Chapter 36: Living as a Young Slave on the Farm

“Is your mother still very sick?”

“Hmm…”

“Is she suffering a lot?”

“No, it’s okay.”

Lara shook her head. Since she didn’t know the exact cause of the illness, there was nothing she could do.

Even if she knew the cause of the illness, there would be nothing to do about it. Perhaps it was better not knowing, suffering without knowing the cause. It might be less miserable than knowing how to cure it but not being able to do anything. Lara thought of her pale, sick mother, her face darkening.

“I think you must be struggling a lot. You’re only eight years old…”

Sophie seemed to have something she wanted to say. Still too young to understand Sophie’s intentions, Lara could only look at her blankly.

“I’m always sorry. I can’t be of any help to you.”

“……”

“I guess people like us can’t help each other like family when things get hard.”

Since her father’s death, Lara had heard countless words she didn’t understand, and now she could roughly guess what Sophie was trying to say.

“Lara. You know, my mother’s been sick too lately. I’m sorry, really sorry, but I don’t think we can share your work anymore. I’m sorry, really.”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll try to help. I’ll go work on the farm tomorrow instead of mom.”

At Lara’s words, Sophie suddenly burst into tears. Lara didn’t know how to comfort her.

But the more Lara tried to console her, the louder Sophie’s sobs grew. Hesitant, Lara reached out her small hand to wipe away Sophie’s tears. As soon as her tiny hand touched Sophie’s cheek, Sophie collapsed to the ground. Lara’s heart ached with sorrow.

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From the next day, Lara was put to work. One day, she served the young lady at the castle, and the next, she went to the labor camp to do the work that had belonged to both her late father and mother.

The amount of labor an eight-year-old could endure was not much. For the first couple of days, the other slaves helped Lara, who had come to take her mother’s place, but the slaves already had too much work to do themselves.

Since the main capital to increase the lord’s wealth came from the farm, the slaves working there were constantly overwhelmed, with no time to rest. There was no way that young Lara could endure it.

The overseer, having already reduced her workload due to her age, couldn’t understand why she couldn’t complete her allotted work.

Though the overseer was naturally a harsh person, he thought that, despite all the consideration shown to her, she still couldn’t fulfill her duties. Other slaves shared this opinion too. The world was even harsher for Lara than when her father had been alive.

“Ah!”

The basket full of sugarcane fell to the ground. It wasn’t because anyone had pushed her; no one had touched Lara. But she hadn’t been able to sleep properly for days, and she hadn’t had enough food either.

One day, Lara worked on the farm, and on another day, she returned to the castle to serve the young lady. No, now it couldn’t even be called serving the young lady. It was because, as Lara got dirtier, the maids no longer called her near the young lady.

Lara was now a filthy version of herself. She had become a very thin slave girl, no longer the pretty little slave girl she once was, and as always, children like her weren’t allowed to be seen in front of the nobility. Even at the castle, she worked as a maid and scrubbed the floors.

Since she didn’t have a single day to rest, her nosebleeds came every day, and it became hard to focus on anything. Lara collapsed on the floor, her face disoriented and dazed. She was picking up sugarcane when it happened.

Sophie, who was working nearby, quietly stepped in front of her, making sure the overseer wouldn’t see. Lara tried to get up in that brief moment. But the overseer was too quick, walking toward her like an alligator, he roughly shoved Sophie aside and kicked Lara.

It wasn’t particularly malicious. The overseer often kicked fallen or collapsed slaves. It was a signal to get up, a signal to snap out of it.

Because of that, Lara didn’t feel particularly resentful. She tried to get up, but the kick made it hurt even more, and she was left struggling.

“Agh… Ugh… Hh….”

Her chest, where she was kicked, felt like it was going to break. Her breath was ragged, and she trembled with pain. Then, a soft voice stopped the overseer’s kicking.

“Hey. She’s still just a little girl, isn’t she?”

Lara opened her half-closed eyes to look at him. It was a familiar voice she’d heard before.

“Who are you?”

The overseer narrowed his sharp eyes and asked. The person who spoke wasn’t intimidated at all. He was an upright man, and behind him stood the noble lord and his daughter, who had appeared with a disapproving look on their faces.

The overseer turned around in surprise at the mention of the lord’s name. The lord had stopped his horse at the entrance of the farm and seemed to be surveying the farm. The overseer rushed to him and bowed deeply.

