Crowned Prince | hendery

3: Onto Hwei

If silence was a deadly weapon it would have erased the whole area where the five kingdoms sat. Guanheng has been looking out the window for the past hour as if the numerous grass, trees and blue sky was anything that was interesting. On the other hand the princess has been pulling out loose thread from her dresses for the past hour, so that probably when their two day trip has finished her dress might be down to only its basics.

"How long does it take to Hwei?" Taeha asked, unable to keep up with the silence they shared in the same carriage. Though she's been to Hwei countless times, she knew exactly how long it took between her kingdom and his.

"If you're talking of the border," his head finally looks at her, "in a few hours."

She already knew that.

"If we're talking about the capital," Guanheng sighs, "nearly two days."

The carriage once again goes quiet, as if it was by their nature to turn their heads away from each other, they both did. His eyes were back on the scenery outside and hers on the dress she was wearing. In their silence, the sun was now at its hottest, the shadows that were casted were directly beneath the carriage, there were now barely any trees above their heads as they entered the plantation of Sui.

With the lack of trees around them, Taeha immediately took notice of the place where they were. She scoots towards the other side of the carriage to watch her favorite part of Sui pass by.

"You seem to have interest in this place." It was nearly impossible for the prince not to notice her movements as she scoots to the side making the whole carriage move along with her.

"Ah," she simply nodded her head, "my grandmother, after the death of the former king, moved here."

"Here?" The prince looks out the window in disbelief, as how could a former queen live in such a rural area, one where a town was nowhere in sight. "Where did she live here?"

The prince turned to only show his confused expression, but instead he was greeted with wide eyes and excitement. "As soon as the carriage goes past that post, we'll see it." It didn't take long for the carriage to arrive by the post that she was talking about, it was nothing more than a thick piece of wood that was stuck on the ground, but right beside it was a thin paved pathway. Then there was a small quaint house, one that didn't belong to a noble lady at all.

"Why did someone from a noble background live there?" The prince's mind could not wrap around the idea of a noblewoman living out of the capital and in such a quaint household.

"My grandmother was born into a noble family on the edge of bankruptcy. If it weren't for my grandfather she would have never been able to know about the luxuries that she was missing." Her head turns and remains on the now empty house that was slowly being eaten by its surrounding nature. "Some would say the former queen is my greatest model, one that I aspire."

Guanheng simply watched her.

In the past there have been no encounters with this princess, or encounters that he would deem as relevant enough to remember. He knew of her, of course he knew of her, there were only five royal families who interacted as often as yearly. Even the numerous children of Feliz, he knew them, but just as he only knew by name, he also only knew her by name. Though, he's heard stories about her, that she was a feisty betrothed, one who could kick out her fiance in mere days. Some say she simply isn't interested in men, while others speak of her like she's a plague, one of beauty on the outside but hellish on the inside.

He was yet to truly see her wrath.

"Then do you want to live in a field when I retire as king?" He speaks as if he has plans to ever stay with her long enough.