Yewon didn’t have to ask why her father chose her among the rest of her sisters; she already knew why. Yewon is the third born of her four sisters, and so it had nothing to do with her being the youngest or the oldest; she was just the most dispensable princess her father had.

The rest of her sisters were fine, beautiful young women, and so they were much greater than Yewon in value. So if her father had to give up one girl to seal the deal with Solen, he would give them least valuable one: her.

She was not as beautiful as the rest of her sisters. She was also not as elegant and graceful. She never takes etiquette seriously, always runs away from official events, talks back to her elders, and doesn’t even greet important people as she should.

Additionally, she was a princess infused with scandal. The whole castle found out about the novels that she read when her father caught her with one and publicly chastised her for it, punishing her by not letting her read novels anymore and forcing etiquette classes on her.

Yewon is known as the deviant and impure princess. Because of the a scandal, rumors about her erupted in Galacia. She’d heard many rumors: her extra-marital affairs with plenty of men, the erse ual practices she would force her servants to help with, public etc. None of these rumors were true, but all of them made her into “damaged goods,” and the only good that her father would offer to the hated country of Solen.

He found her a disappointment; it was evident from the way he treated her compared to the way he treated her sisters.

Yewon did not blame her father though. She knew that she was a disappointment to him, and she knew he did not particularly love her like he did his other daughters. Although he drove her into this self-deprecating spiral, she still admired him. She admired what he does for Galacia and how passionate he is about preserving the country. He is charitable and strong, a good man altogether. But he was a terrible father.

He actually never really was a father to her. He was her king and her guardian, and she looked up to him for it. He would yell and humiliate her, but he would do that to anyone who transgressed like Yewon did.

She had never thought anything her father did to her was unfair or oppressive. When he yelled or chastised her, she deserved it. When he locked her in her room when she tried to run away, she deserved it. When he blocked her from getting new novels, she deserved it. When he forced her to do extra etiquette classes, she deserved it.

But she did not deserve this.

She did not deserve to be shipped off to a country filled with people she felt deep hatred for. She did not deserve to be forced to marry one of them. Not just any one of them, the prince, i.e. someone who is probably acutely involved in planning the attacks against her people, someone who is to blame for the death of thousands of Galacian civilians.

She had never complained about anything her father did to her, but this time, she could not help but resist.

“Please, please, please don’t do this to me,” Yewon tearfully begged her father when he dismissed everyone else but her and her mother.

“Hold your tears, Yewon,” her father responded to her with a frown. “This is not the princess I know you to be…”

“How can I not cry when you’re practically exiling me from my home and selling me off to the enemy.”

“They’re not the enemy anymore, Yewon. That’s the point. That’s why we’re doing this…”

“Please, please, please,” Yewon dropped to her knees, “I promise I’ll be a better princess. I promise I’ll take etiquette classes again. I promise I’ll hail everyone I see. I promise I’ll never skip another castle event. I promise I’ll listen to you… please…”

No matter how tough the King tried to look, it was evident that he was softened by Yewon’s pleas. “Stop crying,” he told her, trying to sound forceful, “get up and face your destiny like the strong princess that you are. The decision has been made…”

“Mom, please make him change his mind, please,” Yewon said, turning to her mother in desperation.

The Queen had also been crying, and she did not hide how much she hated this arrangement.

Unlike her father, her mother was not nearly as invested in her role as the ruler of the country. While he was first and foremost a king, not a father; she was first and foremost a mother, not a queen.

“My darling, I’m so sorry.”

“Even you’re throwing me away?” Yewon asked as she wiped the mucus from her nose with the back of her hand. “Mom… please. I’ll hate my life if I have to live among those dreadful people.”

Her mother covered her face with her hands and continued to cry. Realizing that her mother would not help her, she turned to her father again, a piteous look in her eyes.

“Princess Yewon,” her father pronounced, “you are serving your country with this task. That’s what a princess does; you’ve always known this. You are going to sacrifice your happiness and your comfort for Galacia. Don’t complain and mope about it, embrace it with pride. You are the reason the war will end, the reason our Galacian young men will get to go back to their families and live fulfilling lives that aren’t carelessly wasted on some battlefield.”

Yewon’s lowered her head and stared at the floor. Her father was surely persuasive, but she still didn’t want it. She didn’t want to be the hero of Galacia if it meant living in the foreign country she had been taught to hate since birth.

But no matter how much she cried and begged, her father’s decision was final. She was to marry a Solenese prince, and her life in Galacia would be over.

-

She locked herself in her chambers for three days, refusing to go to meals and meetings and official events.

It was Tati who would come in every once in a while and force her to eat even though Yewon had made a conscious decision not to. She did not want to feed and take care of the body that would soon belong to a Solenese prince.

“Stop this Yewon. I get that you’re upset, but lying down on your bed during your last days in Galacia is not the way to deal with this!” Tati scolded her.

Tati forced her to go down for breakfast on the fourth day, telling her she would regret not spending these last days with her family.

Yewon made sure to enter the dining room and put her left hand on her heart to greet them. They all returned the greeting awkwardly as she took a seat beside Jihoon, who only gave her a weak smile.

No one spoke through breakfast. There was tension in the air, a tension that was never there before. Usually during breakfasts, her mother would be raving on about her day, Jihoon and her father would be talking about political things, she and her sisters would fight over who gets the last piece of sweet bread they had every breakfast.

