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"Arms higher"

It's been two weeks.

"What are you doing? Arms higher!"

Every second ticks by slower than ever before.

"Yes, and then gracefully move to the side. Exactly like that- no don't move too much. Yes gracefully, your Highness. Grace is the essence of a princess"

Time is indeed the worst method of torture. They have changed her perspective on time. Instead of watching it pass, Maud has learned over the past two weeks- how to use time to its fullest. Every minute must be stuffed with something productive, nothing can be missed, nothing can be considered as a break. When dining, one must learn how to dine properly, so the meal is also a lesson. When walking, one must learn how to walk like a royal, so the march is a lesson of its own. When communicating with literally anyone, dozens of lessons come to play, both concerning etiquette, speech, words and addressing according to social standing. When dancing, when learning, when leading, when following, when dressing, when practicing- everything has its own order and law, everything is a lesson of its own.

Sleeping is the one and only exception. Sure, one must learn how to sleep like a princess. But such a lesson can not be taught later into life, and some are insufferable when sleeping. Maud is lucky to have quiet sleeping habits, something that a good wife, a good woman and a good princess needs. She doesn't snore, she doesn't move around, she doesn't talk or walk. In reality, such things are hard to control and say absolutely nothing about the person itself. But in this world, such a thing is just another matter of shame. Embarrassment is the biggest weapon, the biggest trap and hole one can fall into, the one thing she is taught to avoid.

And because sleeping is the only exception, the only task that is not a lesson, she is restricted from it. Makai wasn't lying when he said she would have a hard time. She wakes up before the sun, and the lessons start the moment she opens her eyes. Going to sleep can sometimes stretch out until near morning as well, because the lessons drag on when she doesn't learn fast enough. They need to do everything perfectly while also speeding through the material and tasks, so essentially sleep is the one thing they can push to the side. To give more space. To give more time.

Maud can't lie, she feels exhausted every second of the day. Her eyes droop, her fingers feel numb. But to be cruel, it's a way to motivate her. It's a way for her to feel... feel like she needs to work harder. And she does work harder. Becoming the perfect princess that Makai wants her to be might just be impossible, but for her own survival, through her own hard work and confusion, Maud will make it. She will survive, no matter what they think of her. Sleep is not necessary anymore, it doesn't feel like it either. If she needs to sacrifice it for her own success, it's surely no problem.

Maud moves across the marble dance floor, just like she's been taught. Her teacher is the best dancer in the whole kingdom. Her brothers surely wasted no expense in her rapid schooling, making Maud wonder what kind of man she is marrying. How high up can he really be? There must be a reason why Makai and his brothers are using so many resources to bring her into the palace, to making her a perfect princess within a limited amount of time. No king likes to waste effort on useless matters, and no king likes to be pressured. So the prize, the man that they are waiting to trap with marriage, must be someone very important and influential. Maud doesn't know if that's good or bad.

If it's a rich man they are after, maybe she'll be happy with everything money could ever buy. But Maud is still unsure how she feels about this. She hadn't even thought about marriage before coming here. Her entire life seemed so simple, she was so engrossed into her usual routine that she forgot about the rest of the world and its standards. Sometimes it was easy to forget how society views women in the bigger cities, because her parents never treated her as lesser for being of the female sex. But once her bubble burst, Maud began to break down everything. Were her parents kind to her only out of obligation? Could that explain why they never treated her as lowly as other families treat their daughters? Like the only thing they are good for is marriage and mothering children?

Well, whatever her old family, or perhaps one should say "fake family" ever thought of her, Maud knows that it's long gone. She might be a princess but she has no real power. As a woman she is trapped to whatever a man says, and in this context that man is the king. She has no choice in anything anymore, and it's taken about two weeks for her to come to terms with that. She is a prisoner now, and she'll make the most of it, because she has no other choice. Maud is determined to survive despite their constant scheming, and that comes with a prize. Ultimate perfection, and giving her life for them to control. If it's marriage they want, she'll give them that. As long as she gets to live. As long as she gets to exist. She won't be kept in the dark and cast out, ever again.

"That's quite alright, Your Highness! You did wonderfully today!"

The teacher stops her after three hours of practicing ballroom dances. Maud stops with a small, gracious smile on her face, pretending that she isn't tired and sweaty despite constantly moving for three hours in a row. She is dressed in a pink long dress, with a few decorative flowers around her chest area and a pale pink skirt dragging all the way to the ground. Her dress is matched with pink silk shoes, and a regally casual hairdo of one small princess braid on top of her brown locks. She looks stunning now, absolutely beautiful. So very different from the Maud that she used to be. No longer just a peasant, now she looks regal, calm and gentle, clean and charming.

Maud dusts off her dress and smiles up at the dance instructor. She gives a small nod instead of a bow, because she is well-educated in manners and courtesy to the right person. The dance instructor gives her a small bow, as she is required to do so.

"Well, I believe my work here is done, Your Highness. You've shown much improvement over the past two weeks''

She praises Maud. The princess gives another polite nod and smile.

"Thank you"

That's where their conversation ends, the dance instructor bows again and leaves, this time for good. Maud has graduated from one of her classes. Finally. She has so many of them, getting this one off her back is extremely important to her. Maud watches the lady leave with tired eyes, wishing that this would be her last appointment of the day. She doesn't know if it is. Usually it isn't. Her schedule is always kept as a secret from her, as her servants lead her to the next thing once it happens. Maud doesn't know why it's this way, perhaps to keep her from feeling overwhelmed, but she doesn't like it. Things would be so much better if she could just know where they are going, so that she could prepare mentally beforehand...

