-2 Days Later-
Location: Port Louki, Arrival Port of the island of Kauki
"Wooooowwwwwww…"
While it is true that most things were better while on Kush, some sites in the natural world were simply so stunning that one can be as sober as a sponge and still be able to be taken aback from the natural beauty. And from all the hype generated from the books that the Princess and I had both read, the Kauki Islands were certainly one of them.
"Is… is that a dolphin?"
Indeed, jumping out of the ocean were several dolphins, which, at the time, I had only ever read about in the legends.
"Looks like it," I replied. Along with the dolphins were a number of fascinating creatures like turtles, starfish, and everything the books ever told. They were filling our eyes. Even the sea itself glistened a vibrant bright blue, sparkling brilliantly, so clear we could even see the coral reefs underneath.
We followed the crowd to exit the ship. As my eyes darted around the room, the masked figure was nowhere to be found. It did occur to me in that moment however, that the masked figure could have been any of the passengers on board. All they had to do was take off their mask. I had to keep my guard up just in case.
"Hey Hu,"
I felt a tug on my sleeve.
"Hmm…?"
I looked over to notice the Princess pouting at me.
"Can I have candies?"
"Not now Princess, we have to figure out…"
"Pweeaaasssseeeee?"
The rule of cute was indeed absolute. I sighed, handing her one from my pocket.
"Alright, but you're going to take it alone, I need to find a place for us to settle down for the day at least."
"Do you now?"
I turned to my side as an unfamiliar man began walking alongside me.
"That's right. Are you someone that knows a place?" I asked him.
"Yes sir,"
He handed me a printed flier.
"The Kauki Central Inn, prices starting at 10 Jiples a room."
I took the flier and looked over the details.
. "Alright, that's not too bad of a price. May I ask, where is this fine Inn located?"
A smile showed on the man's face,
"Oh, not too far, just start heading towards Kauki General."
A nerve jolted in my back at the mention of the general store that happened to be on the same map the masked man had given us.
"Is something wrong?"
"Uhh… no no, nothing, they have rooms for 2 people right?"
Definitely suspicious, but then again, coincidences are always more likely than people think.
"That's right, plus…"
He went over to whisper something in my ear.
"I can tell, you're a merchant, no? My trading station is nearby, I have exactly what you need."
He handed me a piece of paper, which appeared to be a coupon.
"Just tell them, Riki of the theater sent you."
Quite the odd name. But I didn't pay it much mind, finding his commercial connection more interesting.
"So that's the jig. You bring the new customers to the Inn and then in exchange, they'll be living in a place that just so happens to be where you trade. I'm guessing you also get a commission?"
He chuckled, "You're experienced I see,"
"Oh come now, surely that is not that difficult to figure out? We all need to make a coin at the end of the day."
"Hu…"
I felt a tug on my sleeve.
I turned to see the Princess staring at me.
"I'm hungry,"
"Oh, is that your companion?"
The Princess stared over at Riki.
"Mwwwwwiiiiister… Do you have food?!"
—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-20 Minutes later on the road-
"..."
I looked at the Princess who was happily eating an expensive stick of fish on one hand and holding about a week's worth of various other seafoods on sticks in her other one.
"How did you become so shameless about this so quickly?"
"Mmmmm I don't know Hu, maybe the outside world isn't as scary as you thought it would be! This is a piece of cake. Want one?"
She held towards me a stick of what looked like some rare Takoyaki. Well, I wouldn't be a merchant if I didn't live by the "earning a meal, is earning a meal" model. I took the stick eating off the end of one.
"Mmmm… Juicy."
"Right?"
Her eyes were shining like the sea as she stared upon the shore. Of course, the place itself was everybit to marvel at. Palm trees, sandy hills, and what looked like a tropical path. The islanders seemed to also be wearing what looked like tiki dresses. The woman had coconuts covering up their upper region. But as dazzling as those sights were, still it was the Princess who I observed the most as she looked out into the sights being free for the first time in her life.
It was nostalgic really, like when I first stepped on top of a hill far away from my native country for the first time. A realization that there was a greater outside world that was even prettier than the words described by the most talented of writers. Nothing beats seeing the trees, feeling the environment, and having the sand actually between your toes. Even the best psychedelics could never stimulate that high again. The feeling of being free.
"Hu…"
"Yeah?"
"I'm just going to sit here for a while, alright."
She looked back at me. I nodded at her in understanding, sitting down a good distance away from her myself. It wouldn't be right for me to disturb her at the moment, from her peace, as a teardrop ran down her eye.
"So," she said softly, "this is what freedom feels like."
