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He left home 10 years ago and finally, he was back. There were no gifts in his hands, but there were four cats hanging onto him. Most people thought of horses as the military animal, but to Sir Baufallo, he thought of dogs and cats. The horses usually belonged to the kingdom, so they had clear owners, and the dogs often had masters as well but cats… Most cats had no homes.

Sir Baufallo knew very well how important the cats were to the war. They killed countless rats and thereby saving and preserving their food supplies.

Someone inside the home finally noticed him standing outside. One by one, they came out to cheer him. Sir Baufallo recognized some, but not all. He wasn’t sure if some of them were really his relatives. He knew that there would be plenty of people approaching him and were trying to befriend him since they all knew that he would be receiving a significant title and wealth as a reward. But even though he knew that some of them might not have the best intention, he didn’t dislike all the people greeting him and cheering for him.

Sir Baufallo smiled faintly when he saw his wife peeking out from the kitchen. Lady Ribo glanced at him quickly and without a word, he went back inside.

“I’m home.”

Lady Ribo was still furious that her husband took both of their sons to the war. During the last 10 years, she only sent a few letters to her husband, and the letters only asked how her sons were doing.

It had been 10 years, but it seems that her anger hasn’t cooled at all.

“I’m home.”

When Sir Baufallo murmured, Lady Ribo asked angrily, “Where are the kids?”

The other men around them tried to take Sir Baufallo’s side.

“Lady Ribo, please be nice to the man. He came back from a war, for god sake.”

“Lady Ribo! You need to show your husband more respect!”

But Lady Ribo wasn’t going to let this go. She yelled, “I can’t even get angry about losing both of my sons for the last 10 years? I am their mother, aren’t I?!”

“But they returned alive, didn’t they? The older one got into that knight’s order or something, right? And I heard the younger one got into the guard division. Obviously, both of them did very well! You should be happy, Lady Ribo.”

“Who cares? What about the time I lost with them? I will never get back those ten years!”

Sir Baufallo wasn’t angry or upset with his wife. Seeing her with more white hair and wrinkles told him how hard her life has been for the last 10 years. He knew it wouldn’t have been easy for a woman to live alone without any man left in the household. It would have been better to leave at least one son behind, but both of them insisted on going. Their family wasn’t rich since he was a simple knight with an average salary. He knew how hard it would have been for her.

Sir Baufallo felt guilty, especially because he didn’t even bring his sons back home right away. Instead, he brought back four cats. He explained weakly, “You said in the letter that there wasn’t a lot of room in the house, so they decided to stay at another knight’s home. They promised to come home for meals, so don’t worry.”

Lady Ribo didn’t even give him a reply. Sir Baufallo placed the cats down on the floor and sighed. It seemed that his wife wasn’t going to feel better until Sirs Donau and Howe came home. The four cats sighed and watched the lady with interest.

***

Sirs Aeke, Beke, and Deke also returned to their home with heavy hearts. The two oldest boys were in much better condition than the youngest Deke.

Only

When Deke insisted on joining his brothers to this war, his mother Lady Ingreter and his sister slapped him for his selfishness. As the brothers got farther away from Acreia, it became harder and it took longer for them to receive letters from home. There were many times that the letters went missing as well. The messages from the wealthy and important families usually arrived safely, but the Ingreter clan was a poor noble family. After crossing the Koemong River, the Ingreter brothers didn’t receive any more letters from home.

Their mother and sister obviously have been waiting for their safe returns desperately, but when the brothers actually showed up, they acted coldly. Deke asked his sister awkwardly, “S-sis, where is your husband, my brother-in-law? Weren’t you going to get married after we left?”

Cekel, who would’ve been named Ceke if she was a boy, answered indifferently, “He broke up the engagement.”

Men could easily get married at any age, but women were called spinsters once they reached an age between late teens to early twenties. People called Cekel a spinster too. There were many women in a similar situation, especially in poor or average families nowadays. It was the side effect of a war. After many young men left Acreia, they had more women than men. The situation was a little better for the women who still had at least one male member left in the family because there was a guarantee that the male would inherit the family name, title, as well as the burden. The women who still had a male family member staying behind sometimes got marriage offers as well, but the Ingreter family had no male members who stayed behind. If the three brothers died or came home maimed, there would be no future for this family. For this reason, Cekel’s fiancé broke up the engagement.

Her ex-fiance ended up marrying a lady much higher than him thanks to the war and the consequence of the lack of available men. Cekel decided to accept her fate and stayed home to take care of her parents. She gave up on getting married.

Sirs Aeke and Beke, who was about to go out to beat up Cekel’s selfish ex-fiance, became very quiet when they heard the reason why he broke up the engagement.

Sir Deke also didn’t say a word and began to eat his meal. It has been 10 years since they last ate a home-cooked meal. The brothers did their best not to cry from joy.