“Why did you do that to him?”

Those were the first words Yewon said to her father after not seeing him for months. She could not get the sight of Seungcheol like that out of her mind. The dirt and the blood and the tatters and the chains. It looked so wrong, and she wanted some kind of closure about why he had come to this state.

“He waged war against us, Princess Yewon. Did you forget that?” her father asked with a frown on his face, but he sounded sympathetic all the same.

“But…”

“You should ask him why he made a decision which costed the lives of hundreds of our men before you ask me why we treated him the way we did…”

Yewon fell silent. From that perspective, it made sense. But still, it felt so wrong and unnecessary. She was still uncomfortable with the idea that her own father had ordered the beating and the mistreatment of her husband.

-

Everyone in Galacia seemed to be in a celebratory mood. The villagers were singing, dancing, sharing food and holding parties. The staff in the castle were all smiling, even the gruff guards who usually had no expression on their faces. And her family was so happy, happier than she had ever seen them. Even her irritable brother Jihoon seemed to be in high spirits, and her father wore a hint of a smile that Yewon rarely saw from him.

Even though she was so glad to see them again, and even though being in their arms again brought her some solace, she could not absorb their happiness. Despite the temporary contentment of reuniting with them, her heart was still heavy with regret and apprehension for the future. She tried to forget about it and focus on her family and her home which she had not seen in too long, but she could not push away the negative feelings no matter how hard she tried.

Somehow everything reminded her of Solen. Her youngest sister Kyla’s hyperactive outbursts reminded her of little Yulhee and her big mouth. The charming doorman and his flirty smile reminded her of Soonyoung and the way he used to lure all the women to him with such effortless ease. The courteous cleaner maid with the chubby cheeks reminded her of Haein. The innocent little messenger boy with the bright eyes reminded her of Dino. The sweet bread reminded her of Seokmin. The soap reminded her of the daily baths in Solen… everything around her was suddenly imbued with memories of her short time in a country she had thought she hated.

She found that her own disposition had shifted dramatically because of her time in Solen. She had almost forgotten how to dress herself because she was so used to Haein dressing her. She found that having her hair down was so annoying, and she was tempted to just tie it up in a convenient bun like the women did in Solen. She also felt dirty after days of not bathing for many days, and found that she missed the Solenese custom of having daily baths. Her dresses suddenly felt uncomfortably loose and also quite unflattering. And that greeting– that damned Galacian greeting. She had completely lost touch with it. She always forgot to greet with it, and instead found herself bowing

She really had not realized the extent that Solen had changed her until she came back to Galacia. She had truly absorbed some of the Solenese customs, customs she had taken for granted in her time there.

She missed it.

When she told her father in the first day during dinner that she wanted to go back to Solen, he instantly shut her down, telling her that he didn’t want to hear any talk of that sort from her. When her sisters began asking her questions about Seungcheol, her father also told them that they were prohibited from talking about him. He then decreed that Yewon not talk about anything to do with Solen ever.

But Yewon desperately wanted to talk to someone, anyone. But suddenly anything to do with Solen became taboo, and even mentioning it earned gasps from Tati. Her sisters would cover their ears, and Jihoon would frown and get angry if Yewon thought to bring it up.

She could not last a day following her father’s rule. At breakfast the following morning, she confronted him about it.

“What’s going to happen to my marriage?” she asked her father straightly.

“Yewon! I don’t want to hear anything about your marriage…”

“Are you trying to erase it? As if keeping quiet about it is going to make me forget about it or something? I can’t forget about it. I need to know what’s going to happen to me.”

“You know what’s going to happen to you. Even he knew what’s going to happen to you.”

“So you’re going to annul the marriage?” Yewon replied, expecting as much. “I don’t agree with this…”

“Yewon, enough!” her father yelled thunderously. “I don’t want to hear any more about Solen from you!”

“Are you going to continue fighting Solen? Are you going to kill their hostages? What are you planning exactly?”

Jihoon suddenly spoke up: “It doesn’t concern you, Yewon.”

Yewon turned to her brother, who had a disapproving look on his face. “But it does concern me. My husband lives in that country…”

Jihoon cringed: “he’s not your husband,” he muttered. “You two have been divorced since the moment he broke the agreement and decided to fight us again. He knew it too, but he decided to just keep you around for the fun of it…”

“You don’t know anything about him.”

“I know a lot more than you do, Yewon,” Jihoon scoffed. “I hate that man, and the fact that we allowed you to marry him still gnaws at my bones.” Jihoon clenched his teeth and glared at the King.

“Don’t let it bother you,” Yewon replied to her brother. “I don’t hate him like you do.”

“How can you even say that?!” Jihoon nearly roared, clearly riled by her apparent lack of hatred for Seungcheol. “He killed our people, Yewon.”

“There’s a huge difference between initiating a battle and killing,” Yewon came to Seungcheol’s defense. “Seungcheol did not just attack; it was a planned battle that you were able to prepare for and win. And he is not a bad man, Jihoon…”

“Stop. I can’t bear to hear you defend him.”

“And I similarly can’t bear the thought of you carrying on this stupid war.”

