The Crown Prince Thinks I'm a Guy

Rooftop Daydreams

A past memory haunted me as I followed the stiffly walking man.

I was young. Well, all of my memories always seem to be centered on my youth. After all, I died when I was barely a woman.

But I was there, sitting idly around my room right after my tutors had left. I was, what? Thirteen, maybe just a day after twelve? No matter, I was still so innocent. Yet when my father's men came knocking at my door, I knew something was up. My parents never called me for anything unless I had done something wrong. So, I was all but quivering like a newborn lamb when I walked through my own castle's walls.

Quite similar to what I was like now, actually. It was like walking down a dusty path, bombarded by rotten eggs and ever so soft tomatoes, just before being held down to the guillotine.

My father, back then, was his usual, cold self. His eyes were icy and his gaze without a hint of love, care, or even life. He simply stared at me, and like I was a troublesome duty to be ticked off from his never-ending list, he said, "You are to be wed to the crown prince of the Mond Empire. For all purposes, you are to refer to him as your fiancée."

He then dismissed me, just like that.

For a moment, my emotions went like this: fear, relief, nervousness, and then, curiosity.

Who was this crown prince? I knew from all my lessons that the Mond Empire was a nation on par, or even greater, than ours. I should all be grateful for the chance of becoming wed to such a figure, especially as a girl with hardly any magical powers.

But, who was this boy? In time, I grew curious, if only due to the romantic tales my maids would tell me. I never saw such love from my parents when I did see them together, and so I could only make my assumptions with flimsy imagination.

For a few days, I was entranced by the idea of a fiancée. A crown prince. A powerful man, one who would be the father of his nation. It made me flush with pride whenever I thought about him, and whenever I imagined myself beside him.

But, by the next days, I knew I would never stand beside him. My tutors had become ever stricter and grilled me worse than before. When the announcement of our betrothal became official, my mother deemed it to herself to bring in more tutors. From the moment I woke until the moment I closed my eyes to sleep, I was taught, molded, and whipped to their version of perfection. My mind was simply about to break by the time the governesses from the Empire came to test me.

I thought my Kingdom's tutors were harsh, but these women were wholly worse.

They didn't hesitate to lash at me until I bled (but always in the areas where it would never be seen, and they were experts in that accord). When I made a single mistake, they would lash at me with harmful words that I still haven't heard of, but of which meanings I could somehow understand, if only through the vileness in their tones.

But that wasn't what broke me apart. That wasn't what made me try to run away.

One day, two veiled women had drilled me with questions all day, and by late afternoon, my mind was all but mush. They were relentless, however, and they seemed tireless.

"A few more questions, princess, and we will be done," one woman said almost sweetly, but I knew her words held little truth. She had been saying those same words in the past two hours. Alas, I only nodded primly.

"Answer this, then." The other woman leaned towards me. "A foreign country's prince and princess comes to visit the Empire's great palace, and they ask for the presence of your husband, the Lord Emperor and his Empress. What will you do?"

I had blinked my eyes, not knowing what to answer. My subjects in diplomacy hadn't talked anything about this kind of situation... All I knew was that foreign royalty must be met with by the Emperor or the next-in-line.