(Carl's Room)

"*Knock, Knock*"

"Come in," Carl answered while reading some official documents.

"Good evening, father," Lucio greeted his father.

"Good evening to you too, son. So, what brings my free-spirited son back to me?" Carl asked, jokingly.

"Uh-Father, I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Sure, come sit," Carl replied, gesturing Lucio to sit on the opposite chair while he continued to read his documents.

"Fathe-"

"*Knock, Knock*"

"Just a second, son. Come in," Carl said while Lucio groaned mentally. As it is, he did not know how he would convince his father to allow Marina and others to leave and all these interruptions were clearly not helping his state.

"Sorry to disturb you, my lord," a man in his 40's apologized to Carl, while entering the room.

"My good man, Aeduuin. What brings you here?" Carl asked, smiling at his friend.

"I came to thank you and the young man who had extinguished the fire at the right time or else the emergency food storage would have turned to ashes," Aeduuin replies.

"Yes, I got to know about it. I will surely do that."

"Thank you, my lord," Aeduinn says before exiting the room.

"What was all this? There was a fire? And who is this young man? Is everyone alright?" Lucio bombards his father with questions.

"Don't worry son, everyone's fine all thanks to Prince Nathaniel. He and his friend came at the right time and extinguished the fire before it could destroy our food stocks."

"Did I just hear you being thankful to Prince Nathaniel?" Lucio asked, bemused at what he heard.

"Yes and now don't make an issue of it. Your majesty, Princess Marina was right, he is different from his family."

"So, will you now allow them to leave?"

"What?"

"I actually came to talk about this only. I and Mari reconciled our friendship during our duel-"

"You had a duel with Your Majesty?" Carl asked, surprise evident in his voice.

"Yes and she won. So, as a prize she asked her companions and herself to be allowed to leave Benedizione."

"Well, I can understand, they have been staying for three days. They can leave," Carl replies while stacking the documents and keeping them aside.

"What? Are you letting them go?"

"Do you want me to change my decision, son?"

"No, but I don't get it, till yesterday you couldn't even stand being near Prince Nathaniel and now you let him off so easily?"

"People and their opinions change with time. I have been observing Prince Nathaniel, his behaviour with Princess Marina, servants and with everyone in general. He is not arrogant because of his noble birth or richness nor does he discriminate between people. Unlike his family, he tries to understand and help others. He is different, a good different and we are not the only ones to see that. Maybe our Princess's kindness rubbed on him?" Carl says while laughing.

"What do you mean by we are not the only ones to see that?" Lucio asks his father.

"You are well aware of the rules of Alves - the eldest son ascends the throne. It's an orthodox society and people there honor all such traditions and rules, even if they don't want to. Everyone knows how good Prince Nathaniel is, his strong opposing views against gender discrimination. Nobles fear that if he becomes the king, he will change the rules. Those narcissist, dominant, thick-headed idiots can't see women standing shoulder to shoulder with them them. Those courtiers don't want to lose their superior status and power against womankind. So..."

"So?"

"So, they are trying another way to stop Prince Nathaniel from becoming the king."

"And that is? It's not like they will kill him," Lucio laughs, but when his father doesn't join him in, his laughter dies at the sudden realization.

"Oh God, they are planning to kill him?" Lucio asks his father, shock evident in his voice.

"Yes, they do plan to kill him, if that could stop him from ascending the throne. Many attempts have been made to do so. Even before they entered the forests, Prince Nathaniel and Princess Marina were abducted. It's not just the nobles, his own step - mother and brother are after his life. Therefore, I have decided you will accompany them to wherever they go."

"What? How can I-"

"Lucio, loyalty is in our blood. Our ancestors have protected the royals of Alves even at the cost of their life and it's time for you to step into their shoes."

"But-"

"By going with them, not only will you help Prince Nathaniel, but Princess Marina too. I hope, you are aware of the atmosphere of Alves, especially for women?"

"*Sigh* I do father," Lucio agrees reluctantly.

"So, it is decided if they want to leave Benedizione, either they leave with you or they stay here."

"As you wish, father. I will go and inform about your decision to Mari," Lucio says before exiting the room.

