NOVEL NEXT Chapter 24: Deception
Tired. After that whole evening, Amaragi felt so very tired. And yet, she didn't want to rest yet, she felt as though she could keep going for the rest of the night. She despised large events of any kind, but today, it was not about that.
Her thoughts were rampant. An ideal silence filled their shared quarters as both her and Maren sat directly next to each other on one of the two beds, and Amaragi just simply couldn't stop her inner glee. Her legs were continuously swaying back and forth slightly while her eyes were almost staring into nothingness on the ground.
Albeit this time, it was due to the fact that she was almost lost in her own world for a moment, if the infectious smile upon her lips was any indication.
Meanwhile, Maren couldn't help but glance at her. His thoughts weren't any better, but even so, seeing her like this…
… she seemed to be so happy…
His heart almost clenched at the sensation, causing him to glance away again. Actually being the one to have been asked that question… a new rush of warmth coursed through him, and he almost instinctively curled together slightly. The mere thought of spending the rest of his life with her, it seemed to be so unreal.
He guessed that… after everything that happened all those years ago, before he had met her for the very first time… he didn't think he deserved anything in his life.
And even though he desperately tried to force it away, a small, tiny part of these thoughts still lingered in his mind whenever he would glance at her.
Albeit, once again, he was torn away from these thoughts when a sudden warmth engulfed him, two arms wrapping around his side while her head cuddled against his shoulder. Taken off guard, Maren glanced down to see that Amaragi was hugging against him, her body leaning against his own completely.
"Promise me…" his attention was immediately drawn to the gentle whisper, but before long, she raised her head to look into his eyes.
"... that nothing will ever change between us… yes?" her eyes were gleaming, and the longer he gazed at them, the more he felt entranced. Until he finally nodded, silently promising and vowing that he would never stray from her side.
If he ever found himself pointing a blade at her ever again… he would end himself.
Thus, the joy in her eyes was almost overwhelming, and before he knew it, a small gasp escaped him when he was carefully pinned down on the bed with a playful pounce that managed to take him off guard.
His wrists were held down by both of her hands, her body leaning above his own, and her legs were almost straddling his own in this position. Finding out at first that he was actually at her mercy right now, the second realization only struck him a little bit after.
And his eyes immediately widened with a slight coloring of his cheeks, causing him to evade her gaze almost instantly with a barely suppressed yelp at their positioning. Having only realized herself how they were currently positioned, Amaragi, however, calmly looked down upon Maren's eyes as she held control over him.
For a while, none of them moved as she gazed at him deeply. And what he couldn't witness was that, for just in that moment, her eyes had almost changed a bit, the joyous and innocent glint from before being replaced by something else.
An almost predatory stare.
But the moment Maren finally gathered enough will to look back at her once more, it was gone in the blink of an eye, and instead…
… he stiffened slightly when she playfully dropped down on him to hug him fiercely, her head cuddling against the side of his neck with a proud and joyful smile.
"Mine~"
A single word being spoken with an innocent tone.
And for the rest of the evening, they would stay like this until sleep would finally come for them both as well, ushering them to rest before they could finally embrace the light of a new day.
One in which they could always be together.
The night was relatively quiet for once, and not just because the Imperials were situated in a more secluded part of the city.
Just outside of the grand mansion that was dedicated towards both the Emperor and the crown princess, a small patrol of Imperials moved along the illuminated streets, keeping watch for anything suspicious.
However, the trio came to a stop the moment they heard the faint and distant sound of clashing steel. Listening further while standing in alert, the sounds became more and more evident, and it wasn't long until a voice cried out in agony.
Glancing at each other, they didn't hesitate another second before they rushed off towards the place where a battle was seemingly taking place. Following the ongoing sounds of clashing steel, another voice suddenly cried out in pain as the three soldiers finally arrived at the scene.
And it was deathly silent again.
Their lances raised in alarm, the Imperials stopped in their tracks once they witnessed two corpses upon the ground in front of them. There, in the middle of a public plaza, lay two dead guardsmen that belonged to the watch patrols of Byanzinth.
The captain of the trio raised his right hand and formed it into a fist, signalling for the other two to watch his back as he approached the dead bodies. Kneeling down next to one of the corpses, he placed a hand upon the man's face and turned it towards him.
He almost jerked slightly when he witnessed the brutal and gruesome sight. The guard's throat was sliced open, spilling all of the fresh blood on the ground. But as if that hadn't been enough, it had been repeatedly stabbed with what he presumed to be a dagger of some sort.
Yet, he was torn out of his thoughts when a pained gurgling suddenly sounded behind him. Swiftly getting up from the ground while turning around, a wave of shock overcame him when he witnessed the sight of his two comrades on the ground, one of them impaled with an arrow while the other had been killed from behind, the tip of a dagger still sticking through his chest.
A cloaked figure was standing over the dead Imperials, another bloody dagger still grasped in his left hand. But before the captain could even try to avenge them, another pair of arrows suddenly impaled him from behind, causing him to drop his lance after a mere second before he, too, succumbed to the ground, a last breath escaping him.
When it was all cleared, a pair of similarly cloaked assassins stepped out from the shadows of a nearby alley, joining their leader at the center of the plaza.
"Should we move them now?"
"No, just leave them here." beneath his hood, he glanced at the dead corpses on the ground, tracing a finger over his bloody dagger while admiring their handiwork.
"The rest will unfold all by itself once they are found."
AN:
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