After finishing breakfast Aarunya went outside to do her daily chores working in the fields. Most of the day she spent just pulling out the grass in the fields. Aarunyas family-owned quite the average-sized work fields for your basic village family. No one in the village owned any slaves as well. Simply because almost none of them could afford to keep one around. And those that could choose not to do so. There was one villager who bought a girl once. The poor creature couldn`t stand her master so she took her own life. That villager bought a female to keep her as a sex slave. The other villagers, of course, knew how she was treated but even if some people wanted to help her there was nothing they could do. He was her master and she was a slave and slaves didn`t have any rights. It`s as simple as a structure as that. That`s all you need to know. If you tried to be a hero you could have been the one who could get punished and no one wanted to risk their own safety that much when they could barely sustain themselves as it is now. So, all the people did was watch, watch how she was treated. Hear her painful moans in the night and eventually find her hanged in her tiny room. The man himself who owned the slave was condemned by the villagers and after her suicide, he himself disappeared.

　　The military police believed it to be a village conspiracy. The body was never found and they couldn`t get any evidence that would support their theory though. And so, the case was very quickly closed and the search for his body ended. It ended very quickly mostly because the military police didn`t care about solving a case about a villager in the middle of nowhere.

　　Most but not all of the villagers never really saw much of slavery in action because most of them grew up in this village and never really left. So, after seeing something like that they were, of course, shocked. Especially the children of the town. Aarunya was one of those kids.

　　"Is my situation though any different from slavery?"

　　While working today Aarunyas thoughts always started to drift off about the man who had a slave in this village. She wasnt thinking much about what the man did to the slave but rather that she couldnt help but feel like her situation is fundamentally similar.

　　"I know that parents, of course, have to raise you, give you food, clothes, and a shelter. And in return, you have to help them with chores and different kinds of things. But does it give them the right to just choose who I should marry?"

　　Aarunya of course always knew that a lot of women get married off by arranged marriages. But now since it`s happening directly to her it started to make her really think about her situation in life. Before, she always just thought something like that won`t happen to her since she is just a basic village girl. She didn`t expect her parents to make this type of a political-style move.

　　"Of course not! I have the right to choose who I should marry. I`m not like some type of slave or anything& Or is there really that much of a difference? Again, I understand the chores part but when you force something on a person when he tries to reject it with all his being then there really isn`t much of a difference&"

　　Aarunya pauses while pulling out the grass from the moist dirt. Taking in the feeling of a warm wind breezing through her skin. Looking up at the big blue sky and trying to calm herself down.

　　"Bahh my thoughts are all over the place I need to calm down and just focus on work. And start to think more in-depth about tonight`s plans."

　　After finishing work, it was already starting to get late. It was 6 p.m. Lunch with her parents passed awkwardly. Aarunyas father didnt say anything about the marriage or the duel. He just went on talking about how the harvest this year will be great. While the mother gave some awkward looks which Aarunya did notice. All in all, Aarunya liked lunch because no one brought up the subject. It almost felt like nothing happened. She even wanted to believe that was the reality.

　　"That would be a wonderful thing indeed, but I can`t think that way. If I`m going to do this, I need conviction and motivation"

　　That`s what Aarunya thought while finishing lunch.

　　Aarunyas daily schedule looked like this:

　　Wake up at around 5:00 a.m. Get dressed and go eat breakfast somewhere at 5:10 a.m. She finishes eating breakfast and after that, she has around 30 minutes of free time to do whatever she wants. Then, she starts to do certain types of chores that her parents ask of her. Work for her starts at 6:00 a.m. But unlike her parents who work for around 12 hours, Aarunya is allowed to take breaks and go ask to play with the other kids if she so desires. She`s still young so her parents don`t really ask her to work as hard as they do. But Aarunya noticed something peculiar throughout the years of her work. That is that she never gets tired from working.

　　This is something she never brought up to her parents thinking if she would say that they would put her to do more work. And so, she never did. She kept noticing that other people normally get tired from the many hours of labor but not her. This, of course, puzzled Aarunya. But after a bit of thinking, she came to a simple conclusion. And that is that she must just be "a really strong human being". This was actually one of the few reasons why she wanted to become a knight. If she is superior to others then she must be destined for greatness. But she never started doing any actual training until she found the sword by the river. While training, she was actually going all out and doing her best. And that was the first time when Aarunya started to get tired. Many hours of hard labor didn`t match her training swordsmanship all out for just one hour. And so, as time passed Aarunya continued to gain more confidence in herself. She never told her parents nor her friends about her training because she always had a feeling if she were to tell them, then at least one of her friends could snitch the information to her parents and they would stop her dreams right there and then. She believed she knew her parents well, but what happened today gave Aarunya a new perspective on her parents, at least on her father. An ex-warrior who will allow her daughter to try to become a knight if she wins a duel against him. That was certainly a surprise.

　　"Aarunya come to eat dinner."If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

　　"Ok, mom, I`ll be right there. Hmm. Let`s see how this will go."

　　And now dinner time came. Again, just like lunch, during the whole dinner, nothing eventful happened. The father complained about back pain. Aarunya thought he might start talking about that. He is getting old now and he would like to see some grandkids, but he didn`t bring anything like that up on the table conversation. Which of course pleased Aarunya. Her mother herself seemed to be more cheerful now as well breaking a smile quite frequently.

