The Prologue

Being the only child of a noble family is never fun. Especially if you're the daughter of a noble family. As a noble, and as a young woman, you're always expected to be polite, quiet, and act as a lady. When around men, you only speak when spoken to, nod your head to make it look like you're listening, and smile. It gets really tiring when you do it day after day. As the only child, and as a female, you're also expected to find a good husband. One who is rich, of a good family, and handsome.

Yes, all those attributes are fine and well, but none of those include kindness, compassion, or love. I have always dreamed to marry for love like my favorite, and only, aunt Tsukiyomi (sue-kee-om-ee), but only the lucky girls marry for love. My mother, however, was not so lucky. My grandparents married my mother off to the highest bidder because they were in debt and because she's the oldest. After that, they were more lenient on Tsukiyomi, which made my mother very angry.

My mother, Yue (you-ay), who is a very beautiful woman, was just sixteen when she got married. A young nobleman, my father, named Kyoshiro Kite (kee-yo-shear-ro kee-tay), was the son of a feudal lord in Edo. He had seen my mother when she was out in the supermarket with her mother shopping for fish. My father, just turned twenty, told me that he fell in love with my mother at first sight. He said that he "had to possess her [beauty]." I had always believed in love at first sight because of that statement. However, the reality of that love story was different than what was said. In reality, my mother was in love with a local boy in her small village, but her parents did not approve.

She had tried to elope with him, but they found out and had the boy executed. My mother was still grieving over her loss, when my father came along. She did not love my father, she didn't even like him, when he asked for her hand. My father, and like many others, only wanted her beauty, not her heart. My grandparents, however, did not care and accepted him as their future son-in-law. A week later, my parents were married and my mother was forever stuck in a loveless marriage.

My father, after he had finally possessed my mother's beauty, had treated her like dirt, only showing kindness when he was showing her off. My mother began to hate my father and her parents because of what they had done. She stopped believing in love and accepted her fate as an unloved wife. She grew cold, never showing her emotions and stopped feeling all together.

When I was born, she began to feel again and I became the only thing in her life that mattered. She showed me love and affection, something she, herself, had never experienced. She named me Yuki (you-kee), because she felt that I was as pure as freshly fallen snow. As I grew up, I believed that my family was happy and that my parents were in a love match. I believed that I, too, would find love and live happily like my parents. But I was sadly mistaken and soon realized that I would share the same fate as my mother......