Marina looked at her brother with utter shock. She is dead? She's really dead just like that?
"Her tasks will be assigned to you this week until we are able to find a suitable slave as a replacement. You will also need to make a public apology on behalf of your mother."
Trey Forwhilst made his quick relay of orders and left the room promptly.
Marina stared at the door as it closed in horror, not even having the will to move. Marina began to recall some of the words her mother had said to her years ago when she was quite young.
"Marina, my life as well as yours is nothing compared to what you can experience in the world. There are thousands of plants for you to grow, continents to explore, and people to care for. None of that can be accomplished here while doing nothing. But what if we ran away? Far, far away. I heard that to the east, slaves are illegal, and we can live free, and live those lives that we missed out on."
"But how are we going to go together, mother?". She had asked with the knowledge of how she could only meet her mother inside the manor; there was no way to coordinate an escape. Especially with changing jobs and work, as well as the guards that monitor the village.
"I don't know, sweetheart, but someday I know we will have a chance to escape; you just have to take it". Her mother responded calmly with a passionate gaze fixed on her daughter. "The villagers turn a blind eye to our suffering. No one can empathize with a slave on the border, so you must rely on yourself."
She left me to this pile of shit alone. I was going to see her. It was going to go as it always went. So why? Why did she leave and place me in this dump just to commit suicide? If she saw her chance, did she really risk everything? She took the easy way out and left me to fend for myself? Did mother not care for me, leaving me as a slave alone? Is this what she meant by relying on yourself? Not even my mother is able to care for more than her own life when living as a slave. No. It must've been an accident or someone else blaming mother. There's no way it went like that, so fast and out of nowhere.
Marina spent the next few days doing lots of extra work and preparing to apologize to the villagers. When further proof was then again brought forward by her brother in order to confirm the situation, Marina was hit with the truth of the matter that her mother had abandoned her while making her own image plummet beyond what it already was. Her mother had disappeared from Marina's life. Her mother was the only one who knew what the conditions were like for her daughter, and they both worked in the same conditions with only each other. Yet instead of continuing onward, she committed suicide and left her only daughter alone. Marina's mood began to worsen, and her thoughts shifted to her upcoming apology.
What am I even supposed to say? Sorry, my mother killed herself, burned a bunch of you, and left me to rot in this hell. Marina pondered while dusting the shelves. She had already been disciplined by the duchess and taken twenty strokes with a stick as punishment for her mother's wrongdoing. Her crying and yelling had become tamer over the years of this recurring punishment.
"Your mother was trying to escape and leave while out shopping for us. She was spotted by one of our guards and decided to die alongside the villagers in a slaughter. She's worse than the demons prowling around in the southern continent. Be lucky you are only half of her, otherwise I would've killed you years ago. Might've killed you right now if I wasn't reminded by your blond hair that you're my husband's child." The duchess had stated while disciplining Marina. She had a smirk on her face the entire time.
The day had soon arrived when she had to apologize to the village. Her mother was a slave and one whose last impression on the world had guaranteed the fact that she wouldn't have a formal funeral, let alone be buried. So as she walked up to the main gathering area, she saw her mother's desecrated corpse strung along a stake. Disgusting, do they think this acts as a warning for others? At most, it'll make the rest of these people who showed up for this pity party sickened and ready to throw up. Marina immediately looked away and couldn't bring herself to look back at the corpse.
The west side of the village was mostly fine, which was where the gathering area resided. However, even on the west side, the damage from the fire was apparent. Many tents and blankets were spread out on the main street as a testament to how many homes were lost. The overall crowd seemed to consist of most of the village, with Marina unable to think of anyone who didn't attend. The faces on the crowds were all looks of contempt and sadness. Going up in front of that and stating I'm the daughter of the person who put you through this is already bad enough. But the fact that I'm a slave and unable to deal with the shit that might happen during this event is scary. I wonder how much value I am really to the Forwhilst household? A week's worth of chores for another slave to deal with if I die right here? It's not like I have my father's name; he didn't even put effort into naming me. Gave me the exact same name as my mother, first and last.
