The General's Wife Wants to Leave-Chapter 192: Live in a good shape

"You know, wife..." Canillas began at the same volume he had used to speak during his time at the current dining table, as if he were fine with the probing spectators, who had not yet fully recovered from their reactions to his previous entertaining remark, hearing what he was about to share with his wife.

"For a soldier like me, enjoying and finishing food is not a trivial matter. It is a blessing that we don’t have difficulty affording food. But when we are on the battlefield, where life is on the thin line with death, food is more than something to be grateful for." Canillas took a momentary pause, capturing the solemn expression of the lady, who seemed to be engrossed in what he was talking about.

"It is something to be grateful for because we can’t have it anymore when we fail to find our way home," he continued, and his lips twitched with a faint smile when he noticed the softened demeanor of his soft-hearted wife.

"That’s why we always fill our appetites as much as we can before we leave for the battlefield, and after we manage to leave the battlefield with our breath intact," Canillas said more, sharing what he and his comrades had always done during the time they were on the battlefield.

Feasts were never skipped, as it was what he always encouraged them to do as part of morale boosts for his troops who had fought with him between death and life.

"It may be unfair to those who can’t join us at the feasts because they failed to find their way home. But what can we do while we also don’t know when our turn will come?"

Taking a sip of wine to wet his lips after shrugging his shoulders, he concealed part of what he felt every time he had to collect valuable belongings that became the identity of his lifeless troops before he buried them if he could not bring them back to Archess as the war had not ended yet or if the location of the war was distant.

Swallowing the wine while watching the servants put food one after another, as the middle course had begun after their empty bowls of soup were collected a few seconds ago, Canillas continued narrating what he had experienced so far as a soldier. "That’s why, instead of taking people’s judgment into mind, I personally prefer to fill my stomach with meals that make me full and pleased, so there will be no regret if my time to not be able to find a way home in this realm comes."

But then, right after he finished remarking those words, as if remembering whom he was talking with, Canillas shifted his gaze from the various cuisines laid on the table to the lady next to him, who was now wearing a forlorn look on her delicate face.

Staring at the doe-like eyes that apparently glistened by the soft glow of the candles that blanketed them, Canillas uttered, "But I will do my best to find my way home so I can fill my stomach with food until I am old and unable to fight on the battlefield anymore." He smiled, hiding the regret of being carried away by emotions that were induced by both the experience he had so far as a soldier and the spectators who put their attention on them, which ended up making his warm-hearted wife turn worried.

He hoped that fear and doubt did not return to fill her mind, making her doubtful about keeping her status as his wife—a soldier’s wife. He hoped that she would remember what he said to her on the side of the river: that he would always do his best to return home after the battle.

"Besides, I also want to grow old with my beautiful wife. I want to see how she looks when she gets older with her hair turned gray," he said further when the gloominess still hovered over the face of the lady before him.

He tried to appease all the worry and doubt that might emerge in her mind, convincing her not to give up on embarking on their marriage journey.

But it was his sincere wish. It was also his sincere wish—an unspoken wish—that he wanted to see their children grow older with her.

Feeling her eyes moisten more at his words, Joanna lowered her head, avoiding his warm gaze, bringing down to look at the ring on her finger.

"You will be disappointed," Joanna mumbled in a low voice after about four seconds of silence.

"Don’t dump me away if I am not. Because I will keep sticking to you with my wrinkled, ugly face. Perhaps with empty teeth and a bald head." Upon hearing his reply, Joanna’s shoulders shook.

Finding her giggling with her head lowered, Canillas followed to giggle too, while relief slightly washed over him as he found her mood slightly heightened.

"Shall we eat now? This soldier needs to fulfill his big appetite."

Joanna lifted her head a few seconds after hearing Canillas’ inquiry because she needed more time to suppress her laughter over his previously hilarious words, as she was imagining how he would look when he turned older with the look that he just mentioned.

She also imagined how she would look when she grew older. But then a question came up in her mind. Who would leave the realm first?

Staring into the eyes that were like a deep ocean, Joanna nodded her head with a small smile plastered on her face.

No one could answer that question where the answer was a mystery.

Filling her plate with a sufficient amount of food that consisted of roasted seabass, baked potatoes, and salad, Joanna looked over the soldier’s plate next to her. She was not surprised by the food that piled up on his plate, and she did not care what others thought about that.

’... table manner...’

Even when she heard another demeaning comment from the same lady that she fortunately could not hear clearly this time, Joanna showed no slightest care. Instead, she took the salad that he had not taken yet to put on his plate.

Stunned, Canillas halted from shoving a piece of grilled beef into his mouth when he found another extra meal with green, orange, and purple colors on his plate.

Turning his head to look at the lady who put that meal on his plate, he smiled when she said, "Don’t only eat meat. Eat vegetables more. Soldiers need to be in good shape."

It did not matter how others judged him or whether they understood after hearing all the words he conveyed to her, which would then change their judgment of him. With the volume he used to speak with her, there was possibility for the probing eyes, who sat not too far from them, to hear that, although his voice collided with other noises coming from the flowing music and circulating chattering that dwelled in the air.

What mattered to her was that this soldier had done a lot, and she wanted him to live longer in good shape, although harm might approach him.