"Although, he lost. I just feel like he's still alive somewhere 'cause I heard that he is a strong one," Hidelga said.
"So everyone here is on the emperor's side?" Tim stated as he leaned forward on the table.
"Why would you believe so much to someone you don't even know?" Leon abrupted.
They were all silenced, staring at him.
"Because he has proven something good? how about if you found out that he also has done something bad or even worse? or even done nothing for you but just for his own good? Would that change your opinion? Most people are subjective to the things that they believe that is right and oppress what they think is wrong. Those who are speaking well can curse you later and what is cursing you now can change his mind later or some will never do." he said.
"That was deep," Saray said as she stood up because her baby woke up and started crying.
"Will that change his motive to help the people?" Hidelga asked.
"If it will, then he is generally the same, and that makes him unworthy of the trust, faith, and belief that we are giving him," she added.
"A ruler is not supposed to be subjective all the time for if he listens to everything that is said to him, he will end up dead-willed. It is a matter of integrity and the people will follow. What he did wrong is wrong and there is no undo button for it but the willingness to alter things on the right is what matters most," she added.
"If you buried yourself in your mistakes, then you are in your dead end. You cannot continue living if you leave yourself abandoned in the same pit you have fallen. Life is full of hope, opportunities, and striving, and leaving yourself just because you've committed something wrong and resents it is suicide; it is like you choose to kill yourself a million times every day while you are still alive."
Leon laughed ironically, which is a very rare sight to see.
After the meal, Mr. Tim gave Leon a dagger. It is an honor for a mere craftsman to have the emperor use one of his creations where the emperor already has Prince Orion the best among the best in the whole empire as his craftsman.
"You speak in great courage, lady," Leon stated as they walked step by step away from the place.
Hidelga looked at him and said, "Why? Would I die if I ever stated my cause in Mr. Tim's place?" without any idea that one careless word could make her lose her head someday.
The missing emperor is right before her eyes and her not knowing it seems to entertain him more. Little by little, this woman is unaware that he is stirring the emperor's attention like an ignorant teen to an alluring drug.
"You haven't told me about your ex-husband," and suddenly there is a big twist on their conversation.
"All this time I was accompanied by a married woman?" he stated.
Hidelga turned to him and teased, "Will that help you be at ease that I am not coming for you?" she said sarcastically.
"In fact, it made me thrilled," Leon countered by teasing her.
Hidelga thinks that he might again disregarded. "My ex-husband no longer wants me. He even tried to kill me the same as he killed our child," she said, turning it into a serious sentence. "I had a miscarriage; he killed my family and sold it for gold and glory, then he made me his slave," she said.
"Luckily, someone from the slaves who is going forth to his deathbed wants to do something good before he dies so he can have another additional point in heaven. So that person decided to give me a chance to live and help me escape and..."
She had a sudden pause, "and..... I ran, running as fast as I could and as far as I could go... With no looking back and with no idea where I am going. I ran free to live again. So I am telling this like the first day that I found you. EVERYONE HAS THE RIGHT TO LIVE." She turns her gaze to him, baring heavy emotions.
He was never disappointed in expecting her reaction for how many times already.
"So, would you like to have your revenge and kill him?" he asked again.
"If I said no, it would be a lie but if I said yes, would it be self-justice?" she said. "Well, anger is not the one that hunts me. It was... It was the loss," she clarified.
"Will his death or suffering bring back what I lost?" she asked. "Then it's empty? I would just end up like him, making someone else suffer because of me," she uttered.
"His blood is not worth anything I lost and even if I hate him, it will just destroy me," she stated with grief.
This reaction at least is the one that she doesn't want to show him.
"You'll be gone as soon as you recover," she muttered.
'Damn,' she thought, feeling embarrassed.
"So would you like to come with me?" Leon offered.
"A maid perhaps?" she asked. "No thanks," she answered immediately.
"How about a wife?" he said. Hidelga paused walking and turning to see if he was serious.
She was surprised.
