“Your highness! Princess Elizabeth!”, Countess Carolina walks toward the young princess inside her grand intricately designed bedroom, carrying a bright red mantua dress. “What do you think? Isn’t this perfect? It’ll glow up your white porcelain skin”, the countess said.

Elizabeth orders her three other ladies in waiting to stop putting powder on the white wig in her hair and to take a closer look at the dress.

She stands up and slides her finger on the ruffles of the clothing, “Nah, not this one!”, Elizabeth shakes her head, “I will look like a bleeding strawberry if I wear that”,

“Why then did you have it?”, Carolina asked

“Oh! It's from my father, as you can see he has no sense of fashion. He might be looking like an eccentric monkey if Duke Andrews isn’t by his side”, she scoffs. Duke Andrews is the King’s main attendant in his bed chambers. His job is to pick out his clothes early in the morning so that the King can consume lesser time in his preparation for the day.

King Charles of Lisaint barely finds time to think about self-care and fashion. His day is constantly preoccupied with paper works, attending meetings and parties, but as a king, he must look noble and beautiful in front of his subjects, or else he’ll be a laughing stock at the court.

His second daughter Elizabeth is way more fashionable than him. She always makes sure her appearance shines in the public eye. The princess never wears dresses that will clash against the shape of her body or her skin tone. Unlike her father’s pale odd face, Elizabeth is a natural beauty, some say she is the most beautiful woman in the court, replacing her old mother Queen Charlotte’s alluring face, thus whatever clothes she puts on herself Elizabeth’s beauty still stands out among crowds.

“What about this one, your highness?”, One of Elizabeth’s ladies in waiting named Baroness Mary presents her with a striking golden yellow dress.

“Nope! I don’t want to be like a golden statue”, the princess then turns her eyes to her five other clothes presented, but instead, a pink mantua dress lying on her bed catches the princess' attention. “That one!”.

“My lady you wore it thrice before”, Countess Carolina told her.

“So what? It still looks good to me—I’ll wear this”.

Later on, her ladies in waiting assisted her to put the dress onto herself.

When she is all finished, with her white wig, makeup, and dress, they now open the princess’ jewelry boxes. Elizabeth lets her ladies choose the jewelry she will wear for the ball, but it must be a simple one. After all the years of war, the country has experienced, she tries her best to cut her spending, through her unadorned fashion. The princess desires to be an example for other nobilities.

“What about you Lady Mary? Are you not coming with us to the ball?”, Elizabeth asks, when she observes Mary is in her usual plain beige dress.

“But I’m ready your highness”, she said which causes the women around her to giggle. When the princess noticed it, she takes the side of the baroness instead of her other confidants, “It looks

fine to me, actually we need more people like Lady Mary in the court” Elizabeth then looks at her best friend and closest companion Countess Carolina’s lavish jewelry, and huge petticoat.

Carolina turns the tables around and changes the topic back to Baroness Mary’s way of dressing herself. “Well, she must start to take care of herself more. You're getting behind in years, it might be hard for you to find a man”, she said, placing pressure on Mary’s back, so they can convince her to get married since the baroness is almost forty but still doesn't have a husband.

The other women in the room agree with the countess, except for Elizabeth.

“You must double your efforts”, one of them said, but Mary uttered no answer. She helps the princess put on her jewelry.

“Marriage isn’t always the best option”, Elizabeth told them. She then looks at a tall mirror that can reflect her image from head to toe.

“The princess is right, I have a great wealth on my own—and I don’t want to share it with anyone anymore”, the baroness said.

The ladies tease Mary more until they persuade her to get married. However, Princess Elizabeth stops their babbles, it is nothing but a waste of time, and they must arrive at the ball within half an hour.

When they are all prepared the ladies including the Princess took a couple of carriages to get them to the

glittering summer palace, the King’s residence. The moment they arrived, the intricate painted–carved huge doors of the palace are already open. Noblemen and women holding different positions in the kingdom, government and court begin to enter the palace, where twenty butlers stand side by side to welcome the guests walking on the red carpet. Princess Elizabeth got down on her carriage with her ladies in waiting. Once the people around noticed her presence they took a short bow and greeted the princess, until she entered the palace.

The first person Elizabeth recognizes is her brother George the Crown prince and Grand Duke of Thedon on a golden white sofa chatting with two noblewomen. The two siblings didn’t bother to approach each other. Elizabeth greets a curtsy to her brother from afar, and George bows his head a bit, afterwards, they no longer laid sight of one another during the entire ball.

Elizabeth never liked her brother, but still holds him, dear, to her heart because he’s the only sibling left at her side. She tries to show her affection to him a lot of times these past five years, but it didn’t melt George’s heart a bit, he can't give any affection to her sister other than a cold thank you letter.

When their mother died giving birth to Elizabeth, her youngest child, George’s attitude and character changed from a bright cheerful teenage boy to a prideful, cold, and ruthless prince. The King refers to him as the black sheep in the family, he always detests the prince’s actions and foolish spontaneous decisions in life, thus the father and son stand aloof from each other. The other noblemen refer to him, as the rebel prince, but others see him as a revolutionary figure who defies the rules and expectations a royal family member must-have. Either way, George has no plans to change his identity. The prince found his escape from his miserable life through alcohol and gambling, these two things often make his problems vanish into the thin air.

