Once upon a time, in a place where magic had long been forgotten, in a very prosperous kingdom a small town that could be found not far from the capital, a lady who were called ugly and fat could be found.
She was the offspring of two beautiful people who have a slight wealth but eversince she was born, her father died and their properties had to be sold. Her mother had to take her to live to the edge of the small town near a mountain in a dilapidated, small hut.
The fat and ugly girl grew up timid and with a gentle heart. She had been a good girl and would try to help her weakened mother but the people of that village tend to stay away from her and the children her age would taunt her and throw rocks on her, playing tricks that's sometimes hurtful and cruel. Spreading words that she was the reason why her family was now on the rocks.
She would be a woman who would keep her head down and tries not to talk too much. Different from her peers who were falling in love and dreaming of a magical destiny with a happy ending, she who was ugly and fat were afraid of even having a friend.
Awkward and nervous, what could she talk about with them? Ugly and believed to be a source of misfortune, friendliness aside, she would just be glad not to be looked at with painful scorn and suffocating disgust.
But not every plan in life happens and not all emotions could be suppressed.
As the poor girl grew up, the obligation of earning for the family were taken by her to lessen her mother's burdens and to let her rest more but as someone who were stamped by the whole town as a bad thing, it wasn't easy earning money. Feeling tired and hurt, in addition to not wanting to worry her mother, she would only show a positive and happy smile in front of her loved one but cry secretly in the mountains whenever she collect firewoods. There she met the prince who had unknowingly got lost while on a hunting.
In a stream, on the opposite sides, a ragged handsome prince who stumbled and rolled on the ground and a fat crying woman looked at each other in surprise. The fat woman was the first to recover and quickly wanted to run away but before she could go far, she thought that maybe the stranger were lost as he didn't look familiar.
She asked if he needed directions as she hid behind a tree, only showing an eye slightly covered by her long fringe.
The prince who didn't know how to react at being seen in his most miserable state by a strange fat girl but was strictly educated when he was young so he agreed politely.
The girl guided the tall and handsome stranger from a distance, while hiding herself and quickly ran away after making sure he finally got out. She didn't thought that she would see him again and threw the incident out of her mind to focus on dealing with her problems.
She did managed to find a job in addition to selling firewoods to the an inn. So even if she heard talks about how the prince were going around and might be looking for his future princess, she didn't think that it had anything to do with her. She would help with minor works for the kitchen of the inn for the whole day and would go collect as much firewoods she could before the night falls. That's how her time were spent the following days.
The only thing strange to her busy daily life was that she somehow see that handsome stranger quite a lot these days. Whether it was when she would cut ingredients in the back of the inn or when she was in the mountain.
The encounters accumulated whether they were the type where she was seen or she would see him from a distance. One day, she was saved by him from a wild animal that wanted to eat her. She couldn't help but feel that he was a good person. Although it might be that he didn't know her or he just helped her to clear the debt he owed when she helped him, as what she understood from what he said after, he still saved her life.
But that was it. There's nothing beyond that anymore. Specially after she found out he was the prince. She was just at ease that a good person would rule one day and the prince were someone who she felt were sincere.
After all, what good would falling in love bring her? He was a person of high standing, and was such a wise and kind person, she was a bringer of misfortune. It had been deemed impossible from the very start. It was already very generous of him to even treat her as a person.
She was ugly and fat. How could a prince even look at her the way a lover do? When even she couldn't find a good part of her to like?
.....