He Opened A Matchmaking Agency In 18Th Century London [EN]: Chapter 91

< Jacob's Transformation >

◈ Butler’s Residence

The third son, Stephen Butler, dashed into the living room in a flurry.

“Mother! Mother!”

Lady Butler, who had been trembling with anxiety, jumped up from her seat.

“Stephen? What is it? What’s wrong?”

Stephen grinned broadly and shouted,

“Father is coming! He’s riding in on horseback right now! It seems everyone is safe!”

“Oh—God! Thank you, thank you!”

Muttering a short prayer with her hands clasped together, Lady Butler asked Stephen,

“By the way… what about the Evans family? Did they manage to save them? Are they coming with him too?”

“I can see Father and my brothers, but I’m not sure about the others yet. There are several carriages arriving now, so why don’t we go out together?”

“Oh, please, please.”

Lady Butler hastily threw a shawl over her shoulders and rushed out into the yard.

-You can’t park the carriages here! Park them over there by the warehouse! Take the horses away separately!

-Gather the firearms obtained from Allen’s farm separately.

-It’s too early to relax, so have people keep watch all around the farm! The blacks might come barging in.

The front yard of the mansion was chaotic, filled with newly arrived carriages, carts, and many people.

Lady Butler’s eyes darted around, frantically searching for people.

As Stephen had said, her husband, sons, and stewards were all safe.

“Whew—”

Again, her eyes scanned through the crowd.

She was looking for the Evans family.

And soon, she saw Lady Evans getting out of a carriage, along with her son and daughter.

‘Ah… Lady Evans… even Leonard…’

Seeing that everyone was safe, Lady Butler collapsed onto the spot.

She had been so tense that her legs had given way.

* * *

Butler’s residence, living room.

Among those who experience death firsthand, there are often cases where their tendencies or values change dramatically.

This is because they have experienced a whirlwind of extreme emotions that they have never felt before, on the verge of death where they might end their lives.

These changes often end as temporary phenomena, but there are also not infrequent cases where their way of thinking itself changes due to psychological shock.

Mr. Osborne of the Manchester textile factory was just such a case.

And…

Lord Jacob Evans was also showing signs of such a change.

‘The aura of his emotions has completely changed.’

From Jacob’s facial expressions and gestures, Tae-oh felt an emotional change as if he had become a completely different person from when they first met.

He was in a very unstable state of mind due to the great shock, but Tae-oh could clearly feel the change in his emotions from his expression and voice.

Clatter-

Lady Butler and the maids bustled into the living room with steaming soup, tea, and food.

In the living room, the Evans family, butlers, housekeepers, and others were calming their startled hearts.

“Here, have some of this and calm yourselves. If anyone is hungry, please let me know. I’ll bring you other food as well.”

Lady Butler was much more relaxed.

No one was seriously injured, and everyone from the Evans family was safe.

Even after experiencing such a major event, Leonard showed composure in comforting Elisa.

She was simply grateful for all of these outcomes.

“Lady Butler, the soup is so delicious.”

Lady Evans said to Lady Butler with a smile.

“Thank you, Lady Evans. There’s plenty of soup, so please let me know if you need more.”

Lady Butler, sitting face to face with Lady Evans after a long time, felt her heart warming endlessly.

She couldn’t believe that they had been distant like mortal enemies for a while.

She felt immensely happy and cherished this moment, sharing the same old affection again.

*

Lord Butler, who was drinking tea, cautiously spoke to Jacob.

“Lord Evans, how did such a rebellion happen?”

With a dark face, Jacob recounted the situation at the time of the rebellion in detail.

“I was clearing land and making various preparations to start sugarcane cultivation soon. I was riding around the farm, checking to see if the preparations were being made properly.”

On the Jamaican farm, the arduous task of clearing the land and removing trees and vegetation is carried out for several weeks before planting sugarcane.

“But in the distance, I sensed a strange atmosphere in the area where shrubs were being removed to clear the farmland. The blacks had stopped working and were gathering around a white manager who was riding a horse.”

Sensing something strange, Jacob watched the scene for a while.

A young black slave lay as if dead in front of the white manager on horseback.

“I couldn’t tell if the black man had just fainted or if he was really dead. However, I could hear the black men working nearby excitedly shouting that someone had died.”

As more and more black slaves gathered, the panicked white manager quickly called his other colleagues around him.

As the number of slaves was large, there were about a hundred managers on the Evans farm alone, and as the situation was flowing unusually, he requested help from his surrounding colleagues.

About a dozen managers with guns and whips quickly rushed over, but the slaves’ anger did not subside easily, and the situation worsened over time.

“Many of the blacks were not familiar with English, and they were shouting and ranting in a language they could understand among themselves. And… soon a terrible thing began to happen.”

