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(3rd person pov)
Mrs. Miller was upset with Edward for stealing bread from the kitchen.
Elizabeth came forward and protested that it was she herself, not Edward, who stole the bread, but she couldn’t be the culprit because at the time the bread was gone she confirmed that Elizabeth was with Matilda.
“I’ve never seen Mrs. Miller did something like this to such an angry degree.”
Matilda explained to Elizabeth that the children who had previously stolen food from the kitchen had been severely beaten and then imprisoned in the penitentiary for a week.
Elizabeth was startled, and her body trembled. But Edward looked without blinking an eye.
Later on, Daniel asked.
“Brother. Will it be okay?”
“What?”
“I heard Mrs. Miller went wild.”
“I just got scolded.”
“Are you okay though?”
Edward looked at him indifferently, then went back to what he was doing. Edward’s gaze continued to follow the book he was reading.
“But won’t you tell me?”
“What do you mean?”
“Brother, the bruises on your body.”
Edward’s eyes stopped as he was reading the book. Darkness in his eyes and his lips hardened, yet the young Daniel did not pay close attention to such a sign.
“When I saw the wounds on your body when you came back, I thought you had been dragged to the battlefield.”
He had bruises of various colors all over his body. Daniel knew the meaning of the different bruises. It all came from a different time period.
“What happened while we were apart?”
“I’ll tell you later. You are still young.”
“Brother is also young. Sister is young too.”
“And you are especially young.”
Edward closed the book. It was a sign that he didn’t want to talk any more.
Daniel, who was about to ask more, kept his mouth shut and glared at his brother, displeased.
But he agreed to understand Edward. There qA a big difference between being ten and thirteen, and there are one or two things that he probably didn’t want to tell anyone.
In particular, if he was suffering a lot of pain, it was clear that he had suffered quite a bit.
“Brother, but someday you’ll have to tell me. Understand?”
“Yes. I promise.”
Edward was not a talker. So Daniel was satisfied with just his brother’s answer.
Then he heard Leo fighting other nursery school kids in the hallway. Daniel sighed deeply and went out to look after Leo.
After Daniel had left, Edward, who was left alone in the room, finally showed a dark face. What he went through after running away from Sierra’s mansion was by no means easy.
Edward, who was sent to the countryside as soon as he was born because of his weak body, grew up in a rural village called Godia in Sierra.
Horses and cows were raised in the wide fields, and grapes and wheat were raised in the fertile plains. Edward lived there for twelve years.
Edward loved his parents, but he felt more secure in Godia’s high skies, fresh air, and the smell of grass than his parents, whom he barely saw during summer vacations.
The death of his parents was somewhat shocking. He missed him all his life, and the time he had with his parents was only a year.
It was not long after he understood the sensitive Daniel, and his head was rotting every day because of Leo.
It was also when he was just starting to get used to his older sister Elizabeth.
“The Coopers offered me to become their adopted daughter.”
His older sister Elizabeth was the most awkward person he was with in their house. But he didn’t know why it was so shocking.
No, he actually knew. He spent his whole twelve years in the rural Godia, feeling abandoned. No matter how weak they are, there are cases where children are left alone in the countryside.
“I…”
He didn’t want to hear an answer. Elizabeth will also turn away from them and abandon them. He’ll be alone again, missing his family while fighting loneliness.
And that was the not-too-distant future. Elizabeth did not readily answer. It meant that she was being swayed, so sooner or later all three of them, except Elizabeth, will either go to an orphanage or sit on the sidewalk.
As soon as that occurred to Edward, the first thought he had was that he had to run away. It was better for him to go back to the damn Godia and make fallen leaves a blanket, than to be taken to an orphanage and live on the streets.
And there were all the foundations on which he lived. Familiar roads, familiar neighbors… Edward fled to Godia in search of peace. But…
“I’m sorry, Edward.”
Joseph Pearson was a peasant farmer who rented land from the Herringtons and had raised Edward from an early age.
“Why is the Imperial Army here…”
Edward’s eyebrows twitched. In principle, the imperial army cannot enter the Sierra. However, in a small rural village in Sierra, soldiers dressed in Imperial military uniforms appeared with guns and swords.
Joseph Pearson avoided Edward’s gaze instead of answering. On his wrist was an expensive watch that did not fit the standard of living, but young Edward did not realize it.
“I understand that imperial troops entering Sierra meant breaking the peace treaty with Sierra.”
Edward warned the Imperial Army. Get out of Sierra.
“There are many suspicious things about the death of his parents who went to the Empire. Investigate the parents’ accident.”
“Accident?”
“The boy is the eldest of the Herringtons.”
Gazes were exchanged between Joseph Pearson and who appeared to be the leader of the army. The soldiers shut Edward’s mouth and held him and bound him from both sides so that he could not resist.
‘Why the Imperial Army…!’
Edward didn’t know how things were going. He noticed something, and as far as they know, he was only a thirteen-year-old boy.
A soldier with shaved blonde hair locked Edward somewhere.
“Cough!”
It was a very old warehouse with a stinky smell. After spending some time in a place where there was no light and the passage of time was unknown, the soldier grabbed Edward by the neck and dragged him somewhere.
And he sold Edward to a slave trader. Watching the soldier take some silver coins, Edward shouted and shouted again and again. But his cry was swallowed up by the gag.
So Edward was sold to a slave trader and put in a dungeon or something.
“You better stop rebelling.”
It was when he was beaten badly while resisting a slave trader and thrown into prison. A voice of someone of the same age could be heard in the darkness.
He was trampled so hard that he couldn’t breathe. A guy with long gorgeous blonde hair came out and patted Edward on the cheek.
“Don’t die.”
“… Huh…not…die.”
