Proving My Use

"Judging by the fact that we're still being kept here, it seems you must have made some mistake with that general, Your Highness."

Saegwang's words pulled Seoin out of her thoughts.

"Mistake, nothing. He seemed worried I might try to escape. As if I— a princess of a fallen kingdom— could run off and found a nation."

"True. Why didn't we think of that?"

"What?"

"Let's rebuild the kingdom. By running away."

Seoin stared quietly at Saegwang's earnest face, and then her lips began to twitch.

"…Pfft."

The laughter she'd been fighting back broke loose.

"Why are you laughing? I'm being serious."

"You were so serious it made me laugh. Even in the middle of all this, you find a way to make me smile."

"Oh, honestly! Stop laughing and just think about it. You rode through war after war, Your Highness, and won victory after victory."

"And what good did any of it do? One final defeat, and it all aches like this."

Saegwang ignored the princess's rebuttal.

"That's not all you are. You're the hero who stayed behind and fought to the very end in a kingdom her own king abandoned. Spread that word properly, and we could rally the people to our side."

"Say I grant you that. Escaping is all but impossible, as you can see. And more to the point— do Danya's people truly have that longing for their country, that loyalty? To a kingdom their own king threw away?"

"Danya and Museon have been bitter enemies for generations, and the people's hatred runs deep. Now that the kingdom has fallen for good, their pride must be wounded too. This is our moment— let's found a new Danya!"

"Stop it. I have no desire to march into another one of those endless, exhausting wars. I'm worn through. How much more blood has to spill? And even after all that, would life change one whit for the people of Museon or Danya alike? Better to live in a land without war."

On the march through the battlefields, Seoin had witnessed firsthand the utter devastation inflicted upon the people.

For someone who had lived her whole life inside the palace, it was no small shock.

It made her understand just how naive a resolve she'd brought with her— that the only thing she wanted to decide for herself was whom she married.

"You don't understand, Your Highness. They've seized the enemy kingdom they despised— do you really think they'll simply leave the people of that land be?"

"What do you mean? Surely you're not saying they'll kill everyone?"

"Perhaps not that. But if we're lucky, we'll only face discrimination. Everything Danya's land produces will be stripped away, and no one born of Danya will ever rise to office. All of Danya's territory will be governed by Museon's officials."

"If that's the lucky outcome, what happens if we're unlucky?"

"If we're unlucky, we'll all be made slaves or dragged into forced labor. Especially the fate of women and children with no power to protect themselves…"

"Surely they wouldn't go that far…"

She wanted to believe it wouldn't happen, but her voice betrayed her doubt.

She found herself recalling the conversation with the general just a short while ago.

The look in his eyes as he regarded her had not been lecherous.

And yet she had felt how keen a man's desire was as it swept over her body.

It had been the gaze of a man coveting a woman's body— not a princess's.

A general, no less, greedy enough to claim spoils meant for his king.

If this was how he treated a princess, why would the common people fare any better?

"Whew. I suppose I ought to worry about my own neck before Your Highness's. With our king having abandoned us, Danya is finished now— so tell me, what separates captured soldiers and civilians from livestock? It'll be beheading or forced labor, mark my words…"

Saegwang glanced at Seoin and let the sentence trail off.

Whatever else she was, Seoin was still royalty, and it felt as though he were laying blame at her feet.

Reading the thought behind his hesitation, Seoin answered dryly.

"What will I do? Stay on his good side, of course."

The welfare of the people now rested on her, so she had to please that inscrutable general somehow.

Once they reached the palace, perhaps the desire he'd shown toward her might work in her favor.

Food was brought to the cell in the early hours of the morning.

Looking over the meal allotted to her, Seoin realized her conversation with the general the night before had borne fruit.

Perhaps he had honored her request that the spoils be treated with care, for the meal showed a thoughtfulness unusual for prisoner rations.

Steamed mutton from game caught long ago had been laid over a mound of rice— it smelled gamey and was tough as rope.

Even so, to eat fresh meat instead of jerky on campaign was a mercy any common soldier would have given thanks for.

Saegwang, in the cell across from hers, was choking down a rice ball made of hard, stale grains, unable to tear his eyes from her mutton— proof enough that this generosity was for her alone.

Once the meal was finished, soldiers entered and dragged the two of them out.

Saegwang bellowed, demanding to know where they were being taken.

