“Princess? Am I?

Lovely in this flower dress?

Casual? Will I?

Desire to the final death!"

No one knew when Princess Anna, the only daughter of Emperor Gerrad the Eighth and Queen Ymelda got up. Only to know that when the maid Vespal brought the wash basin into the room, she saw the princess light the lamp and eagerly hold the pen. Vespal was too used to this scene, so she only tiptoedly placed the basin of water on the table, and then quietly waited for the princess to finish.

This was her routine: waking up, writing poetry, painting, then going to meet the sons her mother wanted her to marry, then going back to painting, writing poetry, then ended the day. For a long time, she thought three autumns had passed just in a day. This life was never really hers, it was all in her mother's arrangement. When to laugh, when to speak, when to keep silent to the extreme. At some point, Anna will be married to a distant prince, or some brothers in her family.

“…Oye God! Oye, my Sacred God!

Take my bones, my flesh and my worthless breath,

Flooding me a brat that even I ‘yearning to enmesh…”

Anna paused to think, she didn't know how to end this poem. Poetry is the only thing that helps her to talk like any other normal person. People's eyes are what she fears most, and royal silk is not even the elixir that makes her happy. She could not finish the poem not because she could not, but because Anna herself did not want to put an end to the poem. For it, somehow, a prayer. A little something trivial of ordinary life, turned out to be a folk delicacy that a pious like her aspired to touch like Agrabah and his golden dream.

The sun had risen, the earliest rays of sunlight crept through the gaps in the windows. Anna stopped to look at it, her blue eyes glittering like a wave of waves. A gust of wind blew past, and the flame of the lamp went out. Vespal was behind, reluctantly interrupting her emotional circuit.

"Princess, Lord Jason Garlant has arrived."

Anna was like a circus performer walking on a rope, because she was careless and had to fall, turning to look at Vespal and the dress she had prepared. Anna looked earnestly at Vespal as if she had bad news and asked:

"Is it time yet?"

"Yes."

Anna nodded silently, then turned to look at her unfinished poem. Vespal also understood, she put the shirt on the bed, then left the room. Anna was silent for a moment, then decided to pick up her pen and write two more sentences to end it.

"And that. Just that.

For ever. Ever. And evermore…”

Anna looked at the poem and kept silent for a while, but tried to enjoy it for once. When she was done, she let out a long sigh, then put the piece of paper in a drawer, then did what she did best: pretending to be a princess.

--

"Anna, say something."

Queen Ymelda beckoned to Anna softly, telling her to stop making that absent-minded expression. Only now did Anna come to her senses, turned to see Jason sitting next to her and smiled. In fact, Jason stood in his place compared to Anna. Jason's mother was her grandmother's youngest sister, so Jason was the Queen's cousin, and, of course, her uncle. He was a petty lord of the Varros region, and House Garlant swore allegiance to House Lancel.

Despite being known as her uncle, Jason is only twenty-six this year, which is only ten years older than Anna. In terms of appearance, Jason is not bad at all. The golden hair was like the mane of a mighty lion, and the face was delicate and full of features. The high bridge of the nose is the biggest highlight on his face. Jason smiled at Anna the way a horse was roaming on a green prairie, lifting the teacup to his lips and taking a small sip.

“The princess hasn't been to Daleon yet, has she? You'll love it there."

Anna also smiled in response to Jason's greeting. She took a sip of hot rose tea, then set it down on the table and replied with two verses from the Song of Seasons by the great poet Toluen, son of the famous Daleon steppe:

“Green as Daleon, deep as Faqe,

Hot as Zorocks, cold as Lire.”

Jason heard this burst out laughing and clapping his hands, praising:

"Good poem! Good poem!"

Anna gently nodded, smiling, but in her bored heart, she just wanted this meeting to end quickly. Or at least let this uncle humiliate himself and then automatically withdraw, thus both freeing herself and quickly returning to her old trajectory.

Jason was still enamored with Anna's beauty, the beauty of spring, the freshness of a sixteen-year-old, and her whole body caressing under her dress. Not being rude, but anyone facing a girl like Anna, even a sage, must have ripples of thought.

“I have heard the Queen speak much of your natural talent, but I did not think that in such a short time you could write two such fine lines of poetry!”

The expressions on both Ymelda and Anna's faces froze, and even Jason immediately froze. Seemingly aware of his mistake, but not knowing what it was, Jason immediately showed his embarrassment. Ymelda had intended to say something to remedy the atmosphere, but Anna didn't want that. Seizing it as an opportunity, Anna enjoyed her tea and looked surprised, saying:

“You have misunderstood. Anna was just reciting two lines of Toluen's great poet."

“Toluen?”, the people of Daleon would not have forgiven Jason if they knew that he had no knowledge of him at all.

"Don't you know?", Anna feigned surprise, "Toluen was a Great Poet born and raised in Daleon a thousand years ago."

Saying this, Anna secretly satisfied and drank the entire cup of tea. Ymelda didn't know where to hide her face, and Jason had completely lost his knightly appearance in glittering armor. Anna casually continued:

“These are two verses from the third act of his epic Song of Seasons. Here he mentions four famous places of Gaversia. Green as the Daleon Plateau, as deep as the ravine of Fage, as hot as the volcanic rock of the Zorocks, and as cold as the wilderness of Lire.”

As soon as Anna finished speaking, she put down the empty cup of tea. There was a "click" sound due to the collision of the cup and the table, the three of them then just fell silent without saying anything. Anna alone kept pouring tea. The sound of the tea dripping down was as crisp as metal pieces being released. Anna brought to her mouth, somewhere in her mind the image of a greedy king, wishing that everything he touched turned to gold. And his wish came true. All turned to gold. Golden. Gold alone!