Martia started training rigorously and made plans with all the spies. She slowly chalked out a plan to deploy them at different levels of the bureaucracy, military, security of ministers, and some to even infiltrate the royal house. It was not difficult as some were already there.

  Many months passed, and she didn’t meet the Prince. She got

  information about him from Acastius, who was the only person allowed to see the Prince.

  The Prince, who was completely devastated and saddened by Martia’s decision, repeatedly told himself that she would find a way to not kill his brother. This illusion helped him to survive and stay sane.

  After a long time of preparation, Martia was finally ready to leave the village and execute the plan to infiltrate the king’s castle, with many spies already positioned in the desired places.

  Promanthae invited Martia to visit him and see the Prince once before she left the village.

  Acastius told Martia to lie to the Prince that she was only fooling

  Promanthae, and thereby, just steal one moment of peace and love with each other against all the odds.

  Martia hated the idea of lying, but she knew the truth would be

  painful for the Prince to bear, and she too wanted one moment in his embrace, to feel the calmness, the love, the hope to live, even for that one moment.

  For the first time, she was scared of entering Promanthae’s house. She was scared to hurt the person she loved.

  With her heart beating fast because of all the uncertainty, she went into the house and quietly sat in a chair in front of Promanthae. She couldn’t find the courage to ask him to call the Prince or let her see him.

  Promanthae, very happy to see Martia in this state, said in a comforting tone, “Don’t worry, Martia. It is said that love is the strongest of all emotions. I don’t think you killing his brother will break his love for you.” Laughing, he continued, “Go visit your Prince.”

  Martia couldn’t find the energy to get up. She somehow stood up, went into the room, and saw the Prince sitting beside the window. She wanted to go to him and embrace him in her arms, but she was scared.

  She just stood there looking at him, telling her mind and heart, This is enough. Seeing him even from a distance after such a long time is also enough. Him being alive and healthy in this hell is already a luxury. I don’t desire anything else.

  Aware of Martia’s presence, the Prince stood up and looked at her with pain and some anger. He hesitantly asked her, “Did you . . .” With a pause, he continued, “Did you kill my father, Zarek, Martia?”

  Martia was shocked for a moment. She could now easily hear her

  heart beating very fast, but this time with anxiousness. She closed her eyes, controlled her emotions, and calmed herself immediately, knowing that whatever would happen to her now was only at the mercy of the Prince. She answered slowly, opening her eyes, “Yes.”

  Looking at the Prince’s eyes, Martia could see the affection in his eyes vanishing. He was disturbed. With tears in his eyes and a quavering voice, he asked, “Did you also kill a couple like us, who were caught running away?”

  Martia lost her patience and replied angrily, “Yes, I did. I slashed

  their necks in front of each other and the whole village. And, yes, I killed your father, too.” She started laughing in frustration and said, “What happened now? Do you regret loving me?” She continued speaking, her eyes blurring with tears. “Sweetheart, I never said I am a good person. And never said I will be. The number of people I said I killed in our second meeting included your father and that beautiful couple too.”

  With a vicious smile, she said. “I don’t regret it. Not killing a single

  person. Hate me now? Go ahead. I don’t mind. Hatred never bothered me or had any effect on me. I am used to it. But, my dear love, wipe your tears; don’t waste your precious tears on me. You don’t deserve this, I know. But I must say, falling in love with me might be the universe’s way of making your life tragic. Since we can’t change this now and fight the universe, let’s just accept this misery and try to survive as long as we can.”

  Saying that, she left the room.

  Promanthae, smiling throughout the conversation, said to Martia,

  “You have lost everything now.”

  Martia replied in a slow voice while wiping her tears, “You will also lose everything someday, Promanthae, and I will make sure I am the reason for that. Don’t worry, I will inflict on you the exact pain you are inflicting on me right now, and after that, I will make sure you die a miserable death. It will all be very soon. Count your days.”

  Promanthae felt happy that he had made Martia more disturbed and lonelier than she already was. He ordered the guards to arrange a farewell feast for her.

  Arigue, present and aware of the whole conversation, just watched everything emotionlessly. After Martia left the house, Promanthae followed.

  Martia went to the training room, blindfolded herself, and started

  training with the knives.

  The Prince sat in his room distraught, unable to handle this situation, and felt he had lost faith in life.

  Arigue went to him and said, “Loving someone is never easy, and you chose one of the cruelest people here. How did you expect yourself to keep loving her always?”

  The Prince hurriedly replied, “When did I ever say that I don’t love

  her? I still love her.” With grief, he continued, “I love a person who has no idea about love, compassion, or humanity. I am devastated now because, no matter how disgusted I am with this scenario, I still love her. I think I will still love her, even if she ends up killing my brother. What kind of person does that make me, Arigue? I always dreamed of living as a good person, no matter how people treat me or how bad the situations become. I dreamed of living like a human being. But look at me now. I love a person who can just kill people without a thought. I don’t understand the point of anything anymore.”

  Arigue replied, understanding the Prince, “I look at her as my

  daughter, but I just couldn’t show any affection to her for the same reason you are stating. But now that I am hearing it out loud from you, I wonder, is it really true? She was an orphan, and like all Promapplers, she was taught to hate the royals, ministers, and aristocrats. But she didn’t get brainwashed easily, so she went to see the king and held his hand as a respectful greeting, and in return, your father threw that child on the ground and ordered his guards to kill her. She then understood that the hatred Promanthae was teaching her was right. So, she trained every day

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  and went on her first mission. It was to see Absyleous and how it worked.

