Martia went home and wore her armored black gown, which was equipped with many hidden knives. She took some medicines for herself and some harmful drugs, to use only for emergencies and trouble, which Martia hoped not to get into this time.

  Martia sneaked out of the gateway using all the loopholes she had observed over the past seven years. And also, with the knowledge of all the present guards and of any changes that could be made randomly, which was the strategy they used for security.

  Martia always thought there was room for improvement, but she didn’t want to get into the whole security, administration, and economy of Promapple completely until she became the leader.

  She managed to get out of the village, and in the dense forest, she walked a few miles in the night. She reached a point, which she guessed would be the intermediary point or link for the arrival of all goods from the cities and other villages by the people who lived at Promapple. From there, those goods were taken to Promapple by its assigned inhabitants.

  She hid herself inside the carriage of someone who was returning to the city.

  She reached the city by noon. And then sneaked out of the carriage.

  She then went to see one of the spies who was in charge of having contacts and information about the generals and the military of King Coaleme and who worked in a restaurant near the garrison where mostly soldiers came to eat.

  Since she was the future leader, she was provided with all the information about all the spies, helpers, and assassins stationed everywhere. She thought to use some of the spies and not get into trouble. This way, there would be no harm done. A perfect plan.

  Martia waited till night, and then one of her sources disguised her in the uniform of the soldiers of Absyleous inside the cantonment. Since there were both men and women stationed there, it was not difficult to get into one of the units.

  All the soldiers wore headgear, and Martia stood among them.

  She was looking all around, and she knew where the generals were, from the information she had gathered.

  She sneaked around and somehow kept changing her units and found herself near the isolated tent of one of the generals. It was not guarded. She wondered why, and then she thought maybe it was due to the generals’ overconfidence that no one could enter their camp full of soldiers.

  She went into the tent. It had two rooms. The room she entered was filled with chairs; maybe it was a meeting room, she thought. She then entered the next room and found the general sleeping there along with two naked girls; some young girls, also completely naked, were sitting in the corner looking at her, completely scared.

  Seeing this, Martia felt extremely bothered; she then understood why there were no soldiers guarding this tent. None of the girls in the room seemed adult enough to be involved in sexual activity, and looking at their faces, Martia understood that some would kill themselves while some would get used to it and would continue to be exploited again and again, remaining as powerless as they were right now. Martia understood that no matter what the outcome of their lives was, it wouldn’t be a happy one.

  Disturbed at this thought, Martia got distracted. She then closed her eyes for a moment to remind herself why she was there.

  She restrained herself from feeling any emotion as this was none of her business. She turned and started searching for the uniform of the general to take out one of the stars or a badge or anything else to show Ari, who had dared her. She found the uniform after looking around a little. She then took the badge and decided to leave.

  But the moment she reached the door of the room, she found herself mentally unable to cross the boundary and leave. She knew she couldn’t help those girls, but she also knew that she could take revenge for them.

  She then shook her head and tried to convince herself to leave immediately, as the moment she took this decision, she could end up in trouble. And since she was the future leader of Promapple, a fight between both sides would get more intense than it should.

  She crossed the boundary of the room and started moving forward and reached the exit of the tent. Analyzing the situation by looking outside, she realized that this was the perfect time to leave.

  But suddenly she remembered the fear on the face of the girl she had seen crying in the corner of the room. Martia immediately turned back, went into the room again, and took out a small bottle filled with a poisonous drug.

  She went close to the general, opened the bottle, put it to his lips, and made him drink two drops of it. She knew that it would now be only a matter of seconds before he died, and she also knew that she needed to leave the place as soon as possible.

  But still, she couldn’t stop herself; she went up to the little girl and gave her one of the blankets from the bed. The girl looked at her in fear. Martia looked into her eyes and told her very softly, “No matter what, find a way to survive and live the way you wanted to live before, or find a new way now. You will now never be the same as you were before, but who knows, you might find a miracle in yourself or someone else and become better. And if it is happiness that you are searching for, then find it and fight for it if the universe tries to take it back from you again. Remember, die fighting for yourself instead of accepting this situation of sadness and trauma. Some of us had to grow up before we were supposed to, but use that as your power instead of a loss or weakness. I have taken your revenge for now, so run and live.”

