A Taste of Sweetness and Bitter Roots
"A waterfall," Chester muttered.
Upon discovering the waterfall, Chester carefully set down everything he was carrying and stripped off his clothes. After scanning the pool to ensure no hidden dangers lurked beneath the surface, he approached the torrent cascading down the edge of the lake. The stream had struck a protruding rock on the cliffside on its way down, splitting the main flow to the side.
Fortunately, the runoff spilled into a shallow part of the pool, allowing Chester to stand knee-deep in the water and let the deluge wash over him.
"Aaaah!"
The sweat of the deserted island, the clinging humidity, the cold perspiration from his encounter with the bear, the dirt, and the sand—all of it was swept away in an instant. Feeling an overwhelming sense of refreshment, Chester's spirits soared. He threw his arms up toward the sky in pure, unadulterated bliss.
"Hell yeah!"
He stood under the rushing water, shouting and scrubbing himself clean for who knew how long. When Chester finally stepped out of the waterfall, his face beamed with refreshment. He smiled, letting the warm sunlight dry his skin.
Looking back at the waterfall with a satisfied expression, he noticed how the split stream struck another part of the cliff, fracturing into several smaller trickles.
"..."
He studied the flow carefully, then turned his gaze toward the estimated direction of his shelter, tracing a path in the air with his finger.
...Is it too far?
If possible, he wanted to channel this water all the way to the shelter to use as a domestic supply.
Securing a stable water line will take a lot of work. For now, I'll just keep the possibility in mind and think it over slowly.
There was no rush. Just knowing it might be possible was enough for now. Shrugging off his lingering regrets, Chester dressed himself once his skin was dry and began the trek back to the shelter.
While Chester was out hunting, Monia woke up and looked around the shelter. It had been an astonishingly comfortable bed, completely washing away the fatigue and terror of the previous night.
Though she had only suffered on the island for a single day, Monia's standards for comfort had already plummeted. For someone who had once accepted nothing less than the absolute finest goods, accommodations, and cuisine, Chester's crude shelter felt like paradise. Above all, being inside this shelter gave her a sense of security—a quiet assurance that Chester, who had left her side temporarily, would definitely return.
Monia would never admit it, but in her stripped-back, vulnerable state, her heart had already grown heavily dependent on him.
Alright, let's do something.
Chester had threatened to withhold food and water if she did nothing. And he hadn't just been talking; he had actually followed through yesterday. He had only shown her a shred of approval after she kicked off her high heels and managed to harvest water from the bamboo herself.
But what am I supposed to do?
Her entire life had been mapped out from the moment of her birth. As the prince's fiancée, from the instant she learned to walk and talk, she had lived the life her father dictated. She studied what she was told to study, ate what she was told to eat, wore what she was told to wear, met designated people at designated times to build connections, and attended designated parties on designated days. She had been born into this world, yet her own agency had never existed.
In a life where every single detail was predetermined, the only things she had ever done of her own volition were loving the prince, envying and hating a commoner, and tormenting her. That was the sum of her existence.
But yesterday, that changed.
For the first time in her life, she had felt physical pain from an injury, and for the first time, she had struggled desperately to obtain water. For Monia, whose agency had been castrated by a predetermined life, extracting water from that bamboo meant far more than simply quenching her thirst.
She had claimed her own life. She had been born. The woman named Monia—an individual with her own agency and identity, rather than just the Duke's daughter—had been born yesterday, at the exact moment she obtained that water.
Should I try making some rope?
Monia examined the branches, bark, and vines piled near the head of Chester's bedding.
Yesterday, I saw him making rope out of this bark...
Rope had countless uses. That was why Chester had spent his spare time before bed twisting cords of various thicknesses and lengths. While wild vines were available, a rope crafted to a specific thickness and length was on an entirely different level of utility. Of course, he didn't have an immediate use for all of them. He had simply made them because there was no harm in having extra.
"I'm sure he did something like this..."
Monia picked up a strip of bark and inspected it closely. Noticing a small split in the fiber, she pinched it with her fingers and pulled. The bark split cleanly down the middle.
"Whoa."
She nicked it slightly with her fingernail and pulled again, watching it tear smoothly all the way to the end.
"Whoa, wow."
After repeating this process over and over, Monia soon found herself holding a pile of finely shredded bark fibers.
"Yay!"
This is fun!
Stripping the bark was surprisingly therapeutic. Grinning from ear to ear, Monia tore strip after strip like a child playing in the dirt. Lost in her task, she stripped every last piece of bark. Gathering the fibers, she tried to mimic Chester's movements and began twisting them into a rope.
Naturally, she failed, only succeeding in scraping her fingers on the rough fibers. Yet, despite the stinging pain in her hands, Monia didn't mind it at all. Because when Chester returned around late afternoon, he looked at her and said:
"Oh, look at you, actually trying to do something. Good job. Alright, after we eat, I'll teach you how to twist rope properly. But first, want some water?"
"Fufu, praise me more! And bring me my water!"
"Still as cheeky as ever, I see."
Monia tasted the juice of a fruit called a coconut for the very first time that day.
"Blegh! What is this disgusting taste?!"
"Really? It tastes better than the ones I had in the port city. A merchant there taught me how to crack them open easily."
Unsurprisingly, it didn't suit her refined, aristocratic palate.
"Isn't it nice and sweet? Though you shouldn't drink too much of it."
"You call this sweet?! This is why commoners are...! Hmph! Fine! Once we get off this island, I will personally show you what real sweetness tastes like!"
"Ah, yes, yes. Sure. Looking forward to it."
