After the royal council was dismissed, Danyel went to Gianna's chamber.
"How are you feeling now? Does that hurt a lot?" He asked keeping a neutral face, though he sympathized with Gianna.
Gianna was guessing that Danyel was the one behind this. Now that he came to see her, which never happened before, Gianna confirmed her guess. This brat! How dare he try to kill her!
"No sire, that doesn't. I can't feel the pain because I'm overwhelmed by the satisfaction that I did not let those cowardly losers to kill me. It increases when I see their hopeless faces." Gianna uttered, looking Danyel in the eye.
"Oh, but I expected you to be more intelligent. That assassination attempt was a warning. It was a message asking you to quit. I thought you understood that. This whole place is dangerous for you. This might be only the beginning." Danyel said.
"Why didn't you just send a note with them? I don't like hidden messages at all." Gianna gave him a sarcastic look.
Only then Danyel understood her thoughts. This silly rascal! How dare she even think he would do such a cowardly act!
"What? You think I sent them? I am behind all these? How dare you!" Danyel yelled at her. He did not want to take credit for something he never did.
"Why? That was an easy guess. Who else wants me out, if it wasn't you?"
"Who doesn't want you out actually? No one wants you here." Danyel dropped a truth bomb.
Gianna was completely clueless about this. She did not know how these kinds of stuff were operated in the outer world. Since Stri was ruled by a selected chief, Strians did not care to learn about royal matters.
"What are you talking about? More people want me out? Like who?"
"Well, it would be easy to give the list of people who want you here. And that's going to be my father, you and your kingdom." Danyel said with a cunning smile on his oval shaped face.
Actually, he was letting out the bitter truth.
Most of the Hesmian aristocrats, royal families from other kingdoms who had big hopes but screwed it in the last minute, some insiders like concubines and the crown prince himself wanted to get rid of Gianna for various reasons.
"Okay. But you are one of them who do not want me here, so there's a chance you are behind this. And you promised to make me suffer. Do you have any proof that you're innocent?"
"I don't want to prove anything to anyone, alright Jenny? But inside me, I know I would never do such a pitiful thing. It's true I want you out, but not dead. That's not me." Danyel stated emotionally. He did not want another person to be killed for no reason, just like his mother- Empress Lalina.
"My. Name. is. GIANNA!" Gianna screamed a bit.
Danyel let out a small laugh. This was the first time he laughed in front of Gianna. Though he remembered her name, he constantly kept calling her other names to show that he did not care about her.
"Anyway, keep in mind that your suffering period has just begun, do not hope this would end even after the wedding. They won't stop until you quit. I won't stop too. Just know it." Danyel gave a decent warning.
"Is there no way that we could live in peace?" Gianna talked softly. She was done arguing. That was not her type. She was a friendly person.
"Only if you quit this whole thing." Danyel was about to leave.
"I want to see your girlfriend." Gianna said in a hurry.
Danyel almost tripped. He did not expect her to say this.
"Why? To threaten her?"
"No, I want to see which kind of girls you like. Is she beautiful?" Gianna was honest.
"The most beautiful girl in the world. But no, you can't see her." Danyel left immediately.
For the past days, he was trying to remove Yasvie from his mind which was the hardest thing for him to do. But now that Gianna reminded him about her, which caused him to forget everything and float in an imaginary world which belonged to him and Yasvie.
Though they did not get much time to spend together, Danyel and Yasvie were able to create a lot of beautiful memories. Danyel sat on his bed and recalled those awesome moments.
He recalled the excitement he felt when their first kiss happened; Yasvie was so shy that she blushed like a strawberry. Danyel remembered how she let him sleep on her lap and play with her hair. He wanted to re-experience the warmth he felt when Yasvie moved her small fingers through his short hair.
Danyel felt an urge to see her. He really wanted to meet her.
"I will take the risk." He said to himself.
Since his personal spy- the officer appointed by the emperor was very hard to trick, Danyel had to be extremely cautious. He pretended to be asleep and slowly went near the window. With much effort, Danyel managed to open the window without making a noise. He got out through it and looked down.
Since his chamber was located in the first floor, he had to avoid falling and find a way to get down at the same time. As there were tiny pieces of stones on the ground, jumping was not an option. Fortunately, Danyel saw a pipe which led to the ground. It seemed strong enough to bear him.
He carefully came down using the pipe. But at the moment he put both his feet on the floor, Danyel saw two guards coming that way.
Acting super quickly, Danyel hid near a set of barrels. Luckily, the guards did not identify him as his black robe matched very well with the color of those barrels. Plus, it was the evening.
