Our Family Has Fallen

When has Margaret ever been subjected to such accusations?

She hadn’t even spent a full day in Hamlet before being besieged by so many accusations, making her feel out of place, as if the entire place was rejecting her existence.

”Do you think I offended you?” Susan sensed Margaret’s abnormality but didn’t change her demeanor; instead, she pursued with another question, ”Do you know how Hamlet was before order was established?”

Margaret had just regained her composure when she heard Susan’s somewhat agitated words.

”Outside, there are bandits, looters, and inside, gangs, mercenaries, bureaucrats, nobility—ordinary people can’t afford to offend anyone, make a slight mistake and it’s verbal or physical abuse.

Even if ordinary people were killed, no one would care. We lived every moment in fear, with no sense of security whatsoever.

Is this your idea of freedom?”

Having followed Lance through ups and downs since the beginning, Susan, despite being an ordinary person, understood the lower society far better than Margaret, who was born into nobility.

It was precisely because she had experienced such a life that she could utter these sharp words, as they weren’t empty rhetoric.

They were spoken for the hardship that shrouded her early life, and for those struggling to survive in such a desperate environment.

”You might carry a gun on the street today; tomorrow, others can do the same. At that point, the muzzle wouldn’t be pointed at any particular person, but at each and every one of us.

Maintaining order is about protecting ourselves. Do you want to live constantly under the fear of being shot by bullets from nowhere?

If that’s the freedom you long for, then compared to order, your freedom is insignificantly trivial.”

Margaret was rendered speechless, appearing somewhat stupefied.

Margaret perhaps previously might not have understood Susan’s words because she’d never perceived the world to be so exaggerated; at least not the world she’d experienced.

But on her way to Hamlet, she had tasted the real world. The casual lives of nobility were unimaginable to ordinary people, but ordinary people’s primary needs were always safety and food—these are the essentials for survival.

”Can you tell me about Hamlet?”

Margaret opened her mouth amid silence, abandoning the topic of freedom and enquiring about Hamlet.

This was because she had heard some key terms earlier; does it mean Hamlet wasn’t like this before?

”Of course! In Hamlet, there’s nothing that can’t be talked about.” Susan agreed with a smile, but then mentioned another equally important matter.

”But we ought to finish breakfast first; regular meals help us recover better.”

Speaking of this, Margaret suddenly seemed to recall something—the uncontrolled hunger consuming her mind, her stomach constantly rumbling like the grindstone donkey at the mill.

The two returned to the temporary house, Laura was still sorting out her weapons and gear, while another remained asleep.

It was only then Margaret realized that Susan truly had been here before, as breakfast was placed on the table, which she hadn’t noticed in her haste to flee.

”You eat first, I’ll wake her up.”

Susan went up to wake the person, and soon the three were assembled in the living room, where Susan began to speak of Hamlet’s rules.

Essentially, many boiled down to not using force arbitrarily, and to seek the sheriff, town hall, or even the Lord if problems arise.

She also introduced some of Hamlet’s unique customs, like about toilets, prohibiting random urination or littering.

Margaret wasn’t alone in being unfamiliar with these, as even Laura heard them for the first time, her hooded head slightly turned to listen.

”Uh...I actually made a fool of myself earlier.” Margaret spoke after Susan’s explanation, without mentioning her earlier slip-up.

While wandering with a gun, she’d been caught by the sheriff, and it was Susan who bailed her out.

Initially, she needn’t disclose this, as no one else would have known, but she did reveal it.

It wasn’t out of wanting to flaunt, but because Susan indeed convinced her.

Margaret’s character was like that: right is right, wrong is wrong, straightforward yet stubborn.

Believing she possessed the courage to face mistakes, it was also to delve deeper into the conversation with Susan.

What kind of place truly is Hamlet?

”Before Lord Lance came, none of what exists now in Hamlet existed, only despair...”

Susan’s opening statement immediately drew their attention, even causing Laura to unintentionally halt her actions.

...

”Your parents?”

”Both dead.”

”And them?”

”Also dead.”

Lance looked at the ragged, thin figure of a boy, estimated to be about ten; around him were another dozen or so children.

The eldest was about ten, the youngest probably five or six. Clearly, their ability to arrive at Hamlet alive was thanks to sticking together and being cared for by some older children.

”Why do you take them along?”

The child looked up, sneaking a glance, ”Because if I don’t, they’d die.”

An innocent, even ordinary reason, but Lance couldn’t help but fall into silence, shifting his gaze to the other children.