CHAPTER 1

COREOPSIS: love at first sight

I slide on the stool of the small yakisoba stand, and order two plates for myself. Heavens, but I am starving. This place really needs more… food stands. Someone flashes through my thoughts and I chuckle; if sensei knew where I am right now, he would be locking my ass in my room for who knows till when. He is always complaining about how I am going to die one day because I ate some unhygienic and/or poisoned food.

But he doesn't understand. No makes better food than small roadside stands. Sure, the big food courts have delicious food and they are way more hygienic and classier and the palace foods were specially made for me and amazing but they can never compare to this. The small roadside stalls. This food has that heavenly, mouth-watering flavour that those big chefs can never achieve. Not because their food is not as good – on the contrary, their food is objectively better – but these stands make it just so effortlessly appealing. I can already feel my mouth watering.

Clank.

The sound echoes loudly in the stand and I turn around to find two men glaring heatedly at each other. One of them has a hand on top of one of the few round tables in front of the yakisoba stand. A metal glass rolls around beneath it, spilling water.

"Just you being a spoiled little brat is not a good enough reason to throw this rare opportunity!"

"You would say that, won't you? You are not the one being stuck sweeping tiles and mopping floors!"

"No, I am not! Because I am too busy mopping your shit."

"Oh yeah, I never asked you to do that."

"Then why didn't you wrap it up yourself instead of waiting for the grown-ups to clean up after you?!"

The last comment incenses the other guy and he leans over the table to clutch the collar of the first guy, "Who said I was waiting for you? You just have to butt in in all my business yourself."

"I wouldn't have to if you faced this pretty little thing called reality instead of chasing after your silly fantasies."

The other guy shakes him by the collar roughly, "They are not silly fantasies!"

The first guy loosens the hands from his collar, and socks the other guy across the jaw, "I don't care! You are going and that's it."

The other guy, thrown on the ground, fumes at the first one and get up to retaliate.

I quickly stand up to stop them before any more damage is done, "Hey, hey, guys! Relax. There's no need for violence. Let's just talk it out."

The first guy turns his glaring eyes at me (probably for butting in), so, I move on to the other one on the ground and help him up, "Come on, don't make a scene."

He turns to me with a sneer and jerks away, but goes back to his table and sit on his stool. I take up a nearby free stool and pull it to their table. Other guys who were watching them before were still huddled around the table, so I quickly send them away.

The first guy finally comes back to sit on his stool and turns to me, still pissed, "Who are you?"

"Whoa, there. Don't be so mean. I'm just a traveller," I hold my hands up in surrender.

"What are you doing here?"

I shrug, "Travelling."

They still look at me distrustfully and don't speak. I sigh as I stand up again to collect my order and bring both my plates to their table. They haven't said a word in meantime. I pick up the chopsticks and take a bite. My eyes immediately close from the divine taste and I force myself not to make a sound.

"So, what happened? You two were pretty heated back there," I ask them, taking another bite form the plate.

"Why do you care?" one of them – the one who got socked – asks, irritated.

"I don't. It's your matter. I'm just trying to help you. Sometimes it's good to have a third opinion. But if you don't wanna say, you don't have to," I shrug and move to take another bite. "I'll just finish this and be on my merry way."

The guy sighs. None of us speaks for some time. My first plate is almost finished.

"How is it… to be a servant in the palace?" the same guy asked. "You must have met someone like that in your travels."

"Hm. Can't say I did. But I guess it won't be that bad. I mean, you get to live in the luxurious palace, eat their tasty food, meet pretty maids. Some even get their own quarters." I answer as best as I can.

"You tell him," The first guy says tiredly. "He entered a draft for a guard in the palace, but got selected as a servant instead. Now he doesn't want the job."

"But it's so… humiliating," the other guy murmurs.

"Why?" I ask. "You will not be the only servant in there. Maybe you will find someone else like you who would find it humiliating. Misery loves company, as they say," I chuckle. The first guy does, too.

"Shut up…"

"Hey, who knows maybe you will get promoted? Or transferred?" I say to cheer him up a bit.

He smiles a bit. He looks quite young – can't be more than eighteen.

"Oh. I just noticed. You guys have the same eyes. Are you related?" I asked when I see both of them has the same hazel eyes.

"Yeah," the first guy answers. "He is my baby brother."

'Baby Brother' snorts at being called that.

"Cool. It's nice to have siblings. I don't have one, but I have this guy who is like my big brother. I just love to piss him off," I grin, and baby brother does, too.

"Of course, you do," the older brother grumble.

My plates are finished soon but I order three more – one for me and two for them – and we talk for some time. They tell me that their father died in The Wars, and since then the elder brother – Kozo – raised them. Now that the younger one is seventeen, Kozo forced him to enter his name in the draft – the money was short in the family, even more so now that Kozo has a baby coming in four months.

