Yewon recovered but was met with the unwelcome coming of her cycle, which mean that consummation would be postponed until afterwards.

But in that week, many things did happen.

Wonwoo introduced Yewon to her new maid: Lady Haein: a withdrawn young woman with large eyes, full cheeks and a pointy nose. At first glance, Yewon immediately knew that Haein would be much more likeable than Sungyeon was. There was no venom in this woman’s eyes, and none in the way she treated her either.

“I met Lady Haein in my travels through Solen,” Wonwoo explained when they were sitting at the library. “She was an apprentice in the library I visited to get a copy of book I desperately wanted to read. I recruited her, and she works as an official scribe in the palace library. And now she’ll be a maid to you as well in addition to her duty as a scribe. She’s a very hard worker and very sweet. I hope you’ll like her.”

“I do like her,” Yewon told him.

“I hope she’ll end up a good friend to you,” Wonwoo said. “I think you need one while you’re alone in this country. I feel like you have no one to talk to.”

“Well, I have you,” Yewon stated matter-of-factly.

Wonwoo smiled: “I know, but it would be different if it’s a woman, you know?”

“Man or woman, it doesn’t make a difference.”

“It does though. There’s a lot you wouldn’t tell me because I’m a man. More than that, I’m your husband’s half-brother…”

“You are the person I’m most comfortable talking to in this country,” Yewon told him. “I would never tell anyone what I tell you.”

“So you trust me?”

"Of course."

“May I ask you a personal question then?”

“Anything.”

Wonwoo hesitated. He looked around to see if there was anyone hearing them, and when he saw no one, he asked softly: “have you bed with Seungcheol yet?”

Yewon did not think he would go that personal. She had been prepared for almost anything but that question, which made her feel embarrassed and hesitant to answer it. She had spoken to Wonwoo about a before, but somehow, it was different to speak about herself in that situation.

“Feel free to not answer if it makes you uncomfortable,” Wonwoo added quickly. “And I only ask because I want to know if an heir could possibly come soon…”

“It’s important, isn’t it?”

“The heir? Very.”

“We haven’t yet,” Yewon admitted to Wonwoo. “But we will.”

It was then that Seungcheol and Jeonghan walked into the library, making Yewon feel embarrassed again. She had just been talking about the prospect of having with him, and to have him walk in so suddenly like that made her feel so self-conscious.

“Wonwoo, we need the book of Eastern maps,” Seungcheol said, ignoring Yewon completely.

“Why?” Wonwoo asked, narrowing his eyes in Jeonghan’s direction.

“None of your concern,” Seungcheol replied.

“I’m not giving your advisor access to information that he could use to kill others,” Wonwoo glared in Jeonghan’s direction. Jeonghan rolled his eyes. Yewon could feel very clearly that Wonwoo did not like nor get along with Jeonghan.

“Stop it!” Seungcheol hissed at Wonwoo. “Give us the book.”

“No,” Wonwoo said simply, crossing his arms. “I’m not. I’m not going to let him lead us into another war. I know what he’s planning: strike first before they do. And I can’t believe you’re listening to him, Seungcheol…”

“I’m sorry to say it, Wonwoo,” Jeonghan interrupted. He still wore that angelic smile which now seemed faker than ever before, “but a bastard like you has no authority over the prince.”

Wonwoo seemed like he was ready to hurl the heavy book that was in his hand at Jeonghan’s face, but he took a deep breath and said instead: “get out.”

“I answer only to his highness,” Jeonghan replied with a smile, which seemed to irritate Wonwoo so much.

Seungcheol turned to Jeonghan and calmly asked him to leave. Jeonghan bowed to Seungcheol and left.

“I don’t want to see him in front of me ever again,” Wonwoo told Seungcheol when Jeonghan was gone.

“Just bring me the book, Wonwoo.”

“I said I won’t.”

“We’re not going to attack; we’re not stupid, you know.”

“I don’t know about that. Jeonghan has done some pretty stupid things before. So have you.”

Seungcheol rolled his eyes, “we won’t attack, okay? Now give me the book.”

Wonwoo narrowed his eyes, but reluctantly got up and scanned the shelves until he came across the book he wanted. He handed it to Seungcheol, who took it and skimmed through the pages.

“I trust you,” Wonwoo told Seungcheol, “but not him. I’m depending on you to stop him if he does anything rash.”

“He’s a good person, Wonwoo.”

“He was the reason we were at war.”

“I don’t want to talk about Jeonghan with you. You’ll hate him no matter what he does,” Seungcheol said. He then turned to Yewon and said: “Princess Yewon, I want to speak to you later. Please be at my chambers in half an hour.”

Yewon nodded her head, and without another word, he left.

“I wonder what he wants from you,” Wonwoo said as he sat back down.