"I have a husband!" she exclaimed.
"Seeing you here, he's dead probably," he answered.
"WHAT!" was her reaction.
"You are a noble!" she said.
"Aren't you?" he said. "The symbol on your nape is found only on the higher hierarchy of the eastern tribe under the empire," he said.
"You are not a slave originally. You are a fallen royal descendant," he said.
________________________________________
The sound of wild horses on the grassland, wide marketplaces, peaceful homes, large families, neighbors, and children laughing around the neighborhood.
A simple life of indigenous peoples. A beautiful place to grow.
"Hidelga!"
Just one call can bring back all those beautiful memories, like a wonderful musical that drives you away from reality.
"Mateja, Dsso!" A voice of a young boy calling. It was Oran, the second child.
"Hidelga, Mateja, Dsso! Quick!" he called again.
The girls hastily finish their traditional hairstyle and run, descending the stairs.
The sound of a woman groaning in pain was heard inside their house.
They waited outside the room as they peeked to see this wonderful moment.
A cry was heard after a few minutes. "It's a boy!" The midwife affirms.
They were all overjoyed.
"You are Habi," their father said. "It means sewing."
It was the birth of their youngest sibling.
However, time goes so fast.
A few years later, Hidelga was betrothed to a young man of another tribe named Sur.
Everything happened one after the other; now the elders were all busy with the talks.
She is now engaged.
Hidelga was preparing the meal while taking care of her younger brother, Habi. Mateja and Dsso were braiding their long hair while
Oran was outside learning the dagger.
Oran wants to be a threader but his family disapproves, saying that "trouble follows threaders," and Oran contradicts it, saying that being a non-threader doesn't make us excused from troubles.
Although it was hopeless, unless he was chosen by any weapon first, it would be all possible.
One day, while she was watching her brother train all by himself. Oran suddenly asked her a question. "Do you want to marry early? You're just fifteen," Oran said with his panting breath.
"Why do you follow everything that they say? Don't you want to achieve something else that is outside this box?" he insisted.
"Maybe a woman just wants simple things. We need to be obedient and take good care of our home," she said plainly.
"Tsk, stupid," he said, placing his dagger in its sheath as finishing.
"Don't settle too fast; don't trust too much," he said with his grumpy attitude.
His brother always has a sharp tongue and blunt speech but sometimes he has a point and most of the time he is right.
'Somehow, I wanted to be like him,' Hidelga thought.
But what can she do?
Disapprove? Rebel?
What will she bring? Shame?
Runaway? Where will she go?
Nonsense. She's at home.
Months later she was married and started living a peaceful life with her husband.
It was all perfect until a year passed and now she is pregnant with their first child.
Then, the chief was poisoned and they were attacked by foreign people. It appears that they were sold and killed and anyone who fought back was murdered.
And who does that scheme? Her husband, Sur. In exchange for money, power, and position, he had sold everything, even his own soul and even the life of his own child.
Hidelga had a miscarriage; her sisters and mother died in her arms and she was held captive by her husband.
Even though she cried and begged her husband. Sur doesn't show any trace of mercy, not even any sense of guilt towards her. He even dares to sleep with other women in front of her.
Where are those peaceful moments? Is it still there? Is everything a big lie all along?
'Probably it was really like that all along? Has he ever loved me?' Her question repeatedly resounded in her thoughts.
'Maybe there are things that you can't change and things that seem real but are not.'
'My unborn child, what would he be? Would he be a boy or a girl? (I use he and his instead of he/she or his/her/him) What might be the sound of his voice? What would he look like if he made it through and lived?
I eagerly want to hear the sound of his cry. Somehow, I wanted to feel him in my arms.
Then some dying servant pitied this poor woman and broke the chains on her right foot to help her escape.
Running a little further with no point of return, she passes another town and enters a city, then sells the things that she got from where she came from and changes her clothes and the color of her hair so no one would be able to identify her.
'It's time to start a new life,' she dazed at the sky.
Not knowing how she's going to start.