Chapter 300
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The deputy head raised his eyebrows in surprise. It wasn't every day that the prince himself came to the mine to pick up some slaves: – «I am afraid you'll have to wait, ыir. It may take some time to find them.» – He said with regret in his voice.
«I'm in no hurry.» – Dick nodded at him, full of royal dignity.
Mairi gave orders to bring in all the detailed reports on slave delivery for the last six months, and soon he had a huge pile of papers in his office.
Mairi sighed wearily. Considering that more than 10,000 miners toiled in the three mines, and up to a thousand new slaves were brought in every month, the search could drag on until the evening. That's what he thought until he came across a woman's name...
«Huh? A woman in the mine? Who would let it happen?» – Mairi muttered angrily when he saw the high-ranked seal with the name Grand and the note "for life" that meant that the woman couldn't buy her freedom. Slaves were usually delivered on the first days of the month, but the report stated the second week.
Kyon's heart skipped a beat when he saw this entry: {Lydia Ostap… She is my mother! I feel it!} – He picked up the next report. – {Ostap Peter!} – An inexplicable sadness filled his soul. His eyes were stinging with the desire to meet his parents surging inside.
Ordinary people had no surname. The children were given a first name and their father's name. The wives bore their birth name and their husband's name that they got after the wedding. That's how they distinguished male-headed households.
«I've found them… I going to see them.» – Kyon tried to sound casual, barely holding back his impatience.
«Oh… I'm glad… I could help! I will order the guards to meet you there. The second mine is about seventy kilometers from here. I can show you the way.» – Mairi obligingly offered his help.
«Don't.» – Kyon grasped the reports and promptly left the office. Once, Martin deleted Kyon from the database, which played right into his hands as nosy enemies could have found him by his rare name.
Lovr left the first mine and headed to the second on his fast thoroughbred horse. The weather was getting worse. It looked like rain. He couldn't calm down, eager to meet his parents.
Half an hour later, he arrived at the second mine. The guards escorted him to the living room of the third sector. A tall one-eyed leader (of the 1st rank), who looked like a typical bandit, greeted the guest. Kurt was ordered to welcome a very important visitor and help him locate two slaves. On either side of the hefty leader were two henchmen of the same build.
«I'm looking for Ostap and Lydia. Show them to me.» – Kyon demanded in a trembling voice.
Kurt looked uneasy and nervous: «Sir…»
Kyon had a bad feeling about this. He swayed a little, almost falling to the side.
«Sir… They… There has been an accident…» – The leader spoke in a servile tone. – «Two weeks ago… A deadly rockslide…» – He nervously swallowed. – «They got buried alive under those rocks.» – Kurt stumbled and stuttered.
Kyon sank down helplessly, his hands trembling. He did his best to hide the emotional turmoil behind his poker face. He hadn't looked through the reports, afraid to read what he just heard. His worst fears had come true…
Every minute of the tense silence made the leader even more nervous. The prince emanated a dense aura of grief that made even the seasoned guards feel uneasy. If he weren't so ugly, they might even feel sorry for him.
The orphan stared at them with blank eyes: «Show me where it happened.» – He whispered listlessly.
«Follow me, Sir…» – Kurt answered quietly, walking deeper into the mine.
Passing endless tunnels with numerous turns, the slave leader brought the important guest to the entrance completely blocked by the boulders. The poor fellows had been buried alive behind them with no chance of survival.
Kyon walked over to the rocks and thoughtlessly began to pile them aside.
The guard dared to warn him: «It's too dangerous, Your Highness. The tunnel will collapse!»
Lovr stopped acting stupid and gloomily bowed over the stones that served as the grave for the parents he never had. Thinking about Ostap and Lydia's fate was depressing. Their last six months must have been hard like hell. They had lost their freedom and their only son, who they had been raising with love for fourteen years. They understood perfectly well that the mine was no place for a weak boy, which weighed them down with sadness. His poor parents had to work hard, plunging into a depth of despair, and when it was only two weeks before their son's arrival, their freedom, and happy life, they tragically died. Life was too cruel to those kind, simple people who had to eke out a miserable existence in extreme poverty. Kyon was too late.
After a minute of silence, Lovr was on the brink of tears when he felt hatred oozing from his soul: {You… Do you hate her again?} – He asked himself. – {Kyon, she took two lives that were too dear for you. Let her bring them back. That's the only way to get even with her. There is no point in leaving your child motherless.} – After this thought, his sudden anger gradually subsided until it disappeared completely.
Kyon got up, brushed off his hands and took a look at the reports again. Then he said curtly to the slave leader: «Show me to Simon Abdul.»
«What for?» – The one-eyed leader asked, stammering with fear.
«Do you want to die? Don't waste my time. Do it now!» – Kyon barked.
