Carmen Welkin was a simple girl.
Her hair was black and straight, her form was small, and her personality was agreeable. She did not complain often, unless stressed, and she was willing to take on the burdens of marriage even at her young age. Surely, this was the make-up of a simplistic woman, and surely there would be many men who would agree to her terms.
To this logic, she only wished for a simple man in return.
Carmen didn't need a lot of smoke and mirrors to impress her, and she also didn't need a handsome face. If you were a man, in her age group, and relativity pleasant, she would take you.
...And well...maybe it was more along the lines of...she had to take you.
Let's back up, shall we?
See, Carmen's father had proposed a deal.
If she could pick a husband, no matter who it may be, in one month, that would be it. They would be wed, and live happily ever after. No if, ands, or buts about it.
He didn't care if she picked up a lowly commoner off the streets; and he wouldn't care if she married someone he absolutely hated. Her father did not give her any restrictions in that respect.
All she was required to do, was find a husband.
So, Carmen had searched.
She started at the marketplace, and gradually migrated through the kingdom in search of worthy men. She checked every countless inn, and every stand set up in an attempt to sell a worthless product to those foolish enough to believe the seller's ludicrous claims. She looked in every nook and cranny of the kingdom, but alas, even after three weeks of constant search, she had not found any men she would be willing to spend the rest of her life with. And now, as she was already two days into the next week, Carmen only had 7 days left until the deadline was upon her.
Basically, in her language, she was thoroughly screwed.
...See, it wasn't as if the bachelors of Sunagakure didn't want her, either. Carmen was very pretty, after taking after her mother. Her features flowed into each other as if she were a painting; the dimensions not being too big or too small, and her hair, a straight black curtain that reached just past her shoulder blades, perfectly mimicked the hairstyle her mother had worn every day of her life.
The hairstyle her mother had died wearing.
Indeed, Carmen was truly a perfect copy of the woman that had given birth to her, including the mysterious silver eyes that had captivated her father; the eyes that could captivate any man. She had the same eyes that made her strict as stone father fall in love.
But he still, somehow, and for whatever reason, hated her.
Carmen was quite sure that the reason all the men had recently begun to look the other way was because her father had threatened to kill them if they didn't. Of course, they didn't know that he wouldn't be able to do so once she picked them, (because of the deal) but it wasn't like she could convince them of that.
Truly, after the amount of meetings she had attended and spoken at, a grand total of zero, they had no idea of the brain she held behind her intriguing looks. All she was to them at the moment was a pretty face. They wouldn't listen to any claims she had, no matter how hard she tried to convince them.
...And in any case, though that annoyed her, what annoyed her the most, was that she could have easily snagged a man in a month at any other time, without her father's meddling. She was the single most talked-about princess in all of Sunagakure. Any man, and every man, was at the very least, interested, with her; a beautiful and mysterious woman, not to mention the fact that she was 18 now, the age that was considered the peak of beauty for all women. Surely, she should have been able to seduce at least one of them to a point where they didn't even care about her father's warning, right?
...Yet the undeniable fact that so far, she had failed, rung like a resounding bell in her heart. The truth had just recently struck her, after she dropped the foolishly stubborn act, and she was now quite sure that her fate was already determined. She couldn't find a man to marry her in a week; not under these circumstances.
No one could.
First with a sigh that progressed into something that was more of a moan, Carmen hissed and swore in the depths of her mind, thinking of her father and his impossible deal as she trailed about the castle.
Above everything else, even if any normal woman should have been worrying about the marriage itself, her father's warning was the only thing that hung over her head. It was as if a bucket filled with liquid poison was hanging there, only suspended by a thin rope threatening to snap at any moment.
...Find a husband, or I'll find one for you.
Carmen had been so sure of herself then. It was the millionth time they had had the same argument, and she wanted it to end.
It was all the same.
You should have been married off three years ago, he'd tell her. No one would want to wed someone your age, he'd say.
Carmen was 18. Katherine, her sister, was 20; also single. Was she missing something?
Last Carmen checked, he wasn't harping on Katherine to find a man. And truly, shouldn't her love life be a hundred times more important than Carmen's? Katherine was next in line for the throne, not her. Katherine would be the one wedding the next king.
Not. Her.
Everything should have been about Katherine, yet all her father did was lecture Carmen. It just wasn't fair.
