Arzia Chronicles - Dark (2/9)

Chapter 0 - Prelude

The story begins in one village. The village was not rich, so its people lived as they could. Together with them there lived also one little girl, about 10 years old. She lived there, but no one cared for her. All people behaved like she wasn't there at all.

One day... one noble's family was passing by in their carriage and spotted this girl on the street. She looked quite pretty and so they stopped nearby. Their kids (a boy and a girl, both in similar age) got out and started to talk with the girl...

„Hello."
[silence]
„What is your name?"
[silence]
„Do you live here alone?"
[silence]
„How old are you?"
[silence]

The girl was silent and did not reply to any of their questions. Then the noble lady got out of the carrier and invited our girl inside. The girl said nothing, but together with them entered the carrier. For unknown reason they took her in and headed to their mansion.

When they arrived there, the girl got new clothes from them and also food and one small room to live in.

„Do you like it here?", asked the noble man.
[silence]

The girl was still silent, but slightly nodded.

„Okay. Go rest then."

The whole family then went sleep. The next day in the morning, the noble man was found dead... with a knife in the chest.

In few hours, a royal knight and a doctor came to investigate it. The doctor said that the time of death was around 2 AM. The knight gave everyone the same question:

„What were you doing in the night around 2 AM?"

All three maids said, that they were sleeping together, but they all have shallow sleep and they would notice if any of them would get up.

Noble kids slept together and... maids added that they would wake up if the kids would open the door of their room.

The noble lady slept in her room. As many other nobles, she and her husband usually sleep in their own rooms, so it was nothing abnormal. She had no alibi, but who would suspect the lady, right?

A buttler was in the city and had many witnesses there.

The last one was our girl, who was silent. She didn't answer any questions and the man was killed just few hours after she arrived to this normally peaceful house. That was very suspicious. And so the blame was put on her and the royal knight took her away for further investigation.

But there was no investigation at all. The knight didn't want to be bothered with the case and so he just said that she did it and let her be arrested. Later that day, she was sold to a slave trader.
The next day in the mansion... the main maid was found dead. But no one from the house asked for another investigation. She died for unknown reason. The only clear thing was, that it was not our girl, who killed her.

[few months later]

A farmer in one village was looking for few workers for his farm and so he visited a local slave trader to buy some slaves. After he bought few, he also found our little girl in one of cages. When he asked about her, he was told by the slave trader, that he can get a big discount, because no one wants her. He didn't mention, that the girl was suspected of a murder... because it would complicate the trade.

The farmer pitied the little girl and so he bought her.

„Hello missy, my name is Rick. Do you have a name?"
[silence]
„Okay... then I will call you Rona. Do you like it?"
[silence]

Together with other slaves, Rick and Rona then lived at his farm. He accepted her as his daughter.

[few days later]