  Saying this, Martia left the tent and hurriedly tried to leave because she knew that the trouble she hadn’t wanted to get into had found its way to her. If she did not leave soon, she might put the lives of the people who helped her in danger just because of a dare.

  She went to one of the units that she thought were going to exit the camp. But they were stopped in between because some training was going on. Martia somehow sneaked out from there. And in the corner, she saw a desolate tent and went inside it. When she entered the front room of the tent, it was empty. Hurriedly, she took off the armor, underneath which she was wearing her black dress, so that she could disappear under the cloak of darkness.

  The moment she took off her headgear, her long hair got untangled and covered her back completely till her waist. After fixing her clothes, she decided to tie her hair and cover her face with a black cloth. She pulled out a clip to bind her hair but stopped when she heard a voice.

  She was fully ready to cut the person’s throat with a knife. But she turned back calmly and saw a very elegant person standing and looking at her mesmerizingly.

  He kept looking at her with sparkling eyes and a smile on his face. He then tried to avert his eyes to bring himself out of a trance and then looked at her again and said in a slow and happy voice, “I told Saltronve not to send me any security, but he never listens. I am here just for a few days.”

  Smiling brightly, he continued in a respectful voice, “Are you a special royal guard? Is this a new uniform? I have never seen this uniform before.”

  While talking, he came closer to her and looked her in the eyes. This forced her to look straight into his eyes too.

  He then said in a very low, awestruck voice, “You look ethereal, almost mystical or unworldly. You seem like you came from a place where everything and everyone is beautiful and peaceful. And now that you are here, this world will also become beautiful like you.” He paused and asked, “Are you here to protect me?”

  Martia was unable to understand him. She couldn’t find the right words to reply, but one thing she was sure of was that this gentle, naive person was totally incapable of harming anyone.

  She was trained to never trust anyone, but she just couldn’t suspect him. She couldn’t help but feel peacefulness and calmness in the presence of this person, even though she didn’t know anything about him.

  She then smiled and replied unwillingly, “I am not mystical or unworldly, and I am definitely not a beautiful person. Maybe it’s you who sees his reflection in others and perceives them as what you are. Being this naive, how did you survive until now?”

  He replied, “I am not naive, but I do want to live in a world where there is no war, no reason to fight, no weapons or politics or army, or any segregation between humans. We already have so much pain from nature, like death, illness, separation from the people we love, the burden of dreams, the responsibility of our happiness, and our families. Why make it worse with wars or by inflicting pain on each other? We cannot save ourselves from the wrath of nature, but we can try to live in a world where at least we don’t harm each other.” He smiled. “I am just a doctor. I can only heal, but you seem like an extraordinarily powerful person who is capable of making this world an extremely beautiful place to live in. This has been my dream since I was a child”

  She looked at him while he was speaking but averted her eyes and decided to reply to him mockingly. “Powerful, well, that is something I am. But the main point is, I don’t have any reason to make this world beautiful, or in simple terms, a conflict-free one. Why should I care what your dream is?”

  She noticed that he looked hurt. He then looked down and said with a little disappointment, “What is your dream?”

  She felt a little bothered on seeing him hurt and replied hurriedly, without a thought, hoping to see him smile again. “I never had any dream. But yours is a good one. Don’t be sad; maybe someone who is actually a beautiful person might make this dream of yours come true for you.”

  He smiled brightly again at this answer and said with confidence, “I feel like you will be the one to do that.”

  Confused, she asked, “Why do you feel I am the one?”

  He again replied with confidence and a smile, “Because of all the places I have visited and the people I have met, only you seem to be closer . . . closer to my heart. I don’t know why . . . I don’t even know you. That’s why I asked if you are ethereal or otherworldly.”

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  Martia could feel the sincerity, and affection in his irrational, dreamy words. For an inexplicable reason, she could also feel a strange sense of closeness towards him.

  For the first time in her life, she felt a sense of relief from all the burdens and responsibilities for which she was raised, the feelings she was around, such as hatred, vengeance, emotionlessness, and suspicion, along with constant tests and punishments, etc.

  The presence of this stranger felt more homely and warm than the village she had lived in till then.

  She looked at him while trying to understand these new emotions she was feeling for the first time.

