"Sir Rallo, please accept this vow of subservience in exchange for not only the lives you saved today, but also for the livelihoods of those who served me previously. With this vow, I will serve as your subordinate until my death. Even in the event of my death, those beneath me will continue their service to you until their lives. Our descendants will continue this service for your descendants until the end of time. Do you accept this oath?"
I looked toward my cousins who stared right back at me. We all had equally confused expressions on our faces although they were probably more shocked than anything. I was just flat-out confused though. Adoption was one thing, but what on Earth.. or whatever the hell they call this planet are they thinking of just submitting so... So err... So 'matter-of-factly' I guess.
I mouthed out the only question I could muster right now which was 'What is going on?' to which each of them just shrugged their shoulders while shaking their heads to indicate the obvious. Only Zoe nodded fiercely and gave me a thumbs up, which I assume meant she wanted me to accept their oath. Honestly, I still couldn't wrap my head around this girl, I mean technically she was the girl version of me in the village being the only loner on the girl side of things. But that didn't explain why she behaved so strangely compared to my other cousins. I'm certain she isn't like me as she probably would have said something by now...
I rubbed my temples to get rid of this line of thinking as it would only bring about more disaster to our already broken family. My cousins saw this as me thinking about the 'offer' Leon gave me so there was no trouble there.
But that still left the elephant in the room which was these four adults who continued to kneel at my feet. I decided that keeping them there any longer without as much as a breath from us would probably be anxiety-inducing for them so I should probably give them an answer.
"Leon... You really do know how to shock somebody... What happened to the adoption thing?" I asked with a bit of confusion in my tone still.
The man in question didn't even look up as he answered my question.
"A bigger reward was needed in exchange for the gift of life you gave my wife and I." Leon said as he continued kneeling at my feet.
I waved my hands but realized that person I was gesturing to still had his face on the floor causing me to facepalm in embarrassment. ‘*sigh* fuck it, what would I lose by agreeing anyways?’
“Alright, I accept your oath but first, we have to establish some ground rules. All of this kneeling nonsense will have to stop here. If you want to bow then just bow slightly at your waist, anything more is unnecessary. And that goes for all of yall." I said as the adults stood up and sighed in relief before nodding at my words. I continued once they straighten out their clothing.
"The second thing is more of an order than a rule. I don't want to sound power-hungry already or anything but I expect you to follow my orders to the letter, nothing more nothing less. Understood?"
"Yes." The adults as well as Zoe, strangely, answered in unison. I 'side-eyed' her for a second before continuing.
"Good….Now, the order is that everybody present shall not let another soul alive know the words spoken inside this room, spare your wife Leon as I'm sure you were wondering. It is called an informational quarantine... To put it as simply as possible, we will treat the words spoken inside this room as if they are a disease that should be kept between ourselves. Got it?"
Everybody nodded including all of my cousins, but they all seemed confused about something except Zoe of course who spoke up once she saw the same sight as me.
"This 'disease' is similar to an illness I assume." She said.
The others in the room excluding myself all exclaimed in a chorus of 'ohs' and 'ahs' that made me realize my mistake.
'Hell, it's the same thing for god's sake.' is what I wanted to say but that would start up a completely different storm that I was not prepared to weather. Not until this one had settled at least.
"As long as yall understand the point I'm trying to get across. If so we can move on." That is what I actually said before walking toward the bench and my food on the table was lukewarm by now.
The meal they prepared for us was chicken and a porridge of some kind, two things I had never mixed together back on Earth. It tasted better than the hard dry meat we had been eating these past few days but it still lacked in comparison to the home-cooked meals I remember from back on Earth.
Leon seeing me walk towards the bench tried to get me to take his seat but I refused by saying it was just a chair and suggested that he should just have the benches replaced by chairs in order to solve the 'problem' altogether. He nodded to my suggestion before taking his seat.
We ate our food with a bit of conversation here and there, mostly from the girls who talked with Sasha about her clothes. Well that was what it started with, but it quickly devolved into my cousins basically asking for clothes in their size. Sasha had beads of sweat building on her forehead as she turned to me before she turned to me with a pleading expression.
I assume she wanted me to help her quell the girl's interest in the clothing, but I really didn't understand why. I thought about it for a second before it clicked. I waved at the girls to quiet them down before speaking.
"I assume the reason Sasha is hesitant about buying new clothing for the girls has something to do with the 'fallen noble' thing you mention earlier Leon. How did that come about in the first place?" I asked before shoveling a bit of food into my mouth.
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"*sigh* This... this will sound like some story you would tell in a dimly lit room somewhere, but I swear on my life that everything I tell you is the truth and nothing but the truth. First, you have to know that my family was not a large one in terms of people. My father was the youngest of three males, but he was the only one to have a child, that being me. We five will be considered the largest generation my family ever had." Leon said as he shook away tears that were building in his eyes. I patted the man on the shoulder before gesturing for him to continue.
To any outsiders watching the scene, it would probably look extremely strange to see a sixteen-year-old consoling someone twice his age, but technically Leon and I were around the same... If you added my twenty-two years of life on Earth with the sixteen years of memories I had now.
