Mia and Esmeralda’s Sleepless Night
I won’t let this happen! No, I won’t!
Esmeralda grunted in displeasure as she put more of Nina’s special seafood stew in her mouth.
The juice from the fullmoon palm fruit gave the sea salt seasoning a nice bite, and Nina’s magic spice powder made it even better. As the hot soup went down her throat and warmed her body, it gave off a pleasant smell.
When added to the perfectly boiled greens that Mia had brought back, the stew turned out to be better than most meals served at a typical local inn. All of that was great. As a maid for the Greenmoons, she was expected to be this good in the kitchen.
Esmeralda’s complaint was about something else: “Why does no one praise my cooking?”
Their masters were responsible for what their servants did well. Since Nina made tasty food, Esmeralda should be recognised as her mistress. Still, everyone kept telling Nina how good her cooking was, which made her mad. No one praised Esmeralda.
This doesn’t make sense! It’s just not true!
Esmeralda had helped with the cooking, even though she didn’t want to.
Even though it was bad enough that the two princes were doing the dirty work, Mia also got her hands dirty, so Esmeralda had no choice but to help out. The girl had worked so hard, sweet moons.
If Mia had the sense to slack off, Esmeralda could have said, “Surely, this kind of work is beneath ladies of noble blood like us,” and “Let’s leave the physical work to the boys,” respectively.
But since Mia, who was in charge of her and younger than her, was willing to help, she had no reason not to. So, it was only natural that her anger went in the direction of Mia.
She always acts this way! For heaven’s sake, we’re nobles! We’re supposed to be proud of the work that the poor peasants do for us. That’s how it’s always been done!
Tradition and custom set the rules for how high-ranking nobles should act, and she did the same. It was done in a proper way. A sense of pride that those with higher blood were expected to have.
Mia’s actions were hard to understand for someone who had been taught these ideas since she was a child. From the way she remembered the names of all her servants to the eagerness with which she did simple, boring tasks, everything about her was very strange.
In Esmeralda’s eyes, Mia was like a walking mystery. She didn’t seem to have any common sense and often did things that made her and her status as a princess look bad.
And because of her stupidity, I have to do the same thing… What a terrible hassle!
Her anger kept building up all night, and it followed her into her rough bed. The rest of the group quickly fell asleep after working hard to figure out how to live on an island they didn’t know. She was left alone to worry, and her bad mood made it hard for her to fall asleep.
“…I can’t sleep. I can’t get to sleep at all! “Perhaps I should go for a walk…”
She sat up and blinked, giving her eyes time to get used to the dark.
When she saw that everyone was fast asleep, she gave a happy nod and stood up. She took a few steps toward the entrance of the cave and then stopped.
“…That reminds me, didn’t they say something about not going any further into this cave?”
With a sly grin, she thought back to what Sion and Keithwood had said.
“Well, if that’s the case, I think I know where I’m going. That’ll show them what happens when they tell me what I can or can’t do. I’m a free, good soul, and no one can hold me down.”
For the record, they also told her not to go to the rocky area beyond the forest, but it was night, and a free and noble soul like her didn’t like the idea of walking through a forest in the dark.
Too spooky.
She had planned to just hang out near the cave entrance for a while or, at most, walk around the nearby area. If she could stay in the cave, however, things would be different…
She was sure of what she wanted to do, so she crept deeper into the cave on her hands and knees.
With one hand on the rock wall, she walked away from Mia and the others until she was a good distance away. Then she gave a soft, happy laugh.
“I bet they all thought that because it was so dark here, I wouldn’t dare go any further. Well…”
She took the necklace pendant off her neck.
“Check and finish.”
A very valuable gem called arystal that she bought abroad was set in the pendant.
It was often called a “moonlamp rock” because it took in sunlight and lit up at night.
“I have to say, though, that this cave goes on and on, doesn’t it?”
She murmured, “I do wonder what it’s like deeper in,” as she moved steadily into the dark depths.
Esmeralda was the kind of girl who, if she was told not to go somewhere, would suddenly want to go there anyway. Most likely, it was in the family.
She didn’t pay attention to the signs that the walls were getting smaller and the ceiling was getting lower. Instead, she dropped into a half-crouch to keep moving forward.
She kept going and going, but she found…nothing.
Nothing interesting happened.
Nothing unusual.
“Hmph. I thought I would find something here, but all I see is rock and nothing else.”
She was getting bored and thought about turning around, but her momentum carried her over what seemed like a small hill, where she then…
“Oh, it’s all downhill from here.”
She grabbed a nearby stalactite that was just the right size, held her pendant up for light, and leaned forward to try to see into the growing darkness.
“My…”
She heard a sharp crack, but more importantly, she felt it in her palm.
“Huh? What? Oh—”
She fell down the slope with a long, echoing “Myyyyyyyyy.”
Mia thought she heard a woman crying out in the distance that night. It made her mind go overdrive, and she imagined ghosts and phantoms walking around in the dark. It was clear that she wasn’t going to sleep any time soon.
“Oh, how stupid of me. Evil cultist spectres? Obviously, that’s not true. The wind just blew. It was just the sound of the wind. There’s no way it could be anything else… Hnnngh, Anne, Anne…”
Mia finally fell asleep with her arms around Anne. She had a good night’s sleep. She slept really well!
