Limits

The old man turned around and left. He only gave me the list of rules I needed to follow and tasks I was supposed to carry out. I started reading through the list. There were four rules I had to follow:

First. I was not allowed to leave the close vicinity of the village unsupervised. If I wanted to go to the forest for example, I would have to report that to the old man and ask for permission.

Second. I was not allowed to bring harm to any of the villagers. So I couldn't fight with anyone, that wouldn't be so bad but the rule included that I couldn't even defend myself.

Third. If I was in possession of any item that was not used to carry out my task, I will be punished severely. Supposedly they didn't want me to have anything.

Fourth. I had to complete all the tasks on the list everyday. If I didn't I wouldn't get any food.

If I were to classify my standing by those rules I was a slave. I had no way to retaliate, maybe besides cursing someone but that could result in me being beaten up. That was not in the rules but to some arrogant or short tempered people, if I said something bad about them I would be beaten up with no right to hit them back.

I had no way to run away from this problem so I could only comply with that. Besides I had my own plans about the stay in that village. I wanted to gain knowledge, strength and maybe even supplies. Although rules stated I could carry around nothing on me, I could still hide stuff around when I get the chance.

Then I've read the tasks given to me. There was also a map of the whole village, which would come useful I was sure. First thing in the morning, my task was to bring fresh water to every household in the village. On the map I could see the well and around 25 households in the village. Judging by the number of households it was quite a small village. The Freemount village I came from had at least 100 households.

The water needed to be delivered before 7am meaning I would have to wake up and start working at least at 6am or even earlier. Each household required 4 buckets of water, meaning I would have to do two runs per household if I took two buckets at once. After that I would have to go to woodcutter's lodge just outside the village and chop wood. There was no specific amount stated, it was only timed. I was supposed to do this till 9am.

At 9am till 9.30am I would get my breakfast at the house I currently lived in and that would be my break as well because from 9.30 am I was supposed to help local blacksmith with his work. The paper didn't say what I was supposed to do but I was sure I would find out once I get there. This was supposed to last until 12pm at which I would get an amazing one hour break! Of course, break only no food.

At 1pm I was supposed to go and help in the fields just outside of the village. The fields were located at the northern side of the village, while the woodcutter's lodge was located at the southern part of the village. The work in the fields was the longest and lasted until 5pm at which I would get my dinner.

The rest of the day I was free. I guessed that they didn't want to work me to death from the beginning and I expected that something may change in the future. The paper stated I will start all of that the next day.

I wasn't really surprised by all those tasks, I knew they wanted to squeeze everything out of me. On the other hand that was also good because I could train a lot physically, the only problem was food. I only got two meals everyday and I was already in a weakened state. I checked the map and found a small river just outside the village, if there are fishes there I could eat those.

The problem was I had no weapons or tools, so I would have to create a fishing rod and use it to fish when I'm done with my tasks. If I manage to get couple of fishes everyday that would improve my food situation a lot. I could just store them and use them for my breakfast, lunch or whatever I wanted.

Sure I couldn't carry around anything on me but If I fished and ate all my food then hid the rod, what can they tell me? I have nothing on me. If I pick up a pebble from the road would that mean I have something on me? That would be absurd even for them. So as long as I don't carry anything around the village I think I should be fine.

I wasn't naive anymore and I knew someone would monitor me. Even so I wouldn't steal anything, I would use only what I could find outside the village. If they have any problem with that then they can kill me straight away. After one year of that kind of work and the food they would provide, I would be dead anyway.

The plan was formed and I decided to rest properly that day. I would have to wake up early in the morning for my first day at the so called new work.