"I'm going to eat!" Al-Tegron-Franz sat down somewhere as if nothing were wrong and quietly sipped the thin gruel from his bowl.
"That's what commoners eat. My lord Marquess, you should have this..." Okrian Norman hurriedly offered him a plate of white bread and ladled out a steaming bowl of thick soup with dried meat.
"...You eat it. I'll just have some porridge." Marquis Al-Teglang-Franz looked deeply at the food before him, then turned to look at the soldiers wolfing down their meals. In the end, he fell silent.
"Al..." Grand Duke Ocrean Yaso called out.
"It's fine. You eat. The people need the soldiers' protection!" Marquis Al-Teglang-Franz shook his head, then cradled his watery porridge and lifted the tent flap to leave.
"..." Okrian-Lujin looked at Grand Duke Ocrean Yaso, asking with his eyes whether they should bring him back. Grand Duke Ocrean Yaso quickly shook his head.
"Ah..." Marquis Al-Teglang-Franz sighed deeply as he smelled the meat drifting from the barracks. He had neither the right nor the reason to blame Grand Duke Ocrean Yaso. Even a fool knew that hunger would not kill people on this war-torn wasteland, but without the soldiers' protection, these people truly would be torn apart.
Harsh times called for harsh measures, and the army's treatment likewise had to be ensured. Marquis Al-Teglang-Franz was not versed in military affairs, but he understood economics and human nature. He stood blankly in the snow, watching the people greedily lick up every scrap of nourishment, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his heart.
"It's snowing..." Marquis Al-Teglang-Franz's expression suddenly froze. He stood there in a daze and slowly raised his head. His Mental Power had sensed the snowflakes before they even fell. Though spring had already arrived, in the Northern Wastes, where the ice