Noticing that it had gotten bright out, Haley rubbed his sleepy eyes and opened them. Light was shining into the stonework room. Morning had come.
He was about to get up when he realized that someone was gently hugging him. He looked and saw that his mistress had fallen asleep with him in her arms.
“Ook...”
“What should I do?”
He could have freed himself, but he decided to stay put until his mistress woke up. He didn’t have a packed morning or anything. Besides, he would feel sorry for this darling girl if she woke from her dreams to find herself deserted.
As Haley drifted in and out of slumber, his mistress awoke and prepared breakfast. Once he was awake, he joined her at the table.
Haley’s meals generally consisted of fresh fruit. Sometimes that included things he’d picked himself outside, and sometimes there were vegetables that could be eaten raw. Haley could eat meat and bread too without issue, but Rachel didn’t like to give him processed foods. She’d said something strange about cooked food having too much salt. He liked salty food, though.
The mistress didn’t have servants in this lone stonework room like she’d had at the manor. He missed the maids doting on him, but the upside was that he could be with his mistress all day here. That was nice in its own way.
Once they’d finished breakfast, his mistress brushed him. With that, Haley’s morning routine was complete. He’d play around by her side for a while, then, if she didn’t have anything for him to do, he’d go for a walk.
It seemed he had no chores today and no one to play with. Haley used body language to signal to his mistress that he was going out and then left through the barred ventilation window to take a walk.
Haley shouldered his basket and wandered from the rear gardens into the hallways, picking up trash as he went. The key was to do it where people would see him.
“Oh, Mr. Monkey, are you going around collecting garbage? That’s so good of you.”
“He’s so cute!”
Haley waved to the girls who cheered him on as he picked up trash. Doing it where people could see him left a good impression. It would improve his mistress’s reputation, so he did this as much as he could when going out.
As he was dumping the trash he’d collected into a garbage can, the blond idiot’s lackey, a chamberlain, wandered by. He was with a young maid, and they had a good vibe going. They could have started holding hands at any moment.
“Oh? If I recall correctly, isn’t that monkey Lady Ferguson’s pet?” asked the chamberlain.
“Huh? But she’s in prison, isn’t she?” the maid replied. “Why is her pet here in the palace?”
Haley was a thoughtful monkey. Even though this was the blond idiot’s lackey, if Haley gave him something nice, maybe the man would be good to his mistress.
What would be best, though? He had an idea. He’d found a book behind a shelf in a room full of beds, in a building with lots of armed humans. It was in his basket right now, in fact.
“Ook.”
He approached the wide-eyed man and handed it to him. He smiled too, to give a positive impression. It was important to be considerate like this.
“Huh? What’s the monkey giving me?” the chamberlain asked. “Hrm. One Hundred Ways to Drag a Simple Country Girl into Bed... What?!”
The maid blushed. “Hold on. What kind of books are you having the monkey buy you?!”
“No! It’s not like that! I’d never ask for a book like this!”
“Oh, I see. You thought I was a simple country girl that you could bed easily, did you? I was born and raised in the city, just so you know!”
“Th-That’s absurd! I never asked for this book! Honest!”
“Then why did the monkey give it to you?”
“I don’t know! It’s really not mine!”
The girl smiled at Haley as he watched them. “Hey, Mr. Monkey. Did this guy ask you to buy him this book?”
Haley didn’t know what the woman was trying to say, but she was smiling, so she must have been happy. He’d better make the man look good.
Haley smiled and nodded.
“See! I knew it! He says you asked him for it!”
“I don’t know anything about it! I’m not lying! I’d never do any of the things written in this book to you, would I?!”
“Well, what then? Were you planning to pick up a real country girl who doesn’t know what’s what?! You’re awful!”
“I wasn’t planning anything of the sort! Honest!!!”