It was nice talking to them. They tell me much about their kingdom and the Imperial Family. Their king isn't the most approachable or outgoing one, but he is good. He helps his people a lot – indirectly, of course. It isn't easy to get an audience with the court, but it is easy enough to let your problems be known to them.

And of course, they talk about their princess. It looks like the eldest princess of this kingdom is a hot topic among its people. All of them talk about how incomparably beautiful she is. They fiercely believe that there isn't a lady fairer than her in the whole Empire, even though no one has ever seen her personally. The Imperial Family rarely crosses the borders of the palace. Though, rumours are – from those who work in the palace – that she is as beautiful inside as she is outside. They say that she is kind, considerate, shy, humble, empathic, congenial. The worst thing I heard about her is a lack of sense of humour – and that is barely neutral.

I have yet to hear one negative thing about this princess in my five days of travel in this Kingdom. And it's not as if there is anyone else like that – just her. Other royals have all kinds of things going around about them – positive, negative, neutral.

It's only her.

I pay for my meal, and the brothers', too, and leave them takeout for Kozo's pregnant wife.

After that, I take a stroll through the closing market, trying to find an inn or somewhere to stay for the night. I will have to move on to the next kingdom tomorrow or the day after. I still want to travel two more before going back home. I will not get a vacation this long for years, if sensei can help it. And he very much can. So, I have to make the best of this time.

And then I stop walking when I see her.

Not right away, first I see the palace walls. Sure, I have seen them before, but from the north – where the main gates are. This area is different. It feels different. I walk closer and realise, when I see through the slitted palace walls, that these lawns are cultured wholly in a different manner than the others. The whole western lawn is a big flowerbed – with different purple-coloured flowers grown in a pretty design, that I believe would look better from above, with fewer white, yellow, red and pink flowers among them. Someone in the palace is very much fond of purple flowers.

But that's not what felt different. I search for the source and instinctively look up. There is someone standing in the foremost tower.

A woman, based on the nightdress she wore. I can't get a good enough look at her, but it is still better than most – I have exceptional senses.

The same reason behind how I can feel some things around me. I usually feel negative feelings, but if I focus, I can feel any and every other emotion, too.

But I cannot make out the feelings I get from her. It's a jumbled mess. But what is stranger is that they aren't really negative.

She is leaning on the railing, on her elbows and forearms as far as I can see. The nightdress looks white from so far, but it had a faint hue of another colour – pink? Her hair is almost invisible, being the same colour as the night sky. Her face looks pale and I don't need to see her eyes to know which colour they are.

I don't know how long I just look at her; it can't be very long since the shopkeepers behind me are still not done, but she straightens and turns to go inside, to her chambers maybe.

She was a slender and petite, yet incredibly curvy, woman. If she had worn more layers of clothes, I might have mistaken her for a teenager.

"Done ogling the Princess, boy?"

I turn around to find an old man coming toward me, chuckling.

"She's the Princess?" I ask, shocked. I do not think the talks of her beauty were too much exaggerated anymore.

"Huh? Ya don't know?" he frowns as if the mere idea is unimaginable.

"No, I am a traveller 'round here, old man," I tell him.

"Oh. Your first time in this kingdom, boy?" he asks me, and I nod.

He grins kind-heartedly and talk to about all those things only the old geezers know about. But I have only listened to geezers of my kingdom, and a couple of others. So, the stories he tells me about are all new to me.

I end up renting a room at his son's inn and chat with his family till late at night. The old man's wife died recently. He has just one son, who is married and with two daughters. Sweet little things, both of them. As they have lived near the palace all their lives, they have much more things to talk about the Imperial Family than most of the others.

This time more of my questions are about the eldest Princess. I can't straighten out what I felt from her, no matter how much I think about it. It was all just so… muddled. It felt like she was lonely, content, ashamed, disappointed, happy, afraid, remorseful, gratified, determined, hopeful, heartbroken – all at once.

It was a mess and I am just getting pulled and pulled deeper into it. I even surprise myself – I tend to run away from anything remotely complicated and usually sensei has to drag me into it to solve it. And she is the epitome of complications.

I guess that's a woman for you – infinitely more complex than girls. And girls are pretty damn complex themselves.

The old man and his family think it is just another silly crush on their Princess when I cannot seem to stop asking about her.

I think it is something much more than that. It feels like it is much more than that.

And I ignore the familiar, irritating voice in my head that knows exactly when I don't want to hear it – and so it reminds me of itself exactly then, with the exact words I don't want to hear.

I don't know about you, idiot, but I like her.