Chapter 29 - Reward
Zhao happily stood up. "Take me to see that man."
He pulled on Meg's hand and rushed straight towards the slave. Meg froze for a moment, then looked at Zhao's hand holding on to hers. Her eyes flashed with joy, followed by shyness.
But Zhao wasn't paying any attention, so he didn't notice. He also wasn't aware that Meirin was following behind them.
Several people were outside the castle, which was where he found the slave. Seeing the slave standing there, Zhao seemed to have made a mistake. It turned out that the slave was female. Zhao had thought that it would be a male slave, and didn't think that it would be a woman.
The female slave looked like she was ten years old, possibly because of malnutrition. She was thin and very petite, with long brown hair that was a bit frizzy, and her coarse clothes were worn over dark rough skin.
She looked nervous standing there.
But it wasn't just her, all the slaves were trembling. When they saw Zhao come out, they immediately kneeled on the ground, not daring to move.
"Master, her name is Beans," Meg said. "She's twenty years old this year, and she was the one that came to me with the woven weeds."
Zhao nodded. He knew that in this world, slaves didn't have real names. Their names were generally only a word, and that word would become their name. He looked at the girl called Beans and said, "Lift your head."
Beans gingerly raised her head, but did not dare to look at Zhao, only staring at his knees.
"You're called Beans?" Zhao asked.
Beans bowed her head. "Yes, Master."
"Where did you learn how to weave weeds?"
"I wasn't always a slave. Two years ago, I was a commoner. My family would often weave straw, so I slowly learned it."
Zhao nodded. Although this girl called Beans spoke timidly, her words were very structured. It appeared that she was a commoner who had a little education. "Get some weeds and weave some for me."
Beans immediately ran off. When she came back, she was holding a large amount of weeds. It appears that she was well prepared. These weeds seemed to have been drenched in water, which made them much more pliable.
"Please forgive my rudeness, Master," Beans said as she sat on the ground and began weaving with her hands. It seemed like she was making a mat. Her hands were moving very fast, and soon a small woven mat appeared. The surface of the mat was very smooth, and although it was very weak, it looked beautiful.
Zhao looked at Beans who had knelt on the ground. "Well, Beans, the Buda clan is willing to give you a great reward. Starting today, you are no longer a slave. So you don't need to kneel, only to salute. Plus you will get a separate room and will be paid a wage in silver for your work. Not only that, you will also become part of the Buda clan. From now on your name is Beans Buda. No, wait, that's not a name suitable for girls. You will be called Daisy Buda."
Everyone heard what Zhao said, but they never imagined that such a simple crafting skill of weaving weeds would be able to make you a commoner. As well as wages, the most important part was that she would also get Zhao's surname. A lot of commoners in the Continent didn't have a noble name.
Beans, no, now should be called Daisy, was so excited that her whole body was trembling. She really didn't think that she would become a commoner again, and not a slave. All of this was like a dream.
The reason Daisy Buda had the courage to stand up and be the first to show off her skill was because of what happened two years ago. Her family actually had land of their own, although it was only five acres. If they avoided offending any strong people, they would be able to feed their family. Plus her father had some mason skills, so they didn't have to worry about food or clothing.
But then their land was infested by harmful insects eating their acres of food. And it wasn't just them. There were many people who suffered the same fate with their lands not yielding anything, leading to rising food prices Their family was soon pushed to the edge of hunger. To let the family eat, her father had to work day and night, until he suffered an injury, and so wasn't able to continue working.
In order to get her father a doctor, they had to sell their land and their house, but it still wasn't enough money. So they had no choice but to borrow money from a nobleman. But her father could not hold on, and soon died. Unable to pay back the money, the nobility took her mother, her brother, and her as slaves. But because of grief, her mother also died. Before her death, her only desire was to restore the family's status as free commoners.
But reverting from a slave identity back to a commoner was extremely difficult. Before she was taken in by the Buda clan, Daisy saw a lot of slaves that tried to restore their freedom. There was a man who had a daughter that was a slave. Trying to free her, he sold his home to someone of nobility, but he still couldn't get back her commoner status. In the end, that girl was soon tortured to death.
After seeing something like that, Daisy became more careful and tried not to make people notice her, while also taking care of her brother, since all the sibilings had was each other.
Later, after her original owner sold her to a slave trader, Green finally bought them, and they were taken to the Black Waste.
When she first heard what Zhao said about how making enough contributions to the Buda clan would help them revert back to commoner status, Daisy's heart was moved. At first, she didn't want to stand out, afraid that her crafting skill wasn't fancy enough for Zhao. After all, she could only weave weeds. But after a few days of observing him, she found that even though he was nobility, he wasn't the same as the ones she previously encountered. He was very easy going, and every day he gave them something to eat, and even prepared them some firewood for heating.
Today, Daisy tried to stand out because her brother was sick. Though it wasn't that big of a problem now, but continuing on like this would be dangerous. As as slave, she had no way of saving him, so she had to figure something out.
After freezing for a moment, Daisy finally snapped out of her head. "Master, I can't accept your reward. I just want to save my brother. He is sick."
"Oh, you have a brother? Rest assured, I won't take back the reward just because you have a brother here. How about I let your brother join you? Together, you will both resume your identity as commoners, also with the surname Buda. Oh yes, what's his name? Where is he? And what disease does he have?"
Daisy was shocked. She never thought that Zhao would actually do this, even allowing her brother to return to commoner status. Having her mother's desire be achieved brought excited tears to her eyes. She sobbed loudly, "Master, my brother's called Ann. He's now at the house."
Zhao nodded. "You, get up. You are now a commoner, you do not need to be on your knees. Now take me to your brother."
Daisy obediently stood up while trying to calm herself down. Under the watchful eyes of the slaves, Daisy led Zhao to the house. It was a stone house, not very big, only about twenty square meters, and was able to accomodate four people. They slept on the ground, which they simply covered in weeds. Right now there was a man lying on a pile of weeds.
This man looked to be in his teens, his body was fairly robust, and he was wearing coarse clothes. There was also the Buda clan crest branded on his forehead. But he didn't look too good. His eyes were closed and there was a sickly air around him.
Zhao looked at Ann, then turned to Meirin. "Grandma Meirin, why is his face green?"
"Master, it looks like he's been poisoned, most likely from those poisonous weeds we saw earlier. He must have inadvertently encountered those weeds, and because he was physically strong at the time, he probably didn't feel anything until after he came back when the poison slowly worked its effect."
Who knew that kind of toxic weed would have such a strong poison, so Zhao quickly asked, "Can it be cured?"
Meirin smiled. "Rest assured, Master. It can be cured." She whispered a spell and soon blue light appeared in her hands, which immediately moved to Ann's body.
Ann started to emit blue light, followed by a surge of green gas being forced out of him, until the blue light wholely occupied Ann's body. Eventually, his complexion slowly returned to normal, and then the blue light disappeared.
Zhao didn't expect that magic could even be used to detoxify. It seemed like he had underestimated the ability of this world's magic. Since this world was a magic civilization, they had almost developed magic to the limit. Now it wasn't surprising if they could do such amazing things.
"Master, he's been cured of the poison," Meirin said. "Just let him sleep. Tomorrow, he will be back to normal."
Zhao nodded, then he turned to Meirin and said, "Grandma Meirin, tomorrow, please arrange some rooms at the castle for Daisy and her brother. They are now part of the Buda clan, and should no longer be treated as slaves."
Translator Notes: This chapter was edited from an MTL. Please leave a comment if you've spotted anything that looks wrong.