Maria's reserves of energy felt boundless. She easily made fifteen trips with hardly any issue. But as the day went on and the sun beat down on her more, she started to slow down. Eventually, she miscalculated the amount of strength she needed to put in one of her arms and the cart she was pulling was thrown forward.
When it hit the ground, all of its wheels shattered into pieces leaving Maria dumbstruck.
'How the hell am I supposed to bring this back to the kingdom now?'
A dark thought surfaced in her mind. She was extremely doubtful she could pull it off. However, it was the only way. Maria clenched her teeth and using all her might, she attempted to lift the cart. A few bags of carrots fell off the back when she moved it, but she decided she would go back for them later.
Using both of her arms and all of her body, she held the massive cart over her head. Her entire body was screaming in pain. Every step she took made the ground break slightly under her foot. Maria would have normally been crushed under the force of this massive cart, if she hadn't moved all her strength to every inch of her body.
The balance between focusing the flow of her strength and trying not to succumb to the weight of the cart was maddening. Every muscle fiber in her body was strained, she was sweating profusely and she wanted to let out a scream. Yet, she kept moving one step at a time.
It felt like hours had passed when Maria finally made it to the kingdom to drop off her goods. Bystanders were looking at her in horror. Maria's face looked wrathful. Her hair was messed up and thrown around her face, her green eyes were stuck facing forward and her exhales sounded hoarse like a beast.
"What... what the hell is that?"
"Isn't that the prince's servant? The one who supposedly beat up that massive guy?"
"It is... How the hell is she alive right now? This shouldn't be possible. Those carts weigh almost a ton without anything in them already."
"Look at her eyes. She looks dangerous."
Maria shouted to the crowd that started gathering around her.
"Everyone, stay back unless you want to get crushed!"
The civilians all backed up slowly, giving Maria the opportunity to finally throw the cart off her back. It slammed on the stone road, the wood splintered all over the place and the sacks of vegetables started rolling everywhere.
Maria fell to her knees trying to catch her breath. The pressure was finally relieved from her being and she could think straight again.
'How long did it take? I can hardly feel my legs.'
Maria tried to look up, but even her neck needed a moment to recover. Taking a moment to herself, Maria tried to focus her strength on only her neck so she could look around her. Even with most of her hair covering her eyes, she could see a crowd of people dumbfounded staring at her. Maria didn't think much of it and tried to stand up.
When she tried standing up, she felt someone's hand warp around her arm and try to help her up. It was an older woman from the crowd. She looked more worried than impressed but she complimented Maria, nonetheless.
"That was quite a spectacle you gave us! Are you okay sweetheart?"
Next thing she knew, the crowd started cheering and clapping. She started hearing compliments soar from the crowd.
"Man, if she's working for the kingdom, we're in safe hands!"
"She must have walked for miles with that thing on her back! No wait, thousands of miles!"
"Thousands? Now you're just making things up."
"I want to be like her someday! Glory to Iron Kingdom!"
"Glory to Iron Kingdom!"
"Hey, I heard that because of her, there won't be a food shortage!"
"Is that true? Just who is this woman?!"
Maria was being praised like a saint. She didn't know how to handle all the attention she was getting. Out of pure instinct, Maria bowed to the crowd which was met with even more applause and cheers. Eventually she waved them bye and started heading back out of the kingdom.
She was so exhausted and distracted that she forgot to help put all the crops away, but it seemed like the crowd that appeared had helped the workers themselves, so she didn't scold herself too harshly.
When she arrived back at the field, Lidia was waiting for her by one of two carts left. Her elbow was resting on the edge of one and she had a piece of wheat sticking out of mouth.
"Hey Maria! I was wondering what happened to you. I thought you up and left back to the palace early or something."
Maria bowed her head.
"I'm extremely sorry, my lady. One of the carts I was bringing back lost all its wheels, so I had to carry it myself back."
Lidia's face was shocked. The piece of wheat fell out of her mouth.
"You WHAT?! An entire full cart?! By yourself?!"
"I'm extremely sorry, my lady. I accidently broke it when I dropped it off as well. Please punish me however you see fit."
Lidia looked at Maria speechless then rubbed her head for a moment.
"Punish you? Why would I ever do that?! Do you have any idea how impressed I am?! I can't believe the king was hiding you from me this whole time!"
Maria started to blush a bit and lifted her head.
"So, I am not in trouble?"
"On the contrary! How about you rest back at my place again? I think you've more than earned it!"
