After their activities, Mutiara and Kandita helped the laundry maid dry various articles of clothing.
Not only did the King and his family live in the palace, but the servants who served the King's family also lived in the cabin behind the palace and had their own lives to take care of.
In the middle of drying them, a servant came with a report to Kandita.
“Raden Ayu, Gusti Prabu asks you to survey the harvest.”
“I understand, let him know that I will be prepared.”
Kandita stopped her drying, and Mutiara approached her with a few chit-chat.
“Kandita is indeed an important figure in this palace, huh~ You can leave your share to me.” Mutiara spoke about the clothes that Kandita was supposed to dry.
“Ahaha~ Thank you so much, Kanjeng Ambu. Then, I will take my leave.”
As Kandita moved on, Mutiara waved and the laundry maid bowed respectfully.
The laundry maid returned to her work, but Mutiara paused to watch Kandita's portion of the clothesline.
“… I take a quarter and you the rest.”
“Eeh?!”
A joke made by Mutiara so that the atmosphere between the laundry maid and the king's consort who was drying clothes did not feel awkward.
✵
The location where Kandita and the other surveyors were heading was in a rural area, and it took about a quarter of a day for them to reach it by horse-drawn carriage.
In this era, food quality was an important concern, to ensure that the foodstuffs to be consumed by the people did not contain plague.
Of course, this survey was for the sake of the survival of the kingdom. If the people contracted the plague, they would cease to exist, and without the people, the kingdom also cease to exist.
Kandita was the one who thought so.
However, the main reason Kandita was appointed to attend the survey was not only because of her policies towards her people, but also to sort out the best quality food for her to take back to the palace and enjoy herself, while the mid quality would be left to the market.
As one enters the farmland of the village, rice paddies filled with dense, golden-yellow rice fill up to the edge of sight. As on the other side, there were rice paddies being plowed by the farmer's cows, paddies of fertile muddy soil with a water supply from a mountain river.
Whenever Kandita visited this village, this panorama of farmland always gave her a sense of peace, of being able to see the fertility of food that could still support the kingdom for much longer.
“How beautiful ….”
Kandita murmured in admiration of the view.
“… How beautiful~”
Meanwhile, Kandita's guards was stunned by her beauty in the sunlight, only to be nudged by a surveyor to make him realize that his degree was incomparable to Kandita.
Arriving in the village, Kandita and the others walk on foot while observing the quality of daily life of the residents.
The spaced-out housing tells us that the village is not overpopulated, but that doesn't mean it's a silent place.
The men tended to livestock and other heavy labor, the women picked up clothes and cooked dinner, and the children boisterously played together.
However, some of them stopped their activities when they witnessed Kandita's arrival, either because they recognized Kandita as the king's daughter, or—
KAMU SEDANG MEMBACA
Nyai Rara Kidul
Historical Fictionᮑᮤ ᮛᮛ ᮊᮤᮓᮥᮜ᮪ Penulis: JoeTIC Ilustrator: JoeTIC ⚠️English available⚠️ Kandita, seorang gadis dengan kulit cerah mempesona, putri tunggal dari Raja Munding Wangi, pemimpin Kerajaan Galuh. Walaupun kecantikannya melimpah, Kandita tidak mewarisi takhta...
