My head fell to where it belonged the moment the door to the room closed. Before Father could even asked what had happened, I lost the strength I’d found in the hall and burst into silent tears. At least I had the strength to keep them silent.

  He sighed, embracing me in a hug. “You should know my anger does not lie with you.”

  It would if he knew my complicity in bringing us to fists.

  “I am only sorry this voyage was for nothing. “ He rubbed my back. “We can discuss the details of the altercation on the way home.”

  I nodded, unable to find or form words, and he let go.

  “Ai,” he turned to her. “Put her to bed.”

  “Yes Your Highness.” She bowed until the door closed behind him.

  She led me to the bed, gently untangling the veil and ornaments from the mess that Prince had turned them into.

  “Be honest,” I didn’t have the strength to do otherwise with her. Even if I did, she’d simply see through it, so I may as well show all my dismay. “How bad did I look leaving?”

  She was quiet while she worked around a particular ornament, her fingers weaving the strands out from it to avoid breaking either my hair or the item now tangled within it.

  “You were disheveled,” she said finally, moving on to a different place. “But you carried yourself with great dignity. Your honor was not tarnished, even in the gossip.”

  I sniffed. Ai’s words were the only ones that could comfort me here.

  “What did the gossip entail?” Even if I could not understand the whispers, I ought to know what they were.

  “The main one is accurate to the point it can hardly be called gossip,” she said. “That he attacked you unprovoked. Though, I suppose other motivations have been mentioned as well. Though they get quite ridiculous.”

  “What motivations have they made up?”

  “Oh plenty!” She said. “That it was revenge for you calling him a fool, that you made a small misconduct due to cultural differences, that he lost his temper in the translation delay, or most popularly, that he was compelled to kill you because you met his eyes.”

  “That is ridiculous.” I agreed. If anything, he was forcing me to stare into them.

  “They only grow more outlandish from there.”

  “More outlandish?” I covered my mouth. How could that even be?

  “I cannot say my lady.” She said.

  “Oh please?” I asked. I simply had to know. The way this prince was treated raised questions on its own, the way he was spoken of even more so.

  “I can’t.”

  “It will stay between us. You know it will.”

  “Oh alright,” she conceded, as she always did to me. “They say he made an attempt of indecency far exceeding desires a boy of his age should even begin to perceive.”

  I gasped, cheeks turning as red as his eyes.

  “I told you it was indecent.”

  “What could possess a sane individual to even create such a thought?”

  He was only 8! Far too young indeed!

  “Well,” she said. “He is quite the beast.”

  “Not even you can find such assumptions reasonable,” I said.

  “Certainly not. I only find them to be not particularly more outlandish than the boy himself.”

  “You don’t find it strange?” I asked.

  “The Prince is the strangest person I’ve ever come across, my lady. I find him quite strange.”

  “No, no. I did not mean his character,” I said. Though that was indeed strange as well. “I was referring to his treatment. He’s received worse even than us.”

  “Well yes, you have seen his behavior, haven’t you?” She said.

  “There have been princes with far worse behavior, and even when they are punished, they are afforded respect, to their faces at the very least.” I reasoned. “He hardly seems to know what he’s doing in these negotiations and is advised by a child not much older than himself or even I! I find I believe him when he says his father has never spoken a word to him.”

  She finished my hair and dressed me in my bed clothes.

  “I care very little for or about the Prince, my lady,” she said. “I care for you and your health, and he does not contribute to that.”

  With that she took her leave.

  I could hold nothing from Ai under gaze, but with her gone, my tears returned.

  This trip had been nothing but a disaster. From the strange customs, to the people’s undue hatred of me, to the arrogant prince, the puppet prince, and the beast one. I couldn’t return home with nothing. Then my attempts to gain anything there would be seen as only more pathetic.

  No prince had respect for me or my kingdom. Their ideas of alliances held no mutual benefit. I wouldn’t be bound in matrimony to a man that would see my people be slaves again, worse still, one that still saw us that way.

  I did attempt to rest, I really did, but it was futile. Rest would not find me until hope did.

  Desperation however, found me first.

  “Must you really be so extravagant?” I asked as I piled decorations on top decorations onto the wig she’d woven.

  “That fool,” she huffed, fingers working angrily. “All those fools! They’ll see their lack of respect for you doesn't diminish you in the slightest!”

  Fools. Whether they were fools or not, they were no different from princes anywhere else. I needed to marry a royal to bring solid strength to my people, but that meant I needed a prince to marry! All the princes were the same kind of fool. So I was left helpless.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Not entirely helpless. Ryuunosuke was far from the same breed of animal as other princes, but an animal nonetheless.

  Still… he seemed a better bet.

  Unconventional. That was the word in my mind as I was led down the hall. I was betting on a wild stallion, whose only predictable trait was unpredictability. It was not in a lady’s nature to gamble, nor was it proper. It was, however, a necessity in this case. I could not return empty handed. I needed the Prince to continue to defy expectations, but wasn’t he just as likely to defy my hopes?

  There was only me and my father, Ai and her mother, the Prince and the boy that accompanied him, and the official in the room.

  With the veil, I could see nothing as before. Only once the doors closed, the room was too dark for even silhouettes. I was too blind for comfort. To my surroundings and to the intentions of those around me.

