Imperial Banquet

The rain has stopped. The sun beamed rays of light towards the enormous oriental designed roof. Legend has it that the Shilla palace is the largest palace in the mortal realm. It was designed and built for just one man, the ruler of Shilla.

Imperial Palace is hosting a luxurious banquet for selection of consorts for Crown Prince Noel. He is the biological son of Queen Aliyah. Every eligible maiden with noble status has received an invitation to attend.

At the fortified entrance, the servants are rattling down the carriages to drop the beautiful maidens. They were flaunting in embroidered silk gowns.

This is the beginning route to becoming queen. Dreams filled their hearts. Thousands of concubines. But only one will ascend to be queen. They wish to clinch a victory over the rough path to the future empress!

While many of them dream of becoming a queen, there are maidens that preferred if the crown prince will not select them because Crown Prince Noel has a reputation of being a womanizer.

Their clan leaders escorted them to meet the officials for inspection of identity and family background. They will submit the marriage resume to the official, and later the official will give them to the queen for her perusal. After passing through the initial stage, they walk towards the hall. Moods swing from joyous to nervous when they glimpsed Queen Aliyah through the oriental designed windows.

In the eyes of the nation, they have depicted Queen Aliyah as a brutal queen. She is ambitious that the powerless King George often reluctantly granted her request.

King George, Queen Aliyah, the crown prince, and the royal consorts were present in the hall to view the candidates.

During the customary greeting, the eunuch will call every batch of five maidens to stride forward to meet the royal family to avoid crowding the hall.

A Eunuch announced for the first batch of women. Crown Prince Noel looked at five maidens from the first batch.

They stride forward to bow at the king and the queen.

Queen Aliyah looked at their marriage resume. Her ideal daughter-in-law is a lady that was born into a wealthy family. In her dictionary, the definition of wealthy is their wealth must surpass her clan's net worth.

King George gave a friendly smile towards them. His ideal daughter-in-law is a lady with wisdom. He asked a question, "Define a good king."

The first maiden is the daughter of a merchant from a rural district. She responded to the king, "Your majesty, my answer is you because you are a good king." The king disliked the answer. He felt like she was flattering him.

The second maiden is the daughter of the Imperial physician. She replied to the king, "Your majesty, I am sorry I do not know the answer. I'm not well educated.". The king likes her honesty, but she is not wise.

The third maiden is the illegitimate daughter of a chief counsellor. She gave an answer that impressed the king. "Your majesty, In every home, the father is the head of the family. They look after their children and give them an abundance of love. A king is the leader of the country, he is also the father of the nation, thus a good king must treat the citizen like their own children." Even though she comes from a prestigious family, the queen dislikes the fact she is an illegitimate daughter. The king personally doesn't care about illegitimate status. But he knew the queen wouldn't like it.

The fourth maiden is the daughter of a general from the royal navy. She seems nervous. She gave an answer similar to the first maiden, a good king must be like him. The king doesn't like the answer, what upset him more is, she copied the answer from the first maiden.

The fifth maiden is the daughter of the most wealthy man in a village. She gave an answer that sparked an interest in the queen. "Your majesty, a good king will make a prosperous country, every citizen is wealthy."

The queen looked at the fifth maiden and asked, "What should a king do to make the citizens wealthy?"

"Reduce taxes." The fifth maiden replied. The queen chuckled softly. She hated the answer.

The king looked at the queen. The five maidens are not from top ten wealthy families in the country. None of them impressed the queen. Queen Aliyah looked at Crown Prince Noel. He shook his head. None of them impressed the crown prince.

The crown prince's ideal wife is someone with a young lady with a beautiful body and a beautiful face.

The five maidens left the banquet hall, disappointed. They knew they had failed the preliminary screening. The eunuch called for the second batch of candidates to stride forward. Just like the first batch of women, none of them impressed the royal family.

The crown prince became annoyed after many batches of maidens, but none of them impressed him. He yelled at the eunuch and the courtiers to narrow down the list of maidens. Bring only beautiful maidens.

The queen interrupted, "They came all the way here, my prince. We should meet all of them." Crown Prince Noel kept quiet. He has to obey his mother's request.

Royal Consort Rina noticed the maidens are actually beautiful, but they painted some mole and birthmark on their faces to avoid being selected by the crown prince. She chuckled and said, "Your highness, no one is born ugly. Perhaps, they just are not interested in you."

Queen Aliyah frowned and glared at Consort Rina, "Did I ask your opinion?" She walked towards her. The queen tried to intimidate Royal Consort Rina by using her long fingernail to tickle her face.

"This is just a misunderstanding, your majesty." Royal Consort Rina gave a friendly smile towards the queen.

King George watches the queen, and voices out to stop the commotion, "My queen, let's continue to meet the maidens. There are many maidens still waiting to meet us."

Royal Consort Rina got afraid of Queen Aliyah. She went closer to the king and stood behind him.

Royal consort Mariot is also standing behind King George. She stood frozen with red eyes. She tried her best not to cry at the banquet and endured the pain. King George was not aware that his son just died. A top-order from the queen. The king must not know about this until the banquet is over.

The eunuch walked towards her to grab her hand and bring her back to her seat. Queen Aliyah. She gave instruction to the eunuch, "I will shortlist the maidens."

A eunuch sneaked out from the banquet hall. He walked towards the clan leader from the Yoon family, the wealthiest clan in Shilla. He whispered to her ear. "The king will ask a question. Define a good king." The matriarch bribed the eunuch to help her by giving her more information. She gave the eunuch a sachet of coins to pay him for the tips.

The eunuch announced for Julia, the daughter of the minister of defence. She entered the hall with a crown braided hairstyle, wearing a greyish silk gown embroidered with peony flowers. Everybody got astonished by her beauty. She was the most beautiful girl in the scene. Crown Prince Noel falls in love at first sight with her. It was pretty clear to everyone that Julia is a favourite choice to Crown Prince Noel.

Julia answered to the king, "A king carries the biggest responsibility, and it's the hardest job. A good king will do his best he could to bring up the country."

In the same batch with Julia for the customary greeting, there is an elegant young lady. Her name is Farah. She came in with her silky-long hair flowing back, wearing a peachy silk gown with expensive accessories dangling in her. She is the daughter of the wealthiest man in Shilla. It fascinates Queen Aliyah. It was pretty clear to everyone that Farah is a favourite choice to Queen Aliyah.

Farah answered the king. "I agreed with Julia. It's impossible to make everyone happy because half the citizens want this, half of the citizens want that. A good king will just do his best to bring up the country."

The king nodded his head. They seemed to know the pain he was going through.

Olena is the daughter of the prime minister. She becomes bored with the banquet. "Seems more like a banquet where parents are parading their daughters for sale into marriage" she whispered to herself.

She sneaks out from the hall and spots a shimmering butterfly leading her to a garden of cherry blossom trees, where she overheard a conversation between a eunuch and a royal physician poisoning Prince Liam.

To her horror, the eunuch caught her eavesdropping on their conversation. She races away from them, wanders into the cold palace, and falls into a well.

She fell and hit her head onto the ground. The impact of the hefty blow to her head. Her intangible soul released from her body. She got perplexed seeing her human body lying unconscious on the ground covered with blood.