Especially this one guy dictates everything about her schedule and lifestyle. Young marquis Harold is a blonde haired man with round thin glasses and average height. He is a marquis from a very poor noble lineage, and therefore works at the palace in exchange for a place to stay and live a lavish lifestyle. Because he is a noble, he can't just be any servant. So he works as some sort of officer or manager, and has apparently been put in charge of Maud. More specifically, he has been entrusted with educating the empire's first and only princess in record time, because the king holds him in high regard. Maud just finds him annoying, as he is very strict and cold hearted, constantly mumbling to her what she does wrong or telling her what to do and when to go next. There is seriously not an ounce of humanity inside him and Maud hates that.

Actually she hates everyone here, but she won't say that out loud, now will she?

Either way, the marquis Harold turns to her immediately after the dance instructor has left, with further instructions. He holds a stack of paper in his hands, his glasses getting crooked as he searches through the papers for the next agenda. He used to be very organized in the beginning, but now it's already been two weeks, the deadline is closing up even though Maud can't foresee it, and everyone grows more tense by the day. She has improved a lot, a miracle it seems, but there is still so much she needs to work on, and so little time. Harold fumbles through the papers.

"You have a new lesson today, Your Highness"

As cryptic as always, that's all he says before ushering her out of the ballroom together with five other maids and six guards. The ballroom doors are closed behind them, and the group of thirteen travel through the palace hallways with much urgency. Maud wonders where they are going. What new place? What new lessons? This far she has had a pretty similar structure to all of her lessons, every day being quite the same. She has had a lot of lessons in ballroom dancing lately, matched up in table etiquette, speech lessons, and of course her general lessons in the sciences, history, politics and languages.

They have only been teaching her one other language. Maud doesn't know which language it is, or why, but she can only guess it's going to be the language of her husband. Thankfully she seems naturally gifted in it, as the farm where she lived used to be by another country border, where the nearby village people who sometimes stopped by spoke the exact language. She obviously picked up some words along the way, and her language classes have been going smoothly thanks to that. Actually, everything has been going quite smoothly. She is quick witted, has energy and curiosity for learning and determination to put trough and push through anything. But a new thing? Maud isn't sure if she can handle that...

They lead her through yet another hallway, but this one is special. As their high shoes clack softly against the carpet floor, Maud finally gets to look outside. This is one of the hallways with windows, as it exists by the palace wall. The huge windows open up a new world to her, one that she sees every time windows are in front of her. She is not allowed outside, but seeing it through glass is enough for now. She can see the beautiful, yet terrifyingly huge capital city of the blue knight empire, and the wonderful palace grounds around her current home. Today it's rainy outside. Maud relishes in the way the big raindrops hit the window. She tries to take several mental pictures, because there are no windows in her bedroom.

But the windows also give her a sense of where they are. Somewhere between the tenth and twentieth floor, definitely, as they seem pretty high up, but she can still see higher towers of the palace from the window. Maud will probably never get to explore this palace, and in a way she feels jealous over her brothers who got to live here their whole lives and saw everything they could ever wish to see, this palace is like a whole new world. Maud doesn't want to get too jealous, she doesn't want to get attached to this place. It's only temporary, after all, as her true home is somewhere else, with her dreaded future husband.

Lost in thought, Maud startles when they suddenly halt. She comes to be hugely surprised, when she suddenly finds herself right in front of her chambers. This is where she has spent every night since arriving at the palace, her very own living space. It consists of one huge bedroom with a big pink and golden bed, a living space and changing room. The living space is where she is supposed to take in guests. Maud has never gotten any guests before. Now she apparently will. The doors open with a slam and she is gently ushered inside her own home. Maud looks behind herself to ask Harold what is going on, but the door is shut in her face, as every servant has left except for two maids in their late twenties.

Maud is quick to turn around to face whoever she is supposed to meet. She finds a woman dressed in a vibrant red dress, with an elaborate red hairdo, seated on her guest couch, sipping tea from a porcelain cup with roses on it. The lady stands up upon making eye contact with the princess, bows deeper than most other teachers, and smiles at her. Maud can only nod back with a curious and caught off look.

"Please take a seat, Your Highness. I am here to teach you about marriage"

Maud hesitantly walks forwards, taking a seat in her own cream colored chair with golden armrests, and sets her hands on top of each other in her lap.

"What do you mean?"

An innocent question. Perhaps exactly what they wanted. It's important for a young lady to be innocent of the truths of the world. To be innocent of what it means to be in love, what it means to be married, what it means to create children. The inner workings of marriage are usually first revealed on the first night, leaving the maiden princess confused and curious about what her husband is doing. But Makai seems to want another approach to the matter. He needs her to be the best kind of princess, and that starts with making her less oblivious to the world, and more knowledgeable to everything. She needs to know how to create heirs.

But the innocent and maiden princess Margaret is still confused. She doesn't understand why anybody would need lessons in marriage. She is unknowing, like all other maidens in this country.

"Yes, Your Highness. Marriage, and what comes after it"

The woman clasps her hands together.

"You see, it's very important for the wife to be able to please her husband and give him children. I believe you have little knowledge in that field, and that's why I'm here to teach you about it"

And as the woman goes on, Maud slowly begins to realize the reality that she is getting herself into. Her whole world crashes in two.

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