### Chapter 114: Night Liquor
As dusk approached, the snow started to fall more heavily.
The crimson sky and the bright white snow seemed to split the world in two, with the horizon as the dividing line. The sun sunk beyond the mountains, engulfed by a sky falling like a feathery curtain.
On a snow mound next to the winding path, a campfire crackled merrily in front of the tents, where soldiers clad in red armor gathered, laughing and joking around the flame. Someone plopped a large barrel of snow wine next to them with a resounding thud, ready to drink and warm up. Not far away, some sentries at the palisade caught a whiff of the wine and wandered over, eagerly ladling out cups for themselves. Others were busy hauling wine up to the watchtower…
On the left side of the camp, you could hear the horned horses neighing. Inside a makeshift stable made of branches, several hefty beasts stared wide-eyed at a frail horse lying on the ground, struggling weakly. A scruffy man in his forties squatted next to its head, muttering to himself while pouring medicine from a bottle into the horse’s nose.
“This is a deworming medicine… The main ingredients are white petal flower and hog grass… It’s a bit tough on the stomach, but it’ll help get those worms out… Okay! The situation’s not too bad. It’s not a tough illness. Just let your Rect rest for the night, and I’ll feed him some mush. If all goes well by morning, we can hit the road again…”
The scruffy man finished administering the medicine and stood up, hair greasy and untouched for who knows how long, nearly covering half his face. He flicked aside the strands across his forehead and turned to the two cloak-clad girls standing silently behind him, declaring with a finger at the girls, “You two better take good care of him later!”
“Uh-huh… I will, thank you,” one of the girls replied with a sweet voice but tinged with a slightly hoarse post-cry quality.
“Alright, alright…”
Suddenly, someone approached from the side. The two girls glanced over to see the stern-faced man who saved their horned horse. He waved at the scruffy fellow and then smiled at the girls — particularly the shorter one — saying, “Don’t worry about your Mr. Rect. Just hand him over to Ral. Don’t let his looks fool you; he’s actually a big softie who loves horned horses!”
“What do you mean ‘don’t let his looks fool you’? Taku, what’s wrong with my appearance? I just don’t like taking cold baths, okay? I’ve been dealing with these animals for so long in this godforsaken mountain, of course I smell a bit… Is that a crime? Are you all smelling like roses yourselves?”
The fellow named Ral, the “horse guy,” was clearly miffed by that remark. Taking offense in front of the girls, he scowled, muttered something about Taku being a backstabber, and stormed back into the stable.
“Hey, food’s almost ready! Sadel and the others caught two silver foxes today! They’re already skinned and cooking! Don’t forget to come for the meat—”
Soldier Taku didn’t seem bothered. He quickly ushered the two girls to join the meal, chuckling, “Well, go eat something. Heh… I know conditions are rough, but you’ll have to sit with a bunch of gruff men. Once they’ve had a drink, their voices will really carry; please don’t take offense, ladies…”
“Offense? Of course not…” the shorter girl chirped, her soft voice almost melting hearts. “I’m just grateful to have something to eat… You’re all good people…”
The tough warrior chuckled at that, grinning like a goofball.
…
Before long, darkness enveloped the camp.
As night fell, I sat by the crackling fire with the Sword Demon and a soldier named Taku, along with a bunch from the Erin Castle army. They had several fires going, and we settled at the one closest to the tents. Someone handed me a bowl filled halfway with steaming meat soup, and I took small sips while listening to the men ramble about recent events.
“I heard Baihao City is starting talks again today… Those pansies in the church and the oldsters are probably still yapping away at the Duke, droning on and on…”
“What are they even talking about? Who cares—”
“If you ask me, we shouldn’t waste time with those people; if they don’t cooperate, let’s just fight! It’s simple, right? I’m not talking about the church; I’m talking about the Royal City… All those softies in there, just a single charge and they’d scatter like roaches! And here we are, still dragging this out for more than two months… I don’t even know what the Duke is thinking…”
“What’s he thinking? Don’t you know those knights are guarding Moon Mountain Gorge? You want to charge in? First, we’d have to fight them, and plenty of people would d*e… Hey, Tony, why are you looking at me like that?”
“When have we ever been scared of d*ath on this journey? Why am I just now discovering you’re such a coward?”
“Shut up! You’re the coward! You thick-headed idiot! Did I mean that? If we heroically take down members of the Fourth Knights Order, then we’ll have to face the whole Holy Church in retaliation! You think you can handle that—?”
“In the end, you’re just scared…”
“Idiot!”
“Alright, alright! Why are you shouting? Every time you drink, you turn into a bunch of rowdy troublemakers! What good does this chatter do? We’re here on a mission to keep watch! Don’t worry about anything else! When the order comes, no matter who they are, we charge in and take them down!”
After a few drinks, the men began to get tipsy, their words becoming less restrained. Despite Taku’s efforts to rein them in, the guy who’d waved a sword at me earlier turned a shade of red and kept signaling them to be mindful of the “outsiders” around. But his efforts were futile; those Erin Castle soldiers were getting hotter-headed by the second, starting arguments that almost turned into all-out brawls.
I kept my cool, sitting amid this rowdy bunch, getting splashed a few times by flying soup while Sword Demon and I focused on the food in our bowls, ignoring the chaos around us.
This is bad…
Sword Demon was already on her third bowl…
I still had two bones left in mine; this is unreasonable… How could she eat faster than me?
But speaking of which…
There really was silver fox meat!
…And it was pretty tasty.
I hadn’t eaten something so delicious in a long time… Though it barely registered once inside me, it still felt warm and cozy going down with the soup… I could definitely go for another bowl… There wasn’t much left in the pot, and I needed to get the good meat before Sword Demon beat me to it…
Though my mind was racing with that, I still listened intently to their talk, piecing together the current situation my father was facing.
The Shanter Army had reached the Royal City…
Even though the Fourth Knights Order from the Holy Church was blocking the front gate, they hadn’t made any progress for over two months. However, during that time, my father had certainly been busy giving orders to seal off all routes to the Royal City, even the one we took. Food, minerals, anything trying to get in would be confiscated — even on these back roads we traveled, there were guys like Taku keeping watch…
Taking a quick glance around, I estimated there were at least 200 men here.