Kurt shuddered and apologized. He was drenched in a cold sweat, his legs shaking in fear as he led the guest to Ostap's former warden.
Lovr wanted to find out as much as possible about the parents of the former owner of his body. He could feel plaintive impulses from his soul asking not to do it (apparently, Kyon did not want to know about their suffering) but did it his way.
Soon he saw a group of ten people: «I'll take it from here. Wait for me behind the corner.»
Two wardens and three slaves obeyed. For some reason, Kurt hesitated.
Kyon walked over to the warden with a mark on his forehead: «What's your father's name?»
When the warden saw the guest in noble clothes, he replied with all due respect: «It's Abdul, sir! What can I do for you?»
The slaves, who were working nearby, stopped mining and watched with interest the unusual things happening in their life.
«Tell me, Simon, how it could happen that your subordinate Ostap was buried alive two weeks ago, and you are here safe and sound?» – The warden could hear a mortal danger in the fat guy's colorless voice.
However, instead of feeling, Simon scratched the back of his head, puzzled: «No one has ever been buried alive since I was appointed the warden of this group, sir!»
A sinewy old man in tattered, dirty rags timidly emerged from the group of slaves: «Are you talking about Ostap Peter, sir?»
The warden angrily shook his fist at the fool, letting him know that he would not get off easy for his initiative.
«Did you know him?» – Kyon asked gently.
«I did… He was my friend.» – The slave said hoarsely.
«Follow me, Amos.» – Lovr ordered, reading his name on the mark.
The prince and the old man went away from prying eyes and ears.
Kyon gave the exhausted slave a bottle of water.
Amos drank it up greedily, looking respectfully at his benefactor:
«May I know why you're looking for Ostap, sir?»
«I want to atone for my newly-made wife's sins before the goddess. She put an innocent family in the mines.» – Kyon decided to tell him a half-truth. – «Tell me more about Ostap and his family. Say everything you know.»
The old man was touched to the core. There were good people in this damned world! However, he was nervous talking to the prince, which made him choose the right words for a long time…
«Don't choose your words, forget about respect. I'm not the kind of person who would care about such trifles. Tell me everything you know about your friend.»
Amos took a deep breath and began his story.
There was a huge commotion the very day when Lydia and Ostap appeared in the mine. Women had never taken to mines as slaves because they were weak, and men would lose their heads because of them. Kurt immediately spotted her and laid his grabby hands on her. Lydia's husband desperately tried to protect his wife, for which he was severely beaten. He miraculously managed to recover in the hospital. As soon as he was released, he began to talk the other slaves into overthrowing the leader, promising them anything, but no one agreed. The desperate man could not see his own wife because she was kept in the leader's room... Kurt didn't let her out, locking her up as his property.
Amos made friends with Ostap because he felt sorry for him. He believed that if he did not support the poor fellow, he would die of grief. Ostap turned out to be a kind, even naive person, fond of his "wonderful and precious Lydia." He never gave up on the idea of setting her free and kept trying. One day he made a deal with the leader in public. Kurt promised to give him back his wife if Ostap bought her for 100,000 rupees. Since then, Ostap worked tirelessly, killing his health that was already ruined by eternal mental torment. About a month ago, on the salary day, one of the leader's henchmen faked a fall, accusing Ostap of pushing him and demanding compensation for the "shoulder dislocation. The poor man, whose only and most cherished desire was to get his dear wife back, was robbed of all his money earned by sweat and blood for five months of hard work.
Ostap accused Kurt of setting him up, but he was again beaten to a pulp. Almost all the slaves were on the side of the sufferer, but no one turned against the leader and his powerful henchmen. Many of his group shared with Ostap their portions of food, but he seemed to have completely lost his will to live. Ostap never recovered. He sat there staring into space with unblinking eyes and about a week later, he quietly died.
The next day, when the leader came, one of his eyes was scratched out. Lydia was carried out of his room dead. The woman died at Kurt's hands, trying to avenge her husband's death.
Amos suddenly stumbled. The prince emanated a frightening oppressive aura that penetrated right into his very soul, dragging it into the bowels of hell.
The ugly guy muttered through clenched teeth: «Did Ostap tell you anything about his son?»
Amos nodded and said that all Ostap's stories about his past were about his only precious son. His Kyon was of an unsocial, taciturn disposition. When communicating with peers, he looked at the floor. When talking to girls, his knees trembled. The only people he loved and spent most of his time with were his parents. But it wasn't what Ostap meant to say. He used to repeat with a smile: "My son is sweet, shrewd, and highly gifted!" Kyon wanted to be a great architect and kept asking his mom and dad to take him somewhere to admire architectural masterpieces. He begged them to buy him rulers and paper to draw his first drawings with sharpened coal. He must have been very good at it. Ostap had high hopes for his son and saved up money to send him to an elite school. However, soon he and his wife were arrested and sent to the mines. Since then, the parents hadn't seen their child, but they knew that their frail, weak boy was working in another mine. Ostap suspected why they had been captured: Kyon had always wanted to visit the palace and study its architecture, but after another polite refusal, he decided to see it by himself...
