Hortus Arcanus planēta

ACT 2

Bread

There was still work left to do.

One-third of the long, endless hallway still remained.

As for Ella, she had gone outside to water the flowers.

When I glanced out the nearby window, I saw her carefully watering the tulips with all her might.

Then, two white doves fluttered past above Ella’s head.

I noticed that the birds’ eyes were blue, and after confirming it, I returned once more to cleaning the long, endless hallway.

Before long, the sunlight turned into the warm glow of the evening sun.

After we finished cleaning the hallway, it was time to prepare lunch.

The lunch given to Ella and me was a single piece of bread. We split it in half and shared it.

According to Ella, this meant that her stepmother, Surie, along with her older sister Rope and younger sister Nepe, were in a relatively good mood.

When they were in a bad mood, apparently it was not unusual for there to be no lunch at all.

Ever since becoming transparent, I rarely felt hungry anymore.

But today, for the first time in this Cinderella story, I ate food while in human form.

The bread was dry and cold, the kind that steals every bit of moisture from your mouth. It could hardly be called delicious. Still, I had wanted, just once, to try eating something real from within this story itself.

That moment became the first time since entering this tale that I had placed food into my mouth.

Usually, I never really felt like eating, so I would give all of it to Ella instead.

But today alone, exhaustion and curiosity overcame me, and so we split the bread in half and ate it together.