A/N:

Sorry for the wait fam, I get random writer's block sometimes :((

Also idk how often the updates will be from now on since I'm starting uni again next week. But i'll defo try to keep updating as regularly as I can.

On another note, Kwonchaeng finally meets!!

Princess Chaeyeon could barely remember her mother by now. Chaeyeon was only ten years old when an incurable sickness plagued the kingdom and took the lives of so many people, including the Queen of Oneiric.

By now Chaeyeon had only the memory of her mother’s soothing voice, and she still remembers how it feels to be comforted by her. The paintings of her mother hanging on the walls of the palace kept the image of her mother alive in her mind. But all those paintings are but a ghost of her mother’s nurturing character. Especially when Chaeyeon looks back to the feeling of safety in her mother’s arms when she received a scolding from her father. He was less violent when her mother was still around. It made Chaeyeon sympathise with her father in some ways, but it did not mean that Chaeyeon could forgive him for all that she’s suffered living in the palace.

Almost a decade later, Chaeyeon still wishes her mother was here to protect her. Or at least be able to listen to the stories her mother told to lull Chaeyeon to sleep. 

It likely had something to do with all the love stories. Those that made Chaeyeon believe in each and every version of the story where the princess is saved by the knight in shining armour. The stories that made Chaeyeon wish for it to happen to her one day, inspired her to dream of bigger things––that she will end up with the love of her life, to leave the Oneiric kingdom and her father’s wrath.

Maybe some part of Chaeyeon even loved the stories itself more than how her mother told them. And she’d like to think that her mother would forgive her for feeling that way, because Chaeyeon knew that all her mother wanted for Chaeyeon was for her to marry someone she loves.

Chaeyeon dreamed of it for herself too.

But her dream was now shattered. 

On the afternoon of her seventh day in Izland, as it was planned, it was only an hour away from Chaeyeon’s wedding to a woman she’s only seen quick, fleeting glimpses of. From the back of her dress or the clicking of heels, but nothing actually worthwhile. She was about to marry a stranger, a person she’s never even talked to. This could not be further away from what Chaeyeon’s mother wanted for her.

From the very first moment Chaeyeon stepped foot in the Izland palace one week ago, she was overcome by every onslaught of feelings––dread, freedom, fear, and curiosity. As happy as she was to finally leave the Oneiric kingdom, Chaeyeon wasn’t exactly ecstatic about the situation with her arranged marriage. And that created an inner turmoil on its own starting from the first day of the rest of her life in Izland.

The Izland castle was big, even bigger than her own childhood home. Surprisingly, the ambience of her new home felt almost welcoming, less cold than her former one, if it was possible. Unless Chaeyeon was just imagining it to convince herself that things weren’t as bad as they seemed. Either way, Chaeyeon was just glad she didn’t have the urge to run back to the carriage and demand to be brought home. Not that the Oneiric kingdom was home for her anymore.

Attendants wearing Izland colours escorted Chaeyeon to her room, a small one and undecorated at that. Though they did mention how she will be moved after her wedding, to a new, larger bedchamber; the royal quarters.

(“May I ask where my clothes are?” Chaeyeon asks with her small voice.

“Your clothes were put in the royal quarters, Your Highness. It’s where you will be moved after your wedding night.”)

Chaeyeon could already imagine the new bedchamber to be one part of two large apartments that are connected by a sitting room. It would be almost identical to her parents’, though Chaeyeon finds herself thinking that, unlike her parents, there would be absolutely no reason for her to discreetly visit her wife in the other apartment in the middle of the night. Chaeyeon may have wished to live a romance with someone she loves, but she wasn’t deluded enough to think she would have it with the Queen.

The Queen of Izland probably wouldn’t want to see her even after they were married anyway. The same way the Queen was ignoring Chaeyeon for the whole week since she came to Izland.

The only company Chaeyeon had were her attendants, following Chaeyeon everywhere, giving her all the information she needed about her new home. Throughout the week everyone told her that the Queen of Izland was not ignoring her. Queen Eunbi was apparently busy with council meetings and tutors. The reality was, they likely weren’t lying to her. Chaeyeon had seen more of those tutors and councilmen walking in and out of the library more than she'd seen her soon-to-be wife, who seemed to be practically cooped up in said room.

It was ridiculous, but Chaeyeon wanted so badly to meet the Queen. But for the whole week, Chaeyeon hadn’t seen her at all. And not for lack of trying. Sometimes Chaeyeon would make a detour on the way back from the gardens and she’d linger around the corner of a hallway, waiting to see a glimpse of the Queen as she leaves the library. But it never happened. Or if the Queen has ever left the library, then Chaeyeon must have missed her.

And so here she was, getting ready to marry a woman she’s never met. 

Standing in front of the body mirror, Chaeyeon studies the wedding dress she finds herself wearing. It was white and an unmistakably lavish wedding dress. But beautiful as it is, Chaeyeon was disappointed to be wearing this instead of her mother’s wedding dress.

“Your Highness.”

Chaeyeon finally tore her eyes away from her reflection. “Yes?”

“It’s time,” the attendant says.

And it was time for Chaeyeon to marry Queen Eunbi.

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Chaeyeon's brother had told her that this was normal. That is, not seeing your betrothed until the wedding itself. She was warned that this was unavoidable, arranged marriages like this is what happens to people like them.

The last time Chaeyeon wa