Love In The Palace

Palace

Crown Prince gets up with the help of Cherry, he stares down at me angrily. The familiar sudden movement of a shadow causes me to close my eyes instantly. What I've expected, a slap, does not come. He holds his hand on the air, twitching.

"Annoying!" He spits, throwing the bottle full of wine onto the grounds. It smashes and shatters into pieces, the shards of the pot fly into the air, cutting my face and hands. He stomps into his chamber again, leaving me and Cherry with the mess.

"He's actually not a bad person. It's just that the punishment has caused him to be in this state. He was really kind, you know." Cherry picks up the pieces of the pot up while squatting beside me. I join in on her as well. She sighs as she misses the true character of Crown Prince which has embarked on a journey, which she doesn't know when will it return.

---

I've just done cleaning the grounds of Crown Prince's palace. Feeling annoyed by the condition of the palace which should never have been this way, I go to find a pair of scissors, starting to cut the wilted leaves and flowers off, shaping the bushes to look more interesting and appropriate for a palace. Especially a Crown Prince's palace.

"Wait, Third Prince! You shouldn't come in! Crown Prince is-" Mal's voice can be heard from afar, near the gate. I look up from my position, a man of around twenty years old wearing lavish-looking outfit barges in in a barbaric manner, followed by three other younger-looking men in similarly lavish outfit. Seeing the crown resting on top of his head, it easily registers in my mind that he's a member of the imperial family. I lower my body to the curtsy position.

"Eh? Who's she, Mal? I've never seen her face around." The man who seems to be the one in higher power among the four approaches me, his intense stare enough to instill fear inside me.

"She's Jade, the new servant here." Mal answers obediently.

"Eh? Weird. How come mother actually assigns a servant to be placed in this rotten-looking palace?" He scorns. My knees start to hurt again.

"Hey young girl. Do you know who I am?" He cups my chin up to look at him. I instead look down, making sure that our eyes don't meet. My eyelids blink several times out of fear and the awkward closeness between us.

"N-no..." I reply while shaking my head, scared.

"Oh no. The Crown Prince must be a really bad master to you. He doesn't even tell you who I am? I'm the Third Prince! Consort Shine's son!" He boasts his obviously high position in the palace to me, as though I need to know of it. A lowly servant like me needs no information like that, as all imperial family members just have high position.

"Hey look at her face. There's a scratch! What a pitiful servant isn't she?! Should I take her back to my palace?" Third Prince laughs, amused by the injury on my face. The three other young men laughs with him as well, clearly faking it. But it seems that they fake it just to keep being in the favor of the Third Prince, in his wings.

"You shouldn't do that, Third Brother! I think she's actually the worst-performing servant, thus Consort Shine assigns her to the Crown Prince's palace!" The man standing right beside Third Prince voices up his similarly mocking opinion, which stirs up their laughter even more.

From behind us, the door creaks open, directing their attention from me to the figure standing in front of them. Footsteps approaching us can be heard as the three men standing behind the Third Prince shut their mouths tight, fear clearly written on their stiff faces. Third Prince however, lets go of my chin and stands up straight, his lips form into a smirk.

"How are you, Crown Prince? I've missed you for this several days. As you can see, the Emperor took me with him to the Dragon Pavilion at the south to enjoy the blooming flowers."