“Get up, sleepyhead” Egas heard his father calling.

“Ugh… give me 30 more minutes…”

As Egas tried to turn around in his bed, his father walked over to his bed and yanked the blanket away.

“No, not in 30 minutes. Now.”

He was staring at his father with a blank expression

“Why though? Is there anything special going on today?”

His father looked at him with a face that said ‘how could you forget?’

“It’s harvest season. The field doesn’t harvest itself.”

“Why do I have to help with that?”

Egas slowly sat up.

“Because you are now at an age where you can help. I can’t afford to feed you if you don’t do anything.”

“But why now of all times? It was never like this before.”

“Your mother wanted me to wait until you are a teenager to get you to help on the field. I respected her wishes and this time around you are 13 years old.”

“Fine… I’ll get up. So, what’s to eat?”

“Why do you even ask? There is bread, eggs and some apples.”

“Nice! We haven’t had apples in a while.”

“If there are no apples on the trees, how are we supposed to eat apples?”

“Doesn’t matter. Now, let’s go and eat!”

Half an hour later the meal was finished. Egas felt satisfied and readied himself to go on the field.

“Be home before sunset. I’ve got something important to tell you later this evening.”

“I’ll try my best but I won’t promise you anything.”

“I know you want to go and meet up with your friends, but try your best to be here on time.”

“I’ll try.”

Egas was making his way out of the house into the direction of the local nobles‘ field. On his way to the field he walked through the village.

The buildings in this region of Menia were not in the best shape. The roofs had lots of holes in them and the walls seemed to only be held up by them leaning onto each other. The streets were uneven and muddy.

The people he met on his way through the village were all wearing rugged clothing and seemed to only be skin and bones.

They would have done anything to become wealthy.

Long story short: The people here were miserable.

As Egas got close to the village center he turned into a side street, where there were three other kids coming down that street.

“Look who’s there. Haven’t seen you in a while, serf.”

A small and plump kird, looking as if his father has force fed him his entire childhood, with a look that made him stand out of the crowd in the village, wearing the most expensive clothes Egas has ever seen was in the center of the group.

Egas felt like puking when he saw him. He was one of the most vile people here in the village and always out to put everyone down. He’s the son of the lord of this land. All the villagers that were in the way between him and Egas were now making way for him to pass through.

“Good day young master Filian. What brings you here? I thought you were attending school in the city?”

“As a matter of fact, the school year has ended and I got a long leave and now have to somehow get over that time in this shitty village.”

Egas was not happy with that answer. Filian was an asshole who liked to relish on the misery of the peasants of the fiefdom.

There was no school around here as the village was quite poor and attending school was a very expensive thing. Only nobles and the clergy could attend school due to the tuition fees.

In case of Filian, to Egas‘ enjoyment, his school was located in the city over, roughly five hours away from this village. He didn’t have to see him for an entire year. An entire year which Egas was able to just chill around and didn‘t have to worry about running into this dickhead.

The three kids slowly started to surround Egas while he had to talk to Filian.

“What have you been up to for the past year?”

Filian had this haughty tone to his voice, which in Egas opinion was really annoying.

“What else was I supposed to do? I served the fief and helped my father as usual.”

“Good, good. What came to my ears however was that, you, Egas, weren’t doing jack shit. As a matter of fact, as a serf, you are the property of this fiefdom and by extension also my property.”

“You see, if you aren’t working, it decreases the fiefdom’s overall productivity. And if productivity decreases we will see to it that the taxes will be set higher to punish everyone here.”

“What will you do when the people here want your head because they now have to pay for your laziness?”

Egas stood there silently, letting Filian barrage him with his mighty attitude.

“For now we will let you off with a warning. But let me tell you, if you don’t improve this the next time I come here, you will face the consequences of your insolence.”

“My apologies, and thank you, master Filian.”

The fatty left with a snort and the others followed him. This time Egas was able to continue on with his day without getting a beating. The tension in his body just dissipated all at once and he almost fell to his knees, feeling all shaky.

“Phew, that was close.”

This wouldn’t be the first time that someone got beaten to death by Filian and his followers – and certainly not the last one either.

Still feeling a bit shaky because of this encounter, Egas continued to make his way over to the field.

After another 15 minutes of walking he arrived at the field.

“Ah, how come are you here?”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

A familiar voice came from behind Egas.

“Ah, Adam. You’re here too?”

“You can bet your ass I am. I’ve joined the harvests ever since 3 harvests ago.”

Adam was a boy, that is built a bit more muscular and taller than most. Adam and Egas became friends 5 years ago after Adam asked Egas whether he wanted to play with him when Egas was lying on a field, staring at the sky. His brown hair has grown roughly shoulder length and can be described as if he’s been caring for it meticulously every day.

