CHAPTER 537: CHAPTER 537 - FATHER KAI’S POV (BACKSTORIES PART 1)

I can still remember the last order I received from the main husband of the house I was serving before. That order made me decided once and for all, to leave the household that I have served faithfully for more than 30 years because I could not give up on my own beliefs and principles.

The order was simple but unacceptable, "Get rid of this child. I don’t care what you do with it. Just get it out of my sight."

At that time, I wasn’t sure if I heard the order right. I ended up asking myself, "Did the first master just told me to kill a newborn child in a time that having even just one child is so rare?"

At that point I confirmed the origin of this child. There is only person who was pregnant at this time who was that unnamed slave that was bought a year ago by the lady of the house from the slums.

With how he looked the first time we met, he must have just come of age but even with a slave status he was very beautiful indeed. The main master hated his existence from the day he came in but he can’t do anything about his wife’s hobbies. The anger of the other husbands in the house is the reason why he remained unnamed no matter how long it has been since he arrived here.

I did not dare to meet the first master’s eyes and simply nodded in understanding upon receiving the order. I don’t want him to see how much I was against the order that was given to me or maybe any hint of anger that I could no longer hide on my face.

As I turned around, I looked down on the child in my arms and parted the cloth that was covering him for a bit. He was sleeping soundly and the perfect copy of his father.

I couldn’t help but feel quite happy but also sad at the same time for this child. Happy because he was born healthy and he inherited all his looks from his father. Sad because he will never meet his father and his looks may just be as much of a curse to him as it was to his father in the future.

The little child was haphazardly wrapped with some tattered cloth and a thin bloody blanket, still wet with mucus from childbirth. The child was a bit cold even after being stuffed between pieces of cloths. He did not even cry even after being handed from one person to another so I was uite worried but when I checked, fortunately, he was breathing just fine.

I know it is not right to say bad things about the master you serve and pay your wages (especially if they are a duchess) but since I am not working for that household anymore, I started to think that my master was indeed a jerk and a total philanderer.

All of the people in the household knew that even after taking in 3 official husbands from families with equal standing or good background, she still keeps a few lovers and even night workers on the side ready to serve her when she calls for them. As for illegitimate children, I don’t know how many she has and it is very unlikely that she will take responsibility if one should claim for child support with how she has been living her life all his time.

I don’t know if it was a payback for all her bad decisions and wrong doings but no matter what she did and how many times she beds her three main husbands, none of them were able to bear a child for her even after a decade or so of being married. I guess, this frustration was the reason for the philandering but never the less, there are other more proper methods that she can use to get an offspring.

As for the unnamed slave, I knew from the start that he was not brought here by the lady just to work on dishes, cleaning or laundry. As expected, the lady of the house played with him mercilessly for a month or two and I was even asked to keep the guy clean and fed. He was practically chained on the bed if he wasn’t being bathed or fed by me.

It seems that his mind has already been somewhat broken by the time I was asked to take care of him. He looked like a puppet whose strings have been cut. He was just staring forward and letting me do whatever I needed to do. He eats whatever I give him. I guess he still has the will to live at least.

As expected again, the duchess eventually got bored of the unnamed slave and threw him to me for training as a household helper. In the two months that he was imprisoned in the lady of the house’s private quarters, his body has become emaciated and haggard. His wrists and ankles have deep scars from being tied up or maybe trying to free himself desperately. When I bathed him, I discovered that he had numerous other scars on his body so the duchess must have certain violent fetishes.

Within a month of him under my wing for training, his stomach started to show but I did not say anything and just instructed him to wear looser clothing. I simply told him that he had to eat better and he has to be careful. I saw his eyes flicker and for the first time since I met him, he looked at me straight in the eye. He must have understood what exactly was happening.

After that, he became a bit more responsive but he still did not speak and simply nodded or shook his head when he wanted to answer. I tried my best to give him the lighter tasks and made sure he had enough to eat at least since he is eating for two now. I know I can only hide his situation for so long by making sure he does not appear in front of the lady of the house or the masters.

Unfortunately, the first person that noticed was the third master and he reported it directly to the first master. The unnamed slave already is on the last month of his pregnancy so we can only do so much to hide it from others. I even got reprimanded for not talking about it and I simply answered that the lady of the house simply told me that she doesn’t care about this merfolk anymore so I did not tell anybody.

On the last month of his pregnancy, he was kept in an isolated room with me as his personal aide. The lady of the house was almost never home these days so she never found out about the things happening in the household.

After three weeks of being confined in the room, the unnamed slave already started having some signs of giving birth soon. In one of the times that we were alone, he told me that he is giving me his child to raise since he is not going to survive giving birth to him. I was confused as to why he told me so and he whispered that he was constantly been given poison since he started staying in the room.

I was surprised because I have always been taking care of everything he eats or drinks so how can he be poisoned? With his heavy stomach, he turned to the side and showed me the prick marks on his lower back. It was obvious that they were trying to poison both father and the child.

After showing me the marks, he smiled at me and replied that the baby is okay because he put all of his life energy on to him but because of that, he is sure that he will not be able to save himself. He begged me with tears to save his child no matter what. It was like a dying wish so I agreed since we did already have formed some type of friendship from the time we started working together.

I always prayed that this young man will still have a life after his stay in this home but I guess his fate was doomed from the time the duchess took him in. He indeed died of childbirth shortly after he pushed a healthy boy out. I heard that he lost consciousness as his body was too weak after the birth and with that, he never woke up.

After making sure that I give the unnamed slave a proper burial, I discreetly left the house I was serving in Coral City together with the enchanted pouch that the unnamed slave gave me. It can magically put in a lot of stuff inside so I was able to take all the things I worked for and owned for the last 30 years I served the duchy. I can’t help but wonder how I slave can have such an expensive item but my training taught me not to ask too many questions so I kept my curiosity hidden.

As for leaving this household, I was never a slave. In fact, I was a child from a poor barony. I also don’t have an employment contract since this family already trusts me enough to skip that step. That is where they made a mistake though.