Book 3: Chapter 30 (1/2)
“Your Imperial Majesty, what are you doing?” Apollonia asked. She was standing at a doorway with a tray of food in her hands. Ahead of her was the guest room she had assigned the empress. And inside of that room, the empress was balancing on the crown of her head, the rest of her body as straight and stiff as a pole with her arms press to her sides.
“I’m training.”
Apollonia walked into the room and set the tray down on a nearby table. “What kind of training involves balancing on your head? Doesn’t your neck hurt?”
“This is image training,” the empress said, still upside down. “You copy an animal or object to take on its properties. Your understanding increases the more you do it.”
“Let me guess, Your Imperial Majesty is imitating a sword,” Apollonia said. “The tip of a sword is pointed down while sheathed. You’re as straight as a sword too.”
“No, you’re wrong. I’m not imagining myself as a sword,” the empress said. “I’ve already achieved the level of being one with my blade. Sword image training is nearly useless to me.”
Apollonia raised an eyebrow. “Then what are you imitating?”
“A carrot.”
“…Come again?”
“It’s like an orange radish.”
“I know what a carrot is, Your Imperial Majesty.”
“I see. Then I didn’t speak clearly enough. I’ll keep that in mind next time,” the empress said. She bent at her waist, her feet planting down onto the floor tile in front of her face. Then she stood up while cracking her neck before walking over to the table. “Breakfast?”
“I heard you liked mangoes, so I had my servants prepare some for Your Imperial Majesty,” Apollonia said. “The milk was freshly squeezed from one of my serfs’ cows. And the flour used to bake this bread was ground just the other day.”
The empress ignored the loaf of bread and grabbed onto a mango slice. She brought it up to her face and sniffed it a few times before popping it into her mouth, slurping it up like a noodle. In less than five seconds, three mangoesworth of slices disappeared from the plate into her stomach. The empress cleaned her hand on a hot, wet towel that was meant to be used before eating and nodded at Apollonia. “Thanks for the meal.”
As the empress was about to once again balance on her head, the door to the room swung open, and a servant stepped inside. “Grand Duchess,” he said, lowering his head. “The devil is here.”
“That was quick,” the empress said, before Apollonia could even open her mouth. “It hasn’t even been a day.” Without waiting for Apollonia or the servant to respond, the empress picked up her sword that was leaning against the wall and left the room.
“Hey!” Apollonia shouted as she scrambled after the empress. “If you’re going to confront it, you’re going the wrong way! That hall leads to the laundry room.”
The empress’ footsteps halted. She turned around and passed Apollonia without saying a word, walking as if she had always been moving in that direction.
“Not cute at all,” Apollonia muttered as she followed behind the empress.