KINGSLAYER

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When he unsurprisingly said nothing, I stated the obvious: "It must pain you to see me alive and well. You must loathe yourself for failing your mission."

"Perhaps I failed in killing you that night," he said in a low voice. "But Seifer Daggen will not. You have no hope to face him alone in his residence, much less in a war."

"You know nothing of Seifer Daggen." My tone was perfectly controlled, for I knew he was attempting to rile me. "And you know even less about me."

"I know things about him that you'd rather I didn't," he hissed with a flash of white teeth. "You think I don't know who he is? You think I'm just another street urchin looking for quick money from a manipulative client? I didn't fall into his clutches by accident."

I resisted the urge to back away as Khan leaned forward to the best of his ability, dark hair shifting over his forehead. "I know he was the one to kill your family. Seifer Daggen caused the Royal Massacre. And I applaud him for it. He nearly removed the blight that was the Imperatrix bloodline. He murdered your sadistic father." Khan shook his head then. "I only loathe myself for not finishing the bastard off myself."

I said nothing. So he knew. That was the reason he came after me, to finish the work Daggen had started. Surely Daggen was paying him good money for it.

"You're awfully quiet now. Tell me, do you sleep well knowing what your family did to my people? I bet you eat until you can't anymore, while Navrikan children starve in the streets because their innocent parents were murdered by your greedy father. Do you even know how much he ruined Navrika?" His voice was like a fox in the woods examining a trap and purposefully trying to figure out what set it off.

This was expected, given the history between our two countries. During the Red War, my father was tired of Ermalai Morokov's not honoring Oceana-favoring trade deals and simply began invading the southern coast as a means of incentive. However, instead of the Czar agreeing to my father's deal, he opted to fight back on their own soil. The battle raged for some time before my father realized what would really hurt Navrika: enslaving its people in Oceana. So that is what he did, taking the people from the villages he burned and shipping them back home to be war slaves.

As a result, Navrika's economy tanked and its remaining people began to feel the strain, especially after a single bad crop yield five years ago. Because of it, the Czar taxed and manipulated his people ruthlessly to keep his family and the wealthy nobles at the top. From what I heard from my father, he denied them the import of extra food from Etharia, even when it had been offered in a stroke of goodwill. That way, his people were too weak to rebel against his new tyrannical policies.

But Khan continued, "And you...you weren't a meek daughter of the king, unknowingly supporting his bloodshed. No, I know what you did with your battalion in Navrika. I know what you did in the ring, slaughtering both my people and yours in the name of twisted justice. Don't think I haven't heard the stories."

At that, it was difficult to remain calm and collected. I made my voice perfectly even when I said, "Traitors to the throne are traitors regardless of the circumstances. Under Aegeus Imperator's law, criminals must be removed. However, my father is now dead. My law will be only my own."

"People don't often choose to become criminals. They become them out of desperation, out of survival. Because your family rid them of any other choice," he spat, eyes flashing. "You will run Oceana and the surrounding nations into the ground. Daggen will be infinitely better on the throne."