One of the slaves, who was holding an axe, chopped down the neck of the horse the manager was riding, and dozens of slaves rushed at the manager, who had fallen from the fallen horse, screaming.

The peaceful afternoon on the farm turned into a bloodbath in an instant.

Like a fire spreading, their anger grew uncontrollably.

“The managers who were further away tried to suppress the sudden riot by shooting guns, but it was not enough. Such guns were useless to the crazy young blacks.”

Due to the structure of the gun, which took a lot of time to reload, it was impossible to cope with the young black slaves who wielded axes and sickles and rushed in quickly.

“In just a few minutes, the managers’ heads were blown off and their bodies were torn apart. Seeing the slave revolt, which I had only heard about, right in front of my eyes, I was out of my mind. I just drove my horse home.”

After that, Jacob was in a panic state to the point where he couldn’t remember anything properly.

The mansion was structured so that you had to go quite a bit further inside from the farm, so once he informed his family, there was no time or way to escape to the outside.

This is because the rebellious slaves would rush to the owner’s mansion first and try to attack.

“A significant number of the blacks who were working in the fields participated in the rebellion, and the atmosphere quickly shifted to the slaves.

Hundreds of people screamed like beasts and brutally murdered the managers, and the rest began to approach the mansion, throwing stones.”

Jacob, who had rushed into the house in a daze, sent all the black servants out and informed his family of the slave rebellion.

And he quickly went down to the hiding place.

While moving with all his family, he ended up falling down the basement stairs and breaking his right foot.

“My leg was broken, and it was the first time I had opened the hiding place, so the door wouldn’t open well.

My younger siblings were in a hurry and tried to force it open, and some of the stones on the door fell off. I thought it was a big deal, but there was nothing I could do. I just entrusted everything to God and hid inside.”

Tae-oh, who had heard all the stories, gave Jacob a harsh word.

“I’m sorry to say this, but… Lord, your responsibility is paramount in the outbreak of today’s terrible situation. Black slaves are also human beings. You treated them too harshly. That’s what eventually exploded.”

The atmosphere in the living room suddenly turned cold.

The Evans family and the Butler family, who knew Jacob’s personality well, all stared at Tae-oh with surprised expressions.

Moreover, Jacob was bound to be full of anger at the blacks because he had almost been killed by the black slaves.

Everyone watched Jacob’s reaction with trepidation, worried that the improved atmosphere would turn grim due to Tae-oh’s criticism.

However, something completely unexpected happened.

“Yes, that’s right. Mr. Sanderson’s words are a hundred times right. I think I drove the blacks into too much of a corner.”

Wasn’t Lord Jacob bowing his head and readily accepting it?

Jacob Evans was famous for being headstrong and stubborn since he was a child.

He hated losing to anyone, and he had a personality that he had to pour out several times more if he heard something he didn’t like.

After losing the use of one leg due to the duel with Jonathan, he became more crooked than before, and he often spewed out harsh words, even feeling bad about general advice.

The fact that he accepted Tae-oh’s criticism like a gentle lamb and even repented was a strange sight that surprised everyone.

Lord Jacob Evans continued, bowing his head.

“In fact, I have often heard from the managers that the young blacks who have recently been brought in are very rude and rebellious.

My father used to say countless times that such things could become a big problem later.

But I, pathetic as I am, ignored such advice and simply ordered them to wield the whip to an extreme extent in order to get them to work a lot right away.

On top of that, I bought young slaves regardless of whether they were good or bad. No matter how experienced and faithful they were, if they got old or their physical abilities deteriorated, I mercilessly sold them to other places.

In the end, I think the fact that there were no experienced blacks to soothe the young slaves was also a major cause of this situation. Haa-.”

Everyone opened their eyes wide at his words and was surprised once again.

It was really beyond their wildest dreams that such words would come out of Lord Jacob’s mouth.

Tae-oh nodded.

“Yes, you saw it right. The idea that you only need to make a lot of profit can sometimes lead to great misfortune because you don’t see the process.

You have to be especially careful when dealing with life. As much as you act recklessly, great misfortune is bound to come back. Still, it’s fortunate in a way that you know that fact now.”

Lord Jacob smiled bitterly and blamed himself.

“What’s the use of knowing now? Too many people have been sacrificed.”

Tae-oh comforted Jacob.

“I can’t say that you are not responsible for the deaths of many managers. But since you have survived like this, isn’t there an opportunity to correct it even a little bit?

First of all, you must fulfill your responsibilities to the bereaved families of the managers. And you must never hold those blacks who remained without participating in the rebellion accountable.

In the future, maintain order and discipline strictly, but show recognition and humanity to win the hearts of the farm slaves.”

“Yes, yes. I understand. I will definitely do that.”

“Still, none of your family members suffered a major incident, and you realized something that you might not have realized in your entire life, so I hope you think positively that it has become an opportunity to greatly grow you.”