When Kyon was about to end this difficult conversation, Amos suddenly blurted out: «By the way, I almost forgot to tell you! Ostap once mentioned that the boy was adopted! Someone left him as a baby at their front door with a bag of money and a medallion around his neck…»
Kyon's eyes widened. He listened in silent amazement.
«Ostap said that Kyon took great care of his medallion. Whenever he left home, Kyon always asked his father to keep it, afraid of losing his treasure. I've never seen it, but Ostap said that he had managed to sneak it into the mine… However, he decided to leave it with Lydia…» – Amos finished his story.
Kyon patted the old man on the shoulder and touched his forehead: «Thank you, Amos. You've just secured yourself a cushy life.» – The stunned slave stared in bewilderment as Kyon headed for the exit.
Kyon found only the wardens outside. He asked emotionlessly: «Where are those three?»
«They have left, sir…»
«Give me the tracking mirror.» – Kyon ordered in an even voice.
A minute later, he kicked out the stone door leading to Kurt's room.
The three pale thugs looked at the prince that stormed into the room like sheep at the wolf. They were hoping that those slaves weren't important enough for the prince to come for them!
Kyon was boiling with rage. He wasn't so furious even with Juno back then at the hot spring: «Where's the medallion?» – His deep voice sounded more dangerous than the whisper of death.
Kurt took out something from the cabinet: «Here it is, sir…» – He handed the prince a silver medallion.
Lovr put it carefully in his pocket. His body blurred in an instant.
Before Kurt and his henchmen could blink, they saw something red in the prince's hands that spurt blood and contracted convulsively. The two slaves on either side of their leader stared in horror at the holes in their chests and went limp with blank eyes.
«АА-АА-АА-А-АА-ААА-ААH! DON'T KILL ME!» – Kurt squealed, freaking out. His henchmen's hearts had been ripped out! The prince was a real monster!
«Die in agony.» – Kyon mercilessly inserted three needles infused with Synergy into Kurt's body.
He made an indistinct wheezing sound. After a minute of the shock therapy, he died of a heart attack. Even unyielding Valeera couldn't stand it in her time and gave away her secrets. Kurt's face was frozen in indescribable horror bordering on madness.
Kyon left the mine and sat on the edge of the cliff dangling his legs. He didn't care about the height, stormy winds and cold rain. Grief gripped his heart. For the first time in his life, Lovr could feel his heart breaking. His adoptive parents shared his ambitions, wished him happiness, pinned their hopes on him, saved their money to give him an education... But fate had ruthlessly crushed them. It separated them with their child, then with each other, and finally brutally killed them, without leaving Kyon a chance to bury them properly.
He felt sorrow and sympathy for the previous owner of his body. Hot tears streamed down his cheeks, mixing with icy drops of rain. Lovr was really crying for the first time. Losing dear parents was the worst tragedy he could imagine…
When tears washed away the pain, Kyon took out the silver medallion.. He looked in disbelief at the familiar coat of arms.
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The deputy head raised his eyebrows in surprise. It wasn't every day that the prince himself came to the mine to pick up some slaves: – «I am afraid you'll have to wait, ыir. It may take some time to find them.» – He said with regret in his voice.
«I'm in no hurry.» – Dick nodded at him, full of royal dignity.
Mairi gave orders to bring in all the detailed reports on slave delivery for the last six months, and soon he had a huge pile of papers in his office.
Mairi sighed wearily. Considering that more than 10,000 miners toiled in the three mines, and up to a thousand new slaves were brought in every month, the search could drag on until the evening. That's what he thought until he came across a woman's name...
«Huh? A woman in the mine? Who would let it happen?» – Mairi muttered angrily when he saw the high-ranked seal with the name Grand and the note "for life" that meant that the woman couldn't buy her freedom. Slaves were usually delivered on the first days of the month, but the report stated the second week.
Kyon's heart skipped a beat when he saw this entry: {Lydia Ostap… She is my mother! I feel it!} – He picked up the next report. – {Ostap Peter!} – An inexplicable sadness filled his soul. His eyes were stinging with the desire to meet his parents surging inside.
Ordinary people had no surname. The children were given a first name and their father's name. The wives bore their birth name and their husband's name that they got after the wedding. That's how they distinguished male-headed households.
«I've found them… I going to see them.» – Kyon tried to sound casual, barely holding back his impatience.