  She saw him looking at her with wonder, tenderness, and hope! And for the first time in her life, she wanted to stay and look forward to living.

  And suddenly a thought hit her.

  She thought, Did he say royal security in the beginning? Why would he get royal security? The previous king, Zarek’s, son, Coaleme, is ruling now, and his younger brother died at a young age—that was the rumor in Absyleous.

  Was that a trick? Is he the . . .

  She then looked at his attire, which was very ordinary, and then his face, which looked delicate, and his body, fragile, as if he had never been trained to fight, but all the royals got the bare minimum training to defend themselves.

  She then tried to make herself believe that he was in no way a royal.

  A royal whose complete extinction was Martia’s wish and also her responsibility as a leader of Promapple.

  Unable to comprehend the feeling that he was the one whom she wanted now to be alive the most, she asked in a panic, “You are . . .” With a slight pause she continued, “The Prince?”

  He smiled and said quickly, “Ah, I understand Saltronve doesn’t want anyone to know that I am back because I will leave after meeting my brother, so for my safety, he might not have informed you. Yes, I am the Prince. Since you are going to be with me and protect me, Saltronve should have told you.”

  Hearing this, Martia was completely shocked, and she became angry to the core of her heart.

  All the warmness and affection she had felt towards him was overwhelmed with the hatred she had felt when she met his father, Zarek, the previous king, for the first time, and that hatred she had continued to nourish so that she could one day assassinate each and every person related to that king, who had ordered her to be killed just because she was poor

  and he was royal.

  Her eyes were now filled with rage and disdain towards the Prince, and her expressions, which had been soft and warm towards him before, turned completely dark.

  She felt so much anger and loathing that her eyes filled with tears.

  She turned her back towards him and said, “You said I am magic. That I came from a beautiful world, and I will make this world in which you live beautiful too.” Martia then smiled through her anger and continued, “Let me introduce myself, Prince. I am not extraordinarily powerful. I am unimaginably dangerous. And the place from where I came is not a heaven like you thought but an inferno, hell, or a nightmare, which you can’t even imagine. To make your dream come true, you chose me. Hahaha, I just killed one of your generals.” She then looked at him with complete disgust and rage and said, “And I hate royals to the extreme. You are breathing in front of me. I take this as an insult. So, tell me, Prince, how would you want to die? Should I torture you and color your white attire red, my favorite color? Or should I give you immediate relief from this painful world of yours?” With a baleful glance, she looked at him, smirked, and said, “Who knows, your dream might come true after dying.”

  He was looking at her completely devastated. The hope and brightness, which were in his eyes before, had completely diminished now. But the affection and kindness which she had seen in his eyes from the first moment she looked in his eyes was still there.

  Martia could not understand how, even on the verge of being killed and that too by the person he thought would protect him from all the dangers of the world, the Prince still managed to show affection in his eyes for her.

  Disturbed by this, she shouted angrily, “Are you not scared of dying? Or are you so mesmerized by me that you are choosing to die if it is because of me? Or do you have this illusion that I will eventually choose not to kill you?” Frustrated, she asked, “Or do you think I am incapable? Or are you planning anything in your mind?”

  The Prince was overcome by feelings of hopelessness with Martia’s questions. He closed his eyes and said, disheartened, “If you think you can quench your hatred by killing me, then kill me immediately. Save yourself from this harmful feeling.” He then opened his eyes and said, “Maybe in another life, if we can get a chance to meet by the blessing of universe, then in that life, even if we find ourselves in the same situation as we are right now, then, please, at that time, instead of choosing to hate me, choose to forgive me for being whatever you despise. Choose to be with me. Choose to . . .” he paused for a moment and looked straight in her eyes and said softly, “like me.”

  Martia, completely taken aback with this request of the Prince, started feeling fear.

  A fear that under the influence of this extreme and overwhelming hatred, she might end up killing the one person, the only person, who had shown her affection and acceptance.

  She felt extremely disturbed by him, and she wanted him to stop talking in a language she was unable to understand.

  In frustration, she took out the knife and threw it towards him to end his life immediately.

  But after that, without wasting a moment, she looked at him in panic and felt relief to see that the knife had merely cut a little flesh on the right side of his neck; it was stopped by a wooden plank beside him.