Jacob Evans was sincerely grateful for Tae-oh’s words of comfort.

“Yes, thank you so much. I will engrave every word you have given me deep in my heart. And… Mr. Sanderson…”

Jacob paused for a moment as if to collect his emotions and then opened his mouth again.

“Earlier… to my foolish self who could have been the last moment… I really appreciate you reaching out to me until the end…”

He also gave Jonathan a warm look.

“Jonathan. I’m really grateful to you too. I know you must have really bad feelings about me, but thank you for staying until the end and holding my hand… I will cherish your heart forever.”

“…Lord Evans.”

When he gave up escaping and crawled back into the secret hiding place, Jacob strangely wanted to live so desperately.

He had been blaming himself for what he would do with the rest of his life with these legs, and he had been singing every day that he wanted to die right away.

But when he was faced with a situation where he could be left alone and brutally killed by black slaves, he was suddenly scared and so lonely.

In such an emergency, Tae-oh and Jonathan’s actions, who stayed by his side until the end and tried their best, deeply moved him.

Tae-oh, who could feel Jacob’s emotions as they were, smiled slightly.

You really can’t predict even an inch of a person’s life.

Unbearable misfortune is something that anyone wants to avoid, but sometimes great misfortune becomes an opportunity to move on to a better life.

Tae-oh was already looking forward to how prosperous the life of the completely changed Lord Jacob Evans would be in the future.

Jacob also expressed his gratitude to Lord Butler.

“Lord Butler. I heard everything from Mr. Murphy in the carriage. I heard that you made the decision to risk your life and go to save our family.”

“I don’t know what words to use to express my gratitude for that brave action. I am really indebted to you, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude on behalf of my family.”

Jacob then looked for Lady Butler.

“Lady Butler”

“Yes?”

“I heard last time that Elisa… Elisa has been feeling very unwell these days, is she okay now?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right. She’s been lying sick for almost a few months. She was in a lot of pain today too, but now her face has brightened up because of the good news.”

“Oh dear. If it’s okay, may I see her for a moment? My legs are in this state right now, but I really want to see Elisa because I haven’t seen her in a long time.”

It was a really unexpected remark.

Jonathan, who was sitting next to him, smiled and stood up.

“Haha. Lord. Shall we go see Elisa’s face? Elisa will be very happy too. Benjamin, what are you doing? Come over here and help the Lord up!”

“Huh? Ah, okay!”

The two brothers of the Butler family supported Jacob and headed to Elisa’s room.

Clatter-

Leonard, who was sitting next to Elisa, was startled to see his older brother Jacob suddenly enter the room.

“Brother, no! Please… please, I beg you. Elisa is very sick. If you even shout here…”

Jacob smiled at Leonard, who was blocking him.

“Leonard, don’t worry, it’s not like that.”

“…Brother?”

Leonard, with a bewildered expression at the changed atmosphere of his brother, stepped back.

Jacob, who was helped to sit next to Elisa, worried with an anxious face.

“Elisa… why have you lost so much weight? It seems Elisa has been really sick all this time?”

Elisa stared with wide eyes.

“…Lord.”

“Elisa, I’m really sorry… In a way, our two families were really close like brothers when we were young… As the eldest brother of the two families, I’m ashamed that I’ve shown my youngest sister too many terrible things all this time.”

“Ah… no.”

“Elisa… I want to show you a really good side from now on. Forget all about this clumsy brother’s appearance all this time, and shall we be close like before again?”

As Jacob sincerely apologized, tears welled up in Elisa’s tender heart.

“Yes… yes. Lord.”

Tae-oh, who was watching their 모습 [Korean: appearance, state] from behind, was also happy and pleased.

Above all, Elisa’s closed and 불안해하던 [Korean: anxious, uneasy] emotions were being resolved in an instant by Jacob’s sincere apology.

Elisa’s illness was directly caused by her unfulfilled feelings for Leonard, but in her deeper subconscious, there was a fear of the discord between the two families that originated from Jacob.

However, as that was cleanly resolved by Jacob’s tearful apology, Elisa’s emotional state seemed to be improving rapidly.

‘Hehe. Now, Elisa’s complete recovery is only a matter of time.’

* * *

The rebellion caused by the black slaves on the Evans farm was quelled by a large-scale British army that arrived in the morning.

Most of the rebellious slaves had hidden deep in the mountains, and Jacob Evans announced that he no longer wanted them to be pursued, and the incident was thus brought to a close.

Jacob promised to provide sufficient compensation and jobs on the farm to the bereaved families of the deceased managers.

In addition, after in-depth discussions with the managers regarding the improvement of the black slave residences and order on the farm, they also drew results that the black slaves were satisfied with.

In that way, the Evans farm quickly regained its former peace.