My third day at the Moon Palace has begun.
Waking up from my sleep, I opened my curtains, welcoming the warm light of the Sun into my room. I looked out of my window, and gazed upon the limitless and vast, yet peaceful and serene sea, and its reflection of the azure horizon and the sky.
This is the beginning, of yet another beautiful day for me on the Moon, and today, I'm going to see Princess Jupiter and Princess Mars.
Jupiter's door is of a green gradient, pale on the top, and rich in the bottom. Surrounded by glowing outlines of the same green color, the doors are adorned with symbols of planet Jupiter, as well as a representation the planet itself. The multiple rings of the planet, which I first knew about when I read a book about the Solar system, were finely engraved on the door. To the top left of the planet is a rose flower. I wonder, is this Princess Jupiter's favorite plant?
I knocked on the door, waiting for a response.
"Come in."
With the press of a button, I opened the door, and saw Princess Jupiter standing in her room.
Unlike all the others, Jupiter is a girl of my height, and so, she is perhaps the only one I could talk to at the same eye level. And yet, like the other princesses of the Moon Kingdom, she wears a necklace, which is a metallic representation of the symbol of planet Jupiter, joined by chains of gold. At first glance, the symbol of Jupiter resembles the number "4" - and coincidentally, Jupiter is the fourth Lunarian I've met, if we include Serenity. I could also notice her pink rose earrings, which are simply elegant and eye-catching, and complements the overall green color of her outfit as well!
With a bright smile on her face, she greeted me, "Aurora!"
The walls of her room is painted like a forest, with natural plants hanging around. In the center of her room, there are a few wooden boards, which she usually practices her martial arts on, and her room is also equipped with a few platforms, as well as strength training-related machinery. The ceiling of her room is decorated like the canopy of the forest, with a high density of green leaves, yet letting some sunlight shine through the gaps between the leaves. The room's design reminded me of the forests of Kultajärvi, where I have been raised as a "woodcutter's daughter" for almost sixteen years, from shortly after my birth, to just a few days ago.
Princess Jupiter then regarded at my gown, and seemed to concentrate her mind on it.
With a profound interest in my outfit, she said, "It's unbelievable that our dresses' colors match! We both wear green. What makes you like this color?"
I responded happily, while I swung my dress around with my hands. "It's because the Northern Lights on Earth are green! I like this color, which represents the natural phenomenon of Earth that I am named after. I grew up around the Arctic Circle, and every night, I look up to the sky to watch the Northern Lights, and they looked so surreal, and so magical. I have always wished to have an outfit that represents my name and who I am, and I am fortunate, and so blissful, that your sister Princess Venus has gifted me this gown."
Jupiter then looked back and forth between her outfit and mine, and commented, "And our outfits really match! Venus isn't known as the fashion enthusiast among us for no reason."
After regarding at her outfit for a few more times and comparing it to mine, I could say that her claim is something that I could agree. "I'm sure they match! It looks like we are real sisters."
Both of us are wearing floor-length green dresses, and we are both similar in height. Even though our outfits have very different designs regarding the hemline and slightly different gradients of the green color, I feel that there is a subtle harmony and resonance between our outfits.
We both giggled, realizing how well our outfits match.
I then moved my focus, from Jupiter's dress to the wooden boards. "By the way, Jupiter, I heard from your brother and your sisters that you are multi-talented. Could you show me... some of your talents?"
Jupiter blushed, and hesitated for a while, but that ultimately did not stop her from showcasing her talents. "Uh... Of course!"
She then took a stack of wooden boards, and placed them next to two stone platforms. With much concentration, she put her elbow on top of the boards, as if she was formulating some strategy.
A few moments later, she jumped up, and slammed her forearm down on the wooden planks, breaking every single one of them into halves.
I was utterly amazed, by this display of her talent in martial arts. I thought it was impossible for a human to break wooden planks with only the power of her forearm, but the strength she has exhibited is beyond my imaginations - she broke not only one, nor two, but a whole stack of wooden planks!
"Wow, Jupiter!"
Jupiter turned towards me, and regarded me with a blush on her face.
I added another compliment, "Your strength amazes me!"
With a smile on her face, she said, "Thank you... Aurora."
She then summoned forth robots holding wooden planks in high and low positions. Not long after that, she launched two swift and successive kicks, one upwards and one downwards, and broke the planks, with much precision, speed and force.
She said, "I have always believed that martial arts is a combination of strength and focus. Without focus, immense strength loses its use."
Looking back at the moments when she delivered the kicks, I commented in response, "I could see that you're having quite a precise focus, when you were kicking the planks into pieces."
