Chapter 20: Shock.
The footsteps of a child and an adult left their marks along the snowy roads leading to the large town on the horizon. The adult-sized foot tracks were a step or two in front of the smaller ones.
Eldric looked at the relatively light dressed Epine and couldn't help but be surprised at how nonchalantly she seemed to be treating the freezing cold.
Epine, somehow sensing his gaze, looked back and commented" Is there something wrong, young master?"
Eldric nodded his head," How far are we exactly from this supposed town?"
The maid hummed" It shouldn't be too far." she said.
"That's what you've been telling me for a while now," grumbled Eldric.
"It's the young master that wanted to go out and 'check out' the town," she commented, there was a bit of a victorious edge to her voice.
Eldric rolled his eyes. But that didn't say anything else.
And long before last. He was greeted with a pretty strange sight. Eldric couldn't call it a town under any means. It would be more correct to call it a larger than a normal village.
"Welcome to the Armsworth town." Epine's voice rang true in his ears.
'Weren't we supposed to be a count household? How can this be even called a territory?' he weirdly thought.
The Armsworth 'town' was a large area boxed in by tall intertwined stone fences. If one thing he could add was how secure they seemed to be despite their apparent simplicity... They were made to last.
The number of houses couldn't have numbered above two hundred.
Every house was made of wood. There seemed to be a distinctive lack of windows to combat the seeping cold. All those houses, not a single exception, had vaulted ceilings to allow the safe fall of snow. Multiple types of meat and hide hung from nails that were put on each house door.
The majority of the houses had a pen. Eldric could see creatures that resembled goats, they were larger— much larger than the goats he was used to, however.
On the porch sat a lot of old people on rocking chairs, seemingly unbothered by the cold. On their hands was some sort of questionable liquid in drinking horns; they must have used the horns of those strange goats.
Eldric was shocked by the complete and utter disparity between his family's living conditions and this small village's. His mind couldn't even comprehend how could the Armsworth household hold out, never mind prosper, with such territory under it.
He would soon learn that the northerners learned to earn their keep by other means.
Dangerous means. One might even call them suicidal.
Epine seemed to see through the inner struggle her young master was embroiled in. His eyes showed bafflement at the living conditions of his people; deeper than that was the genuine concern hidden neatly behind.
She always felt that from Eldric... His thinking seemed to be much closer to a commoner's than a noble's. She laughed at herself when she first thought of that, but it all seemed to add up together to paint a clear picture.
Epine frankly could not even imagine having the same banter that she would be having with Eldric regularly with the other nobles.
Her young master seemed to register his superiority, but he didn't truly exert it as others would. It seemed almost as if that very concept was foreign to him.
Something very strange... Although her young master was just seven years old, noble superiority and pride should have already been engraved in him.
To be honest. Epine didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing. Only time will tell.
A pale young gruff man was standing at attention before the large wooden gates, He seemed to be out of it, and repeatedly fiddled with the long spear in his hands. The same young man widened his eyes when he registered the appearance of Epine; terror was clear in his eyes… there was no hiding it.
The young man somehow started to get paler by the second; his legs shaking as well. And his arms were barely able to hold the spear that he so effortlessly fiddled with earlier.
Eldric looked questionably at Epine
'Just what the hell had she done to him to become this much of a nervous wreck.' he prodded.
Before Epine can respond— "G-gr-greetings Miss.Ep-Epine. How can I h-help you?"
It seems Epine didn't like getting interrupted, or at least that was what Eldric thought; Epine sent him a dirty look, promising a lot of pain.
The poor young man looked ready to faint about any second now.
Eldric sighed,"Epine… stop tormenting the man already."
The man's tense shoulders seemed to loosen up ever so slightly when he heard that. It was only then that he fully took in the appearance of the other person standing to that horrifying monster.
'White hair, and blue eyes….' the young man's somehow turned even more horror-stricken when he realised who he seemed to have ignored during the entire conversation,
He immediately got on his knees and begged," Please, my lord. I didn't mean to disrespect you… I have a family to feed. Please…"
Tears started to vehemently fall down his face. He wiped his face with the sleeves of the animal hide coat he was wearing— only to start begging again with even more fervour, misinterpreting Eldric's silence.
"Please, my lord.... Please...." He begged, not daring to meet Eldric's eyes anymore. The snow gained deep hand marks as the young man kept clawing it in despair— hoping for his lord's mercy.
Eldric took a couple of steps from the intensity of the man's performance. A confused expression riddled his face as the man looked at him with the same begging face — almost as if Eldric naturally had the right to choose whether he perishes or not.
"Get up!" shouted Epine dragging the man from the ground. The man appeared to be no longer as afraid of Epine as he was just a few moments ago.
"The young master will do no such thing." she looked at Eldric.
Eldric dumbly nodded, still shocked at the succession of events. He sat close by as he saw the man thank his maid profusely with tears streaming down his face.
It seems he doesn't need to say goodbye to his wife and kids just yet.
"Are you okay, young master?" asked Epine.
"I apologise. I shouldn't have let him get so close," she added.
'Is that the most she had to comment on that?'
He looked at the retreating figure of the man that looked at him as if he were a deity walking on earth.
The young man couldn't even walk straight, his legs still shaking from the nervousness.
'Was it also like this in the medieval ages, back in my world... Or is this place just screwed up?'
A part of Eldric wanted to retreat to the safety of the warm castle. But he suppressed it eventually.
Just the first step shocked him this much... He needs to somehow get used to his position; one way or the other.
The already cold air seemed to freeze even further as Epine and Eldric walked into the town.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
MunirSM
MunirSM This novel is an entry to the 280th WPC. PowerStones and feedback are greatly appreciated!
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