Aesop And His Harem [OneShots]

The fallen noble and the farmer

Eli x Aesop

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His father was arrested. He was accused of embezzling an unimaginable amount of money from his clients. The evidence was flagrant and so he ended up in jail for a very long time. Because of this, they lost their house and all the belongings they had, in addition to their relatives' trust and all their wealth. They lost everything they had and were forced to move to his grandparents' house in a remote area somewhere in the south of the country with his mother's few savings and their meager possessions.

They arrived at their destination without any problems, but this was only the beginning of their new life and the trials that awaited them. It was difficult at first, here, he couldn't find the same comfort he had in his old home, servants doing all the housework seemed like a distant memory now and his hands had become rough from cleaning every corner of the household. His grandmother kept telling him that he didn't have to do this, but how could he sit back and watch the old woman strain her back when he was still full of life.

Slowly, he was getting used to life in the countryside. There were still a few things he was not familiar with, but that would come in time, he was young and had a long life ahead of him after all. Unfortunately, it was not the same for everyone. As much as his mother smiled at him every day and did her best to help, he could see that she was struggling to forget her old life. Sometimes, he could hear the faint cries coming from her room and had to reluctantly pretend that nothing happened. 

Then, one day, he was called by his grandfather on his way back from the market with two bags full of groceries. It seems that the son of one of his farmer friends had been injured, leaving all the work to his grandson. However, he was afraid that his grandson would overdo it all by himself, so he offered Aesop's help. That would allow him to learn a thing or two more and then, it appeared that they were the same age too. The gray-eyed boy nodded briefly at his grandfather's announcement and then went up to his room after putting the groceries away.

A farmer's son of his age huh... Given the background he had grown up in, the work of such a low class was totally foreign to him. What was he going to have to do? Collect eggs from chickens? Feed the cows? Certainly not... pick this up. A chill ran down his spine as he made a clean sweep of his room. He sincerely hoped that the task would not be too complicated or disgusting. The rest of the evening passed like the previous ones and then he went to bed. According to his grandfather, his friend lived about a fifteen minutes walk from here and so he would have to go there every two days starting tomorrow.

Tomorrow was going to be a long day, so the young man didn't stay up too long and went straight under his covers. 

The next day, he woke up early under the sun that was already high in the sky. He got ready for the day and went down to have breakfast with his grandparents who were already awake, his grandfather also decided to accompany him since it was his first time and so that he wouldn't get lost as Aesop wasn't quite used to the place yet since he stayed at home most of the time to help. When the two men of the household finished, they didn't linger too long before leaving the house and heading to the farm.

Indeed, it must have taken twenty minutes at best since they had walked at a slower pace than usual since they had left early and a bit early. When they arrived at the farm, the young man was immediately struck by the huge red barn with its thatched roof. He could hear the mooing of the cows emanating from where he was, hell, how noisy those animals could be, thought the boy used to the silence of the time when he still lived in his big villa near the forest. Finally, he took a quick look from afar at the horse stable on one side and the chicken coop on the other, this farm was quite large but that was to be hoped for as these animals took up quite a bit of space.