Chapter 11: Keith
Arthur:
Inside one of the carriages, I was sitting, leaning on my back, looking around. The place was dark and filled with many people, about ten individuals.
There was a woman with her daughter, comforting her: "Don't worry, my little one, everything will be fine." She hugged her daughter tightly, preventing her from seeing her tears.
Beside her, another woman stared at the ceiling of the carriage as if she were dead; she hadn't moved since being placed inside. It seemed she had suffered psychological trauma. "..."
And another woman was pulling at her own hair: "Argh... ah... argh..."
Likewise, a man leaned his head against the wooden wall of the carriage without any movement.
As for the rest, they were three men in their twenties or thirties, sitting without doing anything.
There was also a young man sitting next to me, the only one I had recognized when I entered the carriage.
He looked at me and opened his mouth: "Thank you for what you did earlier. I am grateful to you."
"It's nothing, I couldn't bear to watch what was happening. It reminded me of my past." I smiled gently.
"No, I will surely repay this debt to you. Someday... I will." Sadness appeared on the young man's face after saying those words.
"Cheer up, we're in the same difficult situation. Pretty face or green hair… no, what's your name?"
"Keith... my name is Keith." He rose and leaned forward on his knees, coming close to my face. That made me pull back, suspecting Keith to be female, due to the extreme whiteness of his face and the green strands of hair falling on both sides of it.
"Ah... sorry." Keith leaned back again and sat down.
"My name is Arthur... Arthur Field. In truth, surnames don't matter anymore... tch." Anger appeared on my face as I remembered my newly erased family.
I will return, Carlos. I will remember you well. The next time we meet, I will not spare you.
I don't know what the future holds or what my fate will be, but I know one thing: I will use my ability to become stronger and stronger.
These were my thoughts in my previous life on Earth. After the persecution my mother suffered, and the bullying I endured at school, I found the solution to be strength. Only strength is the answer to stupidity.
So, I trained hard and reaped my achievements. Talking never worked. If you told the teacher you were bullied, he would name the bullies and punish them. But after that? They came back with harsher bullying, deeper hatred, and threats never to tell the teacher again. The solution then: suicide. That is, if you were weak-willed.
On the other hand, my mother was a woman, naturally unable to resist a man, which made her a target of oppression. It only worsened after my father's death. But once I grew older and trained, no insect dared to touch my mother again.
Anyway, I must learn about my ability and what use it has as soon as possible. I will exploit it to the fullest, I don't care about the pain.
"Field... the Field family?! Do you mean you are the young master of the Field family, famous for its strength? They even dared to challenge a great family, despite being only an upper-rank family!" Keith was shocked.
"What do you mean surnames don't matter anymore?" A puzzled expression appeared on his face, making him look even gentler.
"I mean the Field family no longer exists."
"Whaaat?!! How?! A family like that... how?" He leaned toward my face again.
"Will you stop getting so close to my face? Your saliva is flying." In truth, his saliva wasn't flying; I just didn't want him so close.
"Ah... sorry."
"It doesn't matter... they were betrayed from within. One of their core pillars colluded with a great family and joined them."
"That's truly harsh." Keith shrank like a ball, a sad expression showing on his face.
"That was the past, and the present is the present." I suddenly became wiser. "Unlike you, you should be happy you saved your mother."
"No, she's not my mother."
I was confused: "What do you mean she's not your mother? Your grandmother then?"
"No."
"She's a stranger to me. In truth, I don't belong to that village at all."
"I was a young master of a mid-rank family. I lived a good life in the family: a mother's and father's love, servants caring for me, a full stomach. I could even ask for anything from my father, and he would try his best to bring it."
"One day, since our city was on the border, and when war was declared on the kingdom, it ended up as a battlefield."
"And due to a royal decree, the family was forced to defend against an attack by high-rank families. Can you believe that?!"
"I, who was considered the young master and heir to the lord's position, with the love of mother and father, was smuggled out after the sacrifices of many soldiers."
"The last soldier accompanying me was struck by an arrow, dying in my arms and leaving me alone, fleeing into the unknown, until I reached a border village."
"I had nothing. No food, no money. So I kept begging in the village until that old woman took pity on me and cared for me. But then came the day when the village was attacked by bandits... or slave traders?"
"Naturally, you defend the one who protected you. And so I protected her, but I was weak... truly very weak. Thank you from the bottom of my heart." Tears appeared on Keith's white face as he remembered his memories that had once been his best days, now turned into his saddest.
"It's okay, we're all in the same boat." I couldn't find anything else to say.
Thus Keith and I exchanged conversation, until our relationship grew close enough for mockery and shared laughter. Then the carriage stopped moving. The door opened, and sunlight entered the faces of those inside.
Two men appeared at the door: one fat, the other thin with a good build.
"Choose what you want from here." said the thin one, who turned out to be Eric.
"Hmm... alright... oh... good merchandise." said the fat one as he stroked his goat-like beard. "Let me see." He scanned the faces inside the carriage.
"Oh... I want this one." He pointed immediately at Keith.
"Sorry, but he's not a girl, he's a boy."
"Really? Just tell me you don't want to sell her to me... hmf."
"..."
Immediately, I covered Keith with my back, glaring at the fat man as if he had killed my mother.
I don't know him well, and I suspect he might betray me like David, but he is a kind-hearted boy. I will not allow him to be defiled even if it costs me my life.
I will not abandon someone I considered important to me.
"Don't talk too much. Since you're a special client, we agreed to meet before reaching the market and allowed you to choose a good sample. There are three women and one girl, choose." Eric spoke coldly.
"Eh... alright... wonderful, I'll choose the girl there." The fat man took out his handkerchief and began wiping his sweat.
"A good choice." Eric entered the carriage and forcefully pulled the girl away from her mother.
"No, leave my daughter... no, my daughter!" She clung to him, trying to stop him.
"Come on... move aside." With a single slap to her face, he knocked her unconscious.
"Mama... ooh... mama..." The girl began crying and screaming.
"Here." He handed her to the fat man, deliberately extending his hand to hint at money.
"Thank you for your service." The fat man took out money and handed it to Eric, then took the girl through his servant.
The matter ended with the door of the carriage closing and the journey resuming.
"Ehh... I told you your face is feminine, and you insisted on denying my opinion. What do you say now? You need to cut your hair, it's a little long." Keith's hair reached his neck. "The strands of your hair on your face make you look even more feminine, cut them." I said with a long sigh.
"Umm... I won't. I think it looks better this way."
"Then you'll remain the feminine-faced one... hehe."
"I told you, stop calling me that." Keith got upset gently.