Slow Prison Life

Chapter 35

Noblewoman Keeps a Pet

In the backyard of the castle, an elderly man wearing fine tailored clothes and another man in the prime of his life were taking a walk. Just from hearing their voices you could tell it was the Archduke/Prime Minister combo.

"I heard about it. Apparently that potter promised to immediately make a replacement jar for the one that had been split in half the other day?"

"Umu, he felt sorry for me after hearing the story. He's prioritizing this order over ones he's already taken.......after that, he's going to be laid up for a while. It puts my mind at ease just a bit."

As the men were talking they came to the bank of the pond, and the Archduke glanced up at a tree growing by the water's edge.

"Oh, the fruits have ripened."

Clusters of small red fruits the size of a child's hand had grown all throughout the tree's crown. It was quite the good harvest causing the Archduke to narrow his eyes in delight.

"I planted this crab apple tree almost ten years ago thinking that some delicious fruit next to the watering hole would attract more birds."

"Your Highness......I heard people really couldn't eat crab apples because of their taste, but do birds favor them then?"

"This is a special pollinated breed of crab apples. I mixed together some regular McIntosh apples with the crab apples. I planted some of the typical McIntosh and.........hmm, this year's batch is almost ready to eat. I can already almost see the teeth marks on them."

"That's right huh.............um, isn't there actually something up there?"

The Archduke quickly looked over where the Prime Minister was pointing at.

"Hoh, what lovely white fluff."

"Yes, that fluffy hair really looks soft.........a monkey?"

The two men turned their heads to look at each other before rubbing their eyes and taking another look up towards the tree.

Sure enough, up at the tree's top was a monkey leaping from one branch to another. It's whole body was covered in short, light hair and a tail that was almost thirty centimeters in length. For some reason that monkey was carrying a basket on its back, picking and choosing the tastiest looking apples touched by sunlight and tossing them in his basket.

"A monkey............is it"

"It really is, a monkey. I have never heard of a monkey coming by the royal palace before."

He was probably a monkey somebody kept to help carry tools around. But even so, what was it doing running around the royal palace on its own..........

The monkey continued to show good workmanship in its harvesting, only stopping at one point to nibble on a fruit for himself. He made to throw away the leftover core after finishing off the sweet flesh........when he noticed the two men watching him.

A minute passed as the monkey and the men continued just staring at each other.

The monkey eventually began plucking some good-looking fruits near him and suddenly threw five or six of them at the men's faces.

"Uwah!?"

"Why!?"

After the monkey was finished tossing his apples, he winked at the men, giving them a thumbs up with a large grin plastered across its face.

That face, it was almost as if,

{You guys hungry? It's my treat, so eat up.}

he was saying something like that.