Alice looked warily at her father as they entered the dungeon. She was old enough to pick up on the stress of others and knew food had to be reserved as much as possible in the cold season. Yet, she still felt like it was wrong to offer Violet the remains of a moldy loaf of bread. Her father had tried to play it off as doing Gregory's family a favor and that Violet wouldn't care whether the bread was still good or not.
Her father had even suggested that Gregory himself might try to eat the bread just to ensure it didn't go to waste. While his family was certainly poorer than theirs and had to make do, that still sounded like nonsense to her. Why would anyone risk getting sick by eating food that had gone bad?
Of course, Alice had grown up fairly privileged. Back when her mother was alive, both of her parents had made sure that they wanted for nothing. They had a decent-sized cellar in their old house that was slowly but surely filled up with pickled veggies and canned fruit soaked in sugar syrup. They even had barrels with flour and potatoes surrounded by hay. There was never any reason to worry about running out of food when winter came and her parents always seemed content and happy with their lives.
Things had changed a bit after her mother had died and their food stores had begun to dwindle little by little, but her father had still always done his best to ensure they never had to go without. If she complained about being hungry, he would sometimes check the cellar, coming back out frowning, before disappearing for most of a day. Then he would always come home with a deer, boar, or even a couple of rabbits. Then he would spend the night salting and smoking the meat. Some of it would be traded to their neighbors for more veggies, but they would no longer have to worry about being hungry.
This time was a bit different as Gregory's family often only had one meal a day and it was almost always a pot of soup that they would all share for dinner. The young children would, occasionally, be allowed to have some extra bread midday to tide them over, including Alice herself, but that was all. Whenever Alice went to tell her father that she was hungry, he would frown, but he no longer tried to do anything about it. He would just tell her "Just hang in there for now. I'll figure something out soon." However, Alice had yet to see anything happen and she was starting to wonder when "soon" was.
Her father and the Dungeon Master were now sparring together in the wildflower meadow room. Alice had been a bit curious after seeing the dungeon had changed since the last time they had visited. However, her father had refused to let her go exploring, telling her "It isn’t safe." and his stress and bad mood had seemed to intensify after they entered the dungeon.
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Alice had already grown bored of watching her father sparring with Violet. Since they came here every night and did the same thing again and again, it was no longer interesting. However, she could still tell that her father was being much rougher than he normally was with the sparring. Considering how gentle he was with Henry and how he always told her that these things took time, she felt like that was wrong. She wasn't going to say anything, though, because she knew her father didn't like it whenever she interacted with the nice dungeon lady.
Instead, Alice focused on picking plantain leaves, dandelion greens, and oyster mushrooms that were scattered throughout the room. While she knew her dad preferred more valuable plants that he could sell, she figured that everyone else would appreciate some fresh, edible plants much more. The plantain leaves and dandelion greens were both good sauteed, in soup, or even in a salad. The latter was less likely since they didn't have any other ingredients to put in the salad, but Edith was good at cooking, so Alice was sure she would still enjoy the dishes that could be made.
Meanwhile, the oyster mushrooms could be quite versatile since they could go in just about anything. They could be breaded and fried, sauteed with garlic and onions, added to stir frys or soups, etc. Considering how sparing they always had to be with meat in their soups, it seemed like the mushrooms might even be a nice way to help make up for that. Edith had told her, the first time they brought some oyster mushrooms back, that they could easily be used as a meat substitute as they had a nice chewy texture similar to meat. Alice didn't really know much about all of that, but she was still happy to help.
What Alice didn't realize was that her father didn't actually care that much about what she chose to gather. He was too focused on dealing with the Dungeon Master and he preferred not to mistreat his only daughter. If she gathered edible plants, they would be brought back to Gregory's family to cook with. If she gathered medicinal plants, they would be sold to the local alchemist. Flowers would be sold to any merchant willing to buy them. It really made no difference to him, so she was free to do as she pleased.
Violet grumbled as she left for the second floor. David seemed to be in an even worse mood today than he had been the previous day. She could only assume he was upset about the dungeon layout changing, even despite all of her reassurances that everything was just as safe as it had always been, if not more so. He had even dismissed her suggestion to come back during the daytime without his daughter to check out the dungeon for himself. Well, she couldn't force the issues, but she also couldn't shake her feelings of frustration.
David had also asked about buying things again, but she had to tell him no again. She didn't plan on focusing on such things until the next day. In fact, she now had so much mana to build with that she was starting to think it would be ideal to spend the mana earned in the daytime on new merchandise. Maybe she would even take up a hobby of enjoying tea and sweets like she had once had suggested to her. While she didn't need to eat, that certainly wouldn't stop her from enjoying the act of eating.