Your Highness, the Crown Prince, Usurp the Throne

She was a lonely soul from the twenty-first century, living inside the body of an unremarkable palace maid and staying by the side of the exalted Crown Prince. He was the lowest-ranking person in the entire palace.

He was the Crown Prince of Shangqia, the orphaned survivor of the previous dynasty and the current emperor's nephew. He existed only to keep the realm stable and to serve as a prop for the emperor's supposed benevolence and virtue, displayed for all the world to see. He was so lowly he had sunk into the dust, struggling to survive in the cold Eastern Palace.

When their paths crossed, she stayed by his side as they stirred up trouble throughout the palace. The hands that should have held books took up a longsword instead. She said, “Your Highness, don't be afraid. A Yu is here. A Yu will never abandon you. I'll bear this sin with you.”

He held this hard-won warmth tightly in his arms. “A Yu, if I could choose, I would want you to push me away, just like everyone else. At least then you would be alive, hiding somewhere I don't know about, waiting for me to ascend the throne and find you, so I can tell you, ‘A Yu, let's go home.’”

It's not you who's wrong. It's this chaotic age, this world.

They all say, “When the ruler orders a subject to die, the subject has no choice but to die.”

He smiled faintly. “But what if the subject refuses? Then I'll overthrow the ruler.”