The time goes by, and now it's morning time, when is the time she has to participate as a distinguished guest at the Palace, where women weren't appreciated to join the national board before unless she is the powerful as well as the Empress.
Luna swallows her saliva with a bitter taste, it's not because she's sick but because she has to face the challenge soon.
Standing still, having the maids dressed for her and make-up, Luna sighed countless times. Making all her three maids including her nanny worry about her but who can help her now? First time in the men's dominating fields like politics and laws, and wars, what is she? Just a university student that has to study by zoom meeting every day for almost 2 years, moreover never concentrated in class since she always falls asleep while meeting. Now, now, now…. Luna almost cries out.
On the way to the palace, Luna was riding on the parade. The wind blew, and she felt helpless. But suddenly, when she reached the gate of the big temple palace, she was immediately active and her smile appeared. It is Mister Global Cambodia! Hahaha. Luna can't help jumping off the parade without reminding that she is the Princess, the sister of the Empress.
" Hey! We meet again!" Luna waved to him while he was on duty. She approached him without the manner of the polite ancient period, but the modern girl's behavior.
The man was astonished looking at the Princess. He never met such a friendly woman like this before, only the shy women exist in this period, so strange. However, a smile appears on his face, greeting her, " Your Royal Highness!".
" Hey, haven't seen you for a long time!" Luna said with her extroverted, friendly smile that she never had before in her future world's life. But for this handsome man, it's fine to show your extraverted side or let's say; lead the flirting stage first.
The man hesitated to speak but still has to say," But Your Royal Highness, we just met a few days ago!".
" Few days considered being so long for me. See, 24 multiply by 3 it's ... erm..." Luna tried to count hard but her math was terrible, ... " 72" Sukhothai answered instead of her. The girl smiles a bit embarrassed but remains confident. She lifted her left hand making a heart shape finger by her thumb and her index finger-crossing each other and blowing it to the handsome man. Then said," Well, there's something for you! Please take it!" She shows it with a smile before she goes inside to meet the king. It left the man confused, what was that finger sign mean? Why did the Princess give it to him? He struggled to form that heart and asked himself... " What is this?" But no matter how hard he tried; he could never understand.
Although inside the Palace, the emperor is sitting high on his throne higher than anyone else, and there are 10 men who were from all ministry to join this meeting together. Princess Indradevi came to greet the emperor and then she was led to the seat where the king is at the first order. Her presence makes all the scholars make it as ridicule her; from ancient times women were forbidden to join such a nation's work and even the queen sometimes has to abbey this rule.
Luna felt a bit anxious, her heartbeat fast and her sweat appeared. Seeing this makes all the scholars mock her up for fun; one of the head ministries of the water resource says," Her Royal Highness, do not be worried! It's just an ordinary meeting that we gathered all along." He tried to make her calm but in another way is to make fun of her.
Unfortunately, the sarcastic word wasn't applied to this girl; she had had enough in her high school life. Luna smiled and replied to the Head of the Ministry of the Water Resources, " What a kind of you Mister, but I wasn't anxious because I never came to this place, but because I'm afraid that what I have to share today cannot be understood by all of you! I'm so sorry for that!".
Overhear that, the medium age official minister turned silent, but it was not the end yet, another scholar that came from the Human Resource Ministry said, " We have heard many great things about Your Royal Highness, then may you please let us know what are you going to share?" The man was intentionally forcing her to be stumped.
Luna thought to herself, " damn! All these old men are hard to fight! If I still keep my manner as a classic Princess Indradevi, I'm afraid I cannot win this argument..." She smiled at the man and replied with another question, " May I ask the Minister first, what ministry are you serving? Since I never joined the Royal Scholars Board like this before I might bother all of you to introduce yourself first, and after getting to know each other it will be easier for us to debate".
The officer proudly proclaimed his title, " emperor promoted this lowly one as ahead of the Ministry of the Human Resource, to oversee the potential men to serve the government and to do the good deed for citizens."
" Do you serve the citizens too?" The Princess asked.
" Of course, Your Royal Highness." The officer replied.
" Then what ways do you serve the people?" Luna asked.
" By providing the men the education and recruiting teachers to teach the children" The officer replied.
" Were all these responsibilities under you?" Luna asked.
" Of course, Your Royal Highness. If it's not my responsibility then how can this lowly one be depended on by the Lord?" The head of human resources replied.
Luna sighed, and talked back in her sad voice," How can you do these many things alone?"