Yewon felt a knot in her heart as she realized that things had already changed forever. Things would never be the same again; her comfortable castle routine was over and she would never experience it in the same way again.

She could not bring herself to eat, even though there was a beautifully baked roll of Galacian sweet bread on her plate.

“Yewon,” her mother spoke up, clearly noticing how disheartening this atmosphere was for her, “I’m glad you’re feeling good enough to join us for breakfast this morning.”

Feeling “good” was hardly the right way to put it.

“Princess Yewon,” the King called out to her, “we have to speak to you after breakfast. Please stay behind after the meal.”

“Are you going to give her fertility tips,” Jihoon spat rudely towards his father…

“Jihoon…”

“Because of course your daughter is nothing to you but soil that will eventually be sowed with the cursed seeds of some random Solenese prince…”

“Jihoon!” the King yelled loudly, banging on the table and causing everyone to jump. “Enough is enough!” he screamed.

Jihoon stood up and stormed away angrily, not even heeding his father’s fury. After a long awkward silence, Yewon’s three sisters announced that they were done eating and excused themselves as well. Rolls of sweet bread remained half-eaten on their plates.

Yewon could not bear the tension herself, and so she stood up to leave with them, but her father stopped her.

“Stay” her father demanded forcefully. She obeyed and sat back down.

After another long and awkward silence as the King finished eating the remainder of his plate, he finally told Yewon what he planned to hell her: “You will have to bear a son for Prince Seungcheol as soon as possible.”

Yewon felt sick again. She faced her father and told: “I don’t want him to touch me. I will marry him for you, but I will not consummate…”

“Yewon!!!” her father roared thunderously, “do you think this is a game? Do you think you have the luxury of choosing whether or not he beds you?”

“But…”

“You will be his princess, Yewon. You will hold his royal heirs, who will one day be Kings of Solen. The people in Solen won’t give a damn about you unless you bring them a son, you know. And only through a son will we be able to consolidate the Solenese-Galacian union and avoid another war.”

Yewon wrapped her arms around her body, feeling like she needed to protect it. Did her father not understand how frightening it was to just marry him, let alone let him have his way with her body. She would be reduced nothing but the carrier of her enemy’s heir, the carrier that is nothing but tilth for someone who was responsible for her country’s misery.

Her father told her that he hired physicians to check her, and that she was to be on her best behavior and do everything they told her to do. She was then dismissed.

As she walked back to her chambers, wanting to do nothing but bury her head in a pillow and contemplate the advantages of killing herself to avoid the worthless existence that was currently awaiting her.

Her mother followed her out.

“My darling…”

“Leave me alone,” Yewon muttered under her breath.

“Please, Yewon…”

“Did you even try to talk him out of it? You’re letting him throw me away? You’re letting some Solenese dog take me? I know I’m not as ‘pure’ as my sisters but I don’t deserve this…”

The Queen put her arms around Yewon and hugged her, kissed her head and telling her it was okay, even though Yewon knew it was not okay. Her life was falling apart before her eyes.

They walked back to Yewon’s room, where her mother sat her down and said: “there was nothing else me or you father could do. Making this decision was extremely hard for us.”

“It doesn’t look like it was hard for the King,” Yewon replied.

“It was extremely hard for him, Yewon. He had you or his country to choose from. You don’t think that was hard for him?”

“Good to know his country is more important to him that I am…”

“That’s not fair of you to say, Yewon. You’re not doing to die or suffer physically in any way. It will be very hard, I know, but it will not be death and torture like it would be for the Galacian soldiers who will die if such a sacrifice isn’t made. You would have done the same thing to your daughter if you were faced with this kind of choice.”

Yewon felt silenced.

“You have to be a good princess to Prince Seungcheol. You have to bear him a son. Take this task seriously, for Galacia if not for anyone else. You’re the only thing that’s standing in between and peace and war for Galacia, so please be cooperative.”

“This is all too much pressure for me,” Yewon replied to her mother. “I never wanted this…”

“I know, sweetheart. If I could marry him in your place, I would.”

It was so much pressure, and she felt like her insides were imploding. She would have definitely run away or killed herself or adamantly refused to marry that prince if it were not for the fact that so many lives seemed to depend on her. She had always thought that it would be Jihoon who would sacrifice his life for Galacia, but in the end, it turned out to be her. She would be a prisoner in Solen for the sake of her country.

“What if I can’t get pregnant, or if I bring a daughter instead?”

“You can only do what you can, Yewon. Keep trying for as long as you can; that’s the best you can do.”

“But what will happen if my best isn’t good enough?”

“Your marriage with Seungcheol can only be validated with an heir,” her mother revealed. “This heir will not only stop the war now, but he will also ensure the long-term stability of Galacia. So he’s very important. I don’t mean to pressure you, Yewon, but to encourage you to do your best and give it all that you can. Physicians will come by and tell you what to drink and do to increase the likelihood of bearing a son, so please take it seriously.”

Yewon had never taken things seriously her entire life. Her life was about nothing but reading romance novels, daydreaming, and running away from boring castle events. Now she was suddenly into the political arena where so much was hanging on her shoulders. Not only did she have to face the pressure of being the hurdle between peace and war, but she also had to face the fact that she no longer belonged to herself. She belonged to her country now in both body and soul.

In addition to all of that, she had to say goodbye to her country, her family, her friends, and everything else she had ever known.

A/N: starting fics and is always the hardest part of writing them ;;

Anyways, thanks for reading! :)