The God of Jesters
Chapter 694 - 10.09.2 Oh foolish daughter.

Chapter 694: 10.09.2 Oh foolish daughter.

Untouchables, a designation given to people unique to Azad. But it was a tradition that was practiced all over the world, with different names and reasons given.

For the ones in Azad, they were not some cursed people, nor were their ancestors some evil beings that would cause the world to punish these lower rungs into such a state.

No, none of those things. These people were the ones who cleaned toilets and were involved in many lower-level work like skinning of a dead carcass or processing leather. All the undesirable jobs that appear dirty to the normal folks.

So the people who do these jobs that even a serf won’t do were in turn considered dirty. And due to the very nature of their profession or the limit of it, it was impossible for them to ever grow out of the narrow life they were born into.

In cities, it’s not so bad, though. Due to the huge place it is, the untouchables have their own designated living spaces, where they can interact with each other and at least live a sort of normal life once they are not working away from the hateful eyes of the normal folks.

But in the villages, things were different.

There was only a place for a few families of untouchables to survive due to limited opportunities to earn a living.

Not to mention, they can’t afford to own a land to farm on unlike others, so it was common for them to scavenge for food during the harsh times, and one of their most common meals had been said to be the rat soup.

It was the only meat they knew, and the only food that they had never disappointed them.

Sadly, due to the famine that hit their land, even rats burrowed too deep for them to find anymore, and the water which was more vital than food was even harder to find.

Though such issues were only real for people like the untouchables, the villagers have long built their own motor wells into the heart of the village, where the untouchables can’t come.

Leaving the wells that would have been dug deeper in the olden days to turn dry.

There was little water here, and the boy who couldn’t endure the state of his youngest sister anymore made a foolish mistake.

He touched something that a person like him shouldn’t have.

"Leave my sister alone." He shouted, his anger masking his rationality. He had endured too much, he had suffered under these villagers a lot more than it was necessary. No more, he won’t endure no more.

"You bastard." Shouted one of the villagers, picking a stone and throwing it at the boy.

But...

But nothing.

The stone fell from such a height and was thrown with such anger, mixed with the blinded rage of the boy who ignored it due to his attention being on his older sister and suffering for it.

All it took was a single hit on the head, and his anger disappeared like nothing as he fell to the mud he was rigorously collecting on a cloth. Bleeding and wriggling with the death’s last throes.

"Janu." Shouted the sister, looking at the dying boy. She panicked and tried to jump into the well, all in hopes of saving her brother.

Butcher was thrown off, and the villagers, although more silent than before, their disgust didn’t disappear. "Run away... your brother had already sullied the sanctity of this well, I won’t mind adding one more body to it anymore."

"How can you be..." She tried to speak, but a slash of a hatchet on her face woke her up from her stupor. "Run if you don’t want to die." The line cut on her face, the bleeding, woke her mind. She turned silent and held in the tears, but not the blood that flowed out of her face.

It was a cold silence before she got up and left the area, running away from the scene.

And once she did, one of the men said. "Close this well... no one talks about it."

"What about the body?"

"Are you going to go down and get him out?" No one answered that question. "Just do as I say... I will bring a priest tomorrow to purify the area. I can’t let this bastard return to haunt us."

To the villagers, the untouchables were lower than animals. Not a fault of their own, it’s just how they grew up. In their eyes, this was not a crime, but an appropriate punishment for these bastards that dare to touch what is not theirs.

It’s one of the reasons why no one reprimanded the man who accidentally killed the boy. Nor did anyone ever bother with the well after what happened that night.

All they did was place a stone slab over it and forget it with time.

But, I am getting a bit too ahead, let’s get back to our main character, the girl who just lost her brother and ran injured with a scar that was far greater in her mind. The voices of those villagers, the hatred they held for her kind, the lack of humanity they showed to her and her brother.

"I..." She felt hateful, but what could she even do? A powerless being like her had no choices. "Father... I need to help get Janu out." She stammered into the home, looking around and finding no one, then she shouted. "Jina, did father come home?" She kept her voice low, not intending to let her small and weak sister find out what just transpired, nor did she dare to get into the hut, intending to stay out as she found some dirt to clean the blood.

But when no response came again, she finally walked in, her eyes filled with worry, before coming across an empty bed. "Jina." She shouted, her worry returning as she searched around the house, before finding her father walking towards their hut from a distance.

His body swayed as a fear crept up in the girl’s heart. "No... no, no, no." She rushed toward her father, drunk as he was, he still noticed his daughter’s figure, seeming a bit weird for some odd reason.

So he asked. "What happened to you?"

"Where is Jina?" She asked, never bothering with his question.

"Oh her? I sold her... she was dying anyway. The slavers will keep better care for her than us." There was no shame, there were no worries in his eyes as he gave the explanation. It was common to sell daughters when the families were suffering from famine. In certain areas, things had gone so bad, that people even started to feast on each other’s dead children, who are the fastest to die during such disasters.

That’s the only way to survive for some people. So selling a kid to a slaver was a far better option than the extreme cases one had heard in the stories.

Of course, the girl was not aware of such things. "You.. why.." She just learned her sister has been sold in slavery. A sister for whom, her brother gave his life. His life really came to a waste, his actions brought nothing but misery.

"You... Why are you looking at me like that... its a good page (Fool). She would have enough to eat to grow up good.... And you will also have such opportunity... as long as they clean your face, you would be well-liked by the... " Before the father could complete his words, the girl saw as a small caravan driven by a horse approached their home on the outskirts. "Oh, they arrived." The father spoke.

"You.. sold me as well."

"Different buyer... but yes. This was the only option left for our family to survive. Although we will be apart, we will be alive this way... and with the money I gain, I can bring your brother to the city, he might have an easier life." The father kept giving excuses as he held his daughter’s hand and dragged her toward the caravan.

"What money... you... you will just drink it all."