«Oh… I'm glad… I could help! I will order the guards to meet you there. The second mine is about seventy kilometers from here. I can show you the way.» – Mairi obligingly offered his help.
«Don't.» – Kyon grasped the reports and promptly left the office. Once, Martin deleted Kyon from the database, which played right into his hands as nosy enemies could have found him by his rare name.
Lovr left the first mine and headed to the second on his fast thoroughbred horse. The weather was getting worse. It looked like rain. He couldn't calm down, eager to meet his parents.
Half an hour later, he arrived at the second mine. The guards escorted him to the living room of the third sector. A tall one-eyed leader (of the 1st rank), who looked like a typical bandit, greeted the guest. Kurt was ordered to welcome a very important visitor and help him locate two slaves. On either side of the hefty leader were two henchmen of the same build.
«I'm looking for Ostap and Lydia. Show them to me.» – Kyon demanded in a trembling voice.
Kurt looked uneasy and nervous: «Sir…»
Kyon had a bad feeling about this. He swayed a little, almost falling to the side.
«Sir… They… There has been an accident…» – The leader spoke in a servile tone. – «Two weeks ago… A deadly rockslide…» – He nervously swallowed. – «They got buried alive under those rocks.» – Kurt stumbled and stuttered.
Kyon sank down helplessly, his hands trembling. He did his best to hide the emotional turmoil behind his poker face. He hadn't looked through the reports, afraid to read what he just heard. His worst fears had come true…
Every minute of the tense silence made the leader even more nervous. The prince emanated a dense aura of grief that made even the seasoned guards feel uneasy. If he weren't so ugly, they might even feel sorry for him.
The orphan stared at them with blank eyes: «Show me where it happened.» – He whispered listlessly.
«Follow me, Sir…» – Kurt answered quietly, walking deeper into the mine.
Passing endless tunnels with numerous turns, the slave leader brought the important guest to the entrance completely blocked by the boulders. The poor fellows had been buried alive behind them with no chance of survival.
Kyon walked over to the rocks and thoughtlessly began to pile them aside.
The guard dared to warn him: «It's too dangerous, Your Highness. The tunnel will collapse!»
Lovr stopped acting stupid and gloomily bowed over the stones that served as the grave for the parents he never had. Thinking about Ostap and Lydia's fate was depressing. Their last six months must have been hard like hell. They had lost their freedom and their only son, who they had been raising with love for fourteen years. They understood perfectly well that the mine was no place for a weak boy, which weighed them down with sadness. His poor parents had to work hard, plunging into a depth of despair, and when it was only two weeks before their son's arrival, their freedom, and happy life, they tragically died. Life was too cruel to those kind, simple people who had to eke out a miserable existence in extreme poverty. Kyon was too late.
After a minute of silence, Lovr was on the brink of tears when he felt hatred oozing from his soul: {You… Do you hate her again?} – He asked himself. – {Kyon, she took two lives that were too dear for you. Let her bring them back. That's the only way to get even with her. There is no point in leaving your child motherless.} – After this thought, his sudden anger gradually subsided until it disappeared completely.
Kyon got up, brushed off his hands and took a look at the reports again. Then he said curtly to the slave leader: «Show me to Simon Abdul.»
«What for?» – The one-eyed leader asked, stammering with fear.
«Do you want to die? Don't waste my time. Do it now!» – Kyon barked.
Kurt shuddered and apologized. He was drenched in a cold sweat, his legs shaking in fear as he led the guest to Ostap's former warden.
Lovr wanted to find out as much as possible about the parents of the former owner of his body. He could feel plaintive impulses from his soul asking not to do it (apparently, Kyon did not want to know about their suffering) but did it his way.
Soon he saw a group of ten people: «I'll take it from here. Wait for me behind the corner.»
Two wardens and three slaves obeyed. For some reason, Kurt hesitated.
Kyon walked over to the warden with a mark on his forehead: «What's your father's name?»
When the warden saw the guest in noble clothes, he replied with all due respect: «It's Abdul, sir! What can I do for you?»
The slaves, who were working nearby, stopped mining and watched with interest the unusual things happening in their life.
«Tell me, Simon, how it could happen that your subordinate Ostap was buried alive two weeks ago, and you are here safe and sound?» – The warden could hear a mortal danger in the fat guy's colorless voice.
However, instead of feeling, Simon scratched the back of his head, puzzled: «No one has ever been buried alive since I was appointed the warden of this group, sir!»
A sinewy old man in tattered, dirty rags timidly emerged from the group of slaves: «Are you talking about Ostap Peter, sir?»
The warden angrily shook his fist at the fool, letting him know that he would not get off easy for his initiative.
«Did you know him?» – Kyon asked gently.
