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
Yuna grew happy when she heard his reply, “I’ll take you there. It shouldn’t be that far from here.” She followed him through the forest. She wasn’t suspicious of him because she didn’t see any signs of deception in his behavior. Otherwise, she’d probably have to find her way back alone. Although she had a good sense of direction, she let herself get carried away enjoying the beautiful garden. Yuna had a tough time catching up to him. He had so much more endurance and stamina compared to her and his legs were extremely long. She was so short compared to him; the top of her head reached his shoulders. After a while, he noticed that she was far behind him. He then slowed down his pace a great deal. He could see that she was heaving from the