"Juragan was just joking with you, Aryan," Marni straightened her back and looked at the merchant. "Isn't that right, Juragan?"
The merchant chuckled again while nodding. "Of course, I am."
Aryan just smiled, his attention was more focused on the toy he just got.
"Thank you, Juragan," said Marni. "That's it for today, I will take my son home now. Let's go home, Aryan."
"All right, Mom."
"Wait a minute, Marnie!" the merchant waved his hand holding the pandan leaf fan.
"What's the matter, Juragan?" Marni thought that maybe the merchant was still not satisfied with the service she had given.
"Don't look at me like that, Marni!" the merchant chuckled again. "Just take a handful of rice for you to eat with your children and husband later."
Marni was happy because then she could always serve Aryan and Munra more decent food. However, because all of that was obtained from sacrificing herself, this made Marni let out a short moan in her chest. Marni screamed at the fate she had to live with.
"Just take it," said the merchant, again.
"Wait here a moment, Aryan," Marni approached the door and entered the stall.
With a little nervousness, Marni grabbed a handful of rice from a large basket that was lined up among other baskets in front of the merchant.
"And accept this too!" the merchant gave Marni two copper coins.
After that, the merchant pointed his hand to Marni's buttocks, then squeezed it.
"You still feel the pain?" he asked in a whisper.
Marni nodded, although she was nervous she finally put a handful of rice into her clothes pocket, and then took two silver coins on the table.
"T-thank you," Marni nodded her head and quickly left the shop before the merchant did any further to her in front of her son.
The merchant smirked, he still wanted to play with Marni's body but he also didn't want Aryan to know about it.
"In three days, you will receive news from me, Marni."
Again, Marni nodded at the merchant's words before finally gently pushing Aryan's shoulder to take the child back to their hut.
***
Munra is now in the border area between the Maghariti Kingdom in the southwest and the Daksina Kingdom in the south. He crossed a bridge made of red bricks and river stones. For a moment Munra stopped the female buffalo who was pulling his pedati-cart.
It was in this river that he used to find Aryan who was still a baby, finding Aryan in a basket of pandan leaves that had not even cut the umbilical cord.
Munra smiled widely, his eyes filled with tears as he recalled the most special day of his life.
"Are you thirsty?" Munra asked the female buffalo.
Moo…!
Munra smiled, then wiped his wet eyes. "Just a minute," he said and then grabbed the almost empty cowhide water bag.
Munra came down, he took the time to rub the back of the female buffalo before he finally went down to the river.
The river was still as clear as it was seven years ago. Munra washed his face with the cold and refreshing river water. Then scooped up water and drank the water straight from the palm of his hand.
After that, he filled the cowhide bag.
Then, when Munra was busy filling his water bag, suddenly, a group of bandits appeared from the forest on the east side and approached the female buffalo on the bridge.
Munra who realized this rushed up the bridge.
"Hey…!" Munra shouts at the bandits. "Please, don't take the buffalo from me!"
The bandits who seemed to be starving indeed laughed at the appearance of the middle-aged man with a thin body towards them.
"Look at him!" said a bandit whose one eye was covered by a round object made of black leather and tied to two ropes to the back of his head.
His comrades laughed at this, laughing at Munra who looked pale as he approached them.
"Please," Munra said as he knelt, palms together, ten fingers pressed together against his forehead. "That, that buffalo... belongs to the nobles in Irisana."
"Hey, old man!" rebuked the bandit who had one eye closed. "Do we look like a herd that afraid of those nobles, hmm?"
"No," Munra lowered his body even more, "you don't understand. If you take this buffalo, I—I will be executed by that noble. Please don't do that to me."
"Hey, old geezer!" another bandit rebuked. "Do you think we're the ones who care about what you're going through?"
Then, the one bandit stuck out his leg, he kicked Munra's shoulder until Munra rolled to the left and almost fell into the river.
"Please…!" said Munra, his voice trembling and very frightened.
Munra was not afraid of the bandits but even greater punishment. Of course, the punishment of the noble Irisana as the owner of the buffalo.
But the bandits didn't care at all. The one-eyed bandit ordered his herd to seize the buffalo.
The buffalo let out a long moo, over and over as the bandits removed the sticks from its neck. It was as if the buffalo understood the bad luck that would befall itself who would become food for the bandits, and also, with what would befall Munra.
"Please, don't!" Munra jumped up and hugged the one-eyed bandit's leg. "The buffalo is not mine, you don't understand, this will make me and my family suffer."
The bandit became irritated with Munras crying, he tried to get his foot off the middle-aged man's hand but to no avail.
Unable to contain his anger any longer, the bandit kicked Munra in the face with his other foot.
Munra let out a short shriek as he was thrown backward. His nose was broken by spitting out a lot of blood.
"P—please!" With difficulty, Munra got up and crawled quickly towards the bandit.
Meanwhile, the one-eyed bandit's comrades had managed to drag the buffalo off the bridge and it looked like they were about to enter the forest on the southwest side.
"You are a stubborn, piece of shit!" the bandit cursed Munra.
Once again, the bandit kicked Munra in the face, this time even harder so that the kick broke Munra's two teeth.
TO BE CONTINUED ...