Chapter 3

“If there’s something Your Highness wants… I’ll do everything I can, within my abilities, to help you. So… please keep it a secret.”

“I just want to be able to eat on time.”

Kitty’s request was as simple and straightforward as could be.

Forcing a smile, Cindy continued carefully,

“I’ll find a way… all out of my unwavering loyalty to Your Highness.”

…If she obviously serves another master, why bother adding that last part?

Kitty found it strange, but since Cindy had promised to find her food, she decided to wait patiently.

Feeling grateful to the kind spy, the princess searched for something she could offer as a reward.

Then she picked up the ladle again.

“Want another taste?”

*

That night, while Kitty slept curled beneath a thin blanket to escape the biting chill of early spring, she was gently awakened by someone shaking her shoulder.

“Your Highness… Your Highness. Please come with me for a moment.”

Recognizing Cindy’s familiar voice and touch, the little princess hurriedly searched for her glasses and put them on.

What was going on?

Had Cindy really managed to find a mountain of food overnight?

She knew it was asking too much, but she secretly hoped it wouldn’t just be potatoes or cabbage.

Maybe something tastier.

“Here. You mustn’t catch a cold.”

Cindy draped a thick shawl and coat over Kitty’s shoulders before carefully fastening the buttons.

Then she even helped the little girl pull on a pair of warm fur-lined boots.

Wrapped up from head to toe, Kitty took Cindy’s hand and followed her through the Imperial Palace in the darkness.

Her heart pounded with excitement.

Cindy’s hand was rough with calluses that didn’t suit someone so young.

But it was wonderfully warm.

The two girls stepped into the front courtyard of the Second Princess’s Palace.

A lantern Cindy had prepared beforehand cast a gentle glow over the area, keeping the darkness from feeling frightening.

“Look, Your Highness.”

“I managed to get these.”

Kitty reached into the basket held before her.

The moment her fingers recognized its contents, her mouth fell open in delight.

“Carrots, sweet potatoes, onion bulbs… And over here are seeds for all kinds of herbs.”

Goodness!

Carrots, sweet potatoes, and onions?

How had Cindy somehow gathered only the sweet vegetables Kitty loved?

In an instant, her mind filled with recipes.

She could bake cakes.

Or cookies.

Or knead them into bread with a richer texture to dip into soup.

Especially onions.

The longer they were cooked, the sweeter they became.

They were incredibly versatile.

Seeing how excited Kitty was, Cindy couldn’t help whispering with a smile of her own.

“Just wait here a little longer.”

“There’s more.”

“Okay.”

While she waited, Kitty hopped up and down to keep herself warm against the cold creeping through her coat.

How many times had she bounced beside the lantern…

“Your Highness…!”

At Cindy’s hushed call, Kitty turned toward the light.

There stood Cindy, effortlessly carrying three young saplings in her slender arms.

“Can you guess what these are?”

Kitty shook her head.

“They’re fig trees.”

“Fig trees!”

Steam puffed from Cindy’s lips as she whispered, her cheeks glowing red with excitement.

Fig trees!

Even before entering the Imperial Palace, Kitty had eaten fresh figs almost every day whenever she felt like it.

Just hearing the name made the taste seem to return to her tongue.

Unable to contain herself, she dashed toward Cindy to help.

“No.”

“They’re too heavy.”

“I’ll do it.”

The gentle maid stopped her, leaving Kitty to simply hover nearby instead.

Working together beneath the dim lantern light, they began planting.

Or rather…

Cindy dug into the frozen earth, planting onion bulbs, herb seeds, and the young fig trees…

While Kitty gradually nodded off beside the lantern.

Whenever their eyes met across its warm glow, the two girls smiled at each other as though they owned the entire world.

Their little act of midnight farming didn’t end until pale dawn mist began creeping over the horizon.

Although they had stayed awake all night, neither Kitty nor Cindy felt tired.

Their hearts were simply too full.

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Cindy smiled.

“They said if we take good care of everything, we might even harvest some this year.”

“It won’t be much…”

“But somehow…”

“Let’s make it through together.”

In the light of dawn, Kitty noticed something she’d missed during the night.

