Chantara Raksomari sat in her bedroom chamber in front of the mirror. What reflected in the mirror was Chantara’s half back that had a large red scar on the surface. The red scar mark reminded  the kind of love and affection that her father, mother, and younger sister gave her. Chantara ran her hand across the scar at her back, and thought about the incident that had happened yesterday that was the cause of the current scar on her back. She remembered clearly that Phitchaya approached her with a friendly manner at her small and humble living quarters, and invited her to go with Phitchaya to harvest the bloomed lotus flowers at the river bank. Knowing that Phitchaya never wanted to go anywhere with Chantara, Chantara immediately agreed happily to go with Phitchaya. That day, Phitchaya was acting all nice and polite to Chantara as they walked by the river bank, in which, Chantara had no problem with it. “Older sister, I like that lotus over there. Will you help hold my hand, and let me lean in to reach it?” implored Phitchaya to Chantara. Chantara hesitated about the idea because she knew that Phitchaya was afraid of water. Therefore, Chantara pointed at herself and then to the lotus that Phitchaya wanted, to signify that she will be the one to get the lotus, and let Phitchaya stay on the flat land. Phitchaya ignored the suggestion, and proceeded to step onto the slanted terrain that connect the river to the flat land, and leaned towards the lotus without holding onto Chantara’s hand. Chantara quickly snatched onto Phitchaya’s hand and tried to pull her back onto the flat land. In response,  Phitchaya angrily snatched onto Chantara’s helping hands, and pushed her to the ground with all of her might. Chantara landed on the soft grass with her face still facing Phitchaya. She saw that her younger sister was still well-balanced at the slant of the terrain with a smirk on her face. Chantara was able to make out the words, “Good luck, my older sister.” that came out of Phitchaya’s mouth. In a sudden moment, Phitchaya purposely jumped into the river which caused many of the lotus to dispersed. She started to scream, “Help me! Help me! Chantara is trying to kill me!” Chantara realized that she got herself into a trap. If she went into the water and help out Phitchaya, her parents will say that she tried to drown Phitchaya into the water. If she stayed on the land, her parents will say that she didn’t help Phitchaya out of the water. Chantara decided to charge into the water and save Phitchaya out of danger first because Phitchaya’s life was a priority to the kingdom.

Chantara was able to get Phitchaya out of the river with no struggle because the area that Phitchaya jumped in was shallow. After Chantara was able to get Phitchaya out of the river, Phitchaya knew that her servants would’ve already ran to tell the king and the queen that Chantara pushed Phitchaya into the river, therefore, she pretended to gasped for air as if she was dying. Chantara on the other hand knew that Phitchaya was trying to get her into trouble, so Chantara made noises with to show that she was begging for Phitchaya to wake up. Expectedly, Phitchaya dismissed her cries and continued to lay on the grass pretending to have passed out. A couple seconds later, the king, queen, and three of Phitchaya’s servants approached the scene. Chantara knew that she was going to be in trouble, so she quickly turned to the king and begged him with her hands as she was kneeling towards him. Chantara tried to justify herself as she tried to explain the whole event using her hands, but the king ignored her. He ordered the three female servants to carry Phitchaya back into the house, and to call over the physician immediately. After the servants successfully carried Phitchaya out of the scene, the king headed over to the crying Chantara with a furious expression. Chantara made noises out of , but no one was able to understand her. Her voice was able to echo into the queen’s ear, but the queen cared less about her. Unexpectedly, the king angrily slapped Chantara in the face with his manly palm. Chantara’s body went towards the ground after the hard slap. As she laid there with tears dominating her eyes, she knew that her useless voice will not help her out of the situation no matter what. She heard her dad yelling in the background, “You evil child! Not only you were born dumb, you were also born with the devil inside of you. Your younger sister love you so much, how can you tell her to go near water when you know that she is afraid of water!” There was a silence for a while, then the king screamed again, this time, at the servant. “Sompong! Give me my horse whip right now! Bring it to me now!” Chantara reacted to the statement with a change of position to kneeling. She knew that the horse whip will be used to whip her. Chantara tried to persuade her dad not to whip her with the horse whip. Her dad acted as if he didn’t hear her, so she went over to the queen and begged her to calm down the king. However, the queen got annoyed at her cryings, and instead pushed Chantara back to the floor. She pointed at Chantara with her imperial fingers as she exclaimed, “You stupid child! You deserve to get hit!” The queen walked off, leaving Chantara alone with the king who was ready to whip Chantara.

