Martia suddenly got information from one of her spies that Minver had been recognized by the royal spies. She knew that this could also be a trap, and that even if he really was in danger, then saving him might delay or abort the dethroning of the king. Still, Martia couldn’t stop herself and went to where the royal spies had planned to catch Minver.

  She went to the middle of the forest along with some fighters, to where the royal guards were planning to catch Minver, Acastius, and a few other Promapplers, who were on their way to deliver weapons to Promapple.

  She and her fighters quietly followed the royal guards, waiting for the right time to attack them before they attacked Minver and Acastius.

  Martia, after waiting to find the right time, attacked them from

  behind and started slashing and killing them while moving forward, but suddenly, she was ambushed by some more guards about whom she had not been given any information. They had been hiding there previously.

  She realized that it was a trap, not to kill Minver or Acastius, but Martia.

  She thought it must be one of the generals whom she was colluding

  with in the city or maybe one of her own people. With these thoughts distracting her, she calmed her mind and decided to analyze this later and right now only focus on killing them. She quickly began killing those who were attacking her, mercilessly, but she was outnumbered by a huge margin.

  Minver and Acastius got hold of the situation quickly and started

  fighting and aiding Martia. Acastius efficiently handled all the royal guards attacking him along with other Promapple fighters, but Minver was getting overwhelmed because he’d had less practice when compared to Martia and Acastius. Martia, understanding this, started taking her fight towards Minver, in order to save him before he was fatally injured. She reached him and started defending him, killing those fighting Minver.

  Taking advantage of the deep forest, which Martia knew well, she and Minver hid behind dense, small trees, and large rocks. She knew that it would take time for the royal guards to find her and Minver. She stayed there and saw Acastius also hiding, to strategize effectively to win the fight.

  She saw the royal guards increasing in number, and seeing this, Martia was now absolutely sure that it was a trap. She looked at Minver, who was still trying to collect his breath, and said, “You are still not a good fighter.”

  Minver replied, “I am a researcher. I started practicing rigorously only after you left me.”

  Hearing that, Martia laughed and said, “You should thank me that

  I left you. It’s because of that, you started practicing fighting seriously, otherwise you would be dead already.”

  Minver was offended and replied angrily, “I wouldn’t have had to see this situation if you had just stayed. I was happy meeting you, even just for a few moments every day, and those were my best memories growing up.”

  Confused by this reply, Martia asked, “Why?”

  Minver replied mockingly, “Why? Did you just ask me why? Can’t

  you see that I like you? To me, you are like the wilderness of this forest, always unreachable. But I didn’t care too much before because I thought at least I could see you every day. But you left, Martia. As cold-hearted as you were before, I doubt that you even cared about our friendship, and

  now that I can see some emotions in you, your whole concentration is onthe Prince. You never even once cared about me. They were all right—you are a very impassive person. Sometimes, I also want to kill you for hurting me like this.”

  Martia chuckled. Minver looked at her angrily and asked, “Are you

  amused by my confession?”

  Martia smiled and replied teasingly, “I am sorry, Minver, but it was your last sentence that ruined your confession. With this level of fighting, you can’t even kill a royal guard, so killing me will be impossible, no matter how much you hate me. Maybe killing me out of love would be easy for you because that time I might not fight you back, so it wouldn’t require any fighting skills.” She then paused and continued in a serious tone, “If you had told me before that you liked me, then I might have had a hope to continue living. Previously, everything was so purposeless and pointless to

  me, Minver, I can’t even describe it. How can I not be emotionless, when no one showed any emotion to me? You have seen how I was raised, right?

  I craved friends to a point that I can’t even describe. But if you had told me before, then I would have chosen you, maybe because I wanted someone to talk to, maybe because I wanted a friend, maybe . . .”

  She smirked and said, “Then I would have pretended to Promanthae that I am not good at fighting and made him give up on me and then been with you completely.”

  After that, a sudden feeling of sadness engulfed her heart, and she said in a melancholic voice, “Maybe then, I would have turned out to be less brutal than I am right now.” She then said in a low and broken voice that only she could hear, “Maybe . . .”

  Minver said sadly but assertively, “You are thinking about the Prince!”

  Martia replied with a gloomy expression, “If you had told me before,then I would have had a reason, a hope, to be a better person. And I would not have met the Prince or made him ruin his life because of me.”

  Minver then asked a question, the answer to which he already knew. “What about now?”

