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“Hmmm?”
A boy was working on a field under bright sunny sky. He looked to be around 5 years old. He stopped working suddenly and stood still, staring afar vacantly.
“Kamil?” A grown man called him out after noticing the boy acting a bit stange. He wasn’t far away, working in the same field. “Kamil!” He called the boy’s name louder this time.
“Kamil?” The boy repeated aloud as if he had never heard of the name. “My name is Kamil?”
The man tilted his head. As if he realized something, he dashed toward him. “This is why I told you to wear a damned hat!” He was worried if he was having sunstroke.
The boy, Kamil, 5 years old, had just retrieved memories of his former life as Tom as he was carried away by his father to shade.
“I am fine, dad,” Kamil told his father who was jumping up and down on his feet as he was trying to find a way to cool his son down. Kamil was confused as hell initially but soon was able to settle down internally.
So, this is what feels like to be reborn with memories of my past life. It sure feels weird.
It didn’t take too long for him to figure out that he was a son of a farmer. Given the size of the field, he didn’t think he was born in a bottom barrel farmer although he was certainly unsure of how exactly wealthy his new family was.
Either way, there was something he had to find out ASAP. That was what year this was. Was he reborn right away? He needed to find out whether his target was even alive. In fact, he didn’t know his name. But he was fairly certain that the Gods wouldn’t have scammed him. Still, they were Gods. Who knew what they’d do.
“Dad, who is our king?”
The father tilted his head, looking confused. “What? Why are you even asking such a question? Are you really alright?”
He pouted mentally. He figured as much. It wasn’t going to be easy to find out what he needed to know. Besides, he was just a five year-old kid. He wasn’t going to get anything done at the moment even if he knew who his target was.
Upon coming to a quick conclusion that his son did really need a day off, he carried his son on the back to home which was located not far from the field. It was a large wooden house where a woman was drying laundry on a string. Upon noticing her husband carrying their son on the back, she hurried toward them with her long straight blonde hair waving like a sea wave.
“Dear? Is Kamil alright?”
“I think the lad’s got a bit of sunstroke.”
“Oh, my!” She took Kamil off his back and dashed into the house. She placed him on his bed which was constructed with dried hay and a large piece of linen sheet on top of it. It was a cheap way to make a functional bed. Kamil recalled making exactly the same type of bed for his kids with Fio.
“Mom, I am really fi-”
She didn’t even listen to him and dashed out before coming back with a wet piece of folded cloth to place it on his forehead. He felt he didn’t need it, but it did feel nice and cool. He thanked her anyway.
“Thanks, mom.”
It was at this moment he heard a baby’s cry, and his mom dashed out of the room again. She looked to be fairly busy.
“Oh, yeah, I have a brother,” he said to himself. Looking around, what he found was a bare room. There was this bed and there was a hook cloth hanger in a corner. There was nothing else. This was enough for him to calculate the wealth of this family.
“Just above bare bottom,” He whispered, which sort of explained why a five year-old boy was out in the field in the first place. For the time being, he decided to be a good lad and stay on the bed. After all, he had a lot going on in his mind. He needed some time to digest new fragments of memories he had just acquired.
The next day, he was helping out his father again. He had a lot to ask and find out. At the same time, he also had a lot of time to do so as well. There was really no point in rushing things. The field he was working on, it appeared to be tea leaves. He, as Tom, never had the luxury to drink any sort of tea. Thus, he had no idea what kind it was or even how much these would sell for. What he did know, for pretty certain, was that tea leaves tended to grow only in selective climates. He spun his brain to recall which region but failed to come up with any idea. After all, he rarely left Bronn.
“What kind of tea leaves are these, dad?”
“These are called Macomaco leaves,” His father replied curtly. They were both wearing hats today.
“Macomaco leaves? What a weird name.”
His dad snickered, “I know, right? Well, I wasn’t the one who named it.”
After the event yesterday, his father declared that Kamil would work only until the sun rose the highest. Therefore, his work was done at noon. He was allowed to play free afterwards which was a blessing to him. The first thing he did in his spare time was walk around the settlement. It was, without a doubt, larger than Bronn was, meaning this was more likely a town at the least. Forests surrounded about half of the town. The other half was open fields. There was also a palisade surrounding the settlement, providing the most basic defence from roaming monsters. It wouldn’t stop any determined and focused assault but it would at least give town folks time to react.
“Not a village, for sure,” He whispered to himself. A village wouldn’t have log walls to begin with.
People greeted him as he wandered around the town. They knew his name, and he knew none of their names.
“Am I an idiot? How could I remember none of theirs?” He whispered. He made a mental note that he’d find their names and remember them if such opportunities arose.
Where he eventually ended up was a small pond. There was no wind. Thus, the surface of the lake was very still and acted like a mirror which his house had none of. He was pretty certain that his mother would have a small hand mirror though. Fio had one. Pretty much any grown self-respecting woman possessed some form of mirror. But he wasn’t going to ask to borrow one from her.
Suddenly becoming curious of how this “Kamil” looked, he got down on four and poke his head above the still water surface.
