Kale woke up with bandages wrapped around his upper body and right hand. His eyes looked up at the ceiling of the unfamiliar-looking room, before slowly moving his head to the side.
A simple room with little furniture, where there was a small window near the wardrobe.
- CEKLEK
The door opened, revealing the figure of the leader entering with a tray of medicine, slightly surprised to see Kale awake and looking at the interior of his small room.
"You're awake, huh? Is something wrong?" he asked as he approached the bed Kale was sitting on. Sat on the edge of the bed and placed the tray he was carrying on the small table near the bed before he finally looked at Kale who was also looking at him.
"I'm sorry that the house is so small and dirty. We are working on building a house for you." He quickly grabbed some bandages to replace the bandages on Kale's body.
"A house? For me? Why?" Kale was confused. Why would he be given a house?
He would even leave this place if it was safe.
"You defeated Noel, doesn't that mean you're the next ruler of this place? It's only fitting that this one servant should serve the new ruler, right?" He slowly removed the bandages binding Kale's upper body, cleaned the remaining wounds, and gave him the medicinal herbs that had been pureed by the other residents.
"Just because I defeated him, doesn't mean I want to become the ruler of this place, sir."
Putting the bowl of medicinal herbs back on the tray, the leader immediately wrapped the bandages on Kale's body carefully. "Calling sir for a servant who must serve the ruler ... is a bit strange to hear."
"Aren't you older than me? Besides, I'm not interested in having you as my servant," Kale said while looking the other way. "I fought Noel because I thought he had gone too far in controlling this place. In my opinion, you are much more deserving than him. So, don't think of me as a ruler."
"Because I have no interest in being a ruler."
Now the leader began to move to Kale's right with his tray. He began to change the bandages on his hands slowly and carefully. After finishing, he helped Kale to turn his body over by placing a thick pillow on his front wound to make Kale comfortable.
The leader began to unwrap the bandages on Kale's back. "What is your goal in freeing us from Noel?"
"Instead of lying, it's better, to be honest, we won't do anything more like that time. We've realized that you're much stronger than all of us." He rubbed the potion in the bowl on Kale's back gently and evenly.
"What did Noel do to make you distrust a noble?" Kale asked. The leader's hand movement seemed to stop instantly on Kale's back, realizing the person he was asking was silent, making Kale speak up again,
"No matter how deep the wounds are, you should not generalize all nobles to be like him." Kale dared to say that because he had experienced it himself. When he was still treated like trash by his cousin at the Moon Clan's residence.
Chale appeared and helped him. Kale couldn't even believe Chale could do so much good for him because for so long being treated like trash that shouldn't exist, Chale's treatment was something strange. However, Kale liked it very much.
"You don't know anything about us." Keeping his right hand away from Kale's back, he looked the other way, trying to hold back the emotions in his body that were about to explode.
"I apologize." Kale should have realized he could not generalize his feelings with those of others. Not everyone thought like him, not everyone's suffering was the same.
"You can continue, I'll stay quiet," Kale said and closed his eyes.
The leader let out a frustrated sigh. He gave Kale's back another dose of crushed herbs, before wrapping the bandages neatly and quickly.
"When I was eight years old, I was burned alive in this place with my family." Kale opened his eyes slowly. Listening carefully to the leader who seemed to be opening his heart to him.
...
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...
A few years ago, on the first floor.
"Zan! Wake up, Zan! There's a fire, we have to get out of here!" When morning had not yet come, my mother came to my room with a panicked face. She woke me up with a shudder, and when she felt I was awake, she carried me straight to my father who was already carrying a bag with all of our main supplies.
I was still not fully awake. It wasn't until we left the house that I realized that the trees surrounding our home were engulfed in flames. One by one, the trees began to fall and fell on the house and the people inside.
Screams and cries continued to be heard. I was scared. Very scared. I saw the bodies of my friends being devoured by the flames, crying their names while hugging my mother's neck tightly. We run all the way out of our neighborhood.
