The harem of the Abu Dhabi royal palace.
Harem referred to a women-only space where men could not enter, and it also carried the meanings of “a sacred place” and “a forbidden place.” It was the deepest part of the palace, where secretive light filtered in through beautiful stained glass and splendid tiles painted with traditional patterns.
Amira sat by the window there, gazing at the distant desert. But her heart was more parched and troubled than the desert itself.
Hashima, her maid, approached carefully.
“Princess, the royal council will begin shortly. I believe you must attend.”
Amira let out a deep sigh and rose. She already knew the agenda of today’s meeting.
Looking at herself in the mirror one last time, Amira hardened her resolve.
This time, I will not back down.
The key figures of the UAE royal family had gathered in the royal council chamber.
From King Zayed to the grand dukes and the senators, everyone was looking at Amira.
“Amira. A moment ago, Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia formally proposed a marriage arrangement with you.”
King Zayed spoke in a solemn voice.
The fact that a formal proposal had come meant that, from this moment on, it was no longer a matter concerning Amira herself or her family, but a matter of diplomacy.
Amira answered at once.
“Your Majesty, I refuse that marriage.”
Everyone looked at Amira in astonishment.
King Zayed, holding back his anger, asked,
“Do you understand what you are saying right now?”
“Yes. I have never known more clearly what I am saying than I do now, in this very moment. I have absolutely no intention of marrying Prince Abdullah.”
“This is not a simple marriage.”
The king tried to cut Amira off, but she did not back down.
“I am not ignorant of the duties of royalty. But as a woman living in the twenty-first century, I believe I have the right to decide my own life.”
Grand Duke Rashid rose in fury.
“Amira! You should have known from the moment you were born that you would have to bear such responsibilities!”
“That is true. I knew. But I believe such responsibilities are subordinate to the sacred Quran and to our law, Sharia. According to the Quran and Sharia, apart from the wishes of one’s family or guardian, the free will of the marriage parties themselves must be the premise, and forcing a marriage against one’s will goes against Islamic law.”
An uproar broke out in the council chamber.
How dare she invoke even the Quran and Sharia!
It was true that there were passages stating that free will must be the premise of marriage, but had there ever been a royal who refused a marriage for that reason until now?
The senators could not hide their shock, and the elderly grand dukes clicked their tongues.
They had heard rumors that Princess Amira had changed after returning from treatment in Korea, but they had not imagined it would be to this extent.
A bad omen. A terrible omen!
Unable to endure it any longer, Grand Duke Hakim asked sharply,
“Is it because of that foreign doctor?”
“Yes, it is! I love him, and I want to follow him for the rest of my life.”
Amira answered proudly, then lifted her head and looked at the senators and grand dukes.
“Doctor Kang Taeho is not simply the person I love. He is the benefactor of our royal family, and the one who saved the lives of my brothers!”
“Repaying a debt and marriage are separate matters!”
“If it had not been for him, I would not be standing here. Sheikh Faisal, Sheikh Rayyan, Sheikh Khalid, Sheikh Hashim, and Sheikh Ali would all have died as well. The most precious princes of our Nahyan family all survived by his hands.”
“Was that not something he should naturally have done as a doctor? Amira, are you truly going to abandon the nation and choose your personal desires?”
King Zayed’s voice was stern.
Amira opened her mouth calmly.
“For my own sake, I thought about what you call diplomatic interests. Doctor Kang Taeho’s medical skill surpasses anyone else’s in the entire world. Not only I, who received treatment from him directly, but all of you who saw the results of the princes’ treatment should know that.”
There was no one who could refute Amira’s appeal.
They had all worried over the princes’ illnesses, and they knew very well that Kang Taeho had accomplished what numerous foreign doctors had failed to do.
“There are currently twenty-two princesses in the Abu Dhabi palace, and three princesses are of marriageable age. In other words, it does not have to be me. On the contrary, the relationship between him and me will bring far greater national benefit than a political marriage with Saudi Arabia.”
King Zayed spoke with intimidation.
“But Saudi Arabia designated you, not the other princesses. If you choose that doctor, what will happen to our relationship with Saudi Arabia?”
Amira looked directly at her father and answered.
“Father, do you truly believe that peace with Saudi Arabia depends on the marriage of one person—me?”
“What do you mean?”
“If Saudi Arabia truly wants peace, they will cooperate regardless of whom I marry. If they use my marriage as an excuse to worsen relations, that will be proof that they never wanted true peace from the beginning.”
The council chamber fell silent again. It seemed no one could find words to refute Amira’s logic.
The elders began to stir.
Amira made one final, heartfelt appeal.
“I truly love him. And he loves me as well.”
“How can you be certain of that?”
Grand Duke Hakim threw out words like daggers.
“That bastard is after the royal family’s power and wealth!”
“He is absolutely not that kind of person!”
Amira clenched her fists tightly, suppressing her anger. She had expected attacks against herself, but she could not endure attacks against Kang Taeho.
She looked around at all the elders and declared firmly.
“Even if I die, I will not marry Prince Abdullah!”
Everyone was thrown into shock.
The king rose and shouted.
“Amira! Do you know what you are saying right now?”
“Yes, I know very well. I was born as royalty, but before that, I am a human being. And a human being has the right to choose her own life.”
