Berries couldn't be preserved, so everyone stuffed themselves on the mountain.

  Luis wrapped a large bundle of wild chestnuts in his shirt, but Tomas suddenly frowned and complained to Elena:

  "Must be nice for you guys—living in your own yard and cooking your own meals."

  "Exactly," Luis echoed. "We even have to take turns with the old soldiers just to use the stove."

  Hearing this, Anita also pouted. "We always have to wait for the old soldiers to eat their fill before we can cook. Sometimes they even pretend to use our salt by mistake."

  As each of them threw in a complaint, the surprise and joy of finding wild fruit just a moment ago vanished completely.

  Elena understood them. The veterans in the army weren't as prone to swindling people as the farmers Sienna had teamed up with before, but they didn't show much care for the recruits either. If they took only a little advantage of the new soldiers, they were already considered to have a conscience.

  Tomas said he especially missed the time when he partnered with Elena for meals; he could cook as much of his own rice as he wanted, no one took advantage of anyone else, and it was fair and full of friendship.

  "Why don't a few of you partner up to cook?" Lucy suggested.

  "Forget it!" Anita stuck out her tongue. "We’re already being sidelined as it is. If we start forming little cliques, who knows what would happen..."

  "They’d steal our food..." Luis added angrily.

  Wearing only his undershirt, Luis slapped the large bundle of chestnuts in his arms forcefully. "The chestnuts we’re taking back? Absolutely zero can be given to those people."

  "Right!" "Good!"

  Tomas also took off his shirt. "I'll pick a bundle too. If I can't finish them, I'll give them to Elena."

  Only then did everyone notice that Elena was still picking berries by herself. She didn't care if they were snakeberries or raspberries; she threw them all into her basket together.

  Anita was puzzled. "Elena, what are you picking so many for?"

  "To make jam. Help me pick some, and I'll let you taste it later." Elena turned her head and saw Tomas using his shirt to bundle chestnuts. "I also want to learn how to make chestnut cakes from Agnes. A tiny piece like this on the street sells for 15 pesos."

  The moment Elena held up two fingers, Roan’s eyes lit up. No one noticed as he stood up from the grass and began gathering berries and chestnuts himself. He moved fast, also using his own shirt to pack a large bundle.

  After everyone was full, Tomas suggested an adventure on the mountain. Everyone responded, and Roan even took the initiative to offer himself as a guide.

  Elena noticed that every time Roan casually told them a certain path was a dead end, she could spot a small trail hidden under the brambles and bushes.

  This Roan...

  When the others weren't paying attention, Elena quietly pulled back the thorns on a hidden path. After turning a few corners, she actually saw a small vegetable patch hidden in the forest, about 40 square meters. It was planted with radishes, beans, greens, garlic, cucumbers, cabbage, and more. There was even a small pit dug to store rainwater.

  So, Roan was secretly growing vegetables on the mountain.

  Mountain land was state property. If reported, Roan would face severe punishment. Elena quietly backed out and covered the trail again.

  ...

  The church floor was spotless, without a single speck of trash. No table or podium had been set up where the priest usually recited scriptures. The so-called "finished auction" was a flat-out lie, but Antonio didn't plan on calling Sebastian out.

  He maintained a polite smile through every word of Sebastian’s introduction. Occasionally, he would ask a question or two in return—like when Sebastian had started his mining business. Upon learning that Sebastian had made his fortune in the United States, he also followed up by asking if part of Sebastian’s family was also in America.

  Sebastian first nodded solemnly, then shook his head.

  "My parents, brother, and sister are in America. I have three children—one is in the US, one is in the country, and another is across the river. That child across the river... I might never see them again."

  "..." Hearing this, a glint flashed in Antonio’s eyes.

  Perhaps out of a sense of shared fate, he felt a spark of goodwill toward Sebastian. For the first time, he looked closely at this man who was shorter than himself. Aside from a slightly pudgy belly, his build wasn't prominent. With a scholarly face and a pair of glasses, his clothes and shoes were neither brand new nor designer. A passerby would find it hard to imagine he was a mine owner planning to buy 78 square kilometers of land.

  Antonio intended to spend the whole day fulfilling Sebastian’s wish to host him. For an officer of his rank, since he had met with the man, not letting the other party host him would be an act of rudeness.

  "Why don't we find a place to sit and chat?" Antonio took the initiative to invite him. He was rarely this warm to strangers.

  But now, Antonio could no longer consider Sebastian a complete stranger.

  "If you don't want to go to my house so early, I can take you to the five-star hotel near the Allied camp. They have everything—card rooms, seafood buffets, wine, a swimming pool..."

  "Of course!" Sebastian raised his eyebrows, acting mysterious. "There are also beautiful girls who can accompany you for a day-long spa."

  "Heh..." Antonio’s smile was forced. Seduction was the most useless trick against him. He was surrounded by all sorts of greedy eyes; it was lucky enough that he didn't go around seducing others.

  Sebastian laughed in spite of himself. He finally realized it too—Antonio was very handsome. But as a normal man, he hadn't focused on exactly how handsome until now. Even during their first handshake, he had only stared into the other's eyes; this was the inevitable result of the aristocratic education he had received since childhood.

  Besides, regarding Antonio’s looks, his informant had only told him one thing: Antonio is very handsome; the old man really likes him.

  "Then..."

  "Let's just go to any cheap little tea house! I see that one across the street is quite good. It has food, tea, and wine..." Antonio pointed at the only small restaurant visible through the church window and made his decision.

  A "mud-leg" who had fought for years—even though he was now dressed sharply and even his fingernails were washed clean—Antonio still found it extremely hard to accept himself walking into a grand and magnificent five-star bar.

