I knew I was expecting too much when I thought I would get some rest this month. But of course, I did get a lot of time to recuperate and regain my strength, but I spent most of my time in the presence of Adria.

My days fell into a simple rhythm that would probably be the norm for some time. But, just like this district, our schedule reminded me of a prison. We were to always adhere to it with no deviations unless ordered.

I’d wake up early along with all the slaves and servants. Every other day it was the men’s turn to bathe. If we did any kind of strenuous work that had us smelling worse than average, time would be allocated during the day for us to clean ourselves.

After bathing or not, we were expected to eat a quick breakfast. Usually, it would be a sign of disrespect for us to eat before our masters, but since we wake up nice and early before them, it was allowed. By the time Adria or her family woke up, nearly every servant and slave in the mansion would have been dressed, bathed, and eaten breakfast.

Sylros and Muriel, along with a few other servants, would wake up any of the Sanderviles who hadn’t woken themselves. It seemed that even though Muriel was a slave, she was well trusted. But for the most part, everyone besides Mayor Sandervile himself needed to be woken up.

I have not yet participated in the waking of the Sanderviles. Adria asked me to be the one to wake her, but Sylros talked her down quickly under the pretense that I wasn’t ready for such tasks. He often deflected most of her arguments, saying that I was still too tired from “Being Sad.” Sylros made it clear that I was to be resting and not messing around, so I wasn’t part of the group that assisted with the Sandervile’s breakfast either.

After I finished eating breakfast, I would typically just head back to my cot to sleep. But recently, I’ve started doing some light physical activity again, mainly in the form of long walks and low repetition bodyweight exercises. Without mana, I could barely do twelve push-ups without gasping for air, but I had to start somewhere. It was normally after breakfast that I had a 50/50 chance of running into Adria on any given day.

On the days I managed to escape her grasp, I returned to the servant quarters where she wasn’t allowed to be. Here Muriel would explain to me various tasks that would be expected of me at some point, or we would just make small talk. Occasionally some of the other slaves or servants would speak to me as well. So far, they were all very kind to me.

But I wasn’t spending all my leisure time idly. So far, I’ve managed to map out the entire mansion from the outside all the way to the second floor. I haven’t been to the third floor yet, but I’m sure an opportunity will arise sooner rather than later. I’ve also figured out the servant and guard rotation for the mansion’s interior, with the outside perimeter and walls nearly complete.

It was as I expected. The servants' and guards’ duties and rotations were run just like a military. They even rotated guard patrols at random intervals. I’m sure there was a pattern, but it’s too soon for me to be able to pick it out.

But there was a problem.

The guards that patrol the mayor’s district were the equivalent of a king’s royal guards. From what I managed to glean from Muriel and the other servants, the guards stationed here are mostly retired veterans from the last war. Dad mentioned he was part of that war as well on the side of the Old Empire, so many of these men and women were soldiers from that war a handful of years ago.

I’d like to say that they have grown soft from the end of the war, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. I can’t see any lax attitude amongst their ranks. They patrol efficiently with no gaps in their defenses. I’m also well aware that they are not slacking off on their training. These aren’t a bunch of old retired war dogs collecting a paycheck from their old master while sipping fine wine.

These soldiers may be old, but they are still very much skilled.

There are also the three personal guards to the Sanderviles, Martin the mage, Ester, the female knight lieutenant, and the commander of the entire royal guard was that man, Sir Bril. Those three alone were powerful fighters. I doubt I could take out a single one unless I managed some kind of sneak attack on them.

But this doesn’t mean it’s over for me. If security is this tight in the mayor’s district, then the next-door noble district must be lacking in some departments. I’ll just need to find a way to do some reconnaissance there. I also still need to check the library for the escape route when I have the time.

I’ve also looked into sending a letter out of the district, but it doesn’t seem possible. Any and all outgoing mail is checked at the guardhouse. And as a slave, I wasn’t permitted even to write a letter. If I were caught with writing material, I would be punished severely.

But those are how my days have been going when I manage to escape Adria. Today, however, was not one of those days. Currently, it was Muriel, Adria, and myself at the little flower garden outside.

Since I am now considered to be Adria’s friend, I have been deemed worthy of assisting in the flower garden. Of course, there wasn’t much to do now that the first frost had settled in, killing most of the flowers that used to flourish in the garden. But this was Adria’s favorite place to be so it’s normally where she wanted to go. Besides, it would be too uncomfortable to be outside soon when winter fully settled in, so she was trying to make the most out of her time.

