CH 414

The Two Princesses Walk Up the Golden Slope

“My… What is this?”

The road into the capital city went up a smooth slope through terraced fields. Mia saw something that made her raise an eyebrow as the carriage turned toward it. It wasn’t that the road was lined with people—she was used to that—and it wasn’t strange that the Tearmoon princess would be greeted with a big party when she arrived. The problem was that the hill they were about to climb looked like it was made of gold.

“Is it just me,” Mia asked as she looked around, “or is the path up to the capital the same color as the field around it?”

“That’s because there’s a layer of wheat on the path,” Rania said. “When important people from other countries come to visit, we clean the whole path going up to the capital. Then, we ‘paint it with gold,’ as we say. This is how we greet visitors in Perujin.”

“What?! That’s all wheat?!” Mia did a double take.

“Yes. Perujin thinks that our best wheat is our most valuable asset, so we use it to decorate the way to the capital.”

What an awful waste!

Half of Mia wanted to scream. Half of her wanted to sigh. She realized that this was the kind of greeting that tickled nobles’ fancies. For them, welcoming nobles was a competition to see who could waste more money. They gave value to being careless. The more time and money that was spent to welcome them, the more respect they were shown. So, past Mia wouldn’t have thought anything of such a welcome; it would have seemed normal to her.

But Mia from the past was gone. Mia knew bitter taste of regret when she found out there was no more food. She knew it was pointless to wish she “could get back all the food that was wasted back then” when her stomach had been rumbling for days. Even just one time of feeling that hungry was enough to last a lifetime. So…

“Stop the carriage.”

She told the driver to stop right before they got to the golden slope.

“Huh? Princess Mia? What’s wrong?” asked the confused Rania.

Mia gave her a little smile. “I’m going out for a quick walk.”

After saying this, she got out of the coach. Her sudden appearance shocked the crowds on either side. She looked at all of them and smiled happily.

“Hello, everyone. I’m Princess Mia Luna Tearmoon of the Tearmoon Empire,” she said as she bowed. “Please let me tell you how much I appreciate this great welcome you’ve set up for me. It’s an incredible act of kindness, and I’ll happily accept the message of goodwill.”

Then, after a short moment of quiet, she slowly looked up the golden slope toward the castle at the top.

“However, I don’t want to trample on such beautiful grains because I don’t want to ruin them.”

She took her shoes off in a quiet way.

“Wheat should be turned into food. We can only get its real value by eating it. When I get to the top of this hill, please get this wheat and do what you need to do to make it edible. If you really want to make me happy, I’d love to see this wheat made into one of those cakes in the shape of a castle that I’ve heard so much about. That would make me very happy.”

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After her speech was over, she started walking up the golden hill without any fear or doubt. She thought the wheat mattress would be hard and sharp, but it turned out to be much softer and surprisingly gentle on her skin.

“Princess Mia!”

“Why don’t you come too, Rania? I’d love for you to take me to your home. Everyone else, wait until the wheat is gone, and then bring up the carriage, okay?”

“O-Okay, I’m coming!” Rania kicked off her shoes and walked over to Mia, who was already waiting. The two princesses then took the next step up the slope together.

—

People were shocked by what Princess Mia had done. People were in awe when they heard the news, which spread quickly. No worthy person had ever climbed the golden slope of wheat on their own two feet. Some people made fun of the show, calling it the groveling actions of a poor country. Others didn’t even say anything because they thought it wasn’t worth mentioning. Even lords with a conscience didn’t do anything about it because it was a necessary part of a stately welcome. They had always stayed in their carriage as they went up the hill.

Farmers who were called to these events always felt sad and angry as their wheat was crushed by expensive coaches. No one liked to see the results of their hard work get ruined in this way. Still, they did what they were told for the sake of their country. They did not want to, but they worked hard to cover the road with their best wheat.

This princess, on the other hand, didn’t want to throw away the hard-earned crops of farmers. Not only that, but she didn’t want to hurt them so much that she took off her shoes. After that, she got to enjoy the warm welcome of slope-climbing.

If you didn’t use a road that the Perujins had decorated so beautifully, it would be like rejecting their goodwill. So she went walking. But she did it without shoes, showing her seriousness and respect by asking her carriage and group of people with shoes to stay behind.

She also asked to try some cake in the shape of a castle. The unsaid part of this request was clear to everyone who heard her. She asked the Perujin people to use the wheat they were so proud of to make a cake in the shape of the castle in their capital, which was their symbol and where their royal family lived. It was a sign of great respect for the Perujin way of life.

There were cheers from the crowd. One excited cheer led to another, and soon it was followed by a wave of cheers. People weren’t putting on a show; they were just showing how much they cared about an important guest and a close friend of their own princess.

People cheered on Mia and Rania walked into Perujin’s city, Auro Ardea, the golden village in the sky.

—

As the two princesses walked up the golden slope side by side, there was a certain energy in the air. The closeness of their shapes seemed to signal a new era for Tearmoon and Perujin. It was a subtle, intangible thing that couldn’t be put into words. However, a farmer who was there at the time painted a beautiful picture called “Two Princesses Walk the Golden Path” that perfectly caught the feeling. Its somber majesty gave it a place in the history of fine art that will last forever. Along with it, a story about two barefoot princesses climbing the golden slope was born. This story would be told and retold for generations to come. Even though the story would change slightly as it was told by different people and over time, it would continue to be a popular one for many ages to come.