Old Man in the Mine

He heard the voice of the well-known, turned around in a low anger and saluted.

"Vice Commander, what brings you here?!"  Number 44 spoke with a frowning and fearful face.

 Thus spoke the deputy camp commander, dressed in brown clothes protected by a silver breastplate and shoulder and elbow protectors.

 By the looks of it, he's a swordsman.

"No. 44. Do you want to be punished again? We don't have much manpower and now you are trying to reduce it."

He said with a change in his voice, a face with brown eyebrows forming a thick line.  "Due to the lack of manpower, I think I will intervene and make some servants work... We have a lot of them."

"Please… forgive me, it was my mistake, this is the last time I will do this, please forgive me." Number 44 said as he hurriedly crawled to the deputy's legs.

 "How long will you last in this ha???" After he said this, the deputy commander moved his legs away to save his shoes from getting dirty with mucus. "Oh, okay, I'll give you one last chance."

No. 44 heard this and thanked the deputy leader from the bottom of his heart.

The deputy camp commander looked around and noticed that the slaves had stopped mining.  He lowered his head and the aura around him changed, showing a brilliant color.  "Go and keep mining or I'll dig your head up."

Hearing that, the slaves kicked their butts and started digging at breakneck speed.

The deputy commander turned to go to the exit after scolding his subordiNait.

 ***

After that No. 44 did not speak a word except to warn the slaves not to stop working and watching over them.

At that time Nait took the poor old man to a rock wall and made him lean on it.

"Are you okay, grandpa?" Nait wondered

"Kaho...Kaho...Thank you for saving me. There was no need to go through the troubles of this dying old man...Kaho...Kaho... I don't have much time left. I'm too old to work here, after 20 years of being in this mine." The old man was suffering.

"Never mind. I like to help those in need. Wow, twenty years?? This is miserable. How am I going to run away from here and meet Keith?"  Nait began to think of a very bleak future.

The old man looked at Nait with a lively youthful disposition and recalled his past, nostalgic and bitter at the same time.  It made the old man cry.

 Nait is shocked. "Sorry.. sorry, did I say something bad?"

 When the old man looked at him, he smiled and said, "Nothing. I just remember nostalgia when I was young and back with a position and power. Until one day I think I've died since that day."

An expression of hatred and intense hatred appeared on the old man's face as he continued to speak.  "The scum of the nobility...they know nothing but their dirty position and their arrogant attitude. My wife was a beautiful, ordinary village woman whom I met when I was 15 years old. From that day until now I still love her. We got married at the age of 18, and I had two children from her. A boy and a girl were  my eyes."

Tears began to fall profusely again and he continued.

"Until one day a noble came across a village. I was the chief of a village and he was the owner of a county. With that he came to visit my house. And here the bastard recognized my wife. And also a sharp sword. It was really the end of my life. My wife was raped in front of me by the followers of a noble's brother and slaughtered  My children, and the end of my condition of bondage."

Listening to this, Nait attributed an old man with a hard life and that he is in the same situation without a family.  This made the old man feel better.

"YOUUUU.. what are you doing?? Do you think that after I have been reprimanded, you will surrender and do whatever you want?"  Number 44 appeared behind them after losing patience with them.

Hearing this, Nait got angry and said. "The old man won't work. Let him rest a little and he'll die. You know if something happens to him it's your fault."

"YOU…" Veins appeared on Number 44's hand that was holding a whip, but he couldn't do anything to them.

 He smiled slyly, "Well.. to be. I hope he doesn't starve then... haha ​​because he won't be able to eat if he doesn't work."

"???" Nait was surprised by Number 44's words.

"Kaho…Kaho… Here there is a system that if you take out a lot of mana essence, all you get is eaten. Conversely, if you don't get any mana essence, you won't eat."  An old man's explanation.

"There is such a thing."

Of course, but Nait didn't know now. He only worked a few hours, and it wasn't time for a meal yet.  So there was someone writing in front of a boxcar.  He counts the number of essence extracted from each person.'

Nait looked at Number 44 and said.  " Good."

Note one last word of Nait left Number 44 from near them and went watching from a distance.