The Prince ate and sat there without moving, not wanting to wake Martia up. After an hour, he couldn’t find the courage to wake her up. He was scared that she would leave, and he might never see her again. So, he chose not to wake her up yet.

  A few hours passed, and the sun rose in the sky. When the light fell

  on her eyes, Martia woke up in complete panic. She got up hurriedly and went to the balcony and saw it was daylight. She walked in and looked at the Prince in anger. But before she could say anything, he said, “I just couldn’t bear the thought of seeing you leave me again. I don’t want to live my whole life wondering if the person whom I love is alive or not, happy or not.” After a small pause, he continued in a low voice, “Loved or not. Because now I know that the place you came from is not a good place; nothing good can happen if you go back

  there.”

  Martia replied furiously, “Do you think everyone is naive or saint like you? You are worried if I will be alive or not? Sweetheart, you should be worried for the rest of the people who are around me. I should be the last person on the planet you need to worry about being alive.”

  The Prince replied quickly, “If that is so, then what about being lonely? Will you be happy? Will you love someone again or allow someone to love you?”

  Martia, furious now, said, “Do you think we will be happy if I

  take you with me? Will our life be easy if we are together? My whole village will be my enemy, and they will search for me frantically in the whole of Absyleous. Do you know how powerful they are?” She paused. “But that’s not a worry. I might be able to handle that. Do you know the real problem we will face? These strong emotions we are feeling for each other right now, do you really think it will pass all the cruel tests of life? The real war, Prince,” she continued angrily,

  “the real war will not be with the rest of the world, but with us. I will have to live with your extremely beautiful nature and humanity even in adverse situations, and you will have to live with my cruelty even in good situations. Our personality, behavior, and thoughts are extreme opposites. The attraction I feel for you because of your compassion and goodness might become trouble for me in the future. And the unconditional affection you are feeling for me might get affected no matter how much you try to preserve it and continue feeling it the moment you actually get to know the extent of my viciousness.

  How long do you think we can handle each other’s extremely different personalities? How long do you think will it take before we lose this battle with ourselves and think of each other as a burden or a trap and want to find a way out? My beloved Prince, it is certain that this will happen. How do you plan to handle it? Just answer this one question, and I will take you with me wherever I will go.”

  The Prince replied in a, determined manner, “Didn’t I tell you

  already, Martia? Even if you burn the whole world, I will still love you. I know these two things with certainty now—that I will always try to heal people with whatever I learned, and after meeting you, I know I am capable of loving you irrespective of the circumstances, even if it includes going against my own principles.”

  Martia, after hearing this, didn’t know what to say as she had never met a person like him before, and she was sure she would never meet anyone like him in the future either.

  Still exhausted and unable to make a decision, she lay down on the

  settee and said wearily, “I haven’t slept for many days. Let me sleep all day.” She closed her eyes and started planning how to run and where to go.

  The Prince went up to her and asked, “Do you want to be with me?”

  Martia replied with her eyes closed, “I think I wanted to be with you the moment I saw you. I am not certain about what I feel. But you are constantly on my mind. And no matter how much I am against it and however irrational it feels, I will always end up listening to you. You know, brainwashing is a very skillful technique, and I am very certain that you are capable of it,” she finished, smiling.

  The Prince said in a serious tone, “I love you.”

  Hearing this, Martia went blank for a moment, and she just remained silent.

  Confidently and fondly, he said in a soft voice, “It was love from the moment we met. It is still only love, and it will always be only love between us and nothing less.”

  Hearing this, Martia felt a sense of peace wash over her and fell into a deep sleep.

  She woke up after ten hours. It was dark. She couldn’t see the Prince in the room. She went to the balcony and saw him sitting on the floor with his back against the wall and his eyes closed.

  She went to him, embraced him, and said, “I am sorry for making you feel lonely even in my presence. I am sorry for saying that I wanted to be with you but still being unable to show my affection to you. This is the first and last time you will feel unloved and lonely in my company. I hope that your confidence in this pure and eternal affection turns out to be a reality for us and my doubts an illusion.”