"You seem to use formal speech whenever you're mocking me. Am I imagining things?"
"Not at all."
"Hmph! Do you think just because my family abandoned me, I've sunk to the level of a penniless beggar like you?"
Monia shook her head and shrugged, as if to say this was why ignorant commoners were so hopeless.
"For your information, I know the location of my family's secret vault! It's a special treasury that can only be opened by those of the Duke's bloodline! Fufu, since they abandoned me, I'll rob them blind as payback!"
"Care to tell me more about that?"
Tiara was a girl beloved by the goddess of fortune. She had been incredibly lucky to gain special admission to the academy, an institution reserved strictly for nobility, and even luckier to win the Prince's favor and form a close relationship with him. Though the Prince's fiancée had tormented her, Tiara had ultimately triumphed over her bullying, defeated the wicked witch Monia, and secured her engagement to the Prince.
Having secured both love and peace, Tiara was now heading home for the first time since returning to the academy. Having lived at the academy for seven or eight months, it had been a very long time since she last visited her hometown. Riding in a luxurious carriage lent to her by Prince Jordy, dressed far more beautifully than any run-of-the-mill noble lady, she was on her way to see her family.
As the carriage drew nearer, however, Tiara's expression began to sour.
Is it just me, or does the air smell terrible?
Unlike the academy in the royal capital, which boasted advanced sewage systems and strict hygiene standards, Tiara's rural hometown was a different story entirely. It was common for beasts—and humans alike—to relieve themselves right in the middle of the streets. She had never paid much attention to it before, but now that she was accustomed to life in the capital, it was unbearable.
Disgusting.
Tiara stepped out of the carriage with a look of anticipation, eager to see her beloved home, but suddenly froze.
Wait... was our house always this small and run-down?
The reality of her home shattered the beautiful, nostalgic memories she had preserved, and her face fell even further. While living at the academy, she had resided in the spacious, lavish quarters allocated to the nobility. Yet the house before her eyes seemed smaller than even a single room of her academy quarters.
"Tiara!"
"Our daughter!"
"Sister!"
Stepping inside, Tiara tried to smile at her family as they welcomed her warmly, but she instinctively took a step back. Fortunately, she managed to swallow the words that had almost slipped out.
The stench!
At the academy, everyone—from the nobles to the servants—washed themselves thoroughly every single day. The baths were always stocked with soap, and Tiara had bathed daily using bars that smelled faintly of sweet honey. But in the countryside, water was a precious commodity. This was especially true in a village like hers, where the nearest river was miles away. Once water was rationed for the crops, the livestock, and drinking, there was simply none left for bathing. On rainy days, the villagers would strip naked and run outside just to wash themselves.
They stink!
Tiara was utterly repulsed by the foul odor radiating from her family. In the few months she had spent in the capital, she had already forgotten what her old life was like. She had become completely acclimated to the refined, luxurious lifestyle of the capital's nobility.
"We prepared all your favorite foods!"
"Is the academy very difficult?"
"It's been so long, Sister! Have you been well?"
Her family sat around the table with warm, loving smiles, but Tiara froze at the sight of the pathetic spread. Every day at the academy, professional chefs had prepared extravagant meals for her, and she had grown accustomed to rich, heavily seasoned, gourmet dishes. Compared to that, the watery broth before her, containing only a few scraps of meat and unrecognizable bits of wild greens, didn't even look like food fit for humans. It looked like slop for beasts.
...
Suppressing her disgust, Tiara forced herself to sit down. Just then, a bug crawled out from a corner of the room.
"Eek!"
"Huh?"
"What's wrong, dear?"
"A-A bug!"
Tiara pointed in sheer horror, but her family looked at the insect crawling brazenly across the floor and couldn't comprehend her reaction. To them, bugs were a common sight—and in times of famine, a valuable source of protein to stave off starvation. But Tiara was different now.
She had been living in pristine, spotless halls where even a single mouse, let alone a bug, was never seen. She no longer sat on rickety wooden chairs that poked her backside, at a table thrown together from rough-hewn planks. She sat in plush, leather-bound chairs stuffed with soft cotton, dining at grand tables sturdy enough to hold an imperial feast. She didn't gulp soup straight from a bowl without a spoon; she dined elegantly, using the appropriate forks and knives for each course.
This... this isn't right.
This was wrong. This was not the life of a woman beloved by the Prince.
This isn't my life!
Humans are creatures of adaptation. No matter how extreme or unbearable an environment might seem, they eventually grow used to it. And for Tiara, who had transitioned from a life of absolute nothingness to one of boundless luxury, that adaptation had occurred with terrifying speed and force. Within days of arriving at the academy, she had grown accustomed to her new reality, and her already lavish existence had been perfected by the sweet spice of the Prince's devotion.
Yes. Recalling the "basic necessities" she now took for granted, she looked at her family, who laughed and smiled happily despite lacking every single one of them. She found them utterly incomprehensible.
...They're like beasts.
The people who were once her family now looked like nothing more than livestock in her eyes. Unable to endure another second, Tiara kicked back her chair and bolted from the house.
"Tiara? Sweetie! Where are you going?!"
"Sister! What's wrong?!"
"Daughter!"
Ignoring their desperate cries, Tiara threw herself into the carriage and ordered the driver to rush back to the capital. After that day, she never returned to her hometown. Nor did she ever speak fondly of her past or reminisce about her family. She chose to discard her past as a "beast" and live as a proper human being.
"Ooooh!"
Around the same time Tiara was severing ties with her family, Monia's eyes were sparkling as she watched Chester grill a fish over the fire.