“Kali, do you like this flower?” Adria asked me. It was the same flower that caught my attention when I first came here. It was a mixed purple and yellow flower.

“Yeah, I actually do kind of like it for some reason. It was the first flower that caught my eye when Muriel showed me this place,” I admitted.

“Her name is Muri, Kali, come on! Say it!” Adria pouted.

“Yes… when Muri showed me the garden.”

I tried to respect my station as a slave, but I’ve long since given up on that. Sylros and the others turn a blind eye to it as long as it’s in this type of setting. Out of sight and out of mind.

Besides, it beats having an argument with Adria every single time about the appropriate way for me to address her. At least this way, she wouldn’t complain when the time came for me to address her as Young Master in more formal settings.

“These flowers remind me of your eyes, Kali. Do you know the name for this flower?” she asked. I just shook my head.

I didn’t actually know the name of most of these flowers. My botanical knowledge came in the form of herbs or plants that could be bought and sold.

“Magic Lilies. My mom said they grow in fields around Tel’an’duth and that they are very pretty. They were her favorite…” Adria trailed off.

“I see. Your mom sounds like a very nice person. She even took good care of this garden. You must miss her a lot.”

“I do. I miss her a bunch. She was always smiling and laughing with me. Then she got really sick, and… it all just happened so fast,” Adria sniffled a bit after the last part.

Ah, crap, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…

“Sorry… Adria, I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories,” I said softly.

“It’s okay. What about your Mom, Kali? What’s she like?” she said while wiping her nose with her sleeve.

Muriel gave me a somewhat apologetic look, but I went ahead and answered Adria’s question. “She’s kind. We had a little rough patch at the start of our relationship, but we worked it out and started over again. Since then, she has been the best Mother I could ever ask for. She cares about my friends and me. She can be a little too overbearing sometimes, but that’s okay. She makes great manaweave clothes that are super comfortable to wear, and I’ve come to realize she is awful at cooking.”

Yes, that’s right. Mother, I miss you dearly. I hope you and Dad are okay out there and you are taking care of Cerila… But I’ve learned that you are an awful cook, Mom. Not just a lousy cook but an awful one.

I even vaguely remember comparing your food to that of nutrient paste. What was I thinking?

It’s almost been a month since I’ve been here at the Sandervile mansion, and I’ve learned what real food should taste like. I’m not sure, even if you spent the rest of your life learning to cook, that you could recreate these dishes, Mom. I feel bad for Dad and Cerila, who are probably being forced to eat your food right now. They have no idea what they are missing out on.

Adria and Muriel both just giggled. Then Adria asked me.“What else is there about your mom?”

“Well, I think she has a sweet tooth. She really likes chocolate and sweet bread. I caught her eating the entire loaf of bread I bought in the middle of the night one time.”

It seems just like yesterday that I caught her. I never did ask if she was okay. I just kind of accepted it and went to bed. I hope Mom wasn’t stress eating or something. I did put her and Dad through a lot that day.

“You must miss your mom too, Kali,” Adria said while looking at me.

I’m not sure what kind of face I made, but she winced slightly. “Uh, sorry…” I said awkwardly. “But yeah, I miss my Mom a lot. I hope she is okay.”

Adria seemingly started panicking a bit. Perhaps she felt terrible about bringing up my family. I wasn’t sure how much Adria understood about my position, but she didn’t seem ignorant to the fact that I was a slave. I mean, she did see me in the back of a caged carriage, barely clothed and starving, so that leaves little to the imagination.

“D—Doo, you like chocolate, Kali?” she asked nervously.

“Mhm, I’ve only had it twice, but I really liked it the second time.”

“Here.” Adria reached into her coat pocket and gave me a small ball of wrapping paper. The paper was unmarked and just looked like a golden egg.

“What is this?”

“It’s chocolate, dummy! Unwrap it and eat it. Princess Ren and Princess Lauren took me to a place in the capital, and they had all these amazing sweets.” Adria swayed back and forth while rubbing her stomach as she reminisced about her time in the Kingdom of Luminar.

Apparently, Adria didn’t leave the mayor’s district often. That was her first time ever leaving the city, and it was on an international trip to the Kingdom of Luminar. Something about an event that was being held there or something?

Adria wasn’t very good at explaining the whole thing, so I couldn’t be sure. She just mainly talked about how she became friends with the princesses and the prince of Luminar and the things they did together.

