Sungyeon woke Yewon the following morning by pulling her violently onto the floor. Yewon landed on her back, which was already in pain from all the bruises. She whimpered in pain when her back came in contact with the floor, and Sungyeon, of course, did not care.

Sungyeon had this unrestrained wickedness in her expression, one that Yewon had never seen before. The maid had always been cruel, but never did this cruelty manifest in her facial features as clearly as it did now: that twinkle in her eyes, that slight curve of her lip as if she were grinning at the prospect of causing Yewon pain. It was as if Sungyeon suddenly felt secure in her actions, and so went forward with her cruelty without worrying about repercussions. Seungcheol was now on her side after all.

The bath was as torturous as ever, and Yewon felt like she couldn’t say anything. She felt like a subject to Sungyeon, like she answered to her and not the other way around.

It was only when the bristle of the brush scratched against her already wounded back with unwarranted force that Yewon couldn’t take it. She took the brush and threw it across the room, wincing in pain as her back burned and bled.

“Your highness!” Sungyeon roared angrily, “let me do my job!”

When Sungyeon tried to touch her, Yewon pushed her, and the wet floor caused the maid to fall back.

Yewon left the bath soaking, dripping with water, soap and some blood on her back.

“Stop trying to escape me, princess!” Sungyeon called out angrily, following Yewon out of the bath.

“Get away from me, you witch!” Yewon yelled back, as tears came down her cheek from the excruciating pain in her back.

Sungyeon gripped Yewon’s wrist and tried to pull her back to finish the bath but Yewon wrestled her way out of Sungyeon’s arms, pushing the maid forcefully again.

The pain in her back was made worse by the soap, which burned the wounds in her back like alcohol. Yewon took a nearby towel and tried to dry the soap off, but instead of soap, the towel was tinted with blood.

This time, Sungyeon was unrelenting. She pushed Yewon against the wall, earning a cry of pain from Yewon. Sungyeon’s fingers then dug into Yewon’s arms, and she glared threateningly at Yewon.

“Mark my words princess, if you don’t stop struggling, I will make your life more miserable than it already is, and no one will take your side…”

Yewon kept struggling though, and kept yelling at Sungyeon to leave her alone.

Amidst the struggling, the crying and the pain, Yewon did not notice another person walk into the room and witness this unfold before them. Yewon only noticed when Sungyeon gasped and stepped away from Yewon, bowing towards the person in question.

Standing at the doorway, a pile of novels in his arms, stood Wonwoo.

Yewon quickly wrapped the towel around her body, so extremely embarrassed to be in such a state in front of him. Crying in pain, nothing but a towel to cover her battered body, and being scolded by her own maid.

“Your highness, I can explain,” Sungyeon said to Wonwoo as she bowed to him unceasingly.

His highness?

Wonwoo looked worried as he stood there at the doorway, witnessing what he did. He placed the pile of novels on the floor and looked to Yewon with concern.

“May I ask you to turn around, princess?” he asked her. When Yewon didn’t turn around because she was too shocked to process the request, he took a few steps towards her, pulled her from against the wall and turned her around himself.

Yewon could tell that he was inspecting the bruises on the part of her back which was uncovered. He probably deduced that there were bruises on her back from the blood which stained the part of her towel which was now over the front of her body.

“Your maid did this to you?” Wonwoo asked calmly.

“No, your highness….” Sungyeon said…

“I’m not speaking to you!” Wonwoo spat in Sungyeon’s direction.

“She did,” Yewon responded to Wonwoo, finally feeling like she had the upper hand.

“Why didn’t you report it to Seungcheol?” Wonwoo asked her, turning her around to face him again.

“I did report it to him; he didn’t believe me,” Yewon told him, making him frown.

Wonwoo turned to Sungyeon, who was now shaking as she stood in her place. “You did this to her then?”

“Your highness, it was an accident…”

“That much is not an accident!” Wonwoo exclaimed furiously.

Sungyeon fell silent.

“Princess Yewon, please put on a dress,” Wonwoo asked calmly. “We’re going to see Seungcheol immediately.”

Yewon felt like she had no control of the situation at all, and so, even though she really did not want to leave her room in such a state, she found herself slipping into one of the her loose Galacian dresses as Wonwoo berated Sungyeon mercilessly.

When Yewon was dressed, Wonwoo ordered Sungyeon to lead the way to the courts, and Wonwoo walked beside Yewon as they made their way to where Seungcheol probably was.

When they arrived, Sungyeon stood at the door staring at the floor. Wonwoo barged into the courtroom, not heeding when the guards were trying to prevent him from entering.

Wonwoo entered, took Yewon’s hand and pulled her inside too. Seungcheol had been sitting beside Jeonghan, looking over maps or something. When he looked up to see the interruption, Seungcheol seemed stunned to see Wonwoo there with her.

“What’s going on here?” Seungcheol asked with a frown.

“Come see her back,” Wonwoo beckoned.

“Her back? Why?”

“Just come.”

Seungcheol narrowed his eyes, but walked over behind Yewon nonetheless. Her loose dress was easy to move so that it exposed her back, and so Seungcheol tugged her dress until it revealed her bruises for a few seconds, and then softly put it back over her shoulders.

“You are an idiot,” Wonwoo spat at Seungcheol after Seungcheol had seen.

“Was this her maid?”

“Princess Yewon came to you with a complaint against her maid, and you didn’t believe her? Are you out of your mind!” Wonwoo scolded. “Did you not hear her father’s threat? Do you want to go back to war?”

“Don’t raise your voice in my presence,” Seungcheol requested calmly.

“Imagine what would have happened if Princess Yewon wrote to her father and told him what was happening? He would have raided us, Seungcheol. Did you want that to happen?”

“Of course not…”

“Then how were you so damn reckless with this!” Wonwoo snapped.

“Wonwoo, calm down,” Jeonghan interceded; “no harm has been done yet. Princess Yewon has not written her father yet, right your highness?” Jeonghan looked at her curiously, waiting for an answer.

“I haven’t,” Yewon answered softly.

“And you won’t,” Seungcheol said. He sounded like he was demanding it from her, but she could see that his eyes were pleading her.

“As long as I never see her again,” Yewon said, finally feeling like she had some power in her hands.

“I’ll imprison her for life,” Seungcheol said, as if it were an offer.

It was then that Sungyeon spoke up. She dropped on her knees, crying and begging for mercy: “I have a mother and three sisters,” she cried. “They depend on me for a living. Please, oh please don’t keep me from them…”

“You hurt the princess,” Wonwoo yelled at her, “you could have cost us thousands more lives!”

“I know! I’m sorry! I completely admit my wrong, and I feel like I’ve committed a great offense against my country because I did not realize how important her well-being was to Solen. But your highness, have mercy on a fool like myself, who was motivated by nothing but the need to avenge my father who died in the war… my beloved father was killed by Galacia, and I felt obliged to do something to avenge him, anything… And Princess Yewon came and I felt misplaced hatred towards her, and I couldn’t help it…” At this point, Sungyeon was crying hysterically.

“Enough of this,” Seungcheol responded as Sungyeon wept. “Guards, take her to the dungeons. She is to be trialed later and her fate will be decided then.”

Guards came and grabbed, pulling her sobbing figure from the floor and taking her away.

A/N: thank you for all the sweet comments on the last chapter!