Maria didn't show it, but she would have loved nothing more than to get back into that comfortable bed she woke up in after all of this.
"I would love to, my lady. After these last two carts, am I free to go do some chores over at the palace?"
Lidia looked at her with a bright smile.
"After this, you can go and do whatever you would like!"
Maria nodded her head and prepared all her muscles for one final trip back to the kingdom. Surprisingly, Lidia also prepared to lift the wooden poles of the second cart herself, despite seemingly not having an ability to enhance her strength.
With that, the two both walked together back towards the gates of the kingdom. Lidia started another conversation as they walked.
"Say, what are your parents like Maria?"
Maria remained silent for a moment before answering.
"I don't have any parents. They were killed in front of me by the king when I was a young child."
"Oh. I'm extremely sorry for bringing up a sensitive topic."
"No, it's okay. They never loved me to begin with. They're still my parents, but all they ever did was disown me."
"Is that how you ended up a servant of the palace?"
"Correct. Both my mother and father were servants before me. I simply inherited their work."
"Interesting."
Lidia looked off in the distance to see the sun slowly fall in the sky. Maria could have sworn it looked like she formed an idea in her head, but she had no clue what it could have been.
As they entered the kingdom one last time, Lidia told Maria she could leave for the palace and that she would handle unloading everything. Maria didn't argue, she was already drained enough as it was. She slowly made her way back towards the kitchen, limping from exhaustion.
Her clothes and face were a disaster. It looked as if the dirt came alive and attacked her while she was working. While she was patiently waiting for someone to ring the serving bell, she heard the familiar ding in the other room. As she limped out to see who had rung, she saw Jacob.
His body was completely battered, his face was swollen and his brown hair was a mess. She was glad there was mud covering most her face because she felt her cheeks staring to blush.
"Hey Jacob, it feels like it has been a while. How's your training been going?"
Jacob asked if she was okay which she responded by saying it was from her training. She was trying her best to hide her embarrassment from her awful presentation to him. Jacob then offered for them to have dinner together.
Maria strained herself to deny the offer. Truthfully, she wanted nothing more than a nice dinner with Jacob. Just the two of them...
'Wait, why am I thinking like that?!'
But the thing that was preventing her from answering honestly was the king's warning. She needed to prove her strength to him before she could be seen with Jacob, or she would be in serious trouble.
When she shrugged off his invitation, Jacob could see right through her and asked her if she was hiding something, so Maria doubled down with another half-truth instead.
"No. I'm just a bit exhausted from today's work is all."
After Maria gave his order to the kitchen staff, Jacob invited her one last time to keep him company. Maria desperately wanted to agree but declined anyway. She felt saddened seeing Jacob's excitement slowly die down, but she knew it was the right choice.
Eventually, she left the kitchen for the night to walk back to the Rose Dormitories in the palace. Upon arriving, she was met with Lidia outside the main door. A warm smile ran across her face.
"I'm glad you decided to spend the night here, Maria. I actually need to talk with you about something important."
"Certainly, my lady. What would you like to talk to me about?"
"Follow me inside, we were all hoping you would come back."
"Uh... Pardon me ma'am, but who is 'we'?"
"You'll see."
Maria followed Lidia to an exotic dining table with six chairs on each side of it. On the table was a feast of different meats and desserts. Not only that, ten of the chairs were occupied by all the members of the Rose clan. It was a strange sight for Maria to see, all of them looked very different in some way but she could sense dreadful power flowing around them.
"Please, take a seat."
Maria obeyed and took one of the two empty seats towards the end of the table. Lidia joined her in the other empty seat. For some reason, she couldn't help but feel everyone at the table was glaring at her like some sort of spectacle. Lidia was the first to start the conversation.
"I'm sure you're wondering why I invited you in here once more, miss Maria. Well, I am very pleased to tell you that we heard about what you've accomplished in the town with that cart today. Civilians from all over the kingdom made sure we knew so we could thank you properly."
Lidia poured Maria and herself a tall glass of champagne.
"It was nothing, my lady. I was just doing my job."
"You call lugging a cart that weighed easily more than two thousand pounds nothing?"
Some of the people around her started to smirk and chuckle.
"Listen, the reason I brought you here is to offer you something."
"Offer me something? What are you offering me, my lady?"
Lidia handed her the glass of champagne.
"I talked with the king and requested full custody of you. I want to adopt you as a daughter of the Rose clan."