Next to the thick, rough trunk of a tree, covered with moss at its base, Atom knelt.
A wooden board nailed into the ground rose as an improvised tombstone. The surface, roughly carved, seemed to contain more pain than words.
His hands trembled strongly. His face, reddened by crying, showed tears that fell onto the grass, as if the earth needed to drink his sadness. Sobs escaped from his chest, torn, without rhythm or control.
The desire to continue learning vanished. His head remained sunk in his chest. He felt burning tongs gripping his throat, and drops of water accumulated in his tear ducts, ready to burst.
Fear gripped his insides like poorly digested food. How would they survive now? What would happen to his family after this tragedy?
A few steps away, Vanessa stood. Disheveled strands fell over her forehead, and her figure rose beside Aurore.
The little girl had her hands clutched to Vanessa's black dress. She also cried. Her body shuddered again and again, as if the pain shook her from within.
"Darling! Heuk!"
Vanessa hugged Aurore against her chest with all her strength. Her eyes, swollen and reddened, filled with tears that rolled down her cheeks.
Her face, marked by pain, reflected immense anguish. She seemed shattered, as if her soul had broken.
The wind gently stirred the branches. The leaves brushed against each other, and the sound they produced resembled wooden fingers scratching the air.
Suddenly, a man appeared behind Atom. He crouched without saying a word and placed a pink flower on Will's grave.
"You were a guy with a very delicate illness. That's what you get for rejecting my medicines. Goodbye."
The man observed the grave with a look between bored and distracted, as if the pain of others did not deserve his attention. His hair was black, and his face was kind and attractive.
What was he talking about?
Atom brought both hands to his face. He tried to understand what hid behind those words.
"So it was you, wasn't it?! You know we used everything we had to buy the medicines!"
Vanessa became hysterical upon remembering something, and fury took hold of her.
"Hm? What do you mean? Do you think I still regret not being able to buy you at the auction house?"
The man scratched his ear with indifference. His green eyes had a mocking expression that highlighted his face, as if disdain was part of his charm.
And then, an invisible sword pierced Atom's brain. Understanding struck like a blunt blow.
"My God, it wasn't possible…"
"It was you who put the poison in his medicine, since we bought it from you!"
Upon hearing the man's words, Vanessa erupted in rage. Tears slid down her face like snowflakes melting as they fell.
If looks could kill, Vanessa's fulminating and murderous gaze would have mutilated that commoner a thousand times.
A cascade of icy water poured over Atom. Confirming his suspicions left him paralyzed. For the first time in this life, he felt something inside him crack.
The man moved with malice. Atom took a breath to shout a warning, but the words froze in his throat.
Fear paralyzed him.
There was nothing more terrifying than facing an adult as just a child. Being brave was useless if strength did not accompany it.
"Watch your mouth. Remember I am a commoner. How dare a mere slave like you talk back to me?"
The man grabbed Vanessa's face roughly, lowered his gaze to her level, and glared at her.
Atom detected a certain insecurity in his tone, despite the threat. He paused. He listened. He looked.
"Damn you! I swear one day I will take revenge on you! I curse you!"
Vanessa pushed the commoner with an elbow. Atom heard the man's breath escape in a hissing sound.
"You damned bitch!"
When that wretch was about to hit her, Atom could not stand it any longer. He was determined to defend his mother no matter the consequences. But Vanessa raised her hand in the air and stopped him cold.
"I am property of the Percy estate, and you know they won't forgive you if you damage someone's property, right?"
Vanessa faced the incoming blow head-on. She showed no fear. Her resolve was unshakable. The man stopped his fist near her face and lowered it without another choice.
"You're right. I'll stop here for today."
Even among commoners who prided themselves on their supposed freedom, there were marked differences.
Lord Percy held no noble title, but his position placed him above most.
No commoner dared to provoke him.
The man turned around. He put his hands in the pockets of his luxurious coat and, as he was walking away… stopped abruptly.
"Oh… I heard out there that your body isn't in top shape."
As if remembering something, he turned and shot Vanessa a malicious smile.
"So, a defective slave without a husband… I wonder what owner wouldn't sell her."
…
It was winter, a season that brought a scarcity of work. Opportunities to obtain food were minimal, and there was no choice but to endure until spring arrived.
For farming families, it represented the harshest time of the year. The situation was even crueler for slaves, deprived of wages and benefits.
Everything they cultivated went directly into the hands of the estate's owner. The hardships intensified with Will's death, which further aggravated the burden they all carried in the family.
Although Atom did not face total starvation, hunger was a sensation completely unknown to him.
Throughout his previous life, marked by multiple misfortunes, food was never a problem.
He always had access to enough to satisfy himself, and he could even afford to be selective with what he ate.
Now, however, the need was so intense that he did not leave a single crumb on the plate. If his body had allowed it, he would not have hesitated to lick it clean until it shone.
On good days, when the rations reached a more generous volume, hunger resembled white noise, annoying but easy to set aside.
In contrast, during bad days, when portions shrank, it transformed into a constant thorn.
The headache accompanied him from morning to night. Weakness made him stagger, and the lack of concentration rendered him useless.
Food occupied every thought, every dream, like an obsession impossible to silence.
But none of that reached the gravity of what happened next. A month later, Vanessa was sold.
Atom kept the memory of that day as if it were yesterday. Because it was.
The moment embedded itself in his memory like an open wound that never closed.
His mother, his refuge, his only source of tenderness in that hostile world, was handed over to the same despicable commoner who humiliated them. In the end, his threats came true. Cruelty triumphed without resistance.
"Mommy! Mommy!"
Atom held Aurore in his arms. The little girl moved with urgency, her hands extended toward the carriage that moved away with Vanessa inside. Tears descended down her cheeks like rivers that found no course.
Each of Aurore's tears became a dose of poison that seeped into Atom's soul. There was no antidote. The agony enveloped him like a prison without escape.
Damn it…
Reality struck him with the force of an enraged bull. There was no escape. There was no solution that could reverse the inevitable.
The circumstances remained unchangeable, no matter how desperately he sought a way out.
He was trapped. Like an ant before a giant. Reality was that giant that crushed him again and again, without mercy.
Atom clenched his teeth so hard that a buzzing filled his ears.
The rage, the anguish, the helplessness, and the pain mixed in his chest like boiling lava upon recalling the words Vanessa whispered to him before leaving.
"Atom, now you are the eldest. If you want to protect your sister… you must never cry in front of her."
Atom shuddered.
He saw the tears slide down his mother's face like sap oozing from an open wound in a tree trunk.
The anguish in her expression mixed with a silent guilt that mirrored his own.
He tried to be strong. He tried not to cry. He tried to ignore the chaos unleashed within him. He tried with all his strength not to collapse in front of Aurore.
But he failed.
Tears blurred his vision as he watched the person he loved most move away forever.
He…
When he was reborn, he…
Told himself…
He was going to live… this time…
To live well, this time…
The helplessness paralyzed him. He felt that the world burned before him, and he could only watch it from a wheelchair.
The pain in his chest became unbearable.
Everything was too real. Too cruel.
Vanessa was not in good health.
For the Percy estate, getting rid of her was more convenient than investing in her recovery.
Repairing the body of a sick slave made no sense. It was like discarding a broken toy.
If it no longer served, it did not deserve attention.