  “The letters?” The official held out a hand I could only see because of the candle in it.

  I handed him mine, and could only assume the Prince did the same.

  I heard them open.

  My heart was thunderous in the silence. What had I been thinking?

  Ai’s mother had explained this process to me. Both parties would enter a letter to the official responsible for mediating. The letters would contain a simple refusal or acceptance. If both parties accepted, they were led away to continue discussions and it was a celebrated thing. If neither accepted, they simply left together in peace, and no great deal was made of it. However, if one accepted and the other refused, the rejected party would undergo a great shame.

  Leaving alone and returning with gifts that may or may not change the other party's mind. Under the eyes of whoever wished to see. It would be humiliating whether or not the other decided to accept after that.

  What had I been thinking? There was no reason to put my faith in this wild boy! The official was likely too stunned by my ridiculousness to even speak. What other reason could the man have for such a delay in reading what was in front of him? What could be more surprising than such ridiculousness from a girl who should– no, a girl who did in fact, know better?

  The answer left even me shocked.

  “Dual acceptance.”

  “Really?” I asked before I could stop myself. How could I, of all people here, be surprised by the outcome I had hoped for? Perhaps Ai mistranslated– but no. She was just as surprised as I would be. As I was.

  It happened the moment after she nodded, the first show of refinement he’d displayed. The Prince linked his arm through mine and pulled me toward the door. My feet found themselves following his before I truly intended to.

  The guards, for all their impotence toward him thus far, opened the doors without delay. We were outside before protest could even form on my father, or even Ai’s tongue.

  He released me when the doors closed behind us, and yet I still followed close behind him, effectively blind behind my veil, with no guide but the brush of his sleeve against mine. I did not need sight, however, to paint the scene. It was clear enough from the tones of the whispers around us and the silhouettes lining the walls.

  The Prince was abrasive, wild, and uncouth– everything I aspired not to be. Yet still we were the same.

  Royalty and nobility would always hold more wolves than doves, no matter the century or garden they grew in. Preying on those beneath them, lying to those equal, and plotting the downfall of those who dared to be above. Even knowing that, the malice I received was unprecedented, and the hate toward him was the same. So clear and accepted there was not even the faintest attempt to hide it.

  They certainly wanted no positive thing toward me, but they had come to see this child of the Emperor fall within his own walls, and such a thing held no consequence, even as they no doubt muttered their disappointment.

  He didn’t seem to mind, the way they sneered at what could be called his success. I couldn’t feel the slightest change in posture. If it couldn't be felt, it certainly wasn’t seen.

  Of course, for any noble, in any other place, such a mask would be expected. For this to be within one’s home though? To be constant and wholly unbridled, toward a mere child with no mother or father to call for cover? To be despised by those you were born to dedicate your life to, noble and commoner alike?

  I still found his behavior entirely undignified, but perhaps, if only a little, some of it could be excused.

  He came to a stop, knocking at a door before the boy stepped in, doing it in his stead. Without Ai, I could only assume his words announced our presence. Yet the door didn’t open.

  He repeated himself after a moment, then another past. The Prince made a sound from the back of his throat, the only kind he seemed to make. The boy presumably tried to calm him down, before she pushed past him, and opened the door himself.

  All previous well-manneredness left him, and he pulled me inside, the door slamming shut behind us.

  There were no guards inside.

  I understood there was no expectation for this prince to get to this point in terms of engagement, particularly this one, but the room should have been filled. For appearances at the very least.

  With each moment that passed, I found myself believing more and more his words when he said he had not spoken to his father once. His treatment was on par with that of a bastard child, but with so many women, who would even bother with an affair? What need would there be, or even appeal?

  The boy bowed, extending a hand toward the seating. I remembered the lay out well enough to make my way to where I’d been before.

  Then the Prince began to speak. Now was the first time I’d felt Ai’s absence for what it truly was. Not the pleasant reprieve before ire, but a defenselessness in the midst of a battle. I began my reminder of my need for her, only to be cut off.

  Clearly he was not speaking to be understood.

  In a turn I did not expect, he made a gesture I did understand– a deep, extended bow. An apology.

  He straightened as suddenly as he’d bowed, turning around before I could formulate an acknowledgement of any sort, and throwing himself into his seat.

  The silence then stretched out, and out, and out.

  Did Ai not know where we were? I couldn’t sit through an entire meeting without her presence. The Prince and I would have nothing to say to each other, and I’d be left with no reason to explain my acceptance to continue these discussions. I needed one to bring to my father. Particularly with how horribly things had gone up to this point. If he decided it was purely of desperation, there was no chance he would let it continue, and it needed to!

  For once, the Prince wasn’t yelling when he spoke, turning to the boy beside him in a voice more respectful than the one he’d used for royalty.

  It was in the boy’s voice. Tight and clipped. Barely noticeable, but there. Yet his posture never changed. Another thing that set him apart from a typical servant, the way the Prince deferred to him setting him apart even further. Still, what slipped caught my attention more than what was different.

  Hesitation. Just what had the Prince requested?

  Any semblance of calmness left, and he raised his voice again to its usual volume. I’d no idea what the fuss was over, but I was hoping, as though it were possible, that the boy would refuse.

  He didn’t, of course. He couldn’t.

  He left, leaving me alone with a temperamental Prince and no translation.