She continued just sitting there in silence as next to us, islanders, and new tourists alike walked around us like we weren't even there. I was used to that by now. Just vibing from place to place, being no one, and being free. But for her…
She began sobbing now.
"Princess, are you ok?"
In most situations, many probably would have thought of her with pity. But I had lived long enough to know that, even the people with the most wealth, the most fame, and the ones with the most friends even, could not escape the chains of society. Chains of the expectations of others, of the expectations of our birth circumstances, and of what society deems as having value, not something we ever determined ourselves.
"I'm… just so happy," she said simply. Nothing more nothing less. As if the entire outside world had disappeared, and the only thing other than I that gave any care to her, and vice versa for that matter, was the wind blowing against her hair.
We just sat there for maybe 10 minutes, maybe 20. It didn't really matter because I wasn't keeping track. It was early enough in the day anyways where we were in no rush to reach the Inn. Sure, there may have been trouble on the horizon, but what time is there not some troubles in life?
It wasn't an excuse to not appreciate the moment as well as I looked at the Princess, in happy envy, seeing her take it all in. At that moment, no one except I, who made sure to keep my distance for this moment specifically, knew who she was. Finally, after a medium unspecified length of time, the Princess looked over at me.
"Hu…"
"Yes Princess?"
"Is this what you feel all the time?"
I smiled.
"It's never quite like the first time. But yeah, pretty much, freeing isn't it?"
"Ye… yeah." she replied, looking towards the ground, "I feel like…"
She looked back up at me.
"I feel like I'm no one."
I smiled back.
"Good,"
"What do I do though?"
She looked at me worried now.
"It's like… I don't know. It's just all so new."
"Just make it up as you go."
"What?"
"Make it up as you go," I repeated, "Or make shit up as you go, depending on if you feel like cursing at the moment. It's the only thing we can do when facing the unknown."
"Make it up as you go?"
She looked at me still worried.
"Is that what you're doing now Hu?"
I looked over at her and then back at the ocean.
"Yeah, I mean this is a pretty new scenario for me. I made a few friends on my journey but never someone who was as sheltered as you were," I replied smiling, "nor someone who wished to stick around for this long. So I'm just making up words now too."
"I see." she replied with a smile back. And then gently, she laid on my lap.
"Well that's good. Because I think you're a great storyteller."
Where was I again? Oh yeah uhhh… we were traveling to an inn or whatever and we have to meet with some masked figure because of some bullshit probably. Something like that? Ahahahaha. My eyes were also bloodshot red at this point as I took 3 Kush candies earlier, relaxing a little, after I realized a lot of our troubles would be solved simply by the Princess's cuteness buff. Gently after seeing the Princess drift to sleep, I laid down myself, floating to my dreams.
—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-An unknown amount of time between 1-5 hours later-
"H… Huh?"
"Hu wake up."
"Are… are…"
"Hu…"
"Are you a monk?"
She didn't look angry when I said that. Only disappointed as I sat back up.
"Sorry,"
"Am I at least a sexy monk?"
She pulled her hood back to reveal her head, still with only a few hairs grown back and mostly bald.
"Princess, are you old enough to know what that word mea…"
"I'm 25!" she said now actually angry as she suddenly stepped on me.
"Owww hey what the…"
"I know what sexy means! Do you, you fucking virgin."
"Owww, Princess where is this coming fr… owwwwww owwwwww"
She began to step on me continuously. As she did, a middle aged woman walking by gasped at the scene.
"What is going on? Oh my god, someone help, this poor man is being beaten by a monk."
"What? Wait no. Okay Princess, stop stepping on me, you're drawing a crowd!"
All the beautiful isolation illusion came crashing down as I covered my mouth at the slip up.
"Princess?"
"Did he just say…?"
"He said Princess right?"
"Princess, say weren't there reports of a kingdom missing a Princess?"
"Yeah, Riguo wasn't it?"
"Are they offering a bounty?"
I leaned towards the princess to whisper something in her ear.
"Say Riko… you've read enough books to know exactly what word to say now in this cliched scenario right?"
She nodded.
"Run."
She grabbed my hand pulling me up as we began running across the beach.
"Hey they're getting away."
"Pshhh whatever, there's no way that's the Princess."
"I don't know man, word is, the bounty's 5,000,000 Cive."
"5,000,000… after them!"
"Princess, do you have even the slightest idea of where we are heading to?"
"Absolutely not!" she said grinning as she continued dragging me along. "Just making it up as I go!"
I smiled back.
"Glad to hear, but these guys are coming after us fast. What do we do then?"
"Hmmm, I have an idea,"
She suddenly stopped in her tracks. As she did, she held out a hand towards our pursuers.
"Kind sirs, I feel that you have made a mistake."