...So, after being fed up with that very fact, she may have blurted out that she wanted to pick a man for herself. And her father, the man that she was sure had never once loved her, put the sickest of twists on her words.
If she didn't complete her end of the deal, she'd be married to whomever her father chose, even if the man he wished for his daughter to marry was an old pervert, and even if the man her father picked was the sickest of men.
Even if her father proclaimed that she was marry a dog, she would be forced to comply. The deal he had set was final, and completely non-negotiable. Whoever he chose, she would marry. And needless to say, this was why she could not allow herself to lose, no matter how hopeless it may have seemed.
Sure, her father was a stern, coarse man that sympathized with no one - not even his own daughter - but she could still outwit him somehow, couldn't she? It was no secret that he liked Carmen's older sister, Katherine, better, so perhaps she could think up some alternative that he wouldn't expect, for he didn't know the way Carmen thought. He had never taken the time to get to know her, so she could use that as an advantage.
...Though...let's just say that it didn't help that their father was, quite literally, the king.
It was his job to expect the unexpected. That was how he won wars; that was how he knew how to govern a kingdom of unruly citizens. Her father was smart, just as she was. And it would be so, so very difficult to outsmart him.
...In her mind, Carmen was soon imagining what would happen when she ultimately lost their little battle. Really, there wasn't a chance of her ever winning, was there? He had tricked Carmen to pull her into this, and he would be able to trick her again. And she guessed, that just to punish her for disobedience, when she failed, he would choose one of the rich snobs from overseas for her to marry.
...No, she was not against tying the bonds between countries, but she had previously declined any attempt to get her to marry some pompous creep. And Carmen, though not usually selfish when it came to the betterment of the kingdom, intended to keep that refusal standing. She was still a princess, even when she didn't act like it. She should get to have at least a bit of a say in what happened in her life.
And really, if she couldn't refuse a man that would only talk about himself and his newfound riches in every moment of their marriage, what did she have?
Even as the quest to find her own choice man dragged on, Carmen was beginning to believe in her own lack of hope. Sooner rather than later, she would be led to sheer desperation. And sooner rather than later, she would be married; whether she passed or failed.
Even if Carmen was willing, the day a wedding band was slipped on her finger would still be utterly the same. She would ultimately be tied to the man who completed the action. She would have to be committed to someone she just met; she would have to pretend to love this man, even if she didn't.
Marriage was confinement in your own mind, and it would also become the main stress of her life. Her husband would want kids, and she would have to bear them. Her husband would expect her to do all of the things a wife should; she would have to clean, to do laundry, to cook, and to listen to his problems without complaint.
...And though marriage meant all of this: though marriage meant the inevitable loss of the freewill she had just recently obtained upon turning 18, Carmen was ready for it. She, being born into the royal family, had always been ready for it.
She could take on whatever the world threw at her, for Carmen was equivalent to aged wine - kept in a special place, with extravagant conditions - waiting in angst for day it would be needed, becoming more valuable with each second that passed.
And according to her father, and truly, to herself - after a complete 18 years - she was ready.
She was old enough now. 18 years was long enough to get Carmen prepared for the day she would seal the binding ropes of marriage.
She had studied, practiced, and wept for such a day. She had spent her entire life cooped up in a castle for such a day.
...She had just never expected it to come so soon.
Carmen had never predicted such a proposal to make itself known, even though she had turned 18 many months ago. Though her father liked to say that 15 was a marriageable age, silently, they both seemed to agree that 18 would be the magic number for her. He didn't often show it, but he cared, though only slightly, for his daughter, and he didn't wish for her to have to take on the burden of having a husband so soon. Especially if said husband was looking for suitable heirs early in his lifetime.
So yes, Carmen probably should have prepared herself for this much more than she had. She had always known that the day she turned 18, she could potentially be married at any time, but still, she had tried to deny that fact.
In truth, she didn't really want to get married.
If it would save the kingdom from another war, sure, but this was...this was practically for nothing. What if she got married now, and then a few years down the road, an epidemic appeared, and it would have been better if she was still single? Would they force her to remarry? And more importantly, could she go through with that?
This scheme of her father's, to get her married, was impossible to figure out. There was no reason for his extreme insistence, especially since Katherine was not looking for a man as well; but it still didn't change the fact that this was happening.
This wasn't a crazy dream, or a nightmare for that matter, and she wasn't about to be told that it was all a joke.
Carmen would have to go through with marriage; no matter what.
...And it was up to her to make it a happy one.