Elizabeth urges him multiple times to behave like a true nobleman and change his ways, but George instead vents his anger to her and blames the princess for an event she can’t control—the death of their mother. In his eyes, his mother is the only one who truly cares for him, not his dead older brother the former crown prince, nor her younger sister

older than Elizabeth

who is now married to a foreign prince. She and her brother George never experienced a time in their life when they played together nor spent time alone exchanging conversation—they were strangers.

Instead of trying to recall the past, the princess dismisses her attendants and approaches her uncle. She wraps his arms around him the way a lost little child hugs his father.

The Grand Duke William Hughes, the dashing and handsome middle-aged brother of the king and a valiant commander in war who conquered two cities of a powerful European country. With his achievements in war and governance, he used to pose a threat to his brother’s throne but because of his undying loyalty to him King Charles drops his guards down, and he became one of the King’s right-hand men and his closest advisor.

“Is my father here?”, Elizabeth asked,

“He’s still preparing, why my dear? Do you miss him already?”, the Grand Duke said,

Elizabeth pauses for a second and shrugs her shoulder, “Maybe? Well I haven’t seen him in a month”,

A bit of pity pinches William’s heart when the princess's face turned straight mentioning her father. He strokes her back to comfort Elizabeth, perhaps through this, he can ease his niece’s sad longing for the King. “Don’t worry Lizzy, he’s just been busy constructing a new city”, he said.

“I understand”, William then promises he’ll persuade the King to see her daughter in private, later at the ball. “But before that, there’s someone eager to see you as well”, he pulls his niece in a gentle slow manner towards a man drinking wine in the corner alone.

“Uncle No!”, Elizabeth whispers aloud to William, although they haven’t reached the man, she can already see a familiar face from afar. “Really? The creepy guy?”, she scoffs, “The Ambassador of France? You know him?”, William asks referring to the man around his age with a lousy posture and rotten wounded patched face because of his toxic white lead makeup.

“Yes, of course! He once forced me to talk with him privately, can you believe that?”, she said

William apologizes for his ignorance, but he advises the princess not to call the Ambassador such a description, if anyone hears it she'll be the talk of the entire nobility. In one wrong word, it can damage her reputation, which is the reason why Elizabeth barely spends her time in court. To achieve the childish carefree life she wants, the princess must not let the others define how she should act. Yet, Elizabeth still communicates in court once a month, to keep herself updated on the events in her country.

Princess Elizabeth and her uncle then went to the palace gardens where Countess Carolina followed them after her light-witted husband chose to play billiards instead of a lovely walk with her wife.

“Fine, if he doesn’t want to be with me, then I won’t see him forever”, Carolina pouts. When it comes to her husband she throws tantrums like a young girl. Her silly actions always make her best friend laugh at her.

“What’s so funny about that? You don’t have a husband yet so you don’t know the feeling”, the countess crosses her arms.

“I can’t help it!’, Elizabeth chuckles. She pinches Carolina’s chubby pink cheeks and teases her reaction,

“Lizzy!”, she removes the princess's hands from her face,

“Don’t be too dramatic! You have your husband all day, let him have freedom”, Elizabeth said

“Don’t worry my lady, your husband is a good man, you have nothing to worry about”, William then smiles at him, since Carolina now talks with the Grand Duke she can’t pull her selfish high-pitched rages. The countess agrees and silences her mouth.

The three stroll a little more inside the flowery maze garden, talking about court matters and what to expect at today’s ball.

William tells the ladies about the latest court intrigues but the story which stands the most of them all is the marriage of Duke of Moucaster’s marriage with his brother’s widow. The pairing of the couple shocks the entire nobility, but Elizabeth found no problems with the marriage since the groom and the bride are both widows, and in law their marriage is acceptable.

“I'll do something to stop this nonsense!”, the princess said and turns to her uncle, “I’ll send my ladies to join the conversations and put an end to it before the rumor”,

At first Grand Duke William refuses to grant her request, she can implicate herself in the rumor, but Elizabeth assures him it would never happen, thus William complies with her request.

After their heated debate about the princess' plan to involve her ladies in the rumor, William mentions the end of the ten-year war between their Kingdom Lisaint and Prussia, but to finally achieve peace a token of the alliance must first be done through marriage. “You might be married sooner than you thought”, William said to his niece,

“What! I—-I’m not ready yet”

“That’s why I’m telling you this now”, the Grand Duke puts his hands on both of her shoulders and reminds the princess of her responsibility to the country.

Elizabeth knows this day will come, but living in the real scenario terrifies her more than the thought of it in her head. She isn’t prepared to abandon her home, her lifestyle, and the people she loved yet, how can she be able to adapt to the new country, she knew nothing about?

“Your highness, the king arrives”, Baroness Mary shows up amidst her conversation with William.