The boy’s name was Fred. A native of Sierra, like Edward, he was kidnapped out of nowhere one day and enslaved.
The difference was that Edward was a resident of Sierra for generations, but Fred was the son of a person who fled to Sierra from the Empire.
“I thought the atmosphere in Sierra was strange, but I never imagined that the Imperial Army would abduct villagers.”
Fred said in a drowsy voice. Fred, who spoke like Elizabeth, was an oddity.
Despite his age, he had a style that could not be understood, and his eyes did not measure his age, unlike his youthful appearance. And he had this characteristic smirk and grown-up atmosphere that was worn out on the street.
“I’m going to see the opportunity and run away.”
“I have seen cases where they died while rebelling.”
“Damn it. So, are you going to become a slave just like this?”
Edward asked furiously. He could not comprehend the carefree Fred in this situation.
No matter how relaxed Edward was, he could not keep his composure at the crossroads of being a slave or not.
“That’s right, it’s better than dying. The right time will come.”
“Crazy. Don’t you think you’ll die as a slave by waiting?”
Fred shrugged his shoulders and went to sleep. They were loaded in a wagon blocked on all sides, and they had already been moving somewhere for the third day.
Edward had been struggling all day with a sharp stone to break the string that bound his hand. But his efforts were in vain.
“Hah.”
Those who escaped before Edward were killed as examples by the slave traders. Edward’s silver-gray eyes trembled slightly. Looking at him white, Fred said in a low voice.
“Another opportunity will come.”
Fred, who said that, was also very frozen. Edward looked at Fred’s hand holding his arm tightly.
“I think there is something going on between the Empire and the Sierra.”
At Fred’s words, Edward responded bluntly.
Pls read only at pink muffin tl.
“Something has always happened. Since Edgar Rivera’s successful emancipation movement fifteen years ago, it’s been like a runaway wagon.”
Edgar Rivera’s successful emancipation campaign made slavery illegal in the Empire. As a result, many slaves became free citizens.
Even so, the practice of slavery that had been passed down did not disappear all at once, but the empire became absolutely short of slaves. So even if it was illegal, there was demand.
As a result, they seem to have reached out to Sierra and kidnapped free people as slaves, but there were a lot of things that were questionable to say that it was just for that purpose.
“I hope that the right time you mentioned will come before we get sold.”
It was a semi-sarcastic remark, but, as Fred said, the opportunity arose. Just before being sold at a slave auction, Elizabeth appeared miraculously.
Edward didn’t know where he was, but he knew that it was usually no coincidence that Elizabeth appeared before him.
“Edward. Be patient! I’ll save you!”
The voice whispering through the windows of the semi-basement warehouse was like a single ray of light. And it was a vain hope.
What power did Elizabeth have that could save him? Their family was ruined and they had no money.
Still, Elizabeth did not disappoint his expectations. She succeeded in saving him and others. And…
“Don’t hit my brother!”
Risking her death to run to the slave trader to save him… For a brief moment, Edward felt something piercing through him from head to toe.
‘Sister.’
Strictly speaking, Elizabeth was Edward’s older sister. He was also Elizabeth’s younger brother.
But he felt like he was realizing it for the first time. It was strange, and his stomach was tickling.
Being saved by Elizabeth and running away from the slave traders, Edward’s gaze repeated on and off his sister’s grip on his wrist.
The strength of the hand holding his wrist was so strong that blood could not pass through it, so even in the midst of an emergency, his fingers were tingling.
“Why is sister here? This is the Kirgen Empire.”
What happened to her after he left home? Why is Elizabeth coming to the Kirgen Empire rather than going to the Coopers?
“Why are you there? Did you not receive the letter we left?”
Edward was unable to speak openly about what had happened in Godia.
The fact that the Imperial Army had infiltrated Sierra was a very sensitive matter. So knowing that fact only increases her chances of being in danger.
The betrayal of the peasants, whom their parents had always cared for, was only heartbreaking, and it was needless to say that he was caught and beaten by a slave trader while rebelling every day.
So, Edward roughly faltered.
“…Things happened in Godia.”
With that thought, Edward stopped Fred from trying to say hi to Elizabeth.
“…Let’s be careful not to become slaves again.”
Fred said goodbye and walked away. He was by no means unique. He also had expectations that if each of them survived well, he would not be able to meet him at any time in a big place.
After Fred left, Elizabeth and Edward were left alone.
A little bit of apprehension, curiosity, and worry mixed in from asking her how she was doing, and Elizabeth entrusted her to a nearby orphanage.
‘Didn’t you go to the Coopers? Why?’
The question lingered in his mouth. It was a short question with only a few words, but he couldn’t get it out of his mouth.
A lot of words, a lot of questions, and a complicated mind floated in him. At the end of the day, there was only one conclusion.
‘Now she will go her own way.’
Because they grew up separately anyway, the family had nothing to do with each other. His older sister, Elizabeth, and his two younger brothers. Still, there was only one thing he couldn’t say.
The blood on his sleeve. The blood was from Elizabeth’s wounded palms as she rescued him.
Edward felt something hot and trembling deep in himself as he felt short of breath.
‘No…’
Let’s break up at this point too. He wanted to say that, but he couldn’t say anything because the sensation in the hand holding his wrist was so vivid.
The cuts on Elizabeth’s palms were clear, and her blood-soaked sleeves were a mess.
It was neither overwhelming nor sad, but something disturbed his breathing. Edward held back his tears from within.
“If it’s a nursery school, I think it’s good to hide it because many children come and go.”
But at the smile of his older sister, Elizabeth, Edward gave up all those excuses.
Elizabeth’s smile filled with joy was a smile that could only be attributed to the fact that the only person she recovered today was none other than her family.
It was then that Edward suddenly realized that they were family. (tl/n: so sad omg.)