The story has made the villagers feel friendly towards Leon, who they no longer regarded as a complete stranger. To the villagers, Leon was like the cool kid and they were happy to be able to talk with him.
Suddenly the man who had been cooking and watching over the simmering pot clanged his ladle on a bowl.
"Foods ready! Y'all know the drill, get in a line. There will be plenty for everyone! So no pushing!"
The man wasn't exaggerating either. Even though there were eleven total men including Leon, plus the sick child to make it twelve total mouths to feed. The pot that was filled to the brim with a delicious stew was huge and could probably feed up to twenty mouths at a minimum. This meant that the men could always go back for more and this would be crucial since many of them were famished due to the fight with the gray wolves.
Everyone got up to their feet and rushed over to form a line, but the person at the front had left a space at the front for the village chief. Although they were incredibly hungry, they hadn't forgotten their manners and would allow the old man who was their village chief to eat first.
The old man slowly tried getting up and Leon went to walk over to help, but the old man sent him away with a gesture from his hand.
"Although this elder is quite old, he can still get up by himself."
Using his cane as a support, the old man got up to his feet and wobbled over to the front of the line. The man who cooked had a set of basic ceramic bowls on the side and luckily for Leon. The group had brought extra just in case any bowls broke, so he wouldn't have to worry about finding his own.
The cook used a ladle to scoop the stew into the ceramic bowl the size of a normal person's hands attempting to form a circle. A slight breeze drifted through the camp, allowing the steam and fragrance coming from the bowl to enter the nostrils of the hungry men in line. Smelling the delicious aroma of stew, they all swallowed their salivas out of hunger.
Even Leon was quite hungry as he had been eating his dried rations to sate himself, they got the job done, but didn't taste great. So when the smell of delicious and freshly made stew hit Leon's noise, he actually looked forward to having a nice, hot meal.
It only took a few minutes for everyone to be served and after the cook had served Leon who didn't mind being last, he served himself a bowl and made an extra one, which he gave to the village chief.
Leon had found himself a small rock to sit on and watched as the elder carried the extra bowl into the tent and sat next to the sick girl, who smelled the food and moved for the first time.
The old man had left the entrance to the tent open and Leon finally got to take a better look at the sick girl. She had scarlet-colored hair that fell down to her shoulders. Although Leon couldn't get an exact measurement since the girl was lying down, he could tell she was incredibly short and couldn't be more than 150cm (4'11). She was also quite young and still had a lot of baby fat on her cheeks and also had red fiery eyes to match her hair.
(Authors note: She looks like Shana from Shakugan no Shana)
Currently, she was breathing heavily even though she had been lying down the entire time, sweat also trickled down from the scarlet hair and even Leon could tell she was burning up even though he hadn't gone near the poor girl.
The old man tried to feed the girl the stew, but after a few spoonfuls, she turned her head away in refusal and barely croaked out words.
"W-water…"
Hearing the poor girl speak, Leon luckily had his canteen on him and walked into the room, before he crouched down and handed the canteen to the old man.
Not wanting to be too loud, the old man lowered his voice.
"Once again thanks for helping me, my granddaughter means everything to me."
Leon glanced over to the girl who was being fed water by the old man who poured it from the air, just in case the sickness spread through saliva. After a few gulps of water, the girl settled down and seemed a lot better, although it was still obvious she was sick. The water was beneficial and she eventually drifted off into sleep, with the only signs of life being her body rising occasionally with each breath.
Seeing his granddaughter fast asleep, the old village chief smiled and whispered.
"Once again thank you."
Leon merely nodded with a smile as he saw how much the old man loved his granddaughter, as he whispered back.
"I just did what anyone good man would've done."
However, the old village chief shook his head a tiny bit, before he whispered again.
"It takes a kind soul to care this much. If you ever need anything from my granddaughter or me, don't hesitate to ask. Although I'm merely the village chief of a small village, my little Boadicea is quite the genius. In fact, I was originally going to send her off to military academy for her to become a strategist for the army, until she became sick. When the recruiters came around and told me that she could prodigal strategist, I was elated…now I just hope she survives…"
The old village chief stroked Boadicea's hair and looked at her affectionately. Leon looked at the tender moment between family and wondered if such a scene would have occurred between himself and his parents.
"I'm sure she'll survive…we just need to get to Mifis as fast as possible."
After a few more seconds, the old man picked up the cane that he had set on the ground and picked himself off the ground to walk out of the tent.
"Let's give her some silence, so she can sleep."
Leon followed promptly and looked back between the sick girl, who was asleep, and the poor old village chief who was grim from the fear of potentially losing his granddaughter. The scene only made Leon's resolve to get the villagers to mifis even stronger.
The pot of food quickly disappeared as the men ravaged through it as if they were breathing air. After everyone had eaten, everyone, but one person who was the lookout, went to sleep as they wanted to start traveling again as fast as possible, since Boadicea didn't look like she was getting better. They offered Leon a space in one of the tents, but he politely declined and would rather sleep outside in the grass.
Normally he would pick a tree, but the clearing they had set up in had no immediate trees nearby the camp to sleep in so he got his pillow and blanket and found a dry spot to sleep on. As he attempted to fall asleep, he looked up at the waxing crescent of the moon and thought about everyone back home, then got to Emilia.
'I can't wait to see her again…'
Like a love-struck person, Leon tried imagining Emilia in his mind and slowly felt his eyelids droop as he lost consciousness and fell asleep.