“Searching the forest for gold,
nothing to see in the fold.
Is there a thing to be sold,
such tellings of riches be told.
Is there a glint behind the tree?
Finally my luck I can see.
Turning around and denying to be,
has no time to run or now to flee.
I was waiting for you old Dan,
said the withered old man.
Unable to see how he can,
does he have no route to quick ran.
With all the mourning and tears,
the old widow realizes her fears.
Old Dan was not out for his beers,
he was now below, so said the seers.”
Not the nicest song to sing, while in the Forest which had brought this children song to life, but at least they behave and walk with determined stride. Snow mingling in the middle of the rabble while the Villagers are at the back to watch for stragglers and me at the front with the determined looking Caretaker.
She was so close to becoming a Sister, but now she is with us. Sisters are their own institution as I heard from them. Started by widows of old, they dedicated their lives to care about the orphans of war. The Institution grew and is now accepted in all three Kingdoms with some caveats.
To become a Sister you need three years caretaker work and afterwards a recommendation. Afterwards you need to work as ‘Sister to be’ in a different Orphanage for another year before they accept you. Rather convoluted but seems to be really sought after, even if the title does not have many privileges.
“And what is your story Katie?”
I just try a bit smalltalk maybe she will be not so uptight with me, if I know her better.
“What do you mean Sir Ava?”
“I mean your life story. How you became a caretaker in an Orphanage.”
“Ah, yes. I was a maid in a lordship once. While I dedicated my life to keep the house tidy the first son was poisoned. Chaos broke out and to not be accidentally killed by the other sons while taking over the fief I became a Caretaker.”
“Why not another Maid? You have the experience.”
“Would you take in a Maid, which came from a fief, where a Member of the Family was poisoned?”
Well…
“...I am right now, am I not? You will help the children acclimate and live peacefully. Right now I think to put the children inside the castle until I have a kind of orphanage or if they create their own family and become Villagers.”
“Well that is not the same, is it not?”
“Sure it is. I think of you more as the head maid. Explaining them the ins and outs, while not overworking them. They can do some dusting and maybe cleaning of some clothing, but for the most time they will be having free time to learn and play.”
“I really do not understand how you think about your new workers.”
“They are children, not workers. Well they can work, but have to at least find their own destiny. Many might become farmers, others might love to clean the Castle. Others might work on creating beautiful art and others hopefully become teachers. By the way, can you teach?”
“Um… I have been through rigorous training in literature and calculating, for the purpose of being able to purchase goods on the Market, if that is helpful.”
“It is. Could you help with teaching the children reading, writing and calculus?”
“Calculus?”
“Sorry, counting, and other kind of Math.”
“I can. Albeit I would ask for a remuneration for the extra work.”
“That is a matter of course. We can talk about the pay, when we are on our destination. Right now the prices of the Wares from the peddlers are double the Market price so it needs to be addressed in the final pay.”
Looking around the Dark Forest, she mumbles to herself.
“I can understand why.”
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
…
With thirty eight new residents in tow and a promise to bring some back to ask of their well being in at most a year, we arrive at the Lost Village. The eyes of the children wander here and there. They are suddenly in a Village right after a scary Forest and a dark tunnel, so…
“Welcome to the Lost Village. Here we have a few rules, but they will not be that problematic to keep. While you might want to live in one of the Houses later with maybe someone you always liked, to make a Family, the others can either come with me to the castle or start working as an apprentice for the Farmers we have.”
Yes, I mean you two couples. No need to blush, your relationship is definitely known by everyone. While you might be only fourteen, in this World sometimes twelve year old get married. I wish to complain about that, but the life expectancy is rather low, so I will not say anything about the low age for creating Families.
Sadly we are in some kind of middle ages, so I should be happy to be spared something like right of first night or bed activity being part of the job description of a Maid. Still my emotions slowly grow, if I am uncomfortable in some kind of way.
“While you have freedoms, you might not be used to, there are the demerits of being here too. Remember to tell me or an adult, when you feel not right. It is better to be safe than sorry.”
While nodding the children get to meet the Village folk. Explaining the routines and how we keep our stocks and how the taxes work bring wonder, even on Katie’s face. Well we are already rich, so no need to think about that.
Right to food is one of the strangest parts for them. Doing nothing but have something to eat is unfathomable for them. Explaining how this only works with water and normal soup shows their understanding, that better food must be worked for. Still they are shocked about it, as illness mostly means no food and sometimes directly death.
Not that any illness seems to wander around except the Mana burn, but it is good to have a catching net to be able to live. Health related things are mostly administered by me and the wife of the Mason right now. Her Name is Elle, and she once worked as assistant to a doctor, so she knows a bit of cleaning wounds and bandaging them.
She has shown me a few things and I corrected some misunderstandings in their medical knowledge. She was surprised, that bloodletting makes many illnesses worse and keeping fresh air in the house at night helps with sleep and not getting sick. Simple things like that.
