The next morning, before the sun even rose over the mountains, Marina woke up earlier than her father and mother. She took off her gown and put on the same dress she wore yesterday. With how poor they were, they didn't have much in terms of clothing. And her sweat from last night had mostly dried, though it wouldn't matter much as soon, it would be dampened again when she worked on the farm.

Her father was, naturally, still hungover from the party last night, while her mother was still simply still resting. She took care of the house chores as much as she could before she had to leave to the farm. She didn't want her mother to work so hard as she had those so-called "bad bones" thanks to her not getting any younger.

She swept the house, drew the water, and cooked breakfast (merely some vegetable soup) just in time for her mother to wake up. Bill was still sleeping, she told her. Marina sighed. She already knew how late her father would wake up every time he returned home like that.

"I'll take care of him. You can go now," her mother said as she kissed her goodbye on the cheeks.

"Thank you, mother," Marina replied with a smile, leaning forward and returning her kiss. "I'll try to be home early tonight."

[hr]
When she arrived there, there were already others working on the fields.

"Hey, you're late! And where's your pops?" one of them shouted to her.

"Sorry! He got too much to drink yesterday!" she shouted back as she put down her bag and grabbed her shovel.

The land was communal, so it was shared with eight other families. It used to only belong to them however, but thanks to how draconian the tax given by the Lord of that era was, combined with the drought, her father couldn't pay the taxes anymore thus his ownership was revoked. He had stopped being a landed peasant, and now was just an ordinary one.

Just another list of the many grievances she had with the former Lords of the valley.

Marina worked just as hard as everybody else, even though she was the only female among the male sons and fathers of the other families. After working with them for so long, they had to accept and respect her as one of their own, as her work was just as good as any of them. At first however, she was somewhat bullied by them, thinking that no girl should be working on the farms, and instead should just be looking for a husband. She had no plans for such a thing however, even though she was already 20 years old, and the average marriage age for peasant girl was around 15. She was more than alright with her just working as an old maid farmer until she became too old for it. Then she could just be some other family's nanny or maid until her deathbed. At that point, she would be unattractive and old enough so no sane rich noble would try to bring her to their bed.

Unfortunately, Fate seemed to decide otherwise, as her father, Bill, suddenly appeared and took her away from the others, saying that he had something really important to tell her.

"Father? What's the matter?" She looked at him with a worried look on her face. She could tell from his expression that it was something very grave indeed.

And then he told her the news. That she was ordered to become one of the Earl's servant and that she had to go right away.

Her heart sank. It had happened. The worst thing that could.

"You do not have to do this, Marina," he then said. But both of them perfectly knew what would happen if she would to refuse. Even if she and her family would just run away from the Earl's territory, the Earl could just ask his neighboring lords to return them back to him. And running even further away would not be a feasible option to them, especially with the current health of her father and mother.

"I-I'll go," she answered, her voice shaking. "I will go, Father," she reaffirmed, though more for herself than for him. "Let us depart right away." [i]For if I delay any longer, I might end up changing my mind as my resolve weakens...[/i]