Chapter 2
Roused from his sleep in the early morning, Jasper groggily sat up. He had unwittingly fallen asleep despite having planned to map out a course of action and go through the memories of Quintus. He had totally forgotten that he had to follow the needs of his current body rather than the wants of his mind. Result, zero plans.
Urgh… Jasper groaned and rubbed his eyes. For the last two days, Quintus had been going to the town square to play ever since he had gotten the wooden sword, that he remembered. However, remembering the bandages on his face, what would be the most ‘Quintus-like’ action he really had no idea. Having fallen asleep when he was supposed to figure that out did not help. He blinked his eyes trying to chase away the last dregs of sleep.
With a rather deadpan look, he sighed and resigned himself to whatever may happen that day, while desperately hoping that nothing happens. Despite having much experience behind him, he still terribly sucked at people interactions, so he had blurted out as well as done some things he had considered normal right after awakening, forgetting that he was in a young body. Becoming an outcast because of his uncanny knowledge like what had happened in a few of his previous lives was very, very undesirable. Instead of being treated like a genius, more often than not the ignorant masses either treated you with fear or exploited you because of his young age. Horrible would be an understatement. One even ended in his assassination before that body even reached the age of 10.
Slipping off the covers, he went downstairs to the kitchen to partake in the Palma’s typical breakfast: freshly baked bread and whatever produce in season. If he had the time to think and go through Quintus’s memories, he could have at least chosen what he likes to call the “path of least collision” where his actions would not cause too many discrepancies to arise. Old habits die hard. However, now that everything has gone to the dogs, he was just planning to react to whatever this family threw him and keep mum about things he did not know how to respond to.
Jasper slowly seated himself, and was greeted with warm smiles from everyone. Surprising Jasper, Quintus’ family showered him with concern and care, to the point he felt embarrassed at the treatment he was receiving. “Quintus, you lucky bastard, no wonder you could become such a crybaby.” Jasper thought inwardly as he was force-fed by Raya, the enthusiastic eldest, withholding the shame. The end of breakfast signalled liberation.
Miriam and Raygus insisted that he stay home that day and Jasper was inwardly shouting ‘All hail Miriam!’ since that solved his initial problem. However, the children who gathered at the square may feel something off so Jasper conveniently posed his concern, feeling relieved since they posed no questions about the cut nor any allusion to any weird behaviour. He did not know that they had attributed the cut to typical children antics, like the doctor had the day before.
“But mom, what about my friends? We promised to meet today.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll pass the message. I’m going shopping at the square today.” said Miriam, “So Camellia and Winnie, I’m counting on you to watch Quintus.”
“No worries, mom.” Camellia replied. The women are typically tasked to tending the family farm, which includes chores like watering, weeding and feeding livestock, and housework, like sweeping and cooking. The men are assigned the more rigorous jobs like ploughing, collecting firewood and construction, although when such work were not needed, they will help out with the women’s work. The only exception would be harvest season, where the whole town would be hired by the local nobles who required their huge fields of wheat harvested all at the same time. The townspeople themselves usually plant barley and sorghum since they are much hardier than wheat.
Thinking that the feudal system has not changed much, Jasper recalled that the lords of the town were only the lowest ranked viscounts, where the ranking went from King, Duke, Marquis, Count and then Viscount. Most viscounts do not live luxurious lives although they do own a bit more wealth than the common folk like them. Now he was curious as to what year it was since his last reincarnation died, but it would be strange to ask for the current year out of the blue, so he kept it within for the time being. Someone will mention it sooner or later.
Now that breakfast was out of the way and lunch had been packed for the family members going out, the sisters and Quintus had the whole place to themselves. The first thing they did every morning was tending the crops so they took Quintus along with them to the farm.
As the sisters pulled up weeds, tidied up roots and irrigated the fields, Quintus just stayed at their side and watched. The opened irrigation gate flooded the trenches with clear sparkling water from the creek and when the water reached the other end of the farm, Camellia closed the gate. By this time the sun was high and Jasper was feeling rather restless as he did nothing at all. He could finish what he started yesterday night, but he tended to drift off in a daze when he did his thinking, and he did not want to think up excuses on the fly. Those often end up backfiring since his lack of talent in social skills his thoughts did not improve despite the many lives he had lived. I mean, which idiot would address the body’s current mother as madam even if he was in a fluster. That must have been the worst slip-up to date… and since the family was a wealthy aristocratic one, rife with spies and subterfuge, they thought he was a spy sent in disguise and only let him off after one month of weird looks and probing questions.
Bitterly laughing at himself had become a habit of his by now. Since from the day he was born, despite having great intelligence and observation, he would still fail in the most basic of social conformance. He never had many friends and had difficulty associating with strangers. Having had practice did improve it somewhat, which was some consolation. Jasper squatted down and started to observe the weeds growing near the barley out of boredom, plucking some out.
Recognising many types of herbs and plants, he noted the species living on the farm. Who knows there might be some useful, and it was a great way to pass time: which was the main objective.
Weed, weed, weed… oh, milkweed. More weeds, hmm….? A blackberry shoot? Those would have delicious berries by fall. He carefully dug the plant out and replanted it away from the crops. The sisters saw what he was doing and paid it no heed. They thought that he was imitating them. By lunchtime, he had found a few more blackberry plants, some young marigold plants and surprisingly, a few ginseng shoots, the northern variety: saving them from his sisters’ indiscriminate weeding.
