Landjäger, a staple dried food from the Baden region (northern Beren) in Swabia, is pork cured in salt and dried, prized since ancient times as a field ration for its excellent portability.
It's very salty, but during wartime, it's better to eat strongly seasoned food. And the exhausted villagers of Ladwig filled their starving bellies, grateful for the mercy I'd shown them.
Before I left, an old man called out to me.
"Who are you, gracious knight, and where do you hail from?"
"I am the Lord of Feuzen, Streit."
We left Ladwig and pushed further north. When we spotted what we believed to be the Öderlen area, we took cover in a nearby forest to send out scouts, but as luck would have it, a local resident spotted us first.
The cavalrymen raced over and brought back a girl who'd been out gathering herbs. The sight of her trembling and begging for her life reminded me of Sabine. The sinister gleam in the cavalrymen's eyes wasn't my imagination.
