Her nemesis - The Queen

"She's near the fifth tree..." Sulli yelled from outside.

"Shit, shit, shit...where do I hide it?" Princess Sol frantically searched inside her room.

"Second tree now...Wow, your mom walks real quick."

"Don't call her my mom! Just address her as the Queen please." Sol rolled her eyes.

"As you say, princess. The Queen is now 300 meters away..."

"Don't call me princess ugh!"

Sulli knew how much Sol hated to be called the princess and loved to tease her from time to time.

"Okay 100 meters now, She's heading this way!"

"Shit!!" Sol threw open an old box inside her wardrobe and hid the book. She then closed the lid and the wardrobe door, just in time when the Queen opened the door to her chamber.

Five guards followed her. Sulli ran in, bowing in front of the Queen.

The princess steadied her expression and bowed too. "What brings you here, Queen?" she straightened and looked her mother in the eye.

"Do I need permission to visit my own daughter?" she spoke with a fake sweet voice.

Lies. Sol thought to herself.

"Well, I've also lost my peacock brooch which the Duke of Kazakhstan gifted me last week. I just wanted to search your chambers in case I'd lost it in here."

"But you've never walked into my chamber wearing that brooch!?"

"Who knows? This peasant could have stolen it and hidden it in your chamber." she said, pointing at Sulli.

Sol tried her best to compose her anger. Her hands fisted automatically and she dug her nails into the palm of her skin to stop herself from lashing out at the Queen for calling her only friend at the palace, a 'peasant'.

She sucked in a deep breath to stop angry tears from slipping out of her eyes.

Sol very well knew the Queen was using this as an excuse to search her room.

Every single week of every single month, her mom would barge in and search her room and throw out all the things that Sol loved.

Her favorite romance novels, an instrument she was learning how to play, a portrait of Sol and Sulli that a roadside painter had kindly offered to draw and which Sol was more than happy to accept- everything had been thrown out and burnt.

The Queen was possessive of Sol. She wanted to control every aspect of Sol's life and anything that Sol did without the Queen's permission would be destroyed or punished for.

"Sulli would never steal anything, mother." she spoke in defense.

"You never know what the daughter of a prostitute is capable of doing" The Queen scoffed.

Sulli's mom was a dancer who danced for the entertainment of the nobles. She was not a prostitute.

However, the Queen always addressed her as one, because according to her, both a dancer and a prostitute served people for entertainment or pleasure.

Sol wanted to lash back. Tell her mother that at least Sulli's mom loved Sulli more than the Queen loved her. She wanted to scream and yell about how Sulli's mom took better care of her than the Queen ever did. How she was kind enough to console her each time Sol was punished by the Queen for a very simple mistake...but she held it all in.

"Guards! What are you waiting for!? Start searching already!!" The Queen ordered and they immediately started searching.

"Please mother, you won't find your brooch here...I swear." Sol pleaded.

She feared the Queen would find the adult book she had hidden in her wardrobe.

Sol and Sulli had taken a recent liking to reading adult romance novels and she was only halfway through the book so she hadn't returned it yet.

That book now lay in her wardrobe and she feared for her life if she got caught by the Queen for reading it.

"Stop!" The Queen ordered the guards.

The guards stood their places and halted the search.

"My dear daughter is pleading to not search her room. How dare you all are still searching??" she fumed.

What!? Is the Queen finally trying to understand your feelings? Is she changing for the better?

Sol wiped her tears and felt a tiny ray of hope in her heart.

"Chief Joon, follow me. We won't be searching Sol's chambers. Whatever she said makes sense...I never stepped in here with my brooch so there is no possibility of finding it here." the Queen smiled at Sol.

"Thank you so much Queen!!" she bowed to her and felt tears of joy on her cheeks.

She walked out the door with the guards following her.

"Oh wait, I forgot something. You!" she pointed at Sulli, "Follow me!" she ordered.

Suddenly, a wave of panic took over Sol.

"W-wait, on-one second...May I ask why you are asking for Sulli? She belongs to my chamber and she has errands to run now."

"Aaaah, wait...was I not clear with my actions just now?" she smiled sweetly.

"I-I don't un-understand..." Sol's voice shook.

"I'm firing her." she replied coolly.

Sol felt the ground give away beneath her feet.

"Mo-mother, but why?"

"Oh well, you said the brooch wouldn't be in your room and it isn't there anywhere else in the palace, so this wench must have stolen it. Simple." she wore a fake smile.

Her legs gave away and she fell to the ground on her knees.

"Mother-" she opened her mouth, but no words came out.

"Drag the wench out, what are you all waiting for?" the Queen yelled at the guards.

Two guards came forward and caught Sulli by her arms and began dragging her away.

"Stupid girl, I gave her the choice between letting me search her chamber or firing Sulli. She made a bad choice." The Queen laughed to herself and began walking away when-

"You can search my chamber!!" Sol blurted out.