  His neck started bleeding heavily with just that little cut, and she couldn’t understand why. He opened his eyes and looked at Martia and waited for the next attack, with no complaint in his eyes.

  Martia couldn’t believe that she had missed the target since she could do this even with her eyes closed.

  Appalled at missing an easy target and relieved at seeing him alive, she wondered what was happening to her.

  The hatred she had felt for him before was now not as overwhelming as before, but she was still angry. Angry at him for being born as a royal in a family whose wrong decisions and inefficiency had ruined and were still ruining the whole of Absyleous and ordinary people’s lives. That just to kill his family, she was raised in a way where there was no life, no love, no happiness.

  She was extremely angry at him for all this. As irrational as this was, she felt that if the royals had not been ruling this kingdom, then she might have gotten a chance to live, to play when she was a child, continued having a teacher who spoke to her with affection and care just like before, had friends who would stay with her and not test her to see if she deserved to be their leader or dare her to check out her skills for their amusement.

  She took out her second knife and was this time determined not to miss killing him. The moment she aimed at him, her hand froze as she saw his neck bleeding heavily and the upper portion of his white outfit colored red. She had thought before that seeing this would satisfy her hatred towards him.

  But now that she saw him injured in front of her, she couldn’t help but feel only restlessness and more fear.

  The fear of ending up killing him eventually and still being unable to be satisfied, but on the contrary, ending up feeling a loss. A loss of losing someone she might have ended up liking if given a chance.

  Someone who, even right now, might have made his way into her heart.

  With this realization, she lost the reason for living the way she had lived till now—to assassinate the royals.

  Feeling lost, she brought her hand back down and said to him in a low voice, “Shout. Call your guards. I am giving you a chance to save yourself. You don’t deserve to die. Just call your guards and get me arrested.”

  He quickly replied in a confused and worried tone, “They will not arrest you; they will kill you.”

  Martia smiled faintly and said, “Well, that would be the right decision, given that you are the Prince.”

  The Prince replied in a determined tone, “I felt an inexplicable closeness towards you the moment I saw you. I already said that before, so I will never take this decision. But even if I didn’t feel this emotion towards you, I still don’t believe my life is above others. I will never choose a path where I will be responsible for the death of other human beings. I don’t care about survival. I only want to be human and nothing else till the moment I die.”

  Hearing this, she closed her eyes and felt her anger and hatred being overwhelmed again by his kind and altruistic nature. Uncorrupted by any situation.

  She opened her eyes, and this time, she was able to see him clearly, with no hatred blurring her eyes anymore.

  She went up to him, took out a medicine, and applied it on his neck to stop the bleeding.

  She then looked into his eyes and asked, “Who taught you this? This pure affection, powerful enough not to be adulterated by anything or anyone. The courage to forgive. The braveness to die but still choose not to be inhuman. Where did you learn this?”

  He caught her hand as she applied the medicine and placed his other hand gently on her face and asked her, smiling, “So now you don’t see me as naive and weak?” Before Martia could say anything, he continued, “Maybe because I was born like this, I just couldn’t handle the pain of others. No matter what the situation demands, I cannot be practical and only think about myself. Na?ve or not, I don’t have an answer for this, but I cannot hurt or harm anyone, and I wish to live like that as long as I am alive, just like my mother, who was a very kind-hearted person.”

  Martia, amazed by the Prince’s answer and his gesture, and feeling any kind of physical affection for the first time, continued looking at him and

  started finding herself feeling the same affection that she was seeing in his eyes.

  She then said softly, “Mother! I wish I would have had this blessing in my life, but unfortunately, I don’t know anything about this type of relationship. But if this is what you are and if this how you plan to live your whole life—by continuing to preserve this kindness in you no matter what, then you, Prince, are braver than me.”

  He smiled and continued looking at her fondly.

  Martia took a step back and got out of the grip of the Prince and looked at him and understood.

  Understood what a beautiful world looks like.

  As much as she wanted to stay, she knew she had to leave now.

  It was time to go back to the place from where she came.

  She tied her hair while continuing to look at him and then covered her face with a black cloth. And before the Prince could stop her, she went towards the door and disappeared in the darkness—a place where she thought she belonged.