Many months passed with Martia protecting Baharitus and helping him to expand his business much more than before.

  One morning, Baharitus, very happy with the progress of his business, said to Martia, who had just entered his office, “Let’s not work today. I will spend time with my family, and you spend it with the person for whom you went against the whole world.”

  Martia, feeling happy on hearing this, started planning to stop the

  Prince from going to the hospital and spending the whole day in his embrace, which she always missed the moment she left home.

  Suddenly, a man came running to her, saying that he had seen the

  corpse of the guard she’d hired to protect the Prince outside their house.

  Martia felt like her had heart stopped for a moment. Trying hard to stay calm but still unable to hear or see anything for a few moments, she controlled herself quickly and hurried home.

  The moment she opened the gate of the house and saw the guard dead in the garden, she understood what to expect in the house. She moved evenly towards the door and opened it and saw the Prince on his knees, completely beaten up, blood all over his face and body, with a knife to his neck held by Minver, who was leaning against the window.

  Acastius aimed a sword towards Martia, standing on her right.

  Seeing the Prince like this completely broke her, and she was unable to speak.

  An enraged Minver said, “You took so much time, leader. I mean, we were waiting and waiting, but you still didn’t come home. So, I thought I should visit you and remind you of us. But unfortunately, you were not here either, which gave us so much time to torment this beautiful lover of yours. Martia, is he a saint? I mean he didn’t fight us back or try to run. Obviously, he would have failed, but still, he is the complete opposite of you. Anyways, now that you are here, all is well. Just watch me kill this obstacle immediately so that we all can go home and be together again.

  Everyone is waiting there for your leadership. Promanthae is old. How long do you want him to lead? Enough fun now; it is time to be responsible.”

  Saying that, he slowly started piercing the Prince’s neck.

  Martia knew that no matter how fast she killed Minver, she still couldn’t save the Prince. She then said in a panic, “He is the Prince.”

  Hearing this, Minver stopped. Martia continued, “He is the Prince.

  Killing him will be a shame. I don’t have to tell you how useful he is by being alive, right? Promanthae can have an advantage towards his cause with him as hostage. Please . . .” she requested in a broken voice, “stop.”

  Minver was shocked for a moment. Then he replied angrily, “So what if he is the Prince? He is still the person for whom you left all of us. And right now, at this moment, you will see him dying in front of your eyes, no matter what.”

  Martia warned, “Promanthae will not forgive you for this decision.”

  Minver replied carelessly, “I don’t care. I want to see you with the same feeling of loss that we felt when you abandoned us, which I felt when you abandoned me. Martia, no matter how unloved and lonely the rest of the people made you feel, did you ever see me give up on you? I always came to meet you whenever I could, shared everything I could in that small amount of time, and always considered you as my best friend. I always wanted to follow you, to be with you in all your decisions, to learn from you, to make myself capable enough to assist you with my research in your

  future missions. Did you ever think about me, Martia, or of all the years when I never gave up on our friendship? Even if you didn’t consider me as close, did I come to your mind even once before you decided to leave everything after just one meeting with this Prince of yours? Or am I not worthy of even one thought in your mind? There is no way I am leaving him alive today.”

  Hearing Minver, Acastius realized that Minver had lost his mind in hatred and vengeance and was not taking the correct decision. He quickly intervened. “Do you want us to also have no place to go back to? If you kill him now, we will also lose our home, get assigned somewhere outside to some insignificant work, or if Promanthae feels it is a big loss, then he might even kill us. Minver, please, let’s take him back to the village alive. That’s the only right decision for our village. Please come back to your

  senses.”

  Minver paused for a moment and said, “Martia, if you want him to live, then let Acastius make you unconscious. It’s time to go back home with the reason you left that home for.”

  The Prince, seeing the state Martia was in, felt sad. He now understood why she had stressed on how dangerous it would be for them to be together.

  Martia agreed, and Acastius injected a drug in her neck. She fell

  unconscious within a few moments, and Minver took the knife away from the neck of the Prince.

  The Prince ran quickly to her and held her close to him very tightly. He knew after this moment that even if they lived, they wouldn’t be together anymore.

  Minver watched this with anger towards Martia and indifference

  towards the Prince.

  Acastius felt a little sad to see Martia like this and tried to force the Prince to let go of her. But the Prince wouldn’t let her go; he wanted a few more moments with Martia, and he continued to hold her.

  Finally, Acastius succeeded in separating them; he forcefully

  handcuffed the Prince’s hands behind his back and dragged him to the carriage he had brought with him. The Prince tried to resist, wanting to look at Martia some more. After they left, only Minver and Martia were left in the room.

  Minver went to Martia, gently brushed his fingers on her face, stared at her with anger but felt a sudden rush of desire in him and couldn’t stop himself from kissing her on her lips. He then carried her outside in his arms and took her in another carriage he had arranged.

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  Baharitus, who was standing nearby, hidden, looked at Minver carrying Martia in his arms and said to himself, “Goodbye, my friend. Forgive me for not coming to your rescue. I can’t afford to make Promapple my enemy again. Hope you survive along with your lover.” Baharitus then quietly

  sneaked out and returned to his office.

