Herald of Steel

Once the 'working women' understood they would never be able to find a husband or gainful employment in the city, many of the now homeless women would drag their bodies back to their parent's homes, hoping for aid and shelter.

However most of the time, her old folks would be more horrified than happy to see her because, in their eyes, they had already sold her.

So their first concern would be the possibility that the pimps would come back demanding their money back, knowing it was a sum of money they could never hope to back in ten lifetimes.

So many times, these poor maids would be scolded, if not outright beaten by their parents for 'running away', and then be vehemently urged to return.

In some extreme cases, the parents might even refuse to recognize her as their daughter, causing her to become homeless and become a beggar.

When that happened, the woman would either starve or more likely sell herself to slavery, becoming a small servant for a regular household.

As for those parents who were able to be convinced that their daughter had managed to earn back their freedom, well, even then, more often than not, she would be seen as more of a burden than anything else.

If she was still eligible, she would be hurriedly married off to anyone and everyone that was available, even to a lowly peasant or worker if he was willing.

So then it would be that man's turn to feed and clothe her, and she would have to work her back out trying to please him.

However, due to the aforementioned reasons, this was quite hard- finding a suitable hand for such women.

And even if they did manage to find this rare quilin hair, most of these marriages would be very unhappy because of much different the pair were.

The peasant husband would be boorish and uncultured in the girl's eyes and might even be a widower, having children of his own. They would certainly not look kindly to their new stepmother, feeling she was to snatch their property.

Bullying and harassment would thus become regular for her.

While on the other side, the husband would also have his dissatisfaction, one of them being his wife many times being too old for him to find attractive.

However, that problem was usually easy to solve- through sex. Because if there was one thing these experienced courtesans knew, it was how to make a man feel good.

But problems started to arise when it was the only thing they were good at.

For instance many of these women might not even know how to do basic household chores such as lighting a fire, preparing the meat and fish, sewing clothes, grinding the grain… basic stuff even young girls could do.

This was because these courtesans would simply not have been taught such things, or if they were, it was during their time as servant girls, more than ten, fifteen years ago.

Far more than long enough to forget and then digest all of it.

They would instead be much more versed in singing, dancing, reciting poetry, and flirting- things that unfortunately mattered very little to anyone outside that 'sophisticated bubble'.

This would lead to many rows and unfortunately even beatings.

Hence watching many similar examples, many women tended to avoid this abuse and try and live themselves.

They might do menial work for the village during the day, and oil up the old machine for an extra bit of income at night, entertaining the starving men.

And despite her age, she would usually be able to attract more and enough men. Remember, she would only be twenty five to thirty years old, a young, vibrant, fertile lady in our timeline.

Combine that with her reputation of serving the lords and skill bed, initially business would be quite good.

The only trouble would come from the rest of the village women who would curse her for seducing away their husbands, and from the village elders who would scold her for ruining the chastity of the place.

But most of the time, these would be more like speed bumps than actual barriers, because more often than not, those very same elders would come for her services at night.

In this way, many of the women would manage to 'regain their employment'.

It was not a proud type of employment and it came with its own set of complications, particularly pregnancy and diseases, but it at least put food on the table and a roof over the head.

There was a reason it is said prostitution was the oldest job in the world.

….

Now, things for these women would start to become harder once they reached forty.

Certain body parts would begin to sag, wrinkles would begin to attack their eye lines and cheeks, and that place would start to lose its grip.

When that inevitable time came and the income started to run out, these lonely women would first tap onto their life savings and once that ran out, try to depend on the villagers and if she had any, her siblings.

Tragically, however, she would be all alone most of the time.

The village women would hate the 'communal skank' while the elders would find it too shameful to help such an 'immoral' woman.

As for her siblings, most would also abandon her to her fate, unwilling to take up this burden.

They might even abuse her, feeling jealous that she got to enjoy the high life with the nobles, eating and drinking the best dishes in the world while they were stuck on this crappy farm, working from dawn to dusk pulling plows over this rotten piece of land or getting beaten by their drunk husbands every night while desperately trying to survive childbirth after childbirth.

They would only see the glamor their sister enjoyed, completely neglecting the abuses, while also conveniently forgetting the fact that if not for their sister's sacrifice, they might have all starved.

Ahhh, the fickleness of humanity.

And tragically, this would happen to most such women.

Upon reaching forty or inching towards fifty, illness, malnutrition, sickness and perhaps even a broken heart would finally take them, thus putting out the candle for the country's one of many entertainers.

…..

Now believe it or not, this was the good ending for many of these playgirls.

A worse ending would be for the girl to be unable to reach her village because she could not remember it.

After all, she was only a girl of five or six when she was taken.

Or imagine if she did manage to reach it but found out that her parents were not there anymore- perhaps they were killed during an enemy invasion, perhaps they died from some kind of disease, or even perhaps they were just displaced due to some natural disaster like a flood.

There could be a whole host of reasons.

Whichever it was, at that point, the lonely woman would be forced to settle in an unknown nearby village or small town, hoping to seek shelter.

However, that was much easier said than done because most villages did not look kindly to strangers, especially not strange women.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

They would know exactly the kind of person she was and she would have to count on her lucky stars to be not driven away.

Most of the time however, she would not be so lucky.

When that happened, her only option would be to become a tramp or a beggar in the city, offering her 'services' to the meanest of the populace for the barest of scraps, living a life in the most abject of conditions, until finally death took pity and relieved her of her sufferings.

Thus for many of these types of women, suicide was not that uncommon, typically done by jumping into rivers or off high cliffs.

And as if things could not get even bleaker for the girls, unfortunately, this would not even be the worst ending for some.

That would be to be snatched by slavers and bandits and then be sold as farmhands, menial servants or even shared prostitutes for the common soldiery in the province's garrisons.

Sometimes, if the lord or brothel owner was cruel enough, they would do it themselves, getting back some of the money they had spent on her.

Fortunately, the silver lining was such examples were rare.

Most nobles and brothels tended to avoid this route because socially this was considered in bad taste.

The people viewed these 'entertainers' similar to how we view modern day celebrities, so even after they lost their charms, many did not like the idea of their favorite singers or dancers to end up in such a sad state.

Hence to protect their social reputation, most owners simply freed the girl after their tenure.

The brothels might even cleverly put up a saintly front, advertising to the common people the great fate of their favorite courtesans.

The common people always loved those who set slaves free, so the brothels would have their names boosted, while in the back, the girl who had served them with all her heart and soul for more than two decades would be heartlessly left to rot like a pile of discarded thrash.

What a joke.

What a tragedy.

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