On a bright morning in Mandala Jati village, as usual before the sun rises, all residents, especially farmers and traders, have prepared their farming tools to start working on the rice fields, so in the morning when the sun has risen, food must be ready on the table and the breadwinners of the family have left their homes.

  While the children would definitely go straight to play or deliver food to their parents who were working, including Agra who was now in Wira's cow shed after delivering food to his mother in the field, but it was different from usual days because Agra's face continued to look sour and his eyes were shedding tears, and if you look more closely his ears were also red.

  “What’s wrong with you? Your face is like someone who has been caught hiding a secret,” said Aruna, looking at Agra who was preparing his cow.

  "huh? How did you know?" asked Agra who was surprised.

  "Because you look like a mang ata when caught fishing secretly." Aruna said, turning to the person in question, followed by Agra who looked in the same direction.

  Both of them saw a skinny man feeding the cows but with more or less the same expression as Agra, feeling watched the man looked back at the two children who were staring at him. "What?"

  Agra immediately shook his head and continued his work, while Aruna also asked again. “So? What have you been doing? Don’t tell me you peeped at a woman taking a bath this morning?”

  Agra immediately threw a handful of grass right at Aruna's face. "Watch your mouth... don't let me be considered a pervert because of your careless words!"

  “pueh… peh!! Hey!, relax I almost ate this grass!!” said Aruna annoyed while removing the grass on her body.

  “Never mind… I want to go!” said Agra who left the drum while carrying a bamboo basket on his back.

  “Wait, you’re not looking for grass today?” said Aruna, who hurriedly followed.

  Agra shook his head. “There’s still a lot of grass in the stable, I want to go to the market first, who knows there might be vegetables that aren’t for sale, it’ll be enough to feed my horse.”

  Aruna nodded and followed Agra towards the market, and after a while the two of them had arrived. Actually, although it was called a market, the place was just a crossroads in the middle of the village and because the place was always passed by residents and there was a fairly large space, some residents chose to make bamboo stands and set up temporary stalls to sell their wares in that place.

  The two children wandered here and there in the crowded market, even though the merchandise was not very varied, because it was still very early in the morning, the traders were still enthusiastic about offering their wares.

  When Agra saw a pile of unwanted vegetables in the corner of a stall, he immediately approached it. "Boss!... can I take these unused vegetables?"

  The stall owner who looked a little old looked down and saw Agra and Aruna standing there, the trader immediately recognized Aruna as Wira's daughter. "Oh.. oh.. Aruna? What do you need here?"

  Aruna shook her head before answering. “I just dropped off my friend, the owner… doesn’t want anything. ”

  The stall owner turned to Agra and sure enough his gaze was a little different though still friendly. “so what do you need ?” son ?”

  Agra pointed to a pile of slightly rotten or damaged vegetables near the vegetable seller's stall. "Boss!! Can you give me these vegetables? I'm willing to work for a few days if you give me these vegetables"

  The vegetable stall owner thought for a moment but before he could answer a meat vendor next to him interrupted. “Huh? Aren’t these Aruna and Agra? What are you doing here?”

  Aruna turned and replied with a nod and a wave while Agra immediately replied. “oh.. hello uncle, I just want some of these broken vegetables.”

  The meat seller was confused by Agra's answer. "What's wrong that you need those damaged vegetables? Is Kirana sick too?"

  Agra quickly shook his head. “No uncle, I just want to clean it and then feed my horse with these vegetables.”

  The meat seller nodded and helped speak to the vegetable seller next to him. "Just give him the vegetables, besides, it will also help you to lighten the burden of throwing away the vegetables, right? Besides, he is the son of Bima and Kirana, they are good people, but at the moment their condition is a bit difficult."

  Hearing those two names, the vegetable seller immediately changed his attitude. “Oh!! I just remembered!, hahaha … so you are Bima and Kirana’s child huh!! Take… just take as much as you want”

  Agra smiled and immediately lowered his head. "Thank you, boss!! Thank you, uncle!! Sometime if I have time, I will bring you guys some herbal medicine made by mother."

  The two traders smiled and nodded then continued their activities, Agra's mother, Kirana, used to be a traveling herbal medicine seller who was known by many people in the village, but after getting married and giving birth to Agra she had quit her job but even so she still received orders or requests from people who ordered herbal medicine from her, and that's why Kirana usually always collects spice plants that can be used as herbal medicine, so much so that usually when making herbal medicine she always makes more than she should so she shares it with her neighbors who might need it.

