Road to Ruisea

❆ ❆ XVII. KUMARI ❆ ❆

When Kumari returns to her bed the same evening, she has no difficulty falling asleep.

She passes out as soon as her head hits the pillow, she was just so tired.

Missing one night's worth of sleep does that to a Princess.

And, you know, having to fight pirates for the lives of your friend and fellow passengers.

Yep. Tiring to the highest degree.

She has a simple dream — dancing on the ocean, with a white-haired prince, twirled around as the sun sets and it starts to snow...

Half the time she's with the prince, she expects something to go wrong. The snow to stop, the prince to disappear, to sink into the ocean and drown... Nothing happens. Nobody interrupts. The prince hums, and she relaxes into his chest.

It's the most restful night she's ever had.

She wakes up slowly, relaxed... After saying goodbye to her prince, and he promises they'll see each other again. She sighs, as the sunlight streams in through her window, shining on her face, tickling her nose and greeting her brightly. Everything was okay.

She wakes up just in time to hear Jae's knock on the door.

"Sleeping Beauty?"

"Jaejae!"

"Heyyy Princess. You awake? Decent?"

"Awake! In bed! Dressed!"

"Good enough," she hears him fiddle with the door and fail to open it. "A little help?"

"Yuh-huh, be right there!"

She scurries down, grabbing her keys quickly, opening the door for Jae, who looks at her curiously once she succeeds in letting him inside.

"You know, Chiro said you didn't lock it this morning. But whenever I try to come in, it's always shut."

"I'd just forgotten last night. I do indeed lock it. You never know when there's pirates afoot!"

"Haha, very funny," Jae says. "Coming to breakfast?"

"Yup yup," and they make their way to the dining cart, where Chiro's sitting in yesterday's spot, chatting with yesterday's waiter, the one who's missing three fingers.

"Good morning," the waiter says, heavy Qilucan accent as always.

Jae and Kumari greet him in their respective languages as they sit down. No need to translate, the context provides enough for the man to know what they said.

Kumari orders strawberry pancakes this time, with Jae choosing chocolate in her place. Chiro orders porridge once more, and of course Kumari insists on the addition of maple syrup.

They eat and chat, Chiro wanting more explanations on his adventure aboard the Arcadia, as he'd passed out all day since they'd rescued him last night.

"Chlorform must've been pretty strong," Jae explains. "You went out clean."

"I'm aware," Chiro sighs. "What happened while I was out?"

"Pirates happened!" Kumari chirps.

"I'm aware. What else?"

"We came to save you..." Kumari thinks. "First mate nearly turned a cannon on the Ocean. Jae tried dueling Howl, failed, I stepped in, managed to do a pretty good job...?"

"I'll say," Jae nods. "I should really consider reading Zen."

"Zen...?" Chiro tips his head, not understanding.