The Chains of Freedom
*machine translated*
Chapter II
the garrison
Nyx hadn't dawned in the sky yet when Adonai got up, he pulled the 3 woolen ox skins they used to cover himself, it had been one of the couple's biggest expenses, but hey, no one deserves to be cold.
Adonai got up without making a sound, under the covers Elisa moved, trying to adapt her body to the space that was now left in the bed, her husband stared at her breathing for a few moments, then taking care not to wake her up, Adonai adjusted the covers more on top of his wife, he placed a light kiss on her forehead and walked away from the bed. After watching her sleep for a while, he got up, went through the bedroom door and already in the hallway after 5 or 6 steps stopped beside his office door.
He called the place that, inside the place there were 3 shelves that went from floor to ceiling, a desk and a bench where Adonai liked to assemble some furniture and personal items, when he was stressed from the day he locked himself in his office and stayed there until your mood improves.
Elisa also had a space in the house covered with books, but while Adonai's space had lots and lots of books on engineering, woodworking and the like, his wife's books were singing, grammar, poetry, mathematics and sociology, and also when she had a bad day, she would go to her space to compose, sing, read.
Although they were a couple of few possessions, they bought books whenever they could, it was not a very luxurious item, it was unusual for people outside the court to like these subjects, after all the people live to pay for their survival. Well, these two, definitely not that life should be just that.
Adonai left his office carrying a leather bag, and ended up heading to the space where his wife liked to stay, he ran his hands over the furniture, many of which he had made himself, enjoying every detail, he spent some time looking at the chair where his wife sat down to write, read, compose, almost as if she wanted to fix something in her memory, after a long minute she left there, when he came out, a small book with no title on its cover was going into her bag. Adonai.
The space where Elisa wrote was at the bottom of the house, almost close to the fireplace room, Adonai crossed the room and when he saw he was in his small living room/kitchen. Yes, it was a small house, but very well planned.
The man took a salami that was hanging to dry, a piece of cake made by his wife to celebrate the news of her pregnancy, and also placed it in his bag.
Passing by a lower beam, next to the salami Adonai saw a piece of bacon hanging, he took the knife, but then remembered his wife fighting with him for liking bacon too much, she said it could hurt him.
Resolute Adonai walked to the living room door, before returning the piece of bacon and taking a piece, after all, he was going to a war for the love of the Gods, who knows when he could go back to eating what he liked?
With that in mind Adonai grabbed a lantern, opened the living room door and started walking towards the shed where he kept the wood, caramel, his wife's dog, which was loose in the yard, started barking when he saw the man pass by. .
In his fiftieth attempt to make friends with the animal, Adonai has tried to pat the dog's head and caramel almost catches some of Adonai's fingers in the process.
- I'll still turn you into sausage if you keep this ugly dog. spoke Adonai
Adonai's threat had no effect, caramel kept following the man and growling at him, those two didn't understand each other, to caramel, Adonai had stolen his friend's love and that was unforgivable.
Adonai opened the shed door and hung the lamp, after which he walked to the pile of Cedar Rosa and stroked the boards:
- Wait, I'll come back to turn you into my child's crib, I swear on the love I have for my wife.
The wood did not respond, after all it was wood, only caramel continued with its eternal mania of barking, growling, running to the door of the house and repeating the process, Adonai was afraid that the dog would wake Elisa, and how to tell the animal to be quiet had the Same effect as asking for the water not to be wet, the man quickly saddled Silpha and headed for the city garrison.
Even before he left, Adonai took a good look at “his kingdom”, caramel kept barking insistently at him, without doing much more, Adonai smiled and threw a goodbye to the house saying it aloud.
- Wait for me, I'll be back.
From the window on the second floor of the house, Elisa said a shy goodbye to her husband, doing something she hadn't done in a while, “gods, protect him”.
She knew that unfortunately Adonai would have a life like that, maybe if they put together some money and moved to a big empire, they could have a more stable life, thought Elisa.
Sad she went down to start the daily tasks, today she would still tell her parents that they would be grandparents, unlike her father, Elisa's mother was not against her daughter's marriage and was dying to be a grandmother. As she thought about it going downstairs, Elisa noticed that her office door was open.
She walked in and smelled her husband's perfume, opening a slight smile at the thought of him standing there, that's when something happened to Elisa, she ran to the drawer and opened it, her diary was not there.
- That one...
The caramel barks demanding attention outside the house brought her back to reality. If he wanted to read what she wrote before marrying him so be it. thought Elisa, although she was still dismayed that he'd sneak in and pick up that diary from among her things.
After eating a quick meal, Elisa started to move around to take care of the animals, the small plantation they both kept was just for keeping the family, but it also needed to be expanded, so she felt an overwhelming urge to eat carrot cake, and without feeling to cope, she was already thinking about her child.
She opened the house to get some air, released the few sheep and two cows that were trapped in the stable, and while she was in the process of drawing water from the well to put the animals in, Elisa thought maybe she should hire someone to help her with the chores. that demanded more strength when her pregnancy became more apparent, it was when she took the bucket of water from the edge of the well that she again said a prayer in a low voice....
- For anyone in heaven, please make that idiot come back alive.
As Elisa wept her sadness, Adonai riding Silpha was already approaching the city's garrison.
Daylight was just the beginning of a promise as the engineer passed through the garrison gates, some guards changing shifts, others arranging wagons.
A young man with no more than 16 summers pointed his spear at the mounted man approaching the gates
- Tall, who goes there? spoke the young man
-Adonai, engineer, requested yesterday in the town square, presenting to join the convoy that leaves at noon as instructed.
The boy was a little shocked, he knew there was a freedman who would come to fight for the kingdom, but in general these were always brutes, they complained about having to fight, in general it was necessary to hunt them down. Some who were hunted even ended up returning to slave status.
