Chapter 1

A butterfly-shaped hair ornament, sprinkled with red, white, and blue jewels gently swayed in the breeze. Gilded accessories made with all kinds of jewels gleamed. A braided, black ornamental wig styled with all sorts of ornaments and a red-eyed golden dragon hairpin rested on her head. Soft and luxurious red silk wrapped around her body embroidered with artificial flowers and butterflies in golden thread. Over it all, a thin, white see-through cloth lay.

Tears streamed down her pure face from her black eyes past her red lips and soaked her red and white clothes.

The sedan chair was full of the scent of delicate makeup and tears.

***

King Chung shook his head. Queen Yo clenched her small fist and said in a trembling voice, “Does she really have to go like this?”

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“The Emperor wanted a princess with the surname meaning ‘a shining tree.’ Seriously.”

“… shining tree. ”

Mokhwa (木華) was close enough. Mokhwa was the surname of the orthodox royal family of the Hwa Kingdom. No collateral royal family members could use that character meaning Mok or ‘tree’ as their surname.

The amicable royal family of the Hwa Kingdom was full of young members. There were ten princes. Unfortunately, there was only one daughter.

There had been a long and secret correspondence between the Hwa Kingdom and the great empire of the Mok Kingdom. King Chung made great efforts both domestically and internationally to strengthen its power and create a comfortable kingdom. Before he realized his dream, he received a letter from the king of the great empire, the longtime protector of the Hwa Kingdom, a small and weak country. What was to come in the future was a golden chance, but it was also a big challenge to King Chung.

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Now, the Mok Kingdom badly needed a princess who inherited the surname of Mokhwa.

The right path for the Hwa Kingdom was already set, which was to marry her off to the Mok Kingdom.

But the problem was the fragility of human beings.

The princess was King Chung and Quee Yo’s only precious daughter.

“Your Excellency, as you know, she is our only daughter.” The Queen said.

“Yeah, I don’t want to send her, either.”

King Chung’s voice trembled. Queen Yo’s face was filled with shock.

To her, the king was like heaven, the universe, and the giant presence that ruled over everything. However, he was also in deep agony, and he was as stressed as the queen because their only daughter had to leave for Mok Kingdom.

“I am so sorry I didn’t understand your intention…” the queen slurred finally.

While saying that, she burst into tears, venting her pent-up sorrow.

King Chung stroked her shoulders warmly and wrapped her in his arms.

“If we send her off this time, can we see her again?”

“I can’t guarantee it. I’m sorry.”

King Chung changed the topic.

Obviously, they would not see her again if the princess left for the great empire, the Mok Kingdom, but he could not frankly tell this to the queen because she couldn’t stand being separated from her daughter forever.

Of course, Queen Yo was already aware of it, but she initially felt the matter of sending her off to the Mok Kingdom was just too nonsensical because she didn’t want to believe it.

The king said he was so sorry that he could not answer his wife’s question.

Big teardrops fell from Queen Yo’s eyes.

The king sighed deeply, lamenting that he could not comfort her no matter how much he tried.

“That’s a lie,” said the skinny girl, who seemed a little over fifteen years old, to her nanny, stricken with fear. “That’s a lie! Are you kidding me, right? That’s so ridiculous, nanny. ”

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While grumbling about it, she was about to burst into tears.

Her nanny comforted her with a somber face.

“Your Majesty, poor Princess.”

“Don’t say I’m pitiful, don’t look at me with a sad face like that!” This quiet girl screamed and then jumped into the nanny’s arms. “You’re lying, nanny. I can’t believe the king will send me off to a foreign country. The queen won’t let me go to a foreign country… ”

The girl wrapped in the nanny’s arms trembled so much.

At that moment, the royal eunuch called her from outside, “The King wants to see you, Princess Woorum.”

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The girl’s face turned white even though her father wanted to see her in his executive office. The girl freaked out when she learned that her father called her there, instead of his own private study, where she usually saw him. The king and queen sat on a high podium.