"Prince Nathaniel has that potential to make Alves better and till the time, Princess Marina is with him, she never let him stray from his path. I just hope by accompanying them, you will uphold the values of our family. The values which have been passed from generation to generation, the loyalty that flows in our blood always directs us towards the betterment of Alves, even if the path leads to death... Even if I have to sacrifice my own son for the future of Alves, for making it a better place. Willingly or unwillingly is not even an option for me. That is how it should be son, that is how destiny wants it to be," Carl says to himself while looking at the sunset from his room's window.

At this moment, Carl found a link between him and the sun. Neither had a say in their decision, their choice was pre-determined. All they could do was follow the path in front of them and see how things unfolded in front of them. The sun has to rise and set, even if it does not want to. It had to do this while being the audience of the destiny's game. Similarly, Carl had no option here. He had to send Lucio or let Alves collapse, let thousands of women cry themselves to death. All he could do now was just to wait and see what destiny has planned, whether the prophecy would come true or not.

~On the other side~

[In Silvette, Alves}

Two men, the taller one standing in shadow are waiting for someone in an old abandoned fort. The fort's ceiling is broken from here and there, letting beams of sunlight illuminating the hauntingly calm fort. The shorter man of the two, continues to tap his foot impatiently when the broken entrance wooden door opens with a creak sound, revealing two masked men.

"Good evening, my lords," the two masked men say while bowing in respect.

"What the hell took you so long and what about my work?" the shorter man screams angrily at the masked men.

"We-We apologize, sire. You see Prince Nathaniel has warned all the forts about us. There is heavy checking going on, we are on the wanted list," one of the two masked man replies.

"What about your other companions?" the shorter man asks.

"Everyone was killed, only five of us were able to escape. When we were trying to come to Silvette, three of them died on the way," the second masked man answers.

"So, it's just two of you now?"

"Yes," the two masked men reply in unison.

"There were twenty men. Twenty men!! But, they all failed to capture two people. On top of that, you injured her. He strictly ordered you that not a single hair of hers should be touched. But, what did you all do? You disobeyed his orders and to top that you are now the most wanted criminals in Alves!"the shorter man accuses the masked men.

"Well, that comes only to one conclusion that you are useless pieces of sh!t on whom I wasted my money. You failed to do your work, you injured her and now you are the most wanted criminals. Any kind of interaction with you is harmful and can reveal my face, my identity. So, it's better to send you where your companions are," the man who was standing in the shadow says in a calm yet cold voice while flicking the dagger by it's handle on his fingertips.

In a sudden swift movement, he lunges forward at the two masked men, thrusting the dagger in the stomach of one of the men while slicing the other person's throat.

"Now,  the last link of this chain is broken," the man smirks evilly as the bodies of the masked men collapse on the ground, blood gushing out from the parts he attacked them on. They scream a muffled cry of pain, before their eyeballs go backward and their eyes turn white. Just like this life escaped from their bodies dissolving into the vast universe and its atmosphere.

"It was a great idea to lure them here in the name of protection and then get rid of them," the shorter man remarks while seeing the lifeless scattered bodies of the two men.

"So, now no one knows about this act?"

"No one."

"Except you?"

"What do you mean, sire?" the shorter man asks in a slightly trembling voice.

"Dear Barlow, you need to die for me. With you dead, my secret will stay safe with me and only me," the taller man says while flicking his dagger.

"B-But I am your servant, I am and will always stay loyal to you. Please don't kill-" the taller man does not wait for Barlow to complete his sentence and quickly thrusts the dagger in his stomach.

"Always remember one thing dear Barlow, in royal politics, you can't trust anyone, not even your own shadow because even your own shadow leaves you in the darkest of times," the taller man whispers into the dying man's ears, before quickly exiting the fort, as if nothing had happened, as if he did not just saw three people die.

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Hello dear readers!!

Sorry I am a bit late(by two days) for this update. I had three tests on Monday and one today. Now, that I have my diwali holidays (YAY!!) I will try to squeeze an update here and there.

Coming back to the story, who do you all think is the tall man, who killed Barlow? Also, did you like the title of this chapter and how it was portrayed in this chapter?

Lastly, I want to apologize to @SakinaNasir5253 , @flowerofpomona and @StorybookHorror for not being able to read their updates, even though they have updated long back. Honestly, I haven't forgotten to read them, in fact I so want to read them but my tests dropped in between.

Till the next update, keep shining ;)

- Love Addy :)