  Martia replied with devotion and yearning, “Now my heart and mind only calls for him, takes his name like a prayer, sees him as a blessing. I want to hear his laughter like a peaceful melody. Cry for him, be happy for him, be angry for him, even ready to feel all the pain in the world—just for him. Only him. Till I am breathing. And who knows, even after I stop breathing. If you ever fall in love, Minver, you will understand. It is the most mysterious and unreasonable feeling.”

  She then told him in a despairing tone, “Maybe you should research this and create a medicine to get rid of this feeling. I don’t need it as it is the only reason I have to live, but I will definitely give it to the Prince because he deserves better . . . better than me.”

  Minver felt heartbroken on hearing this and said, “Go help Acastius; he has already been found by the royal guards. Heis still not as good a fighter as you are, even though he started training at the same time as you.”

  Martia saw Acastius already implementing one of the strategies they’d learned in training to handle a large number of fighters. She proudly told Minver, “It is not true, Minver. He is an exceptionally good fighter now, and I am proud of him, and to my surprise, he turned out to be a better person despite the situation he was raised in. I am astonished to see this positive development in his personality now.”

  She took Minver’s hand and said, “We have to help him. I cannot tell you the whole strategy as now that Acastius has already begun it, time is less, so just follow me.”

  Minver, feeling a little doubtful about his ability to handle so many

  people, stood up. Martia understood and said, “I will not let them harm you, don’t worry. But you have to stay behind me, no matter what, till this fight is over.”

  She joined the fight and thanks to her knowledge about all the hiding spots in the dense forest, Martia, Acastius, and the other fighters signaled each other and started trapping the royal guards and killing them while hiding and confronting them simultaneously.

  Minver followed Martia initially, but when Martia began to perform more tricks and fast-tracked her strategy to end this quickly he lost her and ended up in the sight of many royal guards. He bravely fought them but got injured eventually. Martia was unable to pay attention to Minver and was killing all the royal guards getting trapped by her strategy.

  She found Acastius and signaled him and asked him about the

  situation on his side. Acastius was able to see Minver getting injured, which Martia couldn’t, so while fighting, he signaled to Martia to look to his right.

  Martia looked back and couldn’t see Minver behind her; she then

  understood that Acastius was indicating Minver. She was worried, and to spot Minver, she stepped into the sight of the royal guards. She saw a few guards attacking Minver all at once, and he was struggling. She threw her sword down and took out her knives and threw them at them, killing those guards.

  Once Minver hid, she was about to pick up her sword, but a royal guard came suddenly in front of her and slashed her deeply on her chest, making her lose her balance. Before she could recover, another guard slashed her on her back and she fell on the ground on her knees. She then tried to access her knives, but the guard in her front pierced his sword on her shoulder, not giving her time to defend herself. He took out the sword from her shoulder and then tried to slash her neck. She dodged the attack stood up and fought both guards barehanded and threw them to the ground and

  took one of their swords and killed them by piercing their chests. After

  that, she tried to hide, but was confronted by a few more royal guards, whoattacked her and injured her more. However, within moments, she gained control over them and slashed their necks, killing them instantly. She then fell on the ground, heavily injured.

  With the help of a few fighters, Acastius reached Martia quickly

  and lifted her and hid her behind the trees. Bleeding heavily, Martia started losing consciousness. Minver reached Martia and took out all the medicines he had with him to stop the bleeding as much as he could, but seeing her condition, he understood that he could not save her like this. He looked at Acastius, who was still fighting with the few royal guards left. He knew that he had to join the fight to end it quickly. He looked at Martia, held her hand, and said in desperation, “You can’t leave me again, Martia. Didn’t you hear me when I said I like you, and no matter what, I want you in my life. I will not let you die. This can’t be our end.”

  He took two swords and went to help Acastius and said to him, “Just guide me; this time I will not let you both down.”

  With Martia’s life at stake, Minver’s concentration was at its peak as he knew that one slip-up would lead to the demise of the person he liked the most in this world.

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  Successfully, with the guidance of Acastius and the other fighters,

  Minver was able to fight, and they killed all the remaining royal guards, leaving only two Promappler fighters, Acastius, and Minver on the battlefield.

  Acastius and Minver then quickly ran to Martia and saw that she was now completely unconscious. Minver took her to a carriage to take her to Promapple immediately to get treatment. Acastius stopped him hurriedly.

  Minver yelled at him, saying, “What are you doing? She will die like

  this.”

