The Royal Deal

Chapter 241

Chapter 241

Like the breadcrumbs in a childhood story she remembered, Hansel and Gretel, she made sure to leave her traces. It wasn’t long before she entered the grove with the fruit trees. Looking to her left, she could see the mansion where she had worked down below.

Wanting to be completed before dark, Amethyst approached the trees where she had seen the orange fruit. Seeing the fruit up close, she could tell that it was smaller than a child’s fist and smelled like a tangerine. Though this was a different season than when the tangerines, that she knew, grew. The fruit certainly looked a lot like the ones she saw on a trip to Jeju island with her family, though smaller.

Just to be safe, Amethyst picked one of the orange fruits and peeled it. The texture inside was similar to the tangerines she was familiar with. There were many similar things in this world from her own, but they all had slight differences.

Before she tasted it, she squeezed a bit of juice on her finger and tasted it, as well as rubbing a bit on the inside of her elbow. She wanted to make sure that she had no adverse reactions to the juice. After waiting for ten minutes, nothing happened. That was a good sign.

Splitting the fruit in half, she put a small piece into her mouth. She’d wait to make sure that a larger quantity didn’t contain any poison. If she vomited or had diarrhea then she would have to abandon this idea.

She sat under a tree and enjoyed the scenery. The sun had gone low in the sky and shadows were starting to creep in. In the mansion, lanterns were lit and flickered in the windows. She could see the workers heading indoors for the evening. She wondered if the ashen-haired slave was all right. She would ask Pauline, the next time she saw her.

After sitting for half an hour, she still had no reaction. It seemed that it was a simple tangerine, though it was probably called by a different name in this world. Amethyst wondered why no one else was harvesting this fruit.

The evening birds had started chirping and the shadows were growing. There wouldn’t be much light left and Amethyst needed to hurry. She pulled out a sack she had packed and began picking the ripe fruits and putting them in. It was beginning to get harder to see the fruit in the trees, and as she was concentrating on her harvesting, Amethyst hadn’t realized she had followed the grove deeper into the forest towards the mountain.

When her sack was full, she looked up and realized she had gotten turned around and didn’t know where she was. I forgot to tie on ribbons in the grove, she thought as she began to panic. The sun was almost gone and soon it would be dark.

The slope of the hill should lead away from the mountain, she thought. However, the hill seemed to slope away in several directions from the place she stood. She started walking in what she thought was the right direction, but with the darkness creeping in she just felt like she was walking in circles.

She seemed like she had been walking forever. The heavy sack of fruit was hurting her shoulders, and her breath was weak at this higher elevation. She took a break for a moment, to stop her legs from shaking, but didn’t dare rest for too long. The night was now complete and she was still lost. She didn’t want to go deeper into the forest but didn’t know what else to do.

If she waited until the morning, Pauline and Erina will notice that she wasn’t at the café and start looking for her. Also, if she waited until the morning, she might be able to see the Veolense mansion in the daylight. Amethyst found a jumble of boulders that had a small space in the middle where she could rest and wait for day.

How do I always get myself into these situations? she thought. This seemed to be the story of her life and didn’t look like it would change any time soon. She stood up and walked in a circle around the boulders. She had to keep moving. It was much colder near the mountain, especially at night, and if she fell asleep, she might freeze to death.

She took the water bottle out of her pack and took a sip to quench her burning throat. She didn’t want to drink too much, just in case. As she raised the bottle to take another drink, she saw a flash of light through the trees. If there was light, there must be a person. Her heart jumped at the thought that she might be saved!

Amethyst quickly shoved the bottle back into her bag, hefted the sack full of fruit onto her shoulder, and started moving towards the light. It seemed like the light was just past the next tree, but when she reached the spot where she assumed it to be, it was still further on. It was almost as if the light was running away from her. Amethyst was scared that whoever was moving ahead of her might disappear, so she quickened her pace, following a strange light into the night.