Three days later, I walked down with all the servants to Queen Linda's funeral.
I wore a black dress with a red bow at the collar. Yuka sat next to me during the sermon and speeches. We had to sit in the back, but I could see Rin up front. We were outside, sitting in white chairs in rows behind a black closed coffin. It was extremely hot that day. Only close friends, family, and servants could go to the funeral. If that was not the case, then the whole kingdom would have showed up. Everyone loved the queen. She was benevolent and merciful.
This was how the kingdom works: The Capital and lands of purple, green, blue, etc. were their own independent nations, but the "Capital" was very influential. The monarchs of the Capital were sort of considered the monarchs of all the lands of color as well. The lands could go to war, though, and they traded with each other like normal countries. They were at peace with each other at that time. Traveling between lands was easy, as well.
I noticed that all the kings and queens of the lands of color were there. Their hair colors alone made a rainbow. I heard sobbing every couple minutes from various sections. A few seats away from me was a twenty-something year old girl who looked extremely exasperated. She constantly fixed her hot pink hair and checked the time.
"Oh my gosh, when will this stupid thing be over?" she asked a blonde footman next to her. He looked at her with cold resentment then continued to face forward. "Whatever. Unlike you, I don't like attending funerals of people I never talked to." She flipped back her hair again and crossed her legs.
What a brat. I thought. I may have never known Queen Linda, but I could tell that she was a good person. I ignored the rude girl for the rest of the funeral.
A half an hour later, Queen Linda's casket, decorated with exquisite flowers, was lowered into the ground. Her family was then left to pay their respects. All the guests, except the servants, went to the ballroom of the castle. We had to gather in the servant's hall for luncheon.
"That was so tedious," the pink haired girl said. "and boring, too." Everyone ignored her. The blonde boy from earlier's face beamed red. He seemed livid with her.
"Who is that prat?" I whispered to Yuka over our beef stew.
"That's Oheina. She's always complaining about something. I wouldn't pay her any mind. She's just a maid," Yuka replied.
"And him?" I nodded towards the blonde boy.
"He's Len. He's really nice. He doesn't talk much, though, and-" she added in an even more hushed whisper, "he often just disappears. No one knows where he goes."
"Interesting." The table became silent.
After a few minutes, Oheina grabbed a roll from the center of the wooden table, took a bite, and spit it out melodramatically. "That is terrible!" she looked at the cook in disgust. The cook was a little older than I was and looked shocked and slightly hurt. "How could you mess up a roll, you stupid girl!"
Len stood up from the table. Everyone, even Oheina, turned toward him. "You. Selfish. Brat," Len said. His head was down and his teeth were clenched. "You only care about yourself and have no respect for the living or the dead," and he sat right back down and continued eating.
Oheina stared, shocked, at Len. Now, everyone was staring at her. She slowly looked down and continued eating as well. And then, the bystanders to this exchange did the same.
After we all finished, the footmen and butlers started filing out of the kitchen with trays of food. For an hour, I had to just stand in the corner with my hands folded. doing nothing. Then, I was dismissed and I went to my room, opened the cupboard, took out my stuffed bunny, and sat down on my bed, staring at it. Her name was Mimi. Mimi was my only friend for the year I spent without seeing Yuka. She had two red buttons for eyes and a small black nose. There was no mouth. The ears had heart-shaped holes in the ends of them. A zipper ran down the middle of her stomach with lace on either side. She also wore a black travelling cloak with lace.
Yuka made me Mimi for my tenth birthday. Her parents were tailors, and we were obsessed with bunnies. We were both fond of them in the palace, too. Yuka told me that she was trying to convince the head maid, who commanded all the female servants, to let her get a bunny as a pet. The head maid said maybe, if Yuka worked hard.
Yuka came in half an hour later. I was reading a book in a chair in the corner. She gave me a weak smile and flopped on her bed.
"The rich are too boring," she said as she made herself comfortable. "But, they're rich, so they don't need to be interesting to make friends."
I looked up from my novel, stood up, and stretched. "True," I said
"Half of them are either involved with the mafia or married to their cousins. It's messed up."
"I've heard this before." Yuka liked to rant about the rich in her letters a lot.
"By the way, you start tomorrow," she added, grabbing her own large book from under her bed.
I sighed. "What do you know about Rin, anyway? Does anyone know her?"
"Not really. Rumor has it-" Yuka paused for dramatic effect, "that Len talks to her."
"There's a lot of rumors in the place."
"It's a big place, and the poor are very interesting. That can get you enemies as well as friends."
I thought about that for awhile. Len and Oheina and Rin and everyone else in that palace were very interesting, indeed.