The attendant, who she finally learned was named Miyu, led her to a seperate hall in the Harem. To Ashleys absolute delight, it was to a large room with high ceilings where looming shelves were stuffed to the brim with books. She scanned the book spines, wonderfully surprised to find the titles of her favorite reads and her eyes catching some titles that she never read before. But her excitement didn't last long and was soon replaced by fear when her gaze landed on an entire shelf filled with thick books and the occasional scroll with titles like “Feudal Japan: A Closer Look” and “The Terrains of the Rising East”. She swallowed an imaginary lump in her throat, knowing that whatever she was going to start studying from now, it was going to be a shift from her usual biology labs and psychology papers. “Well Your Highness, lets get started.” a voice interrupted the startings of her mini panic attack. Startled into the seat nearest to her, she looked up to find Tetsuya Sensei who looked to have been struggling to keep his stoic face at her overly panicked expression. “Dont worry Your Highness. Although it will take some time, I assure you, I will make you a princess fit for Japan.” he said, calmly walking to a white board across from her. Ashley didn't have his confidence to agree and so didn't say anything but instead opted to watch her new teacher lay out supplies. “This will be your personal note taking book to write down what you need to during lessons on life style and duties” he said, handing her a small, thick book with a gold trim (the horrifying thought of it being real flashed through her mind). “This will be what you will use for your writing lessons.“ he said, indicating to the the light brown colored scroll and a case filled with different types of brushes and a pot of ink. “And finally, this is for your other lessons, such as History and Economics.” he said, laying five lined notebooks to the side (she doubted they were the dollar store type). Ashley swallowed an imaginary lump in her throat, she was just on supplies and was already so intimidated! “Well, let's get started then, shall we?” he said, looking at her expectantly as she scrambled for the small bag the attendant had left on the chair next to her. Pulling out her pencil case and hurriedly opening the small book, she looked up with a pencil in hand, ready as she’ll ever be. But Tetsuya sensei was staring at her pencil case and pencil instead. “Is...is that the head of a rabbit on top of your pencil?” he asked, as if the sight was incredulous. Ashley looked down at her pencil case with white daisy prints and her pencil with a white bunny on the top, comparing it to the elegant supplies that were just given to her. She heard a sigh coming from her sensei, and she knew it was the one of many.

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As expected, adapting a new lifestyle and building on to a pre-existing personality was extremely hard, close to impossible. They first started with her main problem: her confidence. Ashley had wilted once Tetsuya sensei mentioned it, of course he would noticed her total lack of self confidence. Forget about sugar coating, he didn't even give off a warning. But it made sense to her, a princess wasn't someone to be stepped on like some hotel doormat. A princess had to be a leader, someone who others were willing to follow. Someone with confidence. When she was younger, much more naive of the world, she had plenty of confidence. She did whatever she wanted and said whatever came to her mind. But as she grew older, the cruelty of others caused her confidence to plummet. Boys would make fun of her appearance and took her actions as something else. Girls would say she had a bad attitude when she didn't mean any harm. She began to draw more of herself in, until eventually, becoming completely isolating. In fact, if it wasn't for Veronica, she doubted she would be able to speak at least some of her mind. Now looking at the current her, anyone would mistaken her for some foreign attendant that scrubbed floors at a back corner of the palace. No, she didn't even have enough of an aura to be an attendant! Ashley signed, bitter feelings feelings of self dislike welling up. She knew she didn't love herself, how could she with how useless and unattractive she thought herself to be? She knew she had a few good points but it wasn't enough for her to proudly say that she loved herself for who she was. When she reluctantly muttered those thoughts to Tetsuya sensei after much prodding (she had never told anyone these feelings- not to her parents or even to Veronica), he let out the biggest sigh she had ever heard from him. She had felt her heart drop then, sure that he had given up on her and she would be forced to go home to America, empty handed. But he only turned to her with gentle smile and said, “Well then, why don't you become someone you are proud of?”. Ashleys eyes had widen then at his words, it was as if someone had shined a bit of light into her darkness and she felt herself become renewed with energy. “I could so that?” she asked, hands gripped to her side, as if holding onto life itself. “Well, why not? What's stopping you?” he replied back, a completely serious look on his face. She then let out a bright smile, hope replacing her doubt, and decided that Tetsuya sensei wasnt that scary of a person at all.

