Chapter 60
Soon, a crowd had gathered in the center of the square. There’s a dais, and a man is standing on it. He wasn’t the only one on the dais, but the man was so dominant that the people behind him were hard to see.
The man was shouting something in Ardennes, and Rashid raised an eyebrow as he watched.
Sika looked over and muttered something darkly, “No way, that’s…”
“Let’s go back,” Rashid said in a cold voice.
Sika nodded quickly. Rosetta, on the other hand, was just confused.
We’re going back to the castle? So suddenly?
“Come here. I’ll help you get on the horse.”
Rashid took her straight to Masha. Just as Rosetta’s feet settled into the saddle, as if floating, she heard a familiar word in the distance.
Mei Sotier.
It was the words for ‘my wife’. Husband, wife, these were the first words Benny had taught Rosetta.
Instead of mounting her horse, Rosetta looked toward the dais. She could see the people behind the man: an adult woman and a young girl.
The woman, dressed in old, shabby clothes, had a rope tied around her neck, and the man was holding the end.
“What are they doing? Is that woman his wife?”
Rashid didn’t answer the question, so Rosetta realized her words were true.
“Is he selling his wife and child? To slavery?”
Sika, who had been fidgeting beside her, interjected, “Rigaina, he’s not selling his wife into slavery, he’s just handing her over to another man for money.”
“That’s what it is, don’t you realize that selling people for money is exactly what slavery is?”
“That’s…”
Rosetta cut in sharply, and Sika looked at Rashid urgently, his eyes screaming, “Help me!”
Rashid finally spoke up with a heavy sigh, “That man is trying to get a divorce.”
“Divorce? Is that what a divorce looks like?”
“It’s not easy to get a divorce here, but you can if your wife has been unfaithful. In exchange for money, she can be sold to any man who wants her. That doesn’t make her a slave, just a different husband.”
“So selling the wife is the way they divorce here?” Rosetta snorted in disbelief. She knew this place was barbaric and savage, but she hadn’t expected it to be this bad.
“What about the children? Do they sell children too?”
“Boys are usually taken by the husband, but girls are often sold with the wife. It looks like this man decided to send his daughter with his wife.”
Rosetta’s jaw quivered as anger filled her. Glaring at the dais, she suddenly began removing the jewelry from her body. Bracelets, rings, and necklaces, she gathered them all up.
“Rigaina, what are you doing?” Sika asked.
Rosetta replied coldly, “I’m buying that woman and her daughter. I don’t know how much, but it won’t be more than this.”
As Rosetta turned to head back to the square, Rashid grabbed her. “This isn’t something to get so emotional about.”
“I’m emotional? Then you’re being rational by turning a blind eye to that? That’s not rational, that’s despicable.”
Sika’s eyes widened at Rosetta’s offensive choice of words.
Rashid spoke to her, still in a calm tone, “You can’t buy that woman anyway, only a man can buy her.”
“Really? Then you, a man, can buy her.”
Rashid bit his lip and replied, “If I buy her, that means I’m going to take her as my wife. You want me to do that?”
“What’s wrong with that? You even snatched a girl you’ve never met and made her your wife!”
The two began to glare at each other, and Sika backed away. Sika’s face soon turned pale. His plan to make things better between them turned out to be damaging their relationship. At this rate, Benny was going to kill him.
“Why are you so angry?”
His response, that he really didn’t get it, made Rosetta even more furious.
“You’re not angry at that?”
“At the last banquet, you weren’t particularly angry when you heard about Krell’s punishment. I mean, why do you get so angry about other people’s affairs when you let your own slide?”
Rosetta was a little surprised that he had been listening to her conversation with Shika. She had thought he hadn’t been paying attention since he was talking to so many people.
“Unlike that woman, I already have a lot. I have people to help me, but she doesn’t. And as for Krell, even if his punishment wasn’t up to my standards, he was punished according to the rules of this place, so it doesn’t matter, as long as he doesn’t harm me anymore.”
“Then this is also according to the rules of this place. The sight may be somewhat frowned upon by you, but it is not illegal.”
“…I’m so disappointed.”
Tears welled in Rosetta’s eyes.
