In the far eastern province of the Old Spire Castle, the sun's heat was ruthless to the slaves who were working hard in the fields of Farmville; the ground was hot, burning the slaves' feet.
Ivan wipes the sweat from his forehead, staring blankly at the sacks of grain he needs to carry. His shoulder gets tired out with each sack of grain he carries; it feels heavier and heavier.
"Russel," said Ivan, carrying the last sack of grain, "Say, have you ever thought of getting out of this goddamn place?"
Russel stumbled on the ground from shock that Ivan utters such words, "Why would you think such a thing, brother? You know what they would do to us if we got caught, right?"
Russel stood up, trying to knock some senses to Ivan. He stood in front of him and looked him straight through the eyes, "What's gotten into you? Why did you ask about this just now, all of a sudden, brother? Are the food rations not enough for you? I could spare you some of mine."
"No, brother, I'm so sick of this place! Doing the same thing every single day is getting tiresome. I don't want to die like this." Ivan drops the sack of grain and kicks.
He continued, he started with a low voice, "Eating scraps, getting beaten up by those so-called knights calling themselves chivalrous, how ironic, also sleeping on a run-of-the-mill barn! We'll die from heat stroke or some sort of disease before we even reach our twenties!"
Ivan grabbed Russel's shoulders tighten his grip, his voice was dead serious, "Now look at me, aren't you getting tired of this, Russel?!"
"I'm not just tired, I'm so fed up with this nonsense, brother," said Russel, "Then what should we do?"
Russel was about to pick up the sack of grain, but suddenly Ivan stopped him, "Stop it, drop the sack, brother, that's the first thing you need to do."
Ivan grinned and sat at the sack he just kicked and explained everything, "It's simple, we should become mercenaries. We fight, we get paid, we can have decent meals on our tables and have a decent roof above our heads."
Russell's eyes widened in disbelief, "That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Yes, we won't die in some sort of shit, we will die sooner than we expected!"
Ivan tries to calm Russell down, "Relaxed, brother."
Russel looked at his trembling hand full of calluses and shoved it in front of Ivan's face, "Look at these hands, brother, this is the hand of a slave that has grown on a farm! I couldn't even imagine killing a person, and we don't even know how wield a sword."
"It's fine, we'll learn how to fight," Ivan puts his arm around Russell, "It's dangerous. But hey, you know, it pays better money than working on this stupid heat all day long just for scraps and beatings."
Russel hesitated… then finally agreed, "Fine, I don't want to die like this."
Ivan laughs, "Now that's the spirit, we'll be rich in no time!"
Crack!
The sharp sound of the whip cuts through the air, and scattered fragments of dirt around.
"What's the commotion I'm hearing around here?" Said the man riding a Darkhorse.
Both brothers jolted around the sight immediately as soon as they saw the man's appearance; they stood aside and lowered their heads.
The man spat saliva at Russel's head, "Tell me."
The man jumps off his horse, stepping closer towards Russel, he leaned his face and flared his nostrils, "Russel, was it? What are you two doing around here?"
Russel froze in place, cold sweat pouring from his face, his hand trembling as he lowered his gaze from the man, "W-we are just taking a quick break from exhaustion, master."
"Taking a break? Did I hear that right?" Russel nodded, their master tone grew serious, grabbed Russel by the hair, "Look at me! Who allowed both of you to take a break?"
Both brothers were silent, unable to force a single word out of their mouths.
"Not going to answer Russel?" The master grabs his whip and swings it.
Russel was wailing from the agonizing pain; he collapsed on the ground.
Their master walks away as if nothing had happened and mounted his horse. "Both of you get back to work! I've had enough of your foolishness."
"Fuck you!" Ivan yelled out. He couldn't hold on to his emotions anymore.
The master turned around slowly, "Huh? Did I hear you say something?"
"I said fuck you! Are you already getting old?! You already have a bad hearing!"
His eyes narrowed to Ivan, "You, insolent bastard, how dare you utter such words in front of me? I see you have a death wish? I shall grant it."
Ivan clenched his fist, flared his nostrils, and his face turned red; he had enough.
"No!" Before Russel could even stop Ivan, he already lunged at their master, pinning him to the ground.
"I've been waiting for this goddamn moment my entire life to happen!" Ivan said, fuming in anger, he swung his fist, knocking their master out.
Russel's jaw dropped, he couldn't believe what he just witnessed, "B-brother, what have you done?! We're getting executed once he wakes up."
"Who said he's going to wake up? This very land we nurtured shall take him in order for it to prosper." Ivan grabs the knife on their master belt and stabs him in the chest. Ivan's fist was covered in blood, shaking his sore knuckles.
Russel swung his fist at Ivan's face, and Ivan got knocked down. "How could you do that, Ivan?! He still has a family that needs him. You should've let him live, then we both run."
"We needed a family, too, but did he care?" Ivan grabs Russel from the collar, "I saw him right in front of my eyes, Russel, he executed both of our parents."
He tightens his grip, "That day still haunts me every night, not everything is fair, Russel."
Russel stared at him in disbelief; it was written all over his face, didn't know what to say, he choose silence as the answer.
"What just happened here?!"
"A knight?!" Russel got startled.
The furious knight lunged forward, grabbed Ivan by the neck, and pinned him to the wall, "What did you do to lord Aaron?! answer me!"
Ivan slammed his head straight at the knight, striking him in the face. The knight loses his grip, giving Ivan a lot of momentum to land a sharp kick at his groin, buying them time to run.
"You fucking bastards, I'll behead both of you, once I get my hands on both of you," The knight cried out.
"Come on, follow me, Russel, let's run!"
Both brothers sprinted down to the fields, where they managed to hide in a bush, as they heard knights pass by calling their names. The chase has begun.