Love In The Palace

Palace

-unedited, be mindful of grammatical and spelling errors-

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Having stayed in the Crown Prince's palace for five days, I come to realize that all this while, the one who does the cooking, cleaning and serving the Crown Prince is Cherry alone. The one who does the other rough work is Crown Prince's lackey, Mal, Cherry's twin brother. From what they told me, Crown Prince took them in to repent for his sins when his subordinates accidentally killed their parents during an expedition. They hated him to the core at first, but are now the most loyal followers of him.

It still amazes me how hard it must have been for the two ever since young. It may have been hard on me, but they have entered the palace since young as servant and lackey, which is unimaginable to me.

I hold onto the shaft of the broom, sweeping the leaves slowly. The sun has just risen, so the sky is still fairly dark. I take a look at the door leading to the Crown Prince's chamber.

"He has it harder. He was accused of a crime he never did, yet he's being punished like this. Consort Shine, the one in charge of the palace together with the Empress, suggested to the Emperor to take away all the Crown Prince's servants and put him here, the furthest palace away from the Emperor's. Even the Empress can do nothing about it although the Crown Prince is suffering. Of course, it's because Consort Shine is the Emperor's favorite. That's why you see that this palace is deserted and empty." I recall what Cherry told me. So he's an abandoned Crown Prince, no wonder this palace is unusually deserted and silent, even more silent than the Leanne's house.

I don't quite understand why Consort Shine must treat the Crown Prince this way. But perhaps, each has their own reasons, which others can't and don't know. I sigh, trying to brush away the useless thoughts and continue sweeping. The leaves fall endlessly, the dust that has accumulated seem impossible to be removed.

The silence I've been enjoying is suddenly pierced broken by the creaking of the wooden door followed by light footsteps approaching.

"What are you doing just lazing around! Go in and tidy up my sleeping chamber!" Crown Prince shouts his command without even batting an eyelash at me. His long hair covers his face as usual. In his right hand is a pot of wine, dripping. I look down at my feet, my hands are both gripped together.

"Right away, Crown Prince." I curtsy before taking quick steps into his sleeping chamber. With little sunlight in the room thanks to the tightly closed windows, I find myself hitting into furnitures and kicking bottles of wine often. Finding the them irritating, I bend down to quickly pick up the bottles of wine and carry them out.

Carefully walking down the steps due to the bottles blocking my view, I bump into someone.

"AAAAURGH!" That person screams, irritation clearly evident in the tone.

"What happened?! What happened?!" Cherry's panicking voice can be heard from the distance. The pain on my chin causes me to squint my eyes and wince uncomfortably. I push myself up, fear accumulating in my heart when I recognize the young man under me who happens to be the Crown Prince. His hair is swept to the side due to the fall, uncovering his undoubtedly-stressed face. For a man of twenty one years old, he looks thirty.

I'm prepared to lose my head. Maybe I'll never make it out of the palace alive. I stand up immediately, kneeling down and keeping my head low.

"I deserve to die! I deserve to die!" I repeatedly ask for forgiveness from him, though ironically it sounds more like asking for death. This is what servants often do in the palace, be it head-servant or anyone higher. To bow their head down to their masters, asking for forgiveness using the same line, same method.