The royal family sat down on their lavish chairs elegantly. The emperor called out to everyone, “You may all sit down.”
Once the emperor spoke, everyone sat down on their seats together. Yuna’s surroundings became very silent when the royals arrived. No one dared to speak out of place, in fear of angering any of the royal family members.
The emperor spoke, “I want to thank everyone for making an appearance to my eldest daughter’s birthday party.” He pointed at Princess Ara that sat on the left side of the emperor and empress where all the princesses were seated. Princess Ara stood from her seat and waved at everyone.
Princess Ara was a delicate beauty, and her hair was braided beautifully above her head with golden decorati
The empress beamed with happiness when she heard Princess Ara’s response. Her plans were accomplished fairly quickly. She knew that the princess would have no choice in the matter. It was evident that the princess would play into her plans. There was no way out of it for her. After the empress and emperor presented their gifts, it was now time for the princes and princesses to hand out their gifts. The first in line was none other than Prince Jimin. Yuna wasn’t paying much attention to the princes and princesses during this whole event. She finally paid attention to the prince that she hadn’t met in her previous life. Prince Jimin was only 3 years older than her, but he was already looking like a full-grown adult. His sharp features resembled a clean appearance
Minho was interrupted from his thoughts when Princess Ara asked him, “Why did you get me a painting?” The eunuch was embarrassed to tell Princess Ara what the gift was but ended up telling her anyway. Minho laughed, “I just got you a valuable painting for a gift. You don’t like it?” Princess Ara sighed, “Its not that I don’t like it. I just have no use for it.” Everyone felt dumbstruck by Minho’s stupidity. He didn’t keep in mind that Princess Ara was blind. He was charming, but he was always lacking when it compared to Prince Jimin. His gift was useless, and the princess wasn’t afraid to point it out. Princess Ara never liked her second brother, Minho. He always ridiculed her and called her retarded because she couldn’t see. He was good at hiding
The Empress noticed that her husband was planning on allowing this request and felt irritated. She wanted to kill this girl on the spot when she heard her intentions. She could not let some little girl ruin her plans. She painstakingly convinced the Emperor to marry her off and this little girl was standing in the way. Before the Emperor could speak, the Empress cut him off, “How can we believe that you are a capable teacher? You are just a little girl. I don’t think that you can offer any kind of education that would be helpful for the princess.” Yuna unexpectedly countered the Empress, “Would you believe me if I proved it to you?” The Empress scoffed, “I would like to see you try. How would you like to test your knowledge, little girl? I don’t think you’ll be able to answer any of the questions that I have for you
The Emperor was pleased with Yuna’s answer for his first question. He applauded her wisdom, “I’m very satisfied with your answer to the first question. For my second question, it is also a difficult question that may be a bit difficult for even the princes. After listening to your answer for the first question, I have high hopes that you will give me a satisfactory answer for the second one. The second question is if there was a crisis in our kingdom and there was a food shortage, how would you go about helping starving citizens?” The second question seemed to tie in with the first question. The most likely reason for a food shortage was because there would be less crop yield for the farmers that were facing the drought. This problem wouldn’t be so prominent for the kingdom if the drought were prevented.
