While going back, along the way, all she thought about was the Prince.

  She then wondered if this feeling would stay with her always or would

  disappear with time. Leaving that to time, she continued walking the

  pathway to her village. The closer she got to the village, the further she felt from her home.

  She then hid in a vehicle that was going to deliver goods in the deep

  jungle. And at the intermediary point, she got out of the carriage in the

  presence of the inhabitants of Promapple and went and sat in one of their carriages in front of everyone. She knew none of them would ask any questions or stop her. They brought her to Promapple. She saw Promanthae waiting for her in front of the house, on his chair, watching the assassins being trained in front of him. The moment he saw Martia, he stood up in anger and waited for her to come to him and explain her actions.

  The rest of the villagers, on seeing her, came running towards her, and

  eventually, she was surrounded by them.

  She spotted Ari and started moving towards him. The villagers made way for her to reach him. Ari was shaking with fear. He thought if Promanthae got to know that Ari had dared her, then he might get into trouble.

  Martia said in a bold voice, “Here, Ari, is the badge of one of the

  generals of Absyleous. Now that I have proved worthy to be your leader, become a doctor quickly and heal me in the future if you see me injured.”

  She then put her hand on his head as a goodbye and went to Promanthae for her punishment.

  When she reached Promanthae, she saw Arigue standing next to

  him.

  Promanthae looked at her and asked in a loud voice, so everyone would hear, “So, what happened to the general whose badge you brought?”

  Martia smiled and said, “I killed him. But don’t worry, no one will

  know. They will think he had a heart attack. He was a busy person,” she finished proudly.

  Promanthae angrily said, “You hate being hungry, right, Martia? So,

  your punishment should be related to meals. You will not get anything to eat for four days.”

  He then told the guards to imprison her in a small hut in front of his

  house.

  Martia was sent to the hut, and it was locked from outside.

  Martia thought to herself regretfully, I should have eaten something

  before coming here. Now I am hopelessly hungry.

  But she thought of the Prince again, and suddenly, all the hunger

  disappeared. The whole day went by, and the stars became visible from

  the window of the hut. One of the bright stars caught her attention and

  reminded her of the Prince again.

  She found this funny and mockingly thought to herself, Am I that

  lonely that I am getting infatuated with an enemy? A person with some

  unique thoughts, and that’s it, he is living in my mind now? With a little disappointment, she thought, I am not even feeling hungry, and I have not eaten for two days.

  She tried to sleep but couldn’t. The Prince was constantly on her mind.

  She tossed and turned all night and got out of bed in the morning.

  Having no work to do made the thoughts of the Prince even more

  prominent. She then thought that she would go insane with no work and continuous thoughts about him. She had to get out of this place and get busy. She went to the door and started knocking on it.

  Promanthae replied, amused, “What happened? Can’t handle hunger?”

  Martia replied in irritation, “What kind of stupid punishment is this?

  What will you gain by starving me? I will only get weaker, and Promapple will have a weak leader. What is the point?”

  On hearing this, Promanthae furiously opened the door and said, “I

  thought I would retire and be your adviser and hold your coronation this week. But no! You have to be irresponsible. How can you take care of all the dreams of this village and its supporting villages with this impulsive nature of yours?”

  Martia replied unapologetically, “I am going to be responsible after the

  coronation. And I did that for the village youngsters. Now that they saw

  me carrying out a dangerous dare, they will become my ardent supporters. It is a good thing.”

  Promanthae said, still annoyed, “Go to Arigue and write me a report of

  everything that happened while you were outside of the village.”

  Martia left for Arigue’s house, and on the way, all she thought about

  was the Prince. She wondered how she was going to write about that.

  She sat in a chair quietly. Seeing her like that, Arigue understood that

  killing the general was just a side story of the main event.

  Martia started writing everything—about how she sneaked out, what

  shortcomings there were in the security, and how easy it was to find the constantly changing intermediary stop between the city and Promapple village, how careless the people who brought the goods to this dense jungle were, and how easy it was to hide in their carriage.

  She wrote everything except about the Prince, including some of her

  careless moves, where she thought she could have got caught.

  She handed it to Arigue and turned to leave.

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  Arigue asked, “Martia, what about the things you decided to omit?”

  Martia, still in a daze because of the memory of the Prince, replied,

  “What about that?”

  Arigue replied in a confident tone, “You can tell me about it!”

  Martia said casually, “You are the last person I trust.” She laughed

  mockingly. “I would rather tell Promanthae and let him kill me rather than share it with you.”

  Arigue asked curiously “Let him kill you? What exactly happened?

  What did you do?”

  Martia smiled and said, “Are you finally trying to live life, Arigue?

  Interested in gossip now?”

  Arigue replied in an exasperated tone, “For once, can you just answer

  what I asked?”

  “If you wanted me to be obedient to you or loyal to you or talk to you

  respectfully or honestly, then you should not have behaved with me, since I was ten, like you hated me. I don’t care what you asked and what answer you want. Give this to Promanthae.” Saying this, Martia started to leave.

  Arigue then replied hurriedly, “If something good happened, then

  please hold on to it, I beg you.”

  Hearing Arigue pleading, Martia stopped for a moment and turned

  around to look at him.

