While the royal family prepared for the coming of the new year, the commoners outside the palace did the same. ‘Twas the night before the new year, so everyone was gathering on the streets, not wanting to miss out on the good show that the street performers were putting on. There were singers, dancers, fire breathers, fortune tellers, snake charmers, jugglers, contortionists, acrobats, puppeteers, ventriloquists, magicians, and so many others. They had all sorts of eye-opening tricks up their sleeves, bound to take onlookers’ breaths away. Even the Queen herself was tempted to see what they had to offer. Clad in commoners’ clothes, she took a trip out of the palace, accompanied only by Captain Kang.

During the carriage ride to the nearest village, Joohyun once again had Seulgi sit with her. She noticed that Seulgi was carrying a bag that was not large but definitely looked heavy. Pointing at it, she asked, “what did you put inside?”

“Coins, Majesty,” Seulgi answered.

“Do we need that much money? I heard street food is supposed to be quite cheap.”

“It’s not just for food, Majesty. I want to be able to put money in as many performers’ hats as possible. I know how tough it is to be living on a small and unstable income,” Seulgi explained. “I don’t believe any individual ever needs that much money. It’s just that wealth is never evenly distributed. Think of what this amount of money would mean to people like Lord Kwon, or Lord Seo, or any other rich nobleman. If you deduct this from their wealth, their financial stability would hardly be harmed. But if you consider one of the poorest villages in the country, this same amount of money would be able to put bread on everyone's table for a month. So it's not that there isn't enough for everyone. It's just that a small part of the population has hoarded a big part of the country's resources.”

Joohyun was originally looking attentively at Seulgi as she explained, but soon her line of vision darted to that bag of coins instead. Joohyun found herself looking away, slightly ashamed of herself for not having done more about this problem of economic inequalities.

“And how did you arrive at this line of thought?” Asked the Queen.

“These are from just my observations from when I was a beggar to when I was working at the brothel, to when I got adopted, and then to where I am now.” Seulgi shrugged. “But we don’t have to discuss that right now. Let’s just enjoy the performances tonight!”

Joohyun figured she could just get back to worrying about the economy later. For now, she and Seulgi alighted from the carriage and started to walk around. It was quite crowded, and understandably so. Seulgi took extra caution in making sure no harm would come to Joohyun, at least physically. Joohyun noticed the extra effort, and it made her smile warmly at her guard.

“I see Your Majesty is in a very good mood already,” Seulgi remarked. “I’m glad we came here tonight.”

“Hmm. The atmosphere is great. But what I love the most is being in your company,” replied Joohyun heartily. “Just the two of us. Isn’t it nice like this?”

“What, no Seungwan, no Sooyoung, no Yerim?”

Joohyun loved the way Seulgi could joke around with her. They were so comfortable with each other, so comfortable around each other, and what could be better than that?

“Alright.” Joohyun chuckled. “Let’s head back to the palace and play with them instead.”

She even took Seulgi’s hand and gave it a tug, bringing her back to where their carriage was. This only elicited a laugh from Seulgi who blurted, “ah, anywhere is fine as long as we’re together. Why don’t we go —”

Seulgi was interrupted when the crowds erupted in cheers and applause, hyping a particular performance. The music signified that the show was about to start, and so Seulgi and Joohyun hurriedly made their way to join the excited audience. However, they struggled to find a spot where they could see the performers clearly — it seemed they were at a disadvantage because of their height. If only they got here sooner.

The next thing Joohyun knew was that Seulgi was trying to say something to her, yet she could not hear a single word as it was too noisy. Seulgi gave up and instead just led Joohyun to somewhere farther away from the stage. They were only able to have a conversation when they reached the steps of a bridge. There, not every line spoken by the performers could be heard clearly, but at least they could see the entire stage. Even the backdrop, the props, the lighting, and the costumes were so fascinating; they did not want to miss any of it.

When the first pair of performers came on stage, it was a man and a woman. The former was clad in a guard’s uniform, strikingly similar to what Seulgi would normally wear when she was on duty. The latter was dressed much more elegantly, and very soon their dialogue revealed that she referred to herself as the Crown Princess.

Joohyun’s heart skipped a beat. Although she had never personally watched a street performance, she had heard some of the servants in the palace talk about it before. Commoners loved to gossip about the royal family; whenever they put on a show about a dramatized or satirized version of a story about the royal family, it was bound to attract a huge audience. This was exactly what was unfolding before her eyes.

This segment of the show ended when the Crown Princess eloped with her lover. Once again the audience clapped and cheered for the performers who did a good job. While they were certainly entertained and enthralled, Joohyun’s reaction was drastically different.

“Your Majesty, are you alright?” Seulgi asked as she chewed on her lip. She wondered if it was a mistake to bring Joohyun here in the first place. She thought it would be fun, but how could Joohyun possibly enjoy any of it when she had to be reminded of her deceased sister?

Joohyun shook her head. There was a lump in and tears in her eyes as she said, “they think they know what happened, but that’s not at all the case.” She took a deep breath and took out her handkerchief, too tired to even bother trying to force her tears back. “They know so very little about what really happened, so they fill in the blanks with an outcome that they want to see. How I wish my sister could’ve had the happy ending she deserved. I’ve spent countless nights thinking about all the different possibilities. I could have helped her stage her death — then we could have secretly helped her get out of the palace, go somewhere far, far away from this cruel place, and live out the rest of her days in peace. It wouldn’t have been impossible, but then out of all the people in the world it had to be our mother who wiped out the last bit of hope we could have had. Why is the world such a cruel place?” She looked up at the sky, looking for answers but also hoping this could make her stop crying. “Seulgi, do you think