When the Prince went to the hospital the next day, Martia again got ready to leave the castle and visit the places where she could get all the information about what was happening in the rest of the world and also to see and observe the people and situations outside.

  But this time, she was stopped by a guard, who gave her an invitation to meet one of the ministers, named Augtromas. The guard took her to an office. It was guarded heavily. Martia observed the location and guessed the capability of all the guards just in case she had to fight them.

  Augtromas got up and welcomed Martia to his office, saying, “It is an honor to meet the leader of Promapple.”

  Martia was a bit alarmed by this welcome but stayed expressionless. She sat down in the chair in front of him and said, “You seem to have a lot of information.”

  “I am the head of intelligence, why wouldn’t I have?” retorted

  Augtromas. “But the king doesn’t know this. He only knows what I tell him.”

  “I am not interested in your politics,” Martia said uninterestedly. “Why have you invited me?”

  “Because you are wasting your time by wandering the markets and residential areas, that’s why,” replied Augtromas.

  Martia smirked and said, “Do you think that’s all I do?”

  “Well with the power now in the hands of Minver and Acastius, what else is left for you to know or do?” he asked. “I know you are in love and want to be with the Prince, but what are you going to do with your life, trained as an excellent assassin and taught as an intelligent person, totally qualified as an excellent administrator? What are you going to do with these qualifications? Roam around and waste it just because you are in

  love?”

  Martia smiled sarcastically and said, “What do you want me to do

  then? Rule Absyleous?”

  “That was the plan, wasn’t it?” Augtromas asked.

  Martia was thoroughly confused, wondering how he had more

  information than he could get from any spy. And suddenly a thought hit her—one of the generals she had talked to about being on the side of Promapple had said that he could get a minister too on his side as he was unsatisfied with the king. Martia looked at Augtromas suspiciously and understood that the more this conversation continued, the more trouble she would get into. Feigning disinterest, she said, “I am not interested in this, as I said before. I have to go now, to wander and waste my time.”

  Augtromas said, “If you do not continue with the plan you made with my general, your Prince will be in danger.”

  Hearing this, Martia couldn’t help but look concerned. However, she took control of her emotions again and said, “You really know how to get my attention. Whatever you want to say, complete it in a few minutes before I lose my patience and kill you right now for saying this.”

  Augtromas replied calmly, “You really are a brute, aren’t you, Martia? Well, King Coaleme is foolish; he cannot concentrate most of the time. The half power vested in him, he is unable to fulfill, and hence, all the ministers are dissatisfied with him. It is one of the reasons why I even went to the extreme of sending one of my generals to collude with you—to assassinate him and put an end to this whole royal system. But now, the Prince is here, and he is getting married to you. So all the ministers are planning to get Coaleme to resign and give all the power to his brother, that is, the Prince.”

  Worried, Martia replied, “So the Prince will be made the king and he will have enemies who might want to harm him, like most of the people now who want the king to die. Is that what you meant when you said that the Prince is in danger?”

  Augtromas smiled and said, “As a leader of one of the most ruthless villages, which is followed by many other villages, I do not expect such a naive analysis from you, Martia. Was I wrong when I assumed that you might be intelligent?”

  Martia now understood what Augtromas was saying. She stood up and said in dismay, “Coaleme knows all this, and he is planning to kill the Prince?!”

  “Finally to the point!” replied Augtromas proudly.

  Martia felt sad for the Prince, who considered Coaleme as his father. She knew it would devastate the Prince. She then started thinking about solutions to escape this situation.

  Augtromas said, “I don’t want to see the Prince as a king either. He is too good, too humane to become a king. But you are perfect for this.”

  “I don’t care about Absyleous or you all,” retorted Martia. “I am going to leave this place and disappear with the Prince. No one will be able to find us.”

  It will be difficult for you to leave now,” said Augtromas. “The ten

  ministers know that if they eliminate the royal culture by any means, then a power struggle will start among the rest of them, and instead of gaining anything, they might end up losing whatever power they have. So making the Prince monarch is their way to save themselves from any power struggle and loss of what they have now and also from the incompetency of the present king, Coaleme, which is also costing Absyleous too much in terms

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  of its economy, businesses, and stability. Now that Coaleme has announced your marriage, you both are the targets of not only the royal guards but the special spies of all the ministers. If you want to hide your whole life and run from one place to another, with no one to trust to, as now most people know you and the Prince by face and anyone will sell you off easily, running away will not assure you a happy or a safe life.”

