/
{Trigger warning: Sexual Assault, I will also mark the end of this scene. So that those who want to can skip it}
Slap, squeak.
At sunset, the iron door opened again. Not this time, but half-giving up, Dana looked toward the door.
However, the reactions of the people around her were quite different. The children jumped up with sparkling eyes, and the young women suddenly cleared up their clothes.
The people near the back gate were also walking around, raising their stretched bodies.
Strangely, the bigger men were sitting closer to the door. They seemed to be in a bit of a hurry and relaxed. However, the people in the middle focused on the inside of the open door with determined eyes. Only Dana watched them from her seat.
“Why on earth…”
The cart rattled out. There were several large circular barrels in the cart. The soldier who brought out the cart went into the door without looking back.
“Wow…!”
In an instant, people rushed toward the cart.
The big men began to take something by pushing the people who rushed in, and they rushed back without caring about others being pushed out. Among them, there was a slender woman and an elderly man who limped.
Dana frowned and looked closely at the figure. And the moment she knew the substance, her face distorted.
“There’s not much meat today. Get out of my way! You’re annoying me!”
The cart contained leftovers from the castle. Some were in relatively good condition, but some were stinking and spoiled. But it didn’t seem to matter much to them.
Naturally, the food was infinitely scarce for this large number of people, and the large men who mainly sat near the gate took over.
The big men were like a gang, they swept away most of the healthy food. Each was counted by collecting and comparing the bags containing food.
At that time, the mother of the child, who had been pushed out several times, hung on to a man. The child was far away and looking at the mother with desperate eyes.
The man took up enough food to be left in the bag.
“Please, share a little bit. My child has starved for too long.”
“What are you saying, in a yard where I’m dying as there is nothing to eat. Are you asking for free food? If you have to ask for something. What about those people who give you for free?”
The man pointed at the people who were pushed out. Together, they blamed the man for starving but remained quiet as if they agreed with him. The woman replied with a crawling voice.
“Ha, but… I don’t have anything…”
“Then turn it off right now…”
The man shook off the woman hanging from his leg with a rugged face, suddenly stopped, and smiled. He looked around at the woman sitting on the floor and spoke out as if in kindness.
“Think about it, if you really have nothing.”
“What?”
The man crouched on the floor, made eye contact with the woman and smiled slyly.
The man gently touched the woman’s hair and lowered his voice.
“It’s up to you to decide… Whether your son will starve to death or eat as he is.”
The man was subtle but blatant. Even if he said it openly, nothing happened here.
The young women around Dana were slowly wandering around the crowd of men, and the men looked through them, gave them food in their hands, and took them somewhere around them.
Among those who were dragged by them were not only women but also boys who looked weak.
They weren’t like this from the beginning either. However, in the face of long hunger, any belief or pride was just a luxury.
The woman’s eyes shook mercilessly. The way he agonized was obvious. The man got up from his seat with a pick sound.
“Never mind if you don’t want to.”
“Well, wait…!”
The woman grabbed the man’s pants again. She bit her lower lip tightly when she glanced at the child behind her.
“…”
The man took a piece of dried bread out of his bag and threw it in front of the woman.
“Come visit me when the sun goes down. I’ll give you the rest after I’m done. Don’t come there with a little kid, because it’s not exciting.”
The man disappeared and the woman looked like she was about to cry for a while, and she suddenly came to her senses at the child’s call.
Then she left the place with a piece of bread in one hand and a child’s hand in the other.
Dana did not do all the conversations, but it was easy to see what was going on.
They felt pitiful, but they looked better. The elderly and very young children who couldn’t join were dying day by day without anyone taking care of them.
Who are these people doing this here? Does Leon know?
Anyway, she felt that it was not a place to stay any longer. Dana tried to shake off her seat and stand up, and two men approached from the crowd in front of the back gate.
Several more women around Dana were still in their seats. Among them, there was a young-faced girl.