It looked like they were fighting over the book he’d given to the man. Was it something so nice that he’d break up with her in order to have it all to himself? Maybe he should’ve given it to Rachel after all? Haley regretted it a little, but he wasn’t going to demand it back.
He decided to hurry along and leave them to it. Still, what was that all about? Couldn’t they just take turns reading it?
Haley didn’t understand bibliophiles. Not that that was the issue here.
When Haley was done picking up trash, he climbed a tree full of red fruit. He’d eaten a lot, but more was ripening, so he could still pick some. He filled his basket with ripe apples, enough for himself and enough to share with others. He’d decided to share them with that elderly human male who’d looked up at him enviously the last time. He looked too old to climb himself, especially given how fat he was. And since Haley was going to be picking a lot anyway, he figured he should feed the weak too.
Once Haley had finished harvesting, he followed the overhangs of the nearby buildings on his way to the fat man’s room. Rachel’s mansion was pretty large, but this mansion was so large that it was hard to get around. Along the way, he came across a road that carts often used. It saw a lot of traffic, and horses frequently ran along it, so he needed to be careful crossing.
As Haley looked both ways, he spotted a rope that conveniently went from one side to the other. Perfect. He could use that to cross. Or so he thought.
When he was about half way there, Haley realized his mistake. The rope was coming loose where it was tied on the other side. It seemed the knot was loose to begin with, and the vibrations from his walking on it hadn’t helped. Even Haley would be in trouble if he took a tumble from almost three stories up in the air. If he threw away his basket, he’d be able to land safely, but that would spoil all the red fruits.
Haley hesitated a moment, then dashed toward his original destination. He couldn’t let himself fall, and going back would force him to find another route, so the only way was forward. Fortunately, while the knot was slackening, it hadn’t come undone yet. Thanks to that, the rope didn’t fall away all at once, and Haley was able to make it across just before it came completely undone.
“Ook...”
That was enough of a scare for one lifetime. From now on, he’d check these things first.
Haley reflected on his mistake and wiped the nonexistent sweat from his brow. Then he tied the rope, which he’d just barely managed to catch, to its metal clasp once more. It’d be hard for the humans to get the rope up to this height again. With his weight, he couldn’t pull it really tight, but as long as it was up here, they could fix it easily.
Satisfied that he’d done a good job, Haley headed for his destination.
“Ha ha ha! We haven’t taken a long ride in a while!”
Lord Abigail, the commander of the knights, raced ahead of the group, elated to be on a horse again for the first time in far too long.
“Commander, we’re still inside the palace! It’s dangerous for you to go so fast!”
Unconcerned by the shouts of his bodyguard, who was desperately chasing after him, Abigail let out a raucous laugh. His son had recently caused an incident that led to his being sent away and effectively demoted, so Abigail had been feeling depressed. He hadn’t been to survey the garrisons outside the city in a long time, and he hadn’t ridden a horse in what felt like forever. The refreshing feeling of getting out and about had brightened the knight commander’s gloomy mood right up.
“I know this palace like the back of my hand! A little galloping isn’t going to cause an accident!” Abigail shouted back at his bodyguard.
While they were away from the front lines, experienced knights thought of every place as a battlefield, so the commander of the knights would know the state of the road he took to work everyday. He knew everything, even the corners where people were likely to run out into the road, so what did he have to be wary of? That was why he didn’t notice the rope hanging much lower than usual this morning.
“Gwah!”
The rope, which vanished out of sight before he could identify what it was, caught the knight commander around the throat. A moment later, it tore him from his horse and left him hanging in midair.
“Commander?!” his bodyguard cried.
The rope had been hanging at the perfect height to catch the commander by the neck and swing him round and round as he flailed. The sight of it terrified his two bodyguards as they caught up to him too late.
What on earth is happening?!
They couldn’t understand what they’d just witnessed. They’d never seen anything like it. Well, of course they hadn’t. But as they stared in awe, they forgot to control their horses. Mere seconds later, they joined their commander.