Chapter 610: Pop-Up Restaurant

And so, 20 days after he’d last visited the #13 northern barracks, once his duties were done for that day, Killian Roth returned, only to find that the entire area was swarming with people laughing, chatting, and generally having fun as if it was some kind of party.

Of course, when the soldiers and officers noticed their General had arrived, they all jumped to their feet and saluted, only for Killian to wave them off and make straight for the young woman standing behind a rather large charcoal grill, merrily flipping hamburgers.

"Mind explaining what’s going on here, Tina?" Killian asked in a flat yet clearly exasperated tone.

"Uncle Killian! How good of you to stop by!" Christina replied with a cheeky grin, "What would you like? We got some freshly caught fish from the market today. There’s also some high-quality boar steaks grilling up right now, and of course, our signature burgers."

Rubbing his temples, Killian wasn’t quite sure whether to be angry or amused at his little niece’s antics.

One thing he was sure of, though, was that Christina had definitely picked up her Master’s most annoying trait, a complete and utter disregard for following ’norms’.

Being an old veteran, Killian could act pretty thick-skinned and shameless when he needed to, but feeling like even he had no way to win against this level of shamelessness, he just sighed and shrugged, "Give me one of everything."

"Coming right up!" Christina beamed, understanding that she had won.

Seeing the victorious smirk on the girl’s face, Killian really felt the urge to issue some kind of disciplinary action, but when he tried to do just that, he found he couldn’t think of a proper justification.

Neither Christina, nor any of the soldiers here from either army was breaking any rules. His niece had also technically asked for his permission before doing any of these renovations.

Sure, as a General, Killian could just arbitrarily punish Christina and everyone else involved, but somehow that felt more like admitting defeat than just letting things slide did.

Shaking his head wryly, Killian swept his gaze around and soon spotted someone he never expected to see here, causing his brow to rise slightly.

Christina also seemed to notice where General Roth was staring and grinned, whispering to him quietly, "Funny, isn’t it? She’s actually one of our more frequent customers."

"Heh, bring my meal over when it’s ready," Killian chuckled before tossing a couple Silver into a nearby bucket and walking off, far more interested in hearing the story directly from the source rather than second hand from Christina.

.....

"So, come here often?" General Roth asked as he plunked himself down at the table across from a familiar young woman.

Looking up from her plate, Second Regiment Commander and Chief Logistics Officer of the Piercing Sword Legion, Charlotte Roth, just snorted before stabbing at the steak in front of her and continuing to stuff her face.

"Oh, come on," Killian rolled his eyes at his literal niece, "You can’t just harass a princess, insult another army, then show up to their house and beg for food."

"I didn’t beg. I paid, like everyone else," Charlotte grumbled as she chewed.

Unlike in the Raging River Legion, where most of the senior officers were recruited from outside the Balfour Family, a majority of the Piercing Sword Legion’s leaders were related to the Roth Family by blood or by marriage.

That wasn’t to say that the Commanders of the Raging River Legion were less loyal to the Balfour Family than those of the Piercing Sword Legion were to the Roths, just that Celestina and Killian had different philosophies when it came to managing their armies.

As for the notion that armies were supposed to be loyal to the Rockwell Kingdom and not to individual noble houses, that was a bit far-fetched in what was essentially a feudal society.

The thinking that nobles served the royals, so as long as the armies were loyal to the nobles they were in turn loyal to The Crown was still treated as normal and had worked thus far, at least in the Rockwell Kingdom.

In any case, the point was that the animosity the officers of the Piercing Sword Legion felt towards the Raging River Legion and the Balfour Family in general was quite a bit stronger thanks to its large proportion of Roth Family members.

Among those who disliked the Raging River Legion, Charlotte probably had the most ill-feelings, and not just because she was the blood-related little sister of Duke Gregory Roth.

Charlotte’s grudge with the Raging River Legion actually stemmed less from the friction between the Balfours and the Roths and more from a personal grudge she had with Allina Crest.

With both women being in charge of logistics for their respective armies, it was only natural that they had met and worked together on several occasions, yet every time such a collaboration occurred, Allina was always the one put in charge while Charlotte played more of an assistant role.

There were numerous practical reasons for this, first and foremost being that Allina was a Vice-General, had more experience, and was stronger than Charlotte, but repeatedly being forced into a subordinate position had grated against Charlotte’s pride.

To make matters worse, while working together with Allina, Charlotte always felt like she was being patronizing and looking down on her, not really seeing her as an equal or a rival, which made her feel belittled and insulted.

Whether this was actually Allina’s intent was unclear, but once one starts thinking negatively of someone, it’s easy for them to imagine everything they do being malicious.

Add on the fact that Allina was from a small viscount-rank family while Charlotte was the sister of a duke, and the fact that on the rare occasions they were forced to attend banquets together everyone’s eyes drifted to Allina thanks to her much more ’pronounced’ figure...

Did all this stem from petty jealousy?

Perhaps, but just because someone’s reasons for feeling a certain way weren’t based on logic, didn’t make those feelings any less real.

Honestly, at this point, even Charlotte may not have known if she hated Allina because she was a close aide to Celestina, or if she hated the Balfours because Allina was one of their loyalists.

Killian Roth was well aware of all of this, and aside from her cultivation not being sufficient, his niece’s immaturity was actually one of the primary reasons he hadn’t made her Vice-General of the army and instead placed her in charge of the Second Regiment.

Still, he never imagined that Charlotte would take out her frustrations on simple soldiers just because they were technically Allina’s subordinates, which was exactly what happened when his Logistics Officer had assigned Christina’s Battalion to a scheduled-to-be-demolished barracks.

In fact, the only reason Killian hadn’t punished Charlotte was because Christina had requested he not do so.

Since the aggrieved party wasn’t complaining, the General didn’t see any reason to stir up trouble, however minor that trouble was.

Killian didn’t understand at the time why Christina was, in his opinion, being so forgiving, but now it was obvious to him that she wanted to take advantage of the situation to do... whatever it was she was doing now.