Wife of The Demon Prince
Chapter 192: Be himself again

Chapter 192: Be himself again

As Anne leaned against her carriage, trying to deceive herself and make herself believe that Merek would come back to the Boxton mansion, unknown to her Merek wasn’t far away from where she stood.

Merek stood behind a tree in the distance watching her. His eyebrows furrowed when he saw her wipe her cheeks. Was she crying? But why? Was it because of him or because she didn’t get to meet her sister? It hadn’t been long since he last saw Anne, however, he couldn’t help but think; she looked different, he couldn’t point his fingers on what the changes were though.

Even if he hadn’t witnessed what happened when Anne went into the crown Prince’s residence, it was apparent she hadn’t gotten to meet her sister. He had followed her here, he also saw when she went inside but came out shortly. Ara wouldn’t so easily turn her sister away. Something must be wrong. He mused.

Merek was officially on a vacation from his work, and since the crown Prince had granted him that, he hadn’t returned to the palace even after leaving the Boxton mansion. Since his mission was to keep Anne safe until the Boxton’s returned to the north, he had decided to hang around the Boxton mansion area so he could protect her from there. Though he’d thought it best to stay away from her to erase her from his mind, he would usually still find himself sneaking into her room to check up on her at night.

That night, Anne had given him an earnest confession of love, but he could not help but wonder how she could ever love him, she clearly didn’t understand what the gravity of her claimed feelings were, she was still young and naive to be willing to give up her noble life for a man she barely even knew. She knew nothing about him to begin with, not to mention he was not the person she thought he was.

Merek had tried all he could to get her out of his mind but... against his better judgement he would find himself curiously going to her, she’d continuously keep hovering in his mind, in his thoughts until he found himself jumping through her window in the dead of the night, he had roamed around the Boxton premises, but had avoided her all the time. He convinced himself that he was still there because he was merely following the crown Prince’s orders to stay until the family would leave for the north. But unconsciously he couldn’t get her out of his head.

Nevertheless, he had come to realize that there was no path open for them both in this lifetime, he wasn’t willing to accept her or give his heart. Hamon was his master, and he had vowed to protect him for life due to the things he’d done for him all these years. And with the kind of life he was living, in his path of endless darkness and death, Merek knew he had no life for himself, nor was he willing to ever settle down with any woman.

Especially not Anne, she was kind, bright and cheerful, something too good for someone like him. The wall between them was too huge he would never attempt to cross again. Furthermore, none of the Boxton family would ever bless their relationship, it was best to dissuade fantasies before she ended up getting hurt in the future. Or, she might wake up someday and realize she had made a huge mistake by deciding to be with him and decides to just leave... losing people wasn’t a foreign feeling to him after all, everyone had left him in the past.

Merek glanced back at Anne silently until she finally got inside her carriage. But somehow his heart felt troubled about how she looked broken. Was it because of him? Although, he had no intentions to ever show himself to her again, he’d lied to her about who he was, and she had easily trusted him and gave him a job.

He couldn’t help the feeling he was beginning to have...

He never had qualms about his missions before, which served him well as an assassin, but for the first time...The feeling of guilt entered him, seeing how she looked made his heart feel unusually heavy with guilt.

Merek shook the thoughts away and decided to just go and find out why Anne didn’t get to meet her sister. He turned and made his way to the crown Prince’s residence. After getting there, he soon heard words about the ambush on the couple. He decided to confirm it with the soldiers instead. It wasn’t difficult for him to gather some information about what happened to the crown Prince and his wife.

The crown Prince had been ambushed when they went out, although no more information was available aside from Ara’s injury. But Merek was more curious about; ’How the crown Prince escaped from the assassins?’ He had asked almost all the higher ranked soldiers of Hamon, but none of them wanted to talk about it. It was as if the crown Prince blocked the information from going out.

Merek’s curiosity peeked, and he decided to ask someone who knew would know everything about this.

Oliver. his relationship with Oliver wasn’t an exaggeration if they were called enemies, the only thing between them tearing each other apart was Hamon.

Merek immediately made to Oliver’s room and knocked softly on the door, Oliver’s voice came from inside,

"Enter."

As Merek entered the room, he was met with the blond haired man who sat on his desk with his full attention engrossed on some pile of parchment papers on his untidy desk, he didn’t immediately look up to see who came in until Merek closed the door behind him. His bright green eyes glanced away from the parchment papers, however he frowned when he met Merek’s black orbs instead of the hazel eyes he’d been expecting to see.

He had been expecting Emma to bring his lunch as she’d promised in the morning, but instead, Merek! He rose from his seat and questioned with a hardened expression, "What brings you to my room?"