When Yuna returned to her seat, she felt the gazes of everyone on her. There were people that were looking at her in admiration and there were some that had hatred written on their faces. Yuna could tell in an instant that the Empress didn’t look too pleased. She looked like she wanted to strangle her when she had the chance. Might as well avoid the Empress throughout the rest of the party. Yuna felt that there was no way she could remain low-key after annoying the Empress and some of the corrupt nobles. She was sure that most of them would be running back home to try to cover up their tracks. She hoped that none of them would be able to get away with their crimes. The Emperor then announced the next part of the celebration. Many of the noble ladies were to perform a musical
Yuna was about to tell her 'no' when she noticed the anticipating gazes of everyone else, including her mom and dad. Her mom pleaded with her eyes for her to show everyone her talent. Yuna wasn’t aware that her mother knew that she could play the harp. Her parents caught her playing harp, but never chose to interrupt her playing because they knew how introverted Yuna was. They didn’t want her to feel pressured to play in front of them. So, they would quietly listen to her play behind closed doors. Her mother handed her a bag quietly. She looked down at the bag that her mother was holding. She showed Yuna the harp that was inside. She couldn’t believe that her mother brought the harp with her at this event. It almost seemed that her mother prepared it in advance because she wanted me to impress the Emperor and Empress. She really didn&
Once everyone was done performing for Princess Ara, the palace servants began serving elaborate dishes. Each dish was carefully designed to appeal to the royals and nobles. Most of the food came with alcohol. There was no age limit for drinking alcohol in Guwon, so many of the teenagers were found drinking shot after shot. Yuna wasn’t interested in drinking so she focused on her meal. She especially enjoyed eating the vegetable dishes that were served. Her mother noticed that Yuna hardly had any meat, so she kept piling her plate with various foods. She ate her food elegantly and didn’t feel the need to rush. After a few bites, Yuna felt full. Yuna felt uncomfortable after sitting in her seat for a long time throughout the whole party, so she decided to ditch the party and walk around the garden. Plus, she
Yuna had her head bowed for a while, but the boy ignored her. It soon became awkward when he didn’t say anything to her apology. Her neck started to hurt after having her head bowed for a while and so she looked up at him. He wasn’t glaring at her, but he was staring at her awkwardly. She noticed that his hair was sticking up and there were leaves in his hair. Looking at his appearance, it seemed that the thing that she tripped over earlier must’ve been him. His eyes indicated that he was sleeping earlier. Why would someone sleep behind bushes? She was curious. She lifted her hand to remove the leaves that were in his hair but stopped when she noticed him flinching. She instantly put her hand back down and stared back at him in apology. She broke the silence with her apology, “I’m sorry for bothering you. I’ll take my leave
Eunho was curious about what had happened to Yuna over the years, but his curiosity would have to wait until he finished explaining their plan. He continued, “After discovering that you were poisoned, I generally investigated who could have been behind the poisoning. It was discovered that there was a maid that abused you when you were just an infant. That maid was executed by your father during that time. So we weren’t able to discover who had poisoned you at that time.” Eunho sighed, “We were stuck and had no leads as to who would have poisoned you. It wasn’t until we investigated your personal kitchen.” Yuna didn’t expect that the culprit would be poisoning food in her kitchen. She never had maids around her so that might be the reason why they were sneaking into her kitchen. Eunho explained, “We found traces of poison inside the food in your personal kitchen. It wasn’t too hard to find out which maid had access to your kitchen. You should already guess who it is.” Yuna knew wh
The Ezraen boy’s face grew dark, “She was taken out of the prison cell not too long ago because of me.” Yuna asked, “What do you mean?” He didn’t want to tell her that it was his fault, but he knew more than anyone that he was at fault here. He explained, “She died while giving me her meals…” She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was she hearing things? She was too late? Her eyes instantly filled with tears. She lost her footing and cried, “This can’t be happening. My sister is dead? I’m too late…” If only she had arrived a few days earlier, she could’ve saved her sister. She couldn’t even blame the poor prisoner boy. It wasn’t his fault. She stared down at her trembling hands. What had she done? Sun wasn’t supposed to die here… By not marrying Minho, she changed fate… Sun was no longer there. Tears kept streaming down her face. She cried, “I’m sorry Sun… I’m so sorry I couldn’t save you. I was too late.” She beat her own chest in anger and sadness. “It’s all my fault. I sho
There was a girl named Sun that was in the prison cell in front of Jake’s cell. He didn’t know how long she was imprisoned for. He first arrived in prison a month ago. For most of his life, he was hiding in the streets from the Guwon citizens. Every Ezraen knew how dangerous it was to be caught by a Guwon. It meant either living life as a slave or a prisoner. Unfortunately, he was caught stealing bread from a stall. Any crime committed by an Ezraen was amplified a hundred times.His initial thought was that he would be executed immediately, but that wasn’t the case. He was imprisoned for a few weeks and it seemed that he wasn’t important enough for anyone to remember his crime. They had forgotten about him. He wanted to escape prison, but when he thought about it, it wasn’t too bad. He was at least fed every day in prison and he was able to meet Sun.Unlike the rest of the prisoners, Sun would always find a way to brush her hair and stay clean. The first thing he noticed about her was