“It’s the first time he’s ever called me to his room,” Yewon noted, also curious about what he would tell her.

“As you can see, I get along with Seungcheol, but not with Jeonghan. I hate that man with a passion.”

“I could tell,” Yewon said.

“You know what he did right? He led all the raids. He tried to occupy Galacia. He led thousands of our men into death, and probably killed a lot more of yours. He’s extremely intolerant and hateful to anyone who is not from Solen, and his policy is basically ‘kill them all.’ Everyone knows this about him. It’s kind of ironic given his angelic smile and his looks, right?”

“I’ve heard all this. He does a good job of pretending he doesn’t hate me...”

“He’s a great pretender, and a good talker; I give him that. He has a way of convincing people and making them do what he wants. Look at Seungcheol. Sometimes I feel like Seungcheol is working for Jeonghan and not the other way around.”

“What’s their relationship exactly?” Yewon asked. She’d heard and seen many things about the two of them: Jeonghan was Seungcheol’s advisor, but also his best friend, and also his deceased lover’s brother whom he saved from Galacian militants in exchange for weapons.

Wonwoo took a moment to come up with an answer: “they’re just… two different people who shared a tragedy and fell together because of it,” Wonwoo said carefully.

“Tragedy? You mean Solbin?”

“You know about Solbin?” Wonwoo seemed surprised.

“Yulhee told me,” Yewon revealed.

“Of course she did,” Wonwoo laughed. “Yeah… Solbin was their shared tragedy. After she died, Seungcheol seemed wanted to take care of Jeonghan for her sake. He appointed him as an official in the palace, but they were both in so much grief and I believe that they found comfort in one another because of it. Personally, I hate Jeonghan, but he’s very important to Seungcheol, and that’s the only good thing about him.”

“The only?”

“Well,” Wonwoo shrugged his shoulders, “he’s a bigot, but when it comes to Solenese people, he is a truly good person. He would kill a Galacian child, but would give up his entire wealth to build a hospital for Solenese people who cannot afford it. He gives up everything for Solen. You find that Solenese public absolutely adore him. He’s the ‘Angel of Solen,’ and therefore he’s so influential. But I still hate him.”

“If he’s so bigoted that you think he would kill a Galacian child, then how would he feel about the marriage?”

 “He hates it,” Wonwoo stated matter-of-factly. “Everyone knows how much he hates it.”

“It doesn’t seem like he does.”

“Trust me, he hates it, and he hates you. So just be cautious around him.”

Maybe that’s why he didn’t attend the wedding, Yewon began to realize.

-

Yewon went into Seungcheol’s room like he had asked. She expected him to be with Jeonghan, but he was alone, sitting at a long table looking the through the maps in the book Wonwoo had given him. When she entered, he asked her to take a seat in a chair in front of him.

His room was indeed enormous. There was a small library, a bed, a sitting room, a desk, a long table, and a large closet the parts of the room were all separated with large walls.

“Your old maid, Sungyeon. What do you want to be done to her?” Seungcheol asked immediately.

“Huh?”

“The court is deferring the judgement to you. You have a couple of options: death penalty, prison for however many years you want, public lashing, and we can even conscript her. Do you want a public apology from her before her punishment? We can arrange that too. Anything that will satisfy you, we’ll do.”

“I don’t want to the be the one to decide,” Yewon told him quickly. She really didn’t want to decide. She hated Sungyeon, but didn’t want to be tasked with selecting a punishment; she’d never done it before, and it made her shudder to feel like she had the power to change someone’s life with the words that would come out of . It was too much power, and she didn’t want it.

“Sorry princess. We need to make it seem to the public that you’ve had your retaliation so that your father doesn’t have to retaliate instead of you.”

“He won’t retaliate…”

“I don’t trust your word, and I’m not taking the risk. Choose the punishment and write the decree on this scroll and sign,” Seungcheol told her as he passed her the a rolled up scroll. “I’ll seal it, and you will read it in public so that everyone knows the wrong that has been done to you has been punished at your request.”

“But…”

“Just do it!” he said impatiently, not seeming prepared to listen to her complaints. “Choose whatever you want. I trust you’ll make it tough on her too, so that it sets an example and the other people who serve you in the future feel afraid.”

“You choose for me. I’ll write down whatever you tell me.”

“No,” he said with a frown. “You’ll soon be the Queen of Solen. You have to start making decisions like these, and you have to be used to it. So do it.”

Yewon took the scroll. Seungcheol passed her the quill and the ink.

Yewon didn’t even know where to begin to think in order to decide Sungyeon’s punishment. She hated Sungyeon: that much was at least certain, but she didn’t know how to convert the hatred into a suitable punishment.

She thought to just go to the standard punishment of a few years in prison, but something still felt uncomfortable about that.

