40. Singh (below)

Singh and Katrina both looked stunned when they heard me say this. Singh was the only one who defended himself alone, "He's fine! And it's time for me to get married. I feel good enough to have found someone like this who I like and who can still like me so much, and it's probably a blessing from Lady Luck."

Probably seeing my confusion, Katrina thought that I was too young to understand many things and patiently explained to me, "You grew up in a caravan and may not be aware of the laws of the Greene Empire, which you will perhaps learn in school in the future. The Grimm Empire's code requires that any woman who is fifteen years old can marry, and any Imperial woman who is twenty-five years old and not yet married will be guilty of being unmarried, and the Imperial Population Inspectorate will punish families who keep unmarried women who are overage, and will force them to be married to numbered men, which is the worst."

"Ah! How could this happen? If I can't afford a wife at twenty-five that's even a violation of the law?" Cold sweat broke out on my forehead, what kind of rule is this? I later asked Sister Gogo in secret and realised that the so-called numbered men Singh was talking about were male unmarried vagrants or untouchables who were registered with the Population Inspectorate.

Katrina's mouth dropped open at my question and she didn't know how to answer for a while.

Singh thought for a moment before telling me, "The law Katrina is talking about is for women only. There is another one for men only. The Greene Empire law requires all men to join the army by the age of twenty-five, and they need to serve at least three years in the military. Otherwise their family property would be confiscated and they would be hanged as deserters."

"All ... are required?" I pointed to myself.

Singh nodded affirmatively and said, "You can't avoid three years of military service if you want to live in the Grimm Empire."

"Do people die in wars?"

I asked a rather idiotic question and Singh said, rather breathlessly, "Of course, many young men die every year. Otherwise how could it be possible that the ratio of men to women in our Grimm Empire is 2:5, maybe a little higher in some places. The barbarians would take the men to dig the mines and the lizard people in those swamps take slaves every year ..."

"Things are a little better in the Grimm Empire, and I've heard that the Etean Empire in the Westlands requires at least six years of military service." Katrina added from my side.

Was it because of the years of war that the population ratio in the Grimm Empire was so out of whack that there was a damn rule that all women would be punished for not marrying at twenty-five and all men would be punished for not joining the army by the age of twenty-five? I was a bit dumbfounded to hear this, but it seems that humans are not in a good position on this magical continent to be considered a powerful race! The country needed a population, women were forced to marry, the country needed warriors to defend it, and men were forced to go to war. I can imagine that in such an empire no one would ask: Do you love this country? Instead, the question would be: do you want to live?

"So Sister Singh you ..." I suddenly asked if Singh was overage, and the words were just caught in mid-sentence by Singh.

Singh said with another sigh, "Yes, I am twenty-four and if no one marries me before the end of the year back in the empire, my family will be punished, even my father will be flogged and I may be married to someone I don't know, not knowing his"

"And do you love him?" Naturally the man I was referring to was Uncle Fred, and Singh obviously had no idea why a five-year-old's mind was packed with so much stuff and didn't know how to explain it to me.

"Love!" The word was said with certainty and without hesitation.

I guess that would make it real love!

Sister Singh smiled something warm and sweet and said to me, "What I'm saying may not make sense to you now, but you will come to know it when you grow up. It is said that orc children will be more mature than human children, you were raised by that orc witch doctor lord himself, you know much more than my younger brothers at home, and you Uncle Fred have the charm of a mature man in you, that is a ... oh! That would give me a sense of security, gentle, attentive and also very capable, and honest, reliable and having served in the military, I wouldn't have to endure the torture of being at home on tenterhooks waiting for his safe return from war."

I shook my head and said to Singh, "Sister Singh, none of what you are saying can be considered love!"

Sometimes I too find it counterintuitive to discuss love between a child as young as myself and two beautiful women who are at the best stage of their lives. How bizarre it can be when so much about life's lessons comes out of the mouth of a five year old.

I blurted out, "Love is pure liking, there is no reason for it!"

The two women looked at me dumbfounded, and I sometimes felt like I was going too far for a moment, when the topic was just about two people being happy, and then I ended up cornering the question of what love is.

"What exactly did that old orc witch doctor teach you?" The redhead asked me in a tearful, out of breath voice.