The servant ran to the king panting heavily with the horse whip in his hands. He bestowed the king the whip, and the king took it with no hesitation. Chantara was afraid of her dad as she cried even louder to make her dad know that she didn’t do anything to Phitchaya. Her cries made her dad even more angrier. The king shut Chantara up by slapping Chantara in the face again with his fierceful hand. Followed by that, the king made a hard and loud slashed on Chantara’s half back. The harsh slash caused Chantara to scream in agony as she arched her head back. The echo of the slash echoed through Chantara’s memories as she stared into the mirror.

A tear rolled down Chantara’s cheek as she continued to smooth the wound on her back. She knew that she was in pain from the hit that her father gave her yesterday, but she was even more in pain because of the way her family acted towards her. Ever since she can remember, her father despised her, her mother hated her, and her sister bullied her. Chantara knew that everyone hated her because she was born as a mute, which indicated as a useless and bad luck child. The only one that truly cared for her was her nanny, Kameun. Kameun raised Chantara ever since she was a baby because no one wanted to. Chantara remember that Kameun was the only one there for her whenever she needed comfort. However, Kameun wasn’t able to comfort her yesterday because Kameun requested to leave the palace for five months since she had stayed in the palace for a long time, and wanted to get some fresh air.

Tomorrow will be the queen’s birthday, thought Chantara. From the previous experience, the queen’s birthday was celebrated lavishly with a bunch of nobles from all over the Kingdom of Honthara, and from the view of it, it seemed to be very entertaining. Chantara was forbidden to show her face at the celebration because she remembered that her mother told her in a disgusted tone of voice that if she appear in front of all the guests, all of the guest will mock the king and the queen that they even dare to put their mute daughter in front of everyone to see. The queen’s words stuck closely to Chantara’s mind, so when it did come to the celebration, Chantara secretly stood afar from the celebration hall, and peeked at the party. She always thought about the enjoyment she would have if she was able to join the celebration like her younger sister. She would be able to meet acquaintances, make friends, and give her mom a present without having a worry that her mother would yell at her. All of these were just wishes that Chantara had, and if it did happen, it probably was just in a dream.

Phitchaya was rudely laid on her bed with both of her legs separated from each other and her arms stretched out to the end of the royal bed as her three servants kneeled before her. She chewed on the grapes that she had on her hand loudly while her main servant, Anong, told her what the king did to Chantara yesterday. “Princess Phitchaya, I pity you that you didn’t have the chance to look at your dumb sister’s face when the King slashed her back. She was rolling on the floor like a real idiot screaming and crying.” Phitchaya smirked, and replied, “That mute deserved the hit that my dad gave her. That's what she gets since she was born to disgrace our family name and our kingdom. She is just like a traitor every time when I see her face.” The three servants giggled at Phitchaya remarks. Anong added, “Since she is so stupid, she will probably never find a husband. Everybody runs off whenever they see her. It’s a waste since she is so beautiful and respectful too.” Phitchaya snapped out of her eating and kicked Anong in the face as she prepared herself to stand up. “Eh. Anong! What are you trying to say? That I am ugly and that I am rude? Huh?” In response, Anong vigorously shook her head as her hand massaged the area on her face that Phitchaya kicked. “No Princess Phitchaya. You are more beautiful, in fact, you are the most beautiful and have the most manners in this whole kingdom. I was just being sarcastic na. Don’t take it so offensive.”  Anong comforted  Phitchaya, who was enraged.  “Tomorrow will be my mother’s birthday, which means that I must be the most beautiful out of anyone, so that I can find my husband among those noble men. I am already the age to get marry. I must find my king among those noble young men tomorrow.”