for once,” the other soldier said excitedly.
“But THAT person is not a girl.”
“It will still be better than what we can make ourselves.”
“That’s right. Anything cooked by women is better than that by men.”
Poliana looked down at the ingredients nervously. Because of Donau’s lie, she suddenly became responsible for her division’s dinner. In Aehas, there were official cooks, but in the Acreian army, that position didn’t exist. Men took turns to cook and it worked because Acreian men were used to preparing what they’ve hunted.
Looking down at the giant pot, Poliana wondered, ‘What should I do…’
She tried to go around and tell people that she never offered to cook, but it was no use. The men replied, “What? But couldn’t you just do it anyway? You must’ve cooked a lot in your life anyway, right?”
“We were told that you will be cooking, so that’s that. If you have a problem with it, you should go take it up with that help.”
“Can’t you just do it? It must be easy for you to do it.”
“…”
This was not the response she expected from the soldiers. Poliana had no choice but to go find Sir Baufallo. She hated to tell Donau to his own father, but she had no choice.
Poliana explained to Sir Baufallo what had happened in a very objective manner. He looked awkward as he apologized. It was indeed his responsibility to train his personal help and son.
“I will make sure that Donau gets a special lesson from me, Sir Poliana.”
“Thank you.”
“And I am looking forward to your cooking.”
“Pardon?”
“The soldiers are already expecting you to cook, so I think you need to do it. IT can’t be that bad to cook just once.”
‘Dammit.’
This was ridiculous. Everyone was being unreasonable, but Poliana took care not to show her anger on her face. She had no choice but to follow the order. This was an army; whatever her superior said cannot be disobeyed.
She clenched her fists and her teeth instead and replied, “Yeasesse.”
“What did you say?”
“I said yes sir.”
“I won’t make you do it again even if you do a good job, so please don’t make it taste bad on purpose.”
“I will do my best.”
“Haha, I will look forward to it then.”
Sir Baufallo tapped her shoulder, hoping to appease her, but it didn’t help Poliana feel better at all. She felt frustrated and angry.
She shook her head as she stared at the ingredients again. If she did well, the soldiers would say it wasn’t a big deal because she was a woman and therefore it must come easy for her. If she didn’t do a good job, she knew the men would get angry at her.
In the end, Poliana decided that she should at least make it good. She might as well do her best since she had to eat it after all.
But…
At the end of the day, Poliana was a noble-born lady as well. She never spent any time in the kitchen. Of course, she learned to hunt and recognize the poisonous ones from the other mushrooms but the old knight never taught her how to cook. When she was in the Aehasian military, there were cooks who made food for everyone.
In fact, Poliana had never even held a kitchen knife.
Thankfully, she did have some basic nutritional knowledge. She was used to poor meals in her old unit where they always lacked supplies, but now, there were a lot of ingredients in front of her. This meant that whatever she cooked, it would turn out good.
Poliana remembered her previous meals. They were mostly stews. In front of her were a pot with some fat, salt, meat, oats, wheat, and various vegetables. All she had to do was put them in the pot with water and bring it to a boil. She did just that. She chopped everything up as the water simmered before dumping everything into the pot. She also added some spices for better taste.
While she glared at the pot full of boiling stew, the men began to gather around her. Some from even different divisions came after they heard that Sir Poliana was cooking tonight.
Apparently, it was Sir Baufallo who bragged to the other knights that he was going to be able to eat a dish prepared by a woman tonight. It was an odd thing to be proud of because ever since they conquered Aehas and Kukda, they had plenty of women from the towns to cook for them during their stay in the conquered kingdoms. This was a while ago, and apparently, these men missed a woman’s cooking.
When they heard Poliana was cooking, they gathered around her like hungry dogs.
Feeling pressured, she tasted a spoonful of the stew.
‘What the!’
Only
It tasted normal. In fact, it tasted the same as the stew she had yesterday. It wasn’t bad, but it was nothing special. It made sense since she used the same ingredients that her meal had yesterday.
But Poliana knew that if she gave this to those men, they would complain about it, saying that she didn’t do her best. She then started to get nervous, especially after seeing some of the high-ranking officers gathering inside the kitchen.
‘Why are they here?’
She had to do something, so Poliana dumped even more fat into the pot. More fat would make anything taste better, she thought. She also put even more spices, and the thick smell that came from the pot began to spread. The men began to salivate.
Sir Baufallo came in with Donau and asked, “Is it ready?”
When Poliana nodded, the knights from other divisions insisted that they wanted a taste as well. So they were given a spoonful to try.
The knights ate it and then…
BLAARGH.
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