Heart of Ice

Heroine

When she was brought before him, the first thing she did was get on her knees and bow to him. His expression did not change. His eyes were still wide and his mouth was hung open as he gazed at her, completely taken aback.

The king stood up from his chair and approached them, also seemingly shocked by her appearance.

"Your highness?" the King asked, still in disbelief.

"Yes, your majesty, it's me," Yewon lifted her head to look at him and confirm that it was indeed her. The king froze for a moment holding eye contact with her as if contemplating the next course of action. Moments later, he began making orders to the various people around him. "Disperse the crowd," he commanded. "There will be no announcement today. Help Princess Yewon into the courtroom immediately."

The guards helped her get up from her bowing position and supported her as they obeyed the King's order and helped her back into the palace.

As she was getting up, she only glanced up at Seungcheol. His shocked expression did not wear off at all, and his eyes would not leave her even as she struggled to walk.

She eventually made it through all the halls which she had not walked in so long to the courtroom, where only the King, the Queen, Seungcheol and Soonyoung were gathered.

"Princess Yewon, it's so good to see you," the Queen said. "But... you're not pregnant," the Queen noted after a brief glace at her flat belly. "How can you be here if you're not pregnant?"

And so Yewon revealed to them everything: from arriving at Galacia, to seeing Wonwoo and the hostages in the dungeons, to being ordered to marry Prince Jun of China to form an alliance against Solen. She told them about how Jun had lost consciousness, and how her sisters would not marry him either, and how a Galacian guard helped her and Wonwoo escape into storage space of a ship sailing back to Solen.

Upon learning that Wonwoo was in the country too, the King ordered for someone to go find and retrieve him from wherever he was taken for treatment of his infected wound.

The King seemed delighted by everything that Yewon was telling him. When she told him that she refused to marry Prince Jun and consolidate the alliance, he got up from his throne, and kissed her forehead, thanking her sincerely. Of all people in the world, the King of Solen was the last person she would have ever expected to show her this kind of genuine gratitude.

"My dear, you just alleviated the greatest burden I have ever had to carry," the King told her with a wide smile on his face. "Thank you," he told her. "You have given us hope for Solen when there was none before. Thank you, my dear. Thank you, sincerely."

Seeing him smile and thank her like that, she felt that all the pain and suffering of the past weeks was worth it.

"We'll correspond with your father and appeal for peace once again," the King told her. "And you, my dear, will rest now. I will bring you the best physicians for all of your injuries, and from now on, you worry about nothing but recovering."

She bowed to him and thanked him. Relief washed over her; she was so happy to be in the King's favor, so happy for all the relief she brought, so happy to know that she did well according to him.

"Who knew that the princess of Galacia would become the heroine of Solen," Soonyoung chimed with a smile on his face. "Thank you princess," he told her. It was the first time that Soonyoung spoke to her directly since she was back, and giving him the individual attention led her to be slapped by shameful memories of their last encounter. She could not bear to look at him for more than a few seconds, immediately averting her eyes to the floor and trying to shake those memories away.