** A/N: A mass release today for my readers! I love ya! Thank you for waiting and supporting me with your encouraging words! Enjoy! -ptd!
P.S. A reader asked me how many chapters Deviant will have (sorry for not answering you directly). I don't know how many chapters Deviant will have, I usually just write, letting the story flow out of me and when the story comes to a close, that's when the book ends, I don't plan out how many chapters it will be. That is why I like to thank those who wait for me to write/publish the chapters. Their patience, words of support and love encourages me to keep on writing for them! Love you guys!***
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Reaper was the only one who held his laughter back as the rest of the men laughed then tried to cover it up with a cough. Lady Emmy could be a very petty person. Especially towards those who wronged her. Now that Prince Cael is the one who is the brunt of her jokes, they couldn't help, but to feel thankful towards Prince Cael. Because they were no longer the brunt of her jokes and she was no longer holding a grudge against them.
"Lady Emmy." Cael tried to speak to her again, however was interrupted.
"Ah!" Emmy said as she sighed. "Now a crow is cawing. What ill omen is this?"
Cael's face lit up in embarrassment. How could he win against her? She completely ignored him and insulted him. How can he stand for this? He is Crown Prince Cael of Lire! Anyone and everyone wanted to be on his good side. Wanted to please him and bow down to him. How could this woman with a bad reputation treat him as if he was nothing but air?
Cael's anger rose, but quickly died. If he was in her shoes, he wouldn't have been so forgiving as Lady Emmy was towards him. He would have been more aggressive towards the people who wanted to kill him. Cael held his thoughts to himself as the stopped trying to speak to Emmy. They rode on with silence.
Cael stayed with the group, following along side them. Neither Cael or Emmy spoke to one another. Emmy treated Cael as if he didn't exist. However he treated her with caution. He could only observe her for the past three days. Her actions, her voice and her demeanor were all memorized by Cael.
What they observed before they attacked her was only a fraction of what the real Emmy truly acted. His first impression of her quickly changed as he watched her caring ways towards the guards. Even though her actions towards her guards were small and forgettable. To him, it showed how detailed she was about those around her.
Those small and forgettable actions caused him to carry more doubts to the words that his junior disciple said about her and caused him to rethink if those rumors about Emmy were really true or false. How could this one woman be the cause of so much misfortune and disasters?
How could she be in so many places and cause so many problems when no one really knew how she looked like and no one could tell how her character truly is. His doubt became even more solidified when they were ambushed when they stop to rest for the night.
They have camped to the side of the main road and like the other nights, Emmy made her own bed next to the fire and began roasting the rabbits that her guards caught. She seasoned it and placed it above the fire and sat back while it cooked. As the rest of the guards went to search around their surroundings. Back at camp there were only four of them. Emmy, Reaper, Cael and Cael's guard, Price.
The rest of Emmy's guards were gone for a long time before Cael began to say something about it, because Emmy and Reaper acted as if nothing wrong was happening.
"Your men are taking a long time." Cael said out loud to no one in general, but it was directed towards Emmy and Reaper.
"They must've wanted to stretch out their legs and walked further than they usually do." Reaper said as his eyes quickly glanced at Emmy.
"Em." Emmy said as she yawned in an unladylike way. Her arms stretched out as her back arched back as well.
From a distance, Cael could faintly hear swords clanging and men shouting. He immediately stood up and look towards the noises that he was hearing.
"I'm pretty sure your men are under attack." Cael said as his eyes squinted in worry.
"Probably." Reaper said as he turned the rabbits around so the raw side could be cooked by the fire.
"They are." Emmy confirmed. "There's 20 of them. It was an ambush."
"You!" Cael shouted as he pointed at Emmy. "You're not even going to help them! They are your people, for goodness sake! How could you just sit here and act as if everything is fine!?!"
Emmy ignored Cael yet again and caused him to be even more furious. Maybe the things he saw the past few days were a lie. Maybe it was just a front to trick him into believing that she was not like all the rumors said she was. His heart dropped at the thought and disappointed flooded him as he quickly ran towards the fight. Price quickly followed after his Prince, leaving Reaper and Emmy to watch their dinner.
