Chapter 117: No Progress

The Holy Kingdom’s camp.

On top of a high wall, Michael held his staff firmly as he observed the surroundings with heavy eyes.

Grrrr!

Hearing a strange sound, he shifted his gaze to the person standing beside him.

She was Mira, her hands placed on her stomach in sadness.

“Hungry? I heard that the dirt tastes like chicken if you pour your mana into it.” Michael joked, trying to lighten the mood.

Mira barely moved her head to look at him and muttered: “I heard that eating other soldiers is allowed in necessity… like our current situation. It was stated in the laws that there won’t be any punishment for that.”

Michael shivered at her response. He forced a smile and let out a fake laugh: “Ha ha ha, what you’re saying is right. But, this is the case for eating the corpse of an ALREADY DEAD SOLDIER! Thankfully, I’m alive.”

“For now.” Mira licked her lips, she continued looking at him with hunger.

Gulping in fear, Michael turned his head to the other side and said: “E-even if we really reach a desperate state where eating the corpses of our brothers and sisters is a must… I don’t think I can do it.”

Mira lowered her head as she remembered her holy knight who died weeks ago. She couldn’t imagine herself eating him even if she were dying.

“Additionally…” Michael added with a depressed tone: “We both can’t really complain when Elizabeth is giving us more than half her food every time…”

“I… think you’re right.” Mira sighed before a smile spread across her face: “We’re lucky to have a friend like her who…” her tone suddenly became extremely low: “Needs less food to live.”

“Shhh.” Michael brought his finger to his mouth: “That’s her secret. If the higher-ups hear about that, they’ll give her less food to make her starve like us.”

“Oh, sorry.” Mira apologized, remembering Elizabeth’s acts in the past few weeks, right after the starvation started.

Instead of eating her meal, she decided to secretly share it with them, saying that she could stay okay for a long time with little food.

At first, they refused, thinking that she was lying to let them eat her meal. But she insisted and refused to eat her meal after eating less than half of it.

They were forced to accept, and after days, they realized that she wasn’t lying as her condition worsened slower than theirs. While their bodies showed that they had been starving for weeks, her body showed only a few days.

“But I agree.” Michael nodded. His cheeks suddenly turned red as he continued excitedly: “We’re truly lucky and should be grateful to her. Not only is she helping us to live in this miserable situation, but she also saved my life back then!”

“She’s the best girl I have seen in my entire life! If all people were like her, then I assure you that Terra would have turned into a paradise!”

“Eliza is truly an angel… No, she isn’t yet, but she has to become an angel later! If the Holy Council doesn’t choose her as the next saintess, then they definitely have no eyes!”

Mira watched him as he kept praising Elizabeth with no end. He even subconsciously said that she was a better candidate than Mira. However, she didn’t show hatred or jealousy.

The candidates weren’t competing with each other. They just did their best in hope that they’d be among the saintesses someday. If one of them succeeded before them, so be it.

Mira would actually be happy to see Elizabeth becoming a saintess, and even more happy if they both became saintesses.

She ignored Michael who refused to stop speaking about everything that Elizabeth did and continued watching the area.

She couldn’t let the giants attack again, after all.

Inside the camp, Elizabeth lay on her bed. As the healer, even in the current situation, she still didn’t have to leave her tent or exhaust herself.

The last fight only showed how important the healer was. They wanted her to rest and stay ready to save the soldiers again if anything happened.

Additionally, she was blind. How would turning her into a guard be wise?

As she was busy staring at the ceiling—even though she couldn’t see it—a soldier suddenly entered the tent.

“Good morning.”

“Hi.”

They greeted each other quickly then the soldier proceeded to check the room. After seeing that everything was okay, he left Elizabeth alone again.

That was just one of the soldiers who were supposed to watch the camp from the inside instead of watching the surroundings. Due to the fear of the giants appearing inside the camp this time, the commander decided to make some soldiers check the entire camp all time to prevent any dangers.

As Elizabeth returned to her loneliness, she suddenly felt something small appearing on top of her.

