Φ As everyone works all around a certain man, he looks for a place where he blends in the most and in that tiny spot, he starts to till the land like everyone else.
He does it in a rhythmic motion, trying his best to copy the movements of everyone beside him, but despite everything, the rate at which he works is far slower than his peers, causing him to lag behind.
And when this happens, he quickly moves to others who are working at a slower pace, but still, his output is lower than others.
Every time he lags behind, he stares at his arms and moves them. Yet as he tries to move them he sees again, and again, that his coordination between both of his arms is off.
The attacks and mistreatment he had suffered as a slave flash through his mind, and the lasting damage it has left on his body makes him wish to hide himself from those around him.
But no matter where he goes throughout the area, there is still someone working in a manner that allows them to outpace him, but soon, worse than that, he notices that the people have all started to group up together.
His constant moving and exchanging of positions to be hidden has bitten him, as many have started to form groups, leaving more attention on the one who couldn't.
The stress, the pain, and the shame from this and all the labour quickly catch up to him, and he keeps swinging his hoe into the ground in a rather janky manner, eventually causing stress to build up to a bad point, breaking it into two.
As his hoe breaks, it flies over near another group who, for the most part ignore it, and walking slowly the man goes to reach and grab his hoe, and says, "I am sorry," but the group he is speaking too doesn't hear it and they simply continue to talk.
Holding his hoe, the man walks slowly away from them and says, "Of course, this was a mistake. I should have known better."
He tries to walk away, but then he is grabbed by the leg, and hears, "I got him!"
Turning around, he sees the little girl named Xia, and looking up, he sees her father named Quant. Looking at her father, the girl says, "I caught him."
Rubbing her head, he says, "Good job, my little beast tamer."
The man tries to hide his face, and then kicks Xia with enough force to get her to fall on her back. "I don't have time for whatever this is, so leave me alone or I might return that punch."
Quant says, "Is that really what you want to be doing right now, Musa?"
"Instead of worrying about other, look at your daughter you shit stain of a father."
Looking at his daughters, whose hair is almost as wild as the mane of a lion, Xia jumps up and says, "I am fine."
Picking up and hugging his daughter, Quant says, "My daughter is a rather resilient little worker. You see, she is someone who tries her best despite what she is given, and I am very proud of her for it."
"I still don't see how that is any of my business. Now go take your daughter and jump in the ocean."
As Musa walks away, Quant throws his daughter like a ball right towards Musa's head, and she then grabs onto him and starts to pull his hair.
Angered Musa says, "Let go of me, you menace!"
He reaches for her, but she skillfully moves away from him, using his entire body as a jungle gym and swinging around like a monkey.
"Daddy, look how well I am doing!"
Clapping his hands, Quant says, "You're doing amazing, honey!"
"GET OFF!"
Musa tries to reach for her at his lower waist, but she quickly moves her body towards his face, and then, in a flash, pokes at both of his eyes. Causing him to fall onto his butt and scream in pain.
Walking over to her father, Xia is quickly lifted up into the air, and then Quant says, "Victory to my daughter!"
Musa on the ground, barely holding back tears from having his eyes poked, says, "Did you just come here is harass me?"
Xia says, "No, we wanted to get those tears out."
Looking at his reflection in the metal part of his hoe, Musa sees that water is already building in his eyes, and he doesn't say anything as he continues to hold back tears.
Getting up, he prepares to walk away, but he bumps into someone as he does.
Looking at the person in front of him, he sees the cook Kian.
Holding out a hoe in front of Musa, Kian says, "It's my own, use it."
Confused, Musa says, "Why?"
"I am a beastkin, I can do it well enough with just my hands. Now let's go."
Kian starts to drag Musa, with Quant and Xia walking close behind them.
And as they reach a place with untilled land, Kian says, "It's time to get to work."
Musa gets up and says, "I am leaving!"
But Kian, the pig, flexes his muscles, and Musa turns around and picks up the hoe.
The three of them work the land as Xia cheers, but as he keeps working, he notices that both of them start to outpace him again, and even more than before, he feels shame over his weakness.
So he slams the hoe into the ground harder and harder again, and eventually it breaks again.
ΦAs I look at the broken shards of wood in my hand, my vision starts to get blurry.
Bending down, I say, "I am sorry, let me just clean this up," and start picking up little fragments of wood scattered everywhere.
