Epilogue

“And then I jumped with Fanbiro from the second floor, and then Fanbiro flew down, and then we landed, and then Fanbiro pooped in the hallway.” Nina handed her scribbles to her mother, with a proud glint in her eyes.

Eori rolled her eyes, letting out a loud breath, sitting on the couch with her legs crossed.

Neferteri, rummaging through a cabinet with many small drawers, pulled out a bundle of twelve contracts, and laid it all out on the clean desk in front of her. She then picked up Nina’s carefully constructed report of Fanbiro, with a gentle smile on her face, and quickly glanced through the barely readable text—looking like she superficially appreciated Nina’s extensive research efforts. “As expected, dear princess Nina. What shall you do next?”

“Outside! Outside! Fanbiro want to run in the street!” Nina patted her fanchaki, standing there aimlessly, waiting for Nina to pull its feathers to tell it where to go next.

“Absolutely not. You’re a princess.” Neferteri placed Nina’s report on a pile of disorganized papers to her left, coincidentally where Itagiba’s workspace was located, then unrolled one of the contracts.

Souring her face, Nina went silent, her shoulder dropped, and she groaned through her nose, but as fast as her mood dropped, it came back up when she said. “DAD!” She quickly steered her mount towards the door, preparing to find the king of Sanbi.

“I already talked about such matters with him, and he has yielded his approval.” Neferteri kept reading a few more contracts without even gazing towards Nina.

Nina looked at Eori with a vacant stare.

“Father will say no,” Eori curtly replied, also not caring to look towards her.

Nina’s smile vanished, leaving behind droopy eyes forming tears. “But Mommy—I want to!” Her voice sounded far more begging than teary.

Laying down the contract she was reading, Neferteri closed her eyes for a few seconds, then looked at Nina with the usual elegant aura. “Rather, I have a research request for you.”

Nina cleaned her eyes on her pink vest. “Research request?” Her voice shifted back to upbeat.

“Yes dear, I request you to comprehensively see how many laps around the castle courtyard you can muster to accomplish, you alone versus the fanchaki, then compare those metrics against you riding him.”

Nina blinked a few times, her head bobbing to the side. “Laps?”

“Run in circles, following the wall. See how many you versus the fanchaki can do, then you mount him and do the same.” Eori finally looked towards her sister in pink with a daggered stare.

“THAT’S BORING!” Nina clenched her fists, and hit her own thighs, fulminating.

“You’re performing a scientific experiment for the greater good of the kingdom. The king and queen of Sanbi will personally address your research logs.” Neferteri placed her hand on the empty chair to her left.

Nina looked at Eori again, waiting for her translation services.

“Princess Eori, I strongly advise you to choose appropriate words,” Neferteri followed up, right before Eori could run her mouth.

Eori’s brow clenched, not sounding pleased. “Fine!” She held her purple book up towards the princess in pink, Nina. “Not every single little thing is fun, but you are still collecting information! Write it down, and then analyze it later! Who runs fastest? Who runs the longest? The metrics you write down can be used by other scientists to see if Fanbiro is special!”

“But Fanbiro is special!” Nina hugged her fanchaki, staring back at Eori with her own cute version of a daggered stare, but her cuteness made her far less threatening.

“Then prove it!” Eori brought her purple book to her lap, and ran her hand through her purple hair, letting it dazzle in the wind as if she didn’t care.

Nina clenched her first. “I will!” Her determination oozed in her aura. She grabbed the fanchaki feathers, controlling it like a joystick, and left the room, closing the door loudly, all after struggling to open the handle for a bit.

“My sincere regards Princess Eori, but ensure you cease simplifying my words. I do not want you to be the reason that Princess Nina will dwell within a simple mind.” Neferteri opened another contract and read through it.

“Yes, Mother, now can I deliver mine?” Eori opened her journal, skipping to about one quarter of the book.

“Please, dear,” Neferteri kept reading a contract.