And the first step towards rebuilding her confidence was perfect posture. Ashley was a total sloucher. In fact, it was so bad that her back muscles actually hurt when she sat straight for too long. It had started since she began carrying heavy backpacks in middle school. But excessive weight on her back was only part of the reason. When she was in middle school, she hit a growth spurt. The sudden growth of her breasts, when mostly everyone else around her was flat, made her feel extremely self conscious. She didn't want to bring attention to them, so she drew them in by slouching. Now, she had average sized breasts but still, she would sometimes feel self conscious when she sat up straight and pushed them forward. After ten straight minutes of stuttering while her face was as flushed as a tomato, she mumbled out the half coherent confession to Tetsuya sensei (honestly, he was now her phycologist more than her sensei). He had paused for a few minutes and Ashley was about to take all back when he gave her the most serious look she had ever seen from him. “Your Highness, I assure you. There will be no one here that will look at you like that. And if you feel like there is, then just say the word and their eyes will be gouged out.” Ashley nodded numbly, not sure if she should feel reassured or not (she took it back, he WAS scary). “Besides, you will not be wearing overly exposed clothes here and a large portion of your time will be spent at the Harem. You do not need to worry about such things”. She nodded again, this time, much more at ease and practiced her posture. It took her a long and painful month to break her bad habit. They then moved on to her balance and way of walking. She was told that she needed to be graceful yet strong so when people saw her coming, they knew she was someone of importance. She was made to balance candles and stacks of plates on her shoulders, head, and even on one foot. The sound of glass breaking was becoming too common for her but after three weeks, nothing shattered and her posture was finally deemed fit for a princess. She had her dance lessons of one year when she was younger to thank for speeding up the process.

The next few lessons were on how to properly take care of her body. She was surprised that such importance was given to the subject and asked her sensei why it was so. He had only replied that royalty could not care for others if they can't care for themselves. It was then that she had met one of the people that she would come to most respect in the palace (along with her in-laws and Tetsuya sensei), the Royal Physician, Dr. Akira. As a girl who had dreamed of becoming a doctor at the early age of 5, Ashley felt herself unable to resist the almost gravitational pull she felt towards the physician. The amount of medical knowledge she must hold in her head made Ashley dizzy with awe and she wondered if it would be insulting if she asked the physician to give her a few lessons. She could see Tetsuya sensei smile at her from the corner of her sight, probably knowing what was on her mind and clearly amused. But she withheld her curiosity and instead listened diligently to the lessons on self care In the end, she realized the human body required a LOT of attention and how little she actually knew how to care for it. Growing up with a mother who was usually at work and a father who was too much of a “man”, she had to figure out a lot of things by herself and that included hygiene. With no one to really tell her, she has made many mistakes that resulted in disaster. As she got older, she began to rely on the internet to teach her about how to take care of herself, along with many successful and unsuccessful trials. It felt relieving to finally learn from an actual professional on how to care for herself, along with the shock on how much unintentional damage she had inflicted on her body. After a full body checkup and the promise that the results along with her detailed health plan would be given to her the next day, they left the Medical Hall. Dr. Akira warned her that she would be put on a special diet for a month and that she should be prepared for daily work out sessions. Ashley could already feel herself getting tired from just those words alone.