  After a pause, Augtromas continued, “Stay here and change the status quo. Otherwise, after the removal of the king, there will be extreme conflict within the kingdom, and its future will become bleak, as extreme instability can also lead to the disintegration of Absyleous. Do you think after that you, the Prince, or your Promapple will survive peacefully within the kingdom? . You both cannot run and hide in that situation for long, and Acastius and Minver might end up turning into Promanthae.”

  With a proud smile he said, “Yes, I know Promanthae. I served in the military with him when we were young. But after seeing the inefficiency of the previous king, Zarek, I chose to be with the king and stayed on this side of Absyleous to make things better legally, and he chose the other side and formed a rebel village to dethrone the monarch and kill all the royals one day. Because he was my best friend, I somehow obtained indepth knowledge about that side of kingdom, too, but never used that information to harm him or the Promapplers.”

  Martia smirked and said, “You should have tried; it would have been fun to see who would have won.”

  Augtromas replied in a serious tone, “I know you would have won

  that time, but now that you have killed Promanthae and made your best friends the leaders, are they still training the recruits from the rest of the villages and even their inhabitants as ruthlessly as they were trained at the time of Promanthae? If I try to harm them now, what will happen? I might not win, as their support is very large, considering that most of the villages

  support them, but I can inflict great damage—not that they already weren’t damaged severely because of the division of Promapple for that short period of time.”

  Martia was furious. “What are you threatening me with? Is it to save my friends or the Promapplers or the Prince? What exactly do you want me to do? To assassinate all the ministers one by one, starting with you? And make the king elect new ministers and solve the whole problem?”

  “Let’s assume that you are this powerful, that you can actually kill all the ministers, including me, no matter the enormous security. And even survive till the end. But can you keep the Prince alive in this bloody process of yours?” asked Augtromas.

  Martia froze for a moment and realized that fighting a war and winning might be possible for her but keeping the Prince alive was not. Having no other choice, she asked, “What do you want?”

  “I am thinking of following your plan,” replied Augtromas.

  “Promanthae raised you, right? I know you are intelligent. So I am

  thinking, you should make a plan to save your Prince, the Promapplers, and also the rest of the poor, hopeless, and naive citizens, who for no reason pay for the power struggles of the powerful.”

  Martia thought for a moment and said, “We have to convince the ministers to give autonomous status to Promapple along with the right for it to govern the eleven villages that are also against the rule of the king,” she said.

  “I can make Absyleous a conflict-free zone by starting the negotiations between the ministers and Promapple, which will improve the economy and stability of Absyleous. And they, in return, have to let go of the Prince as the candidate for future king and let us live peacefully. Then they can imprison Coaleme and elect with a majority a worthy person to rule so as to stop the power struggle between them Problem solved. And after that, I will leave the castle with the Prince.”

  Augtromas said, laughing, “Now that’s a plan made by a worthy leader. I trust that it is not just a shallow plan, and you have all the little details already planned in your mind as to how to achieve these goals. Right, Martia?”

  Martia smiled, masking her anger. “Now I believe that you are

  Promanthae’s friend as you also know how to manipulate and play tricks with people. Good! I am impressed. You are totally making me say and do whatever you planned before you called me. You’re worthy of being called the head of intelligence. But I think one thing you know, and you are not paying attention to, is that no matter how intelligent Promanthae was, or how good he was in manipulation and tricks, I was the reason for the ruination of his dreams and his eventual demise. So don’t be so proud of yourself. The moment I catch up with you, and if I am still irritated with

  you as I am right now, I will kill you mercilessly. And you are right. I am a brute. What did you expect from a person who was raised only to kill people?”

  Augtromas said, “But this time, I want you to be a leader rather than a killer.”

  “Tell me about all the ministers, including you,” replied Martia.

  Augtromas said with confidence, “Okay then, let me introduce the first minister today, named Augtromas. Responsible for intelligence. Personal secretary of King Coaleme. Hates incompetency. Honest, but if required, will not hesitate to rebel.”

  Martia smiled at the introduction

  “I will arrange for you to meet all the ministers individually. And tell you about each of them before you meet them,” said Augtromas.

  Martia agreed and said with caution, “Help me out if I need. See you at the next meeting.”

  Martia left the office. While returning to the castle, the thought that the Prince’s life was in danger because of his own brother started disturbing her. But she tried to keep all the thoughts swirling in her mind at bay so that her efficiency to strategize wouldn’t get affected.