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The golden glow of the morning sunrise streamed through the gaps in between the large crimson silk curtains, casting its delicate light into the room and illuminating the sleepy beauty lying down on her bed. Soft chirps can be heard beyond the glass separating the room from the outside as avian creatures slowly rose out of their sleep to greet the day ahead.
Suddenly, a high-pitched slightly nasally voice speaks up right into the sleeping beauty’s ear, “Wake up Princess! We need to get you ready for the day, we have a new batch of suitors for you to choose from and your tutors are waiting for you!”
“Mm… Matsuri-chan…?” Pink eyes slowly flutter open only to see a head of light brown hair right in her face.
“Come on, up we get! Busy day ahead Asumi!” The slightly shorter woman says with a nagging tone.
Asumi sits up and stretches, letting out a big yawn as she feels the drowsiness of the early morning wash over her, “Yes, yes, I heard you the first time and brushes out any tangles out of her hair before spritzing a light floral scented perfume on her, a routine that they’ve long gotten used to. Once they are finished, Matsuri leads Asumi down the hall to an open room with 5 portraits of men standing in the middle.
“Now, I know that last time you said the candidates were too old so your highnesses have curated a better selection this time. Please pick one of them Princess, the kingdom needs you to birth an heir and your parents want to see their grandchildren before they pass.”
Asumi makes a slightly disgruntled face, an expression that’s rarely shown to anyone but right now she’s alone with Matsuri and the light brown haired woman has already seen the various ways her lady’s face contorts whenever her lady feels strongly about something. Matsuri finds it quite funny the gap between how she appears to others and how much of herself she shows in private.
The silver haired princess steps closer to each of the portraits to take a closer look at them.
‘Too old, too old…’ She thinks as she passes the first two portraits as the men in them were literally balding. The next portrait was that of a small boy, ‘Too young!’
Asumi lets out a small sigh, ‘Are there really no good young men in this country?’
Just as she was just about to give up, her eyes got drawn to the last portrait by the bright brown and purple eyes that seemed to be staring determinedly into her soul. She not so subtly looks at the portrait up and down multiple times with a curious twinkle in her eye, checking out the formal uniform and medals he was wearing.
Asumi turns to her maid Matsuri, who was watching her with a slight grin on her face as she realised her lady had finally picked someone even if she hadn’t said anything yet, to ask a question, “Who is this?”
“I believe that is Sir Yukoku Roberu, son of Baren Yukoku, I think he is currently working in the royal guard as a knight. If you would like, I could get you a piece of paper, some ink and a quill so you could deliver a letter to him expressing your interest.”
A light blush settles on her face, “Who says I was interested?!”
“You didn’t have to, my lady.” Matsuri says with a mischievous smirk and turns to leave to fetch the materials, leaving the princess alone.
Asumi’s face scrunches in embarrassment and quickly whips her head back at the portrait glaring at the inanimate object as if it had actually done something to humiliate her.
‘He’s probably just a pretty face, I shouldn’t get my hopes up.’ Asumi thought as she stared into the mismatched eyes, “But… I do hope that he isn’t…’
Without even noticing, enough time had passed that Matsuri came back with the writing materials laid out nicely on a tray. Asumi walks over to the table in the corner of the room and sits down as Matsuri puts it down before stepping aside to give her lady some privacy as she writes.
Asumi’s hand moves to write the formal letter that she has been taught to pen down for suitors but hesitates for a moment and shakes her head, ‘I… don’t want this to be forced upon him, to not give him a choice because of my status, even if it means that I’ll have to go back to sorting through the list of wrinkly old men again.’
And so she starts to put her quill onto paper, weaving words of sincerity and interest, hoping that it will be able to reach into her suitor’s heart.
“Dear Sir Yukoku Roberu,
I have seen the beautiful intensity that your eyes hold and the many medals that show what those ambitious eyes of yours have accomplished. You have caught my attention like no other despite never meeting you, your profound aura seems to transcend even distance and inanimate objects. You linger and inhabit my mind in a way that makes it impossible to forget you. I wish to know more about such a fascinating man so I hope you’ll indulge me in my curiosity and continue to exchange letters with me.
Signed,”
‘Ah, right… Hm, how about this. Give a bit of something for him to ponder.’ Asumi thought with a slight mischievous grin.
“Signed,
Your Greatest Admirer.”
With the letter written and sealed, the silver haired princess hands the completed letter to her maid who has been very not subtly sneaking peeks at what her lady has been writing.
“It is done, please ensure that this letter gets to Sir Yukoku Roberu,” Asumi requests. Matsuri turns around to head for the door when she feels a slight tug on her sleeve, “Ah and one more thing, don’t tell him who the letter is from.”
Matsuri’s face shifts into a knowing smirk before giving a simple nod of her head and walking out of the room once more.
A couple of weeks pass and nothing of note happens, leaving our princess with a well of anxiety that continues to flood her senses. A little seed of doubt starts to sprout in her mind, wondering if maybe her courting did not get well received. Luckily the voices get weeded out when her playful maid comes bounding into her room with something hidden behind her back.
“That better not be a knife, you know that it will not end well for you to assassinate me.” Asumi warns but with a slight teasing tone.
Matsuri brings one of her hands not holding anything up to her face and waves it back and forth, “No, no, I would never bring something as suspicious as that into my lady’s chambers. I do however have something else that could do the job~.”
Matsuri skips to her lady’s side and holds out the source of her lady’s troubling mood for the last few weeks. Asumi gasps and grabs it from her maid’s hands, quickly but carefully opening the mysterious letter.
“Dear my Mysterious Admirer,
I’ll admit, I was quite taken aback when I first read your letter. I did not expect for someone to fall for me, a mere son of a Baron and even more unexpected to be someone who has never seen me in person before? You have me quite intrigued but perhaps that was your intention, to lure me in with your hidden identity for me to puzzle together. Now that you have my attention, I swear to you I will figure out who you are.
Sincerely,
Son of Baron Yukoku,
Roberu.”
A smirk cracked onto Asumi's face, “He swears he will figure out who I am, huh? A little cocky are we?”
“Sounds like you've caught a big fish, my lady.”
“Sounds like I have.” A new fire burns in milky pink eyes as her brain starts firing off a million new ideas on what to write for the next letter. The silver lady immediately fetches a nearby pen and paper to start writing but Matsuri puts her hand on hers, stopping the motion.
“My lady, we must not seem so desperate, let him ruminate for a while to marinate his desire.” Her maid suggested.
“Hm, alright.” Her lady replied calmly, but she could barely contain her desire to read his reaction.
Unfortunately, her lady’s restraint could only last until light had been snuffed out by darkness creeping in. Her hand moved furiously across the page, etiquette and grace be damned. As she wrote, a pile of crumpled up papers with ink lines crossing out entire paragraphs grew. The midnight oil burned as fatigue settled in her hands, mind starting to cloud over and eyelids weighed like boulders. An ache persisted in her back as she sat in a very un-ladylike position hunched over her desk like a madman.
The only thing keeping her going was the shadow of a man with bright mismatched eyes swimming through her thoughts in between her words. A lingering presence that kept her heart pounding and body awake enough to endure the exhaustion that slipped into the cracks of her steadfastness. Determination dwindled as her unfortunately human structure could not keep up with the unending day the princess had put herself through. Eventually, her frantic writing slowed as her figure slumped, dropping onto her table like a corpse and using the papers as a pillow.
And thus, the princess fell into a deep peaceful sleep.