“Hmmm,” was the first thing he said.
He felt that the image of the boy reflected on the water surface looked more like his previous self, Tom. However -
“Blue eyes,” He blurted.
He had blue eyes. He used to have brown eyes.
“I see that not everything is the same,” He remarked. He did feel blue eyes would look more charming. Therefore, he had no complaints. Not that complaining would alter anything of course.
The town was quiet and felt abandoned during the day because farmers would be out on fields that were located outside of the settlement. His father’s tea field was the only one that was within the wooden palisade which was an indication that the Macomaco leaves might have sold for a decent amount. Basically, the tea field was deemed valuable enough to be protected.
Meanwhile, children old enough would be out helping their parents. Children too young would be inside. Therefore, Kamil was pretty much the only kid as he wandered around at this hour. He decided to help his father even after noon since there was no one to play with.
As he helped out his father, he got to know more about the Macomaco plant. They never harvested the plant itself. They harvest young leaves. It wasn't just young leaves, either. A leaf had to be of a specific age, usually 2 to 3 days. It was just impossible to keep track of age of new leaves, thus his father went by color which to Kami’s eyes was impossible to distinguish initially. It took many days for him to finally be able to tell that this shade green was “completely” different from that shade green. To inexperienced people, just as Kamil once was, those two shades of green looked exactly identical.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Once young leaves were picked, they’d be dried in a damp storage. His dad told him that moisture was extremely important. A completely dried Macomaco leaf would lose its taste and aroma, he was told. This also meant that, during packaging, it had to be sealed tightly so that the leaves wouldn’t lose its moisture too much. This also meant that shelf life was poor for the leaves.
Kamil, due to possessing a matured mind, was able to pick things up fairly quickly from his father which, in turn, made him pleased. The truth was that he was just glad that his son wasn’t born an idiot.
Some time passed, Kamil lost count of how many days had passed, when a group of soldiers led by what appeared to be a noble man arrived at the town. They headed straight to his house at which point his mother called for her husband. His father arrived at home with him and then knelt down in front of the noble flanked by about eight soldiers. He shooed Kamil away, and he ran into home, popping his head out of the door frame to look.
“Milord,” His father spoke carefully. “The shipment is ready, sir.”
The noble, mildly obese, looked pleased. He swore a dark green tunic with a pair of black pants. He also had a long cloak, and there was a sword on his belt. There was an emblem on the left side of his tunic which Kamil couldn’t recognize. His pregnant belly suggested that he was feeding himself well, perhaps too well.
“You two,” The noble turned around and randomly pointed at two. “Go to the storage and pick up the shipment.”
Apparently, this wasn’t their first trip. Of course, not. The way his father reacted, it was clearly practiced.
While waiting for the soldiers to arrive with the shipment, his father stayed knelt down. His mother stayed inside in order not to be seen. Soon enough, two approaching heavy footsteps were heard.
“Good,” The noble inspected the shipment casually. It was covered with clean linen sheets and was tightly bound by ropes.
“My liege will be pleased.” He gestured to a soldier behind him, and the soldier placed three silver coins on the ground in front of Kamil’s father.
“Thank you, milord.”
“Say, is it possible to increase the produce?”
Hell, no.
His father was working every single day from morning to evening picking the right leaves. All those efforts were the shipment the soldiers brought which was about the size of a large backpack. He was certain that, if his father skipped even a day, the quota may have not been met. Basically, there was no way his father could increase output. If he joined his father full time, the output could increase however, but not by much. He was just a kid after all.
However, his father hesitated to give a concrete answer because it was a noble’s request.
“How much more... are we talking about, sir?”
“Say..., about twice.”
Absolutely, not, Kamil shouted in his mind.
“I am afraid that is not...feasible.” His father had to draw the line. Even now, he should have been out there in the field just to meet the current quota.
“You work alone, yes?”
“Aye, sir.”
“Why not hire a few more people?”
He knew why he wouldn’t hire more people. The selection of leaves was a trade secret. Either way, it looked like the noble was going to force his demand onto his dad. Something needed to be done, and he came up with a trick.
Back in time as Tom, Bronn was sometimes met with heavy taxes from time to time. Whenever officials came and demanded a little too much, there was a trick the villagers pulled.
Smiling, he ran into the house at once.
“Kamil?” Her mother called him out, but he ignored her. Jumping out of a window in the back, he dashed toward the palisade. He needed to climb over it which looked like an impossible feat for a 5 year-old. It was simply too tall. He did not want to see what he was about to do.
“Please, please, please let it work.”
Inhaling deeply, he spoke an incantation. “Spirits of wind, hear my request: Gust!”
Tom had a very weak affinity to wind. Therefore, he never asked for elementals. Instead, he asked spirits when casting any wind spells. The spells would be weaker but had much higher chances of success in his experience.
Subsequently, a strong gust of wind blew over toward the palisade at which point he made a mad dash toward the wooden wall and jumped to reach the top. Him being a small 5 year-old helped as his hand was just able to grab the top and climbed over. Once he was on the other side, he let out a mimicked werewolf cry as loudly as possible.
