A village in central Castall.

Renner, rose before the sun came up to make breakfast. She was not as good a cook as her deceased mother, and there was a lot of food to prepare.

Counting her sister, Renner herself and the nineteen knights from Redcliffe who had just lived in the village, she had to make breakfast for twenty  people. Two new dark elves just arrived yesterday. Cooking for two more on top of those would make twenty-two in total. Preparing that much food was a lot of work, and could be considered a battle in its own right. Luckily since the outsiders' arrival, the village stopped paying most of their agricultural yields to the lords. Not only they got enough food to feed the villagers, the village could afford to feed their new protectors. Renner trembled while looking at the vast quantity of food in front of her and realized that it would all be gone in one meal.

“This is nearly six times as much as before…”

After taking a deep breath, she rolled up her sleeves, psyched herself up and got to work.

She silently sliced up the vegetables, and then the meat. The process was engraved into Renner's mind by now.

Although Renner was not especially talented at cooking, the fact that she had learned to cope with such an enormous task in such a short time was a textbook example of how diamonds were made under pressure.

Her little sister woke from the sound of Renner making breakfast and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

“Morning, sistrr. Let me help too!”

“Morning, Miti. I'm good over here, but there's still that thing I asked you to help me take care of yesterday…”

Unhappiness flashed over Miti's face for a moment, but in the end, she did not complain, although she did droop her head and reply “...‘Kay” as she obeyed Renner.

Renner’s hands stopped.

Her heart ached.

Miti was ten years old now, and she had been a lively and spirited girl once. After that incident where their parents were killed by the margrave's knights, the formerly naive and carefree Miti was now slavishly obedient to her sister, without any of the playfulness or tantrums of children her age. She was a good girl now — so good that it hurt.

The smiling faces of her parents appeared in Renner's mind. Although several months had passed, the wounds from that incident had not yet healed.

If they had died because of illness, she could have prepared herself for it. If they had died from an accident or a natural disaster, she would not have hated anyone else for it, and maybe she would not have been scarred either. But her parents had been murdered in front of her eyes, and her heart was now filled with resentment. There was no way she could feel otherwise.

Renner squeezed her eyes shut. If there was someone nearby, then she could work hard so they would not see her weakness. But when she was by herself, the loneliness reopened the wounds in her heart.

“―Isn’t that right?”

She still saw her parents' kind smiles floating in the darkness behind her eyes. Even when she opened them, their forms did not fade from her vision. She replayed the tender moments of the past in her mind, over and over again.

After that came the maelstrom of black emotions in her heart -- her hatred for the people who had murdered her parents. Driven by them, Renner slammed her cleaver into the meat with all her might, splitting it in half.

However, since she used too much force, she also chopped a divot out of the block, which made her furrow her brow in frustration.

If the blade gets chipped, it’s going to be hard to fix...… "I'm sorry, mother"

Renner covered up the hole as she apologized for damaging the cleaver that was her only link to her deceased mother.

She gently ran a finger along the edge to make sure it was fine, and at that moment, the door beside her, which led to the living room, opened up.

The person who entered was not a normal human, but someone different, his ears stretched longer than the average human, his skin is wheat coloured, his hair is white — one of the humans commonly known as dark elves.

The dark elven man paused and turned concerned eyes to Renner's hands.

The villagers were initially surprised and afraid of the knights from Redcliffe as they were outsiders, but they calmed down after the knights killed the cruel tax collectors. 

Thereafter, the work of the outsiders was enough for the villagers to put aside their suspicions and welcome them from the depths of their hearts.

"Good morning, mister Devas, I just used a bit too much force with the cleaver…”

Devas was one of two dark elves who came here. He furrowed his brows -- looking like a man-eating bear awakened from his winter hibernation -- and put a concerned expression on his face before looking at Renner.

“That's no good, you need to take care of that cleaver. The village doesn't have a blacksmith, so we can't repair our equipment either.”

“Is that so…”

“Well, it's alright. We'll think of a solution when the time comes.”

She always wondered how the human knights from Redcliffe could coexist with dark elves and even obey the dark elves. 

A  mere village girl like herself had no answer to this question, and with that she threw herself into her work once more. Fortunately, the cleaver's edge was still intact.

Eventually, breakfast was ready.

There were a wider variety of dishes on the table compared to the days when her mother was cooking.

For example, there was meat. Although the local rangers often shared their kills in the past, the amount they could bring back was nothing compared to now. The reason why they had so much more meat now was because the villagers had expanded their area of activity since there was no more interference from the central nobles.

The work of the outsiders, who were strong beings, were a key factor in this; meat, which had previously been hard to obtain, could now be easily acquired, and their tables were decked with fresh fruits and vegetables. As a result, the food situation in the village had dramatically improved.

Renner curled her biceps, flexing her muscles.

Her gains were quite impressive.

Mm, I feel so pumped~ they’re getting even bigger…she thought.

She began serving breakfast.

That too was a tedious task. While the outsiders would not quibble over a small difference in portion size, the amount of meat in their soup was a huge issue. Renner ensured that everyone's dishes and bowls had a similar amount  of meat before moving onto the next task.

Eventually, breakfast was ready, and sweat dripped from her forehead.

"Then, let's call everyone over~”

“Hm, yes~”

“I’ll go! Let me do it! I want to do it~”

As Renner turned around, she saw Miti standing behind her with eyes alight.

“Have you done your chores?” Her sister nodded by way of reply, and so did Renner. “Really? Then go get―”

“--No! I want to call the knights!”

Renner had no idea how to answer her little sister's sudden outburst. Devas nodded gently to Miti, presumably indicating that he would entrust her with that task.

“I'll leave that to you, then."

Although this would leave the house empty, it did not bother Renner. After all, there had never been any issues with thieves breaking in before.

Together with Devas, Renner left the house just after Miti did.

The wind blew on Renner’s face, carrying the scent of grass and warmed by the gentle light of the morning sun. Renner took a deep breath, and when she turned to look at Devas, he was breathing in the scent as well. Renner could not help smiling at the sight, and Devas scowled, trying to regain his lost dignity with a fierce expression. Perhaps the Renner of the past would have been afraid, but Renner was used to living with the outsiders now, and she knew this was just how he smiled.

"I heard how the Castall knights killed your parents."

Renner turned pale when Devas uttered those words.

Devas added, "My parents were killed by Castall knights when I was very young. Then, the dark elves were chased away from the west and south of Castall."

Unable to bear with that and touched by that story, Renner sobbed.

"I'm sorry. I always thought I was unlucky but you had been suffering for long time."

Devas smiled bitterly and replied "It's fine. We understand each other."

Renner suddenly jumped and hugged the dark elven man. She cried.