“You women should have no involvement in matters of politics,” Jihoon replied with a frown. “Just listen to what we tell you to do and be quiet. Whatever you say, we are going to attack that country, reclaim our land and take over theirs. They deserve it after all.”

Yewon was triggered by what Jihoon had said for many reasons, but she knew there was nothing she could do to convince her stubborn, hard-headed brother. It was futile to even try to argue with him. But when she considered just giving up, she recalled her time in the hospital. How devastated they would the patients be if they carried out their plans to defeat Solen completely?

She hated the thought that her family would be responsible for devastating life in Solen, and she hated that she was so powerless in the face of all this; none of them were hearing her out or even trying to see things outside of the political perspective of what course of action would be most profitable and give them most power.

How she wished she were pregnant. If she were pregnant, her father would at least be burdened with the social responsibility of not letting his daughter give birth out of wedlock. He would have to give her back to Solen, and she would have to remain married to Seungcheol, whether either side liked it or not. There would have been a child, a royal heir, who would have been the strongest link between the two nations.

How did she mess up so badly that she was unable to be impregnated for all the time she was in Solen? So much had happened between her and Seungcheol that kept them apart. And in the end, she ended up sleeping with his brother in her final days there in a desperate attempt for a baby. And all in vain.

The memory of Soonyoung led her to recall the conversation she had with him that final night together. He was the only one she could ask for advice about what she could do if she did not end up pregnant. She remembered that he wasn’t worried at all that she could possibly not be back, saying that he was so sure she would find a way around it. His confidence in her made her feel confident in herself; she had to keep trying.

If she had to pretend to be pregnant, she would. She didn’t know how, or if her father would even believe her, but she was going to try.

-

She had never felt Haein’s absence more. As she was planning out how she would go about her fake pregnancy, she realized she needed help. She didn’t even know how pregnancy worked or how she would have to go about faking it. If Haein were here, she imagined that the maid would go above and beyond to help her.

Yewon thought of perhaps asking her sisters for help, but she was risking a lot. If she told one person that she was planning on faking a pregnancy and they didn’t agree with her, the whole plan falls apart. And her sisters were far too conformist for their own good, but Haein was not. Haein would break all kinds of rules for Yewon’s sake.

Of all people in Solen, Yewon found that she missed Haein most.

Thinking about Haein reminded her of something very important; Haein’s last request to her…

Wonwoo.

-

“I want to go visit the hostages.”

“Are you crazy?” her brother snapped at her.

“Please Jihoon,” she begged, her heart burning to find out if Wonwoo was among them.

“What do you want with them?” he asked.

“There’s… someone I want to find among them. Please, please, please grant me this one little request. Just let me look for him,” she implored him with a desperate look in her eyes.

“You’ve changed a lot, you know? You’ve become softer, and I don’t like it. Where’s the Yewon I used to know who never beg anyone for anything?”

“She’s still here, and she’s desperate enough to beg you…”

He frowned at her for a moment before asking. “Who is this guy?”

“A friend,” Yewon answered carefully. She already figured it was best they don’t know that Wonwoo was the King’s son. She didn’t want her country to have more leverage than they already do. “He was… a young scholar,” she told him, “who worked in Solen’s library. He helped me through the hardest period of my time in Solen, and he’s one of the most important people to me. He was at the battle, and he didn’t come back…”

“He’s probably dead then,” Jihoon replied coldly, making Yewon wince slightly.

“Don’t say that. Please let me go find him.”

“Do you only want to know if he’s alive?” Jihoon asked.

“Yes. Just let me see him and make sure.”

“They’re in the dungeons. Are you sure you want to go in there?” Jihoon asked her. Yewon nodded. “Fine, I’ll take you. But I have one condition.”

“Anything.”

“His majesty the King is going to ask you to do something tomorrow. You will do it with zero protest.”

“Yes, okay. I will do anything,” Yewon replied without thinking. She couldn’t imagine what her father would ask her to do, but she didn’t really care in the moment. She didn’t consider the possibilities; all she could think was making sure Wonwoo was a hostage and therefore not dead.

-

The dungeons were dark, damp, and putrid. How anyone could live or work there was beyond her. She followed her brother and four guards through the halls until he finally stopped at one door which the guard unlocked.

Behind that door was room full of chained up men and boys who were under-clothed and underfed. They were dirty, hurt, weary and some of them even looked dead. Yewon felt her heart break at the sight of them. Some of them were just little boys who were clearly experiencing the most traumatic episode of their lives. She wished she had the power to free them all. None of them deserved it.

Their faces reminded her of the all those faces in the hospital: wronged and caught in the midst of this political turmoil that does not involve them, that they never signed up for to begin with.

“These are the hostages. Some of them are in the cubicles, and there are others that were disobedient and were killed,” Jihoon informed her as she tried hard not to cry at the sight of the unfortunate prisoners all around her.

She looked at each face, trying to see if one of them was Wonwoo. Most of the eyes which she scanned would stare right back at her. There was pain and suffering and a call for help in their expressions. None of them spoke though; none seemed to dare for fear of the guard with a stick who seemed prepared to beat anyone who went out of order.

