Princess Josephine

"Why do I have to do it this year?" A chubby young girl complained in a high pitched voice. "Tell the brothers to name the slaves! Ugh! These dirty mongrels don't even deserve to live, much rather a name! I hate this!"

"Princess Josephine, please understand that you are thirteen now. You need to take the responsibilities of a grown up." A man standing beside the young girl replied in a respected and calm tone. He looked like a servant from his attire.

'I think he's her butler and she's one of the princesses!'

The butler continued, "Besides, you should keep in mind that the slave you name will become your 'Helot'. He will have to follow your every order until the day he dies. If he fails to follow, death will be nothing but a blessing to him."

I looked around the memory I was in. It was a rundown hut with 9 infants lying on the floor, placed on a bed sheet. The place looked familiar and I recognized one of the babies as Alex.

As I was looking around, Josephine replied cheekily, "Can't I just borrow any other slave? Besides, I have you Berd, you'll always do anything for me, I know it!"

"I am sorry princess but age has gotten up to me. Soon I will leave this world behind and you will have to find a new slave to do your biddings." Berd replied with a melancholic tone. "You should choose one now that you have the chance princess Josephine."

With teary eyes, Josephine looked towards Berd and said, "Fine, I will name one but don't leave me so soon Berd. Atleast, stay with me until I can move freely without you, in this village."

Wiping her eyes, Josephine asked, "What do I need to do?"

"Please choose a slave infant from these nine and decide a name for it. I will take care of the ceremony."

"Alright, I choose that one." Josephine pointed at the baby Alex.

As soon as Berd moved forward to pick Alex, the scene infront of me shifted and I was now floating like a ghost infront of what looked like an altar. Various people in dirty ragged clothes surrounded the altar. Alex was lifted up above the Altar by Berd.

As the scene played, Berd said with a loud and clear voice, "In the honor of Kronos, the God who guides us till the end of every year, Princess Josephine has bestowed a name on an unworthy slave."

The scene infront of me was mesmerizing, everyone was watching in awe as Berd continued, "Thus forth, the name of this slave will be 'Alex'. For the harvest of the year 561 FE, Alex will be the only one out of the nine infant slaves who is eligible for the milk of the Lakéquses and will be bestowed with free food until the third day of week 27 of the year 565 FE, when he turns four. He is now destined to serve the princess until his last breath."

After declaring Alex as a named slave, Berd placed the crying child on the stone altar and took out a brown leather pouch with a small nozzle on the top which looked like a bota bag. He then placed the nozzle in the infant's mouth which he started to suck and quieted down. As soon as Alex stopped crying, I was thrown out of the memory.

***

The memory ended there and I returned back to the mine. Apparently, no time passes when I'm watching a memory unfold.

Suddenly, my head felt another jolt of electricity and some more fragments of memories hit my brain. The memories were not related to an incident but they were some of the knowledge about this village that got refreshed.

'So, the time flow here is not much different from Earth. There are about 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 53 weeks an year. Huh? There is no system of months and days don't have a name! The date is told like this, 'fifth day of week 43 of the year 576 FE! And, FE stands for 'Feastus Era'. Feastus is the God of Knowledge and Mind here!'

The knowledge entering my head was very strange and otherworldly but it was very important. I slowed down my mining speed and calmed my breathing to slowly assimilate and understand everything. I received knowledge about three things, the flow of time, the hierarchy of the people and a little bit about the village. But, the most valuable information I received would be the location of the Starlight seeds that I have hidden at a place just to take revenge on the village.

As I was sorting through the sudden knowledge, suddenly a whip came onto my back and hit it!

Swoosh! Whip!

"Aaagh!" the sudden pain made me scream louder than I should have. I was about to fall onto my knees but I supported myself somehow with the pickaxe and looked back at the guy who just whipped me with my bloodshot eyes.

He looked me in the eyes and replied in a loud and angry voice, "You dare slow down! Remember, if you don't finish your quota today, there will be no food!"

'Calm down Deniel, calm down, your time will arrive and then they'll all suffer!' I calmed myself and staggered my way towards the rocks and started mining in pain. My back was already wet with sweat so I couldn't tell whether I was bleeding but the pain was high enough for me to guess that I was.

I looked back at the master who hit me, I saw him sneer and walk away towards another slave. Without caring anymore about anything else, I just started to mine the rocks as if my life depended on it. The pain and the sweat just made me realize that the sooner I escaped from this hell, the better!

***

"Uff!"

A painful moan escaped from my lips. Right now, I was tying my shirt around my waist to stop the bleeding. When I was hit by the master, the wound wasn't deep but since I mined without caring about the pain, the wound opened again and again. My shirt had turned red from the blood.

"I should've stopped and bandaged the wound first." I exclaimed in pain. "It has grown significantly deep."

"If you have stopped even for a second to tend to your wound, he would have put in more gashes with his whip!" James replied while tending to the Lakéquses. "But your healing factor is very slow, look at how much you are bleeding with just a small wound. Don't tell me you have hemophilia?" James looked at me with a desire to find an answer.

"Don't we all have low healing factors James?" The boy whom I kept calling my 'fan' replied while bringing me a leaf filled with water. "We know how much nutrition the food lacks. How can a slave who isn't even considered human have a healthy physique like humans?"

His words affected everyone in the stable. After a long and painful day of work, we all went to have the dinner together. Due to the pain, I was having some trouble eating so I just stored my dinner in the inventory and came to the stable. Bandaging oneself was a regular site in the slave group. Every slave had deep scars around their body, especially their back. But a slave could not complain, it was only a human's right to do so.