Merek didn’t pay heed to his expression and went straight to the point of what brought him here, "What happened in the forest after the ambush?"

Oliver balled up his fist, he disliked Merek’s presence in his room. But then he had to put aside their personal matters since this concerned the crown Prince.

The reason he loathed Merek was simply because, he thought Merek’s arrival to the crown Prince’s side had created a distance between him and Hamon and he hated Merek’s detached and somewhat arrogant nature. Oliver had been around Hamon since their teenage years, he’d trained alongside Hamon. But then a few years later Merek came in from nowhere, he was a criminal who was supposed to be executed, but somehow got out of it with the help of the crown Prince, and ever since then he started to stick around them like glue. Moreover, he was a criminal in the past, but now he had the guts to be rude and arrogant.

Oliver couldn’t tolerate the fact that someone like Merek had suddenly come to be equal as him and became one of Hamon’s most trusted men. One day, Oliver had enough and confronted the criminal about his arrogant attitude, however they ended up fighting, but the worst part was; Hamon had taken Merek’s side and had punished Oliver since he was the one to throw the first punch. Ever since then, Oliver had hated Merek and didn’t want to be in the same space as him.

Oliver’s frown deepened even more as he recalled his past with Merek, he then sized him up as he didn’t want him in his room, but he decided to set aside his dislike towards the criminal, and faced the crown Prince’s issues instead,

"Well, the crown princess was struck with poisonous arrows, don’t know exactly what happened, but the crown Prince transformed into...that thing." He explained it in vague terms, nevertheless Merek understood what he meant by ’that thing.’

Despite Hamon’s attempt to hide his demon side, some of his trusted men knew of it, most included; Merek and Oliver his most trusted men of all. They’d witnessed it on some of the battles they went, whenever the enemies were beginning to have the upper hand, the crown Prince would unleash the terrible destructive power of the monster in him.

However, that was already known to Merek, so he didn’t know why Oliver was speaking with such ambiguity, "Was that all that happened?"

Oliver suddenly recalled that terrifying night Hamon transformed, he had ruthlessly killed those dozens of assassins, he slaughtered them with his claws and...Even burned them. It was the most gruesome sight Oliver had ever seen.

"No, it was different this time...there were flames burning in his hands. He almost burned down the entire forest. I have never seen such powers before..."

Merek’s usually indifferent face was masked with astonishment at Oliver’s words. He had never heard of flames burning in ones hands before.

Oliver continued, "His powers intensified double that night...most of the assassins were torn to pieces with his claws." He said, then his frown deepened as if something came to his mind, he turned to Merek, "How long are you going to continue fooling around in the Boxton mansion? You don’t expect me to continue doing your work for you, do you? It would be best you return to your duties as soon as possible. I always have my own work to have enough time to keep doing yours."

Merek just simply nodded, "...I understand."

"We have to make sure a situation like this will never arise again in the future, we have to tighten the security forces around the princess. Prince Hamon went as far as to attack our troops this time, he killed them like he did with the assassins, because of her."

Merek frowned, "He killed the troops from our side?"

"Yes, but then I’ve arranged a meeting yesterday to make sure the men who came back alive and witnessed everything wouldn’t go spreading rumors about this outside. They’ve sworn to keep the secret to their graves...I am afraid if something like this happens again, he might end up attacking the kingdom itself."

They couldn’t continue to let their guard down now that the crown Prince had a lot of enemies who would do anything to spoil his image more. If they knew his weakness was his wife, they’d surely get to him through her to bring him down. Because of all this, Oliver couldn’t continue to handle everything alone, even though he hated to admit it; he needed Merek’s help more than anything now, regardless of his personal grudges, he was well aware Merek was the most skilled among the crown Prince’s men.

"Then it’s time I end my vacation at the Boxton’s."

At that moment an image of Anne’s face floated to Merek’s mind. Her bright smiley face, and mesmerizing sky blue eyes. He recalled the day she confessed to him. Her expression was deeply sincere as she made her love confession to him.

_’I said I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I have loved you for long...’

_’I’ll accept that as long as it’s with you, I’m willing to face any hardship with you by my side, even if it means living in a cabin, in a hut or even on the streets, as long as I can be with you.’

_’Yes, I don’t care about status or wealth as long as am your wife. We can face all the hardships together, we don’t have to care what the world will think of us. I don’t mind if you have nothing, I’ll take all the responsibility of our expenses, I still have my share of fortune as the second daughter of the Boxton’s household, we will live happily and start our own family, Merek...’

Recalling her words made his heart felt more heavy with guilt. Whether he wanted to or not, it was high time he leave her be completely. No more night visiting, no more guarding, and definitely no more feelings. It was time he returned to his old life, to be himself again.

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