The lord’s beautiful daughter turned to look at Lara, who was being helped up by the man. Lara couldn’t see well because her eyelids were swollen. Reflexively, she rubbed her eyes, but the man stopped her. Her gaze naturally shifted toward him.

“Are you okay, child?”

His voice was gentle. Lara didn’t have the strength to nod, so she just looked at him blankly. The man lifted her into his arms. Sophie, who had been pacing nervously nearby, whispered, “Lara,” as she sniffled. As Lara rested her head on the man’s shoulder, she thought his shoulder was quite comfortable.

The man walked toward the lord and said that this poor child needed to be treated. The lord nodded in agreement.

He was not a man who treated slaves or servants violently. Such actions were usually carried out by those below him, who did them for his benefit.

He was a noble aristocrat. In truth, whether a slave or a child died in front of him, he wouldn’t care. However, he didn’t want to say that he had no need to concern himself with a child being saved by the friar. After allowing the friar to tend to the injured child, he moved on.

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Lara woke up exactly two days later. She had been feverish for the entire two days and hadn’t been able to open her eyes.

The person who had saved Lara was the young friar who taught the lord’s daughter the Bible. He had just graduated from seminary, and he was a widower who had lost his wife and child several years ago.

He started serving God to forget the pain of losing his family, and after graduating from seminary, he had planned to go work as a monk in a rural area with no connections. However, the great friar, seeing his talent, persuaded him to come to the lord of Heidelbern’s castle.

“Are you awake? Would you like some water?”

Lara opened her eyes and found herself not in the house she lived in, but in a house the lord had gotten for the friar. Lara blinked her swollen eyes and reached for the ceiling. The friar explained the situation to her so she wouldn’t be surprised, then gave her some water.

“I was going to leave you with your mother, but when I heard from a child named Sophie, it seemed your mother didn’t have the strength to take care of you.”

His voice was gentle. He was the first person to show her kindness outside of family or fellow slaves. Apart from Sophie and her grandmother, Nadita, who often cared for her, no one else had shown her any kind of affection. Lara stared at him in surprise.

Even friars weren’t necessarily kind. Whether a friar or a nobleman, they were all the same. The friar who had been here before was a man who frequently harassed and mistreated young female slaves. And even though this man had a wife and child, his behavior didn’t stop him from being a friar. Compared to other friars, this one was considered quite noble.

“Ugh…”

Lara, weak from the fever, groaned as she tried to sit up. The friar gently restrained her and tried to lie her back down.

“Don’t get up. You’re still far from fully recovering.”

She shook her head. The work on the farm wasn’t finished, and most of all, she needed to be there for her mother. She couldn’t afford to burden others any longer.

“You’ve broken a rib. Do you understand how serious that injury is?”

He grabbed her small shoulder and turned her to face him. Lara looked into the friar’s brown eyes. They were a warm, leaf-colored brown. Suddenly, her father came to her mind. Her father’s eyes had been a pale blue, like the clear sky after a rainstorm in May…

Tears poured out.

“Ugh, sniff… sniff…”

She didn’t know how long it had been since she had cried after losing her father. Lara cried weakly with her aching body. It was awkward to feel like her father was here in a man who didn’t resemble him at all, but the pain that came with being an eight-year-old girl in such a harsh situation was too deep and cruel.

“Child…”

Lara, whose thin body had been trembling, toppled over. The friar caught her gently, holding her in his arms and patting her thin back.

“It’s okay, little one. Everything’s okay.”

Lara didn’t understand what was okay, but it still felt comforting. In that moment, even if nothing was actually okay, it seemed like everything was. She cried quietly in his arms until she fell asleep. That night, she saw her father in her dreams.

In the dream, her father wore fine Dalmatica robes like the friar, reading the Bible with the sharp intellect of a scholar.

It seemed to suit him, even though it was a sight she had never seen before. Then, tears flowed again. Her father could never wear such fine clothes and read the Bible.

That’s when she realized it was a dream. But if it was a dream, could she not hug her father?

Carefully, Lara approached him in the dream and hugged his side, where he did not look at her. His body did not smell of sweat or blood, but of the scent of the friar who had gently embraced her.

The friar was a good person. He was devout, kind-hearted, and after losing his wife and newborn daughter, he had become compassionate toward poor, young children.

Of course, he was a naturally good person. Just as one’s qualities and character are born with them, the temperament that formed his personality had been part of his nature.

However, even so, the friar’s decision to run away with the young slave of the Marquis, the lord of the estate, was influenced by the tragedy he had experienced years ago.