Again. It happened again. Why no matter how hard I try can't thing go right?
I made a few mistakes in my life, and then I wound up a slave for years, and now that I am free, I can't even till some land. All I have to do is till some land, something that intelligent life has been doing since we could speak to each other, and I can't even manage to do it without messing up?
I couldn't handle my finances and became a debt slave, and then when we were all liberated, I thought good luck was finally coming to me, but I couldn't do anything.
I can't draw, I can't read, I can't cook, I have no special skills worth a damn, and my coordination is so awful that I even struggle with physical labour without falling down all the time.
And due to this inability to do anything, I couldn't make any bonds while everyone else integrated into the country. I tried as I could to at least form a group of those who felt like me.
But little by little, they found their little corners with others where they could be around others who wanted to be with them, and I was left all alone in my pit of sadness.
Where those mistakes I made back then so horrible that it means I now have to be fucked everywhere I go. Isn't life long? Why do the mistakes of two years define me so much?
I just hate this, I hate every last bit of this. Yet I can't run away, or I will die. The benefits they give me here are the only thing keeping me up, and I can't repay them no matter how much I try.
I wish Orb just threw me out, I wish they just left me in the cage, I wish someone just killed me. Because I am too much of a coward to take myself out, and I am too ashamed to continue being a leech.
I thought I could continue living like this and maybe even justify it. But when I took that sandwich, and when those words were said to me, I knew that if I continued on that path, I would become a disgusting creature that doesn't even deserve kindness.
Right now, I just don't know what to do. Except for what I have done up till now, just run away.
With all of the shards of wood in my hands, I say, "I am finished."
And just turn to walk away. I keep my head down and try to drown out my hearing with my thoughts to make sure I don't feel on any level how people are looking at me.
This isn't a life I could be proud of, but hopefully, one da,y someone will understand how worthless this life is and happily rid the world of it before it hurts anyone else. If I could ask any deity for one wish, it would be to vanish.
Suddenly, I am pulled from the back of my shirt and brought back to my old position, having dropped all of the shards of wood onto the ground.
Looking at Kian who dragged me, I say, "You fat fucking pig. Can't you just leave me alone!"
Quant grabs then holds out the palms of my hand, and then he says, "Xia."
"Righty-o."
She moves to my palms and starts to quickly take out all of the splinters in them, and I try to struggle, then say, "Just leave me alone."
Quant says, "You're going to try again."
"What? I say I am tired and done with this nonsense. I will just eat whatever you guys make. Working in the first place is just stupid for a former slave like me, healthy ones like the beastkin should happily do it for ones like us."
"I made a mistake back a Basileia. I sold Willow out to go see my daughter. Yet he saved me and brought me here, where I get to live out my wildest fantasy. I have without a doubt perverted my life from what it could have been, but even if things don't work out, life isn't over till the day you die. Both of us made stupid mistakes that landed us as slaves, but now I think we can try to better ourselves."
As all the splinters are removed from my hand, Xia takes some cute cloth and wraps it around them, and says, "Now their super adorable!"
The father and daughter duo smile at me with a look I don't deserve in the slightest, so I lower my head to stop any tears from flowing out of them, and say, "It won't ever work out for me even after a hundred tries."
Kian puts his hand in front of me, Kian shows me a series of scars, and says, "I was really bad at cooking for years before I got it down. You probably won't get good at anything after a hundred tries, but after a thousand, you won't even be able to recognise yourself. So how about it?"
Keeping my head even lower, I say, "I get depressed easily, and want to give up at the smallest inconvenience. I will waste your time and effort, and will probably fail in the end. Are you fools sure you want to do this?"
"OF course!" They all say. Xia then says, "I like people who try phenomenally hard."
Quant says, "Your vocabulary has expanded due to Basileia," while rubbing her head, and then looking at me.
Suddenly, I am tapped on the head, and then Orb's voice says, "You have heard the people speak; all you can do now is respond to their feelings, Musa. "
Looking at everyone with tears in my eyes, I see that Orb has a hoe in front of me, so I grab it and say, "I will try my best."
ΦLooking around to everyone, Orb takes off again and starts to gather the Red branch knights one by one, eventually getting even Mime, who battled with Dumnorix has reached a climax to join.
Then together they all dashed off to accomplish another goal, and as they do, Orb says, "It's time to give all of these hard workers a gift."