  More importantly, he loathed the Allied Forces.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  As an officer just back from the front lines, he’d sooner strip buck-naked and run through the streets, or even eat sh*t in front of a crowd, than accept foreign troops occupying his homeland.

  Sebastian clearly saw the flash of grimness on Antonio’s face and quickly nodded. "Commander, wherever you say to go, I will accompany you. I would go through fire and water without hesitation."

  The restaurant owner was short and plump, wearing a kitchen apron. She had clearly rarely received a high-ranking officer like Antonio and was nervously rubbing her hands. "Commander, the wholesale prices have gone up again these last few days. Whatever prices you see on the menu, they’ve gone up another 30%..."

  "It’s no problem," Antonio nodded gently.

  But at that moment, Sebastian cut him off. "Boss-lady, this is our hero who defends our land, Division Commander Antonio. Bring out whatever good food you have. My treat today."

  "Wow! I knew those shoulder tabs were special! So it's a Deputy Division Commander!" An old man popped out from the kitchen—likely the husband. He wiped his hands clean on a towel, then reached out his right hand to Antonio with an expression of pure admiration. "Commander, hello, hello! Welcome!"

  Antonio quickly extended his own right hand, letting the man grip it firmly.

  While Antonio and Sebastian dined, Tom sat to the side without a word, focused on eating. Chicken, fish, rice. Although these dishes weren't high-end, the portions were generous. The benefit of driving for Antonio was that, as long as it wasn't a place like an officers' mess that restricted access based on rank, he could snag some good food for free.

  Sebastian, of course, wouldn't refuse the officer's driver a chance to feast.

  Antonio spent over half the day chatting with Sebastian at the small restaurant, but didn't gain a single piece of useful information. This man seemed casual, but whenever they talked about the details of his rise to fortune, how he met Bernardo, or how they managed to discover this mineral vein during the war, he would play dumb or brush it off.

  Antonio, of course, didn't dare show his disappointment. He shared a meal and drank with Sebastian, chatting for several hours. By 3 PM, feeling a bit drowsy, he bid Sebastian farewell.

  As for the mining shares and such, he would just act like they didn't exist.

  The embarrassment was written all over Sebastian’s face. "Commander, as we agreed, you will still come to my house as a guest. My wife should have prepared pastries and wine, and my young son also really wants to meet the hero who saved the country."

  True, he hadn't been to the house yet.

  "Let’s go, we’ll chat a bit more at your place!" Antonio pretended to be easygoing. He was already a bit tired, especially since he wasn't good at drinking; after a few glasses, he would feel drowsy.

  The jeep followed Sebastian’s car to a hillside villa district. The district was right next to a small river named Río Silencioso, which was a tributary of the border river, Rio Sangreza.

  Antonio was very "familiar" with this small river. During the war, they had pointed at this navigable waterway countless times on their maps; a reservoir could be built upstream to harbor military boats for a surprise attack on the opposite bank.

  However, right now, it was just a flat river about twenty to thirty meters wide, with plenty of water.

  After getting out of the car, Antonio observed the entrance of Sebastian’s villa carefully. Although this three-story luxury house sat right by the river and had its own pier, there was no private yacht to be seen.

  "Commander Antonio, there might be snakes by the river." It was a woman's slightly anxious voice.

  Antonio turned his head and saw a young woman about thirty years old, wearing a white gauzy dress, coming out of the mansion to greet him. She was holding a little boy about six or seven years old by the hand, with a maid over fifty years old standing beside them.

  "Commander, this is my wife, Vanessa, and my son, Julian... you two, come quickly and meet Commander Antonio."

  Vanessa not only bowed to Antonio but also pressed her son's head down to bow to him. Antonio just nodded in greeting, maintaining the dignity of a high-ranking officer.

  Sebastian’s house appeared to be a simple villa from the outside, but the interior was magnificently decorated. Antonio was invited into a spacious study. He wasn't interested in the books; he immediately saw two picture frames in the corner of the bookshelf.

  The first was a young Sebastian standing next to the sign for the Wharton School, wearing a black graduation gown.

  The second was a family photo of six—the eldest son, a daughter, and at that time, there was no little Julian yet. But the background was the Palacio de Helios, the ancient palace ruins in the capital of the West Coast. Even if they were now enemies and divided, Antonio still considered it a part of his country.

  "It was taken seven years ago. Adrian stayed over there; he's 22 now. The last time I saw him was three years ago, and I don't know when I’ll be able to see him again."

  Sebastian sighed, sat down by the coffee table, and began pouring tea.

  Antonio’s eyes drifted slightly. The last time he saw Roan was also three years ago. Back then, Roan was dark and scrawny; he picked up the injured Leo and ran without even looking back at his father.

  ...

  By the time Elena and her friends headed down the mountain, the sun had set. The forest was quiet, save for the occasional bird fluttering away and the chirping of night insects.

  The dim path seemed endless. Luis walked in front, always pretending those strange noises were ghosts. Whenever he mimicked a baby’s cry, a female ghost’s wail, or the scary moves of various monsters from picture books, everyone just burst out laughing.

  No one was afraid because Roan was quietly following behind them.

  Back at Elena’s cottage, Roan headed home. The others left all the chestnuts they couldn't finish for Elena before returning to the barracks.

  After everyone had left, Lucy gave a mysterious smile and pulled a wild egg from her pocket: "Look!"

  Elena was both surprised and delighted: "When did you pick that up?"

  "I just found them. There were three, actually, and I wasn't sure how to divide them."

  "Just give one to Sofia," Elena suggested.

  Lucy strongly agreed with Elena’s proposal. Sofia had given her vegetables and a straw mat. While Elena had once returned the favor with a bowl of red date porridge, that was something Elena had sent...

  "I should send a return gift of my own!"

  Cupping a wild egg in both palms, Lucy was just about to head out when she bumped into Marco at the entrance of the small yard.