Eori looked at her mother, but only saw a contract blocking her face. She then looked back at her journal. “Experiment twenty-seven. I researched additional variants, specifically Lehuj, and its effect on the potential to soothe intestinal cramps based on its ratio to other ingredients. The results were”—Eori forced air out her nose—“not significantly different from the already available Smooth Gut nari gel.”

“Acknowledged. That’s unfortunate.” Neferteri unrolled one of the last contracts she had taken out, and began reading it. “Perhaps you had a better outcome with another experiment?”

Eori flipped a page. “Twenty-eight. Increase stamina of Water Breath users by attempting to mix additional ingredients, or tweak ratios.” She closed the book “The four ingredients I tried only had negativity effects such as increased heart rate, arrhythmia, or asthmatic-related issues.”

Neferteri lowered the contract she was reading to take a direct look at Eori. “My daughter—you were so passionate about research—”

“Please Mom! I already said I do not want to go to Forway!” Eori snapped back, her voice sounding just as angry as Nina’s.

Neferteri closed her eyes, letting the room grow silent before continuing, “I’ve already taught you the rudeness of interrupting.”

Eori let out a long-winded breath through her nose, biting her tongue “I apologize for my interruption, my Queen.” Her tone sounded rather canned.

“Thank you, Princess Eori. Now as I was saying.” Neferteri grabbed a specific contract amongst the open pile, stood up gently, and walked towards Eori. “Gabiro likely met the darkness, Kibe is an invalid scientist, and the failed experiment will not bear any long-term strategic advantage for our kingdom.”

Eori grabbed the contract and started to glance through, understanding the flowery language of the contract like it was a children’s book. “So a Sanbi-eye acts like a guard, but not really since he’s not tasked with protecting people? So it’s all for show?”

“That's an unrefined way to summarize it, but I cannot call it wrongly.” Neferteri sat in the middle of the couch, right by Eori, waiting for her to finish reading.

Eori finished glancing through, then handed the contract back, “I don’t get it. Why not long term?”

Grabbing the contract back, Neferteri rolled it up with her hands. “There’s a difference between listening and acting. We will take actions that benefit the most, while costing the least, therefore we will eventually appear indifferent to the needs of our people by having everyone’s woes heard in an official manner, but only a few acted upon.”

“And how is that related to my lack of passion in research?” Eori caressed her purple book, then hugged it with her arms.

Neferteri glanced towards the door, closed tightly. “My dear Princess Eori, I have a proposal for you. One that will generate the most benefits out of this situation.”

Eori’s eyes suspiciously gazed towards Neferteri’s, awaiting for the next words to come out of her mouth.

“You’ve enquired about human experimentation before, and I denied due to risks—” Neferteri preemptively stopped Eori from speaking by raising her hand. “Yes, dear. We've been through this before, but you must be aware of the likelihood of bad optics from an experimentee falsifying your actions in public—even if the experimentee signed an NDA, and accepted the experiment’s risks, and afflictions.”

Eori raised her journal, “I understand, Mom. I know you want me to be the next queen, but how am I supposed to find any meaningful findings if I can’t push any boundaries? What are we afraid of? Of me being recognized as a frontrunner scientist?”

Neferteri weakly smiled. “I presume you are aware that none of this shall be discussed with anyone else, including the king of Sanbi?”

Eori gulped, sounding serious, “Yes, queen of Sanbi.”

“Gabiro’s research excursions were, in large part, a facade for him to disappear from the public eye, and perform experimentation of a dubious nature—or being a frontrunner scientist as you put it, or fringe scientist in other’s eyes,” Neferteri stated in a firm, truthful voice.

Eori widened her eyes, gasping slightly. “Is that how he managed to find gold even though he had tons of boring, mundane research?”

“I would prefer if you described them as tame, yet focused on the wellbeing of our population. However, Gabiro was not one to dwell on matters such as social well-being from the goodness of his heart, thus I had to ensure he fulfilled his creative endeavors—gold as you called it.” Neferteri stood up, and walked towards the same cabinet she pulled contracts from before.