  Arigue then said in a desperate tone, “I don’t want you to stay here. I

  want you to get a chance to live, to love, to be happy. And if any of this

  happened to you this time, then leave this place and go there. Forget how I behaved with you till now. Focus on what I am saying at this moment. You are still capable of being a good person. Leave this life of hell and hatred and go. Go if you found someone or something good and hopeful. Give yourself a chance.”

  Martia looked at him, stunned, and replied, “What is this? In the span

  of a few days, I am meeting and seeing people in ways I never would have imagined.” She then smiled and joked, “Is the universe finally happy with me?”

  Arigue asked politely, “Tell me, what exactly happened? Whom did

  you meet?”

  Martia sighed and sat in a chair and said fondly, “A beautiful

  person—happy, hopeful, and good. But what surprised me the most is his compassion. A type of person who would never choose to hurt or harm anyone in any circumstances. At first, I thought he was weak, naive, and didn’t know anything about this world. But now, I know that forgiving, accepting, loving, irrespective of anything, needs courage. The courage that only mentally strong people can have as it is difficult to cultivate. For the first time in my life, Arigue, I met a strong person. I am amazed or infatuated. . . I don’t know. I just can’t comprehend this feeling. But one thing I am sure of is that his influence will never leave my mind and heart now. He is a very rare person. He deserves to be protected.” Then she said in a devastated tone, “Although I did harm him out of hatred. What can I do? This is how I was raised and may be even born. But even in that extreme hatred and anger, for the first time in my life, because of his good heart, I just couldn’t kill him. And now that I am talking about him,” she paused and then said wistfully, “I feel a strange sense of longing . . . a longing to see him . . . to be with him. I don’t know how to erase these feelings.”

  Arigue replied, smiling, “Maybe I was wrong, maybe you are capable of

  loving someone. I am happy to hear this.”

  Martia replied, feeling a little lost, “Loving? How can I love someone

  whom I only met once and that too only for a short span of time?”

  Arigue confidently replied, “Why not? I fell in love with a girl the

  moment I met her, and I married her eventually. I had a daughter with her.” With sorrow choking his voice, he continued, “The only two beautiful memories of my life. We don’t need a time limit and number of times if it is about love. Love is the most mysterious feeling in this entire universe. It is never bound by any situation or reason. If you don’t want anything from him, if you ended up changing your way of thinking just for him, if he is constantly on your mind, if he seems like a person made up of tangible magic, if you feel lonelier after separation from him, if meeting him felt natural and being apart from him felt like something that should not have happened, then you, my dear, are in love. If you long for him, miss him, then go to him. Just be with him.”

  Martia was astonished after listening to Arigue. She stood up and

  said loudly, “I am supposed to be designated in a few days. I have the

  responsibility of an entire village and the other eleven villages who support us. I can’t just leave and go to someone out of some affection, which I don’t even know how long it will last...”

  Arigue interrupted her. “I know you, Martia. Feeling any good emotion

  is very difficult for you. If that person is capable of stirring these feelings in you, then he will also make you love him endlessly. Just like that person, this feeling is also rare in this world. Don’t give up on it.”

  Martia replied angrily, “It was you who taught me that every person

  deserves a chance before we consider them anything. That’s why, even

  though I was a child, I went to meet King Zarek, to see why he deserved to be dethroned and assassinated. And look what happened after that. I got filled with extreme hatred towards the royals and ended up getting trained as an assassin. Just stop giving me advice on life. Stick to just teaching me only about books. The rest, I will decide,” she ended bitterly.

  Arigue sadly replied, “You are right. I should not give you advice on

  life. I am not even living right now, but one thing I knew, and still know, is about love. I lost the only two people I loved, my wife and my daughter, and no matter where I go, what I do, whom I pray to, whom I beg, how much I cry, I can never find them or see them smiling. I just have to survive this life without them now, only with their memory. But you are not in my place now, are you? You can see him.”

  Martia could see his pain and longing. She could never relate to Arigue,

  but this was the first time she could feel all the emotions expressed by him.

  Arigue continued in a broken voice, “I had the opportunity to have a

  family before anyone my age, but I also have to live with the pain of losing them at such a young age, and I have to live with this trauma my whole life. That’s why I chose to live here, away from everything. I know I can never accept anyone and anything as a part of my life anymore. But I have seen you since you were eight years old. No matter how much I try not to, you always remind me of my little daughter. The more I saw you, the more I felt like I was seeing my child growing up and living her life. But the moment I saw you starting to train as an assassin, then I just couldn’t feel any affection for you anymore. You seemed to me like all the people who just want to ruin the lives of others who just want to live peacefully.

  That’s why I could never talk to you nicely. But now that I see you have a chance to live a loving life, I want you to take the opportunity. I want you to live like a human. If you liberate yourself from this hell, I will feel like I have sent my daughter to live a beautiful life. My daughter died when she was only two years old. I could not save her, Martia, but give me a chance to save you. Just go to him and leave this village.”

  Martia was unable to say anything after this. She could feel the sadness

  and desperation in Arigue’s voice. This was the first time she had seen him so broken.

  She couldn’t stop herself from asking the question, which she knew she

  might not get an answer to. “What happened to your daughter?”

  Hearing this, Arigue’s face turned emotionless immediately.

  Martia understood that this was Arigue’s way of coping with his trauma.

  Seeing Arigue completely lost, with nothing to say, Martia left the

  room.