Jade Hope (Seulrene Historical au)

The Crown Prince

PLEASE READ!

Hi everyone, just wanted to tell you that the titles "Prince Seulgi" and "Princess Seulki" will be readily interchanged with one another so please don't get confused, they all refer to our protagonist.

Remember as well that "Jeonha" is a title used to address a King, whilst "Seja-Jeoha" means Crown Prince.

That's all I have, enjoy!

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A full moon stood over the palace; all Joseon prayed as their queen gave birth

The first cry of the crown prince brought joy to the Kingdom

But it was soon drowned by the cackles of fire and the screams of the people being burned alive.

What does this mean?

That in the night the crown prince was born, a fire consumed half the palace that effectively killed thousands, even spreading towards the towns that surrounded Joseon's capitol...

What does this mean?

CHAPTER 1:

The Crown Prince

At first, the young Seulgi didn't understand why other noble girls played with dolls, wore colorful dresses, and strolled prettily in gardens when she herself was a girl but was restricted in playing with the other princes and wooden swords.

She even found it funny that she had two names. Almost all the time, everyone along with her father, the king, addressed her as Yi Seulgi—crown prince and heir to the throne, her father was so proud every time they donned their robes and paraded around the capital, showing the citizens how handsome their king and his first-born son was. Especially when Seulgi had done something right by besting a minister's son in a childish squabble, then the King would smile like a father, proud of his son for showing boyish zeal—those were the times he called her "Yi Seulgi, my son".

But rarely, in the secret of their chambers, once her father has succumbed to his drunken demons, he would summon Seulgi to his room, and ask his servants to leave... only to shout at her and hit her, blaming her for all his faults and shortcomings as a King. All the whilst shouting, "Kang Seulki! You're the one who should've died.".

Seulgi would be lying if she said that didn't hurt... so she tried her best, young as she was, to do things that made her father proud of her, she fought regularly with her playmates, just to prove that she was just as strong as the boys that the ministers brought to play with her. She didn't let go of the wooden sword given to her by her father, taking each opportunity to wave it around like a maniac around the palace grounds. And although she was scared and terrified of the gigantic stallions, she followed the palace's stable hand, just so she could learn how to ride horses—because that was what men did, they rode horses, swung swords, and talked through brute force.

Young Seulgi even developed the habit of copying her uncle, Yi Seunghyun, a certified Joseon heart-breaker, who painted women, wrote poetry for women, and gave hand-picked flowers accompanied by flowery words to pretty women. A perfect account of this is when Seulgi saw her king-father taking a stroll around the palace gardens with his ministers, one of which was holding the hand of his daughter—Seulgi took a beautiful flower from one of the bushes and rushed to give it to the young girl.

Seeing the young crown prince give a beautiful girl a flower, brought a chuckle to all present individuals; servants, ministers, and monarchs alike. Seulgi even heard something along the lines of "Our handsome crown prince will soon go around chasing skirts!", it was something she could easily ignore. But it was her father's hearty laugh, as he grabbed Seulgi's shoulders, patting it in pride that completely broke the young girl hiding beneath the robes of Yi Seulgi.