　　Everyone finished eating dinner, the mother continued her sewing session she does every night before going to bed. She was sewing pairs of new socks for everyone. That included Aarunya. The father, after dinner went into the shed. He likes to do carpentry during his free time. He makes kitchen utensils like spoons, forks, etc. And then sells them to other villagers to make some extra coins. Aarunya herself went outside to the nearby forest of course to practice her swordsmanship skills. She spent more than an hour training and then headed back home.

　　Not too much later everyone went to sleep. While in bed Aarunya kept thinking:

　　"If not for that conversation everything would be like any other day"

　　To Aarunya it felt like her conviction had started to waver. She started to think that maybe it would be better if she would just accept the marriage proposition, then this whole struggle would go away. Pasloe, of course, wouldn`t accept her going away to try to become a knight. If she stayed, she would get to live a cozy life, studying then working, raising a family, not having to worry too much about finances. It really seemed nice to Aarunya and she felt like she was about to give in to the proposal. But then her true dreams started coming into her head.

　　"That`s right I want to become a knight. Serving the empire is something I wanted to do since I was little, about 8 years old. Just hearing the stories about knights and their heroic deeds always got me thinking how great it would be to become one. Is it bad to want to serve your country? Of course, I never thought I would have any chance to become one. But then one day I heard that the swordsmanship sparring tournament became an event held in Pazzio. The winner would get to become a Page. And the best part is that they decided to hold the tournament annually since its inception. I`ve heard it was because the empire wanted to recruit more knights since a lot of them died during the last major war many years ago. And so, because of the success they were having, tournaments in towns became widespread, thus reaching Pazzio. It felt like this was my chance. It even more felt like fate was on my side when I found a sword just laid beside the river. That was years ago and ever since then, I trained myself hard to get to where I am now. The problem is I don`t actually know how truly good I am. For all I know I could be just trash ahh... But I at least I really want to compete in the tournament and test my strength. If I get my butt-handed then I always thought I could just train more and try again next year and so on. I would be working, training, and living independently. Or if I turned out to be a monster against other`s I would just become a Page, rise through the ranks and become a knight in no time. That`s what I thought at least. But now it`s do-or-die."

　　Aarunyas plan was quite simple. She didn`t want to fight her father. Not because she was doubting herself or anything like that. It was because she just didn`t want to duel her own father. Even thinking about it left Aarunyas mouth in a bad taste. So, to avoid that she had three options: just accept the proposal, duel her father or run away from here. Aarunya chose the latter.

　　"I know it seems very unknightly of me to run from a duel. Of course, if it would be any other duel, I would definitely not run from it. But because it`s my father I just can`t. I know the next morning they wont find me and theyll very quickly realize where I went. They will go out to look for me and try to bring me back. Well, my dad will. He will go to Pazzlo to look for me but that means that I just need to head to the second nearest town in which the tournament is held. And that would be Holo. The tournament is happening yearly in a few towns and cities around the empire at about the same time. I should be able to make it in time to Holo before the tournament starts with some time to spare and rest a bit if I head out early. I won`t be able to get any sleep today and I know I won`t be a hundred percent in the tournament but I want to try it either way. By the time my father realizes I`m not in Pazzio the tournament in Holo which happens a day later than the one in Pazzio should already be finished. If I win, I become a Page and I start to live my life how I wish. If I lose it... well then, I`ll return to the village, explain to my father why I ran away, and just accept the proposition. That would be righteous right? Haha"

　　Aarunya waited in her bed for a couple of hours until everyone in the house was surely asleep. Then she got out of her bed, put on her clothes, and took some money she had saved up to buy some food in town. She didn`t need anything else because either she becomes a Page and starts her training or just comes back home after a defeat the next day.

　　After Aarunya finished getting dressed up she opened her window, leaped through it with almost no sound, and then dashed straight for the woods. While doing that she started to feel almost like a silent warrior of some sort. She tried to get some type of joy from what she was doing.

　　"I`m chasing after my dream father," she said it to no one but herself

　　At the same time images of herself, her mother, and her father started popping up in her head. Thinking about when they used to take baths in the river together, go mushroom hunting with her father, even work in the fields. She started thinking about the simple things she did together with her parents up until now. There was one absolute truth that Aarunya knew since she decided to run away. If she wins the tournament under these types of family circumstances, she won`t be seeing them for a long time. If she fails, they will treat her more cruelly since she did something like this.

　　Her vision started to get blurry. It was tears forming in her eyes.

　　"No... I can`t hesitate, can`t hesitate. CAN`T HESITATE DAMN IT!!!"

　　There was still a chance for her to return, but Aarunya brushed her tears away and kept on running. During the whole day, she kept telling herself to stop hesitating so that she would not just fall and crumble down. Although at that moment, for Aarunya it felt like if she had stopped running, she would have just crumbled right there. But alas she didn`t stop. She persevered and continued.

　　She got to the forest, picked up the sword she had hidden in the bushes. A place only she would know where to look for and then, after getting her surrounding in check she dashed forward to the direction of the town Holo.

　　The moon was fully out, no clouds obstructed the sky so Aarunya had a pretty good vision in the forest and saw exactly where she was going.

　　"...This is it eyy. Well, warriors from Holo and other villages you better watch out, Aarunya is coming for you woo!"

　　And so, she dashed forward, towards Holo. Hoping for a new type of tomorrow to come for her. Fighting against her fate and chasing her dreams.

　　Of course, this little girl absolutely has no idea what this world has in store for her. The universe has infinite routes as a whole. But a single person has only one fate and one fate only.

　　For a better future" Short story

　　 The End