Chapter 19. How to get out of a bad situation
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Ihedia's tapered sleep, nightly medication, and tender nursing care have helped 30 regain her strength to the point where she didn’t recognize 30.
"You are my life savior!"
30 exclaimed as she stood up and hugged Ihedia tightly.
"Oh, I'm sorry I'm late in introducing myself. I'm Aurora Belle, and I'm from the kingdom of Zelrod. It's against the rules to give out my real name, but I'll give you a special one."
Mysterious silver hair, pink eyes that looked as sweet as the scent of a chrysanthemum.
Full of life, Aurora was still a young woman, but she was certainly a beauty to behold wherever she went.
Her childlike innocence, coupled with a bright smile like a fragrant nectar, was enough to make anyone fall in love with her.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Ihedia Herilsmiller."
"Herilsmiller... Are you from Elmir?"
"That's right."
"Wow, I heard Elmir is a country surrounded by fragrant spring flowers all year round? That's a country I've always wanted to visit....... Anyway, thanks so much for saving me."
Aurora grasped both of Ihedia's hands and thanked her profusely.
Ihedia smiled shyly and said,
"I didn't do much, someone brought the medicine."
"I don't know who it was, but be sure to thank that person, too! And don't tell me you didn't do anything, because I distinctly remember that you cleaned up all the vomit I threw up and changed my clothes."
"Anyway, I'm so glad you seem to be okay now."
Aurora looked healthy, hard to believe that this was the same person who had just been bedridden.
Ihedia was greatly relieved to see her with a noticeably improved color.
At first, the medicine Doa had given her had been less effective than expected, and Aurora's condition had not improved.
The healing arts were not well developed in Anut, and fine herbs were not readily available.
For a while, Ihedia was deeply troubled by Aurora's condition, which remained the same over time.
Then, with great effort, she remembered something she had read in an old herbalist's book.
Determined to do something about it, she mixed it with a few other ingredients, and to her delight, it worked wonders.
"But then again, you never know what that crazy woman will do. At least now Kayan Bayate is staying in the mansion, so she doesn't even shine her nose in the outbuildings."
Aurora then tied the hem of her cumbersome skirt tightly between her legs and picked up her cleaning tools.
From now on, it would be Aurora and Ihedia's job to take care of the stables.
It was always physically demanding to have an extra person around, but Ihedia didn't mind having someone to talk to.
Aurora's mouth worked diligently even as she scrubbed.
"Well, you better watch out for her too, she has a huge obsession with Kayan Bayate, and I'm the innocent victim of it, heh, you'd think she was a real hostess, really."
"So what the hell is the relationship between the two?"
"Well, I heard that the previous head of the family, Odant Bayate, took the man under his wing and they've been close as family ever since, but there's not much more to it than that, and Netira's been making a big deal about it. That's why she's still not married, even though she’s of age. No, she can't. I honestly think any man who thinks of a woman with such polarizing qualities as his mate is out of his mind."
Aurora, who had a deep-seated grudge against Netira, was a bit agitated and spoke like a rapid-fire cannon, firing off a lot of words without stopping.
Then she began to tell the story of the outbuilding, one by one.
"It's funny, but even among the outbuildings, there's a hierarchy, and even if you're in the same situation, you're treated subtly differently depending on where you belong. I've been dragged here, and I don't know what the point of it all is, but I can't let go of my aristocratic habits, even though the country's fallen and I'm in this mess."
“Hierarchy?"
"Why, that's all there is. There are factions, and they're very much at each other's throats, and Netira rewards those who accuse their peers of wrongdoing, so it's not uncommon for people in the outbuildings to deliberately frame someone, or to tell on them to the higher-ups."
Aurora sighed, shaking her head as if tired of the outbuilding atmosphere.
As Aurora went on to explain at length, places like the smithy, armory, and granary were tolerable workplaces.
In addition, the less labor-intensive crafts and the kitchens, where proper meals were served, were places you'd want to be.
However, newcomers to the Bayate family, or women who displeased Netira, were assigned to the dirtier, harder work of the latrines and stables.
It was a job everyone shunned, and those who were assigned to it had the lowest rank.
As a result, they were looked down upon not only by the Anuts, but also by the people in their own headquarters.
Even within their own ridiculous "class," they take sides and fight.
It was a sentiment that Ihedia found a little hard to understand.
The women in the outbuildings had all given her a sneering look when they first saw her.
Ihedia laughed bitterly.
"You can't trust anyone around here. 5, who shares a room with us, has a reputation for being nice to everyone, but well, you never know."
Aurora didn't let her guard down easily, even about 5, who had been relatively kind to her.
Aurora was also kind enough to share with Ihedia some very useful tips for adjusting to living in a detached house.
Ihedia took everything Aurora had to say to heart, and this time she brought up the subject of the caretaker of the outbuildings, who seemed to be very close to Netira.
"What about someone named Ellie?"
"She's sort of Netira's henchwoman. I don't know much about her, but I've heard that there was a time, a long time ago, when Netira was in danger, and she was instrumental in saving the day. It's very rare for a woman like her to rise to the position of caretaker. In fact, the people of the outbuildings, though they don't say it out loud, consider her a traitor to the world."
In their eyes, Ellie was a manipulative opportunist who flirted with the enemy who had destroyed her country and abused the women of the exile who were in the same situation.
That, Aurora added, was why Monica spoke so bitterly of Ellie, who was once her maid.
"The only way to get out of the outbuildings is to earn Netira’s trust.”
The outbuildings were heavily guarded because they housed slaves.
A massive retaining wall, taller than the building itself, surrounded the outbuildings, and at the entrances were always fierce guards with weapons drawn.
There was no way to get outside without crossing the main building, so it would be impossible for a woman to escape.
Ihedia had escaped the Elmir Palace, which had been a prison for years, only to find herself back in the same situation.
Ihedia continued the conversation, pondering how Ellie had ended up in the main building.
"Will your life be any better if you end up in the main house like Ellie did?"
"It's true that once you're a part of it, you're relatively free to move around - you get an access pass and can go out to buy groceries, call in doctors, and run small errands - but that's only for the few people Netira trusts to do so. The chance to move up to the main house doesn't come around that easily - sometimes someone dies and there's a shortage of workers, and even then it can take years for the rotation to get around to stable slaves like us."
A pass to get out of this place.
Aurora's words were a flippant way of describing the ecosystem here, but they triggered some sort of flash in Ihedia's mind.
Aurora put down her cleaning tools for a moment and stretched out her long-suffering back in a hunched position.
"But I don't think that's necessarily a good thing."
"Why?"
"Because you have to be on your toes at all times to stay out of Netira's sight, and I think I'd rather work in this stable where no one cares about me. I don't have to answer to anyone but the pompous stablehand, and I'm far enough away from the outbuildings that I don't have to get involved in any tiring fights."
"But...... It wouldn't make any difference."
Aurora, who hadn't heard Ihedia's muttering to herself, stopped what she was doing and wiped the sweat from her brow.
Aurora had seemed very reluctant to go to the main house, given her rejection of Netira, but Ihedia had other ideas.
It would be better to take the risk of going to the main house and finding a way to escape rather than languish here.
Ihedia steeled herself as she thought of Evan, lonely in the cellar back at Elmir.
****
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Write a comment
Emmanuel801 (Wednesday, 20 December 2023 23:52)
Thank you so much!❤️