Jupiter then climbed a short staircase in her room onto a platform, saying, "there's one more skill that I want to show you, Aurora!"
Put a long wooden plank on top of two vertical columns twice her height, she formed a bridge between the columns. She then stayed silent as she went down the stairs, as if she was putting deep focus into breaking the long plank.
Jupiter stood between the two columns. She crouched, with her arm well-positioned, her hand held into a fist. It seems like, she is calculating the right moment to strike.
Moments later, she exerted a considerable amount of downwards force with her left leg, propelling her upwards with a reaction force. She thrusted her right fist upwards at the same time, delivering a powerful uppercut, and breaking the wooden plank from below.
Hearing the loud, crispy and clear sound of wood breaking while witnessing this impressive art in front of my eyes has made me unable to resist giving her yet another compliment to her strength. "You're really a strong and skilled princess, Jupiter!"
Jupiter then curtsied in front of me. "It has been an honor to display my skills in martial arts to you, Aurora. I am glad, and grateful, that my skills are acknowledged by a princess who came all the way from Earth!"
I asked, "Jupiter, I'm curious. Is there a reason why you are the strongest among your sisters?"
She explained with much enthusiasm, "Jupiter is the largest planet in the Solar system by volume, and a gas giant with the heaviest mass. The first incarnation of Sailor Jupiter was worshipped by many for her unbelievable strength, because of her nature as the guardian of the planet. A planet with such enormous size and mass required a guardian as strong as the planet itself. So here I am, a princess with the most powerful arms in the Solar system!"
She then toned her voice down. "However, I think that I might be too out of touch with my sisters and my brother if being strong is the only thing that defines me. I might have all the power, but ultimately, I have always had the instinct that I should use the power I have, to protect the ones I deeply care about. I tend to use other ways to express my soft side, such as learning recipes and cooking them for my sisters and my brother, as well as maintaining the flower garden in the palace."
So, is Jupiter really more than just a fighter and a martial artist, as she said when she introduced herself to me days ago?
The idea of such a physically strong princess and martial artists also having cooking and gardening as interests was initially foreign to me, and it was difficult for me to picture an image of Jupiter that is chef, or a gardener, immediately after seeing her perform her martial arts.
However, as I thought more and more about Jupiter's caring side, and how she came to develop it, I started to imagine scenes where she prepared some good meals for her sisters and her brother, and told everyone to come and enjoy. Thinking about all this, my heart gradually melted. "How lovely of you! You surely enjoy cooking for your sisters and your brother, is that right?"
Jupiter confirmed, "Yes. My sisters and my brother do not jokingly call me 'the best cook in the Moon Kingdom' without reasons."
She then headed out of her room, and went to the open kitchen in the common room, while I followed.
She thought for a while, as if she was pondering what kind of recipe she should prepare. After a while, she seemed to have made up her mind. "Today, I'm going to make a Lunarian sweet roll."
She then activated a holographic recipe, which showed the list of required ingredients. While watching the list, she picked the listed ingredients from the refrigerator, and put them onto the table.
Reading from the list, she said, "we will need half a Lunarian pound of sweet almonds," and began to put almonds from a box onto a pressure plate-based scale, until the scale reads 0.5.
She continued to read from the list, "one fifth a Lunarian pound of almond pulp," and put the corresponding ingredient onto another scale.
And it went on. "Half a liter of milk, fifteen milliliters of vanilla sugar, quarter a liter of whipped cream," as Jupiter measured the ingredients she was preparing, to make sure that she prepared no more, and no less, than what was required. I could see in her emerald eyes, that she is measuring with the highest degree of precision, knowing that too much or too little of an ingredient will significantly change how the final product tastes.
"Four cinnamon buns, as well as some icing sugar." She then packed the last ingredients, which do not require measuring with a scale.
Looking at all the prepared ingredients on the table, she said, "all ingredients prepared."
The holographic interface then switched to the first page of instructions.
"Roast the almonds in a dry frying pan, then chop them."
Having read the instruction, Jupiter took out a pan, and inspected it thoroughly to make sure that it is free of any water. She then turned on the electric induction heat source, putting the pan above the source and heating the almonds.
After a few minutes, having deemed the almonds to be sufficiently roasted, Jupiter prepared a chopping board and chopped the roasted almonds on it.
She then commanded the holographic interface, "next page."
The instructions then showed, "shred the almond pulp, mix it with the vanilla sugar and the milk, then whip it until it gets creamy. After that, mix it with the almonds."