  But at that time, your brother, Coaleme, had seized the throne as your father was a bit ill, and Zarek was sent to a nursing home, which had very few guards. Your brother knew that with such little security, there would be an attempt to kill Zarek. This way, your father would be out of the way and your brother could ascend the throne without killing him.

  Martia took advantage of the lack of security and killed all the guards, and at last, your father. It was wrong that she killed your father, but

  was it not wrong when he ordered to kill her when she was just a child? Anyways, we both know what kind of person your father was, and I don’t think he deserved to be mourned. And the couple, whom Martia killed, consisted of a Promappler spy and the daughter of an aristocratic family. They decided to run away, but unfortunately, they were, caught immediately, brought here, and Martia was ordered to torture the girl in front of the boy to teach the Promapplers a lesson. But Martia went against Promanthae and killed them quickly, knowing that this was the easiest death she could give them. So, Promanthae punished her by beating her brutally, and she was so badly injured that it took her a while to heal.”

  Arigue paused and looked at the Prince. “You got a chance to be a

  good person—at least freedom—when you ran away from home. She, even after being raised in hell and being trapped here, chose whatever path she thought she could to delay being inhuman—to the extent she could. Of course, she couldn’t save herself from being this brutal, but trying in hell not to become like everyone is already an achievement. And I am proud of her. Because I have seen her try every time. But still, what she has become cannot be denied, and she is nowhere near human. So you can either hate yourself for this emotion you feel for her or keep loving her irrespective of what she is and what she will become. Both paths are difficult and might end unhappily, but the latter one will have your lover with you throughout

  the horrendous journey of this life of yours, which is also a luxury for most people.”

  Hearing Arigue, the Prince suddenly realized what he had just done to Martia. He remembered what she had told him when they met for the second time. She knew that the biggest fight they had to fight was not with the rest of the world but with themselves—just to continue loving each other.

  He stood up in a panic and went outside the house and saw Promanthae, who was seated on a chair on the podium. He stopped on seeing him and asked, “Let me request her one more time.”

  Promanthae, knowing that his request would have no effect on Martia, allowed him to meet her.

  The Prince began searching for her frantically everywhere.

  Acastius saw the Prince and showed him the room where Martia was training. He opened the door and saw Martia blindfolded, throwing knives all around the room. She heard the door open but didn’t stop and continued to throw knives without worrying about anyone getting hurt.

  The Prince walked towards her and stood right next to her. She then stopped. But didn’t take her blindfold off. He went in front of her and embraced her tightly.

  Martia stayed in his arms. She said, “I will not kill your brother,” and then she pushed the Prince away from her gently and turned to leave. Unable to handle this separation, the Prince said to her, “Even if you burn the entire world, even if I were be included in it, I will still love you. I don’t regret loving you, and never I will as long as I am breathing. I was just lost for a moment. I couldn’t understand the situation you were in while you made those decisions. But now I know.”

  Martia turned back in anger and resentment. “What do you know? That I was forced to do all this? The answer is NO! I enjoy being an

  assassin. If I have the chance again to choose to be something, I will choose to be this again. I like being powerful. I like defeating people, and even killing them, if they attack me or try to kill me first. Sweetheart, even if the circumstances had been different, I would still have preferred to be a killer rather than like you. So, tell me, what do you know?”

  The Prince replied with devotion, “I know that even if you become the evilest of all, I will still love you and only love you.”

  Martia replied in frustration, “I know that because I will also love

  you irrespective of anything in this universe, but it doesn’t matter to me anymore! What matters to me is: will you be happy with me? What has this unconditional love of yours given you?” She yelled, “Is this love ofyours towards me and this humanity towards everyone giving you any happiness?”

  The Prince, completely taken aback at this question, was unable to

  reply.

  Martia then took off her blindfold, went close to the Prince and

  answered her own question so that Prince would not lose hope. “Don’t worry. I will make this world beautiful for you one day, as much as I am capable of. I will try to choose the more humane path after I get you out of this place. I will make sure you get every opportunity to be happy because that’s all that matters to me.” She held his face gently and looked at him with love and sadness in her eyes, kissed him, and left the room.

  Their conversation was overheard by both Minver and Acastius, who were standing just outside the door. The moment Martia left, Acastius started following her. Minver stared at her, trying to understand how she had learned to love in this place, where only hatred and revenge had been taught since childhood. He thought that even regarding this emotion..love..where Minver thought he was ahead of Martia, Martia had just surpassed him today to a level where he thought, he would never be able to reach. Without realizing it, he started following her, and with each step he

  took towards her, his anger and rage towards Martia started disappearing from his heart. He found himself getting closer to the emotion he had felt for her when they were teenagers, and that was only fondness.

  As the Prince was being taken back to his room, Promanthae said, “You told me that you were going to request her. But you went there to declare your love, right? So you finally learned some tricks in this place, isn’t it, Prince?”

  The Prince paid no attention to Promanthae. He went into the room and shut the door.

  Promanthae then understood that Martia was right, the Prince was no ordinary person. He yelled to the Prince angrily, “This world can never be beautiful, and Martia can never be anything other than an assassin. No matter how much she tries to make you happy, this world will always find a way to bring out the worst in her. And your love will always be an unhappy one.”

  The Prince knew that what Promanthae was saying was much more probable than what Martia had said. Incapable of doing anything, he just closed his eyes and hoped for this to be over.