«I did… He was my friend.» – The slave said hoarsely.
«Follow me, Amos.» – Lovr ordered, reading his name on the mark.
The prince and the old man went away from prying eyes and ears.
Kyon gave the exhausted slave a bottle of water.
Amos drank it up greedily, looking respectfully at his benefactor:
«May I know why you're looking for Ostap, sir?»
«I want to atone for my newly-made wife's sins before the goddess. She put an innocent family in the mines.» – Kyon decided to tell him a half-truth. – «Tell me more about Ostap and his family. Say everything you know.»
The old man was touched to the core. There were good people in this damned world! However, he was nervous talking to the prince, which made him choose the right words for a long time…
«Don't choose your words, forget about respect. I'm not the kind of person who would care about such trifles. Tell me everything you know about your friend.»
Amos took a deep breath and began his story.
There was a huge commotion the very day when Lydia and Ostap appeared in the mine. Women had never taken to mines as slaves because they were weak, and men would lose their heads because of them. Kurt immediately spotted her and laid his grabby hands on her. Lydia's husband desperately tried to protect his wife, for which he was severely beaten. He miraculously managed to recover in the hospital. As soon as he was released, he began to talk the other slaves into overthrowing the leader, promising them anything, but no one agreed. The desperate man could not see his own wife because she was kept in the leader's room... Kurt didn't let her out, locking her up as his property.
Amos made friends with Ostap because he felt sorry for him. He believed that if he did not support the poor fellow, he would die of grief. Ostap turned out to be a kind, even naive person, fond of his "wonderful and precious Lydia." He never gave up on the idea of setting her free and kept trying. One day he made a deal with the leader in public. Kurt promised to give him back his wife if Ostap bought her for 100,000 rupees. Since then, Ostap worked tirelessly, killing his health that was already ruined by eternal mental torment. About a month ago, on the salary day, one of the leader's henchmen faked a fall, accusing Ostap of pushing him and demanding compensation for the "shoulder dislocation. The poor man, whose only and most cherished desire was to get his dear wife back, was robbed of all his money earned by sweat and blood for five months of hard work.
Ostap accused Kurt of setting him up, but he was again beaten to a pulp. Almost all the slaves were on the side of the sufferer, but no one turned against the leader and his powerful henchmen. Many of his group shared with Ostap their portions of food, but he seemed to have completely lost his will to live. Ostap never recovered. He sat there staring into space with unblinking eyes and about a week later, he quietly died.
The next day, when the leader came, one of his eyes was scratched out. Lydia was carried out of his room dead. The woman died at Kurt's hands, trying to avenge her husband's death.
Amos suddenly stumbled. The prince emanated a frightening oppressive aura that penetrated right into his very soul, dragging it into the bowels of hell.
The ugly guy muttered through clenched teeth: «Did Ostap tell you anything about his son?»
Amos nodded and said that all Ostap's stories about his past were about his only precious son. His Kyon was of an unsocial, taciturn disposition. When communicating with peers, he looked at the floor. When talking to girls, his knees trembled. The only people he loved and spent most of his time with were his parents. But it wasn't what Ostap meant to say. He used to repeat with a smile: "My son is sweet, shrewd, and highly gifted!" Kyon wanted to be a great architect and kept asking his mom and dad to take him somewhere to admire architectural masterpieces. He begged them to buy him rulers and paper to draw his first drawings with sharpened coal. He must have been very good at it. Ostap had high hopes for his son and saved up money to send him to an elite school. However, soon he and his wife were arrested and sent to the mines. Since then, the parents hadn't seen their child, but they knew that their frail, weak boy was working in another mine. Ostap suspected why they had been captured: Kyon had always wanted to visit the palace and study its architecture, but after another polite refusal, he decided to see it by himself...
When Kyon was about to end this difficult conversation, Amos suddenly blurted out: «By the way, I almost forgot to tell you! Ostap once mentioned that the boy was adopted! Someone left him as a baby at their front door with a bag of money and a medallion around his neck…»
Kyon's eyes widened. He listened in silent amazement.
«Ostap said that Kyon took great care of his medallion. Whenever he left home, Kyon always asked his father to keep it, afraid of losing his treasure. I've never seen it, but Ostap said that he had managed to sneak it into the mine… However, he decided to leave it with Lydia…» – Amos finished his story.
Kyon patted the old man on the shoulder and touched his forehead: «Thank you, Amos. You've just secured yourself a cushy life.» – The stunned slave stared in bewilderment as Kyon headed for the exit.
Kyon found only the wardens outside. He asked emotionlessly: «Where are those three?»
«They have left, sir…»
«Give me the tracking mirror.» – Kyon ordered in an even voice.
A minute later, he kicked out the stone door leading to Kurt's room.