For the next lesson they moved onto how she would present herself. “Will you be teaching me how to dress?!” she asked Tetsuya sensei, not bothering to hide her disbelief and laughter. Her sensei only glared ahead, his lack of an answer a clear ‘no’ and a ‘how-could-you-ask-me-that?’. They stopped near the edge of the Harem where she was properly introduced to one of the attendants that she would soon become very close with, Fumi san. “This is going to be your instructor for the next session.” Tetsuya sensei said as he bid them a farewell and walked away in the opposite direction. Ashley shyly looked over at the well polished attendant, her makeup immaculate, and understood why she was chosen to teach her. They walked off to her personal chambers and into her open closet. She was once again overwhelmed by the onslaught of different colors, designs, and combinations. She could feel herself getting slightly dizzy but was brought back to reality with Fumi sans voice. “Dont worry your Highness, its not as hard as it seems.” she said, an amused smile playing on her lips. Ashley cleared her throat, feeling like the novice she was, and calmed herself. Afterwards, Fumi san started teaching her by doing a demonstration. It took an entire hour and three attendants to get her ready. One for her hair, and the other two to help her with her outfit, while Fumi san taught her the basics of applying light makeup. She also found out (with immense relief) that if she didn't feel like being decked out with heavy ornaments during her free time, she could lounge around in her personal wing wearing simple cotton kurta tops and baggy harem pants. And that was quite possibly the best thing she heard all day.

As expected, learning how to speak Japanese was more easier than writing or reading kanji. But even still, it took her more than four months of constant practice to speak without jumbling up her words. She was so relieved and happy to finally converse with the attendants stationed at the Harem, talking to them more than any princess has ever talked to attendants. She wanted to make up for the time she lost and quite frankly, she wanted to at least be friends with the people that stayed in the Harem with her. After all, she would see them every single day. At first they were hesitant to her openness, not used to carrying normal conversations with royalty whom they served. But slowly, they began to open to her to, and Ashley was glad to call all of her attendants friends. Her calligraphy, on the other hand, needed a lot more work. As it turns out, you can't erase ink, so the ever growing mountain of scroll paper that rested beside her private desk was a normal sight. Learning the history of Japan had been enjoyable and economy was boring to her (as she predicted- she had almost slammed her head to the table once from exhaustion). Politics was a subject she had mixed feelings about. There was a lot of cunningness and gamble that went into it, something Ashley wasn't very good at. Plus, the weight of an entire country riding on her shoulders made her feel queasy. But Tetsuya sensei assured her, saying she would do fine with more studying and first hand experience.

It took her a total of six months to complete her basic princess training. It was tedious work that soaked up her attention everyday until her head was filled to the brim and her body ached. On most days, her future as a ruler seemed bleak but there were moments when she would meet eyes filled with respect or catch her sensei's approving smile that she would think that she was going to be okay. It took six full months to confidently walk down her hallways (that right, hers) with elegance and her head held high. Her steps became lighter, walking with purpose, her hands were graceful yet firm, and her mind was quick and alert. She grew to be flexible but strong like the bamboo at the edge of her garden. Bowing attendants, heavy responsibilities, and tinkling ornaments become an everyday occurance. Finally, she could say with a serene smile that she was a proper princess.

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Tetsuya entered the Empresses Study Room, his silk robes shimmering under the light of the paper lanterns. “So? How has my precious daughter-in-law been doing?” a voice full of obvious pride asked. He bowed to the woman dressed in a bright orange, four layered Junihitoe* sitting at a large desk stacked with papers. “Just as you predicted Your Royal Highness, she is doing very well. Her memory is excellent and she can pick up languages exceedingly well.” he said, not even needing to look up at her to know she had a smug smile on her face. “But...I think this proposal will be harder than we thought…” he said, specific moments he had spent with the new princess flashing through his mind. “What do you mean?” Empress Ayame asked, concern leaking into her usually chipper voice. Tetsuya thought of the princess telling him of her discomfort in showing off her body, her obvious comfort in staying at the Harem where only women were allowed, and the one time a male attendant had accidently brushed too closely to her and he had noticed her subtly flinch.

“I think that Her Highness has some kind of trauma when it comes to men and trust…”

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NOW ACCEPTING TIPS!~