"You look so beautiful."

Jaehwa looked at her personal maid who had spent the last 15 minutes braiding her hair in the most complex manner, despite all her protests. She looked at the mirror to find her 17 year old self. She saw a girl who looked like a perfect princess with her hair and face made up and her pale white skin shining with fragility. She frowned.

"You didn't have to waste my time on such an unworthy act of making braids", she told Sooyoung, who was beaming at her with the pride of what she had just accomplished.

"I was just making a princess look like a princess", she grinned at her.

"I don't like it", Jae Hwa grumbled under her breath.

She had spent her whole life trying to get used to the royal norms and traditions but she still failed miserably at it. Nobody would believe that she was a princess if they met her when she was not surrounded by the several people in the palace and required to act like a 'perfect' princess infront of the royalty and the nation. Well, she failed at that too. She absolutely was a princess but definitely not a lady. And perfect princesses were always ladies of customs.

She also knew that the Queen had eyes and ears everywhere waiting for a chance to lock her up if she dared to behave badly in public. That lady could have probably been the death of her if not for her lovely father, King Daejung, who allowed her to be a free bird in his presence. He was one of the few people who was actually fond of her, despite her very unprincess-like self. Probably that was what he liked in her. He was the only person she loved and held dear. Well, he and Sooyoung and some of her brothers and sisters and maybe her entire nation?

"I'm your personal maid. My work is to make you the most merry and beautiful girl in the entire kingdom", said Sooyoung.

"I'm already the most merry girl in this kingdom without any of this stupid makeup and I don't intend to be any more beautiful", she said as a matter of fact. Sooyoung snorted. Jaehwa glared at her.

"I don't want to die in the hands of the Queen for failing my duty. It is for my own selfish good", Sooyoung smirked.

"Shut up", Jaehwa mumbled. 

She turned around when she heard foorsteps at the door. A servant was standing there with his head down in a bow.

"Your Highness", he said and bowed again. She sighed. She absolutely hated these formalities.

"Speak"

"The King is asking for your presence in the Royal Hall, your Highness" 

---

Jaehwa remembered when she was a kid, she used to fake cries to make her father take her to the Royal Hall with him. She remembered how her mother would glare at her and tell her to shut but her father would laugh and take her along. Then she would stay in her brother's room all night to hide from her fuming mother. She smiled at the memory. Now her father would usually call her from time to time to the hall whenever there was any happening. The court was one of her favourite places in the palace.

"Tell us your purpose of coming to Juana, messenger", the King's deep was boomed around the court. He was an old man with a long grey beard but he was in no way any less of a warrior than a younger one. He radiated a majestic and powerful vibe that demanded resp