Seeing them made her all the more determined to do something about this whole situation…

There were hundreds of faces, but she only had to go through a quarter of them to find the face she was looking for. Indeed, there Wonwoo was. His eyes were closed with his back against the wall, asleep (she could see his chest heave and so she was certain he was still alive). Seeing him there brought her such relief.

Thank God, he’s not dead, was the only thing she could think.

Jihoon noticed that she was paying particular attention to that sleeping hostage.

“That’s him?” he asked.

Yewon nodded, biting her lip as she watched him. I was difficult to see him like that, chained to the wall and sleeping in this uncomfortable position. A quick scan of his body told her he wasn’t fatally wounded or anything, but there were bruises on his arms and face, and some dried blood around his shoulder.

“Now that you found him, let’s go back,” Jihoon beckoned, taking her arm and pulling her away.

She didn’t want to leave so soon. She had seen him for the first time in so long; she wanted to stay with him, to speak with him, to get him out of there. She wanted to help heal his wounds. She wanted him to fall asleep in a large, comfortable bed with that serene expression on his face. It felt so selfish of her to just leave him after finding out he was there and relieving herself. She had to do something.

“Please let him go,” she turned to her brother.

Jihoon rolled his eyes and took her arm, pulling her out in frustration. She obliged and walked out with him, her eyes not leaving Wonwoo’s frail, sleeping face for as long they could.

When she was out of the dungeon and back into the daylight; Jihoon turned to her brusquely. He had a frown on his face when he sputtered: “look, I already broke at least 30 different rules letting you come down here. And now you had the audacity to ask me to free one of the hostages in front of the hostages?! Are you crazy?”

“Please, Jihoon. And if you can’t free him, then at least treat him better. Treat all of them better. Feed them and give them blankets and clean water. Let them treat their wounds, and don’t beat them…”

“I don’t want to have this conversation with you anymore,” Jihoon interrupted. “You have way too much sympathy for those Solenese pigs.”

“Jihoon…”

“I’m done,” Jihoon said, closing his ears and walking away, refusing to listen to anything else she had to say to him.

-

The following day, Yewon was told that Galacia would be hosting a royal foreign delegation, and that there was a festivity being held to welcome them. Yewon was asked to wear a new dress that had been tailored specifically for this festivity. In the morning, the palace was buzzing with preparations for it. Yewon didn’t think too much on it, brushing it off as another one of those typical formality celebrations to impress some foreign delegation she would have nothing to do with.

She later learned that the delegation was from China, which explained the effort being put into welcoming them. China, being the most powerful country in the world right now, was certainly a country from which Galacia would seek favor.

Yewon did not pay much attention to the delegation. She was too preoccupied with her thoughts, trying to think of a plan other than faking a pregnancy.

Her brother eventually took the seat right beside her as she was lost in her thoughts.

“Remember our deal?” he asked her, not looking at her as he sipped a glass of wine.

“What?” she asked, breaking away from her trail of thought.

“Remember what your promised in exchange for taking you down to the dungeons?”

“That I would do whatever his majesty asked from me without protest,” she remembered.

“Yes. And he’s going to ask it of you right now,” Jihoon informed her. “So don’t protest. At least not in front of the Chinese delegation.”

“What is he going to ask me to do?” Yewon asked curiously, unsure of what it could possibly be.

Before Jihoon could answer, the King stood up to make an announcement.

“Dear guests. We welcome you ever so humbly to our home, our Galacia. We hope that you enjoy your stay here. As you are all aware, our country has been torn to shreds by the enemy, but God was on our side in the last battle, and we now have the opportunity to defeat Solen once and for all. In that endeavor, we sought the help of our long-time friend, China, who has now accepted our request. And so, with the power invested me, I hereby announce an alliance between Galacia and China against Solen…”

No, no, no. That was all that ran through Yewon’s head as she processed what was happening. This was not just some cordial visit, this was a military alliance, one that would give Galacia so much power, too much power. One that would certainly wipe out the country that had been her home for the past few months. She wanted to protest, but she was just a princess sitting at a woman’s table. No one would hear her; no one would take her seriously. All she could do was sit there as her insides raged.

But little did she know that this was not the only thing her father had in plan. There was a second part to his announcement. “In order to consolidate this alliance, I will gladly offer to China one of our beloved daughters.” The King turned and faced her table, and Yewon could tell with so much dread that he was looking at her. “Princess Yewon, one of the princes of China has extended his marriage proposal to you. And I know you will accept it without any hesitation.”

Just when Yewon thought the torment could not get any worse, she caught the eye of a familiar face within the delegation of China, one she had not noticed was there before. Sitting back in his chair with a mischievous grin on his face was Prince Jun.

“And so, by the power invested in me, I hereby announce the engagement of Princess Yewon of Galacia with Prince Jun of China…”

A/N: ok look im very very very sorry for the very late update. ive just been distracted w everything thats been happening with my ult group (i.e. nu'est ;;)

Anyways hope you guys liked this chapter. just when you all thought I could not possibly make it more dramatic though lmao~

Also our girl yewon is gonna debut veryy soon I’m so hyped!