  Agra immediately collected the damaged and rotten vegetables into his basket, after it was full he immediately said goodbye to the traders and went back to Wira's cow shed. However, on the way he met someone who deliberately bumped into him, causing him to fall and making his vegetables fall apart.

  “Huh!! Where did this poor kid come from? How annoying!!!” the person said arrogantly.

  Agra turned to see who had hit him, he saw a boy who was bigger than him, maybe a few years older, his clothes were also cleaner and more beautiful like those worn by Aruna, although his clothes looked more luxurious and striking, unlike Aruna's which looked simple.

  “Tama!!! Why do you always act like this!!” said Aruna while blocking the child named Tama.

  Tama himself did not feel guilty after intentionally hitting Agra. " heh ... why? Besides, he is also not a very important person in this village"

  Aruna became annoyed and pushed Tama. “If Agra is not important, then you are a useless person! Or trash!”

  Even though Aruna's encouragement had no effect on Tama, for some reason Tama became annoyed. " Huh !! What did you just say!?"

  Aruna is getting more challenging and not afraid of the angry Tama. “huh, listen!!… YOU – ARE – TRASH!”.

  Tama became furious and he started to clench his fists and prepared to hit Aruna, but when he had raised his hand a child suddenly stopped him.

  “Boss!, boss! Calm down, remember even though you are the son of a merchant and your brother is a Bahureksa soldier , they always told you not to mess with Demang Wira’s people,” said the child who seemed to be Tama’s servant or subordinate.

  However, because his anger had not yet subsided, the fist landed on the child who had previously stopped Tama's punch. As a result, the punch that was previously aimed at Aruna did not stop there. Tama continued to hit and kick the child even though the child looked very thin and small compared to Tama who was fat and big.

  “Shut up you bastard!! You are my family’s errand boy!! and you as an errand boy dare to advise me!” said Tama while hitting the child.

  “Forgive me!… Forgive me, Tama!… Forgive me,” the child groaned.

  Nearby there were also several children who seemed to be Tama's subordinates but they just acted normal and relaxed while waiting for orders, the adults around him also looked away and didn't want to interfere with the child named Tama.

  Seeing Tama who seemed like he wouldn't stop, Agra immediately threw a bunch of kale and hit Tama. "If you are a man, you should fight someone who is equal to you."

  Tama who was hit by the throw of course became even angrier until his face turned red. “What!! What did you say!? Now you also dare to lecture me!? Do you think you are my equal!?

  Agra, who had now gotten up and carried his vegetable basket again, answered casually. “Of course not… I am not as low as someone who only dares to beat up people who are weaker than him.”

  "You!!" Tama understood the meaning of Agra's words which were humiliating him. He immediately wanted to approach him but Aruna blocked him.

  "If you cause trouble with Agra, it's the same as causing trouble with me," said Aruna firmly.

  Tama sniffed roughly and immediately turned around while being followed by his men, Agra and Aruna just watched them leave in anger, for a moment they both found that a child who had been beaten earlier lowered his head while saying 'thank you' even though no sound came out of his mouth.

  "Let's go back, Aruna," said Agra while holding her hand.

  Aruna snorted for a moment and then immediately followed Agra who had gone back to Wira's cow pen, and then it was the same as usual where Agra cleaned the rotten and still good vegetables and then gave them to his horse, after that he would take one of the cows and a cart to look for grass.

  So far, apart from the incident this morning, there has been nothing strange and it is as peaceful as usual, but unfortunately such thoughts will only come true if you don't provoke those who have a vengeful and angry nature.

  In a rice field in the afternoon, Kirana was resting at the mouth of the forest with a basket full of plants as usual, as usual she was waiting to be picked up by her only child who should have come at a time like this, in the shady place while looking at the residents who were cleaning themselves in a small spring near the rice field where they were working.

  Several women approached Kirana and intended to join her in resting there while waiting for the men or their husbands to finish cleaning themselves. “Agra is late again? Not like usual.”

  Kirana smiled and nodded. “Yes ma’am … it seems he was late on purpose because he was afraid of me because I scolded him last night.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  “Agra? Why? That’s unusual, I thought you couldn’t get angry, Kirana,” one of the mothers asked curiously.

  Kirana nodded in embarrassment hearing the words of the mothers. "It was just a momentary emotion, ma'am ... because yesterday I found my son's secret savings from his work behind my back for some time."

