Jaina Proudmoore, Princess of Kul Tiras, Arthas's fiancée, a student of Archmage Antonidas, Speaker of the Kirin Tor, a genius in frost and spatial magic, and the youngest mage in Dalaran in decades most likely to earn the Archmage title by the age of twenty.
Jaina's titles might even outnumber Arthas's, and this Princess is also very powerful; at only eighteen years old, she already possesses strength comparable to an Archmage, lacking only the commensurate qualifications for the Archmage title.
Even setting all that aside, Jaina's appearance and figure alone could make some noble scions consider her the perfect woman of their dreams.
Unfortunately, the flower was already taken; Jaina and Arthas's engagement was arranged by their fathers, not to mention they had known each other for over a decade. Who would dare to intervene in such a relationship?
However, Arthas, one of the parties involved, was completely surprised, but not pleased, when he learned of his engagement to Jaina. He and Jaina were childhood sweethearts, that was true, but they absolutely should not have been engaged at this time.
For six months after learning this news from his father, Arthas hadn't slept well, not because of excitement, but because of anxiety and worry.
Who knew if this engagement, which shouldn't have happened, would cause those Bronze Dragons to leap out of the toilet and "reset" him? In the original history of Azeroth, while the two were also lovers, they certainly did not have this engagement!
Fortunately, Arthas's worries ultimately didn't materialize. The world he was in seemed to be unsupervised. If he hadn't learned about the four Dragon Aspects besieging Deathwing, he might have even suspected that Bronze Dragon Nozdormu had been eliminated.
In the end, this incident also made Arthas realize that he might be able to loosen up a bit and officially start doing things that shouldn't have appeared in the "correct" history.
As expected, the Bronze Dragons never appeared from beginning to end.
However, Arthas did not completely relax his guard. He still considered the Bronze Dragons one of the most urgent threats, even though these "time managers" seemed to have vanished from his timeline.
He believed the Lord of Time should have discovered this unusual timeline long ago, but why no dragons were sent to correct it, Arthas didn't know. The Guardian Dragons on Azeroth, with their god-like power, each had inscrutable minds.
In other words, in Arthas's opinion, every one of the Dragon Aspects of the Guardian Dragons was a problem child, with a way of thinking completely different from normal people.
Jaina, naturally, was unaware of Arthas's advanced thoughts. When she learned of her beloved prince's reaction to the engagement, she thought Arthas hated her and had no intention of fulfilling the engagement.
The Princess of Kul Tiras was disheartened for quite some time. Just when she thought she would receive news of the engagement being called off by Lordaeron, it was Arthas himself who came to Dalaran to find her, using "further studies" as an excuse, and stayed with her in Dalaran for nearly a year.
The heavy stone in Jaina's heart finally dropped: it turned out Arthas wasn't afraid of the engagement.
Those days were among Jaina's most cherished memories. Arthas was not only witty and humorous but also knowledgeable. During their time studying together in Dalaran, Jaina's stress significantly reduced, and she also learned a great deal about the world from him.
She remembered one time, she asked Arthas how he viewed the orcs held in the internment camps.
"Arthas, don't you think those orcs are a bit pitiful?"
The orcs imprisoned in the internment camps, weakened by the side effects of drinking demon blood and disheartened by their defeat and capture, were no longer the red tide that swept across the continent, but a group of wretches afflicted by illness and weakness.
Arthas did not directly break Jaina's sympathy. He also did not directly answer Jaina's question, but instead counter-asked, "Then do you hate these orcs?"
"I... I should hate them. They brought disaster to this continent, and my brother also sacrificed himself in that war..."
Jaina's brother, the Grand Prince of Kul Tiras, sank forever into the sea with his warship in a naval battle, his body never recovered.
Her brother's death made Jaina experience the pain of losing a loved one for the first time, and it also stimulated her desire for peace. She began to research the orcs and discovered that they were not as barbaric as most people imagined; they also had concepts of family and kinship.
The education she received made Jaina unable to bear seeing the pain she had endured repeated on others, even if they were her enemies: when they had already failed, should they really be relentlessly tormented?
Therefore, she and her father had a difference of opinion regarding the orcs. She could not accept her father's extreme attitude, and her father could not understand why his daughter would sympathize with the orcs.
