Looking around, Wolf saw forty-odd people gathered before him. Everyone currently within the settlement had come over, paying respects to him. These people were working women, children around his age as well as a number of teens.

To make things even more awkward, all of them were kneeling on the ground, prostrated before Wolf. Everyone except the old man and his confused son-in-law.

“Please stand up. There’s no need to act that way,” Wolf said, mildly panicking as he frantically waved his hands, motioning the kneeling people to get up.

“Oh, but there is, young man,” the old lady said as she slowly got up. “One should show gratitude to their benefactors. Even if it is just one meal, you have fed many mouths, and you did us a great service. For that we should be grateful.”

The woman bowed once more, but didn’t kowtow this time. Then she started ordering the women around. The women took the roasted meat, cut it into small pieces and prepared them for storage.

While they were dealing with meat, other women busied themselves by breaking the bones and tossing them into an army sized pot along with various roots and grasses, as well as tree bark. Seeing the fate of the finely roasted meat Wolf cringed on the inside.

The old woman noticed Wolf’s mouth twitch at the sight of how the food preparation was handled. She silently thought for a moment before deciding to speak.

“Young man, this is the best way for us to use this meat,” she explained calmly. “For you food might be about enjoying the taste, but it’s different for us. Roasted meat might be tastier, but most of our bellies can’t handle such a strain after not eating well for so long. Vegetable broth with bones cooked over and over would have to be enough for now. As for the meat, it will be added to the stew in the future, but only men doing hard labor and those that are ill will get to eat it. The rest of us will have to settle with soup and the greens.”

Those aren’t greens. That’s just bark and some weeds, Wolf thought, but didn’t want to argue semantics. Not with these people. If they wanted to call grass a vegetable, that just went to show how desperate their situation was.

Instead of arguing he pointed towards the large structures in the middle of the village with his chin. “Shouldn’t you keep your own animals there?”

“We used to, but that was years ago,” the granny explained. “As soon as troubles started, bandits raided us. They took whatever they wanted. Coin, valuables and food. As for the animals we had left, we slaughtered them ourselves. Better to fill our bellies than to grow food for bandits.

“But that’s not the worst of it, back then two good men died trying to defend livestock and a number of people got injured. Now that I think of it, fighting back was one of the stupidest things we did since the founding of this settlement.

“When the next gang came they found no food, but took away the two prettiest women we had. We never saw them again, may gods have mercy on their souls,” the woman shook visibly. “I shudder to think what the girls had gone through. Fortunately we were quick to starve, so plump breasts withered, rosy cheeks turned pale. Soon enough it was hard to tell women apart from men, let alone pick out the pretty ones. Even poverty has its advantages. Nowadays even bandits give us a wide berth. They are superstitious and believe that poverty is contagious.” The old woman chuckled in a dejected, half-crazed manner.

“What about people that picked up banditry?” Wolf asked with as much finesse as a mace.

Hearing the question, the old woman sighed, “Old pa and me, we tried talking them out of it. Nothing good can come out of such dirty business. Those boys didn’t use their heads one bit. What if they drew misfortune back to the village. But I can’t judge them. They didn’t see any other way out. Chopping wood all day and then hoping someone would buy it for a bit of food while your loved ones starve to death,” the old woman spat out those words in dejection.

Back in the day you were paid what you earned, but now you’d get robbed even of what you didn’t know could be taken. Hope, dignity, health…

“I guess that they had lost hope and faith in this world. Can you imagine watching your children slowly wither until their lives winked out, or watching your feeble parents die?” The old woman abruptly stopped talking.

Tears were slowly running down Wolf’s cheeks as his tiny shoulders shook silently. It took but a moment for the granny to realize her mistake. “Oh dear, I’m sorry. I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have said something like that.”

Wolf suddenly felt warm and frail arms embrace him, slightly ruined by the smell of the old folk.

“There, there, I’m sorry. Granny was careless. Shhhhh. Easy now, let it all out. All of it.”

Poor child, oh you poor poor child. Grandma’s vile mouth. I should just bite off my stupid old tongue and crawl into a grave. No child would be wandering the wilderness around on his own.

The village women turned away from their work to see what was going on, but the old woman shooed them away with her hand and stern frown. Granny’s hard expression was enough to kill any trace of curiosity in the gawking women. Yet the old woman didn’t stop hugging Wolf, nor had she made a pause with the soothing noises.

He seems to be six or so, and he’d made it here all alone. His clothes reek of blood. His parents probably died to buy him a chance to escape. With that in mind the old woman hugged Wolf until the boy stopped crying and settled down.

“Thank you, I needed that,” Wolf wiped his face and nose with his sleeve, while showing all the empathy he had learned from his father over the years.

The old woman faltered for a moment, but gathered her wits immediately. Grannies are very good at dealing with troubled children.

“I didn’t do anything worth thanking. All of this is my fault. Bringing up talk like that without thinking about who I’m talking to,” the granny paused for a moment before slightly changing the topic. “You’re so mature for your age I kept thinking I was talking to an adult. Your parents must have been good people to raise such a fine young man.”

The old woman once more mentioned Wolf’s parents, but this time it was different. Praising the dead can soothe the living. As she’d expected, Wolf’s chin trembled for a moment and his throat clogged up as he resisted the urge to cry again, but he didn’t fall apart.

“He was a great father,” Wolf forced out those words, not knowing what else he could say. The memories of his mother had long since faded into nothing more than a sensation of warmth and safety.

After taking a moment to calm down, Wolf looked at the old woman. “Old madam–”

“Don’t call me old madam. Call me Granny. Everyone here calls me that,” Granny cut him off right at the start with a no nonsense tone of voice.

