Chapter 217: Meal Duties (Castle Bonus - )
For the time being, the knights didn’t have apprentices bother with night duties. Because of the lack of maids or women in the area, meal duties lay solely on the apprentices’ and squires’ shoulders.
The knights strategized and took over the night patrol. They were certainly lacking sleep, but they were more used to it compared to those younger. That meant the apprentices all had to be up early to relieve the night watch of their duties and have breakfast ready for them so the knights could rest.
Having to rise early when sleeping was nearly impossible in a place like that was so difficult for any teenager. It made morale low each time the apprentices were robbed of their precious sleep and had to face another day.
That day, clouds full of what was expected to be snow loomed in the distance. They had already covered the upper peaks of the northern mountains, and everyone from Chemois knew that it was only a matter of time before they got a fresh blanket that hopefully wouldn’t collapse any of the wider tents.
For now, they would enjoy the ground without snow.
Irene felt a little bit frustrated that she had escaped the duties of girls and women in the kitchen only to be foisted back into it. She was primed to fight and not to cut carrots for stew, but she knew she had to be obedient or she would make a lot of people mad.
At least meal duties meant that she could warm her hands after a cold night, feeling like the warmth of the center hearth in their tent didn’t reach her. Even with her blanket roll and the additional knitted blanket from her mother, it felt like the cold went to her very core.
As she warmed her hands by the large pot where they would throw the cut food, she smiled faintly at the thought of how useless the other apprentices were in the kitchen. They were clumsier than her, but they also likely weren’t taught in the first decade of their life to cook and bake. She bet that if they requested her to make bread, she might be able to conjure up something edible.
It was time to get back to potatoes and carrots, as always, while others cleaned a rabbit that had just been hunted. She hoped they found a couple of deer as well so that the evening meal would be heavier.