Marina slowly approached the front of everyone's view as she prepared herself for her apology. It seems a lot of them know already. Marina sighed as she witnessed a huge portion of the audience giving her glares. Even children seemed to be in on it as she saw some kids holding tomatoes. I won't be able to clean these clothes for a week, so please don't throw those after you see how sad and innocent I am. That was Marina's goal: to try her absolute hardest to make the villagers feel like she hates her mother and empathizes with everyone's hardships.
"Everyone here today, I'm very emotional seeing the burnt houses and how a massive amount of the villagers are unable to find a warm place to sleep at night. I'm incredibly sorry for this unjust crime that has been committed against you all. As you might've already known, this was the result of my horrible m-". Marina stopped midway through. Damn, what is wrong with me? She's awful. She left me here. I don't care that she was treated badly. I was treated badly as well, so I know more than anyone. I felt as much pain as she did staying in a household, punished for another slave's incompetence. Punished by my own mother's incompetence. People died because of her. Why do I feel empathetic? At that moment, a tomato flew through the air and hit Marina's shirt. It splattered, and the red imprint was left right in the center of her shirt. It was a young boy who threw it.
"My sister died in the fire!" The boy yelled loudly as he picked up another tomato off the ground, raising his arm to throw another.
"It was my horrible mother! Not me, I didn't do any of that. I'm innocent!" Marina brought her arms to cover her face. Sure enough, the tomato landed on her arms, splattering with some droplets that landed on her cheeks. I disgraced my mother. What else do you dumb little shits want? Marina looked around at the crowd as multiple young children started throwing tomatoes at her. As she looked closer through the mass clumps of red from being pelted, she saw many adults with disappointed and judging faces as they handed their children tomatoes. She looked around with a tearful expression as her eyes started to water. Is this what you wanted, mother? My suffering has exponentially increased. How am I supposed to walk outside after this? You traded your life for this?
As Marina flinched in pain as the projectiles kept parading her, she caught something out of the corner of her eye. A young boy with white hair and purple eyes. He was at the edge of the crowd, staring at her, but the one thing that Marina was surprised by was that, unlike the rest of the crowd, drowning in emotion and sorrow, he stood there with a smile. Beside his wide smile were his hands slowly clapping as a tomato finally went flying into Marina's eye.
--------------------------------------
The young boy, Cecilus, stood there clapping with a wide smile on his face.
Damn, she's getting harassed, poor girl. Maybe she'll see me and feel an ounce of joy because of how out of place I look? I'll ask Trey to fill me in on the specifics about the girl's mother when I see him again.
I wonder, do the villagers even know who I am? I mean, it's probably not hard to tell, but with me always being cooped up in the house or on the battlefield for research purposes, it doesn't give the people a lot of time to get used to me. They probably know my younger siblings better, with how they're almost a perfect replica of my mother's image and are almost always out and about. Taking my mother's maiden name as my last name doesn't feel like the right choice when my father's is the surname of the monarch of this land. Yet despite that, he told me it was the wisest decision. Definitely not when it comes to being known, though. Not a single person I encountered on my way here knew that I'm related to the King of Ascension, King Afner.
They're really still throwing food at her? Bathing her in red isn't going to bring your dead ones back to life. All that's going to do is make it so when you're finally judged by your past actions in the afterlife, you'll have more hiccups to sort through. Despite her sorry state and the tears behind the red, I can tell her anger is getting funneled. It was whoever the master is's fault for letting a slave get away with that. If the slave had been treated well, this wouldn't have happened. Well, can't have another fire come up in a few weeks because a bunch of dumb children couldn't stop scapegoating a young girl instead of focusing on the real reason behind their suffering.
Cecilus raised his hand toward the girl and whispered a chant quietly.
"The soul of the golem that wields the spear with resolution, awaken from within me.... and protect the girl blanketed in red!"
A golem began to erupt out of the earth in front of the girl, and, spinning his spear wildly, stopped all the objects being thrown from hitting their target. The girl slowly raised her head and rubbed her eyes to finally get the chunks out. When her vision cleared, she gasped in shock.