After death 4

Chapter 4

    ***

    "Something happened in the village?"

    "Renpesi’s youngest son is dead."

    In the past, it was just a story.

    Renpesi's son, a tanner for generations, had died of anthrax, and it was the third time he's lost a child to the disease, and he was heartbroken.

    "It was a boy, two years younger than me."

    "Well, that's a shame."

    Hyperion replied without much interest.

    Lynette knew that the death of the tanner's son was not something that even amused Hyperion.

    It was quite common for corpse handlers to die of anthrax.

    But what about this?

    "I think his wife is especially heartbroken, and maybe she'll leave."

    At the mention of leaving the zone, Hyperion looked interested.

    "Leaving."

    Renpesi was considered one of the most skilled workers even in the tannery district on the outskirts of the village.

    But aside from his skill with leather, he was also trusted by the lower classes of the outskirts.

    He was the first to find a way to ferment hides without soaking them in urine and dung.

    This gave the lower classes of the city some relief from the foul odor of filth.

    Renpesi was largely responsible for keeping the neighborhoods of prostitutes, horse butchers, and black marketeers running smoothly.

    "Yes, I heard the maids talking."

    Hyperion shook his head without comment.

    But Lynette noticed the odd crease in his brow.

    "So, Father, about that."

    Lynette looked up at Hyperion, smiling innocently.

    "I have Riley, so I thought we should send the girl to Renpesi’s."

    Hyperion looked at Kanna with an impassive expression.

    In fact, Kanna was going to be placed in the mine and used as a laundress.

    But her pleas brought her to Trokan.

    Kanna's plea went unheeded, for the mine accident was not unrelated to Hyperion.

    Lynette's gentle voice seeped through the guilt that still lingered in his chest.

    "Wouldn't it ease his wife's heartache to have a foster daughter? How hard it must be to suddenly have no one to help?”

     Foster daughter.

    A foster daughter.

    It was better to put her out of sight than to keep her as a maid.

    "Madison, take this child to Delcy and have her changed into suitable clothing."

    "Yes, my lord."

    Hyperion stroked Lynette's head once more. It was as if he was trying to organize his thoughts before making a decision.

    "And bring Renpesi."

    "To the manor?"

    The butler asked, and Hyperion wrinkled his nose as if he'd smelled a foul odor.

    "Take her new clothes and devotions, and bring her to the door."

    One corner of Lynette's mouth quirked up at the foul scent of the past wafting around her.

    ***

    As expected, Renpesi's reaction was positive.

    This was because he was more discouraged by the fact that he had no help to wash the hides in water than by the fact that his child was dead.

    But the fact that it wasn't a boy, but a girl that was so skinny she could break if he touched her, made him hesitate.

    "With all due respect, but if you reap what you sow and grow another mouth......"

    "It's because she’s lived in the wilderness and eaten so little. But she has hands. I'm sure she'll come in handy."

    Hyperion laid a few silver coins on top of his remaining guilt and let Kanna go.

    Lynette wondered what would happen if Kanna refused to follow Renpesi.

    There was a big difference between the life of a Baron’s maid and the life of a tanner's daughter.

    There was no way the clever Kanna didn't know that.

    Unexpectedly, however, Kanna climbed into Renpesi's wagon.

    Looking down at the skinny horse, the filthy wheels, and the mold-eaten wagon, Lynette smirked.

    She leaned against the second-story window and watched Kanna walk away.

    ‘Not a bad start.’

    It wouldn’t be easy being a tanner's daughter, no. It's going to be painful and hard.

    Lynette didn't think this would be the end of her revenge.

    She'd only done it because she wanted the upper hand from the start, that's all.

    ‘Go touch rotting corpses until your hands are swollen and your nose is numb.’

     

    Making leather was a rough and demanding job. She was going to have to get used to working with animal carcasses, and flesh and blood.

    Kanna would live in a place that stunk.

    ‘Until your whole body reeks of it.’

    Even though she knew it was impossible, she wondered if she could at least see it once.

    She was about to move away from the window when Lynette sent a mocking glance at Kanna's future.

    Kanna, riding away in her wagon, turned her head.

    She looked up at Lynette, who was leaning against the window on the second floor.

    For an instant, their eyes met.

    Kanna painted a bright smile on her rust-colored face and turned away again.

    "...."

    Lynette took a couple steps back from the window.

    She'd only taken two steps, and her heart was pounding as if she'd run a marathon.

    The last moments of her life came flooding back to her as she cursed at Kanna.

    <Kanna, I will never…..I won’t let that happen.>

    <Oh? By what means?>

    The beat that began in her heart spread through her body.

    That smile was familiar, frighteningly familiar.

    Lynette closed the window with a bang. It was as if Kanna's smile would break through the crack.

    What she imagined didn't happen.

    Something more interesting awaited.

    ***

    As the horse trotted along the road that led to the outskirts, Kanna didn't say a word.

    A few moments later, the wagon pulled into the marketplace.

    The market was crowded and bustling with activity.

    There were rows of small stalls and tents, where thin children were selling dried grapes and plums.

    The first thing that caught Kanna's eye was a bard leisurely plucking lira in an alleyway.

    "Desire is a snake with burning red eyes, jealousy is dark blue like angry waves, and pride is a yellow-eyed serpent that exudes rottenness like sulfur."

    Despite the harsh, rugged landscape in front of her, Kanna's mind could only think of one thing.

    The Baron's mansion.

    ‘The Hilt.’

    Kanna had thought she was different from everyone else since she was about six years old.

    She prided herself on her ivory hair, a color that seemed out of place in a coal mine.

    The fact that she looked nothing like her parents also bolstered her suspicions.

    A cramped hut and a stale loaf of bread soaked in water once a day was all she had to eat, let alone get an education, and she had to haul water to the mines until her feet were swollen as soon as she woke up.

    ‘I was born in the wrong place by God's mistake.’

    She firmly believed that God had a hand in her birth.

    It was the only thing that kept her going through her hard life.

    Until a mine collapse killed her parents and gave her the opportunity to meet Baron Hilt.

    ‘Thank God.’

    Kanna thought, her ordeal finally over.

    She could finally get back to the life she was meant to have.

    So the moment she met Baron Hilt, she was certain.

    ‘Yes, I was meant to be a Hilt.’

    Hyperion Dikla Hilt was a decent man.

    With just the right combination of words, he comforted Kanna, who had lost her parents in one day, and answered her pleas.

    ‘He was sent by the gods.’

    For that reason, Kanna's heart swelled as she stood in front of Hilt's mansion.

    This was her real home.

    But that was short-lived, for Kanna had to face Hyperion's young daughter.

    She had brown hair, similar to Hyperion's, in a fine braid, and a dress as beautiful as an angel's wings.

    <That's it, isn't it, you've bought me a maid to serve me.> (Lynette)

    There was no malice behind her innocent smile.

    And that made Kanna sad.

    The young lady had never been depressed or despairing.

    She's never been deprived of anything, never starved for food, never beaten herself to overcome suffering, never rolled in a coal mine.

    Well, did she know what a coal mine was?

    Kanna looked at the girl in Hyperion's arms, hiding her blackened nails.

    When she tried to send her off to the tanner's house with her innocent face, Kanna was sure again.

    It is I, not you, who is fit for the Hilt.

    It is I who should be in the Baron's arms.

    I am the one who should wear the white dress in Hilt.

    Yes.

    You are my final trial.

    ***

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