The Prince's Bride

Part one

You hummed a random melody as you walked through the village to the bakery, your short curly hair gently swayed in the breeze. The sunlight seemed to make your mocha skin shine, as a small smile adorned your chubby cheeks. Your dark brown eyes sparkled as the bakery came into sight. You wore a simple baby blue sundress with black shoes.

Two women walked past, eyeballing you and giggling. "It's the witch. I bet she's getting sweets again," one mumbled with a giggle.

"Maybe she should lay off the snacks," the other mumbled.

"Dont say that, or she'll put a curse on you!"

You stopped listening after that, their negative comments not bothering you at all. Okay, in all honesty, you were more on the heavier side, weight-wise. Your thick thighs rubbed together when you walked, and your breasts were noticeably large, larger than most of the other girls. Your hips were wide, ith hip dips, and obviously, a stomach came along with that, but you were happy with the way you looked. Judging anyone based on looks alone was just wrong. They call you a witch because you're the only one in the village that can use magic. It's not much, nothing like it was in the past, but you can heal.

You pushed open the door to the bakery. The bell jingled, alerting the baker of your arrival.

"Good evening!" you said with a bright smile.

"Ah, ____! Lovely seeing you again," the young woman said. "I love your dress, is it new?"

You nodded. "It was a gift. A woman made it for me to thank me or healing her sick son."

"How kind of her! The usual?" She said.

You nodded. "The usual."

She smiled before pulling out two small boxes and packing them with various loaves of bread and cakes. She set the boxes on the countertop and you paid her, giving her a little extra because you came later than usual.

"That's a lot of sweets," the only other person in the bakery said. He has black hair, which was obviously a wig since strands of red hair stuck out from one side, and black eyes.

You nodded.

"Mhm. Once a week, I like to buy bread and sweets, and I donate them to one of the orphanages or homeless people in the village. Because of the war, food is more expensive for us, so I do what I can to help those who dont have the money to get food." You sighed. "If only I could afford to buy food for them all."

The man looked taken aback by this. "You really do that? That's very," he paused for a moment. "Generous. Why do you do it?"

"Simply to help those in need. Even though I'm not well-liked in the village, I still do what I can to help."

He smiled slightly. "I'm surprised. Most people in the village wouldn't do this if they were paid to do it."

"Well, I'm not like most people," you said with a giggle.

"Yea, you're much prettier than most," he said honestly.

Heat rose to your cheeks, giving them a pink color, and you smiled. "Thank you. I should be going, though," you said before picking up the two boxes. The man opened the front door for you.

"Thanks again," you said before walking away.

His eyes lingered on your form for a while until you disappeared around a corner.

~~~~One year time skip~~~~

I sighed as I flipped through the newspaper. For the past eight months, there's been nothing but talk about King Shoto Todoroki. Eight months ago, he was crowned king after the nobles deemed his father 'unfit to rule'. One month ago, it was announced that he was looking for a bride, someone from the kingdom to strengthen his political standing... or something?

I'm not entirely sure, but ever since then, the girls in the village have been going nuts. Apparently, the king and his advisors are finding ladies from the kingdom to play this little game.

Well, it's not really a game. The king is having people his advisors choose to stay at the castle and get to know him. After two weeks, 14 days, the king will host a party to announce who he chooses as his bride if he chooses anyone. There's already been one group of girls that came back to our village upset beyond belief, and now he's looking or more.

Honestly, this whole marrying the king stuff didn't interest me. I'm not gonna go out of my way to get picked. I should focus on the work I already do.

After I delivered this week's donation of food to some homeless people, I decided to just take a walk. I stopped on a bench near the park and watched the sunset.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" A voice said. I looked over, and someone stood next to the bench I was on. "C-Can I sit here?"

"Sure," I said with a smile.

He sat next to me. "Before, I said that the sunset was beautiful."

"It is," I said. "It's relaxing to just sit here and appreciate it."

"Yea, that's true."

I looked over at him and to my surprise, he was pretty cute. I've never seen him around here before. He has curly green hair and freckles. After a few minutes, the sun has disappeared behind the horizon, and we both stood up. I noticed that he was taller than me, the top of my head coming to about his nose.

"It was nice watching the sunset with you," I said.

"Same here. Even though we didn't really talk, it was nice having someone here."

"Exactly! Everything is better when you have someone to do it with."

"Nice to see someone that understands that," he paused. "Uhm- do you not recognize me?"

"Should I?" I said.

He smiled. "Nope. I hope to see you again," he said.

"Same here," I said before we both went our separate ways.