Amira stood from her seat and spoke one last time.
“Father, and respected elders, if you think you can change my heart, you are mistaken. I have already decided.”
“Amira, take those words back at once! If you do not, you will see the worst.”
Grand Duke Rashid thundered.
The enraged elders and grand dukes looked at King Zayed. They were asking him to punish this rebellious princess at once.
Zayed squeezed his eyes shut.
‘I raised her far too indulgently all this time.’
Zayed had not expected Amira to go to such an extreme.
She had been exceptionally intelligent and strong-willed, so he had cherished her more than his other children, and yet……
Was she willing to stake even her life because of a Korean doctor named Kang Taeho?
Just because a princess refused a marriage, they would not cut off her head with a sword as in the past.
Instead, she would be stripped of her status and qualifications as a princess, and spend the rest of her life in a psychiatric hospital, injected with drugs, living a life worse than death. Such punishments were unofficial, but they were possible in an Arab royal family.
He would not leave that foreign doctor, who had made the princess this way, alone either.
Zayed was just about to open his mouth.
The door to the council chamber opened.
“Prince Mansour has arrived.”
Mansour entered the council chamber.
Since Prince Mansour was next in rank after King Zayed, the elders and grand dukes all rose from their seats and paid their respects.
But behind Mansour, an unfamiliar Asian man followed him in.
“Who are you to dare enter this place!”
Grand Duke Rashid rose and roared, but Taeho walked in confidently without faltering.
“I am Doctor Kang Taeho.”
“Mansour! What is the meaning of this?”
The king glared at his younger brother, but Mansour answered calmly.
“Brother, Doctor Kang has something he must tell everyone here. It is a matter upon which the survival of our royal family depends.”
“Survival?”
Grand Duke Hakim spoke as if scoffing.
“What could a mere foreign doctor possibly……”
“Did you just say, a mere foreign doctor?”
Taeho looked straight at Grand Duke Hakim and cut him off. There was no fear in his eyes.
“Do you know that even at this very moment, time bombs are circulating through the blood vessels of the royal family?”
The council chamber stirred.
“What is this man saying?”
“What nonsense are you spouting!”
“It is not nonsense.”
Taeho took a tablet out of his bag. On the screen appeared Latifa’s autopsy results and images of blood analysis.
“This is the microcapsule discovered in Latifa’s blood. It is a biological bomb designed to burst in response to a specific signal.”
Taeho held up the tablet and showed it to King Zayed. Zayed’s eyes widened as he focused on the screen.
When Taeho switched the screen, an image of a brain implant chip appeared.
“And this is the microchip discovered in Latifa’s brain. It was a device that allowed someone to control her actions from the outside. Latifa did not commit suicide. She was murdered.”
“Is… is that true?”
The king’s voice trembled.
“Yes, Your Majesty. And what is more serious is that we still do not know which members of the royal family Latifa injected with microcapsules. The four princes were able to receive treatment because their illnesses manifested, but for the others, we do not know when their illnesses may manifest.”
“I have never heard of or seen such a thing. This man is toying with us with absurd sweet talk.”
The relatively young Grand Duke Hakim shouted.
As if he had expected as much, Taeho shook his head and answered.
“The technologies I discovered during the autopsy are advanced technologies that do not currently exist in the medical world.”
“What?”
Taeho slowly looked around at the elders, who were narrowing their eyes in half-doubt, and spoke.
“What I discovered while treating the princes was not a simple virus. They were nanocapsules that attached themselves to the blood vessel walls and lay dormant.”
Taeho displayed the princes’ blood analysis results on the screen.
“Most of them have now been removed through the special treatment method I developed. But as for the rest of you, the organization behind this could activate them at any time if they wished.”
The council chamber was plunged into shock.
They could not believe the reality that everyone present, even the king himself, was under threat from an unknown terrorist group.
Taeho spoke firmly.
“Someone planned all of this. An international criminal organization armed with cutting-edge biotechnology. The Abu Dhabi royal family was their first target.”
“Then what must we do?”
The king asked in a tense voice.
“I can analyze their technology and respond to it.”
Taeho spoke with confidence.
“I possess a special diagnostic system capable of detecting things that ordinary medical equipment cannot discover. The reason I was able to treat the princes, and the reason I was able to discover the microchip during Latifa’s autopsy, were both thanks to this system.”
“What sort of system is it?”
“I apologize, but that is classified. All I can say is that it is cutting-edge medical technology that exists in no hospital anywhere in the world. And without this technology, the princes would not have survived.”
Mansour supported him.
“Brother, I witnessed it myself. The things Doctor Kang discovered during Latifa’s autopsy were things none of our royal medical staff could find.”
Taeho spoke proudly to the elders.
“Everyone, what would happen if I left this place? When the organization behind this attacks again, who would be able to stop them?”
The elders merely looked at one another, unable to answer.
“I am not giving you a choice. I am stating a fact. The lives of every member of the Abu Dhabi royal family are in danger. And in this world, I am the only person capable of eliminating that danger.”
“How arrogant!”
Grand Duke Rashid was furious, but Taeho did not waver.
“It is not arrogance, Grand Duke. It is the truth. If not for me, the four princes would no longer be in this world by now.”
The council chamber fell silent. No one could deny those words.
Taeho opened his mouth.
“And……”