CHAPTER 9: MY FATHER SHOWS ME AFFECTION

Seo-Hee was twelve years old, five years my senior and two years Hwan-Seong’s senior. She was my half-sister, born to another mother. I was uncertain of how many half-sisters I had whom I had never seen before. She was quite pretty as she had obviously inherited Scumbag’s good looks, but her eyes held malice.

“Stay out of this,” Hwan-Seong warned.

“I just happened to overhear your conversation. I thought she was being impudent, Prince Hwan-Seong”

Hwan-Seong glowered and menaced her, “What do you mean?”

She continued, “I thought she was being ill-mannered.” Seo-Hee, who had entered self-assuredly, now shrank at Hwan-Seong’s coldness.

Hwan-Seong said, “So you’re saying that the Mutt is rude?”

Hwan-Seong, you!! You insult me in front of this girl?

The Kingdom’s youngest knight hissed, “You’re quite the busybody! Who do you think you are to tell me to punish her? Do you want me to slap you?” He was terrifying. This was a side of him I had never seen before. I had heard rumors that his ruthlessness had led to his becoming the youngest knight in the land, but seeing it in action was frightening. If I was intimidated, Seo-Hee must have been scared out of her mind.

“Get out! If you show your face again I’ll kill you”

“I’m so sorry,” she said. She bowed deeply as if he were a king and she was a subject. Again, the hierarchy was starkly evident.

Seo-Hee turned to leave when he detained her, “One moment”

“Yes?”

“If you pick on my dog when I’m not around I won’t stand for it. She’s mine. I’m the only one who can pick on her.”

“Of course.”

Of course? I  thought indignantly. I’m no dog! I have a name, you know! Seo-Hee turned to leave. I could hear her sobbing, but the stone-hearted Hwan-Seong seemed to barely notice her.

I was unable to argue with him. I couldn’t say Don’t you think you were a little harsh?” Although I’d become quite close with Hwan-Seong, I had to remember my place. Challenging that boundary would likely mean I would endure the same treatment as Sang-Hee had.

I asked, “How long will you keep calling me a dog, Your Majesty?”

Hwan-Seong whipped around and laughed broadly. It seemed unimaginable that he had been so menacing just a moment before.

“Never. I’ll never stop!”

“Never? Even when you’re really old?”

“Of course not! I like you too much.”

I had a premonition that he’d order me to fetch now. Unease setting in…

“Fetch!”

My instincts were confirmed. Hwan-Seong fished a ragdoll out of his pocket and hurled it.

I gave him the choice: “Does your Majesty want me to fetch that or does His Majesty want a chocolate bar?”

Hwan-Seong’s grave expression revealed just how torn he felt. It was a serious decision as if its a matter of life and death with consequences of epic proportions. With a look of triumph, he announced his decision.

“I want both!”

Aww…shit.

Hwan-Seong, as annoying as he was, was relatively harmless. Hwan-Seok, on the other hand, was a bad seed. He’s the one who had reprimanded Hwan-Seong for calling a girl “Puppy” since it’s implied cuteness was more kindness than a female deserved. Thanks to him, I was stuck with the nickname, “Mutt”

This Hwan-Seok, always carried around a book to project a sophisticated air. He settled himself in my room to read, without even glancing at me.

“Your Majesty, I’ve poured you some tea.”

He accepted it without thanking me.

Even so, I worked to please him. I was only seven years of age and utterly powerless. I had never even been outdoors. However, secretly I was devising the bare bones of a plan. I knew that I would eventually be able to after I had ensnared the people around me, especially the boys.

I kindly poured you a cup of tea with these tiny hands, so you should at least thank me. I received no thanks. Of course, because that was not the standard practice here.

“More water next time.”

“It’s not to your liking?” I asked. Seriously? Isn’t green tea all pretty much the same?

“It has no flavor. Have the maid make it”

“But Your Majesty, I made it to myself”

“I don’t want it.” You’re an…ass.

I ventured, “What are you reading?” He didn’t reply. Upon inspection, I saw it was a math book. The only books I had been able to read were fairy tales for children, history books, and peculiar romance novels. No women figured in the romance novels. To my surprise, I found that math in this world was very rudimentary.

I had not been a star student, but I had done fairly well, usually ranking somewhere in the top five. I was reminded of something my teacher had once said, that anyone with today’s knowledge would have been considered an unparalleled genius had he been born in the past.

I reminded myself, But everything in this world is made by magic…

It was natural that all other scholarly pursuits would lag behind. If everything could be accomplished with the wave of a finger, there was no pressing need for the advancement of fields such as mathematics.

I wanted to get close to him, but I had to be careful not to risk incurring his wrath. My relationship with Hwan-Seok had improved with time, but I still had to be careful. He was a boy, while I was a girl.