  Acastius noticed that the Prince was still bleeding inside the carriage, which was now on its way to Promapple. He thought to himself that at this rate, Prince would bleed to death before reaching the village. He applied a medicine, which could stop the bleeding immediately. The Prince was now so lost that he showed no response to either the bleeding or the medicine

  It took them a day to reach Promapple. Seeing the carriages enter the gate of the village, most of the villagers surrounded the carriages, and Promanthae watched, sitting on the chair in front of his house.

  Arigue was standing next to Promanthae with sadness in his eyes. He was trying to find the courage to see what would happen next. The Prince was then brought to Promanthae, and Acastius told him everything that had happened with the Prince and Martia.

  Promanthae started laughing and said loudly, “Look, Promapplers, your leader didn’t disappoint you. She just lost her way for a moment, but when she came back, she brought us a beautiful Prince, whom we will use to bring Absyleous down. What can you expect? She is your leader, and of course, her choices and decisions will be the best for all of us.” Promanthae ordered Acastius, “Go and chain the Prince. We have to

  put on a beautiful show for our dear Prince, something that matches his appearance and his level.”

  Minver then brought Martia, who was still unconscious, in his arms. When the Prince saw Martia, he came out of his trance and despite having no energy left in him, he started repeating her name slowly to himself, “Martia! . . . Martia!! . . . Martia!!!”

  Promanthae stood up and said loudly, so everyone could hear,

  “This is your leader, and she, like always, deserves this seat on which I sat for a long time.” Then he said to Minver, “Put your leader on her throne. Let the rest of the villagers get a glimpse of her along with her Prince.”

  Promanthae stepped aside, and Martia was placed on his chair.

  The Prince watched Martia. He was sick with apprehension and

  anxious about what would happen next. He started pleading, “Please . . .” without knowing what he was pleading for.

  Promanthae heard the Prince and responded arrogantly, “Do you

  think you are capable of pleading for our Martia? Do you want to see how strong she is? Let me show you.” Promanthae took out a knife, and within a second, slit Martia’s wrist.

  The Prince went into complete shock, and his eyes became blurry

  with tears. He started pleading loudly, “Please don’t torture her. It was my fault. I was the one who made her take this decision to be with me. I was at fault. I am at fault. She is still all yours. Just cut me and make me suffer for this. Keep her in your village. Just don’t kill her, I beg you.”

  Promanthae got some kind of perverse pleasure in hearing the Prince begging and cut her on the other wrist too.

  The Prince started screaming in agony. “Stop! I will do anything.”

  Distressed, he continued, “I was the one who made her take this decision. Only I deserve to be treated cruelly, not her. Please!”

  Promanthae nonchalantly said, “Don’t worry, this is not enough to kill her. But I know where I should cut her to actually kill her.” He then slashed her in many spots, and her robe started getting soaked in blood.

  The Prince started shouting. “Martia . . . Martia . . . look at me. Wake up . . . look at me. Please open your eyes. Just look at me once. Please, Martia.”

  Acastius was unable to watch Martia in this tortured state and the Prince screaming in pain for her. He turned his back towards the scene. Minver was completely focused on Martia, and no matter how much he hated her, he couldn’t control his tears from falling after seeing the girl he thought he loved being tormented.

  Promanthae ordered the guards, “Unlock the hands of the Prince.”

  As soon as his hands were free, the Prince ran towards Martia, and Acastius reached Martia too. The Prince pulled out all the medicines Martia kept with her and hurriedly but precisely applied the medicine wherever she was cut and then looked at Acastius for some more medicine to bring her back to consciousness immediately. Acastius gave the Prince a drug, which he quickly injected into her. He then took Martia in his arms and started calling out to her desperately. “ Martia!!!

  wake up. Look at me. I am with you. Everything will be okay now.”

  Feeling her heartbeat slowing down, he continued, “Martia, wake up. Sweetheart, wake up. Didn’t you say that you will take me with you wherever you go? If you do not wake up, then I will have to follow you. Martia, please.”

  Promanthae, seeing this, understood that their affection for each other was very strong and would be extremely beneficial to him. He signaled Minver to take Martia away from the Prince and then to the guards to lock the Prince in a room in Promanthae’s house.

  Minver bent down to separate Martia from the Prince, and two guards held the Prince’s hand to loosen his grip on her. He still held her close to his heart, but when Minver pulled Martia forcefully, the Prince let her go at once so that Martia would not get hurt any further. Minver took Martia in his arms, and the Prince requested Minver, “Please take care of her, let

  her live.”

  Promanthae interjected, “Of course, she will live. I told you my Martia is stronger than all. She will live, and I will make her completely healthy and strong again and then send her to kill your brother, which she will since you are with us. Thanks to you, she will now fulfill the dreams of Promapple, which were always her responsibility.”

  The Prince didn’t reply as he was already in agony on seeing Martia like this and hearing about their future from someone else. He just closed his eyes and let the guards drag him to the room.

  Promanthae went into the house.

  Acastius, while sitting where Martia was, felt sad for both the Prince and Martia. To make sure Martia was taken care of properly, he stood up and followed Minver.

  Even after everyone was gone, Arigue still stood there, horror-struck, with tears in his eyes and his body shivering in fear and unbearable grief. It all felt to him like a replay of everything he’d seen a long time ago. He froze like a corpse, feeling no life in him anymore. He knew that if he did not control these emotions, then he would end up killing himself anytime now in sheer insanity.