Either way, I wouldn’t turn down sweets from any princess. So I unwrapped the paper, and inside was a ball of dark chocolate. Mmmm…. I was skeptical now. I wasn’t a fan of dark chocolate ever since that marine gave me some.

I much prefer the sweeter lighter-colored chocolate cupcake that I got on my fifth birthday. But Adria’s eyes were practically glowing as she waited for me to try the thing, so I plopped it into my mouth.

The dark chocolate on the outside had a strong taste to it but the inside had a gooey interior made of sweet liquid chocolate.

It was absolutely divine.

I thought cool freshwater was the best thing, but this was just too good. Honestly, I could probably devour ten of these things. No, I could easily destroy twenty of these bad boys given a chance.

“Do you like it? Well, come on, tell me if you like it! It’s good, isn’t it?” Adria said enthusiastically.

“I think he likes it, Adria,” Muriel teased.

I finished savoring the last bits of chocolate and gave a thumbs up. “It’s delicious.”

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Adria looked like she was about to say something but the smile on her face quickly vanished. It was replaced with a neutral look, so I already knew who she saw. Even with my damaged ears, I could hear the clacking of their heels on the stone walkway.

“Haven’t I told you to stop treating that slave boy like a friend, Adrianna?” a woman’s voice scolded.

“But… Kaladin is my friend…" Adria said weakly.

The woman clicked her tongue while the other two gave haughty chuckles. "He isn’t your friend. Your father bought him from the market like some pet.” Then she glared right at me, “A pet that cost far too much,” she spat.

The three women bothering us were Mayor Sandervile’s wives. The one who spoke out was the first and primary wife of Mayor Sandervile, Keyla Sandervile. Her being the first wife essentially made her the queen of this City-State. From my few interactions with her, I could tell she was a vindictive woman.

She appeared to be in her late thirties, but it was difficult to tell with just how much makeup she had applied, if I had to guess, she was closer to fifty than forty. Her blonde hair looked as if it had been constantly dyed, and her brown eyes seemed cold.

Last month, when I imagined that Adria’s mother had been assassinated, I assumed it was a likely possibility. But now, I was confident that these women played some part in her death.

They were likely bitter that they had failed to conceive a child with Mayor Sandervile. Although it probably wasn’t their fault since the issues most likely resided within Mayor Sandervile. However, they still took out their frustrations on a little girl.

The other wife, who managed to conceive a child with Mayor Sandervile, is apparently living alone outside the mayor’s district, a smart choice. The fifth wife I have yet to see. According to Sylros, she currently resides in City State Whieland as an ambassador of sorts.

When Adria talked about her mother or Muriel reminisced about the woman, I could feel their love and admiration for her. Adria’s mother, Isha, seemed like a kind and gentle lady. This flower garden was proof of that. However, these women seemed to want nothing more than to bring down Adria at every opportunity. Muriel told me that they often found doing so tricky, but with my arrival, they could use me instead.

“But he really is my friend!” Adria attempted to defend herself and me.

“Whatever delusion you are feeding yourself, Adrianna, you are going to have to wake up from it eventually. Now run along. Your father wants a word with you,” Lady Keyla snorted.

Adria huffed in anger and dashed off towards the mansion. I could hear her sniffling as she ran. Muriel tapped me on the back a few times, which was my cue to leave. We bowed towards the ladies of House Sandervile and bid them farewell. I could hear their snickers and jabs at Adria as we strode away.

These women are going to make my life much harder than it has to be, aren’t they?

—

Time has flown by at a blazing pace, winter and spring came and went, and now it’s nearly summer in City State Sandervile. Since then, I’ve already started my training as a servant to House Sandervile.

Learning the ways of a servant has been… challenging. It turns out I simply lack the natural skills to be a good servant. I mean, I can clean and do chores, but I struggle to do much else. My limp doesn’t help me very much either. And who would have thought setting the table with the proper silverware would be a difficult task?

Why the hell does somebody need three forks? What? So you can use one for your salad and one for dinner? Why? Why not just use one fork for that? Did your fork suddenly break? What? You don’t want to mix the taste of your salad and the dish? Then why are you eating two different things?

Do these people have nothing better to do with their lives than to be concerned about using a regular knife over a fish knife? Absolutely insane. Just eat your food like an ordinary living being.

