2 weeks passed and sales were still on the floor, well we continue with the same concept as always, we have not done anything to improve, sometimes my brother and I meet in our secret place, it is an old hut that is on the limits of the town, several people mention that it is haunted, others say that a family was murdered in that place, and finally they say that it is the house of a witch and a sorcerer.
In short, we met to think of a way to increase our sales, we have thought of several things, such as, for example. Save to buy some tables. We rule this out because if we are going to defeat them we want it to be with a new style, yes, a new style that leaves theirs on the ground. Another option we had was. Let's move our position. We also ruled out this option since it is not easy to change places in a giant market, besides that would be running away, and that is not good for my reputation.
So the only one left is...
—Sabotage—ponder—.
We planned everything, from start to finish, the plan was just to make them so angry that they decide to leave the market. To do this, we will knock down the tables, one by one, quickly and stealthily.
That day I accompanied them to sell the crops, our means of transportation was my dearest friend Marta the donkey, that's right, my friend was being exploited for work. Well, at least after a day of heavy work for her, I usually reward her with some fresh vegetables.
In addition, the market is only present on Mondays, it works only one day a week and the rest of the days it spends talking to me or listening to my ideas to improve the garden.
"She's a good conversation partner, Hehehehe," I thought.
"Psss...
I turned to my right side, my brother greeted me with a smile on his face.
"Yes, brother, I'm ready, too," he thought, as he reviewed our plan.
○●○●○
We arrived and placed ourselves at our stalls, we managed to convince Mrs. Sofia to let us walk a little in the market. After retiring a few meters we stopped to review our plan.
"Good! So you know what to do, right?
"Yes, I just have to bang the tables and pretend I don't know anything."
"Yes, but you must also be careful, since our stall is right in front of us, and we don't want Sofia to see us," my brother warned me.
"Understood, but," I said doubtfully.
"What's wrong Astaro, is there something you didn't understand?" he asked me.
No, I understood everything perfectly, when it comes to brute force I'm the ideal person, but putting on this mask of an old man with a degenerate face, I think this is too much.
"Oh! Let's go! "Don't tell me you don't want to do it just because of the mask," he exclaimed disappointed.
"Well, I'm not going to deny it," I thought.
I looked carefully at my brother who just laughed.
"Why are you laughing, if Mrs. Sofia sees me with this mask, she will think badly of me!" I thought, worried about my reputation.
"Okay, without the mask.
"Thank you," I thought gratefully.
In total there were 10 tables, each with its respective vegetables and fruit, all arranged perfectly, just this was wonderful to see.
"How beautiful," I thought.
I developed a love for vegetables, after planting a seed and watching it grow day by day, it made me feel very relaxed. My brother was starting with the plan, he is in charge of watching and verifying that no one is watching, he does wear the mask of a degenerate old man.
"How mature," I thought a little embarrassed.
He began to look like this everywhere while checking the area, he turned to look at me while he nodded.
"Well, then let's start," I thought.
In a burst of speed the first 5 tables were toppled, as were my beloved vegetables.
"Haaaaaaa!" The vegetables! Deep down, I was crying.
Well, changing the subject, I guess the burst of speed caught a bit of attention, —this was not stealthy at all—.
All the people looked around to see what had caused such a noise.
The vendors immediately ran in the direction of the vegetables, I feel a little bad for them, but the reality is cruel.
"It's them or us," I thought.
Then another loud burst of speed appeared collapsing the other tables, but this one was louder than mine, so strong was it, that it destroyed the tables into several pieces along with the vegetables.
This was my brother, yes, Asterio possesses a great deal of strength, so much so that sometimes it scares me a little. Although his physique seems otherwise, he is extremely strong, I discovered it 4 months after Mrs. Sofia took us in.
"Amazing," I thought stunned.
Just as we planned, no one was injured, after that we tried to act like we didn't know anything, and headed over to where Mrs. Sofia was.
"Asterius! Astaro! They're fine?
Mrs. Sofia approached us, while she saw the disaster caused by us, immediately Asterio took off the mask of the degenerate old man and then pretended not to know anything.
"Yes, we're fine, Sofia," my brother replied.
"Yes," I replied with my head bowed.
"I'm sorry, but we had to," I thought, remembering what I'd done.
○●○●○
We returned home, as we planned our sales that day went up, well by leaving out the competition it was clear that we would benefit a lot.
To be honest, I'm a little sorry, maybe that wasn't the right way to do it, but hey, what is going to be done to it, everything was already done.
That day we had the luxury of having dinner as much as we wanted, after all it was an exhausting day, 4 hours of travel in a cart was something exhausting more for my friend Marta.
"Tomorrow I'll give you some good fresh vegetables, you deserve them," I thought of rewarding Marta.
It may not seem like it, but it seems that my brother also feels a little remorse for what happened, he does not stop playing with the spoon of his plate, while his gaze is fixed on a specific point.
"What's wrong with you, Asterio?" Does your stomach hurt?
"No, I'm fine, don't worry, Sofia, I think I'm a little tired, I'll go get some fresh air and then go to sleep."
"Oh I see, then be careful.
Asterio left the house leaving us with a bit of intrigue, we both watched as my brother who was normally cheerful and hyperactive, came out as a serious and antisocial boy, something like me.
"I think he should see what's wrong with him," I thought.
"Astaro, you should see what's wrong with your brother," he suggested.
"Huh?"
