Mia from Chapter 82 “The Waning Jellyfish”
TN Note: That really is the title.
Mia came out of the tent all antsy after she had finally changed into her swimsuit. Abel and Sion were already standing outside in their swimsuits with their chests bared, waiting for her. Even though they were still young, their muscles were strong and toned from all the sword practise they did.
It was the kind of sight that would normally make Mia drool, but she was too worried about herself at the time. She was squirming on the spot, looking at her toes. She looked up at them shyly and asked, “How…do I look? Does it looks good on me?”
She was not a fashion icon. Her one-piece swimsuit reached all the way to her knees, and a circle of fabric in the shape of a skirt hung from her waist.
The top half of the dress was like a sleeveless shirt, showing off her collarbones, shoulders, and a pair of soft upper arms. In other words, it covered none of the important parts.
The designs didn’t really go together, and it wasn’t very stylish.
It was basically the same as the dress she wore to the evening ball, with a style that, to put it nicely, left a lot to the imagination.
It was simple and plain. So much so that it was funny to feel ashamed of it. At least, it should have been, if anyone was still smart enough to laugh.
“Uh, yes, I… I think it does,” stuttered Abel, who could only manage a quick glance before turning away and showing a completely red face. “You look wonderful. Sion, you agree, right?”
In a rush, he threw the hot potato at Sion, who caught it with about as much grace as he had thrown it.
“R-Right. Yes. Yes, I do. It looks good on you,” he said after a few hesitant glances. His cheeks were red and his voice was strained.
In fact, these two princes could beat grown men in duels and match decorated knights in bravery. However, when Mia showed up in a swimsuit, they could barely put together a sentence. They stood there awkwardly, as if they were stuck there because of a spell or magic. Maybe the summer beach had done something to them.
Something about the strange scenery and seaside air, along with seeing a familiar female classmate in strange clothes, had messed up their sense of beauty and made them look at her as if she were beautiful in every way. At that moment, it looked like her pearly skin shone with a light that surrounded her like a halo of holy light.
Mia beamed when she saw how happy they were.
“My! What a nice thing to say! Thank you. You really brightened my day.”
She went for their throats after she had already destroyed their sense of calm.
The two poor princes and their young hearts had no choice but to give in to her constant and unintentional attack.
After all the noise about the swimsuits died down, Mia started swimming lessons with Esmeralda right away.
“Miss Mia, by the way, can you put your face under water?”
Mia was standing in water that came up to her waist at the moment.
“What a strange question. “Aren’t there people who can’t?” she asked as she looked at the goggles Esmeralda had given her.
“Then why don’t we start by having you put those on and practise floating? Now, do what I say.
Like this, raise your arms high. All the way so they are a little bit behind your head.”
She did what she was told and stretched her arms up.
“Yes, yes, just like that. Now imagine that the sea is a soft bed and you are going to fall into it. Look at me!”
Esmeralda continued her demonstration. She jumped forward into the water and did a perfect front float when she landed. Nina, who was nearby and watching, cheered.
“Marvelous, milady! Your body is as pretty as the mermaid princess in the stories.”
Her guards, who were watching, did the same thing and clapped their hands in approval.
“Marvelous! Marvelous! Lady Esmeralda is great!” they all said at the same time.
Esmeralda jumped to her feet with a flourish as the crowd cheered loudly. She flicked sparkling drops of water out of her long hair.
She looked over at Mia.
“As simple as that. Make sure to keep your legs straight and kick them out. Go ahead. Try it out.”
“Hmmm, this is easy peasy!”
Mia jumped into the water and showed off her first front float in a big way. She did this with full confidence.
Eyes widened, jaws dropped, and everyone there was completely shocked by how…unimpressive it was.
Even Anne couldn’t help but stare for a second before she pulled herself together and gave a round of applause that was a little too enthusiastic to be completely sincere. People in the crowd clapped here and there because it was the right thing to do.