Jaina's ideas, in her father's eyes, were naive and foolish. The ruler of Kul Tiras, Naval Commander Daelin, had a simple idea: the only good orc was a dead orc.
"Jaina, hatred is not a good emotion; it will blind your eyes and make you make big mistakes." Arthas was probably the most qualified person to say this, "However, we can suppress our hatred, but we must never completely abandon this emotion."
"Why?"
"Because hatred also represents remembrance. If we completely abandon a period of hatred, it also means we forget history and the past, and then we will make new mistakes, generate new hatred, cycling endlessly, perpetually."
Arthas held Jaina's hand and gently said to the young woman, "The orcs ruined countless people's beautiful lives and brought countless people pain and sorrow. Even if they were forced, they should still atone for their actual sins."
"We can choose not to inherit the hatred and anger of our ancestors, but we must remember this history and lesson, otherwise, in the future, we will only repeat the same mistakes."
"You are the kindest girl I have ever met, but please remember, Jaina, do not let your kindness and compassion be exploited by others, harming everything you cherish."
"The orcs will have their day of freedom, but it must be predicated on them no longer harming Azeroth and us."
Under Arthas's guidance, Jaina no longer avoided the issue, confronted historical hatred, viewed problems with a more objective attitude, discarded unnecessary naiveté and kindness, and her destiny was quietly rewritten.
Her daughter's change of mind also made Daelin happy. He deeply loved his daughter, but he had indeed been quite exasperated before. Now, calm, he began to listen to some of his daughter's words, and Daelin's extreme attitude was gradually corrected.
Although his stance on the orcs remained the most hardline among the Alliance nations, he no longer wished to kill them on sight to avenge his son, as he had before.
In fact, a large part of this was also due to Arthas's efforts. After a routine Alliance meeting, Arthas quietly spoke some words to Daelin, transforming Daelin's blind rage into a more astute view on the Orc problem.
Therefore, the Proudmoore family all showed exceptional favoritism towards Arthas. Even before he started dating Jaina, Daelin already regarded Arthas as half his own son.
...
However, Jaina arrived a little late to this banquet.
When Jaina stepped out of the portal, her pretty face showed clear impatience. She had originally planned to arrive in Stormwind this morning, but unexpectedly, an emergency occurred just as she was about to depart!
A magic circle project she was responsible for had been perfectly fine the night before, but shortly before she was about to leave, it malfunctioned! She urgently repaired it for a long time to prevent months of her hard work from going to waste.
But the lost time wouldn't come back. When she finished packing, she noticed the hands of the magical clock had already passed the mark.
She had certainly missed the noon banquet—her Uther had only given her a week's leave in total, and she had wasted a full half-day before even setting off. How could Jaina not be frustrated?
Fortunately, she could still make it to the private banquet in the evening. However, she no longer had time to choose an outfit in her mage tower. She casually grabbed a few pieces, threw them into her spatial bag, quickly touched up her makeup, and, wearing her mage robe and holding her staff, plunged into the portal.
By the time she descended from the mage tower, the sun in Stormwind was already close to setting. Jaina quickly got into a carriage and hurried towards Stormwind Keep.
It was a good thing she was attending in a private capacity this time, representing Kul Tiras and Dalaran to offer blessings to Varian and his son. Otherwise, if she had to bring a retinue of attendants, her movements would have been even slower.
As Jaina's carriage stopped in front of Stormwind Keep, she saw that most of the nobles had already begun to leave the palace—the evening banquet was hosted by Varian in a private capacity, with only a small number of guests invited.
Though Jaina was impatient, she did not lose her composure. Led by a royal attendant, she first rushed to Queen Tiffin, intending to borrow a room to do her makeup and change her clothes.
"Jaina? You're finally here! Varian and I were worried if something had gone wrong with your teleportation—"
"I'm so sorry,Tiffin, there was a small accident in my mage tower that prevented me from leaving." Jaina replied apologetically, "Could I borrow a room to do my makeup first?"
Tiffin looked at Jaina, who was still wearing her mage robe, and said, "There's no need to rush, Jaina, the banquet still has some time before it begins. I'll have a maid take you to my dressing room. Oh, do you need a gown? Shall I help you choose one?"
"Thank you, Tiffin, but there's no need to trouble yourself. I brought my own gown."
Jaina calmed herself down and reverted to her usual dignified lady-like demeanor.