I Raised an Obsessive Servant - Chapter 156

* * *

After the rainy season ended, Tom started to move more busily.

As the heat gradually subsided and the cool breeze began, autumn was the busiest yet most rewarding season for farmers. His father and stepmother were busy harvesting the crops they had cared for over the past year as soon as the rainy season ended.

Given that even his skilled parents were busy around the clock, it was only natural that novice farmer Tom was several times busier. Thankfully, Aunt Marie and her husband, Uncle Ron, helped out, so they were able to finish faster than expected.

“Wow.”

Tom admired the vegetables fully packed in the sack. His face was dripping with sweat he wiped off with his dirty hand, but he didn’t care at all. His attention was solely on the attractive vegetables.

“The farming went really well! Yourcrops seem even better than ours.”

Uncle Ron, chuckling, picked up a heavy sack for Tom and headed to the barn.

“I-I can do it! I can handle it!”

Despite Tom’s protests, Uncle Ron ignored him and briskly walked away. Tom looked at his retreating figure with disappointment, then tightly embraced the remaining sack to lift it.

However, the sack, as big as his body, was too heavy for his arms that hadn’t fully recovered. Despite the muscles he had gained from working hard, he still couldn’t lift it!

But he couldn’t give up. Tom gritted his teeth and put all his strength into his arms. However, the sack barely lifted a finger’s length before dropping back to the ground.

Tom grimaced at the sack.

Aunt Marie, who had been watching, tried to hold back her laughter, but a chuckle escaped through her lips.

She lightly patted Tom’s back, his face turning red from exerting effort to lift the sack again.

“Calm down. What do you think you can do with those arms, thinner than a scarecrow?”

“I’m a farmer now, too. I’m going to be strong! This much is, ugh!”

The sack that slipped from his weakening arms hit Tom’s foot and fell to the ground. Tom also fell on his buttocks, clutching his foot.

Aunt Marie was startled and sat in front of him, taking off his shoe.

“Are you okay? I told you it wouldn’t work with your strength. Why are you so stubborn?”

Fortunately, Tom’s foot was only slightly red, nothing more. Tom awkwardly smiled, rubbing his slightly hot foot.

“I wanted to do it because it’s my job from now on.”

“Still, you’re weak. Let me do it. You go rest. How can you carry loads with that foot?”

“I’m fine! My foot doesn’t hurt that much!”

In fact, it was a little bit uncomfortable, but there was no bone or ligament injury, so walking wasn’t a problem. However, despite Tom’s insistence, Aunt Marie quickly disappeared into the barn, saying the child should rest.

As Tom started tidying up the farm tools while waiting for Uncle Ron and Aunt Marie to return from the barn,

Suddenly, four robust men appeared in the field where Tom was, their voices loudly echoing from the front yard of the house.

The brown-haired man, who seemed to be the leader, pointed at Tom.

“There he is!”

With his signal, the other three men ran threateningly towards Tom. Tom sensed the threat and tried to escape, but before he could, his arms were caught by the approaching men.

“Let go! Let me go!”

Suspended in the air by his caught arms, Tom struggled in vain.

But he couldn’t compete with the strength of the robust men.

What on earth was going on? What were they planning to do with him? Why were they doing this to him?!

“Let me go!”

He wished for his father, whom he’d been trying to forget for a while. If his father were here, he wouldn’t have let these men go. He would have rushed over, swearing, ‘What the hell are you doing to my son?!’

As Tom contemplated whether he should bite the men’s arms,

“Tom!”

“What the hell are you guys doing?!”

Aunt Marie and Uncle Ron, who had gone to move the sacks, quickly rushed over. Uncle Ron, who seemed more robust than the men due to years of farming, tightly grabbed the arms of the men holding Tom.

“You can’t let go?”

At the strength of his grip, the men groaned and let go of Tom’s arms. Tom quickly hid behind Aunt Marie, who reached out to him.

“In broad daylight, you’re trying to kidnap him, are you out of your minds?”

The men looked at their leader with defeated faces.

“That’s not what we heard!”

“He’s supposed to be an orphan, right?”

“I don’t know where you heard that from, but!”

Aunt Marie hugged Tom tightly and glared at them sharply:

“He’s our child! We won’t let you harm him!”

She was just a humble farmer from a rural village. There wasn’t really anything Aunt Marie could do if they decided not to heed her warning.

However, whether they were intimidated by her fierce demeanor or taken aback by the revelation that Tom wasn’t an orphan, the men backed away from Tom. The leader, who had been watching Aunt Marie and Uncle Ron, signaled to the others and they turned away. The rest of the men followed, cursing as they went.

“Just show up again!”

Uncle Ron yelled at their retreating backs. Aunt Marie also shouted at them. Tom, trembling in Aunt Marie’s arms, glanced sideways to make sure the men had truly gone.

“What on earth do they want with this little kid…”

Aunt Marie murmured, and Uncle Ron’s face turned beet red in anger.

