The Lotus Of East Palace
Prologues

"Daughter, come over here!"

The lightning was behind them. A girl who was born to never run, is now running barefoot beside the man. The long skirt was dirty and torn in some parts. The girl's smooth legs were now covered in abrasions and blood and mud. The girl trembled, her hands were cold, but she did not give up. The girl continued to run with the man without a word.

When they saw a cave in the distance, the man pulled the girl into the cave. It really is not a place worth entering by someone as graceful and beautiful as the girl. But the girl kept following him, entering into a narrow and dark cave with him.

When it was confirmed that the soldiers who were chasing them had gone far enough, the girl finally breathed a sigh of relief. The man realized that the girl had been holding her breath. The girl was embarrassed because of everything she did that night—running barefoot, letting her clothes get dirty, holding hands with foreign men, she said, as well as hiding in the dark cave with the man—all of it was not an honorable act, not at all commendable. But the man laughed as their gaze met. The man had never laughed like that before. And even though the new girl first saw her laughter, even though it was somehow very attractive, but the dark eyes of the man shed tears.

"Would you laugh or cry? Pick one." said the girl in a sniffy tone.

The man finally stopped laughing and wiped away the tears that had somehow drained his already dirty face with dust and ash. He looked at the girl. Emperor Princess. A Princess without a crown. Princess without Palace. Princess with nothing. But she is still a princess.

"They called me the wrong name. What God of Lightning? I even hid from the lightning and could only bring His Majesty into hiding in this filthy and inappropriate place. Your Majesty may behead me at any time for my insolence."

The girl did not respond to him immediately. His gray-colored eyes looked at the man curiously. There was no shaken look when the girl had just watched her entire family being slaughtered before her eyes sadistically and her palace being destroyed and burned by her own half-brother. His half-brother was 17 years older than him, whom he almost married.

"Since I wanted to ask you this..." Say the girl. His eyes were still staring at him like a stranger. "Who are you?"

The man did not answer the Princess' question. He just kept quiet while searching for the familiar figure in the face that looked at him curiously. The princess who always looked at him ruthlessly and coldly. A gentle-hearted princess, a peace-lover who hates murderers like her. The princess who said it had no heart for having killed so many people on the battlefield. His heart may have died a long time ago, he may have been born without a heart, but when the Princess told him that, something in his chest hurt as if there was a poisoned arrow lodged there.

After a while, the man still did not answer his question, The Princess again asked, "Why do you call me Your Majesty? Why are we running? And why are we hiding? Who's after us?"

The man opened his mouth, about to answer. But no words came out of him. She wanted to answer the Princess's question as she usually answered whenever the Princess asked her various difficult questions. The Princess was always curious, always asking, there were always things she wanted to ask. And the man is usually always able to answer, or argue because they always have different opinions and each considers himself the most correct. But this time, for such an easy question, for the question whose answer was already at the tip of her tongue, she suddenly lost her ability to answer the questions of the Princess.

You are Lee Seo-Hwa, the youngest daughter of the Orient Emperor, the Heir of the Dragon Blood, the descendant of the Sky Goddess, and the owner of the Eastern Palace. The most beloved daughter of the Emperor and Queen. A daughter who is highly respected by all and loved by all the people. The perfect daughter. Princess who—more than anything in this world—ingin I protect. The daughter I love in silence, whose face is always reflected in my dreams and in my mind whenever I almost die on the battlefield. The princess who makes me want to rise every time I fall or almost die on the grounds that I haven't had time to debate her last argument before going to war. The princess whose sharp words hurt me more than any sword that has ever ripped my skin.

But none of those words could come out of his mouth. So the man, having swallowed all those words, buried them all deeply. She clasps Seo-Hwa's daughter's two hands which still feel cold yet soft. The man had never touched anything as soft as the Princess' hand. The Princess is very young—eight years younger than her. His future should be bright. He should have married next month once he was in his adult years. He should have had a long life and lived happily in the treasure-studded Palace. Being one of the wives of one of her half-brothers was as much the destiny of all Orient Princesses. She shouldn't have experienced all of this if only she hadn't been born an Orient Princess. The Princess lost her memory because the incident that had just happened to her was too heavy for her. I'm sorry for what I'm about to do, Your Majesty. It's for your own good.

The man looked at the Princess, throwing away all his past, throwing away his glory where people would instantly goosebumps upon hearing his name being echoed on the battlefield, Wu Yi-Xing the Lightning God. Then he said, "Let's go to Westeria."