𝐇𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐮𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞

𝐗

Princess Selena was staring straight at the young woman before her.

She could guess why Prince Helios was enamored with the latter.

Pale skin, thin frame, she was indeed a delicate, and fragile-looking one.

In the Empire, she could be considered as the picture-perfect lady.

However Princess Selena was the opposite of the Empire beauty standards.

In her home country, the Sun shines all year round.

There, the people were more tan and taller than the Empire's people.

Most of them inherited blue or green eyes paired with black hair or brown hair.

Furthermore, men are more well-built and women tend to be curvier.

This result of all the manual labor and abundant food collected through the seasons.

In the Kingdom, the beauty standards are diverse contrary to the Empire's.

Everyone has their own preferences and nobody tries to enter a mold.

On the contrary, in the Empire, standards are harsh more so for the noble ladies.

Being pale is a sign of richness and luxury.

At a young age, children wear hats to avoid any ray of sunshine.

Moreover, people only preferred slimmer bodies on both women and men.

The reason is simple, the Empire is situated at the highest point of the Aezx mountains.

There, the snow was more seen than the Sun.

So, the harvests are not as plentiful as in the Kingdom.

Through the years, the food decreased significantly due to the consecutive wars.

The weather also became more and more whimsical.

Blizzards and frost were more recurrent these past decades.

The former Emperor noticed this change and did not know what to do.

Lost, he turned to his most trusted advisor, the former Duke ...

After some thought, the latter advised him to cooperate with the Kingdom of Saldriagga.

Should the Empire run out of food, the Kingdom would provide it.

In return, the Empire had to protect them in case of an enemy assault.

Since then, the Empire and the Kingdom began their friendly relation.

Thoughts of mariage were little by little brought up mainly by the Empire.

Having a strong military force is impressive, but food is after all the nerve of the war.

Unfortunately, the only heirs were boys.

Faced with this dilemma, the Empire abandoned the idea of marriage.

It was not until many years later that the opportunity presented itself.

Previously seen as political, the wedding turned into a sign of friendship.

The two new rulers wanted to show the rest their strong bound.

But the happiness of parents does not necessarily equal that of their children.

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