Her voice seems so empathic to the man and he replies, " This is the duty of mine that I have to complete"
" Let me tell you a story; There was a widowed father and a son living in an isolated village. Every day the father when to fishing so he could bring the food for his son. He did that every day as a habit, he was a very loving and caring father to his only son, and so whatever his son wants he will try his best to afford to bring without telling his son how hard it is to get there. A few decades later he was sick and died. Instead of teaching his son how to fish, he teaches him to eat well, sleep well, and live well; he should be the most grateful son. But after he died, his son knows nothing than sleep well, eat well, and live well; he doesn't know how to survive by himself because his father never taught him. Life became more of a struggle for him, and it's become worse and worse. He can't stand that life anymore." The story was paused and Luna turned to ask the scholars," Now tell me, why would the father do this to his son?".
The man replies, " The father loves his son dearly that he doesn't want his son to live a difficult life like him."
" Right! How about others?" Luna asked generally to all the officers who have the present there.
Another man replies," As a father, he has the duty to feed and protect the family, but spoiling the child like this is not a good way!"
Another man also replies, " Right! I would rather hit my son to do hard work rather than let him be a spoiled child like this!"
After receiving all the ideas of the scholars, Princess Indradevi smiled, and she continued, " Another story; There was a family, they do farm to survive. The married couple had 2 sons. The first son was loved dearly by the father because he was the first, and the second son was loved dearly by the mother. Because the father was an alcoholic person; he passed away first. In the relationship between the widowed mother and sons; the eldest son doesn't listen to her teaching much he thought his mother was very strict with him. On the other hand, the second son was the most obedient child that submitted to his mother. Because of the duty, all the sons must help their mother to do the farm work; the eldest son becomes a badly behaved person; always frustrated, and uses his strength. Whereas the second listen to only his mother. After seeing his brother turn into an ungrateful child toward his mother, he secretly hates him and one day he decided to kill him secretly in order to stop him from hurting his mother mentally." Luna tells the story like telling it to the child, luckily, they are adult people they didn't fall asleep easily or they would they dare not to show out. She turned to all the men in the room and ask them, " Now let me as all of you another question, why did the second son become a murderer like this?"
The man from the Ministry of Art replies quickly, " It's all because of the mother of the sons. If she doesn't spoil her kid like this so, he won't commit the sin against his brother!"
The man from the Ministry of Tax said, " I think this is caused by many factors; they were poor and the husband also alcoholic so that lead to the poverty and after had her husband passed away, all the burden fell upon the sons. So that they become like this!"
The man from the Ministry of Human Resource denies, " All human has their own consciousness, even though they were in the hardest time they still have the choices, why even kill his own brother just because he has badly behaved?"
Luna has to hear all their debating; she secretly yawns of boredom and then looked at the King with smile; he was the one who kept quiet from the start (so lovely). She whispered to the king from far away, " Let them argue! I will make them see"
The crowd of the scholars started to argue protecting their own perspective, Luna yawned, and the king seemed too bored to continue.
" That's enough, all of you! Let us not debate anymore and listen to Princess Indradevi about her moral of the story she told." The emperor declared.
Princess Indradevi stares a glance at him and turns back to the scholars, saying with smile on her face " Now as all of you have said, no one's idea is wrong we all are right by our own judgements. But let me tell you the moral of the story; In the first story, I wanted to ask you a guide about how you do your work's your duty to serve the Emperor and the Khmer citizens but to serve meant to submit and to show, not to hide and to control as the father in the story did.
You might not see the way he manipulates his son; it is to live in the life that he had never had before, and he unintentionally made his son live as his desired lifestyle he wanted; but in the picture that he loves his son dearly. We shouldn't force somebody to live as we wanted them to, but let them choose and be there to help them and guide them if they needed.
Otherwise, let compare it to the realism of the presence; we serve the people, please let them know how to get the food, how to fish, not only how to live well, and eat well. Let them know their duty to the kingdom, not only their wealth and their knowledge. Let the rich see the poor as equal; helping each other not to step on the back. And let the ascending people serve the low since they were picked by the lower people to be their leader.
The second story; is how you raise your off spring. If you were too strict with them, just as the first son of the story, he would come to protest against you when he had grown up, but beware of the obedient one if he chose the wrong way because of your affair. You might not know, you might not want it to become like this, but be aware of this." The Princess finished her speech to this, then there is a scholar asked back.
" And then, Your Royal Highness, how do you solve all these problems?" The Ministry of the Human Resource asked.
" Which problems do you refer to?" Luna asked back.
" First, the duty, and the second one the way to raise the children." The man replied.
" The First one I can answer you, but the second one I cannot. Since I never have children yet, ask the Empress instead because I know that all her children are raised by righteousness and well behaved." Luna answered back.
The officers who wanted to make fun of the princess by making her out of way to respond was stuck by this, since those are the offsprings of the emperor, how can they criticize them?