Chapter 16

Sakura woke up startled, and found she's not in her room. Neither was she in her wooden shed. Instead she's in a rather nice room with clean sheets and clean clothing and a warm hearth underneath the stone bed, making everything nice and hot.

She saw the Prince sitting next to her, putting down his book to look at her.

Sakura quickly remembered what happened and asked, "Your Royal Highness.. Are those people.. Those.. are they still alive?"

Sasuke stared down at her and wants to strangle her himself.

Not only did she ruin the big dramatic speech he has in store for her and eventually will end with making it clear that her life and everyone she knows' life belongs at the tip of his finger, he wants her to know that everything she does will reflect back on her family. Just because he has that power and doesn't abuse it often doesn't mean he can't use it. He thinks he's being too kind to her these days and she needs a lesson to toughen up. Sakura fainted before he could say anything, and ended up in a slight panic while ordering for doctors from the Royal Court to have a look at her.

And it turns out it's just dehydration and exhaustion. Nothing a good rest can't salvage.

When he heard the diagnoses, he wanted to pour a bucket of cold water over her and make sure she wakes up to face him. Upon looking at her tired face and dirty clothing, he ordered some servants to take care of her and place her in a comfortable setting to maximize recovery. After all that, he made sure he stood right beside her and he's the first person she sees when she wakes up, and all she could think about is her family? The audacity! She should be begging and lavishly praising him for his kindness and generosity!

In his twisted way, he was fumed. "Is that all you could say?"

Sakura quickly realized something, and said, "Please, punish me, kill me instead of them!"

Honestly speaking she thinks she'll just waltz back to 21st century if she dies. The only reason she haven't done it herself is because she's a coward against her own mortality.

Sasuke stared at her, and the feeling of strangling her came back.

After a while, he finally said, "What did you mean, when you wrapped your hair around my fingers?"

It took Sakura a few seconds before she could understand what he was referring to, and she said, "It's just.. I... um.. a long time ago, I felt like I've known you all my life..."

This made him smile in a way that would've made her heart melt if she wasn't worried for her life, "As in, fate? Previously designed?"

Sakura suddenly blushed a thousand shade of red. She knew what he's referring to. In this era, if a relationship is successful, it's been referred to as something that was meant to be in their previous life. They're just finding each other again in this life. People say superstitious things like this all the time, and Sakura sometimes shakes her head at the notion. Obviously whatever happens after happily ever after eludes these romantic sayings.

Sasuke felt like he's done teasing her. He straightened up and said, "your family is fine. Everyone's waiting to see you at the North Wing, where they'll be staying for the night. You certainly give them a fright this morning."

As if everything was her fault.

But at this point Sakura would never pull anything past Sasuke. She accepted his blame with humility and said something along the line of this will never happen again, your grace knows no bounds, and I will forever be indebted to you. Stuff he wants to hear, obviously.

So Sasuke left, feeling pretty happy.

Sakura quickly jumped off the warm bed and ran to the North Wing.

The North Wing is dedicated to guests traditionally. Sakura felt it was weird placing her family who were being punished into the guest houses, but she wasn't one to judge and she wants to see if anyone died.

Her father was outside to greet her. He has been waiting for a while.

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