Mythology: Ragnarok

A month later, Izzy, covered in wounds, was feeding the horses in the stables and collecting manure. During this month, whenever Izzy resisted or tried to escape, she would be caught by George's thugs and dragged out for a beating. Many times, Izzy almost died from the two bastards' wild punches. In order to survive, Izzy had lost her former sharpness and could only swallow her anger and look for an opportunity to escape.

Izzy's health is very poor now. Old injuries have not healed and new ones have been added. Every day, Izzy works from four in the morning to six in the evening. The high-intensity work and all kinds of dirty and hard work have greatly damaged his body. Izzy knows that if he does not find a way to escape from here, he will be worked to death here in less than three months.

Over the course of the month, Izzy gradually became acquainted with the slaves here. From the slaves, he learned some specific details about the place. There were guards patrolling all over the manor. If a slave escaped and was caught, he would be executed on the spot. The manor covered an area of ​​three hectares (about 30,000 square meters), so it was very unrealistic to try to escape through layers of guards. In the past few days, Izzy had been constantly walking around and drawing up a rough map of the manor and possible escape routes in his mind.

As noon approached, Izzy ran to the lunch spot when the bell rang. A dirty steamed bun and a bowl of thin porridge with a few grains of rice mixed in were Izzy's lunch. The despicable plantation owner was reluctant to give the slaves a bite to eat. Every day, slaves starved to death at their posts, and then new slaves were brought in from other places. Deprived of their human rights, they were squeezed dry like objects until they had no value left, and then they were ruthlessly kicked away.

This strengthened Izzy's resolve to escape. Staying here would only mean waiting to die in agony. Just as they were eating, Emma, ​​the child who had saved Izzy's life, walked up to Izzy and said, "Izzy, you're not still thinking about running away, are you? Don't do that anymore. It will disappoint Lord George and Master Kingpin."

Izzy looked at Emma with mixed feelings. Over the past few days, he had also learned a rough outline of the child's background.

Emma's parents were slaves on a plantation. In that bleak life, they became each other's only hope and color. However, it was difficult for slaves to hold onto this last bit of warmth, because the slave owner strictly forbade intimate acts between slaves, believing that it would reduce their work efficiency. Later, Emma's mother became pregnant, and George discovered their affair. That bastard George locked Emma's mother up in solitary confinement and subjected her to various forms of abuse, causing Emma's father to die from exhaustion at work. Emma's mother, due to the lack of a good environment for pregnancy and sufficient nutrition, also died during childbirth.

Emma was adopted by George from birth, but rather raised like a pet dog by George. Izzy pitied Emma because she lost her awareness of freedom and self-thought from birth in that terrible brainwashing and harsh environment. She did not feel enslaved; she felt that life should be like this.

Emma even willingly acted as a lackey for the slave owners, helping them capture many escaped slaves. Several times, Izzy tried to escape but was caught and brought back because of Emma's betrayal. All the slaves hated this child to the core, truly proving the saying, "There is always something hateful about a pitiful person."

So Izzy didn't give Emma a friendly look and simply replied, "I don't expect you to understand me. You're used to being a slave and you think it's right, and I have nothing to say about that. But everyone has their own pursuits, so please don't try to persuade me anymore."

Emma said, puzzled, "But we are slaves. We must obey any order our master needs. This is a truth I've known since birth, and it has always been this way in the world."

Iz glared angrily at Emma and hissed, "Just because it's always been this way, does that make it right?!"

After saying that, Izz swallowed his simple lunch, turned around and went back to his work station. He didn't want to say anything more to Emma. He couldn't change a person's worldview; all he could ever do was change himself.

Stealing a moment from his busy schedule, Izzy looked at the sky outside the manor and touched the lump-of-coal crystal around his neck. It was the only thing his father had left him, along with the mysterious inheritance his father had mentioned. Izzy now had only one thought: to escape from here, find out the truth, and then take revenge!

However, his first priority was to escape this hellish manor. The escape plan, which was gradually maturing, was taking shape in Izzy's mind. In the following days, Izzy received good news: Kingpin had been promoted and was going to hold a grand banquet to celebrate with dignitaries from all walks of life. That would be the best opportunity for him to escape.

However, before that, Iz needed to prepare. In the days that followed, Iz tried to be lazy during the day to conserve her energy. She also contacted a slave who was in charge of organizing the storeroom through her network of connections. She used the money she had stolen during her work to ask him to bring back the fine steel dagger that Uncle Rael had given her.

After Izzy was rescued, George put the dagger into his storeroom, calling it "interest on healing." Fortunately, it was kept in George's private storeroom. Compared to other precious items, this fine steel dagger was really inconspicuous, and even if it disappeared, it wouldn't attract George's attention for a while.

After that, Izzy also looked around at the four gates of the manor in the east, west, south and north directions. There was basically no way to get out of those gates, and there were people on guard in shifts 24 hours a day.

There was a dog hole in the southeast corner, big enough for a person to crawl through, but no one was guarding it. However, the vicious dogs in the manor were not to be trifled with. If you were not careful, you might be bitten to death by those vicious dogs before you even got out.

So this dagger was the key that allowed him to escape safely through the dog hole. Time passed quickly, and three days later, the banquet arrived. The filthy slaves were not allowed to approach the banquet area, so most of them worked on the outskirts of the manor that day to avoid disturbing the distinguished guests. Izzy and a group of slaves, under the supervision of guards, were busy carrying the wine and ingredients needed for the banquet, while the dignitaries sang and danced at the banquet. They wasted precious dishes that ordinary people could only dream of, thinking that this life of getting something for nothing was a matter of course. This is how the world is. Some people are so hungry that they can't even get food, while others throw away food just because it doesn't suit their taste. This has nothing to do with whether they work hard or not. The source of all this is the distorted social structure and the uneven distribution of resources.

For slaves, such banquets were actually a rare treat, because the leftover food and swill after the banquet would serve as their rations for the next few days. Although it sounds disgusting, it was indeed a rare opportunity for slaves to eat meat, and they might even get to eat all sorts of foods they would never normally dare to dream of.

Eating swill is indeed disgusting, but if you've ever actually seen and tasted the food of slaves, you'll find that compared to that, swill is a rare delicacy. The life of slaves is a hundred times more miserable than the impoverished life of ordinary people. In fact, the life of slaves cannot be described as mere poverty. Death is the only possibility of survival; this is the fate of all slaves. The longest-lived slave in various kingdoms only lived for twenty years under such conditions. What's even more tragic is that it's said that the long-lived slave didn't actually die from exhaustion, but rather, at the age of forty, he finally couldn't bear this hopeless life and committed suicide. That unfortunate man couldn't bear to live in this dark and hopeless world any longer, so he repeatedly banged his head against the wall until he died completely. His tragic suicide was said to have been quite a struggle, and his death was extremely gruesome. So believe me, you wouldn't want to experience the life of a slave.