Your Highness

N I N E T Y S E V E N

C H A P T E R N I N E T Y S E V E N

Hayoon wondered if this was what it felt to be stuck by light? She was speechless and dumbfounded by a wave of sudden anger. The empress was the ruler of Kang? What a joke. An imposter was pretending to be her, yet she had no idea at all. Above everything Hayoon even lowered herself and succumb to that woman. Hayoon realized how ignorant she had been to the things around her.

Her eyes trailed to the foreign and sharpened in a glare without her knowing. Hayoon thought that the foreign lady was on Han's side, and hence she allowed him to treat Han's illness. Hayoon thought the foreign lady was different from others, she thought she could put her trust in her but was proved wrong.

"What kind of justice seeker works with crafty methods?" Hayoon replied with suppressed anger.

"That's the act of a coward who doesn't dare to be responsible for their actions."

The foreign lady rolled her eyes, looking at Hayoon as if she speaking to a mundane being that couldn't comprehend the situation.

"Of course you would say that, as a typical girl blinded by love," The lady lamented, pouring her belittlement to Hayoon.

Don't forget that you are a girl yourself. Put yourself in the empress's shoes, I bet you would hate his highness just as much as she did. What a hypocrite...

"When her ladyship isn't taken his side, are you even qualified to be his partner?" Hayoon asked as if she was interrogating.

"A low maid like you are in no position to say that to me," The lady replied, with a gaze cold as ice. Her voice held a warning intent but it didn't have the same intensity towards Hayoon.

"I'm not speaking to you as a servant, but as a rival." Hayoon paused, carefully choosing her words. "Not that I regard you as one anymore. I'm afraid we can't have a conversation if the status is the only thing that matters."

Hayoon's words held a firm of harshness, injecting a source of anger in the foreign lady. The lady knew that Han was fond of Hayoon, there was never a question about that. But seeing how boldly Hayoon upright used his adoration to speak that brazenly made the foreign lady fuelled with a bitter taste of jealousy.

She knew that she stood no chance against Hayoon, but at least she wanted to prove to Han that she was worth his contemplation. She could give him much more than Hayoon could. Power, protection, and everything he ever wanted. She was more capable than another woman in the whole nation, her power no inferior to the empress, but she had just kept it hidden. She held her identity a secret, cause she didn't want to use her background or status to woo the prince.

But the more she saw Hayoon, the more insecure did she became. It was to the point that she was losing her confidence.

"I fancy the prince, but that doesn't make me blind to the things he had done. I want to share his burden, yet there are things that are out of my hands. " The foreign lady replied. Her tone was calmer than before as if she had acknowledged Hayoon as her opponent.

"If that is all then I'll have no more to say," Hayoon replied. She turned around and went back to Han with a slight tint of disappointment in her eyes. The foreign lady found herself in slight confusion upon Hayoon's answer. She felt as if she had just given the wrong answer to the teacher causing an emptiness to spread inside her chest.

"What is this attitude supposed to mean?" The foreign lady asked in a decreasing tone as if she was defeated by Hayoon's indifferent eyes.

"I can tell her ladyship takes her like on his highness, I guess it is just to this point,"