My first day at the mining slave ca to an end. And my trolley remained just the sa, no more mining for . I literally gave up learning that I won't make it.
That's totally . I preferably didn't like to work in vain. Knowing the result won't change no matter what I do, I rested for the rest of the hours and prepared for the beating to co.
Ten lashes didn't seem that hard to , after everything I went through these few days. But this world has magic. Ten was more than enough to kill if they desired it.
I was hoping they were in need of slaves to beat them to death at the very beginning.
The horn blared at a certain point. I thought of that as the sunset, even though we weren't under the naked sky and had no way of knowing when it was day or when it was night.
I stood up from my resting place and found Caron wasn't done yet. He would need so ti to et the quota. I thought of waiting for him, but decided against it. There was no point in taking soone to watch as you get beaten.
Besides, we didn't know each other very well, nor did we talk much after my dilemma appeared. He was busy with his own thing, much less worried about soone else.
So I crept, pushing the trolley before . Tens of other folks were doing the sa, most of them struggling with their trolley being filled with magical crystals. I found so were even helping others by covering for them if they get an excessive amount of crystals.
Also, it seed, the quota for everyone wasn't the sa. I had seen many people carrying less and even more than the half-trolley full of crystals.
The guards weren't stopping them to get them to the lashing stand. Unfortunately for , they stopped after finding my trolley almost empty, except for a couple of dozen crystal stones.
The guards grunted at and were about to lead to the stand for the punishnt. However, another one of the guards stopped them, pointing towards a particular stone on my trolley. It stood out among the few others, as it had a deeper orange colour, reflecting the lights drawn to it.
It was exactly the crystal, Number 197 thrown to my trolley.
The guard that stopped the others threw a peculiar glance at , picking up the orange crystal. Then he said sothing in his native tongue that I couldn't understand.
"Yeah, yeah, fuck you too," I told him in a tired tone that he couldn't understand.
Then they let go. See, we're at the perfect wavelength.
I blinked at the incredulity of the situation. It seed the deeper orange crystal was worth more than the other ones. I found them collecting that to their order while leaving the rest of the dim stones elsewhere.
I concluded that a single fist-sized orange crystal stone was worth enough to et my current quota. Looks like Number 197 still had so softer bones on her body than she admitted. Obviously, she did it intentionally, knowing I didn't understand the worth of these crystals.
Still, I was really thankful to her. I took a ntal note to thank her for that the next ti I t her.
I didn't eat outside with the others after that. This ti the foot was a bit better, the sa old dumpling-like thing with a sour soup, which tasted like a godsend compared with the bland dumpling.
At a later ti, Caron ca to apologise. He explained everything fairly. Why couldn't he help ? And he would try if he can from now on. Well, I understood all that, as I forgave him completely with my excessive generosity and kindness.
Jokes apart, we talked for a few more minutes as we discussed how I was saved from lashing. He was definitely startled to know the other crystal was worth so much. All three of us were safe from the beating today. Huh, it seed the Insane 303 made it too, with his own power, nonetheless.
We discussed what to do in the future for so more ti. Then Caron went to his own room. About an hour later, the lights were turned off and complete darkness enveloped in his prison cell.
There is no escape, the darkness told .
***
I woke up early the next day, not to my rit, but because of the monstrous horn blaring like the other day.
The day progressed like the previous one. Nothing too special to take note of.
It would've been about the sa as well if Number 197 ca and threw another orange crystal into my trolley. Unfortunately, nobody ca to my rescue that day.
I tried my best to find the orange crystal, trying to move into the hotter region. However, I couldn't even endure a couple of minutes halfway to that point. I would turn a full piece of human steak before I could find anything there.
Getting nowhere with that, I remained quite close to my last day's spot, hoping to find Number 196 and 197 as they ca out to rest at so point.
They did not co.
Even near the end of the mining hours, they didn't co, bringing my anxieties to the verge of collapse.
Well, it collapsed, as I accepted on getting the ten lashes. Yeah, my mind works like that. Get used to it.
However, accepting it didn't change much. Well, my anxiety didn't get worse. And I heard sowhere, accepting the pain makes it less painful.
Whoever said it, they were wrong altogether. They definitely didn't get lashed by those monstrously powerful guards to speak such words.
Well, they probably spoke those words in other sense, not what I was dealing with.
I went alone to get my share of beating today as well. They didn't even have to check the trolley to know I barely mine anything. So they brought along to the punishnt stand among the eyes of the tens of other slaves.
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