  The mothers there nodded in response. “Why Kirana? Isn’t it good that she already has the awareness and initiative to help her parents?”

  Kirana sighed and looked up at the evening sky. “ haaah ,… I just don’t want him to be burdened with our family’s current condition, ladies… sometimes the child acts like an adult at such a young age…, all this time he also doesn’t really socialize with children his age who are usually very fussy, spoiled, and like to play all day long,… it’s not that I don’t like his attitude all this time, but I’m just afraid that in the future he will become someone who likes to be alone and live in loneliness…”

  That afternoon, Kirana unconsciously expressed the worries in her heart about her worries for her child. Hearing Kirana's explanation, the other mothers whispered to each other and nodded afterward when they saw the men had finished cleaning their farming equipment and bodies and invited them to go home immediately.

  But before joining the journey home, one of the mothers who looked older than the others patted Kirana's shoulder. " Kirana ... you don't need to worry about the uncertain future, even though we don't know Agra as well as you do, we all know Agra's character... and we are sure that he will be a very good and reliable man, because the apple doesn't fall far from the tree..."

  Kirana who received the advice was very happy because of it, now she feels much better and her heart is not as heavy as before. "Thank you ma'am ... I understand now and feel more relieved"

  They finally gathered but as usual there was 1 person who didn’t like Kirana’s presence. “ huaaa … what’s wrong with you, earlier your face was so downcast and now you’re so happy? Have you found a new man that you can flirt with since Bima will soon be going to heaven ?”

  Yep ... who else in this village hates Kirana other than Swari? Hearing Swari's words, the mothers just whispered to each other while making expressions of dislike, but on the other hand, Kirana held her chest to calm herself down because Swari's words almost ignited her emotions.

  Kirana who had calmed down smiled softly. “Swari, thank you for your concern but I have decided and sworn that during my life I will only have 1 husband even when death separates us.”

  Kirana's words amazed the residents who heard them, not only because of her sincerity in accepting fate, but her words also showed the determination and commitment of a woman and a mother who was known to be very gentle and loving.

  Not many people can be like Kirana, because even though she is a mother of 1 child, she is still considered young and very beautiful like a village flower, besides that, widows who have died or other reasons that do not tarnish their honor, who still have beautiful faces and good attitudes are unlikely to remarry until they are fought over by single men or merchants, if they are lucky they will even be proposed to by nobles, although most will become second wives.

  Swari herself who heard Kirana's words became annoyed. "Huh... nonsense! I don't believe your nonsense!! I'm sure that now or later you will do the same trick when you teased Bima before"

  "Believe it or not, it's not a problem for me, Swari, and I also can't force other people's thoughts," Kirana replied softly.

  “Kirana!! YOU!... ” Swari snapped as she approached Kirana.

  But before Swari arrived, a man immediately stopped her. “Ahem!!... it’s already evening, we should go home quickly, right? It’s dangerous when it’s dark.”

  “Yes, that's right, let's go home!! Hurry up,” said a woman while holding Kirana's hand so she could get away quickly.

  Seeing the attitude of the people around her supporting Kirana, Swari became more and more hateful of Kirana. If Swari's gaze and hatred could be used to hurt someone then surely it would have been a name long ago.

  However, when they were about to return home, they saw a group of men heading towards them and each of them was carrying a wooden stick. Among the group of men was a child with a stocky body who was riding a cow. However, the child was wearing a lot of gauze wrapped around and almost covering his entire body and a splint supporting his left hand.

  The group of men had fierce faces and when the two groups met for no apparent reason they immediately blocked the residents who were with Kirana, a slightly older man put down his hoe and walked forward to face the group. “Excuse me? Why are you gentlemen blocking our journey?”

  One of the leading men approached and immediately pointed the stick in his hand at someone. “We have business with him!”

  All the residents turned to the person in question and all were focused on 1 person, Kirana. “Me? What’s wrong, sir? What did I do wrong?”

  “ Chuhi !!... Don’t act innocent you whore!! Look at what your son has done to our young master!!!” said the man while pointing at a child who was bandaged almost all over his body.

  Kirana saw the accusation of course did not want to believe it, but the child who was on the cow looked very convincing. "Wait sir are you sure?, My son Agra will not do that"

  “Oh come on… don’t deny it! The evidence is right before your eyes! Look, Mr. Tama now has to endure pain all over his body because of that damn kid! And now his whereabouts are unknown ! ” the man argued.

