Year 2, Spring, First Month, Second Week.

“Let’s check this village quickly, I want to get to Eastforge before dusk. This distasteful place isn’t suitable to stay...”

The black-armored Fighter said while dismounting.

Chief Omero greeted the envoys bowing like he was obliged to do. The leading Guard quickly dismissed his greetings asking him to take them to the central square without wasting time. Omero secretly smiled.

‘Better for them to be in a haste and leave as soon as possible...’

Surprisingly, the pavillions, benches, the Hearting Circle and other central square improvements were nowhere to be seen. The villagers were already used to the inspection, so they started dismantling the central square improvements as soon as the snow melted.

The villagers kept their heads down while the Guards counted their numbers. Eventually, a child would look up at the supervisor and they would be punched.

“Your filth commoner, don’t you dare to look at me!”

Thankfully, the children kept their tears to themselves and endured the treatment.

“Sir, they birthed 40 babies but there are 220 fewer villagers, among which mostly were workers.”

The Chief supervisor listened to the report with a surprised expression. Usually, a lot of villagers would die through the year, especially in winter, but for small villages, the numbers rarely passed the hundred mark. He started to look at the village’s records from last year, thinking that the supervisor had forgotten to subtract the number of slaves taken from the village.

Last year the Kingdom increased its tribute policies, a lot of villages had to compensate the Kingdom with slaves, the number could go as high as 300 for the big villages. However, the Chief Supervisor noticed that the village didn’t provide slaves last year and there was an explanation written in the report.

“It's not strange that a lot of villagers died last year, they moved half of their children to work in the magic fields. In the end, they met the demand but end up dying from hunger...”

The guards and supervisors all nodded and started to make fun of the villagers' stupidity.

Now that they look closer, the villagers seemed more miserable, some could only stand up with the help of others and their clothes were in rags. While they were making fun, some of the villagers even started to cry, probably someone from their family died.

“You! If you don’t want to relinquish your position as village Chief, keep the kids in your fields... You should just work more to fulfill the tribute and if you can’t, just compensate the Kingdom...”

Chief Omero kept his head low, pretending to be submissive and afraid of the Supervisor.

After passing instructions of this year’s tribute account, the Supervisor sent the Guards to look for any hidden villagers and other outlaw objects in the village. They went through the huts fast, sometimes kicking the structure and other villager’s belongings.

Soon, they were done checking. The Chief Supervisor took out the village records, registered the newborns and check the teens that would go to Wind Castle for the registration ceremony.

They clearly despised being near the villagers, so they left quickly after informing them that five days from now the 15-year teens should join the caravan in the Eastern junction accompanied by one adult.

........

‘I guess the outside isn’t that dangerous, we’ve been here for hours and there’s no sign of beasts.’

Kanin was on full alert, looking for dangers everywhere. He was one of the 240 villagers that were hiding outside the village. When they asked for volunteers, he took the chance to check the situation outside.

Every time Karl was with the hunting team, Kanin would keep worrying all day long, he didn’t agree with his son’s adventures outside, but after experiencing this calm environment he was reconsidering the danger level. Of course, the team explained that the weak beasts would avoid large groups, even the irrational beings had survival instincts.

“See what I told you? They don’t fight all the time, Karl told me that since they started hunting, the number of beasts near the village has decreased and if they want to hunt a bigger group they would have to look near the water stream...” Reiner mocked her husband.

Even predicting that the beasts wouldn’t dare to approach them, the hunting team was very professional while defending the villagers. They arranged a circular formation around the villagers, with groups of attackers and defenders on different sides.

Although they had experience in worse situations, the pressure of being responsible for so many lives was enormous.

Sometime in the afternoon, the team saw someone coming from the direction of the village. When they identify Sania, they relaxed. The village was safe and they could return.

........

“This is the first formal meeting of the Council… We need to address the problem of the village’s magic fields and weapons for the new hunting team…”

Chief Omero opened their meeting summarizing the discussion topics. Instead of being solemn, the Chief decided to keep the meeting as objective as possible.

“Cough... Cough...”

Kanin cough in embarrassment after his wife gave him a little push to remind him that he was responsible for farming and thus had to begin talking.