"Since my great-great-grandfather's times, my family has owned and operated most of the iron and coal mines near the town. He was a man with a lot of prestige allowing the operation to go smoothly, but after he passed he left everything to my great-grandfather who was his only child. My great-grandfather was a good man, but he was not as experienced in the ways of business as his father which inevitably led to him making terrible deals with the other noble families in town. I believe this is where our downfall from a regular noble family began." Leon looked at me to see if I was listening. Obviously, I was since I prompted the question, but given how he started the whole thing I can understand why he would feel the need to make sure.
I nodded at him indicating I was listening and for him to continue.
"I believe this because the deals my great-grandfather had agreed to were traps set by the other three noble families to literally steal away our business. As I said earlier, we owned and operated the iron and coal mines near the city, but we still need to transport the materials and store them before we could sell them to the blacksmiths or traders in and outside the town as well as the other noble families, as we usually have a few blacksmiths of our own. The deal my great-grandfather signed was for the transportation and storage of the materials from the mines to the various warehouses that were owned by the nobles. The deal stated that we would pay them for the transportation and storage of the materials and when they sold the materials we would receive seventy-five percent of the profits made."
"To my great-grandfather, this sounded like a good enough deal and even my grandfather agreed that is good on the surface but my grandfather also recognized that was only the case when your business partners act in good faith, which the nobles did not. But my grandfather only saw this once his father had passed leaving him, his only child, to inherit everything. Over thirty years had passed since the signing of the deal which allowed the nobles to regulate how much we made from the mines causing our treasury to dwindle quickly. My grandfather noticed all of this as I said previously but our power as a whole had diminished to the point where we only controlled a fraction of the mines and soldiers we had during my great-great-grandfather time's because we simply could not afford the upkeep for them. During my grandfather's reign, we also lost our 'noble' status due to our financial problems. This is because we could not afford to pay the generational fee of two hundred gold coins required to keep your noble title."
"My grandfather already had my father as well as my two uncles with my grandmother by this point, but the blow still caused his mental state to diminish rapidly. He lasted for a few more years before he passed, splitting up our last mines between my father and uncles. My uncles sold their mines and traveled away from this town, but we haven't heard anything from them since. Their decision to sell their mines left my father with a single iron and coal mine which I still own to this day though I should mention that they both operate at a minimum since we can't afford anything more."
Once Leon had finished his ramblings I rubbed my temples in order to digest the amazing amount of unnecessary information the man had just spewed forth. He did answer my question thankfully, but I have to make a mental note to not ask him for an explanation about anything ever again. I did believe his words though as I really didn't have a reason not to. Not to mention that my plan of turning this town into my personal 'headquarters' probably goes directly against whatever the nobles have planned for it themselves, so I might as well recognize my enemies early and plan accordingly.
After thinking this I nodded my head before looking around at the people sitting at the table.
Leon and his group were useful but their loyalties were already established meaning I could not fully trust them no matter what oath or vow they give. I can trust my cousins completely but I could never use them as if they were pawns or something. Since this is my reality now I have no other family besides them, so I will do as per my grandmother's final words which were to lead them. I guess I am lucky in that they were basically the brightest our village had to offer.
'THAT'S IT!?' I shouted inside my head just barely stopping myself from slamming my hand on the table.
The idea that had crashed into my brain was at best strange but completely unethical at its worst. But I doubt such a thing as ethics was as powerful of a thing as it was back in certain places on Earth. Either way, it did have precedent.
My idea was to basically do what I had done with my cousins when we were traveling through the forest, except on a grander scale. I would recruit teens outside the walls of the town proper with the idea of a better town run by the common folk but with technology more remarkable than any of them could imagine. These teens would be my power base for my eventual takeover of the town and beyond. However, unlike the 'training' I did in the forest with my cousins, this time every teen recruited will receive this world’s equivalent of a boot camp, except I will be making more than just soldiers. After all, one cannot make a sandwich without bread or meat.
I continued thinking over my plan for a second before speaking to the people who had been waiting on me patiently while watching my various gestures.
"Thanks for the detailed explanation Leon... It sounds to me that the cause of all your problems is as you said, the nobles, but you already know this. I would like to extend my condolences to you and your family for their troubles but those can only go so far..." I said before looking into Leon's eyes.
"Instead, I will offer you a solution to said problem. I have a plan that will allow you to get your family's revenge while also allowing you to live out the rest of your life in the comfort of your home and not in some cell somewhere dank. It will also allow for the lives of the people living in this town to increase dramatically in terms of education, health, and your area of 'expertise' trade." I said while playing with my food that had gone cold by now.
I saw Leon's ears perk up at the idea of him getting back the mines but he only blankly nodded when I spoke about improving the lives of the common folk. Sasha, Karl, and Paul, on the other hand, seemed to be more interested in the latter. I noted this mentally before continuing.
"I think we can all agree that neither of these ideas aligns with the interests of the nobles, but that is a good thing because we only need the common folk of this town in order for my plan to succeed. Actually, the common folk will play a major part in our plan overall so if you have any prejudices against them, be sure you lose them before you leave this room today. The plan is simple in terms of words but the execution of it must be flawless in order to achieve the results I wish to see... Now, listen closely.."
I took a deep breath before I began explaining the first steps on our road to fate.
The only problem was that the end of the said road was someplace where even the world itself found it impossible to see.