Mia finally got back on her feet with a splash and looked up at the crowd with a bright smile.
“How did it go? Did I look as pretty as the mermaid princess, too?”
People looked at each other funny when she asked the question.
When she saw that no one was answering, she turned her attention to the two princes. Since they had fallen under her spell, they had seen her attempt with clouded eyes and had completely wrong ideas about how good it looked.
“Uh, well, it was…”
“I mean, well…”
During the awkward silence, they both looked away before stumbling over their answers. Even when her seductress aura was at its strongest, the princes could still see that her front float was awkward.
So bad was it. How bad, you ask?
Well, her body didn’t make a straight line parallel to the surface of the water. Instead, it made a round curve. Think of the shape of a bow, with the string at the bottom and the body of the bow arcing up.
Her hands and feet were the ends, and her rear end, which stuck out, was the hump in the middle. Her lopsided shape and the way she floated lazily on the waves made her look like a jellyfish, specifically a moon jellyfish. This might have led to her being called “Waning Jellyfish.”
It may be poetic, but what it means is still clear.
Sadly, neither prince was brave enough to tell her the truth. Even though they hadn’t flinched when their swords hit each other, breaking bones, they found that their nerves had gone, leaving them at a loss for what to do next.
“Uh, it was good.” Abel looked at Sion with a pleading look and asked, “Don’t you think?”
“Y-Yes. Of course. I mean, you’re a princess, and it wasn’t that different from what a mermaid would do, right?”
Sion stuttered and looked at Keithwood in an unusually flustered and desperate way.
Keithwood, always a gentleman, didn’t mind the task.
He cocked his head and said, “Absolutely,” with a smile.
I thought my eyes were going to melt when I saw you, Princess Mia. You were so beautiful.”
Then, after giving the two princes what seemed to be a compliment, he leaned in, put his head between theirs, and whispered, “It’s wrong to lie, but a white lie, especially one to please a lady, will make up for it.”
Keithwood steered the Waning Jellyfish through the water with a lot more skill than Sion and Abel, who were still young and didn’t know much. But there was one person who didn’t keep telling the lie. One person who was morally strong enough to say “no.”
“Miss Mia, that was wrong in every way.”
Esmeralda was the person in question, and she was very angry.
“Waning Jellyfish” was not going to be the middle name of the princess she thought was a worthy rival, a dear friend, and a sister in spirit if not in body. It was a disgrace, and she wouldn’t put up with it. Even though she had spent most of the cruise trying to make Mia look bad in front of her friends, that didn’t matter. They might have been more alike than they seemed. At least, their memories weren’t very reliable.
“If you let your legs sink, your whole body goes down. Try going deeper into the water by putting your head down.”
Esmeralda didn’t want to take the easy way out when it came to teaching Mia how to swim. To put it another way, she was in a serious mood.
Mia replied, “Oh, I see! Then what else was I doing wrong?”
She was also all business! When she looked at Esmeralda, her eyes were just as determined. And she had a good reason to be afraid, since she knew she would fall into the sea someday. When an overturned raft threw her into the water, it set her on fire.
She was determined to do whatever it took to learn how to swim so that she could stay safe in the water. Esmeralda’s passionate coaching and Mia’s strong desire to get better turned the day into a tough training session.
By the end, Mia could do the front float, the flutter kick, and even lie on her back with her face out of the water like she was about to do the backstroke.
“Huh. If I can float on my back, I don’t really need to learn how to breathe in complicated ways, do I? I can just take a normal breath… Doesn’t this mean that I won’t drown?”
As she kept practising floating, her mind was filled with such deep thoughts, like a Waning Jellyfish floating through the sea.
Author’s Note:
The waning moon, the moon with the bowstring down. Cool when you learn it in science class! so I thought.
* A waning moon is a half moon, isn’t it? I received a comment from a reader and made some corrections.
From the waning moon to the waning jellyfish…
I don’t feel like it’s gotten any worse, but…