Meanwhile, back at the house.
“Werewolves!” The soldiers went full alert with a shout. “Sir, please, we must go!”
The noble startled as he heard the fake werewolf cry. Blissfully forgetting the conversation he was having, he cowardly dashed away with his soldiers. The noble ... ran like ... a frog? His running posture was really awkward. It was as if he was running for the very first time.
By the time Kamil reached the town gate, he saw the noble and his soldiers running away afar.
“That... worked...”
He was panting and sweating hard. Casting magic required two things: an elemental affinity and stamina. Stamina was a payment for a spell. For a little child, even the simple and the most basic spell, gust, drained too much stamina from him. A higher affinity would have reduced the stamina cost. In the end, he was barely able to reach his home before collapsing.
When he opened his eyes, he found himself on the bed. His mother rushed in and cried over his chest, telling him that she was ever so worried. Apparently, he had slept for a full day.
His parents never really got to find out what exactly happened the day earlier. Some folks did hear a werewolf cry and did an investigation but found no trace of any. And he wasn’t going to tell anyone, either. It wasn’t like he was able to explain what he did. It was entirely possible for a child to be able to cast magic as long as he was properly educated in how incantations worked. But a farmer’s boy knowing how to use magic? A 5 year-old boy at that? A fat chance. Eventually, the whole event was buried and forgotten within a few days.
The next day while they were working on the tea field, he casually asked his dad who the noble was. His father took a moment to make a reply.
“Oh, yeah, you did ask who the king was. I guess it can’t hurt you to know.”
According to him, the current king was Karsten Egra.
“It was before your time, but our kingdom used to be divided into two. I think...” His voice faded as he started counting his fingers. “Oh, wow, I think the unification was exactly the year you were born.”
So, I was reborn ASAP. Thank God, Kamil thought.
“We call him Karsten the conqueror.”
When Kamil asked how he united the country, this was where things became hazy.
“I don’t know,” He told Kamil, scratching his head. “I am just a farmer. I’ve never even left this town. What I told you just now, it’s something I was told by an adventurer group that was passing by.”
He couldn’t blame his dad for that. Even in his former life, villagers in Bronn rarely, if ever, left the village. Only hunters did because they kind of had to. It was simply way too dangerous to leave a settlement which was why he furrowed his eyebrows when he saw families departing Bronn as soon as words hit that the army was coming their way. He felt it would have been literal suicide. They would have met a scarier end if his family left Bronn on that night. At least, the army wouldn’t eat your corpse.
..... I hope not.
Well, he found out that he was reborn right away. That was one piece of good news he was waiting for. Whoever was responsible for the Bronn massacre should have still been alive.
“I must say, you are picking up real fast,” His father complimented him. Kamil was now able to pick properly aged leaves with relative ease. He wasn’t as fast as his dad but he was getting there.
His father never had a helper. The way of Macomaco leaf picking had been his family trade secret. Thus, he had to endure. Now, there was a real hope that Kamil would be able to assist him.
“Do you think we could meet the noble’s demand, dad?”
His father sighed deeply. “Kamil, this wasn’t the first time they demanded an increase in production. The Macomaco tea leaves are in high demand. The plant can grow only in southern Egra. My farm is only one of three within the kingdom.”
“Do you know why this was named ‘Macomaco’?”
His father shrugged. “Hell if I know. Better ask a historian.”
His father did eventually let him work past noon reluctantly. He did need a helper after all. Once they carried the day’s load into the storage house, he taught Kamil further on how to dry the leaves.
The storage house was damp and dark. It had four small windows on top of each wall. The windows were letting in just enough light to work.
Once the leaves were dumped onto the floor, his father used a pitchfork to even them out.
“Let the leaves rot,” He told Kamil as he worked to even out the leaves on the floor. “That’s why you need moisture.”
“I see.”
“You can’t let it rot too much though. Personally, if we had a way to bring in more air flow, it would have been nice. We are wasting some of the leaves with this method.”
“Why not keep the door open?”
“As little sunlight as possible. Sunlight messes up with rotting.”
He was talking about fermentation which neither of them knew. Anyway, Kamil knew a wind spell called [Breeze] which created gentle wind for a while. Alas, he wasn’t going to tell him that he was educated in magic. Every child should be tested for an elemental affinity at one point of their lives before turning ten. Kamil was waiting for that moment.
“Alright, we are done for the day. Let’s go home and eat.”
“Yay!” He jumped up and down joyfully. He was starving actually. The boy worked from morning to late noon, and he had only breakfast. But lack of food was a common trend among commoners. In his former life as Tom, he had to overwork to provide enough protein for pregnant Fio. She was very apologetic about it since her traps were catching only bugs. The funny thing was that her traps were well above average. Yet, it only caught bugs most of the time. It did rarely catch small games by sheer luck. Whenever it caught red meat on rare occasions, she’d go ecstatic.
He had a bright smile as he recalled his days with Fio. Those were his happiest days. Then his smile vanished from his face at once, reminding himself that her life ended absurdly. His children were murdered unjustly as well.
Whoever it was, he will pay, he reminded himself.