Ch. 122 A Wild Anglo-Saxon Appears

“I’m starving, I’m starving—”

Merlin, riding on horseback, wailed as if he were dying as he followed the creaking carriage.

Artoria shook her head and sighed helplessly. “There’s nothing to be done about it.”

“Mhm.”

Kay nodded in agreement. “Who told you to spend the money for replenishment on expensive wine? As compensation, there’s no better way than to make you, the culprit, consume fewer supplies.”

When they were making camp last night…

They took stock of the supplies consumed over the past few days and discovered that the remaining supplies didn’t match the consumption at all.

After organizing all the goods in the entire carriage, Kay found a small barrel of wine at the very bottom of the wagon bed that definitely hadn’t been on the supply list.

Instantly, everyone thought of that fellow Merlin.

Under interrogation, Merlin initially tried to play dumb, but in the face of the overwhelming evidence, he chose to confess.

It turned out that while he and Kay were purchasing supplies separately, Merlin had used the money intended for meat to secretly buy a small barrel of wine.

“This one barrel of wine costs as much as two days’ worth of food for all of us!”

Rarely, even Artoria adopted a serious attitude and joined Kay in reprimanding Merlin.

With a guilty look from being caught, Merlin’s eyes darted around. Instead of apologizing, he blurted out something shocking: “No, no, no, that’s not quite right. Wine of this quality is worth at least three days’ worth…”

*Schwing—*

Kay, exasperated, drew his shimmering silver sword.

“Merlin, you idiot!”

“Wait, wait, wait!! You’re actually going to use that?!”

—

And so, the scene of Merlin swaying and crying out in hunger came to be.

“Since you wasted three days’ worth of food money for six people to buy wine, please go ahead and starve for eighteen meals.”

Kay pronounced judgment on Merlin’s crime with an expression as cold as iron.

The culprit, Merlin—whose crime was heinous, whose attitude toward confession was arrogant, and whose actions had severe consequences—held his head and wailed, “I’m going to die!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not a monster. We’ll spread those eighteen meals over eighteen days. So, for the next eighteen days, you’ll just have to work hard at watching from the side during dinner.”

That was the plan…

…but they didn’t actually limit Merlin’s lunch portions.

And as for him secretly pocketing some bread or biscuits to eat during the day, everyone just turned a blind eye.

Aside from this little episode…

…the few days of travel so far had seen no other conflicts.

The population distribution of this era was nowhere near dense; no matter the country, it was a state of vast lands and sparse people.

It was perfectly normal to travel for two or three days without seeing a settlement of any significant size.

Occasionally, they passed a hunter’s home or a farmhouse in the wild, but the occupants didn’t seem to be in need of help.

The sun rose and set, rose and set, and then set once more.

The surrounding scenery changed from meadows to desolate rocky shores, and from rocky shores to forests; the only constant was the rolling hills of Wales.

One evening, they set up camp not far from a stream.

They lit a fire and pitched their tents, and Mia began preparing today’s dinner.

Among the supplies they had purchased earlier, besides bread and biscuits, there was also dry white flour.

It was perfect for making some hand-rolled noodles.

Turnips, cabbage, mushrooms, and salted meat were all diced into small pieces.

After simmering them into a thick soup, she used another pot to cook the snow-white noodles.

Noodles with Gravy, incorporating local British ingredients, was tonight’s dinner.

Mia held her homemade chopsticks and took a loud slurp, sucking in a large bundle of noodles.

The others present had all curiously tried the utensils Mia had made herself.

But not a single one of them could get the hang of it in just a few minutes.

So, except for Mia, everyone else still used traditional knives and forks to eat their noodles.

“Where’s Merlin?”

Halfway through the meal, Mia suddenly remembered something and looked around.

“Did you forget? He’s not allowed to eat with us.”

Kay stirred the thick gravy with a ladle and curled his lip in disdain.

“Right.”

As a chef, Mia also felt a bit displeased that someone couldn’t eat the good food she’d prepared.

But Merlin had to pay the price for his actions.

Since a chef would be sad if someone couldn’t eat their good food, she decided simply not to consider the current Merlin as a person.

As for where Merlin was now…

Well, it was a trivial matter; he was probably hiding somewhere chewing on biscuits as usual.

Mia’s guess was correct.