The three pale thugs looked at the prince that stormed into the room like sheep at the wolf. They were hoping that those slaves weren't important enough for the prince to come for them!
Kyon was boiling with rage. He wasn't so furious even with Juno back then at the hot spring: «Where's the medallion?» – His deep voice sounded more dangerous than the whisper of death.
Kurt took out something from the cabinet: «Here it is, sir…» – He handed the prince a silver medallion.
Lovr put it carefully in his pocket. His body blurred in an instant.
Before Kurt and his henchmen could blink, they saw something red in the prince's hands that spurt blood and contracted convulsively. The two slaves on either side of their leader stared in horror at the holes in their chests and went limp with blank eyes.
«АА-АА-АА-А-АА-ААА-ААH! DON'T KILL ME!» – Kurt squealed, freaking out. His henchmen's hearts had been ripped out! The prince was a real monster!
«Die in agony.» – Kyon mercilessly inserted three needles infused with Synergy into Kurt's body.
He made an indistinct wheezing sound. After a minute of the shock therapy, he died of a heart attack. Even unyielding Valeera couldn't stand it in her time and gave away her secrets. Kurt's face was frozen in indescribable horror bordering on madness.
Kyon left the mine and sat on the edge of the cliff dangling his legs. He didn't care about the height, stormy winds and cold rain. Grief gripped his heart. For the first time in his life, Lovr could feel his heart breaking. His adoptive parents shared his ambitions, wished him happiness, pinned their hopes on him, saved their money to give him an education... But fate had ruthlessly crushed them. It separated them with their child, then with each other, and finally brutally killed them, without leaving Kyon a chance to bury them properly.
He felt sorrow and sympathy for the previous owner of his body. Hot tears streamed down his cheeks, mixing with icy drops of rain. Lovr was really crying for the first time. Losing dear parents was the worst tragedy he could imagine…
When tears washed away the pain, Kyon took out the silver medallion.. He looked in disbelief at the familiar coat of arms.
The deputy head raised his eyebrows in surprise. It wasn't every day that the prince himself came to the mine to pick up some slaves: I am afraid you'll have to wait, ir. It may take some time to find them. He said with regret in his voice. I'm in no hurry. Dick nodded at him, full of royal dignity. Mairi gave orders to bring in all the detailed reports on slave delivery for the last six months, and soon he had a huge pile of papers in his office. Mairi sighed wearily. Considering that more than 10,000 miners toiled in the three mines, and up to a thousand new slaves were brought in every month, the search could drag on until the evening. That's what he thought until he came across a woman's name... Huh? A woman in the mine? Who would let it happen? Mairi muttered angrily when he saw the high-ranked seal with the name Grand and the note "for life" that meant that the woman couldn't buy her freedom. Slaves were usually delivered on the first days of the month, but the report stated the second week. Kyon's heart skipped a beat when he saw this entry: {Lydia Ostap She is my mother! I feel it!} He picked up the next report. {Ostap Peter!} An inexplicable sadness filled his soul. His eyes were stinging with the desire to meet his parents surging inside. Ordinary people had no surname. The children were given a first name and their father's name. The wives bore their birth name and their husband's name that they got after the wedding. That's how they distinguished male-headed households. I've found them I going to see them. Kyon tried to sound casual, barely holding back his impatience. Oh I'm glad I could help! I will order the guards to meet you there. The second mine is about seventy kilometers from here. I can show you the way. Mairi obligingly offered his help. Don't. Kyon grasped the reports and promptly left the office. Once, Martin deleted Kyon from the database, which played right into his hands as nosy enemies could have found him by his rare name. Lovr left the first mine and headed to the second on his fast thoroughbred horse. The weather was getting worse. It looked like rain. He couldn't calm down, eager to meet his parents. Half an hour later, he arrived at the second mine. The guards escorted him to the living room of the third sector. A tall one-eyed leader of the 1st rank, who looked like a typical bandit, greeted the guest. Kurt was ordered to welcome a very important visitor and help him locate two slaves. On either side of the hefty leader were two henchmen of the same build. I'm looking for Ostap and Lydia. Show them to me. Kyon demanded in a trembling voice. Kurt looked uneasy and nervous: Sir Kyon had a bad feeling about this. He swayed a little, almost falling to the side. Sir They There has been an accident The leader spoke in a servile tone. Two weeks ago A deadly rockslide He nervously swallowed. They got buried alive under those rocks. Kurt stumbled and stuttered. Kyon sank down helplessly, his hands trembling. He did his best to hide the emotional turmoil behind his poker face. He hadn't looked through the reports, afraid to read what he just heard. His worst fears had come true Every minute of the tense silence made the leader even more nervous. The prince emanated a dense aura of grief that made even the seasoned guards feel uneasy. If he weren't so ugly, they might even feel sorry for him. The