CH 279

Princess Mia: Invincible Mode Activated

In general, Mia was not a morning person. If she could, she would love to sleep until noon and then stay in bed for a few more hours. In her world, being lazy and sloppy was the highest virtue.

Her life had been changing slowly over the past few months, though.

She had been practising horseback riding so hard that it was draining all of her energy. By the time she stumbled back to her room, she was completely worn out. She was so tired that she slept like a rock, which, strangely enough, made for very restful nights. She slept deeply and steadily, and when she woke up the next morning, she was ready to go.

Nights and mornings start early, and there’s a lot of exercise. In spite of everything, Mia had become a role model for living a healthy life.

She usually stayed in bed for a while after getting up or (re)read one of the books Elise had sent her. Now, she got up at the same time Anne did. That was great because…

“Well, I guess I should go see them since I woke up so early today… I did say that I would go as soon as I could. I mean, I might not always keep my word, but I should at least be there the first morning after saying I will. I’d feel bad if I didn’t…”

Like always, her thoughts smelled like chicken. Still, she got out of bed, quickly got dressed, and went to the stable, which was a good sign of discipline.

Malong couldn’t hide his surprise as he said, “Wow, miss, you sure are early. I didn’t think I’d see you at this hour…”

“I’m going to throw those words right back at you.”

Mia sounded just as surprised as she did. “I also didn’t think you would be taking care of the horses at this time. Don’t tell me you get up every day at this time.”

“Well, this one is going to have a baby soon, so I like to check on her more often. Also, it gives me time to quickly clean up the place. I try to keep the stable as clean as I can.”

“Then, is there anything I can do to help?”

“Let me see… Do you want to help me clean up?”

“Good enough.”

Malong gave Mia a long pitchfork that was used to build stalls. She took it and rolled her sleeves up.

Okay, if I’m going to do this, I’ll do a good job of it. I can’t slack off because Malong and Anne are watching. Plus, this is my chance to get Kayou to like me.

—

Mia left the stables when she had done everything she was supposed to do.

“Whew! I’m worn out, and my arms hurt. Ugh…”

She felt a cool breeze on the back of her neck all of a sudden. The feeling was cool and refreshing on her sweaty skin. She stretched, letting her tired muscles loosen up. Then, as she jumped in surprise, all of her muscles tensed at once.

“Eeek! Wh- What was that? It’s you!”

Kuolan had walked up to her without her noticing and was now standing behind her. A breath was what she had just felt as a breeze. With this new information, the experience suddenly didn’t feel as new and exciting.

It put its nose close to her hair and twitched its nostrils, as it always did when her head was close enough to make it sneeze.

Mia, however, did not run. Instead, she stood there with her arms in the air.

“Hah, too bad for you. No matter how dirty I get, I’m about to take a shower in the morning. Go ahead, hurry up! Try your hardest!”

You’re right. Mia had turned on Invincible Mode when she went for after such morning exercise. She could no longer be hurt by dirt and grime. She had been sweating a lot after cleaning the stable, so she was on her way to the bathhouse. She thought that at this point, it didn’t matter if someone dumped a tub of mud on her because she was going to wash it all off anyway.

It was pretty much like putting honey on bread. That is if she was eating breakfast, and there was a loaf of bread and a jar of honey on the table. Mia, who was learning to be a bit of a gourmet, had a favourite way to eat bread with honey that she always stuck to. In particular, she would break the loaf in half to show its fluffy insides. Then she would spread honey on the parts that were showing. She would cover the inside with honey before taking a bite, so she could play with the honey before she ate. Like making art with honey.

Or, at the very least, honey doodles. For example, she could write “Mia-Abel” and giggle to herself for a while before covering the rest of the surface with honey to cover her tracks.

Again, this is just a thought experiment.

Even though it’s true that she would often get more honey on her bread if she did this, and it sounds like something she would do all the time, it would be slander to say that she did this, and any reports of this should be seen as proof that fake news keeps getting spread.

Mia decided that she didn’t care how dirty she got because she was going to clean herself up in the bath anyway. This is called “I’ll just cover it with more honey after” or “you can’t prove I did it if I eat the evidence” thinking.

Invincible Mode Mia had nothing to fear!

“What’s going on? Please! Sneeze on me all you want! Go crazy! It won’t bother me at all!” she said, taunting Kuolan as she almost laughed.

The show of arrogance was, to be honest, very annoying.

Kuolan, on the other hand, just kind of…turned its back and walked away.

“Oho—ho? Huh? You won’t sneeze, right?”

She stared at its rump as it moved away, feeling awkwardly frustrated, as if the joke had been left unfinished. She looked like she was a little sad.

“Hnnngh, I can finally show that stupid horse who’s boss by ignoring its sneezes, and he just ignores me? All those other times, did he do it on purpose? Or maybe he has finally decided to bow down to my power.”

And Kuolan stopped right when she finished her last sentence. Her timing was so good that it was almost impossible to think of anything else but her understanding of language.

It looked at her, and the corners of its lips turned up…

Neigh-hee-hee….

And laughed.

Or at least Mia thought she heard. Laughter.

“W-What the—You—Did you just laugh at me? Grr, you stupid horse! You’re doing this on purpose, for sure!”

Kuolan didn’t look at her again. It just shook its big, bushy tail at her instead.

“Augh! Quit it! Am I just a joke to you?”

The horse’s tail went swoosh, swoosh, in a way that was both lazy and also mocking.