  “TAMA!?...TAMA!? IS THAT YOU, NAK!?” said Swari, who suddenly became hysterical.

  “Auntie? AUNT SWARI!?... HUHUHU… AUNT LOOK AT WHAT AGRA HAS DONE!!” Tama said while whining.

  Swari quickly checked Tama who turned out to be her nephew at a glance, but even though she said she was checking, she only looked briefly and didn't realize that there were actually no wounds on his body, not even a scratch.

  “Kirana!!! Look what your child has done!!!” He shouted while pointing at Kirana.

  Kirana herself became confused and panicked because of the repeated accusations, some of the residents around her backed away because they were afraid, some tried to calm her down, but what could they do with those who had status and power?

  Even though the residents were more numerous, because someone was behind the thugs, they were helpless. Kirana herself was immediately pulled by her hair until she fell in front of Tama.

  “Look!!! Now how are you going to take responsibility for your son’s actions!?” Tama said arrogantly.

  “Wait a minute, Den Tama… what is the problem actually? I don’t understand,” Kirana replied.

  “Huh!! Your son has been a problem from the start!!! Nephew, you better beat him back!” Swari said harshly.

  Swari's words received a nod from Tama. And with a sly smile he immediately ordered his men. "Auntie is right!!... you beat her!! Beat the woman as much as you like but don't die!!!"

  The thugs smiled happily and did a little stretch. “Ready, Den Tama”

  The thugs happily did what their master ordered, Kirana, who was just an ordinary village woman, could only surrender and be beaten by the thugs, meanwhile the villagers also tried to ask for forgiveness but Swari stopped them and instead told her nephew to do further.

  "His nephew won't get tired of being treated like that!!... just give him to your men so he'll be satisfied," whispered Swari.

  Tama smiled and nodded when he heard his aunt's suggestion. "That's right! Okay! I think I'm bored... you can do anything to that poor woman."

  “Really, Doro !? Whatever !?” said one of the thugs.

  The park nodded “right!! Do whatever !!”

  “READY!!! Thank you Doro !!! HAHAHA”

  The thugs now started to tear Kirana's clothes, the villagers fought back even harder, intending to help, but unfortunately those who fought back were beaten, making them retreat helplessly.

  "NO!!! NO!! Den Tama please let me go PLEASE!" Kirana said pleadingly.

  Tama looked at Kirana with a condescending gaze. “Huh? You dare to shout and order me!?... you shameless bastard!!.... you guys!! Quickly do what you want to do!!! After that throw her into the forest to be eaten by wild animals!!!”

  “READY DORO/ DEN!!” said Tama’s thugs almost simultaneously.

  “NOO!” Kirana shouted.

  Kirana's clothes were getting more and more torn and with all her strength she continued to try to maintain her purity and self-respect, but when the thugs were about to succeed in carrying out their depraved act, a familiar voice was heard from a distance.

  “WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY MOTHER!!!”

  The scream managed to divert everyone's attention, a child was seen spurring his horse to run at maximum speed, the child's face was filled with anger.

  “Agra?...” said Kirana when she realized who had come.

  == PREVIOUS ==

  Agra and Aruna were on their way home, and for some reason her feeling kept telling her that something bad was going to happen, but she didn't know what that bad thing was, the hanging feeling kept enveloping her.

  "Are you sick, Agra?" said Aruna worriedly.

  Agra immediately shook his head. “No… nothing, let’s go home.”

  The two of them were on their way home after looking for grass and bathing the cow belonging to the village head, Wira, but when they were returning home, Aruna saw something floating in the river.

  “Agra? ...do you know what is floating there?” said Aruna while pointing at what she saw.

  Agra looked at the direction Aruna pointed, he sharpened his eyes and after a moment he realized what his friend meant. “ Hiyah !!!”

  Agra immediately untied the cow from the cart behind him, after which he immediately kicked the stomach of the cow he was riding and directed it towards an object floating on the river, while Aruna just looked confusedly on the edge of the river while riding Agra's horse.

  The cow that Agra was riding swam calmly, even though it was not a very good swimmer, but it was enough to approach the floating object. When Agra arrived, he immediately pulled the object and it turned out that it was a boy of the same age as him.

