Now that the sky had cleared up, Locke and Angelina had to start thinking about today's food. The two of them had already finished the last bit of food yesterday.
"Are there many animals around here?" Locke asked. The mountain was currently covered in snow, so how could there be any animals?
After Angelina gave a "no" answer, Locke began to think about what they would eat next. Locke, who was a male chauvinist, didn't want to rely on Angelina to feed both of them when he was already awake.
Angelina also quietly waited for Locke to come up with a solution. To be honest, if Angelina went out to look for food now, she could only dig a trap like before and wait for prey to come to her. There were still a lot of firecloud fruits left. However, there was a vast expanse of white snow on all sides, and the thickness of the snow was almost half a meter. Whether there were any wild beasts or not depended on God.
When he was in the barracks, he would always play cards in the tent to pass the time in the winter while he rested after the battle. Shalor's winter was not colder than Faustian's, but the difference was that there was more snow here. When the snow fell, it could reach a person's waist.
In such an environment, it was difficult to carry out normal activities, let alone find other entertainment.
Locke looked around. The cave they lived in was halfway up the mountain, so they had a better view. At this time, it was really white all around them. There was no trace of the jungle from before as it was all buried under the snow. Only a few hundred-year-old trees that were more than ten metres tall were still standing, but from the looks of it, only a small part of them was exposed.
Looking back at the area where he and the moonlight wolf fought, a few "saplings" stood upright, as if the thick snow could not crush their spines. Locke seemed to think of something, and his eyes lit up. He asked Angelina, "Do you remember where the moonlight wolf's body is?"
"Huh?" Angelina didn't understand what Locke meant at first. She pointed in a direction in a daze and said, "It should be in that place."
"Let's go! Let's go to the moonlight wolf's body! " Locke lifted his legs and walked away. Now, the only hard injuries on his body were the broken ribs in his chest. He couldn't do heavy work, but walking was not a problem.
"Eh? Do you want to? " Angelina seemed to understand what Locke was thinking, and quickly chased after him and asked, "Do you want to eat its body?"
"Of course!" Locke limped along, clutching his chest and gritting his teeth after taking a few steps. Angelina hurriedly stepped forward to support him. He had no problem walking, but the fractured ribs in his chest would sting his spleen and stomach if he was a little too violent.
When he arrived at the site of the battle that day, he roughly deduced the position of the moonlight wolf from the surrounding trees.
"Dig!" said Locke.
Without suitable tools, the two of them could only dig the snow with their hands. Fortunately, although the sky was clear, the snow had not melted due to the low temperature. The fluffy snow was easier to dig.
It had been more than twenty days since the battle started, and there had been several snowfalls during this period. The snow was two metres deep, and it took them half a day to dig to the bottom. It was mainly because he didn't have any tools. If he had a shovel, he could definitely finish it in an hour even if he was injured.
When he dug to the bottom and came into contact with the soil, a hard wolf carcass appeared. The greyish-white wolf's hair was already standing on end from the cold, and it was prickly to the touch.
Locke and Angelina worked together to pull the moonlight wolf's carcass out of the snow pit.
Although the two-metre-long and 1.5-metre-tall moonlight wolf had long been dead, it was relatively well preserved under the snow. At this time, it looked like it was still alive. Its hideous head and dark, blind eyes stared blankly ahead, giving Angelina a lot of pressure.
Locke, on the other hand, was not surprised. He had probably seen more dead bodies than Angelina had seen, and there were countless more terrible things than this. He had killed a dead wolf, so what was there for him to be afraid of? He gathered a bit of qi in his palm and slapped the hard wolf carcass. After a cracking sound, the carcass collapsed with a loud rumble. The moonlight wolf's flesh had already been torn to pieces, and it was only wrapped in a wolf's skin.
Angelina was startled by the sudden turn of events. However, recent encounters had also sharpened her nerves, so she did not scream out in fear.
"As expected." Locke thought to himself. He was still a servant when he first joined the army in the winter of that year. Once, he was yelled at to pull corpses after a war. There were too many dead Faustian soldiers, and these corpses had to be cremated in the camp and brought back to Faustian. There were very few orphans like Kane who joined the army. Most of them had families, so they brought the ashes of the dead back to their families as a memento.
It was also the first time Locke and his battalion participated in a war. Many unlucky fellows died before they could experience war. The casualty rate of the Faustian army in the first year was quite high. He still remembered that after a heavy snowfall, Locke went to the battlefield to pull the corpses of the dead from their battalion. The snow was very heavy, and it often took a long time to dig out the corpses before they could be pulled away.