“I thought you’d be different, that what other men thought was customary was wrong for you, and that’s why you respected me and even had Krell apologize to me in person. And now what? You’re saying it’s normal to sell your wife like an object? I don’t know about anyone else, but shouldn’t you, the chieftain, realize it’s wrong and try to change something?”
Rashid stared at Rosetta with a serene gaze. He soon turned his head and said something quickly in Ardennes to Sika. Sika looked a little puzzled, then turned and rode away.
He paused for a moment to catch his breath. “I assume you think what you are about to do is unconditionally right?”
“Of course. I think it’s cowardly to turn a blind eye to injustice.”
“Then you also realize that justice is easy, but fairness is harder?”
“…What does that mean?”
“It’s easy to say no to wrongdoing because we all think that no one should sin, but when they do, the question of how much and how to punish them is not so easy. Let’s say I’m stopping that man right now, I’m going to have to punish him for a good reason, but on what basis and how? Like I said, he didn’t do anything illegal.”
“That’s…”
“Should I punish him simply because he offended me? Or because you were offended?”
Rosetta looked at him, feeling like she’d been hit on the head. She hadn’t really thought about it that way.
“I don’t think it’s right for a wife to be sold like that, even if she’s been unfaithful. But that’s not something that I can easily intervene in based on my feelings. If it were, there wouldn’t be any injustice in the world.”
Rashid’s words sounded somewhat self-deprecating.
“My father did the right thing by saving his wife, but it ended up getting thousands of people killed, which means I have to be prepared for that when I make my own moves. I could beat that man up right now and save that woman’s life, but then people would be complaining about fairness, about why some people get it and others don’t, and those little grievances would pile up and pile up, and eventually the whole tribe would be shaken.”
True to his word, Rosetta hadn’t thought about what happened next after the accusation of wrongdoing. Or what the consequences might be.
Her parents had taken her out of all the important subjects like politics, diplomacy, economics, and military studies that were usually taught to anyone of noble rank or higher, so she had never had the chance to have a proper conversation with someone about these matters.
“Justice is a concept that must be accompanied by fairness. The more you have and the higher up you are, the more you have to think about it. When you wield it at will, it becomes an abuse.”
Rosetta’s shoulders sagged. “…I understand what you mean, and I also understand that there’s nothing we can do about it now.”
Rashid looked at her, looking downcast and defeated. “No, I don’t know yet if there is anything we can do.”
“…Yes?”
Rashid whistled low, and Akal, grazing beside him, perked up his ears and looked at him.
Rashid gestured toward the square. Akal snorted and stomped his foot a few times. Then he started running toward the square.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Rosetta asked in fear, remembering Sika’s words before, that Akal had once killed a man.
Akal rushed toward them like a storm. A large black steed suddenly appeared, whipping around, and the place was quickly transformed into a chorus of screams.
As screams erupted from every direction, Rosetta turned to Rashid. She asked, “Rashid, what are you doing? Are you trying to kill everyone?”
Rashid gestured with his jaw. “Look carefully. Akal is just making threats.”
Upon closer inspection, Rashid was right, Akal was dodging and weaving through the crowd. Some people were startled, but no one was trampled or kicked by Akal’s hind legs.
Soon after Akal’s rampage, the crowd in the square dispersed. All that remained was the family on the dais.
This time, Akal leaped onto the dais. His hooves stamped down hard on the floor, sending splinters of wood flying everywhere. The man shrieked and screamed, then ran off in a daze, followed by the woman and child.
Rosetta looked at Rashid and muttered under her breath, “That stopped them from being sold, but it’s only a stopgap measure…”
Tomorrow the man would be here again, trying to sell his wife and child.
Rashid sighed heavily and muttered something in Ardennes.
Rosetta’s eyes immediately narrowed, because she knew it wasn’t a good thing.
“Why were you speaking Ardennes earlier? Just say something I understand. What did you say after ‘my wife’? Did you curse me?”
He laughed softly. “It means I already knew my wife wouldn’t be satisfied with this.”
No sooner had Rashid finished speaking than they saw Sika galloping toward them on horseback in the distance.
He stopped in front of them and spoke loudly, “Riga, just as your command, I have found out all the information about that man. Let’s go now!”