The Dialectic of Master and Slave - Chapter 4
Though Baron Palga had initially intended to use Jaha as a s*x slave, he showed no such signs after she saved his youngest son, and since he said he was clear about debts of gratitude, it seemed he wouldn’t lay hands on her in the future either.
“Thank you, master.”
“Since we need to go through several procedures, you’ll become free in about a month. Until then, don’t idle around and learn the work in advance.”
“Yes, sir.”
From that day on, Jaha began reviewing ledgers.
Though it was unpaid labor as she was still a slave, she had no complaints. Rather, she was grateful things worked out so smoothly. While it was annoying to have to check calculations manually without Excel or a calculator, the work itself wasn’t difficult.
After his near-death experience, the baron’s youngest son, seemingly grateful in his own way, would often visit Jaha bringing various snacks and small items. Since the diet and supplies provided to slaves couldn’t be called good even as flattery, Jaha soon found herself looking forward to these times.
Though somewhat authoritarian, the youngest son wasn’t bad by nature. After all, he was just a child of around ten. How unlikeable could his actions be?
“Come quickly and eat before it gets cold. Are you daring to defy my words?”
“Yes. I understand, young master.”
“Don’t ever get married and stay by my side forever taking care of me. Understood?”
Jaha agreed obediently. She was still a slave and couldn’t go against any orders from the master’s son, and there was no reason to seriously argue with a naive child.
He would forget his own words once he grew older anyway.
Before then, she would return to her original world.
Just as three weeks had passed of the month needed to become a commoner, the peaceful days shattered like a lie.
As always, Jaha was crouching and sleeping with other slaves in the poor quarters without a single bed when she woke to inexplicable commotion.
The distinctive clanking sound of metal friction. Those were the footsteps of knights wearing armor.
Horrific screams filled the mansion. Jaha and other slaves trembled in their quarters, not knowing what was happening.
Before long, all noise subsided and the mansion became quiet as death. They could instinctively sense that everyone outside had been massacred.
The footsteps of the intruders who suddenly broke in and slaughtered the family grew closer.
Jaha held tightly onto the hands of other slaves, trying not to faint.
The quarters’ door opened and an heavily armored knight appeared. Half-dried blood dripped from his iron armor and the sword in his hand.
Jaha froze in place. As an ordinary university student, she had never seen so much blood at once.
Would all the blood she’d shed in her life until now even amount to half of the bloodstain entering her vision?
It was a scene lacking reality like a B-grade horror movie, but the fishy smell rushing into her nostrils told Jaha that the scene unfolding before her eyes wasn’t a hallucination but real.
Her heart felt like it would stop from fear. That wasn’t special effects or paint, but the blood of someone who was alive until just moments ago, even someone Jaha knew. Her whole body trembled involuntarily.
The knight who briefly surveyed the quarters ordered:
“Load the slaves along with the goods.”
As she was tied with rope and dragged away by the knights, Jaha saw a child’s head carelessly abandoned on the floor. It was Baron Palga’s youngest son.
Jaha barely swallowed the scream trying to escape. She didn’t want to die by upsetting the knights’ mood.
The reason the baron’s family was exterminated overnight was for participating in a conspiracy of treason. Whether Baron Palga truly harbored rebellious thoughts, or was eliminated under such a pretext, there was no way to know the truth.
In any case, while the baron’s entire family was slaughtered and anyone with even slight connections suffered brutal torture and interrogation, Jaha didn’t get so much as a scratch.
Ironically, what protected Jaha was her slave status.
In this world, slaves were not considered people but closer to livestock or a type of tool. Since they weren’t even recognized as humans with free will, they weren’t subject to punishment either.
Even for the most heinous criminals, no one would blame their sofa, refrigerator, or the dogs and cats they kept. For this reason, Jaha and the other slaves were able to survive.
Though better than dying, this incident served to remind Jaha once again of how miserable the status of a slave truly was.