…
The awe in the children’s eyes of the not finished Castle makes my work less useless. It seems they like it, but I have heard from Katie already how some things need to be changed to be seen glamorous in the eyes of Aristocracy.
The showing was nice and with wonder, why the Servants room are not connected to all the other floors, we arrive at the Floor for their temporary stay. There are more Rooms than children, but still they are put in rooms of four. Katie the head maid gets her own room near the children for easier handling.
The small dining room for the Servants was seen as huge in their eyes and while it is hand pumped the existence of baths is seen as luxury. I still have no way to create heating, so only cold water or using the experimental one where I put a wood oven below it, sorry.
Now to the hidden staircases. Yes, there is a staircase to go up and down from the Servants Floor. It is just hidden behind alcoves which spin around. The children are excited while Katie looks like she is close to a headache. Going down to the storage we come out into the Tower Stairs.
With this I explain the rules here. Forbidden are the Cellar, third and fifth floor. Also the glass house and the big labyrinth are forbidden too. Every door, that is locked or barred with something is also off limits for now, as the Castle is still being built and some rooms are still unstable.
Normally I would say fourth floor is also not open, but Snow will be definitely playing with them up there on some daily basis, so I let her.
Books are here and I do not care if they read them, as long as they are careful and do not damage or destroy them. Study is fine to walk around in but the large room to the side is my Bureau and I keep it clean myself.
The reasoning is rather not to scare those kids. My anatomical drawings of the insides of many creatures and especially humans are not the kind of pictures they should see. The logs of my experiments from Loopy and the others are also not a nice thing for weak hearts.
…
As I forgot about the Bast they were obviously seen. Luckily the two are rather tame and just keep a distance, otherwise someone would have died. Bast are the cats the kids gave me. Sadly nothing great came out of them. They got a bit bigger and the fur had gone black with golden paws and eyes. The only real thing to see, that they are Monsters are the two tails.
Well the two are mostly keeping to themselves and would not even care if the World ended, but seems the ruckus of the children being here made them look. With wonder and a shocked stiff Katie the group were fascinated in their own ways of them walking in the distance and then vanishing again.
Their Miasma is Illusion as I expected it to be the case for those two, but the specific flavor of Illusion was creeping me out a bit so no direct experiments on them for now.
At least the dog is wandering the lowest levels of the Dungeon far away, that would have been worse.
…
“So there are Monster here? That would have been good to know!”
“Nothing World shattering. They are mostly harmless and keep to themselves. That is why the children should not go in the Greenhouse or the Labyrinth.
“There are MORE?!”
Locked away and unable to harm anyone. Be relieved Katie.”
“How can I, if I know some Monsters might stroll right into my chamber and just eat me while I sleep!”
“First, they won’t. To be honest they hate the taste of human flesh.”
“How do you know that?!”
“Second, all doors are able to be locked by a bolt. Those bolts are strong enough to be keeping the Bast out of your Room with strength to spare. The third thing is, as the Mana is so dense in here, there should be no wonder some strange creatures are living here.”
She is still angry but starts to breath deep breaths. Why so scared, I promise they won’t do anything. They hate being near people anyway. They just attack, when they see them as an intruder, and I already told them you are not… better not telling her about me talking to them...
“… Is there anything more I need to know you have been hiding?”
“Nothing that comes to mind. Well the doors are locked for a reason, but that has just to do with my secrets, so please don’t snoop.”
“Of course not, I have integrity.”
“The bedding and necessities are already transported, but the Merchant will be here in three weeks. Not only do you get your salary, you are in charge of buying necessities for the children and the Castle.”
She nods, well that is going well at least. She accepted her fate with grace and now is ready to work.
“While there is not much work for now, the cleaning of the beds, clothes and Snows chaotic floor…” hey “...are more of a priority. Obviously the food has to be made by yourselves, so I hope some of the children can help cook, as the four Kilometer to the Village might be a bit too far for every day. The food in the cold storage is lying there for a while and has the least amount of Mana so it will be a good idea to use that first, as the other things might be too strong for the children right now.”
“I understand. Anything else?”
“If any of the children has any problem, come directly to me or Snow. I will look right into it and try to remedy the problem. At worst I bring the child back to the Orphanage, if the stay here might become life threatening, I will not allow any child to suffer here, is that clear?”
“Of course. ...Even if there are some scary things here, Sir Ava is rather nice to the children, so I have hope we made the right decision to trust you.”
Well now I am the one who nods. With this there should be nothing to worry about. For now her Salary is two Gold per Month, as the Salary of a Maid is one Silver and food while a teacher gets seven Silver minimum, rounded up to one Gold and doubled because of the inflation of the prices with the Peddlers.
The children get all one silver except for the one pair who was bold enough to accept my offering and became direct citizens of the Lost Village, as they started directly their apprenticeship under the other people. By the way the other pair is still with the others, as they are maybe too shy or not ready for the commitment. No rush, no rush…