𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘮 犬夜叉 ♡ ; 𝚜𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚖𝚊𝚛𝚞 𝚡 𝚘𝚌

pre-requisite

The morning bells rang for a few moments to signal the final serving of food, luckily Chiho and Naomi fumbled in at the very last second before the kitchen guard closed the dining hall doors for breakfast. Braking on her heels, Chiho bumped into Naomi's back with an 'oop!' causing a domino-effect of bumps to the servant girls in front of her. They all looked back, including the chef, with the nastiest of glares.

"Oh, come now! Hawking at us with a turned up face is only going to make breakfast cold!" Naomi hissed at the other girls with a glare. Chiho embarrassingly adjusted her buns and pat a few stray hairs out of place before reaching down for a bowl and falling in line for breakfast - white rice and grilled fish with seaweed. She sighed at the usual plate's servings loud enough for Naomi to turn around curiously as they found a place to sit.

"What's wrong, Chiho?" Naomi asked in between nibbles of rice.

"Huh?" Naomi stammered "Its nothing, it's just, we've been here for years and its the same routine day in and day out." she pouted as they sat down in a corner away from earsight. "I just.. I don't know I want something different, I'm tired of the routine."

"Chiho.." Naomi sighed in a motherly tone as she patted her knee in a soothing way "you know in this castle is all that we know, and try to be optimistic. we have three square meals a day, we're pretty much independent in our duties, we have... a few love interests on the side~" Naomi winked her way as the tint in Chiho's cheeks gleamed red "and besides," she took a big chunk of rice and swallowed it whole! "From what I hear, we're supposedly going to have a visitor coming in and he's a prince of some sort. maybe he's here to pick a bride. Maybe he's here to pick yoooooou~"

Chiho shoved her playfully and covered her face with a giggle. She couldn't laugh too hard as the sash that pushed her breasts up made it a bit restrictive but the girls had a good laugh anyway.

"Hey hey Chiho, are you gonna eat that? you know you're so skinny you never eat, you might as well feed the hungry and help the poor." she eyed her food lecherously, her chopsticks already reaching further than her eyes permitted.

"Tsk! here!" she shoved her food onto her plate and huffed "you're always so greedy, even as a girl you always had cheeks stuffed like a squirrel!" Chiho squeaked playfully as Naomi happily stuffed her cheeks as the other girls scoffed over their

Naomi took happy bites, her cheeks a tinted rose and all they could do together was laugh at the other girls' discomfort.

- - -

Naomi and, after much bargaining to fix her hair for a portion of her dinner, Chiho followed suit into the master wing to await the day's duties. Wash the silk, drain the rice, tend to the garden, bathe, dinner, sleep. It was the same thing day in and day out that Chiho felt that she was going to live out the rest of her days doing the same thing every day but... It was okay if she knew Naomi was going to be with her forever.

The sad reality of it was, she didn't know that for sure.

Women were always being sold or moved to different kingdoms according to their age. And when a concubine gets to be 'of age' shes sent to the mountains to a nunnery to live out the rest of her life in isolation with her sisters.

What a pathetic earthly realm of purgatory.

Naomi must've picked up on Chiho's mannerisms for she gave her a firm poke in the lower back to fix her posture.

"Hey!" Chiho snapped in a whisper.

"A bride you'll never be with posture of a cattle servant~" she whispered back in a sing-song voice.

"Ahem!" one of the senior concubines cleared her throat quite harshly to indicate for the two to silence themselves. Chiho corrected herself silently while Naomi loudly rolled her eyes.

"Now enters the Lord of the Northern Lands! All who have walked the earth shall bow to the Lord." The castle scroll-reader announced in an echo that shook the entire wing.

Without rehearsal, the girl's in sync bowed down row by row in a molded perfection. After a long silence, slow footsteps echoed throughout the wing. It was the lord! Not many saw his face unless they were summoned and unfortunately Chiho's division was rarely picked. But she didn't look away from the girls who would crush red chrysanthemums and paint their lips a faint color or dab a little on their cheeks to mimic a flush. She would notice how they would tie their sashes to extreme constrictions to prove a perkier 'approach'.

Many would faint.

She would even see Naomi take extra time to fix her hair or sharpen the corners of her eyes with a little liquified ash to give her eyes a wider appearance. Chiho didn't care. She didn't want to be noticed.

Being noticed was what got her there in the first place.

The footsteps grew closer and farther away at the same time. Just what magic was this? Was the lord of this world? Was he a monster? What did he look like?

Chiho, of pure curiosity, tried to shift her head upwards only slightly to get a glimpse of the lord but it proved to be futile when her hair tie loosened itself and her snowy white hair cascaded down her back and in front of her face.

Damn it all!

Chiho's hair ornament fell to the floor in a Clink and her heart skipped two beats. The footsteps stopped then started again. They were getting closer!

Oh no. No no no no no no! Chiho begged to herself that this would all be some dream she hadn't awaken from but it wasn't.

She saw his specially ornamented shoes stand before her. Just from the pointed ends, she saw it was carefully stitched with a royal blue thread that had his characters embroidered around the ends.

"Raise your head, lass." Chiho felt her body grow cold. This couldn't be happening.

With a hard swallow, Chiho slowly lifted her head, eyes focused downward to signify respect and rested on the back of her knees.

Was this it? Was she to be sent to the eastern lands and re-sold? What about Naomi? She couldn't leave her!

"Look at me." the prince spoke. His voice was calm, smooth, like freshly woven silk.

Chiho felt her mouth grow dry, it hurt to swallow! With a silent negotiation with herself to not be killed, she looked up into the prince's eyes and she felt herself freeze.

He was.. Beautiful. Not of this world.

He looked back at her with a warm smile, his chestnut eyes smoldering under long eyelashes as the beauty mark under his left eyelid stretched to accommodate his smirk.

His warmth vanished and a hardness overcame the dewy mist in his eyes. Like throwing ash over a blazing fire. "She'll do. Have the others tend to the outside chores for the day. We're going to have company later and... We need no interruptions." the lord walked away without a second glance to Chiho's direction and it was in her numb stupor did she fail to realize she was picked up by two guards and guided to the opposite end of the main hallway.

"Oh, no, Chiho!" The other concubines scurried away in a rush but Naomi kept motioning the opposite way towards her friend until one of the elder servants held Naomi's arm to silently protest.

With saddened eyes, Naomi's eyes never left her friend's even when she was pulled the opposite direction slowly.

Before she was fully out of the room, Naomi quickly squatted down and tucked the rouge hair ornament that caused all of this to happen.

"She's going to need this when she comes back." Naomi spoke. Not to the elder, not to anyone, but as a reminder to herself that her sister was not going to be lost to the concubine market or sold to the nunnery.

- ♡ -

Note:

Thoughts? Want to discuss ? Let's do it!

Endnote.

- ♡ ­-