26 Chapter 26: The Rose Petal Case

...Shirazad was speechless.

"Your Majesty, do you feel well?" she asked, thinking of reasons to summon the royal physicians... Someone had to get sick in this room, either him or her... And if he was fine, then maybe it was her turn to collapse.

"Yes..." He remained silent for a while. "...You must think this is untypical of me. I don't usually do such things."

"Yes," she said.

"Do you like roses?"

"Ah... well, they are flowers..." she stammered.

"Ha-ha," he said. He came near her and pointed to the petals, "Have a good look at these petals. I've written something with a needle on one of them. Why don't we have a bet? ...If you manage to find the petal and read it, you will come with me and attend your sister's wedding ceremony at Samarkhand. If not... well..." He went to the door, "Take your time."

*Yes, why don't we have a bet.* She frowned. It was not like she could refuse.

Well, she just had to find a petal with some text written with a needle among a few hundred thousand petals.

Wait. What if... She gave him a suspicious look.

"There is no such petal, is there?" she said.

"Do you doubt the word of a King? Of course there is such petal," he said. And he left the room...

A few hours later, he returned, but Shirazad was still looking for the petal. She thought that it seemed in this world where there were no flying carpets and no genies, obviously *this* was how people entertained themselves... She was sitting on the bed.

As soon as she saw him, she stood up and admitted she hadn't found the petal. He went next to the bed to have a good look at the petals.

"So, you didn't find the petal?" he exclaimed. Then he took a rose petal out of his pocket, raised his hand above the bed and demonstratively let the petal fall on the bed. She raised an eyebrow.

Then he looked at the petal and said, "Look. Here it is."

He picked that very same petal from the bed and showed it to her...

Well, if this was a lesson, she could not understand it. If he did not want her to attend her sister's wedding, he could just say so.

"In that case, you're not going to attend your sister's wedding," he said. He waited to see if she was going to protest, but she didn't. "So, you don't need to have a say when I discuss the details about the wedding with the emissaries from Samarkhand today. You'd better stay at your quarters."

***

Just a little while later...

Shirazad and her hand-maiden Annuvanya were on the balcony. Shirazad was trying to jump, but Annuvanya was holding her hand and pulling her back.

"Let go of my hand!" Shirazad exclaimed, trying to push the hand-maiden away.

"Please, Your Highness, please let's go back inside. I can't be held responsible if something happens to you..."

"You are just ruining my whole plan!" Shirazad managed to free her hand, but then Annuvanya caught her dress and then her waist...

"The king is now discussing my sister's wedding with the messengers from Samarkhand. I have to understand what they are talking about... My sister's future depends on that!"

Her poor hand-maiden was really worried when Shirazad decided to go to the first floor balcony...

"It's only two meters high," Shirazad said.

"Your Highness, Your Highness, you can't jump off the balcony! ...And it's more like three meters," the hand-maiden protested.

"I assure you two meters is not so high."

"It just seems as if it's not so high!"

"But His Majesty placed guards in front of my quarters, I can't go past them. While if I jump off the balcony and dress up as a maid, I can return back to my quarters later. They'll just think I am a maid and nobody will notice."

"But... but... is it worth it, doing all of this just to hear what the messengers have to tell the king? ...He will tell you later," Annuvanya said.

"I can't be sure he will tell me the truth. I have to order some of my people to find a way to hear and understand the truth. And look, there is some grass under the balcony. Do you think that I can't jump?"

"No, I think you can jump, that's why I am trying to stop you..." Annuvanya frowned. "It doesn't look very high, but what if you break a leg or an arm? How are you going to explain it to His Majesty?"

"...There are many ways to break an arm or a leg! I've heard of people breaking their legs on an even terrain."

"Your Highness, I have to stop you. If you get hurt, no matter whether you find an explanation or not, I will be punished for being a careless servant!"

"No, you are not going to be punished. I swear! If someone tries to punish you, I will tell them to punish me instead..."

"Why are you so stubborn?"

"Let go of my dress!..."

And so, she jumped. Perhaps the craziest thing she had done in quite some time, but she had to understand what was going to happen to her sister. How could the king lock her in her quarters?! What was going on?...

"Are you alright?" Annuvanya asked when Shirazad landed.

"I am fine," Shirazad declared. Then she went somewhere and Annuvanya lost her from sight.

When Shirazad returned to her quarters, she hadn't learned as much as she wanted but... She couldn't sit on her butt.

Once she was alone with Annuvanya, the hand-maiden exclaimed,

"I told you not to jump! How could you jump... Let me have a look... Your whole butt is blue..."

"Oh, it hurts so much," Shirazad said.

"Do you know how this is called, Your Highness? Karma. I warned you so many times. But you wouldn't listen... Here, you got what you deserved."

"...Do you think it's funny?!"

"How are you going to explain this to His Majesty?"

"Well, I simply won't sit down for some time. Go get me some medicine for blood circulation..."

***

But she was out of luck once again when the king invited her for dinner later in the evening. Of course, dinner was usually had at a table... with chairs.

When Shirazad arrived at the king's quarters, she was silent. Even walking was a little bit painful now. She glared at the chairs.

"Well, why don't you sit down," the king said.

She just frowned a little bit.

"It's a beautiful evening outside," she said. "Why don't we go out on the balcony to admire the stars?"

"What a great idea," he said. "Guards! Move the table to the balcony!... ..."

Well, she looked at the chairs again.

"What's the matter?" he said. "Are you okay?"

Even though he was already sitting at the table, she was standing still.

How strange, earlier this day he'd got a strange report as he'd ordered to be informed about Shirazad's actions...

"Your Majesty, the Queen has asked a royal physician for medicine. Shall we ask her hand-maiden Annuvanya if anything has happened to the Queen?"

"...If you ask Annuvanya, she will tell you, but after that she will tell Shirazad that we asked about it," the king said, "Better go to the kitchen and ask the maid who's preparing the medicine to talk with Annuvanya and to try and understand why Shirazad wants medicine."

And, surprise, surprise... it turned out Shirazad had hurt her... butt. He still did not have a clear idea how this could have happened though. It seemed she really couldn't sit on it.

"I can't!" she said.

"...You can't?" he repeated. "Can you sit on your butt? ...Or you really hurt it?" he almost laughed.

"I knew it! His Majesty has never invited me to dinner before!" Shirazad sighed.

"You've been locked in your room. I am really curious, how did you manage to hurt yourself so badly that you can't even sit down?"

"You probably know that I jumped off the balcony."

"...Why did you jump off the balcony?"

"I wanted to know what would happen to my sister."

"I was going to tell you."

Annuvanya rolled her eyes.

"Which careless servant was with you?" the king asked.

Annuvanya rolled her eyes again.

"Well... I did not think I would hurt myself. It did not look so high... Let's not blame Annuvanya, she's innocent. And how could I know if you would tell me or not? This morning you gave me the petal quest and I still don't understand why you didn't just tell me you don't want me at my sister's wedding."

He was silent for a while, "...And what did you learn today?"

"... ...Don't jump without a pillow?" she said.

"No," he sighed, "Don't do things without permission. And don't think that all decisions depend on you."