Chapter 14 Forming My Own Plans (1/2)
Standing in the house I wondered 'What the hell is their problem?'. I did nothing to them, we never talked nor met each other in the past so why create more problems for me than I already had. I figured that this must be the human nature playing its part. I was just a slave to them, although I didn't think like that about myself. I was also from a village as well and much bigger than that, so what right did they have to treat me like that? Strength! I was alone, if the whole Freemount village were to stand with me they would become the slaves not me.
I started to notice more about how humans were fake and how they used numbers to overwhelm the weak ones. If I was healthy, at the top of my condition and could retaliate. Would they still look for trouble with me? I assumed no but because I was weak and they had whole village behind them, they knew I could do nothing so why not pray on me.
With these thoughts in my mind I went to bed. I knew the days ahead would become more difficult but other then preserving and focusing on my own goals, I could do nothing else.
Time went by and it was already a month since I started working for the whole village. The spring was ending and with it came the summer. Past this month I had to avoid the young people of this village and do my tasks at the same time. They would sometimes come looking for me when I was in the fields or carrying the water. They actually never disturbed me when I was smithing or cutting wood. Maybe because I had a weapon in my hand or maybe because they were scared of the people who owned the place.
After my work was done, I always went to the river to catch some fish but because these people started to look for me whenever I had free time, I had to change my spots often so that they couldn't find me. They of course did find me couple of times and chased after me like the devil. Sometimes I managed to get away and sometimes there were too many of them, therefore I could only get beaten up.
Although life was like this, I had some improvements as well. Because of my fishing, I managed to restore some strength and although my skin and muscles still looked terrible, it was much better than a month ago.
I had more strength but I didn't show that. I still spent the same time to carry the water. I took similar breaks when cutting the wood. I still made the same amount of ingots and I still used a stone to plough the ground. Although, the ploughing changed after two weeks. That was due to the field being ploughed through and then they sow the seeds.
As for the hoe, I never produced it in the end. I actually found some metal scrap but it was not enough to create a hoe. Now that I didn't need the hoe, I decided to leave the scrap for a time when I would need it.
My task changed to watering everything, not just the area that I ploughed, no. I had to water the whole field. They were much more reasonable this time and gave me a cart and barrels that no one tempered with. I could use the cart and barrels to transport large amount of water to the field but it still required load of strength to move the heavy cart.
In the beginning, I was barely able to water everything till 5 pm. Later on when I got used to it, it took me less time. Now that the crops were already sprouting, the other farmers were taking care of the weeds.
Because I had to water the whole field, I could sometimes overhear a conversation and learned couple of things. Apparently the old man that ”rescued” me was the village chief. He was also the strongest amongst the men in this village. I learned that the woman who chased me to beat me up countless times was his granddaughter. They had some kind of body strengthening manual. That was the reason why this woman was so strong.
I was intrigued by the manual. I wondered what type of things could it contain but I had no desire to actually steal it. I was sure it was heavily guarded or hidden somewhere and if I tried something stupid, I would lose my life for sure.
Another person the farmers talked about was the doctor. Apparently, he was an outsider that only the village chief knew. He was invited to live in this village by the chief and agreed. Besides learning that, I also learned that his skills are quite good according to the people. I could attest to that in a way, he did heal my broken arm completely and I had no complications ever since.
They also talked about how the so called young lady was a future star of this village and that she would marry someone from a large village located two days away from here. The village was called Grasshill Village and it was at least 8 times bigger than the village I was in, at least according to the farmers.
I knew she was arrogant and vain but that doesn't change the fact that I did nothing to her, 'why bother with me?' This thought baffled me a lot and I couldn't find any logical explanation, so I left it there.
Today when I arrived at the blacksmith's workshop, I noticed that the blacksmith is already waiting for me. That was weird because he was always absent through the month I worked at the workshop, of course besides the time when he showed me what to do.
He said to me ”Today I will show you something different and this will be your job from now on. Understood?” I just nodded my head in confirmation. This time he took two lumps of iron and threw in another lump of something else into the furnace. When all of that was melted, he took it out and poured it into the bar mould.