  Acastius replied, “She was still alive in Promapple because she was strong and powerful. If you take her there, it will take at least a few months to ge ther healed, and all the plans are almost in place. Do you think Promanthae will save her and give her more time? I think Promanthae might find a way to handle everything from here and get her killed immediately. It is not in

  his character to take care of her till she is healed and wait till she is powerful again. We live in a village where the injured and powerless are thought of as a burden and are killed. Taking her there gives her no chance to live.”

  Minver understood that this was a possibility. He was clueless as towhat to do now. He asked, “What should we do?”

  Acastius said, “Remember the hospital Ari opened in the city, which henever got the chance to tell Promanthae about, which only we know about? It is run by his friends. Let’s take her there for basic treatment, and the rest, we can decide later.”

  Both fighters stopped Minver and Acastius, and one of them said, “No matter what Martia’s condition is, we can’t go against Promanthae. We have to take her back to Promapple.”

  Acastius was wondering how to handle this situation, but before he

  could say anything to them, Minver slashed them from behind, and they

  fell to the ground. Acastius looked at Minver in disbelief.

  Minver said, “They will not decide Martia’s fate, nor will Promanthae,

  so, Acastius, either you kill them, or I will have to do it.”

  Acastius froze for a moment on seeing Minver like this. Minver lifted his sword and pierced them to death. He then lifted Martia in his arms and moved towards the carriage they had brought here with weapons. Acastius,worried and uncertain as to what was happening, followed Minver. He drove the carriage with Minver holding Martia inside it.

  They took Martia to Ari’s hospital. Ari’s team saved Martia’s life. Butshe needed constant care and time to heal—which neither Acastius nor Minver could provide as they had to return to Promapple. They knew that if they left Martia here for long, then Promanthae might find out about her, and she would not be safe.

  Minver sat beside Martia, gently brushing his hand on her face, whichwas pale; he couldn’t stop himself from kissing her again on her lips. But feeling no life in response to his kiss, he was frustrated and went outside.

  Sitting beside the door, he was completely clueless as to what to do next.

  Acastius came up to him and said sarcastically, “What happened? Don’t you want to see her fragile and kiss her whenever you can?”

  Minver didn’t say anything but felt sad and guilty.

  Acastius said, “I have a plan to save her but that includes—”

  He was interrupted by Minver, who calmly said, “What does it include? Saving the Prince? And sending them both to the castle so that she can get constant proper care and treatment as long as needed and also be safe from Promanthae?”

  Acastius was surprised at Minver’s calmness and said, “Will you follow this plan?”

  “I want her to live, to talk, to smile, to be powerful again, even if I

  have to let her go, and even if I have to save that Prince, whose arrival has ruined all of our lives. Because, no matter how much I hate him, only he can save Martia now,” said Minver bitterly. “That power of being a Prince and getting the best treatment from all the best doctors in all of Absyleous, without the worry of security or money or time, only he is capable of.”

  “So you will save the Prince?” asked Acastius in disbelief.

  Irritated, Minver said, “How many times do I have to tell you? I want her to live. I didn’t want to admit it before, but seeing her broken never gave me any happiness, and no matter how much I want to, I just can’t be selfish anymore. All I want is for her to be happy and safe. Maybe after seeing her like that, it might give me the contentment that I thought I would get if I could have kept her with me. Can you hear me, Acastius? I am not angry, nor do I want any revenge. I want nothing from her for me anymore.”

  Hearing this, Acastius smiled and said, “Congratulations, my friend. Finally, you have understood what love is!”

  Minver felt at peace on hearing this. He stood up and said, “Let’s go and save my best friend.”

  Acastius was confused now. “When it was just friendship, you thought of her as your lover; now you are in love, you are calling her your best friend. Why is that?”

  “I know now,” replied Minver calmly.

  Acastius asked, “What?”

  Minver explained, “That friendship is not any less beautiful than love. From now onwards, I will keep only this beautiful feeling between her and me, even in my heart.”

  Acastius, feeling proud, stood up and smiled.

  Minver went into Martia’s room. He gave her a kiss on her eyes and said, “This is my final farewell as a lover.” He held her hand and said, “Don’t worry, the happiness I took away from you, I will return it to you now, even at the cost of my own destruction.” Then he and Acastius left for Promapple.

  Promanthae, aware of the situation, was sitting on his chair, waiting forthem. Minver and Acastius saw Promanthae and went to him.

  Minver said, “We tried to save Martia, but she was so severely injuredthat we couldn’t save her.”

