“H, Help, m, me……!”
Douglas, who was nearby, stood there, stomping his feet in surprise, but not making any rescue gestures. I turned to him and said in an urgent voice
“What are you doing? Save the child right now!”
“Uh, I, I can’t swim…….”
Douglas blurted out the end of his speech with an embarrassed face. I felt my heart sink at his words, but there was no time to waste.
“Call someone right now!”
Only then did Douglas scurry away. It was a short moment, but many thoughts crossed my mind.
We’re in the middle of the woods, and it’s going to take a while to get help. There was no one nearby to assist, and I couldn’t see any tools or equipment that could be used for rescue.
That child might die if I don’t step up. Praying that my childhood swimming skills hadn’t rusted away, I quickly discarded my long, flowing dress and jumped into the lake, clad only in a thin linen dress. The water was freezing cold and my body felt heavy as a rock.
Struggling to stay afloat, my swimming strokes barely moved me forward. Not far away, the child desperately called for help.
I felt a rush of panic that something was wrong with the child in front of me.
‘Please, please help me.’
At that moment, I felt an invisible force pushing my body upwards. My body became light as a feather and floated above the churning water.
Slowly, I moved my arms to break the current. I felt like I was going farther than my arm strength would allow. I could now move forward with just a slight motion.
I didn’t have time to think about what was happening. The child’s head went in and out of the water several times.
However, I couldn’t hear a cry now, as if he had lost strength due to the continuous struggle. When I reached him, I grabbed his tiny hand with all my might.
With the child in my arms, I moved carefully across the current to the other side. It was as if the mysterious energy in the water carried us to safety.
As soon as I came up to the ground, I checked the child’s condition. Fortunately, he hadn’t lost consciousness.
“Cough, cough.”
The child coughed up water. His face was full of wounds as if he had been beaten by someone. After a moment of relief that he was alive, he burst into sobs of grief.
Somehow, the deep sobs seemed to convey a story that was too much for a child to handle.
“Are you okay?”
The child couldn’t stop crying but nodded slowly at my question. I felt a pang at the tip of my nose** at the sight of the child who looked so weak with only bones protruding crying intensely.
(TL/N: A figurative expression that describes how the speaker is emotionally affected by the sight of the crying child.).
I patted the child on the back without saying a word.
*****
While going down to the village in a carriage, the child slowly looked around and opened his mouth.
“My name is Noah. I’m 10 years old. I live on the Brilland farm.”
For someone who looks so scared and timid, Noah is actually a very bright kid. He seemed to have forgotten the desperate situation he was in just moments before.
Recognizing that I was not a dangerous person, the child chattered out his story. Noah’s only family member was his sister, who was a year younger.
His mother had been sold long ago, and he didn’t know where his father was.
“Stefan Caibon, that jerk, is their leader.”
Caibon…… It sounded vaguely familiar. As Noah racked his brain for details, the words came out like a waterfall.
The children who tormented him were commoners, and the ringleader among them was the son of the site manager at Brilland Farm.
The child’s father, Eric Caibon, was a truly evil man, who treated the slaves badly for any reason he could come up with, whether it was bad weather or the fact that he was tired.
Worst of all, he ordered his slaves to beat each other for fun. Among them was mother and child.
When they refused, they were severely punished, and the child’s mother fell ill and died a short time later. The son was just like his father.
While it was common for the children in the village to torment the slaves, Noah said that they had never done something like throwing someone into the water before.
“If they had spit on me and kicked me like they used to, I wouldn’t have cried so much.”
I felt like my heart was being squeezed by something as I listened to him casually say that. It was not long before the carriage stopped.
We headed to the nearest inn. I went into the room to tidy up my drenched and messy appearance.
The attendants brought us something to eat and clothes to wear. As soon as we were changed, Noah was offered bread, which he ate with gusto.
The child, who was eating like someone will take his food away, suddenly stopped moving and stared at the last remaining bread.
“Why aren’t you eating more?”
“Because I have to give it to Julie.”
I promised Noah that I would take care of his sister’s share. Then Noah smiled happier than anyone else.
Filled to the brim, Noah said he had to go to Julie. It bothered me to send him back to where the wicked children were, but Noah seemed to be okay.
A little later, an attendant brought a large basket full of bread and handed it to Noah. But the boy only took a few of the small loaves and hid them in his clothes.
“If I take this with me, I’ll just get beaten up for stealing something that belongs to someone else. Who would believe a slave like me?”
I was speechless for a moment at the child’s nonchalant response, wondering if something similar had happened before.
“Then come with me. I’ll tell the caretaker that this is a gift from me to you. I will scold the children who bullied you.”
“But…”
“Don’t worry, I know the owner of your Brilland farm very well. I’ll make sure that no one bullies you.”
The child’s face brightened as if a lamp had been lit inside him. We got back in the carriage and headed for Brilland Farm.
On the way, we talked again about this and that. I told him he didn’t have to go back there if he didn’t want to, but Noah insisted.
It wasn’t just because of his sister, he said; he also had his Grandpa Jake, who loved him like his grandchild, and his kind Aunt Laura, who sometimes gave him food and mended his torn clothes.
He also mentioned his friends Matthew and Arthur who he sometimes fights with but are good friends who know a lot of things.
Noah really seemed to regard Brilland Farm as a home.
Not surprising, since he’s been a slave since birth.
“Still, throwing someone into the water was too much. I almost died. Arthur told me that we’re considered like livestock and can’t be killed without the owner’s permission. The owner of the Xenosians living on Brilland Farm is the Emperor of Asha. So they’ll be quiet for a while if they don’t want to be scolded by their parents.”
As I listened to his words with an indifferent expression, my chest felt tight. I wanted to hide the fact that I was the Empress of Asha from him forever.
How could a child of his age speak about such matters so casually? As Noah said, this was a world where innocent people became livestock. Hearing it from a child’s mouth made the reality of the Xenos slaves seem even more horrifying.
“About earlier……”
Noah paused, blushing a little.
“It’s a secret that I cried earlier. I don’t usually do that, but I was kind of surprised today…….”
Noah seemed embarrassed about showing his emotions. I smiled gently and nodded in understanding. We arrived at the farm in less than half an hour.
As we walked to the entrance, I saw a vast field of wheat, with a picturesque sunset setting over it, coloring the sky beautifully.
At first glance, it seemed peaceful like a quiet countryside. But as soon as I caught sight of a man standing in the distance holding a whip and a bloodied old man lying on the ground, the whole scene was overtaken by horror.
And then there were the countless people watching with equally terrified eyes. They were Xenos slaves on the Brilland farm.
My heart began to beat unsteadily. Noah, who was next to me, stared at them pensively and then ran toward them.
“Grandpa!”
At the sound, the man stopped his whipping and looked at the child with even more fury.
“You little rat, where have you been and only shown up now?”
The man switched targets and tried to swing the whip at Noah. Seeing Noah, who seemed familiar with such situations, close his eyes tightly and brace himself to endure the blow, my throat tightened.
“Stop.”
The man’s hard gaze snapped in my direction. He furrowed his bushy eyebrows intensely and scanned me up and down with a noticeably aggressive look, his expression growing colder. I stepped closer to him.
“Why are you treating them so harshly? What did they do wrong?”
“What does it have to do with you?”
His voice was tinged with irritation as his brows crinkled. An attendant who had been watching from the sidelines held out a certificate bearing the Emperor’s seal.
On it was the name of the person who was to be co-head of Brilland Farm with Duke Edward Bledel. Jane Huvenson. It was the alias I would use from now on.
