Tale Spinster

EP 13: SIR MEISTER

The Rolexia Mining Cave was in a rural village at the edge of the kingdom, and it took around an hour's drive from the main city. Along the way, Paul kept asking me, "Are you sure you want to go to Venmeer Village?"

"Yep."

"But Princess," Paul said, "Sir Meister is notorious for hating royals. And his influence in the village is prominent. So I don't think–"

"Let that be my problem, Paul," I told him off firmly. Van Dich and Margeritha shrugged their shoulders to Paul through the reflection of the rear mirror. Paul sighed and gave up after that.

The village had no streets for vehicles to come through, so Paul had to park a few miles away, and then we walked the rest to the village front gate. The knight guarding the village was sleeping in his post, so we just invited ourselves in since the gate was not intricately locked in the first place.

Margeritha muttered under her breath how muddy and dirty the village was for her shoes, but I disregarded her complaints. I was surprised by how sweet Van Dich and Paul each offered their hands to support Margeritha in walking.

I mean... I'm pretty sure I was still the princess. The only royal blood between them all. But these two men only had their eyes to help Margeritha... my maid.

Life.

Though it was very interesting to see both Paul and Van Dich fight a little on who would be best to help Margeritha walk. Apparently, they had this little love triangle. Another thing that I wouldn't know from just reading the book.

"Who are you guys?" A teen boy carrying a basket on one of his shoulders asked us. "Are you from the city?" The boy looked around my–I mean, Diana's age. He was wearing a simple tunic and pants, along with a pair of green boots. Inside his basket was a metallic silver liquid. But what caught my attention was how the boy's hand tremored so much while holding the basket.

"Yes," I answered, "We want to meet with Sir Meister."

"Are you royals?" the boy asked.

Margeritha opened her mouth to answer, but I cut her off. "No," I answered the boy, "We are just people from the city with a proposition for Sir Meister."

"Are you going to help Sir Meister cure us?" At his words, several villagers got out of their homes to stare at us. They were well dressed, but it was obvious they were generally leaning on the underweight category. Even the children had eye bags under their eyes and looked gaunt.

"Cure you?" I fished the boy for more information.

The boy tilted his head as if telling us to follow him, so we did. He took us on a straight path to an enormous cave at the end of the village. "The people in this village have terrible tremors, insomnia, headaches, weakness," the boy said, "Sir Meister also said that he noticed mood changes in several of our villagers. And that some have deteriorating nerve responses."

Interesting.

"He tried to find our cure for years before finally, he made a bargain with the King to help him mine the Rolexia stones to make Rolexia elixir. He said that Lady Mirala's symptoms are the same as ours, so it's like killing two birds with one stone, especially because no one has ever successfully transformed Rolexia elixir into a consumable drug."

"Sir Meister said that Lady Mirala's symptoms are the same as the ones you just described?" I needed to make sure.

Lady Mirala's symptoms were similar to these villagers. Both had weakness and headaches. Lady Mirala's maid told us Mirala had been feeling low, while the boy told us that the villagers had been having mood changes. But there was one other thing that make me think that they were not the same symptoms... Lady Mirala did not have tremors.