In a world dominated by men, women have no choice but to scavenge for what is left of the gold and silver men have greedily fought to own. In a 'safe' society where the 'status of women shall be uphold and protected' is a complete bluff and it made her squint to read people's true intention. But she need not to worry. Born in a royal family made her automatically safe from the vicious world out there, as long as she keeps herself between that barrier of safety. You might think, like most stories you have read, this woman might crave for some danger and adventure. Oh no! That is where you are wrong. No! She wants to stay in that barrier that her father has created for the royal family. She knew, once she broke out of the barrier, she would not be able to survive out there. Out there where the rule of life is so simple: the strongest win and the weakest die. 

A woman she is, but most importantly she is the princess of her nation. A totally refined woman. A respectable woman do not yield swords to protect herself; rather she would run behind the protection of a man she trusts most in a scurry. A woman of high social status do not compromise her feminism and meek natured self, rather she will bow her head and respect the decisions made by men of higher authority towards her. Her life has been mapped out, strategized very cunningly and all it needed now was the perfect timing to execute it. It was a perfect plan without any flaws, she would admit. All she needed to do now was wait and smile behind intricated paper fans and maintain her beauty. Being a woman is so simple, especially when you are a noble woman. Things come easy and cheap with little consequences. Without much challenge and competition, she sure is the strongest of the crowd.

But the princess was no fool.

She knew her days of being free to roam around the castle, read storybooks and pick the flowers were numbered. She knew very well that soon, she would be married off to some Kings because her father surely wanted the best for her daughter. She could not blame the King that is her father. She could only blame destiny. But destiny is not something humans can control. The waves and wind will surely hit the shore, the direction of the sailing ship is what men can determine. And so she waited for her time. If the Royal Court wanted to play the waiting game, she'd be more than happy to play along. She's a patient woman. Everybody agreed on that, if they agree on anything about her at all. 

As the queen turned to the next page of the story she was reading, her mind raced at the conversation she was not meant to hear the previous night. At the age of 19, she was already considered to be too old for marriage and yet her father did not cease his spirit in finding the right and best suitor among all who came for her hand in marriage. 

"Your Highness," the royal advisor addressed to his King.

"The princess would not be any younger. Soon after the coming full moon, men will turn the other way against her," he bowed as he said so.

The king his beard. He did not respond to his advisor but he just looked straight ahead into nothing. After a few moments of silence, he spoke. His voice soft but clear and confident. As always.

"She'll marry the King. The King of Goryeo."

The princess have heard about him. The people called him The Great King, The Blessed King, The King With Unquestionable Divinity - anything you can ever think of that spoke of mightiness and holiness. She has heard the news of how fast the nation is expanding. They conquered lands one by one, as if the master had a very long list of all the lands he wanted to conquer. She knew men like the Great King of Goryeo. While men like him are very rare, they are viciously ambitious, cunningly quiet and awfully cold. Like a lion, he knew when to strike and when to lie low. Like a deer, he can sense the enemy coming and if he chose to, can run just as fast. A calculating person with very little warmth and emotion painted across his face. 

She smirked and silently scoffed as her mind wandered away from the storybook in her hand. It berated her on how easily she has been fooled this time, when she was the only one who could outsmart her father, up until now. She sighed as she was forced to come into realization that finally she was tricked into a game she thought was a waiting game. No! What her father was playing was not a waiting game, but a game of deceit and betrayal. It was a game of mental strength because a game of physical strength between a man and a woman would just be too plainly unfair. Her father wished to use  her as a pawn, or a silent unnoticeable weakening agent to the Great King. You might think this is impossible, knowing as to how strong The Great King's mental game is, but the princess's father knew better. Oh how he knew better than most because he knew her daughter just as well she knew herself. He knew that no one in this world could break the Great King of Goryeo apart but his daughter.

For the princess was a head-to-head competitor to the King of Goryeo.

While the Great King was a calculating and cunning man, the princess was a strategist with a cartographic mind that is invincible. While the King was an apathetic person, the princess was very vocal and passionate. While the King cares about his divinity and his people and country's wealth, the princess wanted nothing more than world peace. Call her gullible and naive, call her anything but like the Great King, but the princess has one of the purest souls. But be fooled not, because even that pure soul is a strong one. If otherwise, she would not be able to survive her father's mind games and her brother's wicked tricks. 