Using his sneaking skills, Danyel went near the water maids' quarters to get a glimpse of Yasvie. As if Danyel's wishes were heard by some genie, he saw Yasvie coming through his way.
Her beautiful face looked a bit dark just like when the moon hides behind a dark cloud. Her mind was completely blank as she wanted to stop feeling hopeless. Yasvie thought that Danyel was avoiding her because he no longer loved her. She wanted to stop thinking of him. Though it was indeed very hard to let go of him, she felt like she had no choice.
No Yasvie, You're wrong!!!! Just wait for him.
Accidently, Yasvie saw Danyel. First, she thought it was all in her mind, but then she realized that he was truly there. She ran to him.
Danyel grabbed her and went to an abandoned quarters near Yasvie's quarters.
Then he hugged and kissed her, letting out all the emotions he kept hiding.
"I thought you forgot me." Yasvie was crying.
"No my love. There is no way I can ever forget you or let you go. But I was forced." Danyel said while wiping Yasvie's tears.
"By whom? Your princess?" Yasvie was scared.
"She's not MY princess, okay? She's not much of a threat. It was my father. He knew about this from the beginning. He threatened to kill you the worst way possible if I met you again. That's why I couldn't come. I'm sorry Yasvie."
"Oh, I'm sorry too sire. You were thinking about me all the time." Yasvie rubbed Danyel's face.
"Yes. I came here taking a huge risk. All I want to know is that I love you a lot. I will try everything to stop this wedding. Even if I marry her, it would just be a fake marriage- limited to a paper. And I promise you, I will find a way. I will find a way that both of us can get rid of this and live peacefully. There must be somewhere we can live the life we want." Danyel said.
"I know you will. Um…how is this princess? Is she beautiful? I heard she faced an assassination attempt." Yasvie was curious.
Danyel recalled when Gianna asked about Yasvie the same way.
"Ah yes, she's a warrior. A bit different than I thought. She looks fine, but can't be compared to you. She wanted to see you."
"For what? Is she going to kill me?" Yasvie was scared.
Why does everyone think that Gianna wants to kill Yasvie??
"No. She was just a bit curious about you. She told me that she won't get between you and me, but she wants to have a child." Danyel uttered.
"She seems kind. I expected her to find me and threaten me to death actually." Yasvie spoke her mind.
Danyel and Yasvie had to return to their places without spending more time together as they did not want to get caught.
But behind their eyes, someone else was watching.
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After the assassination incident, Minnah started giving lessons to Gianna on combat skills. As a top fighter, she could transform Gianna to a medium level fighter in four days. Gianna was a quick learner, but she could not improve in Stri because she did not get the teacher's attention as much as she needed. They were learning in packs.
But here, she got the full attention from Minnah which led to a great improvement.
Other two maids were suspicious when Minnah spent more time inside Gianna's chamber. They were making weird guesses.
"She favors Nadya a lot. I'm sure the princess doesn't even remember our names."
"Yes! You know what; I think they are…lovers or something. What else do you think they're doing inside the chamber? It's very unusual that a princess even lets a maid in otherwise it has to be cleaned. I don't think they are cleaning the chamber for four entire days."
"I thought it too, remember when the princess met us for the first time and called Nadya by some other name? I bet that was her ex-lover's name. And Nadya must be looking like her."
"Oh yes. That's how you end up when you live in an all-female island. Hahaha."
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When the Hesmian Empire was getting ready to celebrate the wedding of their heir, a super-secret gathering was being held at an abandoned cottage in a jungle outside the Hesmian border.
A slightly old man who always wore a cloak with a hoody was the head of the meeting. He always kept his face a secret from others, but his powerful voice made others fear him and surrender easily. He was waiting for someone.
"This woman never learns to be punctual. Late every day." He whispered in anger.
"Be patient, bossz. We need her. She's the only insider from Hezzmia." Eswenth, a Lisdonian colonel said. He had a weird accent like all the Lisdonians. They spoke a different language.
After some moments, another person wearing a hoody-cloak showed up with a guard.
"Four days to go. The outer layer of soldiers will be decreased by a huge amount. It's better if we trap them by all four directions." She said.
"Hey lady, it's me who decides about the attack. Just update us about the recent events." The hoody guy commanded.
"I told you about this crown prince's affair right? I think it's serious. I think this girl is his weakness. If we caught her, we can easily get him to do anything we want."
"Why are we only focusing on the crown prince? What about the emperor?" Eswenth asked.
"Oh I'd love to talk about my good old friend. But his time is over. We'll have to deal with the little boy." Hoody guy said.
This was the first time neither the Strian spies nor the Hesmian spies did not have a single clue about an invasion; the biggest invasion ahead actually.