I and Silvie walk together to the pond, and we discuss a lot of things during our walk. From her explanation, finally, I understand why I never see many people in the village. It seems chief Harvard encourage people in the village to open field as much as possible. He gives a reason that during the war, food is scarce and the most crucial problem for refugee is the logistic. Many of refugees experiencing starvation during their flee from war and learn from that experience, chief Harvard make a decision to have a secret vault in the forest that keeps emergency logistic just in case the village people must flee again from war.

I admire chief Harvard idea to make an emergency logistic. It's quite visionary for someone in this undeveloped and under constant war world. This food savings can also use when the village accept more people to live. When they can't get some food from their field yet, the village can help their food problem by support their food until their field can yield some crops.

I ask Silvie if she ever meets with people from other refugee camps, unfortunately, she hasn't met one at all.

"Silvie, do you ever go to other refugee camps?"

"No, my father never take me there when he goes to other refugee camps"

"Is that other refugee camp located near here?"

"I guess not Ikki, sometimes father return before dusk when he visits another refugee camp. So I think at least it must some hours distance with horse ride"

"I see. What is your father doing in other refugee camps?"

"Recruiting people at most. Sometimes also make some trade with them"

"He should already recruit many people before"

"Ahaha, my father's actually a picky one. He's not recruited much actually. He doesn't recruit people with the criminal tendency and prefers to recruit couples. He said with that criteria, at least he already make the village safer, and why recruiting couples maybe because he wants the village to get more people soon"

"Yes, that's true. With couples at least he doesn't need to make matchmaking between his people"

Actually, I start thinking chief Harvard is just lazy to lead wedding ceremony, so he just picks those who already married.

"Um, but also make this village lack of singles too. The only singles in here just kids and me, and now Ikki"

She explains that with blushing. Oh, so it's like that. It's seemed I also her first love too since there's no single male in the village in her peerage for her spouse. That's also why chief Harvard seems doesn't mind her daughter clinging on me every day, in fact, he looks like expecting me to marry her daughter. Somehow I feel pity for her, at her age she should already experience how to interact with different gender and pass her puberty with a good memory. Lucky for her, I come when she's at the peak of her youth.

Without we realize, we already enter the path toward the pond. With no one lurking around this place, it feels like our personal and exclusive pond which only I and Silvie that use it regularly. Maybe because they can also catch fish in the river, people prefer doing their laundry and bathing there.

When we arrive at the pond, not like usually she does, Silvie start washing the laundry first than take a bath first. I also take off my shirt and trouser and wash it with Silvie. Because I only wash two pieces of clothes, I finish earlier than her. After putting the washed clothes at the open place to dry it, I take my shaving knife and move to another side of the pond that relatively calm without some waves from Silvie's washing activity, so I can see the reflection of my face on pond's surface

After look which part I should shave from my face, I pull out the shaving knife from its box, take it closer to my face and start shaving slowly because I don't have any shaving cream. Silvie originally not pay attention to what I'm doing here, but when she sees the knife in my hand attached to my face, she suddenly screaming

"Ikki!! Doonn'ttt!!"

Her scream makes me startled. Why is she screaming? What she means by don't? because I don't understand what she means, I keep doing what I'm starting before, shaving my beard.

Seeing me don't respond her, Silvie drop the laundry in her hand and run toward me while shouting

"Ikki, stop! Don't do that!"

Eh? Don't do what? Did she mean I can't shave my beard? When I'm still thinking about what she means, Silvie already arrives in front of me and she grabs my hand that holding the shaving knife and pull it away from my face.

"Silvie, what are you doing? I'm holding a knife in that hand, you know? You can get a cut if you pull it like that"

"I don't care to get cut as long as Ikki not doing that"

"Eh, what exactly I'm doing?"

"You're peeling your skin right? That's dangerous! I beg you to stop and not doing that Ikki"

I'm dumbfounded when hearing what she said. With a confused look, I ask her again,

"What do you say?"

"I beg you to stop peeling your face's skin, Ikki"