Sixteen Tonnes

Chapter 1 - The Village of Rosemary

"Ugh. This village stinks. The stench of the poor is penetrating my noble nose" says a stout gentleman as he walks through a small village, ravaged by poverty and destitution. In this great industrial kingdom that is Alvion, modernization has been the key to great success in the maximum amount of profits and the driving force of the economy. The world runs on Alvion time and innovation. All of this is fueled by factories and new vehicles powered by coal. Getting coal is half the struggle, as it had to be extracted from the earth. Fortunately, there is a company dedicated to the extraction of coal that runs almost all of the coal mines in Alvion. The Arcanretia Company was set up by the first female entrepreneur, Lady Aqua Wasser, Countess of Axel. Her company produces nine hundred tonnes of coal a week and is sold to factories and transport companies at a cheap cost. All of which are built on the backs of the poor. Children to be precise. This is the reason why the gentleman, a representative of the Arcanretia Company is here in the village of Rosemary today.

This small village on the outskirts of Milteu has seen the worse of industrialization. The River Tsukiyo once flowed down the village with a clean hue of blue. Now it runs through, polluted by the factories that produce the thriving textile and cosmetics industry. The village once prosperous was now a slum, with garbage all over the streets and the poor and downtrodden villagers left out to starve. In between the alleys, was a woman of 26. She was tall and voluptuous for her age with thickly scarlet hair, not that they would be able to point that out since it was pretty matted, wild, and dirty. Her clothes were nothing but mere rags that barely covered her, she didn't even have shoes on her feet. She was digging through the garbage, eating some of the food thrown away in an attempt to stave off starvation.

"The faster we get on with this, the faster we can leave this God-forsaken place" another gentleman, this time a lot more skinner mentioned to his colleague. They approached the filthy woman, who looked at them with scorn and hatred.

"What do you want," she asks the gentlemen rudely.

"Greetings madam. My name is Buli Craft Torran. I am a representative of The Arcanretia Coal Company, and this is my associate Guli Theodore-Lloyd".

"How do you do," Guli replies, doffing his bowler hat.

"If you gentlemen are looking for some fun, you're looking at the wrong lady" she responds, scrounging the garbage again. "I was once a great lady of the court of Lord Rung. But I had a child and was thrown away as a whore and a hag". This of course was true and was a good opportunity for the gentlemen to strike.

"I didn't know you have a child. Where are they?"

"My daughter is picking through the rice patties to find some mice for us to eat. Wish that girl would work somewhere else and make money".

"Perhaps," Buli started "we can arrange something like that. What is your name?"

"Irene, Irene Belserion".

"And your daughter?"

"Erza".

"I'll cut to the chase Ms. Irene. We are looking for laborers to work in our coal mines. We were hoping to find children since they are small and can fit in all sorts of places. We are willing to pay you 300 Crowns for the child, where she will work for our company for a good sum of 10 Crowns a month, sent to you of course, and we will be providing your child with lodging, clothing, and meals for no additional cost. I'd say rather generous of us". Irene seemed intrigued by the offer. Not only will she have some money for food, but her daughter would be put to work for a few Crowns, without having to think about feeding her.

"The money first" she states with her filthy hands outreached, "then I'll show you the girl". The gentlemen would rather have not, but they suppose they couldn't get another laborer any other way. Guli reaches for his pockets and brings out a pouch that may or may not have contained 300 Crowns, but Irene didn't seem to care too much. She just wanted some money. She got off her place and allowed the gentlemen to follow her. Through the filthy streets of a dilapidated village that has not seen the fruits of progress, the gentlemen disgusted squeeze their noses with their fingers. Irene brings them to the outskirts of the slum, the rice fields of a wealthy aristocrat where the young children sneak onto this unsecured land to find some mice roaming around to eat. In that field was her daughter Erza, who, like her mother, had filthy red hair and wore filthy rags. She has in her hands five small mice that she had just caught from the fields when she saw her mother.