"Never thought Prince Cael could be so reckless." Reaper said as he rubbed the side of his cheek where his stubble began to look more like a beard. "If our Ceco soldiers could not even win against those thieves, they don't deserve to call themselve soldiers."
"Em." Emmy agreed as she took out a pot and added water to it before throwing in some chopped vegetables that they brought from a farmer and placed it to the side of the fire to cook.
Cael quickly ran towards the fighting and when he reached the other men, he quickly pulled out his sword and started fighting. He quickly killed two men before he noticed that above them where men crying out for help. Large vines have captured some of the men and made the fighting more fair. No matter how much the captured men tried to slice at the vines, more vines grew until they could not move. While others were just hanging upside down.
He counted and there were six men hanging from the vines as the guards fought. Cael stopped and watched as the guards were fighting against their opponents as if the guards were playing with them. Cael could tell right away, the guards could easily defeat the other men, but they were slowly killing them. Why?
"Hoho!" Warly said as he saw Cael stop to watch them kill the thieves. "Prince Cael and Honor Guard Price are here to watch us play!"
Warly quickly attacked the man who he was fighting, cutting the man's chest and leg with his daggers in his hands.
"They are no match for you." Cael said as he waved his sword at them. "Why do you not just finish them off? Why do you insist on torturing them?"
"Prince Cael has a soft heart." Warly said as he again made three more cuts into his opponent, causing the man to scream in anger and pain.
"We are following our laws." Fuller told Cael as he finally gave the man he was killing some peace. His sword plunged into the man's stomach and once he pulled out his sword, blood sprayed out and the the man fell. "Bandits and thieves are not welcomed in Ceco. Their punishment is torture, for death is too easy for them."
Cael's eyes opened wide with surprise. How did he not know that the laws in Ceco were so strict? No wonder there were hardly any crimes committed in Ceco. Once the 14 men were killed, the vines immediately loosened and the other six were dropped to the ground as they too were killed slowly. Their blood drenched the forest floor red and once their bodies no longer held any lifeto them, the ground opened up and the all the thieves were buried without a headstone.
Cael knew that it was Emmy who helped capture the men and helped bury the dead. How could it be anyone else other than her? Even though she acted like she did not care. She did. She cared enough to help her men when it was needed. Her cold exterior and warm heart made Cael sigh in relief and heartache. She is the woman that he thought she was. And she was not the kind of woman the rumors said she was.
The 11 of them came back to camp and quickly washed up before sitting down for dinner. Around the fire they all ate and chatted merrily before Cael couldn't hold himself back.
"Why didn't you just say that you were already helping them out?" Cael said towards Emmy.
Emmy was drinking her water when Cael spoke and glanced his way before returning her eyes back down to her food and began to eat.
"Why did you act as if you didn't care about them, when you really do? Why do you not dispute those horrible rumors about you? Why is it that you act as if you don't care about what other people say about you? Why is it that you can just sit there, so calmly, when so much injustice has been done to you?" Cael shouted.
His voice became louder and louder with each sentence. His anger was towards the rumors, but mostly it was towards himself, for judging Emmy so wrongly and tried to cause her harm. He became even more angry that throughout the whole ordeal, Emmy's facial features did not move. As if it was in a perpetual mask. Does she not feel anger, happiness, sadness? Is she even human?
Emmy finished her plate of food and drank the last of her water before she finally spoke. When she did, Reaper sighed in relief because he held his breath the whole time silently begging Emmy to speak to Prince Cael. He didn't know how much more insults Prince Cael could endure before he proclaimed to kill them all.
"If everyone said they sky was green and I told them it was blue, would my words matter?" Emmy asked. "If I told them the grass was green and everyone else said it was blue, would my words matter? Why should I keep wasting my words of innocence, with those who have already condemned me as they see fit to blame me for their problems?"
Emmy wiped her hand with a wet rag that Reaper gave her and it was quiet once again. Everyone waiting for her to speak.
"It gets tiring when everyone points at me and curses at me for doing this and that, then arguing about it, trying to convince them that I didn't do it." Emmy said. "That's why I decided that those who've come for my life, will die. Those who say I did something when I haven't, I'll go do what they say I did. Then that way, the lies about me would at least be true in the end. I'll live my life shamelessly. They want me to be a villain. Then that's what I'll be."