Since the sky had cleared, Caesar and Angelina needed to figure out their food for the day. Yesterday, they had finished the last of their supplies.
"Are there many animals around here?" Caesar asked, though he knew the answer. With the heavy snow sealing off the mountain, how could there be any wildlife?
Angelina gave a simple "No" in response. Caesar began contemplating how they could fill their stomachs. His sense of pride as a man made him unwilling to rely solely on Angelina to provide food now that he was awake.
Angelina, on the other hand, quietly waited for Caesar to come up with a solution. To be honest, if she were to go out looking for food, her only viable option would be to dig another trap and wait for prey to fall into it, much like before. They still had some fiery fruit left, but with the snow-covered landscape stretching endlessly and the snow layer nearly half a meter deep, finding wildlife would depend entirely on luck.
Back when Caesar was in the military camp, winters were spent idling in tents playing cards during post-battle rest periods. Shiloh's winters weren't colder than those in Garrel, but the key difference was the snowfall. In Shiloh, snowstorms could bury the land up to waist height in a single fall.
In such an environment, even basic activities were challenging, let alone finding other forms of entertainment.
Caesar surveyed his surroundings. The cave they were staying in was situated halfway up the mountain, offering a broad view. Now, however, the once-visible forest was buried under a blanket of snow. Only a few towering, century-old trees still stood tall, with barely half their trunks visible above the snow.
Turning his gaze to the area where he had fought the Moon Wolf, he noticed a few resilient "saplings" standing upright, their spines seemingly unyielding to the weight of the snow. Caesar's eyes lit up as an idea struck him. "Do you remember where the Moon Wolf's corpse is?" he asked Angelina.
"Huh?" Angelina was momentarily confused by Caesar's question. After a brief pause, she pointed in a direction. "It should be over there."
"Let's go to the Moon Wolf's corpse!" Caesar said, immediately starting to walk. His injuries had mostly healed, leaving only fractured ribs, so while he couldn't handle heavy labor, walking wasn't an issue.
"Wait—you don't mean...?" Angelina seemed to catch on to Caesar's plan and hurried after him. "You're planning to eat its corpse?"
"Of course!" Caesar replied, limping forward. After only a few steps, he clutched his chest in pain, grimacing. Angelina quickly moved to support him. While Caesar could walk, any vigorous movement caused his fractured ribs to stab painfully into his internal organs.
Reaching the battle site, Caesar used the arrangement of trees to estimate the Moon Wolf's location.
"Start digging!" Caesar commanded.
Without proper tools, the two of them had no choice but to dig with their hands. Thankfully, the snow hadn't melted yet despite the sunny weather, and the fluffy accumulation made digging relatively easy.
Over 20 days had passed since the battle, during which multiple snowfalls had further buried the site. The snow was nearly two meters deep, and it took them half a day to reach the bottom. Had they had a shovel, Caesar estimated he could have finished the job in an hour, even with his injuries.
As they reached the ground, a hard, frozen wolf corpse came into view. The gray-white fur stood rigid with frost, its sharp texture pricking their hands.
Working together, Caesar and Angelina managed to drag the Moon Wolf's corpse out of the snowpit. The beast, over two meters long and 1.5 meters tall, had been well-preserved beneath the snow. Its fearsome wolf head and hollow, sightless eyes stared blankly ahead, unnerving Angelina.
Caesar, however, was unfazed. He had seen far more corpses in his life—some far more gruesome than this. Summoning a trace of fighting energy into his palm, he struck the frozen corpse. With a cracking sound, the wolf's body collapsed. Its flesh and blood had disintegrated into fragments, held together only by its hide.
Startled by the sudden change, Angelina instinctively recoiled. But her recent hardships had toughened her nerves, and she didn't cry out.
"Just as I thought," Caesar muttered to himself. He recalled his first winter in the army as a servant soldier. After a battle, he had been assigned to retrieve corpses from the battlefield. Many Garrel soldiers had died, and their bodies were to be cremated and their ashes returned to their families.
Caesar vividly remembered pulling a frozen corpse from the snow, only for it to shatter into pieces with a light bump. His veteran comrade, Uncle York, had explained, "That's just the freezing. See those breaks? The flesh and blood are still fresh."
The Moon Wolf's frozen body was no different from those corpses. "Let's hope it's still edible," Caesar said.
The wolf's fragmented flesh was easy to carry. Caesar and Angelina hauled the body back to their cave with little effort.
Once inside, Caesar used his dagger to strip the wolf's hide. Having hunted plenty in the past, he was adept at skinning animals. The Moon Wolf's fur was smooth, soft, and snowy white—perfect for making clothes. He thought Angelina would look stunning wearing it.
With a sharp rip, the wolf's hide peeled away, revealing bright red flesh that still carried a faint, fresh smell. Relieved that it hadn't spoiled, Caesar nodded in satisfaction.
That night's meal was roasted wolf meat. Sprinkled with fiery fruit powder and salt, the meat was delicious. Despite eating roasted meat for nearly a month, their hunger made it feel like a feast. In the past two days, they had rationed their food carefully, eating as little as possible.
"This wolf's been dead for days, even before the snowstorm started. How's its meat still so fresh?" Caesar asked, curious after hearing Angelina recount what had happened while he was unconscious.
"Magical creatures' flesh contains magical energy," Angelina explained. "Even after death, their magic preserves their physical attributes. For ice-element creatures, preserving freshness is easy. Fire or dark-element creatures wouldn't be the same—one rots quickly, and the other becomes corrosive."
"Good thing this one's light-element," Caesar remarked. From Angelina's explanation, he learned that the Moon Wolf's light-element magic had likely kept its flesh intact by continuously repairing its tissues.
Taking a big bite of the meat, Caesar savored his first taste of magical creature flesh. Uncle York had often told him about its nourishing properties for knights, and Caesar wasn't about to waste it.
Though only 16, Angelina's physique was as strong as that of a third-class soldier with years of experience. This strength came from her diet—food rich in magical nutrients. In this world, one's birth often determined their potential.
Wolf meat was one of Caesar's least favorite foods, along with horse meat, the former being too tough and the latter too sour. If not for their circumstances, he would never have chosen to eat either.
The food was delicious, so Caesar ate heartily. Whether it was hunger or the need to recover his strength, he consumed nearly two days' worth of his usual food intake in just one meal—and it was all pure meat.
Fortunately, the Moon Wolf's body was large, and with the snow acting as a natural refrigerator, there was enough to last them a week without any issue.
After the meal, Angelina lay on Caesar's chest, rubbing her round belly. She never would have imagined eating so much meat in one sitting before. Thankfully, the drastic weight loss she had experienced in recent days meant she wasn't worried about gaining weight.
By now, there was no longer any barrier between Angelina and Caesar. The once-subtle class differences between the princess and the commoner boy had vanished. In this moment, they saw only each other as their sole source of support.
That night, after both had finished their respective training and prepared to sleep, Caesar said to Angelina, "We leave in three days."
Angelina nodded in agreement, and the two embraced as they drifted off to sleep.
Although they had seen each other's vulnerable sides numerous times by now, they had not taken the final step in their relationship. For one, Caesar was hesitant to act. They still needed to leave this place and face the outside world—their friends, subordinates, and superiors. If the nobles ever learned that Caesar, a commoner, had been involved with their princess, it would almost certainly mean the gallows for him.
Secondly, Angelina herself wasn't ready. She was only 16 years old. While Caesar, at that age, had already experienced his first love, and most Garrel people were married with children by then, Angelina was part of the royal family. Royal customs dictated that no member could marry or wed before the age of 18, a rule designed to ensure the purity and quality of the royal bloodline.