OST: She by Elvis Costello.

Please listen. The song helped me write the story as well.

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Once upon a time, in the land of Korea, there ruled a just king who had a beautiful little girl as a daughter.

This king was much loved by his wife and the entire kingdom, for he succeeded in raising his country to be more prosperous than ever before.

However, he did a mistake. A grave one.

He fell for a witch. More for lust than love, but still, he took her, promising her the world, and beyond.

However, when his affair was revealed, he denied everything, leaving the witch mocked and insulted.

Furious, the witch entered the palace with magic.

The King, who was having dinner with his wife and daughter, was deeply embarrassed and afraid.

“Are you still going to deny that you had promised me the sun and the moon?”

“......I’ll compensate you.”

“Compensate? Compensate, you said? I’ll show you what is fairness!”

Flying, she grabbed the little girl, the jewel in the king's life.

“No! Anything but her!”

Ignoring him and the rest of the court, the witch flew to the wide balcony.

“I am not going to kill her. But she will bear the sins of her father. I curse her. I curse this Princess Park Sooyoung to never find love with a mortal man. Every man who loves her shall die!”

“No! Please! She needs happiness and love! She needs to give our kingdom an heir!”

“Never!” the witch shrieked, before dropping Princess Sooyoung to the balcony floor and jumped off the tower.

The king was horrified. It was a pity that the witch had to kill herself. But the even bigger catastrophe was the fact that his only daughter was cursed.

Maybe, maybe they could find a way to cancel the curse.

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The king invited all kinds of shamans, priests and exorcists, but no matter what they tried, the princess’s curse could not be undone.

A scholar fell for her when she was seventeen. Someone who she met in one of her events to visit the citizens. They exchanged letters and met secretly. But all of a sudden, he caught an incurable disease and died.

As she actively began to attend her father’s court and was present in all his meetings, the lords fell for her, and they died one by one, either due to illness or accidents.

This enraged the nobilities, and she was called as The Cursed Princess behind her back.

Finally, when she was twenty, her own father died. Also from a mysterious illness.

Knowing that her father's death was her fault, the broken princess ascended the throne.

The week her father passed away, Japan invaded.

Queen Sooyoung had learnt sword fighting, archery and horse-riding all her life.

She was not going to sit prettily on her throne when her soldiers fought for her kingdom.

She wore her armour and was the most front at all the battles, and won them all.

However, during the six days war, thousands of her own soldiers fell for her.

She was an ethereal beauty. For them, one look made them crazy over her.

Three days after they won the war over Japan, five thousands of Korean soldiers mysteriously died, all of them present during Queen Sooyoung’s speech to fire up their spirit and won the war.

Since that day, Queen Sooyoung was also cursed by all the mothers, wives and lovers of her fallen soldiers.

The queen nearly killed herself that night, wanting to jump off from her own tower.

However, her four friends stopped her.

“Let me die!!! I’m a murderer!!!”

“You’re not a murderer, just a cursed woman.”

“Therefore, I must die! I don’t want any other innocents to die because of me!!!”

“You’re our queen. Can you leave us like a mother leaving their children?”

“My citizens—my children—they will all die because of me!”

“Just the men” Lady Yerim reminded.

“They’re half of the population!!!”

“Don’t die. Keep being our queen. Instead of fighting your curse, embrace it” Lady Joohyun said.

“How?”

“Use it for your own good.”

“I don’t know what to do!”

“I might have some ideas” she smiled.

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So, after that fateful night, Queen Sooyoung wore a veil whenever she met men.

She changed all her ministers and advisors to women, her four friends taking the most important positions.

Lady Yerim was her Minister of Finance.

Lady Seungwan was her Minister of Citizen’s Prosperity.

Lady Seulgi was her Minister of Defense.

And Lady Joohyun became her Prime Minister.

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Lady Seungwan managed to clean Queen Sooyoung’s image after the death of the five thousand soldiers. She spread the truth, that the queen often cried for them, and mourned, fasting for days to pray for their souls’ peace.

She also created schools for the children, erasing illiteracy from the kingdom.

The villages that had famine got food sent from the more prosperous villages.

Law was the weapon that protected all citizens, and in only a few years, the citizens turned to worship their queen.

She’s seen as a goddess by them. Their heroine, their saviour, their beloved.

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It was known to the whole world, that the Emperor of Japan was a cruel King.

He robbed from the poor and forced them into a romusha, a forced labour, as he had fun with his trope of royal friends.

Queen Sooyoung invited the Emperor of Japan to her castle.

And seduced him.

He fell desperately in love with her.

Only to die six days later.

This prompted Queen Sooyoung to sail to Japan with all her war fleets.

She wore her veil and attacked all the country.

When her soldiers nearly lost, she took off her veil.

Her own soldiers were in the plan, they covered their eyes with the visor in their iron helmet.

Queen Sooyoung took off her armour and shed her clothes to her underdress, paraded in front of the Japanese soldiers, and said, “Japan, I want you to be mine.”

Once she saw how glazed their eyes were, she wore all her clothes again and rode to the fallen Emperor’s castle.

She stayed inside for six days.

On the morning of the seventh days, most of the Japanese soldiers who were at the battlefield died of a mysterious illness.

Without much resistance, the Queen won the country.

It had to be the most successful feat of a woman who used her body for her own designs.

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A few years later, Queen Sooyoung had enough of the Emperor of China.

He treated women as trash, kidnapping girls from all over his huge country and brutally them, then giving his used girls to his court and soldiers.

The value of women in China had become lower than dogs.

Copying the attitude of the emperor, the men of the country became the largest group of vile men history had ever seen.

They could just grab a woman who passed at the market and her in the nearest alley.

When parents tried to sue for justice, the officials would just ignore them.

All women who fought for their own sake were murdered, burned or hanged.

