The Crown Prince Thinks I'm a Guy

Convictions

"Misogyny?" the yellow-haired woman asked. "Banish?"

Unconsciously, my face warmed so much that I knew I was blushing a bright red. The woman was looking at me with both surprise and disbelief. I couldn't blame her.

'Why would I even say that? It's an impossible feat even for a princess. What more for a nameless boy?' I cursed myself in my mind.

I started to make a bow of apology, but then she started giggling.

'Ah, she must be thinking I'm joking, or maybe she's just laughing at my audacity.'

Behind the woman, my mentor got up from his seat and placed a hand on the woman's shoulder. He was staring straight at me, though.

"Is that really your dream, princess?" Farseer asked, calling me by a title I hadn't heard from him in months. "I can sense your conviction, but I do want to hear it from you again. Are you serious about this dream?"

The woman's giggling stopped, and she too looked at me with a serious expression, although there was an excited glint in her red eyes. I looked back and forth at the two of them. I even glanced at the silent Janmira, whose face was facing the table.

I thought about it. Was I really serious about my goal?

I didn't even know when I had started have such far-reaching dreams. I knew I've always hated the common notion that women were temptresses. It was a stupid tradition that was brought about from crazed religious fanatics. Yet, it somehow stuck through the years, and women became beings barely human to the eyes of faithful men. I have a few doubts, but I believe that the Aerim Continent alone has such backward conception of women.

So, did my dream start in my past life? When I had first read about women being equals with men in other countries? Did I feel so empowered after reading about a clan who looked at women as superior beings than any other?

If so, I don't know why I could ever have been so weak when I was sold off to the temple.

Then, did my dream start when I started my new life? The Music definitely brought me back in time due to pity. But, I owe it to the Goddess to make this life meaningful. So, was my dream a sort of obligation? Because I should be dead, I have to repay it through deeds?

That didn't seem right as well. Knowing the gentleness of the Music, I can't help but disbelieve that it was a creature who would ask for something back for the good it has done.

So, what was it?

Why was I so adamant about changing things?

The two adults were patiently waiting for my answer. Yet, I felt that I would be a hypocrite or a fraud if I tell them about my firm convictions when I, myself, don't even know when and why I had started having them.

Filled with shame, I looked down at the floor. A hot ball seemed to be stuck in my throat. I wondered if it would be too late to laugh at it all and claim it was all a joke. Then, I heard the matter-of-fact words of the woman.

"Well, you are a girl living in the Aerim Continent, after all," she said simply. "If I was born here, I too would've felt suffocated by it all."

I looked up at her, staring at her with bewildered eyes.

"Isn't that right?" she asked with a small smile. "I mean, it couldn't have been all fun, even as a princess. Or, especially because you were a princess that you felt this bad... You've had a tough life, Princess Eleftheria."

My eyes stung as I listened to her words. It was a simple consolation, something you would probably hear on a normally bad day. But, I've never heard one like this.