The village elder.

"Hello. Do you want this?" Ira who was happily devouring her food hungrily looked at the drooling kid and offered him a piece of her roasted sweet potato.

The little guy, even though he was drooling, refused to take it from her as he looked at his mother with a questionable look in his eyes. The mother, immediately tried to pull him away, but Ira stopped her.

"Why? What happened? The child is hungry... He just wants to have a piece of this. Why are you pulling him away?"

The woman rebuked her harshly.

"This is my child! I can take care of him. I don't need your filthy pity. Get out of this village! Get away from us!"

Ira blinked three times before she smiled at them brightly, which shocked everyone present there.

"So... it's not like you can't talk. But why do you refuse to do so? What is stopping you?"

"That... It's none of your business! Come let's go!"

"Huh-huh. Don't go yet. Here, have this. Eat before you leave. I'm sure you are also hungry let alone your child. Here!" Ira sweetly handed over her meal to them with a bright smile on her face.

They couldn't help but stare at her beautiful face for a while before they took the food from her hand.

Her snow white hair was dancing along the rhyme of the wind, she used her hand to tuck a lock of her messy hair behind her ears. She looked like a beauty right out of a painting. Her unique charm was hard for people to resist.

The villagers slowly came out of their homes to look at what was happening. To their surprise, they found the mother and son, interacting sweetly with Ira and her group.

The village elder frowned as he walked towards them.

"What is happening here? Why are you interacting with the strangers?"

The mother and son immediately stood up in the form of respect and answered him.

"Elder, this lady her offered me and my son some food to eat. We thought they were scary people sent by the emperor, but they are not... as... bad..." The woman was not able to finish her sentence because of the elder's intense stare at her.

The woman could understand why the elder was acting this way. She could speak no more as she quietly held her child's hand and walked away.

Ira was confused. She couldn't understand why that elder was behaving in such a manner. She was just offering them some food. What was wrong with that?

"Grandpa... Please forgive me for my insolence. But I would like to know why you are behaving like this. They are all just hungry. I just wish to share some of our food with you all. Is that wrong?"

"Grandpa? Humph! We don't want your fake pity! You can provide us with food for today and probably tomorrow. But after that, who will? If it is our fate to die like this, then we are ready to do so. Don't mingle in our lives! Come let's go." The elder rebuked as he ordered his

"Right! You are right! But, why is it that you are expecting me to serve you all everyday? Instead of sitting here and awaiting death, shouldn't you start to work and earn your food?"

The people were all dumbstruck hearing her harsh words. They all thought that she was another one of those people who was coming to them with some other intention.

The villagers have seen many kinds of people. That village was one of the most beautiful village outside the capital. But due to the corrupt government and a greedy king, the village lost it's luster.

The effect didn't stop with just their village, it slowly started to spread among all the village in the kingdom. One by one people started to fall and die.

That was when the king ordered his men to capture the young beautiful women to create his harem. He ordered to have the people to send all the young unmarried woman to the palace. When the people refused to do so, he threatened then by cutting all of the supplies and necessities.

That was when the situation turned bad. The people started to revolt. But due to the lack of food and water, the revolt didn't last long. The people were brutally killed and thrown on the streets by his men.

In the end, they were forced to follow his orders and send the girls to the palace in hope that at least they would lead a good life.

But that never happened. The moment that ruthless man gets bored of the woman he has slept with, he would offer that woman to his soldiers for comfort and destroy that woman completely!

The citizens were terrorised by the heartless king and slowly they let go of their hope.

The elder looked at Ira and smiled at her with a knowing look.

"Child, You said, you, yourself is a captive. How could you be so silly enough to look after others? Go and take care of yourself."

Ira blinked at the elder as a sudden smile spread across her face. For some reason she was reminded about her grandpa.

Seeing her standing there with a beautiful smile on her face, the elder and the others had nothing they could say as they turned around and left.