Finally giving up on the long forgotten book, the princess sat back, letting her head roll off facing the high ceiling of her ridiculously spacious room. She knew not very well on how to be sly and cunning, but she knew best on how to survive in the wild. Was she shocked and surprised over the turns of events? She cannot say that she was for it was her father that turned the tables around. It would not be in her father's characters to not drop sudden cannon balls and shenanigans along her way in her most desperate and stressful times. Was she hoping for a miracle to save her? Well nobody likes to be sold off as pawns, especially by her own family. Although she knew very well her father was not the loving type; and she used to beg for her mother's attentions until her eyes dried out of tears; but it left her infuriating and hot in anger anyway. The issue here was not that she had remained unmarried way past her age, the interest here was that the golden prize of a husband her father wished to marry her off. 

And if she did agree to such a marriage, what she would be told to do was not to sit quietly in her bed chamber everyday and wait for His Majesty to call upon her to satiate his "hunger", she would be expected to, by her father, to try to take down the dynasty that the Great King has established. It might sound easy, but actually it was a no small feat. First, she had to gain his trust, strong enough for her to know the insides of his governance and military execution, then she had to be able to manipulate him;  that in itself was quite the impossible, then she had to influence the royal courts and military and the people and the conquered nations and rival lands... etc etc etc. 

It might first started off as a game of deceit, but as it progressed, it will be a game of life and death. The stories of the queens and lady consorts who have tried to rise against her Kings all ended in death punishments that was preceded by unimaginable torture. The thoughts were enough to make her bones shiver and her shoulders shudder. She knew that she could come up with a foolproof plan to make it happen, but she didn't think she would have the heart to do so. That was what sets her apart from the King. He was apathetic and she was passionate. 

Now, tt's either she obeyed her father or she rebeled against her own royal family's decision. Currently, the latter seemed so much to be the better option.

As darkness surrounded the city, the princess's anxiety seemed to worsen. She did not know when she would be "accidentally" introduced to the King as her father would plan a coincidental event to make ends meet, but she knew the time will come soon. Was she fascinated by the Great King of Goyeo? She'd lie if she say she was not. Who wasn't fascinated by him? A great charismatic leader with a strong philosophical background. Such a strong character profile would surely peak interests in hearts of many people, men or women. Was she hoping a romance out of it? The princess was a realist and she knew love was not in the equation for the Great King's life or even for hers. She learned that while growing up in the palace. A marriage for a princess was less of love but more of a diplomatic reasons. Life was no fairytale, angels do not come to your rescue, and the Gods only sit on whatever they were sitting on and having a good laugh over the humans they created for whatever reason. Do not wait for luck, she reminded herself. Your life is your own. You alone has to take care of it.

Mind still fresh of the biting voices at the back of her mind, she quietly called her maid in. When she was not met with any response, the princess called for her a little louder. Finally, she heard a faint yes and the doors to her bed chamber was slowly opened. The maid in question gingerly walked in, trying to adjust her eyes to the dim light enveloping the room. She knocked her feet against the table stand in the middle of her room and managed to muffle a scream of pain. Not knowing what happened but faintly heard the not so loud commotion, the princess perked up on her bed, suddenly aware of her surrounding. If the guards caught her at this hour, chatting away with her maid, her father would have the maid punished and banished away. The maid, named Yoo Ah, slowly made her way to the bed. Her face showed annoyance as she slumped to the floor, sitting cross-legged. 

"To be called at such an hour, your Highness, people would assume we are up to something indecent," Yoo Ah claimed.

If possible, the princess's Asian doe eyes widened, as she lightly hit Yoo Ah's shoulders. "Nonsense!" she asserted in a violent whisper.

"I cannot sleep and I just wanted to have someone listen to my worries to calm my anxieties and worries," the princess defended herself. She climbed down her bed and sat across her maid. She breathed out a long sigh and hold her knees close to her chest.

The maid grew worried with questions for it was not like the princess to dwell on things. She was a great problem solver, a person who refused to let her mind wander over negative things and always had a positive perspective. Sometimes Yoo Ah likes to picture Her Highness the princess as the river. It still flows with such grace and power even if it has to pass through barriers of huge hard-edged rocks. The princess was the flowing graceful water and the problems that she faced was the hard-edged rocks.

"What was the matter Your Highness? This is not like you. Has the King gave you an impossible task? Have His Highnesses the princes bothered you in any way?" Yoo Ah questioned out of curiosity.

The princess shook her head in response. She knew not on how to address this to Yoo Ah. As she went over the words she wanted to say in her mind, she thought she sounded ridiculous and whiny, two traits she hated to be linked with. But Yoo Ah was the only person she grew up with, the only person she could trust her life with and surely the only females in the castle to actually care enough about what she wanted to say. And so the princess sighed one more time, made Yoo Ah promised to go pick flowers at the garden tomorrow with her and ushered her to leave quickly without anyone noticing.