"Huh, what?" The guy in the front said. "You said this was a princess, right?"
"No! I am not a princess! I am simply…"
She pulled her hood back.
"A monk!"
"What the…"
Our 3 pursuers' mouths gaped open.
"Ummm…"
"And this young whippersnapper here is my trainee."
"What the fuck is a whippersnapper."
I knew the exact Meihon book she learned that word from...
"Anyways young fellows, would you like to sign up for the local monastery? We take religious practice very seriously, but it is worth it for the effort to be saved by our lord, who is for sure the only lord that ever existed despite there being around 100 different religions in Kaijei. Yep! It can only be our lord uhhh… NIsio Akasaka, specifically, who is responsible for all of creation. If you don't believe that, you are going to 7 different layers of hell! So what do you say? Do you young fellows want to be saved?"
The three of them looked at each other in horror.
"She's not a princess, she's a madwoman, let's run before she starts reading from a book!"
The other 2 nodded and the 3 quickly did just that, scrambling out of our sight.
"Phew…"
After catching our breaths for a moment, I looked around to see that we had made it onto a more inner part of an island where we were on a stone walking trail with more green tropical vegetation around us compared to before. It seemed to be a crowded area as well.
"Whelp…" I said reaching into my backpack. The sun was starting to set at this point so perhaps it was finally time to find the Kauki Central Inn. When I took out the map however, I remembered now it wasn't very descriptive having only a vague whereabouts outlined of where to find the general store. As well, as a reminder, the literal name of the islands was the Kauki islands… so Kauki General could have been any of the stores.
"Alright Riko," I said, "It may take a while for us to find this place, I'm going to ask around."
"What? Why would you have to do that?"
"What do you mean?"
"There's a sign here that points directly to Kauki General and Kauki Central Inn."
I turned to the Princess, where there was in fact a sign next to where she was standing. As I looked closer, indeed the sign pointed directly at Kauki General and Kauki Central Inn.
"... that's a bit too convenient."
But even so, I didn't give it a second thought as coincidences did occur often. I was pretty sweaty from all the running anyways and looked forward to the Inn's showers.
"You think they're connected?"
"What is?"
"The general store and the Inn." I replied, "It wouldn't be uncommon for the builders of this place when they decided to build both that they would be built next to each other. Businessmen and opportunity tend to stack on top of each other, you see dearest Riko. So it wouldn't be surprising that they're owned by the same person who sees double profits."
"I see, by building an inn, the customers due to simple proximity will more likely also buy from the general store."
"Yeah, you're getting it, quite the capitalists these Kauki citizens are, I do say."
My eyes began to gleam.
"And with it perhaps an opportunity for us as well if we can find the right items at the store."
"Urghhh can it wait?" the princess asked. As I looked over at her, I noticed she was drenched in sweat too which caused me to chuckle.
"Well Princess, despite your small frame it appears I am not the only one who could use some physical conditioning. Why, you're practically as drenched as I am."
"This is your sweat Hu, it splashed onto me."
"..."
"..."
"... Oh…"
"Urgh it's fine, let's just take a shower before anything else."
She quickly walked towards the direction of the Inn with me following close behind. When we arrived, the innkeeper had a rather disturbed face as 2 sweaty outsiders wandered into the Inn.
"Immigrants, I fucking swear," I heard him mumble before looking at the paper and coupon.
"Riki of the theater sent us,"
He looked at us annoyed and then took the coupon.
"Alright, how many nights are you staying?"
"Uhhh…"
"4!" said the Princess.
I turned to her. I was surprised that she was so ready to talk to strangers now.
"We'll stay for 4 nights!"
"Alright, that will be 30 Jiples,"
I took out the money and handed it to the innworker who handed me a set of 2 keys, one of which I gave to the Princess.
"Room 318 on the 3rd hallway to your right. There are separate gender bathhouses at the back of the Inn to wipe off your sweaty bodies. Please enjoy your stay."
"Thanks,"
We began walking towards our room. As we did, I couldn't help but ask the Princess…
"4 Nights. I don't recall saying how long I propose we stay here, did I? Not that I'm opposed to specifically 4 nights, but where did you come up with such a number?"
She looked at me briefly as we reached the room before she went to unlock it.
"What do you mean where did I come up with it? I choose it randomly as I'm just making it up as I go."
I blinked, "so there wasn't really a reason?"
"Nope, not at all!" she said with a smile as we entered the room, "But before we discuss anything further Hu, this room has some complimentary wash clothes and towels so please… let's go to the bathing room now right away."
Hastily she grabbed the washcloth and towels and handed one to me as we prepared for another night, under a new roof.