Dearest Anonymous, Let Me Be

Chapter 16: ARC 1 - The Lost Princess

Umi just can't help but release an aggrieved sigh.

The sun hasn't still shown up yet and the sky outside her window was painted darker than usual as the thick clouds gather to bring forth the heavy rain, saturating the grounds and sending a chilling breeze towards Umi's dark room, leaving her skin cold.

She glanced down to see what her hands were carrying and once again gave out a sigh. On her hands was a bag full of gold and a few pieces of jewelry that she had saved all these years.

"Can you please stop sighing like you just failed a math test?" Mochi interrupted Umi's solemn aura as he flew on top of the bag in Umi's hands.

"But...knowing that I'm walking into my own doom without properly spending this gold just breaks my heart, Mochi!" Umi cried out. "You know that feeling like...like you planted a tree but its fruits willingly fell into the hands of your neighbors?"

Mochi shrugged. "I don't know, I never planted one."

"Just imagine it!" Umi exclaimed. "It was your hard work to grow the tree but the fruits of your labor went to someone else! So if I die in that tower later this day, then someone else will have these gold and jewelry!"

Umi placed the bag on her bed and then put both of her hands on either side of her hips. "You know what, I'm gonna write a will. I'll say that whoever finds this first after I die will have to give these gold to the poor."

Mochi rolled his eyes. "You know, that will be useless. If you die, then this world will also perish. I mean, what's the point of continuing to stabilize this world if you are gone? Besides, you won't stay in that tower for a whole month! You'll just stay for a few days every week. You won't die for real, well at least in this world."

After Mochi's words, Umi collapsed on the bed beside the bag of gold. She then sighed again. "Well, remind me once again why being here is better than joining my ashes in my past world."

Mochi flew closer to pat Umi's head. "At least you know you won't die again...'cause you know, you're already dead."

Umi glared at the kitten, her dark eyes showing under the stray hair covering her face. "Should I ask the goddess to give you a physical body so I can strangle you?"

In the instant after those words, Mochi immediately flew away and stuck out his tongue. "I'm closer to the goddess than you."

Umi rolled her eyes, heaved a deep sigh, and pulled herself from the bed. Once her feet touched the floor, she started stretching her muscles for a few minutes, and just when she finished her warm-up exercises, she half-shouted-half-whispered. "I will live again!"

When it was finally time for the scheduled departure, Cage escorted Umi to the lord's study. When both of them arrived at the door, while holding the girl's warm hand with his cold ones, it was as if he was the one who was going out on a mission. "Why must you be the one to go? If they just needed a replacement or a disguise, I can do it!"

Umi gave the boy a look from head to toe and shook her head. "Even if she had a bad day, there's no way Rosalyn would look like you."

Cage felt like his heart was pricked by a poisonous arrow. "But I'm handsome though?"

Umi fought the urge to roll her eyes. She thought that this brother of hers was still a silly kid. "I mean, even if Rosalyn was a boy, she wouldn't have those muscles."

Cage, a growing teenage boy with a few muscles showing in the right places, grinned with pride, his anxiousness slightly lessening. "Well, I do have a few muscles here and there."

Umi felt helpless and just gave the boy a small smile but just when she was about to say a few comforting words to the boy she grew up with, the door to the lord's study suddenly opened with a bang, and behind the opened door, a silhouette of a man can be seen under the dim light on the room's chandelier.