Aachman was not in a good mood, he did not have breakfast this morning and was also probably going to be an indentured worker. His hand was held tightly by a much bigger hand of Kari, Aachman's father. They were walking towards the village chief's house.

Aachman's numerous attempts to escape his father led to this predicament where he was dragged like a rag doll.

"Stop!" Aachman screeched.

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"What is this time?" Kari asked with a sigh. His youngest son already tried to run away using various tactics which included the urgent need to attend to nature's call to ask for help from bystanders.

Kari was amazed that there were so many ways to escape. He was wiser now after the series of stunts pulled by his youngest son.

The last attempt was a particularly bad one as his son even tried to bite his hand to escape from his clutches. Aachman was always a sickly child. How did he expect to escape from a healthy adult like him? Sometimes Kari wonders what exactly was going on in his youngest son's mind?

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"Father, I feel sick and going to faint," Aachman held his head with his other hand and acted as if he was suffering from lightheadedness.

Kari stared at his son suspiciously.

"Father, I cannot walk another step," Aachman leaned on his father and started to breathe deeply and noisily. "Let's go back, father."

"Tomorrow, I will be in tip-top shape to visit the chief's house."

"Aaah!"

Kari ignored his son's plea and carried him like a gunny sack over his shoulders to the chief's house.

Aachman wondered how his latest plan failed? And where did he go wrong? He became silent after his father started carrying him. They passed several villagers who greeted his dad and made small talk. While Aachman looked soulless and accepted his fate for being a lackey for the demoness.

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After walking for ten minutes or so, they reached the village centre, near the vicinity of the village chief's house.

Kari let his son down and looked around, there was nobody around.

"Aacha, don't speak unless the chief directly questioned you. I will do all the talking," Kari said sternly.

Kari kneeled to the same eye level and looked at Aachman. "Also, don't make eye contact with the chief and take a respectful attitude in front of him"

Kari gripped tightly at Aachman's shoulder to convey the seriousness of the situation. "Don't mess up, Aacha. I cannot help you in the chief's house. If you make a scene, we need to depend upon the chief's mercy."

Kari did not move, he waited patiently, but his grip on Aachman's shoulder was progressively getting tighter.

"Yes. I will be on the best behaviour, father,” Aachman squeaked.

Kari took his turban from his head and unfurled it and used it to wipe Aachman's sweat. He straightened out Aachman's clothes for a few seconds until he felt everything perfect.

Kari got up and turned towards the chief's house.

"Father, what about you? I will wipe your sweat off" Aachman asked eagerly.

"Hmph, it is you need to make a good first impression" Kari waved his hands as if to brush off Aachman's suggestion. "Remember what I said earlier."

"Okay," Aachman nodded sheepishly.

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The chief's house was a two-storey stone building. Nothing like this can be seen in the village. Probably even in town, this house could be considered grand. They arrived at the courtyard and requested the servant to inform our arrival to the village chief. We waited a few more moments before the servant came back and escorted us to the back of the house. We briefly saw the living room decorated with carpets and stools.

The backyard of the chief's house teemed with servants doing all sorts of agriculture and animal husbandry jobs. The village chief was also the biggest landowner. He employs all landless farmers in this village for his farms and other farmers need to pay some percentage of the harvest to the chief. Livestock like chickens, goats, cows and pigs were reared in the backyard. He was by far the most wealthiest person in this village.

The servant navigated through all the chaos with practised ease. After a few more minutes of cacophony, we reached the oasis of calm.

Kari stopped and bent slightly. He folded his hands and waited calmly.

Aachman was slightly surprised because his father was always loud and boisterous, but now he waited calmly for the chief to take notice.