Locke remembered that with just a gentle bump, the corpse he was pulling was broken into several pieces. At that time, it really scared Locke, who had only joined the army for less than a year. At that time, Yoshk, who was also an old man, explained to him, "This is all frozen. Look at the broken pieces, the blood and flesh are still fresh." Locke used to pull corpses often. Under normal temperatures, corpses would stink and turn black within half a day, which was very different from frozen corpses like this.
The body of the moonlight wolf at this time was not much different from the frozen corpses Locke saw a few years ago. "I hope it's still edible," said Locke.
The flesh under the fur had been broken into several pieces, so it was easy to carry. Locke and Angelina dragged the wolf back to the cave where they lived without much effort.
After the two of them carried the moonlight wolf back, Locke took his short dagger and began to cut the wolf's skin. He had hunted many wild animals in the past, so he was very familiar with the process. The moonlight wolf's skin was so good, smooth, and most importantly, white. Angelina would look very beautiful in it, Locke thought.
With a ripping sound, the moonlight wolf's fur was cut open, revealing a few pieces of flesh inside. The flesh was still red, and a fishy smell wafted out. Fortunately, it wasn't broken. Locke breathed a sigh of relief.
Their dinner for the night was roasted wolf meat. The two ate the roasted meat sprinkled with firecloud fruit powder and salt with relish. Although they had been eating roasted meat for almost a month, it was nothing for starving people. In order to save food for the past two days, both of them ate very little.
"By the way, this wolf died a few days ago before it started snowing. Why is the wolf meat still so fresh?" Locke asked curiously. He had learned from Angelina about the days when he was in a coma.
"The meat of major monsters contains mana. Even if the major monster is dead, as long as there is still mana in its body, its body will maintain its own attributes," said Angelina. "Keeping it fresh is a piece of cake for ice major monsters. If it's a fire or dark major monster, it won't work. One rots quickly, while the other is corrosive."
"Fortunately, this is a light major," said Locke. After listening to Angelina's explanation, he learned some common things about magic. Light major monsters had self-healing abilities. The reason wolf meat could be kept fresh for so long was probably because light magic had been restoring the vitality of the wolf's muscles.
Locke took a big bite of the meat in his mouth. He had never eaten a major monster before, so of course he didn't want to waste it. Moreover, Yoshk had told him that major monster meat had a nourishing effect on knights like him, so he wouldn't let it go.
Angelina was only a sixteen-year-old girl now, but in terms of physique alone, she was close to a third-rate soldier who had worked hard in the barracks for several years. This was all achieved through eating. In this world, most of the time, one's birth determined one's status.
Wolf and horse meat were the meats Locke hated the most. One was astringent, while the other was sour. If he had no other choice, he would never eat these two kinds of meat. He would rather gnaw on black bread.
However, the moonlight wolf's meat was different from ordinary wolf meat. He didn't taste astringent, but there was a tender and smooth feeling in his mouth, just like eating dog meat. Dog and chicken were Locke's favorites. When he was a squad jarl, he often took his men to the villages occupied by Shalor to have a sumptuous meal.
If it was delicious, then he would eat more. Locke might be hungry, or it might be for the sake of his body's recovery. Just one meal alone was close to two days' worth of food. This was pure meat.
Fortunately, the moonlight wolf's carcass was big enough, and there was still snow to keep it fresh. It wouldn't be a problem for the two of them to eat for a week.
After the meal, Angelina rubbed her round belly and lay on Locke's chest. She would never have thought that she would eat so much meat for a meal. Fortunately, she had lost a lot of weight these days, so she wasn't afraid of getting fat.
Now that there was no barrier between Angelina and Locke, the princess and the commoner boy were no longer like when Locke first saved Angelina. At this time, they only had each other in their eyes.
At night, when Locke and Angelina finished their training and were about to go to bed, Locke said to Angelina, "Let's leave in three days!"
Angelina nodded, and the two fell asleep in each other's arms.
Although they had been honest with each other many times, the two had never taken the last step. Firstly, Locke really didn't dare to do anything to Angelina now. They still had to go out and face their friends, subordinates and superiors. If the nobles found out that Locke, a commoner boy, had an affair with their princess, the only thing waiting for him would probably be hanging.
Secondly, Angelina wasn't ready either. She was only sixteen years old. Although Locke was no longer a virgin at this age, and most Faustians were married and had children at this age, Angelina was a royal. Members of the royal family could only get married at the age of eighteen to ensure the quality and purity of the royal bloodline.