Silkworm Room

Entering the Silkworm room and lighting up the lanterns, Ki caught sight of many tree leaves from the tree outside the cave that she usually spends time under and remembered words she had read in the inheritance book.

Silkworms main source of food are the leaves of the black-fruited or white-fruited mulberry tree.

The room was filled with silk threads, silk cocoons, small white silkworms and many silk moths which began to fly around the room as if startled by Ki's entry into their habitat.

The hard wooden floor, the walls and ceiling had been specially designed with wood which came from mulberry trees to provide them a better living environment since the first to discover and research silkworms found them in a mulberry tree eating the leaves.

The warmth of the room helped to provide the silkworms with a better living and reproductive environment allowing them to reproduce and produce silk twice a year.

The eggs are laid by female moths and hatch within nine to twelve days, so the resulting type can have up to eight separate life cycles throughout the year but if it were a less warm climate then they would usually have to hibernate during the winter resulting in cross-fertilising only in spring resulting in silk production once a year and a longer period of hatching.

The Bombyx family had dedicated their time and research over the years through trial and error and used their vast wealth to create a perfect living environment for them and in return the Bombyx family receives the silk to sell to various dress and clothing makers or merchants.

Ki took in this rare, unusual but beautiful sight of the silk moths flying around the room along with the small almost undetectable fragrance of the pheromones in which the female silk moths spread around the room with every flutter of their wings.

Seeing them all living peacefully together Ki began to feel a small amount of guilt because of one of her plans required taking some of the silkworms. "I almost feel sorry for some of you but for my future goal it must be done."

Taking a small cloth pouch she began to search on the ground for weak or dead silkworms and moths before placing them inside the pouch along with some leaves, she picked up another 9 ordinary looking silkworms and began to take a look at the peaceful environment once more. "I guess there will be one of you in the end to protect the rest…"

Ki thought back to her previous life once more, after her families deaths and her never returning home, everything her family had built would have been long forgotten, no longer maintained and eventually becoming ruined with time.

The silkworms and silk moths underground would of lost their masters who maintained their living environment and food supply resulting in them eating whatever they could to survive before eventually dying of neglect.

Although the Bombyx families silkworms may have died, the free silkworms and silk moths in the outside world still lived on.

It would be difficult to say which was right or wrong environment to grow, one was a perfect place to live and reproduce safely but was provided to them by humans while if they were free then there would be times when they would encounter cold weather and attacks from other bugs or predators.

Ki could not come up with an answer for what was best for the silk worms and moths path for life but at least she would try to provide them with a safe and stable home, while one silkworm would accompany her until her own life comes to an end.

The life and death of these silkworms had already been long tied to the Bombyx family for generations so it was her duty as the current successor to protect them just as she wishes to protect her family.

Ki finished collecting everything she needed so left the room after extinguishing the candles.

After completing everything, Ki made her way out of the underground chambers along with a small cauldron full of different items and scrolls and a book in hand.

The sky had long darkened and the only source of light came from the moon which shined down onto the pond and the mulberry tree so the first thing Ki witnessed was the beautiful sight of the lake and tree illuminated by the moon.

She found a moment of calm and peace upon looking at this scene as if some of her worries and doubts had been cleansed. "I truly am tied to this land and family. This time I will protect it all."

Walking back to her room she had some inspiration after reading through the inheritance book. "Perhaps there are a few more business opportunities the family never tried. I still have not asked for anything for my birthday from my parents so I could ask for which could create a few opportunities."

"I have worked hard today…" Ki yawned before placing everything she collected underneath her bed and the silkworms, moths and some leaves inside the box along with the previous silkworm gifted by her brother.

Very quickly Ki fell into a deep slumber due to the physical and mental fatigue she had accumulated during the long day.