Chapter 25 - Proactive

"So, she turned out to be fine, huh?" I responded, as I tossed a grape up into the air and caught it with my mouth.

It was a few days later, and Prysm was here again. She asked her father about that tutor she mentioned before, kept bugging him about it till he gave in and took her to see the tutor. If nothing else, she's certainly more than a little bit persistent and proactive.

"No, not exactly. I mean, she's alive, at least, but...she looked so weak. She was really skinny and her smile didn't look real. And she used to be a Viscountess, but now she's a Baroness," Replied Prysm with a frown.

A demotion, huh? And I bet that's not all she had to suffer through, Duralles must have gone out of his way to make her life miserable.

"And? What did you do?" I inquired curiously.

"I...I pretended like I was satisfied. When we went out...I saw how scared some people were of father. Especially the Commoners working in shops and stores," She responded somberly.

The majority of the Commoners who live in the capital are usually slaves, the exceptions being those who are hired to run stores and stuff.

Some Nobles apparently hire Commoners as maids or butlers and pay them for their services instead of the more common Noble practice enslaving them, and it's those same Commoners who hire the ones who run shops or work as drivers or gardeners, stuff like that.

So long as they have an official contract with the Noble they're hired under, other Nobles can't enslave them or accuse them of something without solid evidence of wrong doing.

Which means there's actually strong motive for a Commoner to be hired by a Noble who's also a decent human being. Otherwise, Nobles can get away with any false accusation against a Commoner they want to enslave.

It's a broken, messed up system, and unfortunately, I doubt it'll change anytime soon, not without a complete upheaval of Noble society.

But all the most powerful Nobles, the Royals, Dukes and Duchesses, and Counts and Countesses, wouldn't dream of willingly abandoning their power, prestige and sense of superiority.

Rhyle was an exception, I suppose, but even he never tried to change things, he instead opted to abandon Noble society altogether. And we all know how that worked out.

If you grow up with the world served to you on a silver platter, why would you ever throw that away by choice? That about sums up why Noble society isn't going to change, in my opinion.

Hm, I wonder if I'd have been better off reincarnating in the Light Continent? I'm not a fan of religion, but from what I've heard, they treat their people better.

They don't enslave their own, except in cases like treason and stuff. The majority of their slave population consists of Demi-Humans and people captured from the Dark Continent.

The problem is that their definition of treason includes some pretty minor offenses. Since the Light Continent is a purely religion based society, breaking even the most minor rules of their religion is considered treasonous.

Back in the village, Rhyle had a book about the Light Continent. I had hoped it'd have some Spells in it, but no luck. I did learn more about the way their society works though.

Of course, it's possible that the details in that book weren't totally accurate, the actual situation could be either better or worse than what I read. It's been a few decades since the last time a major battle between the two continents took place, so the information I read is, at the very least, outdated.

"Hey, are you listening? You look like you're daydreaming," Frowned Prysm, shaking my shoulder.

"Hm? Were you saying something?" I responded as I glanced at her.

"I was just asking you if you know how to make father and other people like him become nicer to everyone," She replied with a hopeful look on her face.

Talk about optimistic and naive, there's just no way that's ever going to be possible.

"If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn't be in this predicament, now, would I? But I suppose I do have a solution, of sorts. If every Noble died, the problem would be solved," I shrugged dryly.

"Hm...I guess that makes sense. But killing people is bad," She frowned with a thoughtful expression.

Huh? That, uh, wasn't the response I was expecting. I thought she'd either be dismissive or horrified, I didn't think she'd actually consider it.

"Right, sure, killing people is bad. But what about killing someone who has killed a lot of other people for no reason?" I inquired, curious to see how she'd respond.

"Huh? Oh, I didn't think of that...then, killing good people is bad but killing bad people is good?" She surmised, after mulling it over for a while.

Wow. So that's how her mind works...it's kind of a logic over emotion type of reasoning. But based on my past conversations with her, it's clear that she doesn't ignore her emotions either.

At this point, my suspicions that she's talking to me on her father's command as a spy has dropped significantly. Which would mean that she's been genuinely sympathetic, and having seen how her family has mentally broken down their previous and existing slaves, she's made an effort to try and prevent me from breaking.

I'm pretty sure I'd still be fine even if she had never approached me like this, but still...there's also the matter of her tutor, she liked her and was both horrified and concerned about her when I brought up the possibility that her father must have punished her for saying that all people should be treated equally.

Hm, I think I get it...when it comes things that affect specific people she knows, she lets her emotions dictate her decisions. But when it comes to more general things with no one in particular being the focus, she sees things in a more logical manner. Interesting.

It's an inconsistent, conflicting and almost hypocritical way of thinking, but...I guess most kids are like that.

Huh, it hasn't really occurred to me until now, but now that I think about it...this kid is pretty smart for her age. She definitely acts like a child a lot of the time, but every now and then, her thought process seems kinda chilling.

"Tell me...if someone tried to kill you father and siblings, what would you do? Let's say that this someone's family was killed by your father, as a hypothetical," I remarked, watching her expression carefully.

"Uh...I don't know. I know that father and my older brothers and sisters can be really cruel to people, but I don't know if I want them to die...but because they hurt people who haven't done anything wrong, maybe they deserve to be hurt too?" She frowned uncertainly.

"I can't say for sure about your siblings, but I know for a fact that your father has killed innocent people. He killed a lot of the people in the village I used to live in," I informed her.

"He...he did? Are you sure?"

"Well, yeah, I saw it myself. Haven't I been telling you this whole time that my mother is dead because of him?" I reminded her.

"Yeah, but you never said that he's the one who killed her."

She actually picked up on that? Until recently, I've mostly been ignoring her whenever she comes here, so I didn't notice, but, uh...this kid might be a bit of a sociopath.

"He didn't, but he gave the order to the other Knights to massacre the villagers. And he killed plenty of them himself, including children."

"I didn't know that...I was afraid that he might have killed people when you said he probably did something to my old tutor. But when I saw that she was still alive, I thought that he's not a killer, even though he is cruel," She frowned apprehensively.

"You mean he's never killed any of the slaves your family has owned? Have there ever been any slaves who suddenly disappeared?" I asked her.

"Oh...yes, there have been," She replied as her eyes widened, "I never thought about why I stopped seeing some of them around the mansion."

"I can almost guarantee that they were tortured to death. The only reason why I haven't been killed is because your father thinks I could be useful as a weapon, a combat slave. Otherwise, I doubt that even half the injuries I sustain after each torture session would've been healed," I sighed wistfully.

More likely, I'd have been killed already. After all, some of her older siblings have genuinely tried to kill me whenever I provoke them instead of submitting to them, the only reason they didn't was because that slave woman from the Light Continent reminds them that I'm supposed to be kept alive.

Oh, well, I'll just have to make sure they regret keeping me alive. When I get the opportunity, I'll have to repay them in kind. Yeah, I'll destroy them in the most brutal way imaginable...

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