The Emperor of China should have been able to predict The Queen of Korea would never let it went on.

She went to the emperor’s court with a dozen female soldiers, and danced in front of the emperor.

Then, barricaded herself in a house she bought.

Everytime the emperor attacked her house, she gave one of her female soldier for the emperor.

They all knew what would befallen them, and were ready to sacrifice.

Six days passed, six female soldiers were sacrificed to the emperor’s lust.

On the morning of the seventh day, Lady Kang Seulgi arrived in Beijing from the sea, a thousand fleets full of soldiers from Korea and Japan under her command.

As Sooyoung ordered the body of the Emperor to be hanged in front of his palace, Lady Seulgi took over the country.

In three days, Sooyoung managed to make China hers.

Then, she ordered everyone who ever had a member of their family to report to the palace.

A long, long list of names were gathered in the course of one month.

At the end of the month, she said, “Execute them all.”

“It’s half of the male in China” Lady Joohyun reminded.

“All the better. Clean this country from these dirty creatures.”

Joohyun bowed, “Your will shall be done, my Queen.”

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At the Same Day, in Heaven:

The God had two assistants, The Lady of Life and The Lord of Death.

The Lord of Death had lived ever since the universe was created and he was always bored.

Ever since the existence of Queen Sooyoung, he finally found entertainment.

He enjoyed seeing her wiping away her enemies.

He even began to watch her even when she’s not wiping her enemies’ lives.

There was something cold and broken in the queen that attracted him.

Something magnetic that called on to him.

Was her curse working on him too?

He’s an immortal, though.

However, the day Lady Joohyun finished executing all the men who committed in China, God appeared beside the Lord of Death.

“It’s time for you to take her life.”

“Whose life?”

“Don’t pretend to be stupid. You know who I mean.”

The Lord of Death, or his Korean name, Yook Sungjae—neither the God nor The Lady of Life knew why he chose that Korean name—had his expression turned to pain. It was just for a fleeting second, but the God noticed it.

“Why? She’s entertaining.”

“She’s ruining the balance. She’s killing too many men already. She’s killing innocents too, although without planning to.”

“So? Just take away her curse.”

“I can’t. That witch who cursed her did a good deed in her life. She fed hundreds of poor children. That made her curse, caused from a real injustice, cannot be undone. Even by me.”

“Some god you are” Sungjae mocked.

“That queen is unstoppable. She’s going to take over the whole Asia, making all men who ever did crime wiped off.”

“We both know there are millions of men that deserve to die.”

“Yes, but not like this. She wants equality between men and women. It will happen, but five hundred years later.”

“Maybe that can happen now.”

“No. Many things in history are supposed to happen first, before now.”

“Remind me again why we let men believe they are superior?”

“Because that’s how humanity pushed the women to thrive.”

“What a stupid reason.”

“Either way, you need to go down there and take her life.”

“Why can’t I send one of my men?”

“She’s one hard life to take. It has to be you.”

Just like that, the God disappeared.

Sungjae sighed, shutting his eyes.

He couldn’t really defy the God’s order.

After all, he was created by Him.

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Sooyoung was sitting alone in the Emperor of China’s throne.

The whole East Asia had become hers.

She believed it was the right thing to do.

She wished there was satisfaction, happiness, or even triumph in her heart.

But she felt nothing except exhaustion.

Lady Joohyun reported earlier that the last batch of executions had been performed.

She managed to clean this land from those vile men.

Only the good shall live.

Unlike father.......who was also good......but died because of me......

How I miss him......

If he were still alive, would he be proud of me, or hate me for killing so many?

Just then, she suddenly felt the temperature in the room getting colder.

It was the middle of summer, but the temperature got colder and colder until she saw her breath coming out as a puff of nearly white smoke.

Then there was a gush of wind, and she saw Joohyun stopped moving, her quill hanging in the air.

A maid was pouring tea, and the tea hung in the air.

All her guards in the throne room had a blank expression.

And she began to see darkness in the ceiling, as if there was a huge layer of black silk covering the whole ceiling of the throne room.

Her heart started to thump, and she unsheathed her sword.

The black silk covering the ceiling swirled. Faster and faster, causing a storm inside the throne room.

Then it formed a cone of black wind.

In a few seconds, the black wind of darkness transformed to a man.

His form was black smoke that looked slightly human.

Like a shadow.

The closer he got to her, the more solid he became.

The black gust of smoke didn’t dissolve though, it followed everywhere he went.

Sooyoung was ready in front of the throne, her shiny sword on her hand.

“Who the hell are you, and what do you want?”

The man smiled.

He was handsome, Sooyoung thought. And his aura felt deadly.

Even before he spoke, she actually had a feeling what he was about to say.

“I am The Lord of Death. And unfortunately, I am here to take your life.”

Queen Sooyoung still felt shocked to hear the answer.

“...........you don’t suppose I will go quietly, don’t you?”

Sungjae waved his hand and a sword that was made of black iron was instantly in his hand.

“If you give up easily, pretty Queen, I will be utterly disappointed.”

With that, Sooyoung ran and jumped, making her first attack.

With ease, Sungjae met her sword with his.

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Author’s Note:

So I was bothered by that picture of Joy for Dazed Korea.

The idea had been nagging in my head, bothering my real life.

I had to write this.

I thought I’d write a little first, just to let it out of my head.

Then it suddenly became 2,300 words gahahahah!

Anyway.

This is probably my craziest story in my ten years of being a fanfic writer.

I’m sorry for the citizens of China and Japan. I just borrowed the countries’ names. I mean no disrespect.

I also toyed a little about the idea of God, but it’s also just part of this story, which is a fiction.

Thank you for reading this. I guess it’s not an easy story to digest.

Obviously a short story as well. I guess the next update will be the end.

See you around!