“Ahh... To transform the common fields into magic fields we need magic seeds and a special magic arrangement, which will be dealt with by Karl. Also, to keep the new magic fields with a small number of villagers, Karl proposed the use of some magic tools. As for the magic seeds, we plan to take them in small batches to avoid suspicion.”

Seeing the worried expressions of the other Council members, Kanin awkwardly added:

“The Guards won’t check the crops thoughtfully, we just need to take a small amount per day and be really careful to not be discovered...”

Before Kanin could check everyone’s expressions, Elder Lonni asked:

“If we take the seeds from them, wouldn’t they find out eventually? The number of crops would be less in the fields and even if they neglect it, the harvest output would be less. By then, should we give up more villagers to compensate for the tribute?”

Some of the Council members showed desperation in their expressions, but surprisingly, the Chief and some others remained calm, Old Bill even gave off a smile.

“Unfortunately, the trap set by the nobles is unavoidable... Even if we gave up the plan of taking the magic seeds and maintain the usual care, we’ll need to give them slaves… If we produce enough to fulfill the quota they’ll suspect that something is wrong. Then, they would find out about the magic tools or come up if something else to take slaves…”

They were even more depressed now, but the Chief continued:

“The Origin gave us a chance of having a better life... To waste its grace by letting the Kingdom continue to explore us is blasphemy and disrespectful... Don’t forget that what was given can also be taken... We all experienced how good life is when we don’t need to starve and freeze to death. I only see two options for us, either we give up and submit or we earn our freedom!”

Silence spread in the room. Each Council member had a different reaction, most became confused and afraid. Marlen closed her eyes like she was remembering something.

Old Bill had a pleased expression, similar to someone that just earned a good sum. Diana looked at her grandfather with disbelief and admiration.

“We're not like before! We have ways to resist and fight against them... If we train and prepare along this year, we can fight them!”

Everyone finally understood what Omero was proposing. It was a rebellion.

In the story of the Serion Kingdom, rebellions weren't rare. In fact, they would happen regularly, as a result of extreme exploitation. Once the Kingdom started to take away the last resemblance of freedom from the commoners, rebellions would soon emerge.

Fear and confusion spread in the Council meeting, most became too shocked to do anything besides mumbling incoherent thoughts, but Kanin was furious. He stood and said to the Chief not minding to keep his voice down:

“You're crazy... They'll kill us all, everyone! That's not why a joined... I want to keep us safe, not to kill everyone...”

Karl got up, looked at the Chief before turning towards his father. He was trembling a little, but if this was the result of excitement, fear or confusion nobody could tell.

“The Chief is right...”

Again, silence dominated the room. Everyone turned to Karl waiting for his opinion. He was, after all, the village’s hope, the Origin envoy. Omero secretly breathed a sigh of relief:

‘Thanks to the Origin... He's in our side!’

“Dad I'm sorry, but we can't keep hiding all of this from the Kingdom... I can't keep living like this, afraid, restrained...”

Kanin was speechless. Karl didn't give him a chance to react and turned to the Chief:

“We’re not ready... one year is not enough... I don't know much about the Kingdom, but I know the power of magic... I'm afraid that once they send Mages against us, we would be finished...”

Then, he turned to the others:

“But we can't keep living under their rules... When the year ends, we need to leave... I’ve been struggling in these past months, trying to think of a solution... But don't matter what we do, it's not enough. We need more time, more resources... We can't advance if half of us are stuck serving them... It's just not possible...”

“We can try to change the village as much as possible before deciding,... But I hope you and all the villagers understand our situation clearly, we need to leave... For those who...”

“Karl, if you want a better life you can stay here and fight...” Omero tried to reason with him.

Marlen understood Omero’s feelings, he was too blinded by revenge. She placed her hand on his, I silenced him with a glance to let the boy finish.

“Maybe in three or five years, but not now... Wouldn’t it be great to live without their interference? Without their rules but also avoiding to fight until we're strong enough...”

“They won't let us go, Karl... They'll follow us and kill us either way...”

“I'm sure they will, but what if we go to a place that they wouldn't dare to follow us? At least not for some time… Would they move an Army to get us back, a small village?”

“That won't work... To move thousands through the Kingdom and then getting enough ships to take us...”

“Not through the Kingdom, but away from it...”

“Away from it, you mean the...?”

“Yes. I want to move into the Eastern Forest...”