Hiding in another forest far away from us. For the first time, I felt a terrible fear. My body couldn't stop shaking, I couldn't eat regularly because I was nauseous at the thought of them being consumed by fire, and I couldn't sleep, haunted by the death of my loved ones.
My mother kept holding me and my father kept stroking my hair. We protected each other, encouraged each other, and hoped for safety in the future.
Yet, I wondered why our peaceful life had been disturbed. Who was the perpetrator of all that had happened?
"My son, Zan. You don't need to think about it. I promise, after this we will be free and Zan can play again, understand?" Dad kept making promises. But the truth is, that promise will never be fulfilled.
I was getting older and was now 10 years old. We still didn't go back there.
For over two years, all we did was run, hide, run, and hide as if the place we went to would never be safe and we had to keep looking for a new place that was much safer. Why did we keep running? When will we stop and go back to where we lived?
"Zan ... I don't want to live like this either, running and hiding. But that's the only way we can continue to live freely." I didn't accept his opinion.
"Isn't our home ours, Father? So, why should we run away from those --- foreigners --- who are ruthlessly seizing our homes?" I didn't understand. I really didn't understand your thinking.
"Why are you so cowardly? Why don't you fight for our home?"
"What freedom do you keep looking for if all you do is run, run, run, and run?" I asked irritably.
"Zan, stop it, son..." Mom voiced sadly.
"Zan, you don't understand what I'm doing for you."
"It's you who doesn't understand me. I just want us to go back to where we used to live, but you keep running away while promising me a freedom that you never fought for," I snapped unhappily.
"ZAN!" Dad yelled. Making me even more annoyed and deciding to leave our temporary residence, mom called out to me and I had no intention of turning my face to her.
I run, away from the two of them, until Mom's voice started to fade and was replaced by the sound of my stomping feet that kept speeding forward.
What freedom? Dad was just talking nonsense. What is he fighting for if he's always running away? What freedom was he trying to achieve if he never did anything to take what was his?
I was disappointed in him. And I run away from him.
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...
Kale continued to silently listen to the Leader's story. "I was so stupid. As a child who doesn't even know the real situation, I said something so rude and mean to the parents who love us so much."
He let out an exasperated breath. "After I run away, I never went back to them and kept running away. Surviving with difficulty and missing them both at times."
"I regret ever saying such evil things to Father. Because after I traveled alone, I was captured by the men of those who took our home."
"And reunited with Mother at the factory where they would make us work without rest."
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...
- TANG TANG TANG
I continued to forge iron. Ignoring the fact that I was so tired. My stomach was rumbling, my throat was dry, my legs and arms kept aching, my eyes kept screaming for sleep, I needed rest.
"Uhuk uhuk uhuk!" the sound of coughing from behind began to be heard, I turned my face to see Mom falling from her chair and bleeding from her lips.
"MOM!" I approached her, stroking her shoulder while the coughing from my mother was getting worse. "Mom, take a break, let me work by myself. Don't push yourself so hard!"
"No, Zan... If you do it by yourself, you'll die," my mother said, looking at me. "I don't want you to go like your father."
I held back my tears from falling.
Father was already dead. Ever since my departure from them that day, Dad had been retracing my footsteps with Mom, hoping to find me. However, instead of finding me, they met the invaders from upstairs.
They tried to take the two of them by force, but Father was swayed by my earlier words, he rebelled and intended to save Mother from the invaders. Unfortunately, the invaders from upstairs brought their best weapons and fired bullets at Father's body.
Father bled to death because after he was shot, Mother was kidnapped by the invaders and brought here.
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...
"After all the suffering we had endured. I decided to find a way to escape from them." The leader rubbed his face roughly, while Kale began to turn his body over and lay on his back facing the ceiling of the room.
"However, in the end, all those escape plans always failed."
"Until I meet Noel. He was just like you once were, giving me and those trapped there a hope of freedom." He set her medicine kit on the tray slowly. "But in the end, he only trapped us with his false tricks."
"Noel was a colonizer who took our home and fed us lies by pretending to be a hero to extract everything we had in return for his freedom."
"Noel is the same as you who is currently helping us to be free from him."
Kale finally understands.