Instead of her usual worn maid’s uniform, Cindy wore sturdy gloves, heavy boots, thick work clothes, and carried a small hoe.

Her face was red from the cold wind and covered with dirt and sweat.

She had spent the entire night crouching in the freezing soil, planting every bulb, sapling, and seed.

Watching her, the young princess felt deeply grateful.

“Mm.”

“We don’t have flour, so I can’t bake the bread you like.”

“But we can make soup with carrots and onions.”

“And sweet potatoes are filling all by themselves.”

“Mm.”

Hand in hand, the two girls gazed at the tiny vegetable garden they had created together beneath the rising morning sun.

It still looked small.

Pitiful, even.

Completely out of place beneath the bright daylight.

Yet somehow…

Just looking at it made them feel reassured.

Then, all of a sudden, Kitty realized something very important.

“…But how long until we can actually dig them up and eat them?”

“…Ah.”

*

“Your Highness! Wake up, Your Highness!”

After staying awake until dawn watching over the garden, Kitty had barely fallen asleep when someone suddenly yanked away her blanket.

She slowly opened her eyes.

“Oh, honestly! What time do you think it is? You’re still sleeping after causing one disaster after another!”

“…Mmm?”

She had hardly slept at all.

Everything spun before her eyes.

Feeling around until she finally found her glasses, Kitty put them on.

Instinctively sensing that something was wrong, she reached for her shawl and coat.

But before she could put them on, Head Maid Garnet roughly grabbed her arm.

Dragged from her bedroom wearing nothing but her chemise, barefoot, Kitty stumbled after her.

“Oh, stay still already!”

“What are you struggling for?”

Well… I don’t think I’ve done anything especially praiseworthy…

But couldn’t you at least let me put on shoes and a coat?

Wasn’t Garnet the one who always insisted that walking outside barefoot was beneath the dignity of an imperial princess?

Adults really were impossible to understand.

Garnet dragged Kitty all the way to the front courtyard before shoving her into the crowd of murmuring servants.

“Look at this, Your Highness!”

“You did this, didn’t you?”

Pushed through the sea of adults, Kitty landed on the ground before the little vegetable garden she and Cindy had worked so hard to make.

They had dug up the useless grass and spread fertilizer across the soil.

Naturally, it wasn’t beautiful.

It clashed terribly with the carefully landscaped palace gardens.

But…

Was now really the time to worry about appearances?

“You made a vegetable garden here overnight?”

Still dazed, Kitty answered honestly.

“…We were running out of food.”

Instead of appreciating the princess’s noble reasoning, Garnet nearly exploded.

“Are you joking?”

“How many times have I told you?”

“If you’re an imperial princess, you must behave with the dignity befitting royalty!”

“You’re no longer some street child!”

“You cannot plant vegetables in the front courtyard just because you’re hungry!”

“It’s utterly lacking in class!”

…But if we’re about to starve, isn’t eating more important than dignity?

“Of course not!”

“That is exactly what dignity means!”

“Have you ever heard of royalty digging up roots in the mountains because they’re hungry?”

“Or farming their own food?”

To Kitty’s surprise…

It almost seemed as though Garnet could read minds whenever she got angry.

The little princess had merely stared blankly at her, yet Garnet became more and more furious by the second.

Then came a lengthy lecture about the aesthetics of the Imperial Palace gardens.

Kitty already knew all of it.

Growing food in palace gardens was something only commoners did.

Every single thing in the Imperial Garden—even the ants walking through it—carried symbolic meaning.

The evergreen trees lining the carriage road represented the eternal prosperity of the Empire.

The roses blooming before the main palace symbolized the unwavering loyalty of the nobility toward His Imperial Majesty.

And so on…

“So what are you going to do now?”

“This entire area is ruined!”

“We don’t even have the budget to replant the lawn!”

“We can just leave it like this.”

“How can you even say that?!”

“If visiting officials see this mess, we’ll all lose our heads for disgracing the Imperial Family!”

Since it wasn’t her head that was supposedly at risk…

And since she wasn’t particularly close to Garnet anyway…

Kitty simply blinked.

If it mattered that much to them…

Shouldn’t they have guarded the courtyard more carefully?

Adults really were hopelessly shortsighted creatures.