After reaching Promapple, they saw that Acastius’s fighters had already taken control of the village. Some of the villagers were submissive, and some were rebelling. But seeing Martia, they all froze where they were, and the village turned silent.

  Martia wiped her tears and went to the podium of Promanthae’s house, where Promanthae always sat on his chair. She loudly declared, “I have killed Promanthae. I will not allow our village to be divided into two groups. The last thing we will be is against each other. Whoever has a problem with this can challenge me to a fight. I encourage all the people who are rebelling right now to come and fight me at once.”

  She looked at them with aggression and asked in a menacing voice, “So, who is coming forward?”

  Everyone watched Martia in awe.

  One of the villagers came forward, and everyone looked at him.

  Martia asked, “Should I think of it as a challenge?”

  The villager replied, “No, think of it as acceptance..acceptance

  from all of us to choose you as our leader. Promanthae chose you

  for us. From that time and till now, we considered you as our leader.

  When Promanthae tortured you, we thought you are not worthy and too weak to lead us. But now, by taking the control back from Promanthae, you have once again proved that you are born to be our leader. If you don’t want our village to be divided in two, then lead us as one. Martia, we all accept you as our leader; it is now your turn to accept Promapple as your home.”

  Martia was astounded at how things had turned out. She looked at Minver and Acastius, who were as confused as her as to how to handle this situation. Martia understood it was the time to do what she hated the most, Promanthae’s favorite trick—manipulation and brainwashing.

  She closed her eyes for a moment and turned her back towards the villagers and said with confidence, “Of course, I accept this village as my home And it would be my privilege to lead you all on a better path.”

  Then she turned back to face the villagers and said boldly and aggressively, “But I want to lead you to a much better path than you are on right now. I want to give you a choice to live and decide your future. Is everyone here who is assigned a task happy to receive an order from us? I understand that you want to be a fighter, an assassin so that you can make Promapple more

  powerful, but if I say that I will work for that from outside Promapple, for the betterment of our village, for the due respect and the freedom you all deserve, and that you are now free to choose the life you want to live, how is that for leadership?"

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  She looked away from them and towards to house of Promanthae and continued "I am living in the castle right now; you all must know that by now. I will slowly manipulate the king’s decisions and one day we will rule the Absyleous"

  She faced them and continued in an loud aggressive tone "I am not going to implement the plan made by Promanthae because it is unacceptable to me to let any of you die for something that I can achieve for us without putting you all in any kind of danger. I want you all to live and see the betterment of the kingdom, which I am going to bring in the near future."

  With pause she and looked at each one them and said in a softly "But for me to do that, you have to let me go—go back to the castle again and start implementing the dream we all saw for ourselves. And before I go, you have to be my strength—like always, you have to be united. Let Minver and Acastius lead you here, while I pull the strings from the castle. So, are you all with me in this plan?”

  Martia could see the consent in each of the rebels’ eyes. She could

  easily detect the trust in their body language now. Feeling proud of her manipulation, she called Minver and Acastius onto the podium and announced, “Let them lead you from here under my guidance, and let me take care of you from within the king’s castle.”

  To check whether they were all with her, she asked once again, loudly and with a little intimidation, “Are you all with me?”

  They all bowed in acceptance of her leadership and her decisions.

  Martia smiled and felt a little sorry for them. She looked at Acastius and Minver and said slowly, “Here, I give you a chance to make this village a little better than what it was under Promanthae.”

  Minver said, “But we can’t stop training them as assassins and fighters, Martia. We trust you, but right now, you have no power to take care of our safety.”

  Martia was a little troubled on hearing this. She thought, Did I

  manipulate them too? Taking care of the Promapplers’ safety was never her aim. She had just come to save her friends. Martia decided not to say anything about this. Instead, she smiled and embraced Minver and Acastius and said, “I should leave now.”

  Minver protested, “I want to celebrate this freedom with you, Martia. Just stay for two more days before saying goodbye, please.”

  Martia felt a little anxious on hearing this request. She knew the Prince must be counting the days until her return. Before she could say anything, Acastius said, “Of course, she can spare two days for her friends. We also deserve this much time, don’t we, Martia?”

  Martia, now left with no choice, smiled and agreed.