“Kid, wake up!”

The little child flinched awake when someone kicked her ribs. She rolled on the ground and picked her battered cap before squinting her eyes, asking the disturber what in the world is happening. However, her sharp ears already catch scrambling noises around their settlement, making her sprints away without any hesitation.

“Spread over! Catch these good for nothing rats!”

Some voice barked his order, making countless footsteps occupying the space. The kid feels threatened, not only she had no home left, but those intruders actually didn’t think that she and her acquaintances are fellow human beings. Well, can’t complain much as she is fully aware how vast different their world and the normal works. She took a deep breath and cut into a secret route that she memorized by heart. It’s easy to get lost in here if you’re not familiar with the landscape.

“Here, take my hand!”

Her friend offered her help and she gladly welcomed it. She climbed over a fallen house and jumped over the roof, taking shelter from whoever hunted them in the middle of the night. The little kid knows that this will be another long night of being hunted, simply because she had no parents and poor, oh, and also living in a slum.

Things might be different if she is a rich noble or a royal, she might be sleeping in a much more comfortable bed, have enough food to eat and a roof to take shelter. It’s a hard life for her and she chooses not to lament about it too much. Her cries won’t change anything at all. A single 7 years old crying won’t make people sympathize, not the people in this area at least. She had seen much younger kids survive the slum and maybe, she can survive just like that.

“I just want to sleep.”

The girl muttered as she rested her head against the cold wall, hugging her bony knees which were only wrapped by a piece of thin clothes that she found in the garbage. She wonders if she ever gets to see the next day, given her current situation. Despite her thoughts, the girl snoozed away almost instantly, accompanied with her grumbling stomach.

***

“Dear, it’s time to wake up.”

A soft voice greets a certain girl with beautiful platinum blonde hair from her dream. She whines a little, feeling annoyed that her sleep is being disturbed but when she feels a soft hand is patting her head, the girl knows that she needs to wake up.

“Her Majesty, I bid you good morning.”

She greeted her mother who is also the Queen of their country named Estelle. It’s a rare occurrence for her mother to come and wakes her up as usually, her caretaker will handle it. She opened her eyes wide when she also saw her father the King, standing by her side. Even though she is the only descendant for the throne, Minjoo never was spoiled by her parents much but they still shower her with enough love. Since she is 3 years old, she needs to take numerous classes such as mannerism, dancing, learning to read and calculate as well as names of the aristocrats in the country.

Kim Minjoo never had a chance to be free in her life as her schedule was already being arranged from the time she opened her eyes until the end. Even if she is only 6 years old, the girl is already deemed as the most beautiful girl throughout the empire and everyone simply adores the matured, smart princess.

“Your Majesty, I bid you good morning.”

The little princess slides down from her bed and formally bids her father. Even though they are family, they are still royals which need to follow the custom and rules wherever they are. Little did Minjoo know, her parents look a tad bit sad upon being greeted formally by the girl.

“Ah, I’m sorry for waking up late. Is the delegation from Wiz Empire already here? Sorry for making both of you coming all the way here. I’ll get ready as soon as I can and thus, you can resume your duty, Your Majesty.”

The girl bowed for a bit and signalled her maids to start her routine. As the parents were already aware of the princess' serious nature, they excused themselves from her room, looking a bit dejected. Where did they do wrong, they wonder? The princess used to smile a lot before but nowadays, it's hard to see a genuine smile coming from her face. It's always those calculative, polite smiles accompanied with her perfect manners.

"I bid my greetings for the sun of the Estelle empire together with the moon that sheds its brilliant shines whenever the sun isn't around."

A small voice suddenly greeted them, causing the pair of royals startled but managed regained their composure almost instantly. As they turned around, they saw a certain young child around 12 years old with a speck of brownish hair bowed at them. Those round eyes that resemble a majestic deer greeted them with a smile despite being drenched with sweats.

"Pardon me, Your Majesty for coming into this area but do you perhaps see two little girls running around here?"

The young kid looked nervous as her eyes secretly darted around, looking for something that might cause ruckus if they were left unattended.

"You must be the young Miyawaki! You've grown so much but no, we didn't see-"

"Unnie!!! Wonnie bite me!"

"Nooo!!! Yuding stole my yum-yum!"

Two even smaller voice clashes as two little girls who seem to be around the same age are covered with snots as they rush towards this certain sweaty kid with brown hair.

"Yuding! Wonnie! You can't run with those snots!"

Another panicked voice trails those two young children while wearing exasperated expressions. Her long, raven color hair is shining exuberantly despite being tied in a high ponytail. She seems to be one of those maids sent together with delegation from Wiz Empire, judging from her apparel.

"Pardon my rudeness, Your Majesty. I fail to notice your presence due to my lack of awareness."