And that’s just one aspect. Floral arrangements for every single meal? Sure, why not. They have to be placed a certain distance away to be better viewed while not interfering with the meal… then why even have them at all? It’s a waste of flowers to use new ones almost every day. And I know for a fact that they don’t notice the arrangements. Adria, who loves flowers and maintains a garden full of them, does not pay attention to what flowers we use for breakfast. I can guarantee it.

And this is just setting the damn table so they can eat! Bringing out the food at the appropriate time is vital, according to Sylros that is. Do it too soon, and it’s bad manners. Do it too late, and it’s bad manners. Don’t do it all and lose your fingers.

But those were the least of my worries. Right now I was having a whole different kind of problem in the kitchen.

Thwack!

Bonk!

Thwack!

“What is wrong with you?” a rotund man from the mists yelled at me after smacking my knuckles and head with a wooden spoon. “I don’t understand! Please explain to me how you are managing to screw this up, boy!?”

I wiped my face clean of his spittle and apologized. “I’m sorry, sir. It seems I can not brew this tea correctly.”

“DON’T APOLOGIZE TO ME! JUST FIGURE IT OUT! GO GET MORE LEAVES FROM THE CELLAR THIS INSTANT!” he screeched.

“Yes, sir,” I droned off.

Maybe you should go make the run for the leaves. It looks like you need the exercise.

I rubbed my raw knuckles and limped my way down towards the cellar. The man currently berating me for my lack of tea brewing skills was the head chef of this mansion. I wasn’t sure what his full name was, but everybody called him Chef Kando, and he was an annoying and ugly man from the mists.

People from the eastern portion of the other continent, Amoth, are called Mist Walkers, and they resembled Humans of Asian or Pacific Islander descent that I was familiar with in my previous life.

This man sort of reminded me of a fat, ugly, and annoying version of Hephaestus. If Hephaestus started caring about cooking more than working on machinery, gained a lot of weight… and wasn’t very nice.

Wait, he isn’t anything like you, Heph, I’m sorry.

Out of all the skills I lack the most in my training, brewing tea is by far the lowest. No…lowest isn’t the right word; I just can’t do it. I just can’t seem to get it right.

The process was annoying, but it wasn’t difficult. It’s not like I didn’t understand the concept. First, boil water, then use some of the boiling water to warm the teapot, put the tea into the pot with hot water, then cover it and let it steep. After, strain the solids from the tea, then serve. At first, it didn’t seem too tricky, but I guess I was wrong.

It didn’t matter if Chef Kando was dogging me the entire time. If my hands were a part of the brewing process, my tea would always taste terrible. I didn’t like the taste of tea in the first place, but I knew that the stuff I was making was worse than average.

GAH! This is the worst. I wasn’t built for this kind of crap, but I NEED to learn it.

My livelihood is literally banking on my ability to warm up goddamn leaves. It doesn’t help that Chef Kando is a massive pain as well. Most of the servants and slaves here in the mansion treat me surprisingly well.

The others aren’t afraid to show their disdain towards not only me but the others. The guards, the higher-ups like Head Chef Kando or Ester, and the ladies of Sandervile all make my life and the lives of others harder than it needs to be.

I think I’m stressed. This sucks! Everything about this place sucks. My attempts at escape are still in their infancy. I’m still crippled. This is awful…

So while I was down here in this dark underground food storage cellar, I planned on doing something very sensible. I tried to do it on softer things, but I couldn’t go around using the food. So, as any normal person would do, I started punching the stone wall in frustration.

I didn’t punch the walls too hard. I couldn’t afford to leave marks on the walls. But I beat it hard enough to where it hurt. My mana-enhanced fists saw to it that I didn’t break any bones, but it still roughed my fists up a bit. Was this the best way to go about things? Probably not. Did it make me feel a lot better? Yes.

“Kaladin, what are you doing?” Muriel’s worried voice called out to me.

“Crap!” I squeaked.

Holy hell, she actually scared me. I swear Beastmen are just straight-up stealth experts. Even Cerila, who couldn’t hear how much noise she was making, was challenging to track. And Muriel, who was a more beast than man? Impossible.

I doubt if my ears were at full capacity, I could hear her prowling about. On the other hand, I was sure that Muriel walked around in complete silence and that she only let her footsteps be heard on purpose.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” she purred.

“It’s okay… I just wasn’t expecting anyone, that’s all.”