The summer sun was blazing above in the sky, but due to the mountains surrounding the valley, the air remains cool. They stopped for a while to have lunch out on the farm since their mother was away which consisted of hearty barley bread egg sandwiches: eggs courtesy of the family hens. The farm work was almost done which only left the housework and the chickens. Unable to bear much more of the boredom, he begged them for some work to do, so Camellia allowed him to help Winnie feed the chickens and clean the coop.
The eggs had been collected earlier this morning so Winnie collected the chicken poop into a compost pile and Quintus spread low-quality grain and chaff on the ground for the chickens to eat. They had a considerable number, 14 hens and one cock, producing 14 eggs daily. They would usually either sell the excess to their neighbours or sometimes trade them for some milk. In a town where everyone knew everyone else, they were well informed as to what resources the other has. They were the few families who had enough eggs to sell daily. The raised coop was large enough for them to stand inside and the interior well lit. The air stank of chicken but large windows covered in coarse mesh thankfully still allowed air to circulate. The chickens were then allowed to roam outside for the afternoon.
The housework only consisted of sweeping the floors and making the beds but laundry was a more daunting task. With everyone out doing dirty tasks daily, dirty clothes piled up like a mountain very quickly. Camellia had immediately set about washing yesterday’s soiled set of clothes by the creek while their mother had hung out yesterday’s laundry up to dry. The cool air in the valley made it hard for laundry to dry so they didn’t bother to do laundry early since it’ll take about one and a half days for them to dry anyway. With such pristine water so close to their town, there was not any need to dig any wells. Winnie immediately helped out, soaking the clothing into the water and rubbing dirt and grime off. They did not use any soap since it was expensive, so their originally white clothes slowly turned brown from grime. Their mother did keep a small stash of soap which was never ever used inside the kitchen cupboard. Although whatever it was for, they had no idea. The sisters forbade him from helping with the washing, since it was tiresome work, so Jasper rather sullenly wandered through the banks before planting himself on a dry rock to sit.
I should use this time to think things through, thought Jasper as he glanced to his left, seeing that it’ll be sometime before they’ll be done with the washing. Trying to recall Quintus’ memories, Jasper closed his eyes and pondered. What was the town’s name again… Mordridge Valley Town… so the surrounding mountainside Mordridge Mountain Range. Mordridge was located just in between the Northern and Southern halves of the Yurop continent so the closest countries would be Prenche and Kastria with the mountains sandwiched within. He had never heard of this town before so it must be pretty remote and he did not know to which of the two countries Mordridge Valley Town belonged to.
Tapping his chin thoughtfully, from what Jasper found out, Quintus had no concept of years so what he managed to obtain out of his memories was just his age and other simple information. Well, a backwater town like this would not be affected by changing monarchs too much so I guess it’s natural that there wasn’t much talk about such issues like the current reigning king, thought Jasper. There were no tutors or schools in the town and the only contact with the outside is after harvest season when the town exports the dried grain. Jasper grimaced, the harvest here is in fall around August because of the cool weather and the caravan going to the large cities to barter will only return in another two months. That would equate to more than four months of barely anything to do by Jasper’s standards for the sake of the most rudimentary of information.
In town there were no libraries, the residents were barely literate and he was constrained to doing what an eight-year-old should be doing. Jasper already felt like weeping. If he were in a city, at the very least parents would send their children to school and nobles would have tutors and libraries at their disposal, which makes information collection easier. He was already cursing the future four months when he heard feminine voices calling the name Quintus. Quickly pulling himself out of his thoughts, he plastered a smile onto his face and followed the sisters.
Dinner occurred in the same fashion as usual and Jasper resignedly conformed to the daily routine, swearing that he must find something to do before he went nuts. Barley stew and barley bread today, the poorer people’s staple since barley is much hardier than wheat to grow although Jasper quite liked it’s sweet taste. The growing eight year old body demanded much food and Jasper ended up scarfing quite an amount, second only to his also growing sister Winnie.
“Oh right, Quintus, a friend of yours asked about you after I told them you wouldn’t be able to come. What was her name again… Mary something?” Miriam said as she ladled the stew to the hungry, waiting bowls.
Mary? A girl? Jasper racked his brains for a match but couldn’t think of any girl Quintus had known close enough to ask about his wellbeing. Miriam did not pursue the matter and the family shifted to the topic of the current barley crop and the coming wheat harvest season. Since the wheat harvest was only 1 month away in the month of August, it became a hot topic in town. A lot of their commodities rely on the trade of wheat and occasionally barley in the larger cities. From their conversations Jasper managed to get the name of this larger trading city, Munika, which did not ring any bells for him. It was possibly one of the smaller cities which served as the location from which goods flowed into the main cities, which were the true trading hubs. Which inevitably also meant that this was truly the boonies in it’s grittiest sense.
Right after dinner, Jasper got dragged back to the clinic for the cut, which he had largely forgotten. A round of disinfectant and a change of dressing were done quickly and professionally by Doctor Hartwin. Jasper was accompanied only by Raya this time and seeing that the cut was mostly dry, the doctor told Raya to stop using the bandages tomorrow, who beamed. Of course it was not deep, it was self inflicted, Jasper thought to himself wryly but still gingerly touched the bandages. With everything done, he was hauled back home and into bed by the dedicated Raya. He wore his feelings on his sleeve but was still a pretty reliable older brother nonetheless. Their parents decided that another few days of “house-arrest” would be just right for Quintus after hearing the news.
Jasper felt the fatigue closing in and the need for sleep great by the time he hit the bed. Despite grumbling about the inflexibility of a child’s body, he had little choice but to go to bed. Eyelids becoming heavy, he was again lulled to sleep under the blanket of night.
Rebirth Online World 