Tension dragged through the air of the palace as murmurs continued to grow about the well being of their beloved king. 

"I heard he coughed enough blood overnight to fill a bathtub."

"I heard they dug out someone's heart to replace the king's."

"I heard the king was not going to make it past tonight." All at once, the servants hushed the stupidity that came out of the last servant's mouth. Make rumors all they can. Make assumptions all they want. But to even make a whisper of when the King was to die was blasphemy.

"You're lucky nobody else heard you."

As the group of servants turned the corner, they came into contact with the queen herself.

The servants bowed to her highness while the third servant fell to her knees in panic. The servant began to slap herself across the face as fearful tears stained her eyes and her lips quivered.

"I'm sorry for saying something like that. I promise I'll never do something like that again." 

The queen stared at the peasant nonchalantly, not bothering to acknowledge the girl's words as she bypassed the maiden without a second look.

The servant peered behind her as the queen glided away, heaving a breath of relief that she managed to save her little life. 

"Drag her away and cut off her tongue," Queen Mieun instructed. Two soldiers guarding the queen nodded and left her side to drag the servant away. The servant's pleas fell on deaf ears; even the previous servants have wandered off to continue what they were doing in fear that they would be collateral damage if they so much breathed too loudly.

"Your highness, please! I promise I'll never say something so stupid again! I'll do anything so please spare me!! Don't cut off my tongue!"

"The only way you won't say something so stupid again is if you can't talk at all," one of the guards asserted as he smacked the servant across the face for disrupting Consort Wu's tea ceremony. The guards bowed and apologized to Consort Wu for the ruckus before hastily disappearing with the servant.

Fuhwa's eyes traveled over to the servant being dragged away from where she stood at the garden, clutching the hem of her skirt to in an attempt to mask the emotions coming to her. When she heard a string of voices coming from another area of the palace, Fuhwa immediately brought her eyes over to forget about the poor girl being dragged away. Seconds later, Fuhwa spotted Prince Yixing running past the garden where Consort Wu and she could see Consort Wu's face darken at the second interruption.

When it seemed like Prince Yixing was going to run past without paying his respects, Consort Wu spoke up.

"It's not very polite of you to not greet me is it? Are these the manners your mother taught you? Do I have to visit her sometime and remind her what actual manners are?"

Consort Wu sipped at her tea, not even bothering to glance at Yixing kneeling down.

"I'm sorry for my negligence. I'll make sure this never happens again."

"If you weren't a prince, you would have lost a leg by now."

Yixing didn't reply, remaining in his kneeled position with his head down. Consort Wu smirked behind her teacup at his lack of response - to which she took as a sign of submission.

"Leave now before I decide to go visit my little sister, Qiaoli." 

Yixing understood the implications of her sentence, leaving after giving Consort Wu another heartfelt apology. Yixing dashed as soon as he was out of Consort Wu's area and he was sure she wouldn't see him. He heard his name being shouted, chuckling when he saw his personal doctors still chasing after him.

Xuelan was the slower of the two doctors chasing Prince Yixing. She really couldn't give less of a that Yixing hurt himself and if not for the fact that she wanted to get away from the prying eyes of the people under the medicinal department, she wouldn't have followed the other doctor to chase Yixing. Afterall, it wasn't her choice to come to the palace from the beginning and she'll never forgive Yixing for bringing this misfortune upon her. Even if she manages to make sure some of the scumbag guards wouldn't be able to hurt anyone again, it has become a lot harder when her capabilities as a doctor is being questioned and she is at risk of losing her head for her incompetence, as called by the other royals of the court. The thoughts of being called incompetent riled the lady up some more and she couldn't help but sneer when she saw Prince Yixing trip over his own two legs and went tumbling into the pavement. Too bad she couldn't play god with the princes. That was too big of a risk that she could not take. 

Jaeeun was the first to reach Yixing, already picking at Yixing's bloodied pants to see how hurt he was. The boy looked up to her with a cheeky smile, not giving any concern to his bleeding legs while he watched her examine him with worry.

"It's nothing Jaeeun, so stop knitting your brows together like that. It takes away from your natural beauty."

Since Jaeeun was wrapping a bandage around the prince's leg, she made sure to wrap the bandage tightly because of the boy's teasing. She heard the prince gasp when the cloth came in harsh contact with his cut, letting out a smirk before loosening the bandages again.

"It's easy for you to say when you are not at risk of losing your head just because you failed to provide treatment for the princes. We're doctors, not gods."

"Many princesses will be showing up. This will be a good chance to form new alliances and persuade them who is the rightful heir to the throne," Junmyun spoke without breaking his gaze from the guest list. Oda Mirai got up from the small table where she was drinking her tea to look at the guestlist alongside the prince.

"We can easily leave out Princesses Choi Jihye, Ahn Miyoon, Hino Katsumi and Zhou Jiating."

Junmyun finally looked at Mirai, urging her to explain.

"The North Kingdom lack soldiers, The South has wealth. But this wealth would not suffice the moment trade is blocked. There is a disease outbreak in the West so fighting for the prince of another Kingdom would be the least of their worries and the East Kingdom can not be trusted to help."

"We can always trick the East into helping us and dispose of them afterwards."

"The East kingdom is always hungry for power so the only way King Song would accept our conditions is we give up a large mass of Eudaimonia. We do not have the land mass to give him any."

"And we know the only reason he is not attacking us is because he knows he'll have other kindgoms to deal with if he attacks us first." Mirai nodded in agreement.

"So who should we form alliances with?"

"Princess Ba Nahla's kingdom seems to be the easiest to ally with, especially if she ends up choosing you as her prince. Afterall, the Kim brothers are the more preferred suitors. Princess Zhu Zhihui holds no power but I heard rumors that she is the reason her brother has been victorious in wars thus far. We need to use the party as a chance to test these rumors."

"Princess Yuria is also powerful. Her brother holds her close to his heart and she has been known around the Japanese Kingdom as the one pulling the strings in battle."

"That may be so but her kingdom abandoned her to Eudaimonia. Why else would they wed her off to one of the princes here. She holds no power. At least not anymore."

"I'm sure somewhere in her, she would want revenge for being exiled. We can promise her vengence in exchange for her help."

"Vengence does drive the desperate up a wall. A wall they are willing to climb no matter how many people they have to use as ladder."

The 99% envy us. We envy their 99% humanity.

it's been a while haha but I hope y'all are still around. if you're still willing to stick around for this story, please comment below. if worst comes to worst, i'll just continue with whoever is still here. sorry for the delay of the chapter! lastly, i won't give false hope that i'll finish this story but i will write as much as i can.

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