Chapter 41: The Mark of Mase (Part 2)
Amidst the crackling of the campfire, the little girl’s voice started to shake as she hugged her knees tighter. “Betty… Betty doesn’t quite understand grandpa’s meaning. Back then, I just felt… I felt so sad… and the tears just wouldn’t stop…”
“Alright, Betty, you don’t need to keep talking.”
I waved my hand to interrupt her, suddenly feeling a bit regretful.
I regretted allowing Betty to share this with me.
I never expected the situation to be like this! I thought they had some unclear connection with the Gate of Truth or that goddess’s soul. I was just trying to figure that out!
However, now I pretty much guessed the story she was about to unfold…
I didn’t want Betty to spill the beans on those things.
I wanted to reach out and pat her head, but I saw the little girl slowly shaking her head, taking a deep breath, looking up at me with a pure, bright smile.
“Sis, Betty’s fine. Since you want to listen, I’ll tell you everything clearly… But actually, Betty doesn’t have too many feelings about this…”
As she spoke, she shifted her little behind a bit closer to me. “Those are all past histories, things that happened more than a thousand years ago. Betty has never seen the real Immortal Race, nor do I know those women who were captured. I can’t imagine the pain they went through…”
“Betty only heard grandpa talk about the wars and invasions that happened on this land, those tragic histories, and the origins of Meiser Town. Many things grandpa doesn’t let me tell outsiders, but I feel that if it’s someone like you, it might be good for you to know…”
The little girl appeared innocent and naive. After saying this, she tilted her head and pondered for a moment, then poked her cheek with her index finger and giggled. “But, you see, Betty doesn’t know a whole lot. Um… I remember that night, grandpa told me that the women of the Immortal Race were taken by humans to be slaves, and I felt so sorry for them. I cried and cried and don’t even know when I fell asleep…”
“Later, when I asked grandpa about what happened to those women, he wouldn’t tell me anymore. But, you see, Betty is a clever child. Because I have to take care of you, I could sneak into Miss Ailna’s cellar, where there are lots of books… Ah, you’ve probably read some of them, right?”
The little girl asked, noticing I nodded gently, and continued, “Betty once hid a few books under my clothes and snuck them out! They recorded a lot about the Immortal Race, but Betty doesn’t read well, so I can’t understand most of it… So, I asked Uncle Mond in the town, but unexpectedly, Uncle Mond turned around and told grandpa. I sure got a beating for that… but hey, that’s how I learned more!”
She looked a bit parched, so she picked up a water pouch from beside the fire, took two swigs, smacked her lips, and reluctantly put it down.
Then she bowed her head, staring into the fire, falling into silence for a moment.
“Betty knows that those women, afterward… gave birth to many little children.”
Her voice grew quieter, sounding dreamy and far away. “They were immortal beings, unlike us, who wouldn’t age or easily fall sick or d*e… So, they ended up as slaves to humans for over a hundred years. So many women over that century gave birth to so many… silver-haired, blue-eyed children… The children of Meiser…”
Suddenly, the little girl looked up at me, “Sis, how long is a hundred years?”
“… A long time.”
“Betty can’t imagine that…”
She shook her little head, her silver hair flowing like waves behind her. “Betty only knows that in the beliefs of the Immortal Race, s*icide is actually viewed as a terrible sin, one that would never allow the soul to find peace. Yet, in the aftermath of history, countless women of their race ultimately chose to end their own lives… Even though they had eternal bodies, they wouldn’t age or get sick, if they truly wished for d*ath, there were ways to achieve it…”
“It started with those noble princesses. According to the records, there was a patriarch’s daughter named Akyatis, who was exceptionally beautiful. After the war, she was captured by the commander and locked up in a palace… doing this and that, and eventually died in a bath…”
“She used a hairpin to pierce her neck, drained of bl**d, floating in the dyed red water… Her face was as white as snow… just like her hair… She was probably the first immortal to choose s*icide. After that, captured women kept dying… some even with the children in their wombs… All this is what the books say… Uncle Mond read it to me…”
“Then later, those women even found it difficult to d*e… Sis, have you heard of a poisonous flower called mandragora?”
“Uh-huh…”
I not only heard of it; I pretended to have been poisoned by it too…
“Betty thinks it’s a really terrible, terrible flower! Worse than those poisons that can make one’s belly rot. It can make it impossible for someone to d*e… forcing them to live a life worse than d*ath…”
Worse than d*ath… living…
Suddenly, my heart ached.
That’s right…
There was a time when I was in the same situation as them… wanting to d*e, but unable to lift a finger…
It turned out the Church had already been using mandragora on those immortal beings a thousand years ago…
“They bore one mixed-race child after another, just like us Meiser people. And those children, the boys were killed to feed wolves, while the girls were raised to become slaves…”
“At that time in the Eastern Continent, silver-haired, blue-eyed folks like us were the lowest tier; you could buy one for just a few copper coins. The pretty ones cost a bit more, usually bought by rich merchants to be gifts for nobility… It was said that it was quite popular among the noblemen back then to gift each other Meiser girls. If it was a pureblooded immortal woman, that would be considered a sincere gift…”
“Betty.”
“Yeah?”
“Let’s not talk about this anymore, alright?”
I patted her soft head and asked gently.
“… Okay.”
The little girl fell silent for a moment, then nodded lightly.
Suddenly, she smiled again. “Sis, there are no more of those things anymore! The Immortal Race has long since disappeared, and the wars are just memories. As for Meiser Town… it was the homeland of the initial rebels, but even they have long passed, turned to dust, scattered in this desert…”
“Then afterward, the Holy Church was established, and the first pope declared the abolition of all slavery. After that, the Meisers lost their reason to resist, leading peaceful lives, and gradually, even their hatred was forgotten… Up until now, with the Church’s deliberate obscuration, most of them no longer remember this history and don’t even know their ancestors were once called Meisers, born from a bloodline of evil born from war…”
“They’ve become the Eborista people, living peacefully across the Eastern Continent… Only we, living in Meiser Town, still remember these things.”
“Grandpa once told me that our ancestors were great figures who fought against fate. We are the descendants of heroes, and even though we’ve long shed our slave identities, we mustn’t forget that humiliating history… Because we are Meisers, we don’t share any sense of belonging or recognition with those mighty humans who love to pose but are sinister and deceptive behind the scenes, trying to take over the world… and with the Church too.”
“We are different from them…”
“We’ll always just be Meisers…”
…………
Unbeknownst to us, the campfire gradually went out.
That night, the girl and the little one snuggled closely together in a hollow corner, slowly closing their eyes and falling asleep in hushed conversation.
