Finally, he broke. “Three two seven, Ailos...”
Finally, he answered my first question.
“And? Do you want another cup, Ailos?”
“No, it’s for my son, Jack. He spilled his soup. His unit number is the same, 327.”
“Registrar! Have these two only taken one portion each?” Now that I had their names and unit numbers, I called the registrar to bring out the checklist. I looked at it, and there were indeed two people with their names in unit 327 and they had both taken food today. There was evidence that they had received food over the past few days, however, there were no other notes besides that. It seemed they hadn’t caused any problems before.
“Okay, I can see that you are both registered. You have heard the reason why, as a general rule, we don’t allow those who have already received their portion to take another portion, right?”
“Wait, he dropped it while we were heading back! The little one is starving; surely you can spare one more cup!” This was the most annoying issue. There were quite a few bad eggs among the refugees, however, based on experience, the ones most likely to cause problems were those with small children. Since it was for someone else’s benefit, they were more likely to ignore their surroundings.
“I’m sorry but, even if that’s the case, it’s one cup per person. Once we have distributed the food to everyone, if there is any leftover, we will bring it to you. Please wait until then.”
“But there’s never anything left. Will there be today?”
“This is just a rough estimate, but I don’t think so. Maybe it is better to talk with the other members of your unit, and ask if they would be able to share some of theirs with the child.”
There was no need to pretend that there would be some leftovers, so I was honest with him. The refugee district has grown quite considerably today. We planned for that and had made a lot more, but there was still a limit to how much we could do.
“Well, I guess all I have to do is wait, then!”
Though, to be honest, things aren’t going to get any better. I sighed. That man knew he would not be able to get seconds, yet he still decided to make a show of it. We had been saying from the start that it would be better for people to share what food they have with their unit members. If they asked nicely, surely others outside their groups would be willing to help too.
Of course, not everyone would, but those who were used to how it was here and knew they could be in that same situation tomorrow would be willing to help out. Go talk to them before they finish. If you waste time fighting about it here, nobody will have anything left to share with you. And don’t cause issues with our food distribution; if you do, none of the other refugees will pity you. Even now, the complaining man hadn’t realized that the people around him were already starting to throw dangerous looks in his direction. That’s to be expected. Even though they were hungry and standing in line, they had to wait longer for their food because of him. Not to mention, if he got his way, there might be a chance that they might lose out on a serving.
Behind the man, the cause of the argument—although I did feel sorry for him—stood Jack, looking very uncomfortable. If this continued, the man—Ailos, was it?—his position within the refugee district would become quite uncomfortable, so I should probably use my authority to shut him up. I’ll get the guards to restrain him. I didn’t like resorting to this as I didn’t want to earn the disdain of the refugees, but Ailos was in the middle of turning into public enemy number one here. There’s nothing else I can do...
As I signaled to the soldier who had been keeping a close eye on the situation, I heard heavy footsteps from behind me. I knew who that was.
“Suiren, I had a moment free so I came over to help out.”
My face lit up in response to his deep voice. On the other hand, Ailos, looking like he had just stood on the tail of the dragon god, looked above my head. It was the biggest reason why I was not afraid of Ailos and his towering build—my lover was bigger, stronger, and so very kind. I didn’t even have to look to confirm that, though he was kind, he was probably glaring at Ailos. The burly man froze, and those who had been glaring at him just before suddenly turned away and acted as if they had nothing to do with what was going on.
“Thank you, Glen,” I said without turning around, leaning on my big, strong, and kind companion, allowing myself a moment of weakness. Aah, being supported by Glen’s firm body like this is so relaxing!
I’d often talked about it with Mother Yae. She was saying that she could feel how strong Sir George was by leaning up against him. Chief Reina didn’t tell us much, but she was nodding along at the time, so she had probably experienced the same thing. Ah, this is no good—I’ve gotta sort out this argument first. Although it seemed like it was more or less resolved.
“Well, Ailos? Did you need seconds?”
“Ah, uh, no, actually...” Ailos stammered. He took a step back as if he wanted to run away, but he stopped when he looked at Jack.
“Ah, yes, that’s it! As a father, I can’t simply leave him to go hungry...!”
“What’s that, he needs something to eat?” asked Glen.
Ailos was leaning forward, but he stood up straight and responded, “Yes.”
“I see... In that case, since you seem to be in good shape, I’ll give you some food if you help me with my work.”
“Really?”
“It’ll be quite difficult manual labor. Food around here is important.”
“I’m fine with manual labor! My body is built for that!”
Ah, how kind of you, Glen. I guess it wouldn’t be much of a problem that way. Glen was offering work as an individual and was giving food in return as thanks. This wasn’t part of our food distribution system or our work with the frontier territories. Upon hearing that, I imagine other people would ask for work expecting the same reward, but when Glen said hard manual labor, he really meant it... I imagine Ailos probably wouldn’t be asking to do it again either. He might be tasked with fetching water from a well or helping with the food supplies. My guess is whichever job is the hardest...
“Well, Suiren, I’ll be back after I get this man set up with some work.”
“Okay, see you later.”
I waved to Glen, then turned back to face the queue. There were still so many people. I wonder how many arguments would break out. Thinking about it made my stomach hurt. But, well, I am used to that now. This was nothing for the me trained by Ash back at Ajole village.
I’ll get all the food handed out today!