Chapter 203: A Lot of Adjustment
For fairness, rather than allowing the same people to do night watch every single night, the schedule evolved the longer they were forced to stay in the camp they were establishing.
Rather than having one team guarding at night and one team during the day, one team would guard half the night and then wake the others up to guard, where they would then work until late morning where the others would wake up and they would have a bit of interaction for the rest of the day. The second night shift would then go to sleep early, and those who would take the first shift would remain awake and attend to the camp.
It allowed for more interaction during the day rather than behaving like ships quietly passing one another in the fog of night without much more than that. Everyone seemed happier because of this arrangement.
The monsters were kind enough to allow them to establish this schedule. Even though there were a few monster sightings from afar, none dared to come to where their camp was.
It caused stormy thoughts to fill Irene’s head about why that was. Their unwillingness to leave the tower or barracks for long felt strange.
Since her team was the first night watch shift, she and Leif brought a couple of fruits and jerky with them to the top of the ancient wall, where they sat and lit a small fire as they had multiple times before.
Perhaps the only difference between their old night watch and what they were doing now was the fact that Irene couldn’t loudly complain about how tired she was half the night. The tent where others were sleeping was too close. Her interaction with Leif had to be done quietly as they kept their eyes towards the mountains and the Duke’s Tower.
Irene sat with her legs dangling over the edge of the wall, and she lay her sword in her lap which she meticulously cleaned and oiled to pass the time. As she looked up at the Duke’s Tower occasionally, she could no longer keep back the thoughts that had been weighing on her since the beginning.
She sheathed her sword and put her gloves back on. Her fingers were freezing, and she held them over the small fire.