Summer 2

For the maids of the Summer Palace, the workday ended late into the night.

The youngest maid, Senita, had the longest day, which ended with cleaning the fireplaces and ironing the senior maids’ bedding and clothes. Despite the extreme physical weariness she felt from rising at daybreak and working until late at night, the young girl’s footsteps remained light as she walked down the dimly lit hallway on the top floor of the palace.

“You’re late.”

Nora, who had arrived first, greeted the girl as she opened the door with its high handle and entered the room.

“Auntie!”

Senita smiled brightly and ran to her. Nora bent down and hugged the child, who threw herself into her skirts. The small body, much smaller than her own, felt light and warm, as if it held the sunlight.

“Did you have a good day? Did you do your work well?”

“Yes, I worked hard. I cleaned the dust and swept the floors.”

“Good, you worked hard.”

The child’s blue eyes shone brightly, even in the dim light of the flickering candle that lit the room. Proud and heartbroken over her energetic niece’s demanding work, Nora gently caressed her rounded cheeks. Senita giggled at the soft touch.

“Is it hectic?”

“It’s okay!”

“It’ll continue to be busy for a while. But things will change once they arrive, so just try a little harder.”

“Yes, I’ll clean thoroughly tomorrow, too.”

“Good girl.”

At the kind praise, Senita couldn’t hide the upward curve of her lips. Then, she hesitated, glancing at her aunt before continuing.

“I’ll be obedient and work really hard. So that I can be helpful to you.”

So, please don’t abandon me.

“…Yes.”

Moved by the child’s clear implication, Nora took a deep breath and hugged Senita again.

Poor child.

That was what Senita was to Nora.

Nora’s eldest sister had died of an illness when Senita was five or six.  Her husband, a foreign merchant, soon left on a ship, abandoning their young daughter like discarded baggage.

Nora’s younger sister, Jimena, was burdened with Senita and struggled greatly. Another mouth to feed was unwelcome in their already tight finances, and her husband and young son were harsh to their dependent.

The child drifted aimlessly, lost in the middle of it all. She was like a ship without an anchor, tossed about by the waves and blown by the wind.

Not knowing where to anchor herself, Senita desperately tried to create a place for herself to avoid being abandoned. Soon, her daily routine became helping with housework all day to earn her keep and hiding alone in the small attic room when family time came after sunset.

Those days, covered in black soot and dirty dishwater, continued until finally, there was another use for Senita.

Nora, a longtime maid, worked hard to get Senita a position at the Summer Palace. It was for the sake of the child and her two sisters.

Perhaps it was ingrained in her, but Senita was good at chores. From a young age, her beauty was a source of admiration, and her reserved demeanor, a product of constant pressure, appeared serene and inconspicuous to the adults, who found it quite appealing.

She thought it would be a good life: continuing as a general maid at the palace, eventually marrying a gardener or stablehand, and settling down. It wasn’t a bad future for Senita.

“Now, say your prayers and go to sleep. You have to get up early tomorrow, don’t you?”

Nora said, releasing the child.

Senita, who always obeyed Nora, quickly changed her clothes and jumped into bed. The old bed creaked under her weight. The sheets were piled and worn from repeated washings, but they felt incredibly cozy to Senita.

“Sleep well.”

After checking on the sleeping child who had finished her prayers, Nora blew out the candle on the nightstand between the beds.

In the pitch-black darkness, Senita closed her eyes tightly. Although it was dark outside, the palace’s dazzling decorations sparkled behind her delicate eyelids. She smiled softly, imagining the Empress in her beautiful dress and the young Prince dancing on the floor she had polished herself. Serving those of such high station would surely be amazing and wondrous.

* * *

“I think we’re almost there.”

At the soft voice, Iskandar opened his eyes.

Vast fields bathed in fragmented summer sunlight stretched out before them, and beyond that, a forest. The greenery outside the carriage window shimmered in the boy’s golden eyes. It was a quiet, peaceful scene.

“It really is the north. It feels cooler than Rasrosad.  Don’t you think so?”

Iskandar turned his gaze to Svetlana, who was sitting opposite him. The Empress, with a faint smile, was as transparently beautiful as a melting snowflake.

“Yes, it truly is.”

Though he didn’t really agree, Iskandar replied calmly, hiding his true feelings. It was enough that his mother, who looked as if she would evaporate in the sunlight if he took his eyes off her, seemed to like this place. She would probably consider anywhere but the capital, Rasrosad, to be paradise.

Empress Svetlana de Malezik, formerly Princess Svetlana Karsavina, hailed from a kingdom three countries north of here. That country, where the sun never set in the summer and the aurora borealis danced in the winter, was vastly different from the passionate southern empire.

When she left home, Svetlana was abruptly dropped into a foreign land with an unfamiliar climate, food, and culture. She was bound by a promise between nations. As predetermined, she married the crown prince of Malezik and gave birth to a son with jet-black hair and golden eyes. He inherited the traditional traits of the Imperial Family. Yet even after he turned fourteen, she had not fully adapted to this land.

It couldn’t be helped. Her heartless husband, his vulgar and persistent mistress, the Empire’s extravagant and chaotic social circles, and the turbulent currents of politics were all just a cacophony of pain to this pitiful woman.

Unable to blend into Malezik like oil on water, she clung to her son, Iskandar, as her sole support in this land.

Iskandar knew this well.

This summer, when the heat arrived earlier than usual, he decided to accompany his mother to the Summer Palace, unable to bear the heat of Rasrosad.

Some gossiped that he was taking care of her because she was fleeing from his father’s mistress like a defeated dog, but the gossip didn’t matter. Iskandar was simply fulfilling his duty as the legitimate son of the Emperor and Empress. In the Empire’s culture, which valued family and lineage, it was expected of him to make this decision.

Iskandar de Malezik had to live that way.

His father was the Emperor, and his mother was a Princess who became Empress. Born as their legitimate firstborn with pure blood, he naturally became the successor—the Yellow Diamond of Malezik. 

He was expected to possess the imposing dignity and elegant disposition befitting his status as a ruler of pure blood, and he duly fulfilled that expectation.

That was Iskandar’s destiny.

For now, though, he had to indulge his mother.  It was proper conduct for a son and a prince.

His golden eyes deepened in color, reaffirming his resolve.

The conversation between mother and son didn’t last long. Silence returned to the interior of the carriage. Svetlana gazed quietly out the window, and Iskandar watched her.

The wind, coming in through the large window that had been opened for the heat-sensitive empress, ruffled Svetlana’s hair. She smoothed her hair with a slender hand and met her son’s gaze. He continued to look at her.

“Iskandar.”

“Yes.”

0″I’m glad you came with me.”

She had the face of someone who had successfully escaped. Sensing the peace that settled over her, Iskandar tilted his head slightly in response.

With nowhere else to settle his gaze, he followed the wind out the window. Then, the dreadfully cheerful sunlight clung persistently to the beautiful boy’s eyes.

These vast blue fields and forests, this small, quiet Summer Palace near the sea would probably become a paradise to escape to.

Thinking about the summer he would spend there, Iskandar smiled briefly.

It seemed like it would be a very long and tedious summer.