orphan stared at them with blank eyes: Show me where it happened. He whispered listlessly. Follow me, Sir Kurt answered quietly, walking deeper into the mine. Passing endless tunnels with numerous turns, the slave leader brought the important guest to the entrance completely blocked by the boulders. The poor fellows had been buried alive behind them with no chance of survival. Kyon walked over to the rocks and thoughtlessly began to pile them aside. The guard dared to warn him: It's too dangerous, Your Highness. The tunnel will collapse! Lovr stopped acting stupid and gloomily bowed over the stones that served as the grave for the parents he never had. Thinking about Ostap and Lydia's fate was depressing. Their last six months must have been hard like hell. They had lost their freedom and their only son, who they had been raising with love for fourteen years. They understood perfectly well that the mine was no place for a weak boy, which weighed them down with sadness. His poor parents had to work hard, plunging into a depth of despair, and when it was only two weeks before their son's arrival, their freedom, and happy life, they tragically died. Life was too cruel to those kind, simple people who had to eke out a miserable existence in extreme poverty. Kyon was too late. After a minute of silence, Lovr was on the brink of tears when he felt hatred oozing from his soul: {You Do you hate her again?} He asked himself. {Kyon, she took two lives that were too dear for you. Let her bring them back. That's the only way to get even with her. There is no point in leaving your child motherless.} After this thought, his sudden anger gradually subsided until it disappeared completely. Kyon got up, brushed off his hands and took a look at the reports again. Then he said curtly to the slave leader: Show me to Simon Abdul. What for? The one-eyed leader asked, stammering with fear. Do you want to die? Don't waste my time. Do it now! Kyon barked. Kurt shuddered and apologized. He was drenched in a cold sweat, his legs shaking in fear as he led the guest to Ostap's former warden. Lovr wanted to find out as much as possible about the parents of the former owner of his body. He could feel plaintive impulses from his soul asking not to do it apparently, Kyon did not want to know about their suffering but did it his way. Soon he saw a group of ten people: I'll take it from here. Wait for me behind the corner. Two wardens and three slaves obeyed. For some reason, Kurt hesitated. Kyon walked over to the warden with a mark on his forehead: What's your father's name? When the warden saw the guest in noble clothes, he replied with all due respect: It's Abdul, sir! What can I do for you? The slaves, who were working nearby, stopped mining and watched with interest the unusual things happening in their life. Tell me, Simon, how it could happen that your subordinate Ostap was buried alive two weeks ago, and you are here safe and sound? The warden could hear a mortal danger in the fat guy's colorless voice. However, instead of feeling, Simon scratched the back of his head, puzzled: No one has ever been buried alive since I was appointed the warden of this group, sir! A sinewy old man in tattered, dirty rags timidly emerged from the group of slaves: Are you talking about Ostap Peter, sir? The warden angrily shook his fist at the fool, letting him know that he would not get off easy for his initiative. Did you know him? Kyon asked gently. I did He was my friend. The slave said hoarsely. Follow me, Amos. Lovr ordered, reading his name on the mark. The prince and the old man went away from prying eyes and ears. Kyon gave the exhausted slave a bottle of water. Amos drank it up greedily, looking respectfully at his benefactor: May I know why you're looking for Ostap, sir? I want to atone for my newly-made wife's sins before the goddess. She put an innocent family in the mines. Kyon decided to tell him a half-truth. Tell me more about Ostap and his family. Say everything you know. The old man was touched to the core. There were good people in this damned world! However, he was nervous talking to the prince, which made him choose the right words for a long time Don't choose your words, forget about respect. I'm not the kind of person who would care about such trifles. Tell me everything you know about your friend. Amos took a deep breath and began his story. There was a huge commotion the very day when Lydia and Ostap appeared in the mine. Women had never taken to mines as slaves because they were weak, and men would lose their heads because of them. Kurt immediately spotted her and laid his grabby hands on her. Lydia's husband desperately tried to protect his wife, for which he was severely beaten. He miraculously managed to recover in the hospital. As soon as he was released, he began to talk the other slaves into overthrowing the leader, promising them anything, but no one agreed. The desperate man could not see his own wife because she was kept in the leader's room... Kurt didn't let her out, locking her up as his property. Amos made friends with Ostap because he felt sorry for him. He believed that if he did not support the poor fellow, he would die of grief. Ostap turned out to be a kind, even naive person, fond of his "wonderful and precious Lydia." He never gave up on the idea of setting her free and kept trying. One day he made a deal with the leader in public. Kurt promised to give him back his wife if Ostap bought her for 100,000 rupees. Since then, Ostap worked tirelessly, killing his health that was already