1 — The Princess Who Went To The Eastern Nation (1)

They said the winters in that country were very cold.

Twelve-year-old Ana Rosa sat absentmindedly, watching the maids bustle about, packing her luggage. The maids had already been at it for a week.

Her mother’s head lady-in-waiting had spent the entire week coming and going from Ana Rosa’s room, leading the way in filling the young bride’s trunks.

They asked her what she wanted to bring, but there were only a few things among her wishes that she was allowed to take. She could not bring the puppy who always slept beside her, nor the parrot she had raised.

She also had to leave behind the scripture she read every night during her prayers. The reason was that she was to be crowned Empress of Mun Nation, and it was considered sacrilegious to bring the scriptures of her homeland.

Only then did Ana Rosa realize that what was absolute truth in this land could be considered blasphemy in another.

“Your Highness, shall I bring you some tea?”

Ana Rosa turned her head to look at the maid. This maid had become hers only two days ago, assigned to accompany her as she left to be married off to the great empire of the East.

The playmates who had been with her had already gone home. The maids who cared for her belonged to her mother and could not accompany her.

She had to take her own maid, but one so young as her could not choose. In the end, the maid her mother had chosen was this woman.

“Blanca.”

Blanca La Repo. She had heard that she was the daughter of the Repo family. Of average height, her frame was a bit plumper compared to the other maids.

Her reddish-brown hair was neatly bound and covered with a net. The blouse rose up to her neck with neither lace nor brooch. Her skirt was without a single wrinkle. What stood out was that the skirt reached only slightly below her calves.

Because Ana Rosa had never before seen a woman in so short a skirt, she could not take her eyes off Blanca’s shoes when they first met. Especially because Blanca’s footwear was not shoes, but boots.

“Do they have the same tea we drink here in Mun Nation?”

Blanca answered honestly, “Forgive me, I do not know.” That was one of Blanca’s oddities. Unlike the other maids, she admitted she did not know many things. And that was why Ana Rosa trusted her.

Though she was only twelve, Ana Rosa knew maids could not answer everything. Yet the other maids never hesitated to reply, pretending to know even when they didn’t.

Yes, the maids did not know much. When Ana Rosa said she did not want to go to Mun Nation, they comforted her kindly.

But when they said, “Her Majesty the Queen also grieves so much at sending Your Highness far away that she forgets to eat or sleep each day,” they revealed their irresponsibility—trying to soothe her with pleasant words about things they did not truly know.

Ana Rosa suddenly felt her cheek sting, so she raised her right hand to cover her left cheek. It throbbed faintly. The bruise from when she had begged her mother to spare her from Mun Nation and been struck was no longer visible. But often she still felt the phantom ache.

Tomorrow she had to depart for Mun Nation. They said it would take a month at sea. When she heard she would board an ironclad at the harbor, Ana Rosa grew afraid. The only boats she had ever ridden were pleasure boats. And now she was to board a warship—could that really be all right?

“Blanca. Will the ‘New Era’ be safe?”

Blanca La Repo looked down at the young princess with a puzzled face. ‘New Era’? That was an awfully bold phrase for a princess to use. A new era? When her father the king was still alive and well?

Then the princess, clutching the teacup Blanca had given her with both hands, timidly voiced her worry.

“What if the steam engine explodes?”

Only then did Blanca realize that the ‘New Era’ Ana Rosa spoke of was the name of the warship. Ah. Blanca swallowed a sigh. What could she possibly answer?

‘Your Highness, it has been only a week since I was dragged out of the temple, and I’ve never ridden a ship, not even a train. If I didn’t agree to be your nursemaid, my tyrannical father threatened to ruin the temple. So here I am, with no choice…….’

Blanca could not say that. Not to this princess, who was already too unfortunate. She had heard the emperor of Mun Nation was a lecher.

That country had a harem system. Unlike here, where even touching two or three women created tangled responsibilities, the emperor of Mun Nation claimed hundreds of concubines, thousands of court ladies, and effectively every woman in the empire. Even if he did not take them, he held the right to.

And now a twelve-year-old girl was being sent as bride to a man who had lived seventy years that way.

She had heard the political justifications. Yet no matter how it was explained, to Blanca this marriage was nothing more or less than selling a little girl to a depraved old man.

“I heard it is an excellent ship. Two years were spent building it, and at the launching ceremony, countless people gathered.”

The monk who had visited the temple had boasted endlessly about seeing that ceremony. The priestesses of the temple had listened with shining eyes.

The nobles they had only heard of sat upon the dais and clapped. When night fell, fireworks lit up the sky. Hawkers lured people into inns and taverns. Peddlers sold wares from stalls while the crowds talked, drank, and danced. Seeing that colossal ship like a moving wall, everyone rejoiced in expectation of a shining future.

And that glorious ship was to carry a princess as its cargo. A ship unworthy of such cheers. Even so, Blanca tried to reassure the princess.

When she recounted what she remembered of the launching ceremony, the princess seemed slightly soothed. Her heaving chest calmed again. Only then did Blanca realize the princess had been holding her breath, unable to exhale.

“Since I am boarding such a fine ship, I will meet a fine ruler. I will be all right.”

The princess spoke. Her eyes were not on Blanca but somewhere else. Following her gaze, Blanca saw the stacked trunks. She could not bring herself to say a word.

After a full month at sea, Ana Rosa was more haggard than when she had left her homeland. When the ship anchored at Yeongyeon, the capital of Mun Nation, the maids who had accompanied her tried to adorn her beauty.

Watching them cinch the girl’s slender waist into a corset, Blanca swallowed hard several times. Twelve was not too young an age, but to go as bride to a man nearing seventy was far too young. For the maids to tighten her waist until it nearly snapped just so she might appear a ‘woman’ in his eyes—it seemed grotesque.

Ana Rosa’s eyes rested on Blanca. Her long hair half-covered her small face. The single eye that showed trembled like a wrecked ship. Eyes like emeralds melted into glass, the symbol of healing, were filled with despair.

And still, Ana Rosa held her chin high, as though to declare she would not forget that she was a princess.

Blanca wrestled again with the question she had agonized over for a month. Should she flee with Ana Rosa? Surely it was not God’s will to hand this young princess to a depraved old tyrant. Surely God had sent her here, a vowed servant, to rescue Ana Rosa.

But just as they could not escape in the middle of the sea, so it was in Yeongyeon. The young princess was never left alone, not for a single moment, until she was brought before the emperor.

The imperial palace of Mun Nation was unlike the palace of Aussis. Of course, the Casus Palace of Aussis was vast too. A grand palace with over three thousand rooms. The first time Blanca had gone there, its scale had overwhelmed her.

But the imperial palace of Mun Nation was not a building. It was a domain. A territory containing countless palaces.

“Why are all the palaces separated like this?”

She thought it would make them hard to control, but the interpreter replied with a puzzled tone.

“The exalted ones cannot all live in one palace together.”

“……Truly? Then Her Highness the Princess will also…….”

“Yes, in the Gonjeon—that is, the Empress’s Palace. She will become its mistress.”

To be given a private palace within the imperial grounds was astonishing. In Aussis, even the king could not have a palace to himself. Of course, here it would be a small palace, but still……

‘Still? And so what? Does having her own little palace mean a twelve-year-old can be thrown into the arms of a seventy-year-old man?’