"What am I to do! That meal must have been a last supper! No wonder they suddenly gave you meat, Your Highness! Didn't I tell you? If only you'd behaved yourself a little better!"

"Don't fret. It seems they're withdrawing from the battlefield."

There was no reason to remain in that place forever.

The mop-up appeared to be done; they would join up with another army and then be taken to the Museon royal seat.

Just as Seoin predicted, the two of them were loaded together onto a wagon fitted with a cage.

Other wagons carried a handful of surviving soldiers.

Some of them were so gravely wounded they seemed likely to die before the journey's end.

Watching the dying men and unable to do anything for them, Seoin simply closed her eyes.

But the talkative Saegwang left her no peace.

"Strange, isn't it? Why are there so few soldiers? The enemy must have barely lost any men at all."

At that, Seoin opened her eyes and looked over the procession.

Truly, the soldiers numbered fewer than a hundred.

"Looks like they departed ahead of us."

"Victorious general or no, what kind of commander leaves his men behind and rides home first? Something must be urgent."

That was fair.

Unless something demanded his swift return home, a general rarely abandoned the troops who had suffered beside him on the battlefield— victory processions into the palace were supposed to be as grand as possible.

Still, it was nothing so strange as to raise an alarm. There would be a reason for it.

"Could it be because of you, Your Highness?"

"What?"

"Think about it. He called you spoils of war, didn't he? How many generals would race back to the king with a trophy to curry favor? He's impatient to arrive a moment sooner— terrified some other high-ranking general will steal you away first."

Seoin snorted.

"I'm hardly a prize worth that much."

"You say that because you don't understand men. Any man who turns away a beautiful woman is a eunuch, or worse."

"Worse?"

"Worse. There's such a thing. You're better off not knowing."

"Fine. I'd rather not know. Besides, a king can have beautiful women whenever he pleases. Displaying a captured princess of an enemy nation before his people might serve him better than having me as a woman."

"N-no, surely he wouldn't go that far. Enemy or not, you are a princess. If they have any sense at all, they'll treat royalty with honor, even their enemies. The sanctity of the royal blood must be upheld."

"I am royalty of a fallen kingdom. And more than that, I've already killed many of Museon's soldiers. They'll set me up as a lightning rod so that the rage of a people ravaged by war all points at the enemy princess. Executing me before their eyes— wouldn't that offer some small solace for all their grief and fury?"

"Yesterday you were all about staying on his good side— where's that confidence gone today? Pull yourself together. Even thrown into a tiger's den, you must charm the tiger to survive. If you live, then I live— and those men out there live too. As long as you breathe, there's hope for all of us."

Hope.

Seoin gave a bitter smile.

Only yesterday she had steeled herself to save them all, but one look at this procession had plunged her into despair.

The back of the general riding at the head of the column was cold.

Not a single glance back— no word of explanation, nothing— and she found herself almost longing for the heat of his gaze the night before.

Am I nothing more than a tribute to be presented to the king?

As if her hands had already released him, he never once turned his eyes toward the prisoners' wagons.

The hours crawled by, tedious and heavy.

Crossing the border took only a single day.

They rested one night in a fortress somewhere near the frontier, but even there Seoin was locked in a cell.

Every day after was much the same.

So it went, until roughly a month of travel had passed.

That day, unusually, they made no camp but pressed on through the darkness.

"We should be arriving soon."

"Of all nights to reach the capital— it feels as if we're sneaking in."

"Sneaking… yes. It does have that air about it."

Come to think of it, they had not passed through a single village on the entire road to the capital.

They had traveled by mountain paths, through fortress after garrison city.

And yet a general returning in triumph was meant to tour the offices and be feted by the people.

She was still entertaining these uneasy thoughts when sleep briefly took her.

The most generous meal they'd received had been on that first day.

After that, they were given barely enough food and water to keep breathing.

With no proper way to relieve herself, Seoin ate almost nothing even of that.

Trapped in the cramped cage as the grueling march wore on, she spent more than half of each day asleep, as though her mind had simply given out.

She felt the wagon slow to a stop, and her eyes opened.

Saegwang, who had been dozing, jolted awake at nearly the same moment and spoke in alarm.

"Your Highness! I believe we've reached the capital."

Before them rose city walls and a great gate on a scale unlike anything they had seen until now.