“I’ve heard about vile nobles who use children as toys, but I didn’t think they really existed!”

“Tiys?”

Tom peeked up and asked. He was just curious about a word he’d never heard before, like the word “scoundrel” that Aunt Marie had taught him. But then Aunt Marie covered his ears and yelled at Uncle Ron.

“Don’t say such things in front of the child!”

“No, but…”

Uncle Ron, who had been angry, held out his hands in surprise. Aunt Marie gave him a sharp look, then took Tom’s hand.

“I guess it can’t be helped. You’ll have to sleep at our house tonight.”

So far, Aunt Marie had often worried about Tom being alone and suggested he stay with them. Each time, Tom had insisted that he was fine on his own and didn’t want to leave his home.

But today was different. Tom looked towards where the men had disappeared and nodded.

“Yes.”

It was scary to be alone on a day like this.

* * *

“Those guys are back.”

Aunt Marie checked outside through a gap in the curtain and gritted her teeth. She made sure the curtain was tightly closed so no sunlight could enter, then covered Tom’s head with a thick blanket.

“You have to stay in your room and not come out until I say it’s okay. Understand?”

Tom nodded and hurried into the innermost room. He covered himself tightly with the blanket and huddled in one corner, shaking.

‘What should I do.’

Since that day, those suspicious men had come looking for him four times. Even though Aunt Marie and Uncle Ron had claimed that Tom was their son, they must have heard somewhere that he was an orphan.

Tom couldn’t see outside, but according to Aunt Marie, each time the men had surrounded his house for about an hour or two before leaving.

Their persistent obsession was frightening. What exactly did they want to do with him…

Tom imagined himself being caught by the men and trembled. He wasn’t sure exactly what they intended, but if Uncle Ron and Aunt Marie were getting so upset, it definitely wasn’t good.

Then, the quiet outside began to turn chaotic.

“No, where do these guys think they’re going!”

Starting with Aunt Marie’s sharp voice, the unfamiliar voices of the men he’d heard before were heard.

“We’re just checking.”

“No, why do you guys want to check our house?”

“Even though we said it’ll only take a moment, you keep resisting. And that child, he’s not even yours!”

“No, who said that? Where did you hear such nonsense!”

Just when Uncle Ron, who had been guarding the house for the past few days, unavoidably had to leave the house for a while. They had thought it would be fine since the men had quietly left before, but they didn’t expect this to happen!

What to do, what to do.

Tom held the blanket so tightly that his hands turned white. He couldn’t even breathe properly for fear of his breath leaking out.

‘It’s because of me again…’

If it wasn’t for him, Aunt Marie and Uncle Ron wouldn’t be going through this.

He felt terrible thinking that he was causing harm to the two because of himself, and he was ashamed of himself, trembling in the corner unable to go out.

‘But I’m scared.’

Tom tightly covered his ears with his hands under the blanket. However, the loud noises were still audible, and the angry voices of the men kept coming.

Thump, thump, thump, his heart raced as if it would jump out of the mouth.

Tom closed his eyes tightly. As the sound of his own heartbeat began to overshadow the noises outside, suddenly, Uncle Ron’s voice rang out loudly.

“What do these people think this place is! Get the hell out of here!”

Only then did Tom let out the breath he had been holding. He had just realized he had been holding his breath. The men seemed to be having a bit more argument with Uncle Ron, but they seemed to give up and go back. The voices gradually faded until they were not heard at all.

Tom crawled out from under the pitch-black blanket, rolling his eyes and cautiously peeping out. As he pressed his ear to the closed door to check the situation outside, he startled as the door opened.

He was taken aback and stiffened, but fortunately, the person who came in was Aunt Marie. She discovered Tom crouched at the door and paused for a moment before closing the door and coming in.

While she fixed Tom’s hair, which was sticking up due to static, she didn’t say a word. Tom, for his part, couldn’t figure out what to say either and shut his mouth tightly.

‘What should I do?’

Even though he thought he should go home, he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He was afraid he might be captured by those terrible men tonight if he went home.

But seeing what happened today, even if he stayed here…

“Tom.”

Aunt Marie, looking at Tom who hung his head low, struggled to speak.

“I don’t think you should stay here.”

Ah, just as expected. Tom wasn’t disappointed. Aunt Marie had taken care of him because he was the son of a close friend. But no matter how much she cherished her friend’s son, he could never be more important than her own family.

Aunt Marie must protect her family in her own way.

“It’s okay. I can live on my own.”

“No, that’s not it…”

Aunt Marie muttered something, her face looking as if she was about to cry.

“Can you stay somewhere else for a while?”

“Huh?”

“I thought it would be okay if you stayed at my place, but after today, it seems like it won’t be. So…”

Tom seemed to understand what she was saying. She wasn’t abandoning him, but trying to protect him.

“Let’s go somewhere else and wait until the situation calms down. Understand?”

Tom moved his lips to say something but eventually, unable to find any words, simply nodded.