"Although it may not seem like it, he also has sad moments, where he needs someone by his side to be able to vent, so why don't you go see what happens to him?"
"Yes, I suppose you're right," I gladly agreed.
Even though he's my older brother, I must be there for him, no matter if he's the younger brother, after all, we only have us.
"Speaking of blood ties," I thought.
I went outside to meet my brother sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall as he stared at the night sky, holding a blank stare as he stared into space.
"I think I know what's wrong with him," I thought as I watched him.
"You feel bad too, don't you?"
"Do you think?" He said without turning to look at me.
"Yes, a little," I replied seriously.
I sat next to him while we looked at the stars, the night sky was practically beautiful, just seeing it I felt a great peace inside. Some people are scared, and I share their opinion, since it is something unknown, something we have never seen, but it still looked very beautiful.
"You know Astaro, sometimes, I think I'm a bad example of a brother," he said sadly, "those people, like you, find it hard to grow all those vegetables, and then sell them, for them to sell something that cost them sweat and effort is something pleasant, since the money you receive in exchange for all that effort makes you feel alive.
"Yes, I agree," I said a little confused.
"What do you mean by that?" I thought.
"Tell me, what would you feel if someone did the same thing to you, what did we do to those men?"
"Well, em... I would feel Furious?
"Just that?"
"Sad," I added.
"Yes, sad, that's what I wanted to get at," he looked into my eyes.
Why is he trying to lecture me at such a time? What is done, done this is no going back, what does it gain by regretting what we have just done, well personally speaking I am a little sad about what we did, just a little. But we won by doing it, this benefited us, after all, it went well.
"Are you sorry?" I questioned.
"No, not at all, in fact I would do it again if necessary," he said with a small smile.
Would you do it again? Well, it's not that I'm against it, but don't wait, if I'm against it! after all, I'm a farmer too.
"I don't think we should do it again," I hesitated in my words.
"I see, you do regret it."
"Just a little.
"Tell me Astaro if this were a story, would you be satisfied with the ending?" He questioned me.
"If this were a story, I think it could have had a better ending," I thought.
Sabotage●
Those words echoed in my head. We literally threw down the effort of people who just wanted to earn a coin, this ending, it's an end, okay? Or is it a bad ending?
"I can't tell you for sure," I said, bowing my head.
"If you ask me, I wouldn't change the ending," he said without hesitation.
"You don't care about the effort they put into growing those vegetables, do you?" I asked in a firm voice this time.
"Why should I care?" Would that benefit us in any way? He said without any expression.
"Then it's profit that we work for," I said.
—Yes, without a benefit work is just a waste of time, why do something if in the end nothing good will come out of it, it is as if you planted a seed and watered it every day knowing that it will never grow, do you think it is worth it? He questioned me firmly.
"No," I replied dryly.
But, even so, the faces of those men when they saw the whole disaster, seemed to be on the verge of tears, I guess they are tears of frustration and sadness.
"But the effort of those men," I tried to appeal.
A blow interrupted my sentence, my brother had hit the ground cracking it only a little, he was looking at me with a serious face as he stood up.
—If we go back to the example of the story, this would be considered a happy ending, for us, for a happy ending to appear there always has to be an unhappy ending first.
That's a little cold, but he's right, one person's happiness is another's unhappiness. He may have been upset by my persistence, but I still have to look out for our benefit and not for the benefit of others.
"Empathy is a value that I am interested in understanding," I thought.
"That's the reality Astaro.
My brother stroked my hair while smiling at me, his face still looked sad, his way of thinking is somewhat different from mine, sometimes I think he is right, but sometimes I feel that he is not, but being my older brother, I think it would be bad to disobey him just because he believes that my thoughts are the right ones.
"I can't force you to think the same way I can, though," he said simply.
I looked into his eyes, he had a very warm smile, just that word came to my mind when I saw his smile, sometimes he can be very harsh, his way of thinking was different from mine, but I still consider him a good brother, since he is always there for me when I am depressed or sad.
I didn't know what he meant when he told me that, he doesn't force me to think the same way he does, he's just teaching me a new thing that I've never stopped to think about, someone's happiness is someone else's unhappiness, that's law, and there's no one in the world who changes that.
"Don't obey me if you don't think it's the right thing to do for you, if you're against my thoughts, I ask you to please don't follow my will just because I'm your older brother, you're free to think and do what you think is right."
"But you've done a lot for me, I don't think going against you snif, snif, is a good way to thank you for everything you've done for me in the past."
I did not hold back my tears, they came out against my will when I remembered my previous self, a shy, fearful, insecure and weak person. At that time my brother was there to hug me and calm me down, when we are afraid the world is very scary, everything we live with day to day influences our life a lot, and sometimes we run into fears that we don't even know we have, and when we realize we just try to run away and avoid them.
In my case this was different, for my fears, my fears, he was always there for me, thanks to him I am the person I am now, I left my fears and my insecurity thanks to the support of my only family.
"No matter how old you look, you're still my whining, scary little brother," he hugged me.
"Snif, snif, I can't help it... it comes out on its own.
I wiped the tears from my eyes as I stood up.
"Stop looking at me with that smile, it's embarrassing," I thought embarrassedly.
"Even so, you are fifty years old, I will continue to hug you as long as you are afraid, you are my family and I will never abandon someone very precious to me, so just follow your will little brother," he told me while showing a big smile.
"Yes, I will follow my will, brother," I replied cheerfully.