It has been 3 years since the disappearance of Yuna. Why was everything so different from the past? Did his involvement with Yuna change everything? Eunho had no clue what he had done to change things. Even in this life he couldn’t protect her. He looked at his reflection in the lake and saw his worn out self. He had no appetite and all he could think of was Yuna.He had an entire army backing him and he was not short of fame nor fortune, but he still didn’t have enough power to protect the one person he cared about the most. During the 3 years that Yuna was missing, he searched everywhere. He even searched for her in the palace, but wasn’t able to find her. It was extremely difficult to get into the palace.The palace was enormous and it contained many different buildings with courtyards. He barely had the chance to enter the palace during those 3 years. He frequented the palace when there was war, but now it was a peaceful time. He couldn’t visit the palace as much as a general. He
With the help of Ara, it didn’t take that long to get to the palace dungeon. Ara said, “If my brother has chosen to imprison anyone, it should be in this dungeon. Let me handle everything from here. I’m sure that Sun is imprisoned there.” As Yuna and Ara approached the dungeon, they noticed a guard dozing off at the entrance. Both of them snuck into the dungeon swiftly without alarming the sleeping guard.As soon as they entered the dungeon, there was a heavy stench that almost made Yuna vomit. The smell was obviously coming from the rotting corpses and the prisoners that weren’t able to wash for months. The prison cells were never cleaned. As she walked past the prisoners, she couldn’t recognize a single face. She wasn’t shocked to find that the majority of the prisoners were Ezraen. Both the Emperor and Minho shared the same hatred for Ezraens.Yuna called out, “Sun, are you there?” She made sure not to shout too loudly. She was afraid that being too loud might alarm the guard sleep
Princess Ara panicked, "You can't. He'll hurt you." Yuna knew what Ara was worried about, but she needed to find out more about the Dark Lord. She explained, "I'll dress up as a maid. He doesn't know who I am. Everything will be okay. Just trust me." Princess Ara suddenly began crying, "It's not what you think. He's a lot more scarier than you think. He sacrifices people for a god that no one has ever heard of. Miyon citizens have this religion that worships the King as the vessel to the Dark Lord (god). This is the reason he is called the Dark Lord. The sacrifices make him grow stronger. I witnessed him grow stronger once someone is sacrificed. It was the most horrible thing anyone could witness." Ara began shivering and she seemed lost in her thoughts. She seemed terrified by the things in her memories. Yuna shook her out of her nightmarish thoughts, "Princess, don't be scared. No normal human can grow stronger from murdering someone. He probably just fooled you." Ara looked at Yu
Princess Ara couldn't see Yuna's face, but she could picture a brave girl standing before her. She admired Yuna ever since she saved her from almost getting married off early. All because of Yuna, she was able to avoid getting married for this long. She smiled, "I admire you. I wouldn't be able to do the same things as you."Yuna asked, "What do you mean?" Princess Ara explained, "The way you answered Father's test questions were remarkable. I couldn't believe such efficient methods could be used to solve those problems. I believe that you're the only one that can help me. I haven't married yet, but it doesn't mean I'll remain unmarried. It's only a matter of time before I get married to the Dark Lord."Yuna had never heard anyone call themselves the Dark Lord. Why did it sound similar to a demon lord in a fantasy rpg game? She wondered if maybe she was going crazy. Is this world similar to a game? She asked, "Who's the Dark Lord?" Ara sighed, "He's my fiancee. I was arranged to marry
Yuna shivered as soon as she stepped outside. It was dark out and the lanterns lit up the walkway. She hid in the shadows behind buildings. There were a few guards keeping watch at night. It would be difficult for her to make it past the guards without getting caught. She picked up a stone and tossed it as far as she could. Luckily for her, the guards heard the sound and rushed towards the stone. She made her way around the building and into the garden. She made sure to not step on any branches to alert the guards. The trees and bushes were a great cover. She was easily able to maneuver through the garden without getting caught.She made her way towards Minho's quarters. If Minho were to kidnap someone the prison cell should be near his courtyard. She remembers being locked up in there during her first life. She made her way through the garden towards his courtyard. It was a good thing she remembered the exact layout of Minho's residence, else she would have been lost.While walking
Yuna had no clue how she ended up in this situation. She dreamt that she was chasing a chicken leg when she suddenly felt someone’s breath on her face. She instantly woke up to find a handsome face inches away from hers. His face reflected under the moonlight was extremely mesmerizing. His long eyelashes and seductive lips made her gulp. If only she had met a handsome man like this in the modern world… She shook her head to clear her mind of such thoughts. How in the world did she end up in this situation? The last thing she remembered was eating tons of delicious food. Was she drugged? She grew suspicious of the innocently sleeping man next to her. Despite his handsome appearance, he was sly like a fox. It would be a terrible idea to fall for such a man. His scheming is even better than the palace ladies. She began shivering thinking about what he could’ve done to her while she was asleep. She looked down and noticed that her outer hanbok was removed. Th