Yewon took such a long time to think, Seungcheol just when back to looking through maps. She sat back in her chair looking up at the ceiling as she thought. Sometimes she felt his eyes on her, but she never looked away from the ceiling to confirm that.

He did not rush her, for which she was glad, because she needed the time to consider. It was stressful to have the power to decide the course of someone’s life, and to have to do that on the spot like that.

“Just choose something that serves your interests, princess,” Seungcheol said to her after a few minutes in. “Identify those interests, and choose accordingly.”

That was not easy either. She did not have an interest to punish Sungyeon. But she did have an interest to protect herself, and to never come by anyone like Sungyeon ever again. That meant she had to punish Sungyeon in order to deter other people who could have similar objectives.

But is deterrence with punishment really the best way to prevent offenses like Sungyeon’s? Sungyeon was certainly aware that she would be punished if she did something like this, but what motivated her was much stronger than fear of punishment. What motivated her was hatred of the other, hatred of the enemy country, and desire to avenge her father. Instead of making an example with an insufferable punishment, perhaps she should do something else to amend the hatred that caused the offense in the first place.

Yewon was then reminded of the an even greater interest that she had: the reason she was in Solen to begin with.

With that realization, she identified with much clarity the punishment that she wanted for Sungyeon. She took the quill and began to write. She could feel Seungcheol look up from his books and watch her with curiosity as she wrote.

I, former princess of Galacia, and current princess of Solen, have decided to absolve Sungyeon of all punishment. Prince Seungcheol has asked me to make this decision based on what would serve my interests, and my interest wholly and completely lies in establishing peace between my country and yours. Punishing someone who wronged me is not how to do it, and so I will forgive Sungyeon in hopes that she would forgive Galacia in return. I will work hard as the representative of Galacia in Solen to repair what has been broken between us, and I will do that by making you love and trust me, not hate and fear me.

Princess Yewon of Solen

When she finished, she handed him the scroll. He took it, and began reading it. His eyes narrowed and when he finished reading, he glared at her curiously.

“What?” she asked, unsure of what his expression means.

“Are you sure?” he asked.

She nodded.

He then immediately poured wax onto the paper and sealed it with the familiar royal seal she had seen on the notes sent to her with the Galacian bread.

“You write well,” he said, taking her off guard. This was the first time that he had ever complimented her in their few weeks of marriage.

“Am I hearing right? A compliment from you?”

Then he did something else for the very first time: he smiled at her, probably amused at her disbelief. Granted, it wasn’t a full smile. It was restrained, and somewhat lofty, but it was still the first time ever.

Yewon didn’t really understand why her cold, cold prince was suddenly so… not cold. Did he like her decision that much? For the first time ever, she felt like maybe they were on the same page.

“You read a lot, it’s expected that your writing would be good,” he told her.

“How did you know I read a lot?”

“You get along with Wonwoo. No one gets along with Wonwoo if they don’t read,” he said matter-of-factly. “Plus, I see books in your room all the time.”

“I do like to read,” she told him, a little bit startled by the fact they were having an actual normal conversation for the very first time.

He nodded, and then said, “anyways, you’ll say what you wrote tomorrow outside the castle. Solenese people will see you for the first time. They might be a little bit hateful, and maybe they’ll throw things at you, but you’ll be protected well. Do you want us to bring out Sungyeon when you read it out, or would you rather not see her?”

“Bring her.”

Seungcheol nodded, “noted.”

“And I’m serious about wanting to reverse the animosity Solenese people feel towards Galacia, by the way," she added qucikly. "I want to try as hard as I can to represent Galacia in the best light, and so I want to do something. I know Jeonghan does charity work, so could I help him with that?”

Seungcheol looked pensive for a few seconds, but he eventually answered saying: “I’ll ask him.”

“Thank you,” she replied.

An awkward silence ensued, in which Seungcheol reread the scroll.

“I’ll go back to the library now,” Yewon announced, bowing towards Seungcheol, and getting up to leave.

“Wait,” he stopped her, “one more thing: when will you finish menstruation?”

“Two or three days,” she answered.

“I’ll be there in three nights then.”

She nodded, avoiding his eyes out of embarassment.

When she left, the room, she felt a little bit differently about him. He’s isn’t the cold, robotic and soulless person he initially appeared to be. Yewon was happy that she was able to bring the soul out of him for the very first time since she had met him. She made him give her a compliment; she made him smile; she had a conversation with him that did not involve him scolding her. It was amazing.

Maybe, just maybe, she could bring it out of him more often.

A/N: finally it's some minor developement lol

btw dont be misled by the current pace of the story haha. it's going to be super intense in a chapter or two so be prepared for crazy plot twists coming verryyyy soon