“All right… Granny.” Wolf took a deep breath and steeled himself to continue with what he wanted to say. “Can you tell me how often you need to eat like this for everyone to stay healthy?”

“In order to survive we need one or two good meals a month,” Granny replied immediately. It was as if she already had an answer ready, but Wolf didn’t notice anything odd about it.

“To be healthy, well, one meal a day would be best, but that’s wishful thinking these days,” she continued. “I’d say twice a week should be enough. For women to be able to give birth to healthy babies, probably four or five decent meals a week. But, we haven’t had babies here in a while now, so there’s no need to talk about that.”

As Wolf listened to the old woman he quickly crunched some numbers and came up with a conclusion.

These people could be fed with forty to fifty kilos of meat every month. With the current prices, that would be five gold pieces and an odd silver each month. Considering my current wealth I could keep them fed for decades.

All I have to do is sell some of the items… No, wait! I already have a ton of beef jerky on me! And not just one! I have close to twenty tons of it! But if I were to give all of it to these people bandits would eventually find it and take it from them. They might even end up killed because of my kindness, so that’s not the way…

After thinking quietly for a while Wolf finally spoke up. “Granny, I have a bit more food with me. If you want I can leave some of it with you?”

“We would greatly appreciate it, my child. Hopefully, this act of kindness is something we’ll be able to repay one day. I just don’t know if a day will come when the likes of us can be of help to the likes of you. If it happens, I swear before all ten gods that I will do my best to help.” Granny accepted the offering straight away, without as much as a whiff of false modesty.

These old woman’s honest words touched Wolf. The promise itself wasn’t worth much, if anything at all. But the gratitude he felt did a lot of good for his current state of mind. Just like the lady with the melodious voice had said.

For a moment Wolf considered whether or not he should go to the forest. That way he could take out the crate of dried meat where they couldn’t see him. Then he realized how silly he was being. If he didn’t have a Ring of Holding where did he keep a hundred kilos of meat? In his coat’s side pocket?

Wolf promptly dropped the two boxes of beef jerky. The crates loudly thumped onto the ground.

*Thud!*

Drawn by the sudden noise, women and children looked away from the pot. They stared at the crates with confusion, having no idea where they came from.

“There’s fifty kilos of salt-cured meat in each of these crates. You should eat them before someone comes over and steals it,” Wolf explained.

Tears started running down the old woman’s face as she dropped down to her knees again. “Thank you! Thank you young lord! We will pray for your health every day!”

The women and children didn’t really know what was going on, but they mimicked Granny and echoed the “Thank you young lord”.

“Please get up and please don’t call me lord. I’m a peasant, just like you,” Wolf said, feeling even more embarrassed than he was before. Lord? Him? Really?

“Even if you are born a peasant, you are a lord to us,” obviously the woman didn’t believe Wolf’s words. Even though she never owned one she knew what a Ring of Holding was and how much such an item was worth.

“Can anyone in your settlement read?” Wolf abruptly changed the topic. He was a lord now… He wondered what his dad would’ve said. Probably that he was easy to suck up to.

“No, my lord. We’ve never had any need for letters,” the old woman got up with difficulty. This was too much of an exercise for her old legs and back.

“What about counting and numbers?” Wolf asked again.

“We know how to count and we know how to use money. Otherwise, we would’ve ended up cheated when trading,” the old woman explained, trying to steer the conversation.

She obviously had some hopes and a hint of greed could be seen in her eyes. Humans, and in fact all manlings, are miserable creatures by nature. When you give them a bit they worship you. When you give them a bit more then they’d start expecting things from you. Archibald had already warned Wolf of this.

Luckily, Wolf was completely oblivious of Granny’s hopes and expectations. He nodded his head seriously. “Good. In that case once I reach Silver City I’ll arrange for someone to send you two crates like this every month. It will take more than half a year for the first shipment to arrive, but once it does you’ll have a steady supply of food. Just remember to check whether there’s enough meat in the crates.”

The hope in the old woman’s eyes dimmed down when she realized Wolf wasn’t going to give them any money. While this boy’s promise sounded fine, he was just a child. He would likely forget about them and the promise long before he reached Silver City.

Even if he didn’t, he would most likely grow bored of the whole thing after sending them aid a couple of times. And that was assuming he could reach Silver City.

But, still, it was better than nothing. The first shipment would arrive by the end of summer. If Wolf really sent a couple of shipments, that could help them survive yet another winter. Even if he forgets, they would at least have the hope of relief coming. Sometimes people can survive on nothing more than hope and willpower.

“Thank you, lord. We shall honestly pray for your good health,” the old woman did another rickety bow, speaking in a way she thought nobles were spoken to.

For a moment she considered whether or not to push Wolf into making a pledge on his family name, or something like that that was important to nobles in the stories. But, after a very long moment, she decided against it. Pushing a noble into making such a vow would probably enrage them. In the stories they made those oaths all on their own.

Just these couple of thoughts were enough to see how these difficult times had warped the kind old woman’s mind. Years ago she would’ve felt great shame for even considering emotionally blackmailing an unknown child that did her a favor, two in fact. But right now, she only wanted to find a way to feed her grandchildren and to keep everyone alive.

That’s not to say that Granny didn’t feel sorry for Wolf. She really did. He was just a child and yet he was going to try to reach Silver City alone. He will likely die on the way there and their hope would die along with him. If only he would leave them his money…

“Young lord, what do you think about staying here?” she offered. “While this place is poor, it’s a lot safer than the road to the capital city.”

“Thank you for your offer Granny, but I think I should get going now. There’s still some two and a half months before I reach Silver City… Right, one more thing, what’s the name of this settlement?” Wolf asked one final question before leaving.

After all, in order to send aid to these people he had to know where he was shipping it to.