  Agra immediately took the child to the edge of the river and checked him, finding that the child had drowned Agra immediately gave first aid to the child, Aruna wanted to stop what Agra was doing but before she could do it the child coughed out water from his mouth.

  “ cough !!!... hoek !!”

  Agra patted the child's back to help him expel the water in his stomach. "Are you okay?"

  The child looked to the side and found a boy and a girl looking at him. “w- where is this?”

  Aruna approached and answered. “This is the Mandala Jati village river… who are you? Why did you drown in this river?”

  " I was hunting in the forest but for some reason my horse got out of control and I fell into the river and was swept away because I couldn't swim," answered the boy.

  “Oh… then? What’s your name? What are you going to do after this?” said Agra.

  “ Ba … Bara… yes, Bara is my name!!...” said the boy in a stuttering tone, Agra looked at him suspiciously because of that but he was still patient waiting for Bara to finish his sentence. “I’ll just stay here, there will definitely be some people who will pick me up soon”

  Agra looked at the sky then he went away for a while to collect dry wood. “at least warm yourself up”

  Aruna saw her friend lighting a fire and also went around looking for more wood because she just realized that Bara was shivering with cold, and after lighting the fire Agra and Aruna sat down to accompany Bara to warm himself, after a few moments later several people appeared from across the river seeing this Bara smiled happily while Agra immediately stood up and prepared his horse and cow.

  "It looks like they are your friends... then we'll go," said Agra while pulling Aruna.

  Aruna herself was confused by Agra's actions. " Hey ... why the rush!?"

  "I was late picking up mother," said Agra briefly.

  With that brief reason, Aruna immediately kept quiet and obeyed what her friend said, so that not long after that, the two of them quickly left the place. Not long after that, the people who had just appeared approached the coals and immediately knelt down.

  “Raden, forgive me for my negligence in looking after you!!” said the person firmly.

  Bara just smiled and turned to Agra and Aruna. "No problem... wake up Commander Cakra..."

  On the other hand, Agra had finished delivering the village head Wira's farm and immediately asked permission to pick up his mother. On the way, his heart kept saying bad things until he accidentally overheard a conversation between the villagers.

  “ Hey … did you see Den Tama earlier?”

  "nothing?"

  “ Aish , looks like he's going to start another drama”

  “really? What drama?”

  “ I don’t know … what’s certain is that it’s not something good… you know yourself that when he gets a problem that he can’t solve, he will always act like a victim!”

  “You’re right!… I hope the target doesn’t end badly”

  Even though the distance was quite far, Agra could still hear the conversation. He also just remembered that this morning he had mentioned Tama, and as if he had found an answer, he immediately spurred his horse as fast as he could.

  When he entered the rice field area in the distance, he saw that many people were gathering on the road. Agra felt even more uneasy and immediately took a stick that he found on the road.

  When the distance was not too far he could clearly see that his mother was being beaten by several men who looked like thugs, with rising anger he immediately shouted. "WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY MOTHER!!!"

  Agra immediately swung the stick he was carrying and hit a thug's head. The blow was so hard that it broke the stick Agra was carrying. He didn't stop there. He continued to swing his stick here and there to attack the thugs so that they would get away from his mother. The horse he was riding also occasionally kicked some of the thugs who fought back.

  After seeing the thugs leave, Agra immediately jumped and hugged his mother and took off his clothes. “MOM!!... mother!!... are you okay?”

  Kirana saw her son full of worry, stroked his head and through the pain she smiled. "Mom, it's okay, son ..."

  “Tch!! You’ve come, you damn kid,” said a kid on a cow who was none other than Tama.

  Agra turned and looked at Tama with a serious look. “What is your problem that you hurt my mother!?”

  Tama looked at Agra with a condescending gaze. “Huh… is it wrong for me to want to demand accountability!?... you made me like this! Don’t you want to admit it!?”

  Agra was now confused. “Me? What do you mean I did all that to you!?”

  “Just admit it you damn kid!!” Swari retorted then he continued. “Don’t pretend to be stupid, the victim is already in front of your eyes and you want to deny it? Don’t even think about it!!”

  Agra became more confused but before he could answer, Swari immediately interrupted. “Enough!! The perpetrators are here now!! You better beat them up mother and those damn bastards!!”

  “That’s right… you guys do it quickly!!” Tama continued.

  Several thugs were now approaching because of Tama's orders and one of the closest ones immediately raised his stick and prepared to hit the mother and child "DAK!!"