Chapter 442: Family
"The weather is lovely today. And from here, I can watch everyone working so hard. That makes me happy. Thank you, Qiong Xing."
"Not at all. Kira works very hard, so would you please keep an eye on her and make sure she doesn’t push herself too much?"
The old lady laughed and nodded.
Leaving the rest to her, Qiong Xing took Tasha with him to do the laundry.
"...If this is about what happened this morning, I’m not angry, so don’t worry."
Even as Tasha silently washed the clothes exactly as he had shown her, she kept glancing toward him from time to time.
The sight made Qiong Xing smile.
Seeing Tasha finally relax her shoulders in relief made him realize just how much he had frightened her.
"I’d like you and Kira to mainly help with the household chores."
"...Why? You could just have me work together with the others."
When Qiong Xing looked up, he could see the children busily working in the fields.
They worked hard because the crops would become everyone’s meals, but more than that, they genuinely enjoyed eating together and saying how delicious the food they had grown was.
"Well, I wouldn’t say we have more than enough hands, but they’re all working very hard over there. It will be enough if you help when we really need it."
Thanks to the children tending the fields, they never had to worry about having enough food.
Whenever Qiong Xing came to visit, he also made sure to leave behind preserved food that would keep for a long time, so there were no real problems.
Narka and Rohen also regularly left meat behind while making their patrols, so the children were gradually growing healthier and stronger.
"Until now, the old lady has been doing her best, but it’s been getting harder for her lately. The children are still young, so I’m worried about them handling fire. I also think it would be good if they had a little more peace of mind."
Compared to before, they now had a house that sheltered them from the rain and wind, warm beds, good food, and companions.
However, they also had more work than ever before.
Adding all the household chores on top of that left them with very little time to relax.
Ars always took the initiative and handled many things himself, but he also had a habit of overworking whenever no one was watching him, which worried Qiong Xing.
"Someone like me... doing those things... won’t they hate it?"
Tasha lowered her head, still thinking of herself as nothing more than a beastman and a former slave.
Qiong Xing smiled gently.
"The fact that you’re a beastman is only a small difference to the children living here. It’s true that you were once a slave, and that fact can’t be erased. But that belongs to the past now. So... forget it."
"W-what? Forget it?"
Unable to believe those words, Tasha glared at him.
There was no way she could simply forget those painful days or the cruel treatment she had endured.
Qiong Xing shook his head.
"I didn’t mean you should forget everything that happened while you were a slave. That’s not what I meant. What I meant is that now we’re family and companions. So you should forget that you’re still a slave."
"...Family?"
From what he had learned through Elias and the others, Qiong Xing had some idea of how poorly slaves were treated.
Beastmen had undoubtedly suffered even worse.
There was no way he could ask someone like Tasha who had struggled desperately to survive while protecting her younger sister, to forgive everything humans had done.
Nor did he want to.
"I’m sorry about the collars. I couldn’t remove them because I had to think about the children’s safety."
Because of how Tasha had behaved when they first met, the collars still remained on both sisters.
Qiong Xing simply could not risk something happening to the children.
"I don’t expect you to get used to everything right away. I’m sure it sounds far too convenient to believe. But even yesterday, none of the children here called you slaves, did they? They greeted you, bathed together with you, and ate beside you... didn’t they?"
"...But... but that’s... impossible..."
Tasha still could not believe such a thing could really exist.
"Ars is a very kind boy. He has a habit of working too hard because he spent so long alone, but he’s not the kind of child who orders people around or forces them to do everything for him. Even though he admitted he was nervous around my child because she was so small, he still held her without any complaints."
Ars had hesitated because Hui was so tiny and fragile, afraid something might happen to her.
However, he had never once said, or even looked as though he thought, that he did not want to touch a beastman.
"They’re all children with no families. If things had gone differently, many of them could have ended up as slaves themselves. That’s exactly why they would never treat anyone that way. Well, they’re still young, so it might simply be that they’re happy to have everyone living together."
Because they had endured painful lives themselves, they would never force that same suffering onto someone else.
"You don’t have to do it all at once. Little by little is enough. Even if it’s only the children living here, I’d like you to try trusting them."
Tasha remained silent.
After thinking for quite some time, she finally nodded.
Seeing that, Qiong Xing quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hehe, isn’t Qiong Xing an unusual person?"
"Eh? U-um..."
Kira was startled by the sudden question.
Following the old lady’s cheerful gaze, she saw Qiong Xing doing the laundry together with Tasha.
"Well, perhaps I should say he’s a kind person instead. Yes... kind, almost too kind, but also very strong. Thanks to him, I was able to meet all of these children, and you two as well."