let+her+go

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====As Svetlana stalks away with all the money you have, you can’t help but stare at her. She was surely one of the most beautiful girls you’d ever seen in your life. Inwardly cursing your stupidity, you can already think of twenty different ways the conversation you’d just participated in could have gone. Something to impress her, something to make her happy rather than merely appeased… Still, you’re a mere soybean farmer, and she is the Princess. It would never work. ====

====Shaking your head, you shuffle away back home with an empty cart and an empty pocket, knowing that when your mother hears of the news, she’ll be furious. The money you were supposed to earn that day was going to go into food for the winter, and yet there were no earnings to speak of, the product in question ruined as he hit the car. Groaning imploringly, you hop onto your donkey and take the length of the journey in relish of your last moments of peaceful bliss. Soon, you are about to face your mother's horrible wrath. ====

====As you reach the door of your humble home, you pray a silent prayer to the powers that be before hesitantly opening the door. “Mother…” Your voice is soft, already slightly ashamed, but as you come face to face with her, her excited expression surprises you. Still, it was a welcome distraction from the real issue at hand. “What is it?” ====

====“My son,” The robust woman’s hearty voice echoes on the walls of your small home, “After a long discussion with our dear neighbor, Valentin, he has graciously offered you his daughter’s hand in marriage!” You resist the urge to recoil in disgust. Though Katya was a nice enough girl, she wasn’t the most attractive. Your friends often joked that she had a face that only compared to that of a boars, and you tended to agree with them on that subject. Still, your mother is growing old, and her wish had always been for you to marry… ====

====“Oh… Wonderful.” You try to sound enthused, and as your mother’s face lights with joy, you know it’s convincing enough. Katya, who is standing by her burly father, also falls for your cover. She squeals in glee, practically attacking you in hugs and kisses as you try to keep her astounding weight upright enough to where she wouldn’t knock you over. Sighing softly, you knew that Svetlana’s heart was not in your fate, just not meant to be. ====

====You don't want to, but being all too excited about the royal wedding, Katya drags you to attend the wedding of Princess Svetlana and Prince Dmitri. You've become just what your late mother wanted you to be, a successful farmer and a husband to a nice peasant woman. Still, you wanted so much more than that in your youth, and watching the ever-beautiful princess get married to some undeserving prince makes you wish that it could have been you to have her as your own. She's still the epitome of beauty, with her perfectly pale skin and beautiful brown eyes, though she seems more restrained than you remember her, a far cry from the passionate woman you had met five years ago.====

====Before you know it, the wedding is over, and Svetlana is kissing the Prince. Pangs of jealousy shoot at your heart, though you keep your face stoic as to not alarm your wife, who is watching the wedding with starry eyes. As the bride and groom make their way through the crowd, they pass right by you, and as Svetlana's eyes meet yours, she frowns as she searches your face, and it's obvious she doesn't quite remember you. Still, familiarity finally crosses her face, and seeming rather uncomfortable, she continues off with her husband, though she still looks back at you rather sadly. You think that if only you'd called out to her that fateful day, maybe you could be in Prince Dmitri's place at that very moment... But it wasn't in your fate, and you can't go back now to change decision. You've settled for less than what you want, and that's what you have to live with...====