I was thinking what they must be thinking at this point: is this the orcs' philosophy of life? You can have no bread, you can have no milk, but you can't have no love? Or maybe it's that with bread and with milk comes love? But either way, I think Singh loved Uncle Fred, and later talked about me.

"Ja, will you stay with the orc tribe afterwards, following the old orcs?" Katrina blinked her pretty red eyes, perhaps tired, and lay down beside me, her soft red hair loose and covering her white face, her lips slightly parted and bulging outwards so that her two white teeth could be clearly seen. She leaned in so close to me that the hot breath from her mouth could even spray into my face.

I shook my head in dismay, thinking that I would soon have to part with Kru and Kuze, and that I was so ignorant of the magical world that I was afraid to think about it. I couldn't help but whisper, "Sister Gogo might be willing to take me away, I can't be a wanderer for the rest of my life."

"Won't you come back to the empire with us?" Katrina asked expectantly.

I shook my head, thinking that it didn't seem to be up to me. I have to live, I have to eat bread. What could there be in the capital? I just said, "Sister Gogo's home is in the city of Biel, and we will go there as a first step!"

"Then remember to look for me when you come to the imperial capital in the future... Do you like girls with red hair? I can introduce you to my sister, she's a smart and pretty little girl and doesn't have annoying red eyes like mine." Katrina painted a big picture for me and she said it with all seriousness.

I smiled and agreed, "Yes! Is there any school there in the empire, maybe I could choose to go to school there!"

The caravan suddenly lurched violently for a moment and Singh stepped out to check the situation.

"Ha! I can't believe you didn't know that the most famous Grimm Royal Academy in the Empire is in the imperial capital? But it's notoriously difficult to get in there, Ja, what do you want to do afterwards?" Katrina asked me curiously.

"A wizard!" I answered truthfully.

Katrina laughed, even though I didn't think it was funny. She continued, "Yes, everyone wants to be a wizard, given the chance! And the rest? The awakening ceremony doesn't just let you awaken your magic pool just because you're a handsome little boy, it takes a lot, lot of luck, always think about what to learn if you can't!"

I thought carefully and said, "Probably be a tinkerer, I want to be a tanner!"

Katrina was a little disappointed and just whispered, "Oh, well, that would probably be better at the Sloane Ivory Tower Vocational College. The Royal Academy of Imperial Grimm is best known for the War College and the School of Magic and Business."

"War College ..."

If two people felt a connection, there would never be enough to talk about. Easy-going and passionate, Katrina was always looking forward to the day when she could live a different life and had been working hard to prepare for it. She wished she could marry the great hero, but it was up to Chiniang to choose, and as Chiniang's personal attendant, she was sure that many things would not be left to her own devices, and that included where she belonged. Katrina spoke of her home with a forced smile and a faint bitterness in her eyes. Katrina said that Singh was the happiest of all the dancers in the troupe because she had found a home for herself.

I always wondered where Singh's happiness came from, and I thought it couldn't be because she had found her meal ticket by the age of twenty-five, but it turned out that very few of the dancers in the troupe were free. It was not just a matter of having enough money to redeem oneself, but also of having the nod of the troupe's matron. The girls of the troupe not only danced on various occasions, but were also assigned to accompany dancers to private dances, attend private parties, drink with people and even spend the night with people when the price was right.

There are also girls in the troupe who have a free status, like Qiniang. There were also girls who had made a name for themselves in the capital before they joined the troupe and were invited to be the pillars of the troupe, some of whom were free and some of whom had been trained by the troupe's matron.

Girls like Singh or Katrina, who were both dancers and maids of honour, made up the majority of the company and were all contracted. The difference with Singh was that she had saved the Seventh Maiden once when she was in the Black Iron City, and when the Seventh Maiden asked her later what she wanted, she chose freedom. She willingly gave up a life of luxury in a dance troupe to marry a tanner.

I later asked Katrina: If you had the chance like Sister Singh in the future, would you choose freedom for yourself? Would you give up such a life of night and day?

She thought about it for a long time beside me and eventually didn't answer me.

Then Singh came back into the room and said to me, "Jia, the dance up there has been rehearsed and Qiniang has asked you to come up!"