"Your highness? I think you're mistaken," Bada shook her head as she politely tried to snatch her hand away from his grasp. He ignored her pleas and dragged the maid away from the garden into his palace. The crown prince and princess there were shocked to look at the scene in silence before Taehyung decided to chase after the emperor of the Northern Kingdom. Bada was his palace maid. The emperor of the Northern Kingdom should not treat his subject as nonchalantly. Duke Jeon bow his head to the crown princess before following the crown prince's step. 

"No, I know you're Eve!" The emperor looks like someone who was possessed. His grasp on her hands tightens as she tries to escape him. Bada was in confusion as she looked back at the crown prince and Duke Jeon, who was now following them. "Your Highness, what are you doing to my people?" Taehyung's voice loudly echoed in the huge hallway as if announcing his dislike of the emperor's action. Politically, no ruler will tolerate such behaviour. Even though Bada was a palace maid, she was still a citizen of his kingdom. He needs to protect her. 

"Ouch!" Bada trampled on her feet when the emperor made a sudden stop once he got the message from the crown prince. The emperor Elton Rafael Maverick was known as a man with a rational mind. But his action right now speaks otherwise. Why would an emperor pull a maid from the visitor convoy and drag her away right in front of the eyes of the crown prince? This time, unlike the rational and warm Emperor Elton, that was known to the entire kingdom, he lost his control and decided to throw away all the ethics. "This child right here is my daughter!!" The emperor yelled in anger at the prince. 

"Your highness, I'm not your daughter. You got the wrong person," Bada said again. This time, no soft pleas came out of . She sounds stern and upright. She was no longer bowing her head to the emperor, but this time, she stood straight with glaring eyes at the man that claimed her as his daughter. The emperor was taken aback by the sudden change of attitude from the maid. "No! You are my daughter. You're Eve Rosalyn," He replied in a lower, subtle voice, controlling his emotion at his best. 

"Your Highness, my name is Kang Bada, and I was born as a lowly commoner." She replied this time with an absolute stern voice as she pulled away from her hand from his grasp. The emperor looked at the maid, amazed at how she no longer looked scared of him. She was now glaring and looking at him right straight in his eyes. "Let me tell you again, Your Highness. I am not your daughter. Now, could you excuse me, your highness?" She took a step back as her face twisted to the scared face she had made earlier. The emperor sighed as his eyes stayed on Bada's for a couple of seconds before he looked at the maid and the two men that followed them, the crown prince and his knight. 

"Is that so? Kang Bada, right? I'm sorry, I thought you were my lost daughter. Please, forgive me," The emperor placed his right arm on his left chest as he bowed to the maid politely before he turned to look at the crown prince. "I'm sorry for disrespecting you. I lost my rationality when it comes to my daughter," The emperor said to the crown prince, who was a few feet away from them. Emperor Elton bows his head before he arranges his step away from Bada and disappears along the hallway. 

Taehyung and Jungkook walked towards Bada, who was standing still after the emperor left. Bada sighed before she lifted her head to look into Jungkook's eyes. As if talking to her, he shut his eyes closed for a moment and opened them slowly in a calm manner as he subtly nodded his head as a sign that she was safe. Bada nodded her head and bowed her head to both the crown prince and the duke before she made her way to the maids' barrack without saying anything.

"Father? I heard some weird rumours from the maids," Princess Aires peeked her head into her father's study room. The emperor was looking at the small hand mirror that was placed on top of his table. The mirror was the mirror that was cherished by her father, a mirror that her father kept in the safest place in the castle. The hand mirror was made up of gold and crystal. The carving around the mirror was so delicate and impossible to remake. Emperor Elton lifted his head from looking into the mirror and smiled at his daughter. He put down the mirror and kept it in his drawer as he stood up and walked toward his daughter. 

"What kind of rumours that you heard, my dear?"  The emperor asked as he helped his daughter to the sofa in the middle of the room. "The maids said that you tried to take away the neighbouring's country palace maid right in front of the crown prince," Princess Aires looked at her father in confusion. His father would never do such things like that. He has never taken in any concubine in his life since he got married to her mother. He has never even stolen glances at any female with interest. "Where did you hear about this?" Elton let out a small laugh as he sat on the sofa across from his daughter. 

"The maids, they've been talking about you since then," Princess Airess looked at her father with confusion as she was sure it was not something that her father would do. Emperor Elton was a rational man. "Yes, it's true. I thought that the maid that came with the crown prince was someone I used to know. I guess I was wrong," Elton said as he tried to dig into the untouched part of his memory. The memory of his past life that he wants to ditch and forget.

20 years ago...  

"Delfina! Delfina!" The young prince Elton ran into the thick forbidden forest in his kingdom's west. The young man was in his rugged clothes and peasant-looking attire to avoid the scrutiny eyes of the people in his kingdom. His face was kept hidden from the public as he was too young to be exposed as the heir to the throne. The throne of the one and only emperor of the Northern Kingdom on this continent. 