She then poured the milk into a bowl, and added the vanilla sugar. Afterwards, she shredded the almond pulp into smaller bits, then threw the almond pulp into the mixture, mixing them for a while. The mixture is of a creamy white color, somehow reminding me of the snow of Kultajärvi in winter, but of a slightly warmer shade.
After Jupiter finished mixing the almond pulp with the milk and the vanilla sugar, she commanded again, "next page."
This page of the recipe is rather simple and straightforward - "Whip the cream."
Jupiter then used a whipping machine to whip the cream at a speed that is unimaginable to me. Back on Earth, the speed of whipping cream is dependent on how fast your hands can move. But with electric machines, Lunarians can whip cream at an impressive speed, that I estimate is twenty times faster than using the hand-powered method. Simply said, electricity often works wonders, and the funny thing is that I am literally watching the Princess of Electricity using an electric machine to prepare a dessert!
After that, she turned to the last page of the recipe.
"Part the cinnamon buns, then paste the almond pulp on the bottom and top it with the whipped cream. Add the top of the cinnamon bun, and decorate it with some icing."
She did as instructed by the recipe, carefully arranging the processed ingredients together, and...
There it is - we've made a Lunarian sweet roll! Four, to be exact.
She then divided the sweet rolls among two plates, one for her, and one for me, and brought the plates to the dining table as I followed her.
Holding up a sweet roll, Jupiter said in bliss, "Let's savor them!"
It did not take long for Jupiter to have a first taste of the sweet roll she has made, and I could tell, from her facial expressions, that she truly enjoys the sweet roll!
The way she enjoyed the sweet rolls made it irresistable for me to also taste them. I also began to savor the sweet roll, and having tasted the smooth texture of the almond fillings, I could only say, that it tastes like heaven!
These sweet rolls became yet another reason for me to compliment the multi-talented princess. Having just finished another morsel of my sweet roll, I told her, "Jupiter, you're really talented!"
Jupiter humbly responded, "I was just following the recipe, to be honest."
Having finished her last bite of her second sweet roll, Jupiter asked, "Aurora, shall we head to the flower garden of the palace for a walk?"
I agreed to her invitation, and together, we took the elevator down to the ground floor.
The Garden. I remembered that the first time I was there, was when I walked into the palace grounds for the first time two days ago, in the company of Serenity and his sisters. I remembered the clashing sound of the water jets of the fountain in the center, and the vibrant and colorful fields of floral plants in the garden.
As we walked along the palace corridor into the garden, Jupiter introduced. "The Palace Garden is known by Lunarian citizens to be their favorite place for resting, relaxing and recharging."
Her description of the garden already got me thinking back about my first time walking through the garden, but with more attention to the Lunarian citizens who are relaxing at the benches of the garden, sensing the fragrance of hundreds of flowers and enjoying the clear air.
She continued, "A garden that grandiose and that popular requires maintenance. Even though we have robots and tools powered with artificially-intelligent algorithms doing most of the maintenance work, I am still involved in the maintenance of the garden, since countless incarnations of Princess Jupiter, ever since joining the Moon Kingdom millennia ago, have liked gardening as an interest."
She then walked me to the rightmost corner of the fountain, pointing at a species of white flowers planted there.
"This species of flower is scientifically known as Lilium haemum, of the genus Lilium, which has been planted on the Haemus Mountains near the southwestern shore of the Sea of Serenity."
I crouched down, and tried to sense the pleasant scent of a Lunarian flower. It seemed to me, that the fragrance of Lunarian blossoms are not very different from those from Earth - a fresh, and perhaps lightly sweet smell.
I observed the structure of the Lilium haemum, noticing the shape and the texture of the petals.
Jupiter then pointed to a group of blue flowers in another zone, and said, "those flowers are of the species Hyacinthoides caucasica, which are found at the Caucasus Mountains, between the Sea of Serenity and the Sea of Showers."
Looking at the vast flower garden of various colors, I could only imagine how many species of flowers Jupiter knows about. "It seems to me that you have a great interest in gardening, too, hearing all the names of the species..."
Jupiter glanced forward briefly at the vast field of flowers, telling me, "some flowers stand out to me and are my favorites. But as a gardener, I am always interested to know about plants of more species, and how I maintain them. After all, the flower garden at the Moon Palace can be considered a grand piece of art, but if it is monotone, it somehow loses its soul."
I agreed. "To be honest, I like how the flower garden is arranged when considering the colors of the species, it is just as you said, like a piece of art at a grand scale."
Jupiter then looked around, and noticed a bench next to us.
"Shall we sit together at the bench and enjoy some sunlight?"
Why not, on such a pleasant day?
I did not hesitate to reply, "of course, Jupiter!"