Inside the wooden cabin, only seven of the original eight nobles remained.
Working for commoners was still something these nobles found hard to accept.
They had always lived pampered lives, not even needing to feed themselves—when had they ever needed to labor with their own hands? After some hesitation, a few nobles decided to wait and see. They couldn't believe these villagers would really dare let them starve.
But as time passed, some of them grew uneasy. The villagers had indeed not brought them any lunch, and now it was already dinner time.
"They... they weren't kidding, were they?" one noble asked anxiously. His stomach had long been rumbling.
The others remained silent. Hunger was a dreadful feeling, and some of them were already starting to regret their decision.
Creak.
Suddenly, the wooden door swung open, and in came Sir Berrin holding a piece of black bread.
There were still some crumbs at the corners of his mouth, clearly showing he had already eaten a piece.
With the one bottle of Gloom saliva he had managed to collect, Berrin had earned two copper coins and used them to exchange for two pieces of black bread from Simon.
Black bread—a food that only the lowest of commoners would eat. Back in their noble days, they wouldn't have touched it, even under threat of death.
But for Berrin, who had gone a whole day without eating, there was no such thing as "inedible." He needed to fill his stomach if he was going to have the strength to escape.
As Sir Berrin entered the room, all the nobles turned their eyes to him. When they saw the black bread in his hand, they frowned in distaste.
"This is our dinner?" one of the nobles said with a frown. He'd only ever heard of black bread from his servants—he'd never actually seen it.
But the next moment, he froze.
Berrin calmly said, "This is my food, not yours."
The nobles were momentarily stunned. Then from outside the door, Simon explained that this was what Berrin had earned after a day of hard labor.
The nobles fell silent. Berrin had worked all day... and only managed to earn two pieces of black bread?
"Then what about our dinner?" a noble asked quietly.
Simon shrugged and said with a smirk, "Who knows? Maybe go to sleep, and in your dreams you'll have everything you want."
With that, he closed the wooden door, and the room was plunged into a deathly silence—until the gurgling of a stomach broke it.
Ignoring the others, Sir Berrin devoured his hard-earned bread without leaving a crumb.
The other nobles swallowed their saliva, but none of them said anything. Still, a few of them quietly made up their minds: they would try going out to work tomorrow too.
…
The next morning, the nobles woke up still hungry.
They sat up and instinctively reached out to call their servants. It wasn't until they saw their surroundings that they remembered where they were.
"These villagers really do intend to starve us!" one of them said with a miserable face.
Without exception, they still had no food today.
They had no choice—they needed to earn money, or soon they wouldn't even have the strength to work. Their hearts were heavy with suffering.
Sir Berrin calmly dressed and walked outside, preparing to continue gathering intel and refining his escape plan.
The nobles saw him leave and, after hesitating, followed behind. They wanted to see how Berrin was earning money.
With practiced ease, Berrin arrived at the grassy area outside the village, received his wooden stick and test tubes, and began looking for Gloom.
Calmly, he located a flower and started collecting. Behind him, the other nobles were already retching uncontrollably.
"This... I can't take this. I think I'll try something else," one noble said, retreating to look at other job options.
Simon, who had been following Berrin, was surprised at how quickly this noble had adapted.
Forced by hunger, the nobles had no other choice. One by one, they began their new lives of labor reform. After a few days, they at least managed to avoid starving.
Over time, the nobles gradually adapted to their new laboring lives.
If outsiders came to Fruitvale Village now, they would never guess that the people toiling in the fields were once actual nobles.
Even the villagers started getting used to seeing nobles working among them. Slowly, the nobles' mentalities began to change too.
Through constant labor, they witnessed the darkness of society's lowest level—and began to understand the suffering at the bottom.
Of course, this was not the kind of transformation Sir Berrin wanted.
Watching the changes happening in the other nobles, he felt deeply afraid.
He had no intention of staying in Fruitvale Village as a powerless commoner, struggling every day just to eat.
He knew this so-called labor reform was all part of Aven's scheme—a gradual brainwashing to make them forget they were nobles.
He was terrified—terrified of Aven's methods, terrified of Aspiration City's indifference, and terrified of how the noble class had turned a blind eye.
"I must get out of here. I have to escape," Sir Berrin constantly reminded himself.
"When the snow clears, I'll try to leave Fruitvale Village."
Berrin's eyes gleamed. With more outsiders coming to the village, and Aven absent, the village's order had clearly weakened.
During this time, he had taken the job of collecting Gloom saliva the most.
Cautiously, he had hidden several bottles of the foul-smelling liquid on his person.
He knew the Mightyenas had incredibly sharp senses—normally, he'd never be able to escape them. But because of their powerful noses, the Gloom saliva could become his best weapon.
Aside from collecting Gloom saliva, he had also taken jobs like clearing snow and delivering food to the Mightyena pack.
He had determined that delivering food to the Mightyenas was the best time to escape.
Right now, it was still snowing heavily, which would certainly delay food deliveries to the Mightyenas.
Once the snow cleared, there would definitely be another delivery—and that would be his chance.
This time, he wouldn't head back to Fruitvale Village.
His true destination was the Knight Patrol Camp in the southeast corner of the territory, where the knight commander was one of his father's loyal subordinates.
He was sure that once he reached the patrol camp, he would be safe.
The knight commander would never betray his father. And he was also sure his father had not abandoned him and was surely looking for a way to rescue him right now.
(End of Chapter)