  The Prince smiled happily and embraced her back tightly.

  After some time, Martia let go of him and said, “I will leave now.

  You come out in the morning and go to the market and continue walking through all the markets and then on lonely roads. I have to follow you to see if any royal guards are following you. Once I take care of the guards, I will meet you and we will leave this city.”

  The Prince looked at her with concern.

  Martia smiled and softly said, “Don’t worry. As long as you are not in danger, I will not kill anyone.”

  Hearing this, he smiled in relief and said, “Don’t take too much time to find me.”

  Martia stood up and let go of the Prince’s hands and said, “Even when I was not certain, I found you. Now, nothing in the universe can stop me from finding you again and being with you. Our story will not end sadly, I promise.”

  Martia covered her face with a black cloth and went out into the

  darkness

  After hearing her promise, the Prince felt love and peace in his heart, but the moment he could see her no more, he started feeling a little anxious about what lay ahead for them.

  After a few hours, he went towards the market.

  Martia started trailing him, and after shadowing him for an hour, she understood that four guards were following him. Martia thought that maybe it was Saltronve who had assigned them for the Prince’s security.

  She knew that the right way was to kill those guards, but she also

  knew that the Prince would not like it. So she decided to only render them unconscious.

  The moment the Prince reached the silent road after the market,

  Martia was able to access the guards easily, as she had already guessed the places where they would hide to follow the Prince silently. She went there, and knocked them unconscious one by one. It took some time since they were scattered.

  Rendering people unconscious during daytime was very risky, even for Martia, as she knew someone would definitely see them. But she didn’t have time to wait for the night to fall.

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  When the Prince entered a residential area, Martia thought to stop him and take some other route to leave the city.

  She was about to go to the Prince when she heard someone calling her name. She was surprised to hear her name in the middle of the day in the city. She turned back and saw that it was Ari who had called her.

  Seeing Ari, she was confused for a moment, but she went to him calmly and asked, “You are still here?”

  Ari said in bewildered tone, “I was here to visit the health care facility I had set up with the help of the people of the neutral villages. I told you about that before. But, Martia, why did you kill those four guards? Who is that person whom you and they were following?”

  Martia became worried on hearing this but calmly replied, “You are studying medicine, but you have good analytical skills.”

  Ari asked quickly, “Are you planning to kill him, too?”

  Martia got angry at this question and said, “On what basis are you asking your leader these questions? Do you think you deserve to know all my strategies from now on?”

  Seeing Martia like this, Ari was a little intimidated and replied, “I am sorry, Martia. I just want to help you,”

  Martia firmly said, “You are a doctor, Ari. Just focus on healing and leave the rest to others. Go back to Promapple!”

  Ari was scared but continued to argue in a slow voice, “The way he is dressed, he seems like someone from an aristocratic family, but the guards who were protecting him were royal. There is only one royal person left in the royal family, and that is King Coaleme. So, I was wondering ...who is he?” He paused and continued, “He must definitely be someone from the royal family, otherwise the royal guards would never protect him.” He asked loudly and inquisitively, “Is he the Prince, Martia? Who we thought died a long time ago? Is that why you are following him?” In a voice filled with doubt, Ari continued, “Are you going to bring him back to Promapple?”

  Hearing this, Martia got angry but replied cautiously, “Yes, now you go back to the village. I will take care of the rest.”

  Ari took a step back and said in a hurt voice, “Why do I feel like you are lying? That you are not going to harm him but are planning something else.”

  Martia smiled and felt proud with this analysis and thought, If I would have taken charge of Promapple, I would definitely have kept him in my team of analyzers.

  She then said in a menacing voice, “Go back to our village, Ari. Don’t think too much.”

  Martia turned to go back and find the Prince.

  Ari said loudly but nervously, “I will fight you.”

  Martia turned around furiously and said with a devilish smile, “The assassins who trained with me, I ended up injuring them. You only know basic fighting skills, and you want to fight me? Who do you think will win, Ari? You are my friend, that’s why I am leaving you alive. Just go back.”

  Martia turned and walked away, knowing that he would not go back easily, but she still wanted to give him a chance.