I decided I would try to befriend him further. The corners of his mouth quivered as he tried to suppress his smile. I conceded he almost looked cute—one of the very, very rare instances.

“How can I be smart like you?”

“Keep dreaming.”

“Oh, I know but I want you to teach me.”

“With that head full of rocks?”

The look of contempt seemed to say: “You? You can’t even use magic!” He was indignant at even being asked. Even so, a few days later, I was able to discuss the concept of zero with Hwan-Seok. The concept of zero was completely unknown here. Everyone on Earth is now familiar with this concept but the idea of zero has only been around fifteen hundred years.

That was only the beginning. I then introduced to him the Pythagorean theorem. This earned me a newfound respect. Then came the concept of roots, which was unheard of here. Prince Hwan-Seok looked at me in a new light.

“Maybe you aren’t really so stupid after all,” he said.

Is this really a revolutionary? If I had known, I would have studied harder. I could have taught you even more and earned even more goodwill.

I said, “I hope to be as brilliant as Your Majesty.”

“Impossible,” he replied

An opportunity presented itself later.

“What are you up to?” someone said. It was Scumbag. I was pleased to hear his voice again.

I said elatedly, “I’m so pleased by Your Majesty’s visit.” I mustered my most joyous expression.

I had been practicing my expressions in the mirror, and I summoned all my skills of pretense. I ran to him and clung to his leg and rubbed affectionately against it as if I were really a loyal pup.

This was how daughters showed affection to their fathers on Earth. No girl in this world would show affection this way, out of fear. I waited for a reaction.

“What a nuisance,” he said throwing me off with a kick. To him, it was only a slight kick, but I flew a couple meters. I landed on my behind. I hate you!

I said, “How I’ve missed Your Majesty!”

Without even paying me attention, Scumbag turned to Hwan-Seok and asked, “What were you doing?”

This was to be the turning point in my life. Hwan-Seok was a jerk, but he was no liar. He explained the situation to Scumbag, who seemed intrigued.

“Is that so?” He said, glancing over at me. I smiled cheerily. Hwan-Seong happened to walk in my room then when he said, “The dirty dog’s wagging her tail!”

I wanted to strangle him.

Scumbag said, “So the rumors are true that you come here to visit her.”

“Yes! I like to play with the Mutt”

Scumbag looked at me now with renewed interest. I was somewhat different from the other girls here. I did not shrink before and even approached him, offering affection confidently. The other girls were so accustomed to being treated like dirt that such gestures never occurred to them. I just had to be careful not to overstep my bounds. I could see that these two looked at me as a rarity.

Scumbag said, “Very interesting”

A few days later, the Kingdom’s foremost mathematician paid me a visit. He was terrible at math, showing that this society lagged far behind.

He was saying, “Is that really true? If that is true, you’ve made a landmark discovery! I will try to provide a proof of it.”

But I had not shown hin anything very impressive. I had only shown him how to find the root of a quadratic equation, which I had learned in middle school in my former life.

If you think that’s impressive, wait until I tell you about the summation formula for a geometric or arithmetic series, sigma-something-or-other-or what I can remember of them.

They seemed to pick up concepts quickly because they did not have to follow a learning curve like humans. Their magic seemed to help them learn faster. Once they encountered a concept, the proof for the concept seemed to be immediately evident. Explaining a concept was like typing a command into a supercomputer to process.

I was now able to spend some time with Scumbag. It was the first time he had, had a meal with me in my seven years of life. It was quite an honor, however pathetic that sounds. The great mathematician who joined us at the meal showered me with lavish praise, saying that a prodigy had been born.

“The princess has proposed a groundbreaking theory. If I may be so bold as to say this, she would have been a great here if she had been born a male.”

Scumbag nodded but only murmured, “Perhaps.”

I spotted a sliver of opportunity. I dabbed at my mouth with a napkin. My father seemed to be in a pretty good mood. Now the opportunity I had waited for seven years had arrived, and I jumped at the chance.

I asked, “If I became a hero, can I marry you, Father?”

The mathematician choked, spurting out water. I didn’t care what the mathematician thought though. I was focused on the royal Scumbag’s response.

He said, “She’s certainly a bold wench”

Fortunately, he wasn’t angry. This phase of my plan had succeeded. I had very carefully waited for the perfect moment to dare call him “Daddy”, a term of familiarity denied to females.

“I love you sooooo much, Daddy.” I could barely believe my own eyes. but he smiled. He really smiled!

“Perhaps in a few millennia, little girl,” he said. Is that how you talk to your own daughter?

“Then, in a few millennia, I can marry you, Daddy?” He had chuckled before, but now he laughed openly and laughed for some time.

I continued eating, relishing my small victory. For a father to be this was to his daughter was a pivotal event