No wonder I never found anything worthy of a prized research paper by using the methodologies he described. He fucking lied! Eori bit her inner cheek, imagining hundreds of hours spent on research now being a complete waste of time, with only three lukewarm findings that could get another scientist or a nari gel manufacturer interested, but nothing groundbreaking—maybe a two or a lucky three on the Richter scale where people might feel it, but will soon forget about it. How am I supposed to be recognized this way?

Opening a specific drawer, showing a bundle of about seven contracts, Neferteri continued, “To ensure these endeavors were not conflicting with our imagery, I used my existing small but trusted network of personnel to help carry out said excursions.”

Eori firmly held her book, silently biting her inner cheeks.

“Dear, this is a golden opportunity for you to regain your passion.” Neferteri placed the contracts back, closing the small drawer with a firm push. “In exchange you will outdo yourself to be a far better queen than your other sisters.”

“How is this a golden opportunity?” Eori still gripped her book in her lap.

“The failed experiment Gabiro created is known by nobody, and knows nobody. Which is to say that if he were to meet an unfortunate accident and disappear, would anybody be concerned?” Neferteri let out a stronger smile, one not as elegant as usual. “Our citizens will wonder about the Sanbi-eye’s role, not the person carrying it.”

Eori, slightly reddening in the face, stood up as well. Approaching Neferteri, she spoke in a lower volume, even though there was nobody else in the room. “So you’re saying Gabiro created him? How?”

“Gabiro stated he would achieve Maiara’s desired husband through a Buhraies spell—” Neferteri could not finish her sentence.

“Buhraies? That’s ancient!—my apologies, my queen.” Eori leaned forward, quickly bowing, then beginning to intensely play with the tip of her long purple hair.

“Thank you for acknowledging it. First, in regard to Sanbi-eye, once the current experiment suffers an untimely fate, we will post a search quest, and not proceed to find a replacement until we discover what has occurred. Doing so guarantees we can extract the most amount of goodwill from the situation. Second, only I know about Gabiro’s true intentions with the Buhraies spell, but unfortunately, I am not knowledgeable enough on the subject to give you an explanation other than relaying that Gabiro was attempting to create, or reshape a soul. However, I assume he was too eager, or confident per usual, to perform the spell. I warned him to never perform such daring research onsite but his ego, likely fueled by Itagiba’s ability to rile anyone up, caused haste in the process, and headaches for yours truly to deal with and cover up. To make matters worse, I feel it’s reasonable to state that he’s soul dead. With all of that said, I will be counting on you to turn this failed experiment around.”

Eori ramped up the pace she was playing with her hair, waiting for her mother to stop blabbering. “What about him being from the slums? Wasn’t this whole thing a fake body request?”

“Have you not listened to my explanation? That’s a fabricated story—one of plenty I had prepared depending on the experiment results.” Neferteri’s smile turned into a slight frown.

Eori looked at her book. “What if he wins?”

Neferteri slowly shook her head, closing her eyes. “I will grant you the possibility of an unforeseen effect due to the spell, but given his appearance not matching Maiara’s description, the chances of a hidden power, or another desirable attribute are slim, specifically one that would suddenly develop during the duel.” She opened her eyes, and joined her hands in front of her, slowly rubbing them together as she began to ponder for a moment before speaking up. “If one were to develop, then I will accept it as fate for I cannot control every piece in a Minari game.”

Eori stopped playing with her hair. “Wait!—where would he be then?”

“At a hideout of my choice, hidden away for you to research on, while I proliferate a propaganda of bad actors exploiting and interfering with our kingdom.” Neferteri slowly opened her arms towards her daughter. “Would you like to partake in helping Sanbi kingdom—our kingdom—grow to be the strongest one?”

