Reincarnated Without a Body

ch 26: compromise

"Last month, do you admit you were trying to escape?"

Huuuh?

"Huh? wa.. wait.... what?"

I stumbled on my word, flabbergasted by his question.

The whole day I was convinced that we are going to talk about Kanan's wrongdoings. That we are the victims. I ran so many simulations of the arguments in my head. All that went down the drain.

"Answer me with yes or no! Did you try to escape?"

Bear bellowed, his stern voice is full of authority. It make us quiver in our seat.

Did we try to escape? It took my brain a while to process the unforeseen topic. I guess we did. But.. admitting that will make us be the one in the wrong.

Are we?

"For a slave that went against it's master, they are usually whipped, or even executed on the spot." He spoke slowly in a serious, threatening tone.

With his size compared to our five year old body, and the angry look he have, Bear look intimidating.

"We are not a slave! We were kidnapped!" I protested, denying his claim.

He frown at me with a confused face, as if we are talking nonsense.

"Why would it matter if you were kidnapped? I bought you. So you will do as I say!" Bear slammed his palm on the table.

I was stupefied. it doesn't matter if kids are kidnapped? What the hell is wrong with him.

"It's a crime isn't it? Kidnapping?" I ask cautiously.

"Well, yeah..."

"Then,"

"...Listen here kid. Nobody care! Crime happens everyday. If you go to the City guards, they won't even listen to you. instead, they will immediately return you to me. It's nobody's job to look into a crime that happened hundreds of miles away."

"We just want to go home..." Emi manage to utter her thought even while being on the verge of crying.

"This is your home now. Get use to it." Bear spat out.

Emi hang down her head and tears started dropping from her eyes. Being told directly that we won't be able to go home crushed our heart.

"No! I don't want to! I want to see mommy..." Emi started crying her lung out, but not for long.

"Silence!" Bear roared while slamming his fist onto the table. He scared Emi so much she stopped crying right away.

Bear stare angrily at us. I swallowed out of fear, but I can't just cower in fear and do nothing. This is the rare opportunity to talk with the man in power.

"What should we do if we want to go home?" I ask shakily.

"Even if I allow you to, how are you going to go home? By walking? Hitch a ride? You'd be captured and sold again in no time, in broad daylight. And nobody will care enough to help you." Bear spat out.

"...You said nobody cares... Then why were your visitor angry at you a month ago?"

I remembered the old Pope who have a hostile stand off with Kanan and Bear a month ago.

"What? You think they're doing that for your sake? No! Let me tell you, those people are just like us, but worse. They just want to use you."

I don't know if there's even a bit of truth in that. But I'm not exactly in a position to question his words.

"You don't know how much trouble you have caused. Because of your stupid act, that old man won't allow us to use the cathedral again. Other smaller church won't have that many people, so you will have to work a lot more to compensate."

"No!" I shouted without thinking much.

Bear's eyes bulging and his face contorted in a suppressed rage. It feels like he's going to swallow us whole.

"We want to go home. If you won't let us go home, we won't do as you say anymore." I said loud and clear for him to hear despite trembling and shaking from fear.

I am expecting him to scream at us, or even hit us. But instead, he cupped his face in his hands and slowly massage his face. After a few nerve-racking moment, Bear replied.

"Fine. Let's do this the standard way. I will let you go home after you pay back the gold I spent on you. Satisfied?" He stare into my eyes condescendingly.

I could feel that he's looking down on us, well that's to be expected since we are but a five year old child, but I couldn't care less.

During the weeks before we got hurt, we are making thousands taking money from worshippers. A hundred gold is a lot, but surely it won't take forever to reach that amount with how much we were making.

Right?