“Little shadow, you’re back!” She excitedly pulled Fafnir into a hug. But suddenly, Fafnir shoved something into her mouth without a warning. Simultaneously, a shadow sphere materialized and surrounded them.

Elizabeth chewed silently as she recognised the cooked meat, feeling some guilt for eating without anyone else’s knowledge.

That was her daily meal that was served by Fafnir.

Every day, he’d leave the camp by using Shadowstep to escape from their eyes. He’d then go to the wild and kill a beast or search for edible plants before returning with the food inside his body.

He had memorized all the soldiers and their positions. He knew when a specific soldier would be in a specific place. He also knew the best time to run.

Running from the camp in secret wasn’t difficult, but the concerning part had always been finding food and returning.

If the giants caught him, he might genuinely die, as there were a few Rank 2 giants while Fafnir had only 50% of Dante’s strength. He saw only five giants so far by coincidence, and he had to kill two of them in his way.

Thankfully, everything proceeded smoothly up to this point.

How did he convince Elizabeth?

It was simple, he used Mira and Michael to convince her to eat.

Fafnir would feed her all the food he found, while Elizabeth would feed them from her daily meal, which was mostly some plants made by a soldier with the Farmer class.

If not for that farmer, their supplies wouldn’t have lasted this long.

“Little shadow…” Elizabeth suddenly called after eating, her expression showing some hesitation: “Can’t you make another deal with the commander? I… don’t want to be the only one to be full…”

Fafnir shook his little head and wrote the words “Dangerous” and “Can’t carry a lot”.

It wasn’t like Fafnir and Dante hadn’t thought of helping the camp, but he was barely feeding Elizabeth at this point. Fafnir brought her food daily, but despite that, it wasn’t enough to stop her hunger. The fact that her body was becoming skinner proved that.

Regardless, he knew that the commander wouldn’t stay like this for so long. He’d eventually decide to make a move to fix the problems of the supplies.

’I’m just a weak Rank 1 shadow. I might help if he asked for my help specifically, but I won’t provide my services for free unless my lord orders me.’

¢¢¢

In the commander’s tent, a small meeting was held.

He looked at his most trusted individuals in this camp. At his right sat his right hand and the second in command, Maya, a woman with sharp features and an eye patch.

At his left sat his best friend and a captain in the camp, Brian, a bald man with a bulky figure.

And in front of them sat the one who allowed the camp to survive until this moment. His name was Larry, a normal soldier who had the Farmer class and had an average appearance.

The commander rubbed his head and asked: “Larry, for how long would we last if we rely only on your food?”

Larry smiled nervously as he answered: “If we don’t increase or decrease the meals, then I’d say we have a month, as the plants take a lot of time to grow, even with the help of my magic.”

Brian added with a grim expression: “And with the remaining supplies, we might extend it to two months before most soldiers would be dead.”

The weight of their situation pressed heavily on them. The kingdom would take three months, at the very least, before sending help. They had to find a solution quickly.

“C-commander…” Larry asked: “Why don’t we send a few soldiers to gather some food secretly?”

Maya responded instead of the commander: “We tried, obviously. The woman we sent a few weeks ago hasn’t returned until now.”

Gulp–!

Larry regretted asking that question immediately.

What she said meant only one thing—they were truly surrounded!

The giants were watching the camp, they couldn’t leave it recklessly.

“We have to find a solution—any suggestions?” The commander asked in desperation.

He was a Rank 2 human, but his rank meant nothing when the enemies had a few Rank 2 giants.

His top priority now was surviving, not defeating the enemies.

They spent half an hour discussing different ideas, but all of them were rejected.

“What about that shadow?” Brian suggested: “Don’t you think it’s time to make another deal with it?”

Maya shook her head: “It’s weak. If it left the camp to get us some food, it’d return with only a small piece of meat at best. It can’t just drag a corpse in the open.”

The idea of using Fafnir was rejected immediately. They continued discussing for a few hours, everyone—except Larry—giving different ideas.

Unfortunately, it was all a waste of time.

Another day without progress.

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