I could feel the tips of my ears burn from the embarrassment. I can’t believe I let someone sneak up on me like that. But I really need to pay more attention to my surroundings. Have I grown lax in my old age?

“Kaladin, your hands… come over here,” Muriel seated herself on top of a nearby box and patted the spot next to her for me to sit down.

I obliged and hoisted myself up onto the box. Muriel hugged me from the side and enveloped my hands into hers.

“You have been working so hard, Kaladin. You must be unbelievably tired. I’m sorry that you are having to go through all of this,” she purred softly in the Beastmen language.

At the very least, my study of the Beastmen language has been going well. Muriel and I would exchange words frequently in it now. She was a good teacher and would switch between Human and Beastmen to keep me on my toes.

“It’s fine, nothing you should be sorry about,” I responded in Human. But, although I understand the language better now, I still had difficulty speaking the language. It seemed the language was… well… made for people who have animal genetics.

“But I still feel bad. Seeing you work so hard and still seeing Lady Keyla and Chef Kando treating you poorly makes my heartache,” she admitted. “But at least I can manage this.”

I felt the warmth of healing magic in my hands. The wounds began to recover slowly as a soft white light enveloped them. I looked up at Muriel, and she was panting a bit and seemed worn out.

“Muriel… you can use light magic?”

“I can use a little bit of light magic, yes. However, I’m barely a novice rank, unlike Martin, who is an expert. Sadly, healing takes a lot out of me, and I can only do this much,” she told me.

Still, it was nice. The wounds on my hands weren’t healed all the way, but they weren’t bleeding anymore, and the pain had faded away.

“Thanks, Muriel… But why would you use healing magic on me if it’s this difficult on you?” I asked.

“Well… it’s sort of embarrassing to admit,” she said while releasing my hands and looking away.

“Uh, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I said quickly. Muriel was far too kind to me. If she didn’t want to talk about it, then I didn’t mind one bit.

After a long pause of silence eventually, Muriel broke it with a small voice. “You remind me of my son.”

Her son? Is that what she said?

“I…” I couldn’t finish my sentence. I didn’t know what to say in this situation. I hadn’t expected something like this to happen.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to make things awkward, Kaladin. I shouldn’t have said that to you…” Muriel said all too fast.

“I don’t mind. Do you… do you want to talk about your son? It’s okay if you do. I’ve talked about my mom before,” I asked.

Muriel turned to look at me again with small tears in her green eyes. The noise she was making was difficult to describe, but I suppose it would be the sound of a black panther crying.

“Can I hold you again?” She asked meekly.

“Sure,” I said gently.

Muriel embraced me again, just a little tighter this time. It was awkward having a woman that was around my mother’s physical age hugging me like this, but I didn’t mind. Besides Adria, Muriel has been one of the kindest people during my time here at the Sandervile mansion. She never treats me poorly and never complains about my shortcomings.

She encourages me and works with me instead of against me. I can tell she looks out for Adria and me both. I’m also sure she came down here in hopes of helping me, but it appears I might be able to help her. I was lucky to have her around. So doing something nice for her was nothing. I couldn’t outright trust Muriel with my true intentions, but at least I could be kind.

We just sat silently together until Muriel started reminiscing about her son. She was speaking the Beastmen language the entire time, so I didn’t even bother asking her questions; I just listened.

The stories she told me just seemed like fond memories to her. She never once mentioned where her son might be or if he was even alive. But the way she was talking made it seem like he had passed on. It was also hard to tell how long ago these things happened. She made it seem like it was in the distant past.

Muriel also didn’t seem too old herself, so it was difficult to be sure. But then again, I didn’t know what an old True Beastmen looked like. She didn’t have any gray or silver in her pitch-black coat, and she seemed youthful to me. I almost wanted to ask her how old she was, but I remember Mom telling me that was rude, so I just left it as is.

I couldn’t be sure how long we stayed down here, but I was confident that Chef Kando was having an aneurysm right now over my tardiness. Muriel must have realized the time as well since she released me and wiped the tears off her face.

“Sorry that I made you sit through all that rambling, Kaladin,” she said meekly.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you feel a lot better, right?” I asked.

“I do feel a lot better, thank you, Kali,” she teased.

“Sure thing, Muri,” I smiled back.

Her eyes went wide for a second, but she didn’t say anything. Instead, she just offered to help me find what I was looking for. With Muriel’s help, I found the tea quickly and was on my way back to the hell’s kitchen, where I was sure to receive some knuckle injuries.