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Chapter: 06
A familiar little girl with blonde hair braided and tied with a ribbon, dressed in colorful traditional clothing, sat on the windowsill with a dazed expression.
“You’re finally here.”
As soon as I greeted her, the wings covered in brilliant five-colored feathers behind Ansi’s back fluttered in visible confusion.
“Hu… human…? No… Your Highness the Princess, is that truly you?”
“Can’t you tell just by looking?”
“B-But just now, Your Highness…”
“Just now what? Was there some kind of problem?”
I asked innocently, pretending not to know. Ansi stared blankly at me before her expression suddenly changed as if she’d realized something.
“You ask if there is a problem? Of course there is! Running away from home! Your Highness running away from home! This Ansi was so shocked I nearly fainted!”
Good. She bought it. Compared to running away from home, acting a little unprincess-like was nothing.
Sniffling, Ansi rushed over and inspected me from head to toe.
“Your Highness, what in the world has happened to you? A human? To place your noble soul into such a lowly body is beyond belief! And what is this sack-like clothing you’re wearing?”
“Did anyone find out that I ran away?”
“It’s only a matter of time! If you don’t return immediately, this Ansi will lose her head for failing to stop Your Highness fro—”
“So no one knows yet. Other than you, right?”
I interrupted her lament. Ansi made a miserable face and closed her mouth.
Phoenixes were terrible liars. Silence was as good as a yes.
It won’t be discovered for a while.
I often collapsed into long, deep sleeps without warning. As long as Sohwa kept quiet, everyone would simply assume I was sleeping again. And Ansi would have found the letters I left behind and handled them first.
“Ansi, did you do everything I asked in the letters?”
With her lips puffed out in displeasure, she answered,
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“And did you guide Ruhwa… no, Sohwa?”
“I entrusted her to the Head Fairy.”
“And did you bring it?”
“It’s right here.”
Sighing deeply, Ansi pulled something from inside her robe and handed it to me.
The Paljuryeong—the Eight-Bead Bell.
A divine artifact with eight bronze bells hanging from branches extending in eight directions. It had been my present for my two-hundredth birthday, and I’d instructed Ansi to bring it down.
I wasn’t planning to struggle through the mortal world empty-handed.
This one treasure could solve almost everything.
I lightly tapped the third of the eight bells with my fingertip.
Jingle.
A clear ringing echoed out, and smoke seeped from the grooves in the bell. The smoke quickly formed an ornate doorway about the size of a washbasin.
It connected directly to my treasure vault in Sangra Palace.
Each of the eight bells served as a portal to a different location. The artifact had originally been made as a pair. I kept one half while the other had been divided apart and placed at each destination connected to the bells.
My parents made it because walking long distances exhausted me.
I shoved my hand through the tiny doorway and struggled for a moment before giving up.
“Ansi.”
“Yes?”
“Get this out for me. It’s too heavy.”
“Oh, Your Highness. You should have asked me from the beginning.”
Ansi hurried over and reached through the portal into the treasure vault, pulling out exactly what I wanted.
A crimson bridal robe embroidered with intricate designs and decorated with crystal and pearls.
It had been woven from vermilion bird feathers and looked more like a wedding gown than any other outfit in my collection.
“Why are you looking for the Vermilion Robe?”
Ansi asked as she held it out.
I spread my arms.
“Help me put it on.”
“…Very well.”
Though puzzled, Ansi obediently changed my clothes.
“Braiding my hair too. Bring the ribbon and a coronet from the treasure vault.”
“Yes.”
With practiced hands, Ansi braided my hair, tied it with the decorative ribbon, and placed the jeweled coronet on my head.
When she finished, she clapped excitedly.
“Wow! Dressed like this, you look just like a little bride!”
“Really?”
“Yes! Of course, if this were Your Highness’s real body, you’d be even more beautiful. But perhaps because it’s you inside, even this human body looks lovely.”
“Good. Let’s go.”
I strode forward confidently.
Only for the unnecessarily heavy skirts to drag me down.
This is exactly why I never wore it after receiving it as a gift and just left it in my treasure vault. Still… this body is healthy enough to move even while wearing something this heavy.
After taking only a few steps, I stopped and looked up at Ansi.
She was grinning from ear to ear.
“…Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Because Your Highness’s little toddling steps are just so unbearably adorable…”
Toddling.
Toddling?
At two hundred and nine years old?
It was a devastating description, but then I remembered the way Ruhwa had walked around my garden.
Well… this really is little Ruhwa’s body now. She was tiny like a rice cake, and the way she walked was pretty cute.
Letting out a small sigh, I held out both arms.
“Carry me.”
“Are you tired?”
“Mhm. The clothes are heavy.”
Ansi immediately scooped me into her arms.
“Where are we going, then?”
“The wedding hall.”
“…Pardon?”
“I’m about to get married.”
“…What? Married? Who’s getting married?”
“Me.”
“And the human Crown Prince.”
Ansi looked ready to faint.
“Your Highness… you’re marrying… a human? D-Do humans really get married at such a young age?”
“I’m human too now. Besides, the Crown Prince is young as well. Eleven years old, wasn’t it?”
“A wedding? Running away from home wasn’t enough, and now you’re suddenly getting married? The Heavenly Emperor will be furious! Lord Yama will tear that Crown Prince apart limb from limb! And then this Ansi will die too for failing to stop Your Highness—!”
I reached out and gently patted the terrified phoenix on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry.”