Of course it was understandable, the freedmen were seen as disposable pieces of the army, even at that moment a sergeant organized a group of seven more soldiers to go to Adonai's house, as it was foreseen that he would not appear.
The young man took the credentials Adonai took from his bag, the engineer had already dismounted and was awaiting inspection by the gate guard to join the garrison.
- Sergeant Livio, please sir. He called the guard.
- What is it boy? We have orders to begin organizing the search for some freedmen. The sergeant took the credentials offered by the soldier and smiled.
- Well it seems my men will have one less problem to look for, avoiding having their property taken man?
It was an honest and sincere question, but still offensive to some degree, Adonai felt he was far from being a full citizen in that realm, but he had been well educated, years of war, servitude and slavery had taught him to maintain the mouth shut.
- No sir, I just prefer to come with my own legs, since I was summoned I have no right to deny the summons.
The sergeant continued to look at Adonai's papers as he walked. – Follow me man.
Adonai followed the man as they both walked, soldiers ran to and fro organizing things, it wasn't just a matter of combat, for many it would be the first time they had seen the capital of their kingdom.
As they walked through the buildings and tents that were armed makeshift across the courtyard, indicating that more soldiers had arrived during the night than the garrison could handle, the sergeant couldn't help but think that he liked Adonai's attitude, it wasn't patriotic and the sergeant wasn't it was silly to believe that, however, the closer a unit was, the better the chain of command.
Lost in his thoughts, the sergeant did not realize that Adonai had stopped in front of some disciplinary posts, places where anyone could be tied up and punished for breaking rules, there were four posts and the dried blood on them showed that it hadn't been long since last time those posts were used.
- Come on man I haven't got all day. He called the sergeant.
Imagining the fate of the men who had been tied there, Adonai continued to follow the man.
After walking a little more, they finally turned right into a black colored tent with a lily drawn in gold on the curtain that served as the tent door, you couldn't go wrong, someone from the Baron's family who controlled the land in back from the capital was there.
There was no movement inside the tent, but Adonai could have sworn that his ears picked up a low moan, as if someone were crying inside, almost powerless.
Passing through the corridor that formed the tents of other petit nobles who had joined the army they came to a wooden table, behind this table was the same man who had announced the summons in the square.
The herald's eyes met Adonai's eyes, and the palace official was still wondering why an engineer lived wallowing in the mud with common people when the sergeant handed Adonai's letter of summons to the herald.
- So you are one of the engineers of the former Eighth Kingdom? Your team of engineers gave work to our troops in the last war.
The man looked for some reaction in Adonai's face, however only a silly look remained on the engineer's face as if he were the humblest of humble servants.
Feeling irritated, the herald continued his provocations.
- I always heard that the men of the Eighth Kingdom were proud, but apparently this is a legend.
The herald's intention was to only catch Adonai in contradiction, the summons were opportunities to discover traitors yes, but if the traitors had possessions, those who discovered the betrayals were entitled to 40% of what was seized and it was not uncommon for false accusations, however , Adonai was an engineer, who had been specially requested by His Royal Highness the Duke, it was not so simple, but if Adonai attacked any officer, ae the thing changed completely.
Adonai continued his servile gaze to the man who was recording a pile of information on a long sheet of paper, that's when Tilus, the officer who had personally delivered Adonai's summons, appeared at the registration desk.
Tilus was a large man, six feet tall and the physique of a noble warrior, unceremoniously the officer took Adonai's bag and turned it over on the table, scattering Adonai's belongings on all sides.
- Alcohol? Any Drugs? Medicines? The official spoke.
- Such items, except medicines prescribed by the garrison doctor, are illegal items and should not be included in the belongings of a summoned... sir. Adonai paused in his speech before adding sir to his sentence.
The officer's hand closed and found Adonai's stomach, the engineer fell to his knees on the ground spitting out what little breakfast he had taken.
- You are an official slave master, never forget to do things right.
Adonai clenched his fists as he stood up, the confusion caught the attention of some people, in fact most of the camp stopped to see what happened, even the herald showed surprise at the exaggerated reaction of the officer, Adonai, however he lowered his head. as much as you can while saying.
- Sorry sir officer, I won't forget next time.
Annoyed, the officer kicked some of Adonai's belongings that ended up falling off the table and onto the floor, Adonai's eyes boiling with anger as the officer's boot landed on an untitled book.
- Herald, as punishment this man must register only two goods that he will take with him.
The registration of assets was a practice to guarantee a little freedom and a sense of belonging to the freedmen, in practice, if they returned from the war they could ask for all the assets they had registered. The fewer assets they allowed you to register, the greater your crime.
The officer stomped off without noticing or bothering to step on a few more things on the ground, Adonai bent down and picked up his book, Tilus didn't care, every time he looked at Adonai he remembered his men screaming on the walls of the capital from the Eighth Realm, and unconsciously, Tilus reached for the scar on his face.
Even the herald who minutes before was teasing Adonai asked if the engineer was alright, after all he was punched in the stomach by an officer wearing a gauntlet, Adonai simply smiled and presented the two items he was going to record.
- There is? A horse and a book? Not your tools?
The herald was confused, Adonai's engineer's toolkit was clearly very valuable, yet he preferred to register a book and a horse that wasn't even in such good condition? What would be the reason?
Adonai just smiled at the man and confirmed his choices, after which he took his uniform and went to the general tent where the freedmen were gathering.
The tools? He could buy others without a doubt, and then if someone stole them, he would be impeded and do his job and that would harm the Duke. Already your book and your horse? They were something that really belonged to him and he didn't want to lose.
Still feeling the punch in his belly Adonai made a decision, he would do whatever it took to return to his family, and so began his journey as a soldier within the realm of Sarmarat.
