Author's note: I am just planning on writing longer chapters... so thanks for waiting! Again, your comments and thoughts are precious, so please comment below!

"Hey!" Jooe shook her head the next morning. "It's the next day! Tell me everything." She grabbed a sleepy Yeonwoo's arm, and tugged on it.

"After the exams." Yeonwoo rubbed the sleep out of her eyes.

"Ohh... but you seriously have to tell me EVERYTHING." Jooe said. "When I grow up I'll get out of the palace myself."

"Mmm, maybe." Yeonwoo staggered to the closet. "I have to get ready for the Exams."

"Exams, exams, exams." Jooe grumbled. "Just tell Father to give you a feathered hat."

"No." Yeonwoo washed her face. "The whole point of this is to prove my intelligence."

"Okay." Jooe looked disappointed. "I was really looking forward to hearing your stories."

"Mmm." Yeonwoo slipped on her shoes. "I promised you, later."

Nancy awoke to the most horrible clattering next door.

She had been sleepless throughout the worst of the night, but her traitorous brain decided to let her sleep at first light. Judging by the height of the sun, she had only slept for half an hour.

"Agh." She ran a hand through her frazzled up hair. "Mornings do tend to mess with me."

"Finally awake?" Daisy strolled in next door. "I was wondering how a person could snore that loudly."

"Hmm." Nancy snatched up a comb. "At least Yeonwoo unnie puts up with my sleeping habits." 

She went into the kitchen, looking for snacks before breakfast.

"Habits?" Daisy raised an elegant eyebrow at the closing door. "Why, that noise should be a horde of pigs."

"Baby pigs." Yeonwoo knocked and opened the opposite door. "Trust me, I have experience from working in Chuncheon."

"Legendary." Daisy muttered, thinking about the rumours depicting the mountains of muck in the pig farm. Heavens, some say that the pigs EAT their own muck.

"They pay well though." Yeonwoo admitted. "Fifty silver for a day."

The two walked into the garden. 

"So." Daisy said. "Have you told her yet?" 

"That... I'm a princess?" Yeonwoo said. "No, not yet."

"Why? She seems okay." Daisy asked. "It's not like as if you would worry about her keeping mum."

"No, that's not the problem." Her hand brushed a rose petal. "The palace is no place for a girl like her. Underneath the beauty and glamour of the petals, the thorns are concealed wickedly. The queens and concubines warring separately, the maids fighting amongst themselves, the losers thrown away like rubbish. I don't want her to get mixed up with that life."

"I learnt that the hard way." Daisy grimaced. "After my, um, stay with you, the lowly maids cornered me and used bamboo sticks to beat the hell out of me." She stuck out her wrists, exposing the long, thin scars etched across her pale skin. "I was still a child then."

"Oh..." 

"So, when I got back home, I hid my wounds. I sought out the assassin triad, and hired them to kill all seven of the maids." Daisy shuddered. "They succeeded."

"Of course." Yeonwoo remembered. "The seven maids. 1417. It was an unsolved case. It was you all the time?"

"Yes." Daisy nodded. "But can you blame me?"

"No."

"And so, I agree. You shan't bring Nancy into this hell of a place. It twists people." Daisy patted her scars. 

"..." Yeonwoo could only agree.

"Well, then, after the exams, where will we live?" Daisy asked.

"I have selected an estate on the outskirts of town." Yeonwoo brought out a map and a list. "Please see to the arrangements of the furniture and supplies."

"A real estate?" Daisy gasped.

"Yeah, with a garden, chicken pen, grass, trees, pond and to top it, a big house." Yeonwoo handed the list over. 

"A **** pond? How cool is that?" Daisy could only stare at Yeonwoo's leaving shadow.

Noon. The Royal Exams.

"Hey, don't worry." Yeonwoo ruffled Nancy's hair. "Go help Daisy with the new house."

"Okay." Nancy hugged Yeonwoo as hard as she could.

"Oof! Let me go, you do want me to die before the Exams." Yeonwoo gently prodded Nancy off.

"Good luck!" Nancy waved, then ran off.

"All participants, enter!" A voice boomed, and a gong clanged. Yeonwoo winced.

"Bow before the princess Hyebin, who will be surveying this exam today." A herald announced. 

Since Yeonwoo had never bowed to her sister before, she found the experience very nauseating. Hyebin saw this, and snickered to herself.

"OK, participants, listen to the examination question." Hyebin said. "Your task today is to write an essay, concerning one of your inventions. If! you haven't invented ANYTHING before, please invent one now."

Once the time started, Yeonwoo brought up her pen and began to write furiously. She did have one invention in mind: the honcheonui (혼천의). 

The honcheonui depended on a waterwheel to