Jaesun had always believed in the justness of the law. Sure, the system wasn’t perfect by any means, and it wasn’t omnipotent, but she thought they did a reasonable job taking care of matters. Justice got served nine times out of ten, and people had little to complain about.

That was before the queen died, however.

No one could explain how, but it was as if a shadow had moved over the kingdom, filling it with darkness. Taxes increased, and many began to lose their profits to the Crown. Some were forced onto the streets or into prisons if they couldn’t pay up. The crime rate had increased as well, with more robberies and assaults and murders. People trusted one another less and less.

The law enforcers had been docked pay and resources, and with so much crime running rampant, it was nearly impossible for them to accomplish much. And instead of steeling themselves to work harder to compensate, they seemed to have lost hope and begun to slack.

The bigger the city, the worse this trend was. Jaesun lived in a more mid-sized city, so it wasn’t the absolute worst, but it was bad. It got to the point where she was cautioned not to go out alone, even during the day. Every time she ran an errand, her cousin Dongwoo would be sent along to accompany her.

The most direct way her family was affected by this “dark age” was the taxes. Her father was a merchant, after all. He dealt in quality cloth and other textiles. However, fashion was the least of anyone’s worries. Food was the bigger concern. So not only was he not bringing in as much profit, he was having a larger percentage of that profit taken away from him.

Half the time Jaesun could barely talk to her father without hearing him railing at the king and the Crown. Her mother tried to soothe him, but that only did so much. It didn’t help that Jaesun’s sister worked at the palace—the den of the enemy, from her father’s point of view. He seemed close to sending someone to drag the girl back, regardless of the income she contributed to the family.

He used to travel a lot more, but now he spent more time at the back of the shop, tearing his hair out looking at his calculations on financial matters. Jaesun was more than glad to stay at the front, taking care of the shop and customers and avoiding his mood swings.

In a moment that Jaesun was daydreaming at the counter, the girl with the missing memories drifted out of her mind for a bit to reflect on what she was experiencing.

It had been almost five months now since the queen’s death, so she had jumped forward in time a bit from Seulhee and her letter from Sungyeol. She wondered where the kingdom was headed, now that things had started to turn ugly.

Then it was back to being behind Jaesun’s eyes, nestled in her worldview.

Since Jaesun’s older sister, Jaesoo, had her own source of income, even though it wasn’t sizable, their parents weren’t so worried about her. Instead, they seemed intent on marrying Jaesun off as soon as possible, so she wouldn’t have to depend on her father’s struggling business.

There were various problems with this, of course. The first of these was a dowry. With trade going as bad as it was, cobbling together a reasonable dowry proved difficult. The second was that there was no guarantee that her future husband would be able to provide for her, not in these unstable times.

In Jaesun’s view, getting married simply wasn’t a good idea. It would only drain her father’s resources, after all, and it meant an uncertain future with a stranger, away from her family. She didn’t like the idea at all, regardless, simply because of her independent nature.

From a young age she had been raised with a merchant’s knowledge and sense. She had helped managed her family’s accounts before. Moreover, during a time when her mother had been sickly, she had practically become her father’s partner for running the business.

In fact, her father tried to capitalize on this. With her mother’s help, he began to arrange matchmaking sessions for her and the sons of the people in his far-reaching network of friends and acquaintances and customers. All of the potential matches were merchant-class people, of course. His pride wouldn’t let him give his daughter away to someone of a lower tier in the social hierarchy.

Unfortunately, this also meant many of the men were older than her, sometimes by as much as a decade or two. Not all of them were merely sons of merchants. Some were entrepreneurs themselves, established and financially independent. A girl with her skills and sense, young as she was, would be an asset to anyone in such a position.

Jaesun knew fully well that she was going to become the victim of a business marriage. It was an unpleasant thought, but a reality she would eventually have to face.

This was something understood on both sides. Every matchmaking session she went to involved the opposite party looking her up and down, as if assessing her worth. Many of them actually gave her some mathematical problems to solve or accounts to balance, as if doubting her father’s words. She had her own pride, and she simply could not stomach these insults to her father’s integrity and reputation. Thus, she complied with their silly requests and thereby impressed many a man.

In her father’s estimation, she was succeeding wonderfully. Now he would get offers for her hand, and the dowry would most likely be negotiable since Jaesun would be bringing more to the table than simply children and material wealth. In her own eyes, she knew she was simply steering herself down the path she would rather not take.

She could dream of a better world where she married whoever she want, but it was a waste of time, really. Even without the kingdom going to the dumps as it was, the likelihood of a merchant’s daughter marrying for love was laughable. Few girls had a say in who they married. It was all a game between the parents.

Marriage became the least of Jaesun’s worries, however, when her sister returned from the palace in a body bag.