  Suddenly, two of the spies appeared in front of her at the end of the alley.

  Ari followed her and told her confidently, “I have informed some of the spies along the way.” He then said loudly to the spies, “The person I showed in the market was the Prince, and our leader wants you to kill him immediately.” He softly said, “I cannot fight you, but I can get the Prince killed, Martia.”

  Before Martia could say anything, the spies started running in the

  direction of the Prince, but Martia shouted and ordered them to stop, go back, and leave the matter to her. Much to Ari’s dismay, they listened to her and started turning back. But she knew she couldn’t leave them alive as they now know about the Prince. Frustrated with the thought that she now had to take a decision she didn’t want to, she went to them, and before they could really react, slashed the neck of one of the spies with her knife. Seeing this, the other spy started fighting with her, but Martia very quickly took control of the fight and killed the other spy too. This gave Ari a chance to run away and find the Prince himself.

  She ran in the direction Ari had gone, and after a while, she found him. He was still searching for the Prince.

  She grabbed Ari by his neck and aimed the knife there. Devastated,

  Ari said, “Are you going to kill me now, Martia? Are you going to kill me for someone who is not ours? We grew up together. I only wanted you to come back home to us. I chose you as my leader, and that’s why I didn’t want you to leave us.”

  Martia replied mockingly, “Home? You might have grown up at home with your parents. As long as I can remember, I had no family to begin with. I was only raised by Promanthae because he wanted someone skillful to take over the village. The teacher who taught me always disliked me because I was being trained as an assassin. You all never talked to me before, and now you do, only because I am chosen as your leader. Where is the home you are talking about? And whom should I go back to? No one who loves me or even cares a little is waiting for me there. But it doesn’t matter. What matters is that despite everything, I gave you a chance to run away again and again. But still, you chose to fight me and challenge me. Tell me, Ari, if I leave you alive right now, what will you do? Will you give up on the Prince and go back to Promapple? Or will you still try to kill the Prince or alert all the spies on the way to fight me? It will not be difficult for me to fight them but keeping the Prince alive along the way will not be easy. After all, I shouldn’t underestimate our assassins.”

  Ari said in a scared and hurt tone, “Then, are you . . . are you going to kill me, Martia?”

  Martia, after slashing his neck and leaving his corpse to fall on the ground mercilessly, replied, “You should have taken the chance I gave you to live! Goodbye, my friend. I don’t regret killing you. None of you ever allowed me to feel any emotion with you all. I came to spend time with you as a friend, and you dared me bring some badge for your entertainment. And you want me to go back home.”

  Saying this, Martia left Ari in the middle of the road and saw some

  passers-by running after seeing her. She started searching for the Prince frantically. She entered a residential area and was still unable to find him. She knew she did not have much time before her people and the royal guards were alerted of this situation.

  She searched each and every alley between the houses, and suddenly, she found the Prince sitting on a dusty pavement along with some elders, talking to them happily.

  Martia went there hurriedly and took the Prince’s hand, pulling him up, and started walking quickly.

  The Prince understood that they were in danger. Martia did not speak.

  They walked into a house in the area and went inside.

  There was a person there. Martia said to him, “Baharitus must have ordered you to arrange a carriage for me.”

  The person replied, “Yes, it is ready.” He took them to the back of

  the house, where a carriage was waiting for them. There was a coachman sitting in the front of the carriage.

  Martia took the Prince’s hand, and they climbed into the closed

  carriage. After sitting in the carriage, the Prince looked at his hand, which Martia was holding. It was red with blood. He then saw Martia’s hand stained with blood.

  Martia, who was now completely lost in thought, didn’t pay attention to this.

  The Prince didn’t ask any questions because he didn’t want to know the reason for the bloodstains.

  Martia looked at the Prince and said in a worried tone, “You didn’t sleep last night, right? Just close your eyes and rest for a few hours. Our journey will not be pleasant, so we have to steal every chance we can to calm our minds.”

  The Prince listened to Martia and closed his eyes and hoped for a good future, but his heart and mind were totally against him.