ruined by eternal mental torment. About a month ago, on the salary day, one of the leader's henchmen faked a fall, accusing Ostap of pushing him and demanding compensation for the "shoulder dislocation. The poor man, whose only and most cherished desire was to get his dear wife back, was robbed of all his money earned by sweat and blood for five months of hard work. Ostap accused Kurt of setting him up, but he was again beaten to a pulp. Almost all the slaves were on the side of the sufferer, but no one turned against the leader and his powerful henchmen. Many of his group shared with Ostap their portions of food, but he seemed to have completely lost his will to live. Ostap never recovered. He sat there staring into space with unblinking eyes and about a week later, he quietly died. The next day, when the leader came, one of his eyes was scratched out. Lydia was carried out of his room dead. The woman died at Kurt's hands, trying to avenge her husband's death. Amos suddenly stumbled. The prince emanated a frightening oppressive aura that penetrated right into his very soul, dragging it into the bowels of hell. The ugly guy muttered through clenched teeth: Did Ostap tell you anything about his son? Amos nodded and said that all Ostap's stories about his past were about his only precious son. His Kyon was of an unsocial, taciturn disposition. When communicating with peers, he looked at the floor. When talking to girls, his knees trembled. The only people he loved and spent most of his time with were his parents. But it wasn't what Ostap meant to say. He used to repeat with a smile: "My son is sweet, shrewd, and highly gifted!" Kyon wanted to be a great architect and kept asking his mom and dad to take him somewhere to admire architectural masterpieces. He begged them to buy him rulers and paper to draw his first drawings with sharpened coal. He must have been very good at it. Ostap had high hopes for his son and saved up money to send him to an elite school. However, soon he and his wife were arrested and sent to the mines. Since then, the parents hadn't seen their child, but they knew that their frail, weak boy was working in another mine. Ostap suspected why they had been captured: Kyon had always wanted to visit the palace and study its architecture, but after another polite refusal, he decided to see it by himself... When Kyon was about to end this difficult conversation, Amos suddenly blurted out: By the way, I almost forgot to tell you! Ostap once mentioned that the boy was adopted! Someone left him as a baby at their front door with a bag of money and a medallion around his neck Kyon's eyes widened. He listened in silent amazement. Ostap said that Kyon took great care of his medallion. Whenever he left home, Kyon always asked his father to keep it, afraid of losing his treasure. I've never seen it, but Ostap said that he had managed to sneak it into the mine However, he decided to leave it with Lydia Amos finished his story. Kyon patted the old man on the shoulder and touched his forehead: Thank you, Amos. You've just secured yourself a cushy life. The stunned slave stared in bewilderment as Kyon headed for the exit. Kyon found only the wardens outside. He asked emotionlessly: Where are those three? They have left, sir Give me the tracking mirror. Kyon ordered in an even voice. A minute later, he kicked out the stone door leading to Kurt's room. The three pale thugs looked at the prince that stormed into the room like sheep at the wolf. They were hoping that those slaves weren't important enough for the prince to come for them! Kyon was boiling with rage. He wasn't so furious even with Juno back then at the hot spring: Where's the medallion? His deep voice sounded more dangerous than the whisper of death. Kurt took out something from the cabinet: Here it is, sir He handed the prince a silver medallion. Lovr put it carefully in his pocket. His body blurred in an instant. Before Kurt and his henchmen could blink, they saw something red in the prince's hands that spurt blood and contracted convulsively. The two slaves on either side of their leader stared in horror at the holes in their chests and went limp with blank eyes. ------H! DON'T KILL ME! Kurt squealed, freaking out. His henchmen's hearts had been ripped out! The prince was a real monster! Die in agony. Kyon mercilessly inserted three needles infused with Synergy into Kurt's body. He made an indistinct wheezing sound. After a minute of the shock therapy, he died of a heart attack. Even unyielding Valeera couldn't stand it in her time and gave away her secrets. Kurt's face was frozen in indescribable horror bordering on madness. Kyon left the mine and sat on the edge of the cliff dangling his legs. He didn't care about the height, stormy winds and cold rain. Grief gripped his heart. For the first time in his life, Lovr could feel his heart breaking. His adoptive parents shared his ambitions, wished him happiness, pinned their hopes on him, saved their money to give him an education... But fate had ruthlessly crushed them. It separated them with their child, then with each other, and finally brutally killed them, without leaving Kyon a chance to bury them properly. He felt sorrow and sympathy for the previous owner of his body. Hot tears streamed down his cheeks, mixing with icy drops of rain. Lovr was really crying for the first time. Losing dear parents was the worst tragedy he could imagine When tears washed away the pain, Kyon took out the silver medallion.. He looked in disbelief at the familiar coat of arms.