“Did your pops not let you skip out this harvest?”

“No. I wish he would have let me sleep for at least an hour longer. Anyways, since when have you been here?”

“Ah. I helped them as early as before the sunrise. We’re having a good harvest today. Just look around you.”

“I can see that. This is enough to feed the village for at least a year.”

“Yeah. If we are lucky we can even sell some in the city market this harvest around.”

“So, what should I do to help?”

“You take this farming scythe, cut the wheat at the bottom and bring it onto the stack over there.”

“Kay, we‘ll meet again after the harvest, right?”

“Sure bud. I will have some stuff to take care of afterwards though. I’ll be there… maybe late afternoon. Where do you wanna meet up?”

“How about over at the large oak tree close to the flower field at the north side of the village?”

“Sounds nice. Now, let’s get to work.”

After half a day of harvesting, the field was now mostly done being harvested. As Egas prepares himself for his way back to the village, Adam tosses two apples at him.

“Here, some food for your journey back. Don’t forget our meeting later!”

“Sure, I won’t!”

Egas was making his way back home first, as it was relatively close to the oak tree.

As he entered the house, nobody was there.

Maybe father is helping out at the harvesting of another field?

In the kitchen on the table Egas found some soup and some weird drawings that he thought should symbolise… that his father would be back later? It’s hard to tell, but as they were peasants, none of them were able to read or write, so this was their only way to leave a note for each other.

Egas took the spoon next to the soup on the table, sat down and started eating.

“Hmm. Nice, he put meat into the soup. Why isn‘t he here to eat something this expensive together with me?”

After briefly thinking about it, he finished the plate and got back up.

I stink.

After a day of working on the field, that wasn’t very surprising. Egas decided to take a bath in the river and change his clothes before meeting anyone.

He walked to the drawer and picked out a change of clothes and a rag to dry himself with once he gets out of the water and leaves the house.

The river was not too far away from his home. Usually it took him about 10 minutes to get there.

Egas arrived at the river. It had a calm surface, without a torrent, so it’s good for a bath or for getting water.

He took a look around to see if anyone was around. After making sure that nobody’s here, he took his clothes off and hung them on some nearby tree branches. A lot of people would call this habit feminine, but Egas didn’t care about that.

The instant Egas stepped into the water, a wave of coldness surged all over his body. While it was a typical, hot, summer, the flowing water was still cold and uncomfortable at first. However, after a few moments it started to become refreshing. Once he got used to the water though, he didn’t wanna leave it anymore, just so he wouldn’t have to face the heat outside anymore.

After he stood in the water for a long while, he guessed it was time to get out or he might be too late for the meeting with Adam.

Egas got out of the water, instantly feeling the wave of heat that’s coming from the blazing sun and the air around him. He felt a light, warm breeze hitting him as he walked over to the place where he put his clothes.

He put on the slightly oversized top and a pair of pants that fitted him like a glove. In general, with these clothes, he resembled a noble who’s become a beggar recently. His skin was fair and soft, his hair had a dark blonde tone. He had a build slightly smaller than that of Adam but he looked like a beanstalk. His eyes had a bored look to them, a dullish green with fringes of grayish blue reaching into the inner parts of the iris.

After patting himself down, he went back home to put his dirty clothes into a handmade wicker basket before setting off again. It didn’t take long for Egas to arrive at the tree but Adam was nowhere to be found, so he just sat down under the tree and took out the second apple. Over time, the sitting turned more into laying and he slowly drifted into sleep.

Egas opened his eyes. He didn‘t know how late it was but he was sure it’s been a few hours already.

He found half of the apple he ate before he fell asleep still in his hands. Feeling hungry after the nap, he took a bite off it.

The moment he took the bite, he started to feel weird. It started with a strong stomachache and headache. He felt like he was being torn apart and compressed into himself at the same time.

The apple fell to the ground as Egas started to curl up, he could barely move due to the extreme pain he was in.

The longer the pain went on, the more it felt like it was spreading throughout Egas‘ entire body.

The indescribable pain first went over to his forehead and his hips respectively. After that the pain around the hips spread both up and down towards the thighs and the upper body, which felt like they were ballooning. The pain on his forehead was focused on two points, which felt as though something was piercing through his forehead.

Meanwhile the pain on the upper body migrated to his back where it condensed close to the shoulder blades. Egas almost fell unconscious due to the immeasurable pain all over his body.

The pain on the thighs moved onto his calves and feet. At the same time, his entire face felt like it was burning up. Egas held his hands in front of his face because of the pain brought to him.

The moment he touched his face though, his hands and arms also began to have the same burning sensation.

After a few minutes of that pain his entire body turned numb. He couldn’t get up or even move. Just laying there, helplessly.

**Prologue: END**