  Promanthae, unable to comprehend the situation, looked at them

  quietly. Arigue, who was standing next to him, yelled in horror and

  sorrow, “You couldn’t save her? Is that what you have to say about

  someone who was your friend, Minver? I am horrified to see how easy it is for this village to talk about the demise of people who were a part of us before. There is no sadness or mourning, just the exchange of information, and then everyone easily moves to the next deadly mission, for more to die.”

  With sadness, he continued, “I can’t believe that except for the fact thatMartia died, you have nothing to say or feel about her anymore. Because, for me, she was the only person who was hope for this place. . . and I know, after her demise, this world will be back to a completely miserable place to live in, with no love or affection.”

  With tears in his eyes, Arigue whispered to himself, “With no family or reason for my existence anymore, I feel like I am again falling into this maddening, bottomless pit with constant sorrow and pain!”

  Saying this and looking depressed and exhausted, Arigue returned

  home.

  Promanthae asked calmly, “Where is her corpse?”

  Minver replied, “We burned it. We didn’t want her followers in the

  kingdom, who were ready to rebel for her, to know about her death yet.”

  Promanthae believed Minver and said, “She was bound to die sooneror later. She was too passionate for this world. Let all the plans go accordingto what she set before.”

  “We will leave tomorrow,” said Minver. “And we know where to start.”

  Promanthae, looking tired, went into his home and shut the door.

  Minver and Acastius looked at each other and then went into the

  strategy room to talk about the plan, which only they knew.

  Acastius said, “There are no guards in front of the Prince’s room oreven in front of Promanthae’s house as the Prince is very compliant andhas stayed there quietly for a long time. And the guards at the gate ofPromapple will never check us. Getting the Prince out is not difficult. Butwhat will happen to us after the Prince is free? Where will we go?”

  Minver firmly said, “This is our home. We will not run away. It is timeto change the leadership and the rules and regulations.”

  “How?” asked Acastius.

  “You are the head of the militia,” pointed out Minver. It is time for youto make your fighters follow you. The villagers trust me. I will make themfollow me. And I am sure the young Promapplers and some intelligentelders will definitely choose us. We will divide Promapple into two parts,and we will set up our camp somewhere in the forest, and then, we willtake our followers and dethrone Promanthae eventually.”

  Acastius shivered. He was scared. “What if Promanthae remains

  powerful and overwhelms us?”

  “Then we will have to kill him,” Minver declared flatly.

  Acastius, totally intimidated with this plan, paused for a second. And then, after calming himself, replied, “I feel like now you are ready to save her even if you end up dying doing that.”.”

  Minver said, “Don’t worry, it might be a long and difficult path, but

  we will win.”

  Laughing nervously, Acastius said, “You became a completely different person the moment you fell in love with her. You are now talking like her.You told me that I was their ally. Turns out that you are ready to turn the world upside down for them now.”

  Minver smiled at Acastius and said, “We have to rely on eachother

  blindly now, my friend. You are my asset, so don’t be nervous. You lead the fighting, and I will lead the strategy.”

  When it got dark, Promanthae dined with Acastius and Minver and discussed strategies. Then Promanthae went home to sleep.

  Acastius asked, confused, “Did he look sad? I felt like there was no

  energy or enthusiasm in him today.”

  “It might have hit him now that the child he raised is dead. But don’t worry, he is the most ruthless of us all. He will be fine tomorrow,” said Minver.

  Acastius went into Promanthae’s house. Promanthae was sitting in the hall. When he saw Acastius, he asked, “What happened?”

  Acastius was scared but tried to look confident. He replied, “I thought to check on the Prince.”

  Promanthae warned, “Don’t tell him about Martia. I don’t think he

  will survive after that.”

  “I am used to lying, don’t worry,” Acastius assured him.

  Promanthae then went to his room to sleep.

  Acastius went to the Prince’s room and saw him asleep. Acastius

  murmured to himself, “Time for freedom, my friend.” Seeing the room once again and the condition the Prince was in, he felt sad for him. He woke up the Prince and said, “You really are brave. How did you survive this long in this miserable condition?” ”

  The Prince asked, “How is Martia? She is okay, right?”

  Acastius thought to himself, Why is everyone asking me questions for which I have no choice but to lie? He said, “Today is the day you will get your freedom.”

  He made the Prince wear black clothes and covered his face with a

  black cloth. He sneaked him out of the house. He spotted guards and hid him, and after some time, somehow snuck him to a carriage, where Minver was already waiting for him. Acastius rode the carriage. At the checkpoint, guards stopped the carriage, but after seeing Acastius, they let them past without asking any questions.