“YES!” Eori, with a glint in her eyes, accepted and tightly hugged her mother without batting an eye—

“Quil! Quil! Quil! Quil!” A parrot-like bird with beautiful blue feathers screamed to another similar bird as both stood on a branch above Eori, passing underneath, boorishly sitting back in a wagon wheel. She quickly glanced at them, as her mind came out from a vivid daydream, carefully analyzing how her mother suddenly gave her an opportunity of a lifetime. Leaving the pair of birds fighting amongst themselves behind, Eori took a depth breath as she looked forward at the dirt trail they were traveling, dividing up a somewhat sparse summer-themed forest, with its healthy green leaves hustling in the wind, providing a rhythm alongside the egua, trotting for the birds to jazzily chirp, or screamingly quack at one another in the distance. She could hear other animals doing their thing in the distance as well, trying to freestyle against the bird’s jazz, but none of them sounded like other eguas or people. From the looks of it, they truly had the forest to themselves, even if temporarily.

Eori’s body still had the same female proportionate figures of Princess Eori, but her eyes had a brown dull color to them, plus there was something different to her facial structure as well; different enough to make it harder to determine who she really was. Her long purple hair was now mostly tied up in a ponytail, with no sign of the royal blue hair strands, while her clothes looked like those of just another passerby working for a meager, but livable wage—just nothing special about her, as if trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. The wagon wheel bumped as it kicked a stone in the dirt trail, making Eori frown her eyes in response. “Pay attention to the road.” Her snappy response sounded kinda like Eori, but there was something slightly off to her voice as well.

Driving the wagon wheel attentively to the road ahead was a buff blonde guy with green eyes and plain clothes—also looking inconspicuous, but perhaps not trying as hard. His natural beauty and well-defined muscles would get most ladies to drop their panties if he said the right thing at the right time. “Apologies, Funima Sanbi,” he bowed slightly in response.

“People are gonna be weirded out if you keep this uptight—you know what? Whatever.” Eori crossed her arms and looked away, hearing a small village up ahead.

Behind them was a large stowaway package, able to fit about the size of two large suitcases—or coincidentally an average male body, while in between them a weapon lay resting, ready to be taken from its hilt at a moment’s notice. However, they did not appear to be anxiously waiting for a fight, or paying close attention to the rustles of the forest at all. Instead, they looked like a young couple coming back from a date trip in Sanbi kingdom, going back to their simple farm where their animals and crops were patiently waiting for their loving care—a sensible fan fiction if one just saw them from afar, while up close they would not see any amorous intent between them.

Without saying one word to one another, they passed by a village where an older woman sat in front of her home, apparently just watching traffic. She lazily waved her hand towards them; either she was half-dead or half-asleep, or both.

Eori did not reciprocate the wave, while the rider did not even look towards the village. A few houses past, they saw a group of kids playing with wooden swords against one another, taking turns to either attack or defend. An attacking boy went with an impale attack, turning his sword into a makeshift polearm, but the defending girl timed her defense just right to bash the polearm away from her, but did not realize the inertia from the running boy. Just like a clichéd anime fall, the boy clashed into the girl, smashing their lips together in the process as the boy pinned her to the ground, causing an uproar amongst the other kids. One could say it was romantic, but the fall they took looked to have knocked out a tooth or two.

Eori remained reactionless as she saw the event unfold, then disappear in the back as the wagon wheel kept on going towards the end of the village. Some more time passed where they kept going in this kinda straight dirt road, then the rider pulled the wagon wheel towards a specific smaller side road, leaving the village far behind. Soon after, the rider pulled on the leashes, slowing down the egua, and stopping the cart towards a small clearance on the right, in the middle of nowhere. “We’re about half largeadi from where Sinoi will drop off the experiment.”

“Yeah, I know,” Eori jumped out of the wagon, and opened a door on the side, where she pulled out a small black crossbow, and started arming it, or at least attempting at arming it.

Morika, the rider, saw Eori struggling to cock the arrow into the crossbow, but did not say anything. Instead, he jumped the wagon, and approached the Egua’s butt where he released what appeared to be a poop bag, and walked to empty it out farther into the woods.

Eori heard a click coming from the small black crossbow, and with it, she grinned viciously. So close! I can’t fucking wait!