The Queen's Wife (girlxgirl)

6. How to princess

🌾

"Arms higher"

It's been two weeks.

"What are you doing? Arms higher!"

Every second ticks by slower than ever before.

"Yes, and then gracefully move to the side. Exactly like that- no don't move too much. Yes gracefully, your Highness. Grace is the essence of a princess"

Time is indeed the worst method of torture. They have changed her perspective on time. Instead of watching it pass, Maud has learned over the past two weeks- how to use time to its fullest. Every minute must be stuffed with something productive, nothing can be missed, nothing can be considered as a break. When dining, one must learn how to dine properly, so the meal is also a lesson. When walking, one must learn how to walk like a royal, so the march is a lesson of its own. When communicating with literally anyone, dozens of lessons come to play, both concerning etiquette, speech, words and addressing according to social standing. When dancing, when learning, when leading, when following, when dressing, when practicing- everything has its own order and law, everything is a lesson of its own.

Sleeping is the one and only exception. Sure, one must learn how to sleep like a princess. But such a lesson can not be taught later into life, and some are insufferable when sleeping. Maud is lucky to have quiet sleeping habits, something that a good wife, a good woman and a good princess needs. She doesn't snore, she doesn't move around, she doesn't talk or walk. In reality, such things are hard to control and say absolutely nothing about the person itself. But in this world, such a thing is just another matter of shame. Embarrassment is the biggest weapon, the biggest trap and hole one can fall into, the one thing she is taught to avoid.

And because sleeping is the only exception, the only task that is not a lesson, she is restricted from it. Makai wasn't lying when he said she would have a hard time. She wakes up before the sun, and the lessons start the moment she opens her eyes. Going to sleep can sometimes stretch out until near morning as well, because the lessons drag on when she doesn't learn fast enough. They need to do everything perfectly while also speeding through the material and tasks, so essentially sleep is the one thing they can push to the side. To give more space. To give more time.

Maud can't lie, she feels exhausted every second of the day. Her eyes droop, her fingers feel numb. But to be cruel, it's a way to motivate her. It's a way for her to feel... feel like she needs to work harder. And she does work harder. Becoming the perfect princess that Makai wants her to be might just be impossible, but for her own survival, through her own hard work and confusion, Maud will make it. She will survive, no matter what they think of her. Sleep is not necessary anymore, it doesn't feel like it either. If she needs to sacrifice it for her own success, it's surely no problem.

Maud moves across the marble dance floor, just like she's been taught. Her teacher is the best dancer in the whole kingdom. Her brothers surely wasted no expense in her rapid schooling, making Maud wonder what kind of man she is marrying. How high up can he really be? There must be a reason why Makai and his brothers are using so many resources to bring her into the palace, to making her a perfect princess within a limited amount of time. No king likes to waste effort on useless matters, and no king likes to be pressured. So the prize, the man that they are waiting to trap with marriage, must be someone very important and influential. Maud doesn't know if that's good or bad.

If it's a rich man they are after, maybe she'll be happy with everything money could ever buy. But Maud is still unsure how she feels about this. She hadn't even thought about marriage before coming here. Her entire life seemed so simple, she was so engrossed into her usual routine that she forgot about the rest of the world and its standards. Sometimes it was easy to forget how society views women in the bigger cities, because her parents never treated her as lesser for being of the female sex. But once her bubble burst, Maud began to break down everything. Were her parents kind to her only out of obligation? Could that explain why they never treated her as lowly as other families treat their daughters? Like the only thing they are good for is marriage and mothering children?