“Your Majesty King and Queen, your daughter is here at your call.”

“Woorum!”

Even before she finished speaking, the queen came down quickly and hugged her daughter.

But when the king called the queen in a stern voice, Queen Yo quickly returned to her seat next to him.

Her little figure began to tremble. It was the first time the princess heard her father’s voice thundering through the room. When she sat down with difficulty, the king opened his mouth, holding a golden patch.

“Listen to me, Woorum, the First Princess of Hwa Kingdom!” As she was scared at the moment, she did not notice that King Chung’s voice, which was usually solid, trembled. “According to the message from the Mok Kingdom that they would like to receive a princess with the surname Mokhwa, I have chosen the First Princess Woorum. So, keep your body clean and get prepared to go to the Mok Kingdom, starting today.”

What her nanny said was true.

The young woman trembled like a small bird: the First Princess of Hwa Kingdom, Woorum Mokhwa.

The whole royal family of the Hwa Kingdom, with its members more amicable among themselves than other than any other royal family, became gloomy because their only princess left for a foreign country. In particular, Queen Yo’s sorrow, the mother of the princess, was beyond description. She did not touch a drop of water until the next noon after eating only a little porridge that morning.

“The Queen, your mother, doesn’t feel good,” said a royal eunuch.

Prince Mingung, who heard the news, hardened his expression. Although he was not Yo’s biological son, Prince Mingung played the role of a son as the king and the queen had no son.

“After Woorum left, this palace feels so lonely,” said the prince.

Although the princess left only yesterday, he felt a year had already passed.

In fact, the princess was a precious daughter doted on by the whole royal family including her brothers.

He murmured, “How lonely she probably is since she left alone for the faraway country for marriage.”

“I hear her nanny went with her,” said the eunuch.

“Really? How wonderful! ”

Though the prince used the wording ‘alone’ in a different context, the eunuch didn’t know it and mentioned ‘nanny’ to comfort the prince who was in distress because of Woorum.

“Most likely that little girl would be crying now. ”

Prince Mingung looked out the window with a fixed gaze at the sky.

***

The sky was blue, and sometimes, there were white clouds floating. The birds in pairs flew in the sky, singing for joy. There were little and colorful spring flowers on the roadside. A fragrant spring breeze blew somewhere and tickled the noses of the pedestrians.

On such a peaceful spring day, Woorum, the princess of the Hwa Kingdom, was on her way to the Mok Kingdom to get married to its crowned prince.

Woorum would soon arrive in the Mok Kingdom. She did not know how long she had been riding in the sedan chair. She just got out and ate when her nanny asked her to have a meal then got in again and cried inside for a while. She took turns getting in and out of the sedan chair on her way to the Mok Kingdom, sobbing all the way.

Though she cried while she was on her way to the Mok Kingdom, her tears had no sign of drying out. On the contrary, the further she went away from her home country, the more tears came out.

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Finally, the door of the sedan chair slowly opened. And she saw a man standing outside the sedan chair.

***

The spacious residence was embellished much more lavishly than Woorum’s in the Hwa Kingdom. With golden and red cloth hung from the ceiling, it was studded with expensive ornaments everywhere. Ohyulje, the Emperor of the Mok Kingdom was seated in the deepest and highest place of that spacious residence. Seated right below Ohyulje was Empress Taeryong, and the man sitting with his head slightly down was the crowned prince of the Mok Kingdom.

“The Hwa Kingdom is becoming too strong for us to ignore it as a small country,” said Emperor Ohyulje.

How scared he was about his father’s low and stern voice in his childhood!

But the prince now grew up enough to hear his voice without batting an eye.

If he had not been bound by decorum, he would have been bold enough to look into his eyes.

Crowned Prince Bipaan had no fear of facing the emperor neither did he budge a bit before him.

“I heard she was a young girl,” said Bipaan.