Of course, he knew. I was the one who collected the map from him. I was captured when he destroyed my Kingdom. But why was I alive? As much as I hated him from the core of my heart, I was grateful that he didn't buy me for other indecent purposes.

For the next two days, it rained heavily and he didn't come. It was kind of relief and disappointment because I was not getting any clues or ways to get out of here.

And I couldn't sleep. My brain just kept thinking or even if I tried to sleep I could see the dead body of my father or Gerald's hollow eyes or me screaming in the brothel as a whip made of nails hit my back and I would wake up in cold sweat.

After two days of rain, I saw the sunlight through the little space beneath the door. I sat down closer to the door letting just my toes get the heat of the sun. I needed to sleep, I haven't slept in days and I was tired of crying now from all the thinking.

Suddenly the door creaked open and he was standing there tall, blocking the sunlight. He was still the same except the fact that he knew that I was a princess. I was his trophy from another win, another massacre.

I got up with a shaky moment and all this while he observed me.

"You can do mind manipulation," I said with a tone filled with loathing.

Obviously, he didn't answer.

"For how long are you going to keep me here and continue with this?" I asked just saying anything because the silence, the loneliness was killing me.

"Okay then maybe you can tell me for how long have you known I was the princess?" I tried different questions hoping he could answer any one of them.

But then my desire for food won over and I saw the steaming buns. I grabbed two of them and started eating in a rather non-princess manner. I looked up feeling weird and saw him staring at me.

I looked away and continue eating my food. When I was done, I saw he set up a target now and I knew we were changing weapons today. For any battle, as I was taught we should be familiar with three tactics, the one with close range, the one for the target at distance and one without weapons.

Maybe he thought I was helpless when it came to a sword, he was trying other techniques to train me for some mysterious reason.

He handed me a small dagger and for demonstration, he hit the target for me without even bothering to pay much attention or to aim.

"You do know with magic and Qi powers you can do all that while I am trying without anything but my will and strength." I taunted him.

I wanted to see if he was as calm and composed as he pretended to be.

"It took me years of pain and torture to master that." Finally an answer for the day.

"So why do you expect me to do all this is in few days." I spat out the words.

But my temper didn't affect him much. He was calm and didn't miss his target yet again as the dagger hit the bullseye. And for a second the horrible moment replayed in my head when he was Gerald and asked to take a shot.

I didn't even realize as my eyes watered and I turned away pretending to choose any other dagger from the collection available for choice.

"This world is a harsh place Princess, no need to be so dramatic about it." He said somehow knowing that I was crying.

I turned filled with rage at his words and threw multiple daggers at him hoping one will at least make a scratch and make him feel the pain I was going through right now. But he deflected every one of them. I marched towards him and he just stood there not worried in the least that I might hit him with a weapon in my hand.

"Don't you dare judge me. You have no idea about me or my life." I said to him through the gritted teeth.

You just kill people for fun.

My hand itched to at least slap him but I was not sure that was the smart choice.

"You are not what I was expecting." He suddenly said and for a second my rage stopped and I just stood to wait for him to elaborate.

When he didn't, I felt annoyed, "What were you expecting? Someone fragile so that you can enjoy breaking her. Or a spoilt rich brat?"

But his passive eyes just stared back at me like my questions were not even worth asking. For a split second, I felt suffocated, I was here for eternity. I had no chance of escape and I had no one to ask for help. I felt like using the dagger on me since I was only one I can harm.

Next moment I realized how cowardly my thought was, I was not going down this easy, I was not breaking by his mind games.

And just to make a point I turned at the target, focused and hit real close to the center.

"Let me spell it out for you, if you don't know dark prince, I will train with you all you want but I will try my best to kill with all the training I will get." Since I was not afraid of losing anything I made it clear.

"Work harder then." He said calmly like my threat was a joke.

And for the next two hours, I hit targets both static and dynamic. And I realized I wasn't completely hopeless at it till he came to tell me the bitter truth.

"You have to use your other sense as well but it seems you can only handle one thing at a time."

He was the kind of person who will always find faults in people no matter how good they are.

"Lack of sleep and rest is making your brain numb." It surprised me that this was not said with any snide.

"My brain is good enough, you need to get yours examined." I felt embarrassed for giving such lame response and to cover my mistake I picked up the water container near the basket with buns and gulped down the water like I was dying of thirst which I realized I was.

But as soon as I put the bottle down, I felt short of breath as everything around me started revolving or maybe I was severely dizzy, my eyes became lead heavy and all the energy drained out of my body. I was about to fall on the ground due to lack of any power to move but his arms were quick to catch me.

"What did you do to me?" I said trying to keep my eyes open but they refused to listen to me.

"Gave you something for a peaceful sleep." This was the last thing I heard before I actually fell into deep sleep.

___

The dazzling green eyes with hues of blue stared back at me and I smiled shyly. Henley was my prince charming, I pretended to be the princess in front of him like I needed his arm to walk on that deadly heal or that the sword was too heavy for me to hold and praised him on how amazing he was to hold it well.

In the far distance, I could see an amused Gerald and my father at my antics in front of the boy I liked. And even though his auburn locks and sharply crafted features pulled females like the magnet to iron, he only had eyes for me.

We would sit down hours in the garden and solve crosswords and puzzles and had heated debates on political topics that I always lost because it bored me and also because I studied only required enough for a princess which was poetry and languages and nothing that involved ruling a country.

I helped him get through the time he lost his sister and mother.

"I am here because of you." He said and kissed my cheeks softly.

"No, you are here because you are strong."

"I am telling you the truth, I need you in my life Lia because I do n't think I can live with so much loss alone. You are a compensation given to me by God for everything that I lost."

It was almost a proposal and confession from him.

I smiled happily at his words. Had it not been for the interruption from my maid, he might actually have said words marry.

His amused smile was the last thing I saw before dream broke and I woke. My body was not aching anymore, I felt well slept and light-hearted after the dream that was just a dream.

I got up and immediately went to take a bath. As warm water hit my nerves, the tears broke out. I hated the dream ended and I was still in this room. But through the sobs, I realized I was actually just asleep and was hurt in any way. I can't even tell for how many hours or days I was asleep for.

Wrapped in a towel I stepped out and stood like that in front of the water container too scared to drink it now. It might be drugged or I might be being brainwashed through that toxic drink that put me to sleep.

Suddenly I heard the metallic clashing of a sword as it hit the ground and jerked my head terrified of who came in. For a second I sighed in relief because it was just him, Bretrarum who as usual was dressed in black from head to toe.

But for the first time in my life, I saw his indigo eyes with expression, widened in disbelief as he bent down to pick his sword.

"I didn't know you were awake, for past two days you were asleep and I had to come to give you syrup as a supplement for food you were missing while sleeping." And with that hurried explanation and not looking at me again he rushed outside.

I thought what made the murdering monster feel this awkward and then the devastation hit me as I realized I was in nothing but a towel.

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