“I’m not actually planning to marry him.”
“I have a plan.”
The wedding hall had been prepared directly in front of the residence where I’d been staying.
I wasn’t very familiar with mortal wedding customs, but I’d heard they weren’t much different from the ceremonies of the immortals.
After all, both followed the threads of fate woven by the Red and Blue Strings.
Which meant today’s ceremony had clearly skipped most of the formalities.
Everything else had been omitted, and they were jumping straight to the shared wine ritual, where the bride and groom bowed to one another and exchanged cups.
Even the ceremonial table was barely complete.
For a royal wedding, the hall itself was astonishingly shabby.
The cold autumn weather and fallen leaves scattered across the ground only made it look even more desolate.
Even so, there were plenty of spectators.
The king and queen were absent, but palace servants and officials in ceremonial robes filled the area.
They’re less like wedding guests and more like witnesses who’ll testify that the Crown Prince married the imperial princess.
In the seat of honor, where the king and queen should have been sitting, a silver-haired woman sat alone.
Her hands clutched her skirt tightly enough to wrinkle it, and her head hung low as though she might collapse unconscious at any moment.
That’s Ruhwa’s mother.
Seol Deunghwa.
She was a low-ranking imperial consort and Ruhwa’s mother, who had accompanied the diplomatic delegation all the way here simply to care for her daughter, who had been treated like nothing more than baggage.
On the journey to the Kingdom of Un, she’d tried several times to escape with Ruhwa.
Every attempt had failed.
That’s why, the moment they arrived at the royal palace, mother and daughter were imprisoned in separate quarters.
Although the emperor intended to kill Seruhwa, he’d ordered Seol Deunghwa to be brought back to Pyeong immediately after the wedding.
It wasn’t love.
It was simply his obsession with a beauty capable of bringing kingdoms to ruin.
Ruhwa’s mother… really is stunning.
Even looking half-dead with despair, her beauty couldn’t be hidden.
Even I, who was accustomed to seeing fairies every day, couldn’t help admiring her.
To ordinary humans, she’d seem even more breathtaking.
Members of the Pyeong Empire’s delegation stood off to one side, keeping a close watch on her.
“Please… tell Mother… I’m sorry…”
Sohwa’s final words resurfaced in my mind.
There are too many eyes watching right now. I’ll meet her privately after the ceremony.
Apparently all the palace maids assigned to me had been carried away by heavenly punishment.
There wasn’t a single attendant waiting for me in the wedding hall.
This is ridiculously careless. If Sohwa had been the one standing here, she would’ve been completely at a loss. Of course, I don’t really mind.
“Ansi.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“From now on, you’re my personal maid who accompanied me from the Pyeong Empire. And you’re the one who prepared this wedding robe.”
“…What? Can we really just make something like that up?”
“Sure. Everyone thinks I’m going to die tonight anyway. No one’s going to bother checking the details.”
“…Huh?”
“What are you waiting for? Help me walk.”
“R-Right away.”
Still thoroughly confused, Ansi supported me as we entered the wedding hall.
The moment the bride arrived, the musicians began to play.
Without much thought, I glanced toward them—
Then blinked in surprise.
Did I imagine that?
I wanted to take a closer look, but that wasn’t possible.
The instant I entered, every eye in the hall focused on me.
“Was that wedding robe brought from the Pyeong Empire? It’s magnificent…”
“I thought she was supposed to be the unwanted princess…”
“She certainly carries herself with noble elegance…”
“That silver hair really is like fresh snow. Just like her mother’s…”
“This… wasn’t what I expected…”
“Such an expensive-looking bridal robe… It seems she was treated better than we thought.”
Whispers of admiration and confusion spread throughout the crowd.
They had expected a shabby little girl wearing an ill-fitting wedding dress.
Instead, I appeared in luxurious attire.
And the silver hair unique to the Snow Clan must have looked both strange and mesmerizing.
The child who should have died from those arrows is standing here completely unharmed. Whoever was behind that attack certainly didn’t expect this either.
As I sat before the ceremonial table, I spoke to Ansi through mind-to-mind communication.
Ansi.
Yes, Your Highness.
I think one of the musicians is a fox spirit. Check for me.
What? A fox demon disguised as a human?
Don’t make it obvious. Just take a look.
Taking advantage of everyone’s attention being focused on me, Ansi discreetly glanced toward the musicians before urgently replying through our mental link.
Y-Your Highness! There really is a fox demon among them! And it’s even a Maegu!
A Maegu?
That’s quite a formidable one.
When a fox cultivated the Dao for a thousand years, it ascended to heaven as a Heavenly Fox.
But a fox that lived for a thousand years without cultivating the Dao instead became a thousand-year fox demon—a Maegu.
So what was one doing hidden among humans?
Was it waiting for a chance to devour someone?
Wait. If that fox has been serving as a palace musician for years…
It could be useful.
Ansi. Capture it secretly later.
Without the humans noticing?
Mm. Can you do it?
Of course.
Don’t push yourself. A Maegu is dangerous.
Please don’t worry. This Ansi is Your Highness’s phoenix, after all. I’ll snap its neck—no, its legs—and bring it to you immediately.
While we were conversing through our minds, the groom approached from the opposite side.
He was a young boy dressed in blue ceremonial robes.
The large ceremonial fan covering his face was unusually thick and oversized.
He was even wearing gloves, leaving not a single inch of skin exposed.
So that’s the Crown Prince.
