Chapter 3: Reunion

"...Who in the world was that, I wonder?"

After her meal, Mia went to the salon in the Aerial Garden. The Aerial Garden was, despite its name, not actually floating in the air. It sat atop the Whitemoon Palace and was constructed on a part of the roof that protruded outwards. The garden itself, filled with beautiful flowers gathered from throughout the empire, was more than impressive enough to entertain foreign royal guests.

Mia spent some time wandering the garden, enjoying the abundant sights and fragrances. Unfortunately, her walk failed to clear her mind, and she continued to wrestle with the nagging sensation that she was forgetting something important. Its identity, however, seemed to be shrouded by a veil of fog, and her attempts to grasp it proved unfruitful.

"...Ah-hah! I know the problem. It would appear that I require more sweets. Maids! Bring me some sweets, would you?"

Feeling a need to make up for the sweets that she was cruelly denied earlier, she clapped her hands. Soon after seating herself at a table in the corner of the garden, a young maid hastily approached her with a tray. When Mia saw the item it carried, her eyes went wide with excitement.

C-Could it be? Th-That's...

It was a cake. A layer of cream covered its body, which was further topped by a generous pile of fresh strawberries. It was, in short, a shortcake. There was nothing special about it. And yet...

C-Cake?! Oh, how terribly long it has been since I've had cake!

Her days in the dungeon went without saying, but even before her capture, the empire's financial troubles had long since deprived her of any chance to eat cake. Naturally, the sight of one sent her into a fit of excitement, and she might have gotten up and done a twirl had the maid not said, "H-Here you go, Your Highneeeeak?!"

The young maid's feet left the ground, and her body, led by the cake, soared through the open air. Mia's jaw dropped as she watched the cake fly right past her face. Then, so did the maid. With nothing to stop them, both maid and cake followed the same trajectory: toward the ground. They landed together with a gruesome splat, and the cake was no more, reduced to a large white stain on the maid's uniform. This disastrous occurrence left Mia speechless.

"For the love of— Miss Anne! What in the world are you doing?!" An older maid who'd witnessed the sequence of events rushed over. "My sincerest apologies, Your Highness. Are you all right?"

It took her a few seconds, but Mia quickly snapped out of her bewilderment and smiled.

"Quite. I am fine, thank you very much."

Normally, she would have screamed her displeasure at the maid right away. In fact, had this been the Mia of the past, she'd doubtlessly be in the process of doing so already. Fortunately, her experiences in the dungeon had changed her, imparting a kindness as deep as the deepest of cake trays and as broad as the broadest of teacups.

In other words, she'd learned some tolerance. Not enough to be seen as a reasonable person by any means, but perhaps enough to relieve her of her "selfish" title. This was an undeniable sign of maturity. Indeed, to mature is to be human. No matter the pace — be it slower than a turtle or, heck, a snail — Mia stepped ever forward on the path toward maturity! Thus, even after the calamitous case of the compressed cake, Mia still wore a smile! It was strained, but it was still a smile!

"No matter. If you would simply bring me another cake, all will be fine," she said to ease the mood before going even further and asking, "More importantly, is the poor girl there all right?"

She could even spare some consideration for her maids! Also, she figured there was no point making a fuss when they could just bring her another—

"I'm terribly sorry, Your Highness, but that was the only cake we had for today..."

"You! On your knees, now!"

And just like that, she snapped. Faced with the fact that her only cake had been ruined, Mia's newfound tolerance lasted little longer than an ember in the rain. Make no mistake, cake was serious business! Especially when it had been years since she'd had any. Between good sense and cake, cake won every single time.

"M-My cake... How dare you do this to... You! Look at me!"

"Yeeek!"

The young maid trembled in fear as Mia angrily stomped her foot. With nervous, jerky motions, she pushed herself to her knees and looked up, revealing the face of a girl a few years older than Mia. She was in her mid-teens, and her red hair was coated in fresh cream. A few faint freckles dotted her nose, and her round blue eyes glistened with tears. She wasn't gorgeously good-looking, but there was a youthful charm to her features. Regardless, she lacked the dignified aura of nobility; hers was a plain sort of prettiness common to village girls.

"Why, you are..."

Upon seeing the girl's face, a scene resurfaced in Mia's mind. It was a memory from the worst day of her life — the day of her execution. At the time, she'd been alone in her dungeon, awaiting the inevitable coming of that fateful, fatal moment.