"Shhh~!" A shush was heard as he ran into the woods deeper. Elton turned his head to look at the source of the shush. It was her. The one that he's been looking for. His lover. A beautiful woman with such mesmerizing golden eyes. She stood still behind a big tree when the young prince Elton walked towards her. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. Her shining eyes and her melodious voice kept him up all night for a couple of months since he accidentally encountered the woman playing at the river bank near the west forest. Elton smiles as soon as he gets closer to the girl. 

"Why are you here?" She whispered as she looked around. Nobody should know that she currently interacts with a man from the capital. Her clan might curse her if they knew that she got involved with a man from the capital. "I wanted to see you," Elton said as he smiled at the beautiful girl. On the other hand, Delfina keeps her distance from him as she continues to hide behind the humongous tree. She was very wary of her surrounding. He had no idea what is she hiding from, but he could not help but chuckle. 

"Shhh~! Don't make any noise!" She panicked as she jumped out from behind the tree just to shut his mouth with her palm. Elton smiles as he holds the hand that covers his mouth. He was amused at how the woman was so clueless about how powerful he was in this kingdom and touched him without his consent. He nodded his head as he pulled her hand and guided her to his horse which was waiting at the side of the forest. 

"Where are we going?" Delfina asked as she continued her steps, following the young man. "I'm taking you out to see the world," Elton replied. "The world?" She raised her brows in confusion as she followed the man onto his horse. Both of them hopped on the horse and started their journey travelling across the kingdom to see the environment, the culture, the food and the beautiful buildings around the country. Both of them had joy travelling across the country for more than eight months. Elton introduces how the people in their country interact and how the economy works in the country by showing her what selling and purchasing are. Like a little kid, everything that he showed her amazed her. Living their life like a commoner causes Elton to bring Delfina out from the kingdom to the neighbouring country.

They build a manor with their two sets of hands and live together as husband and wife. That's when he found out that Delfina was not a regular human. She was not like him or any other human being. That was why she looked so ethereal and breathtaking. She carved a handheld mirror and instilled magic in the mirror. "Elton, when you're away and if you miss me. Just whisper my name, and I'll appear in the mirror," Delfina said as she sat down at the side of their newly harvested wheat farm. Elton just laughed and took the hand mirror. 

After a while, Elton's wheat business started to grow, and he started to be a merchant that sold the goods from the Northern Kingdom. His happy life with Delfina changed when a guest visited their home. One day, when Elton was away due to business, an old woman that claimed to be Delfina's grandmother came to take her back to their clan. Elton returns to their manor to the sight of his wilting wheat field. His wheat field dried as if his house was going through a drought. 

"Delfina!! Delfina!!" Elton ran into the manor in worry about finding his wife. As his feet stepped into the manor, the house felt like winter in the middle of summer. It was freezing and dark. It was just a different house than the one he left a few days ago. "No!! Don't come near me!" Delfina yelled as Elton opened the door to their bedroom. Delfina was sitting in front of the fireplace with a blanket all over her body and completely covering her face. 

"What happened to you, Delfina?" Elton squatted down as he approached his wife. "Elton, will you love me no matter how ugly my face looks?" Delfina asked in her shaky voice. She looked at him with her teary eyes; Elton nodded his head and pulled her into a tight hug, trying to calm down the crying lady. The moment when Delfina put down the blanket, revealing her face to the man, Elton was taken into shock. Her face was still beautiful, but the colour of her eyes was no longer gold, and her skin, usually glistening and glowing, lost its glow and turned pale. Since then, everything has changed. Their wheat fields were no longer prospering, their house was no longer warm, and Elton found it hard to live under such circumstances when Delfina got pregnant with a twin. Both of them hardly got any food to eat and now adding two babies under his wings causes Elton to hate his life. Elton tried his best to make ends meet by selling goods, but nothing seemed to work out. Living as a commoner, he was insulted, he was looked down upon, and the nobles trampled on him. The Delfina that he loved the most had changed and become someone who demanded more materialistic needs. She keeps pushing him to make more money and buy her things he couldn't afford. The innocent woman he used to love disappeared. She had become so materialistic and greedy in his eyes. 

"Elton? Prince Elton Maverick?" A voice interrupted the young Elton, who was sitting near the market in a small village in the Northern Kingdom. He was eating his piece of bread in silence when a man with grey hair greeted him. He had been starving since arriving in the small village two days ago. Elton stood up on his feet as he knew the man. The man was one of the butlers in the palace. The man that served the current emperor. "Prince Elton, what happens to you? Where did you go?" The butler asked as he took off his cloak to cover the prince, who was wearing a thin cloth in the middle of winter. "Please~!..." The butler looked at the prince as he heard some words escape his lips. "Please, take me back to the palace!"