Surprisingly, the girl scooped those two kids who were busy bickering while bowing her head and whispering to this brown haired kid who is sighing in relieved. They exchanged a few words together before the girl excused herself from the scene while holding the young girls, leading them to the waiting room for Wiz Empire delegation.

"You all seem energetic despite the long journey. I do hope that our people are providing enough hospitality to your side."

The ruler of Estelle trying to ease up the nervousness of this certain child who is actually his nephew's sole descendant from the other empire. The royals from both Estelle Kingdom and Wiz Empire actually related to one another, thanks to their unique family tree. He crouched down to keep his eye level the same as Sakura before offering her a gentle smile, not as a king but as a father who is greatly concerned about his only daughter, Minjoo.

"Can you please befriended Minjoo? She is a bit young but she is really bright."

The little Sakura hesitates for a bit before nodding her head.

"Very well-"

"Unnie!"

As she is about to loosen up, another certain voice chimes in again and Sakura nervously turns her head away from the king. She almost screams when Yujin is trotting towards her with a gleeful smile plastered on that innocent child. Instinctively, Sakura kneeled on the floor and spread her arms, welcoming Yujin into her embrace which made the girl giggle joyously.

"Pardon me, Your Majesty. I'll do my best to be on a good term with Princess Minjoo."

"You may enter her room while she is changing. I'll send a word to her hand maid to prepare some sweet drinks and cookies for both of you."

"I humbly accepted your kindness, Your Majesty."

They all split their ways with the pair of adults going towards their audience room to greet delegates from Wiz Empire while Sakura and Yujin directed towards Minjoo's waiting area within her room. Sakura whispered to Yujin, telling the toddler to not yell or cry once they are meeting the princess.

"Ding, no cry, no scream, okay?"

"Ding good girl! Ding pwomise!"

Thus, they linked their pinky fingers and entered Minjoo's room. The barely three years old toddler faced such a great hardship in containing her explosives of excitement upon entering the room. Unlike Wonyoung's room which is filled with stuffed toys, rainbows and unicorns, Princess Minjoo's room is rather simple or minimalistic, where only a few bookshelf and table as well as sofa are placed within the room.

Yujin wiggles her way out from Sakura's arm as she is mesmerized by the humongous mirror placed beside the waiting room.

"Unnie! Dis so pwetty!"

The young toddler giddily tottered around as she was entertained by the big mirror. She is mesmerized watching another copy of her repeating her silly face in the mirror.

"Unnie! There's one more Ding!"

"Whoa, Ding! See that cute girl there? What usually cute girls do?"

"Smile! Cute girl smiles! Like Ding!"

Yujin spun around as she laughed merrily with Sakura playing well together. However, their happiness is cut short when a timid girl peeks from the door, hesitates to interrupt their moment of joy.

"Pwetty unnie!"

Sakura is unable to catch Yujin who is quite fast on her feet and approaches Minjoo who is startled at the sudden appearance of a toddler. Sakura grinned widely at her cousins which clearly struggles in handling energetic Yujin circling around her with twinkling eyes.

"Unnie hair, pwetty! Ding wanted her hair too!"

Observing Minjoo blushed so hard after receiving Yujin praises makes Sakura giggling uncontrollably. It's such a great sight to behold as Minjoo currently didn't have anyone around her age or even younger to befriend. That's why a special delegation from Wiz Empire dispatched here with pretext to discuss some treaty while in fact, it's just an official excuse to bond the kids with Minjoo.

"Unnie! Unnie! My name is Yuding! What's your name?"

"Ding! Slow down, pretty unnie is nervous!"

"Why? Ding no monster! Ding good girl!"

Clueless of Minjoo's silence, Yujin turned her head to Sakura, wanting some explanation. The girl with messy yet silky brown hair kneeled beside Yujin and ruffled the girl's hair accompanied with a gentle smile.

"Give her some time to answer, Ding. Remember, one question at a time, okay?"

Sakura glances at Minjoo who looks more relaxed after taking a few deep breaths. She then lifted a bit of her dress while greeting courteously to her guests.

"Greetings to the future sun of Wiz Empire, I am Kim Minjoo, descendant of current sun of Estelle Kingdom."

"I bid thee eternal happiness and blessings, future sun of Estelle Kingdom. I am Miyawaki Sakura and here's my young, gallant knight, Ahn Yujin."

"Yujin bwave knight!"

Those two cousins broke into harmonious laughter upon listening to Yujin's interruption. They promise to try their best at greeting each other but it seems that they both just couldn't hold it in.

"Minjoo, my dear cousin! Long time no see!"

Sakura pulled Minjoo into a warm, tight hug as she patted the girl back. Unbeknownst to the King, Sakura actually already is on good terms with Minjoo, courtesy of Duchess Miyawaki and Estelle's Empress aka Minjoo's mother.

"Unnie… I'm not a small girl, no need to hug me!"

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