Meanwhile, inside a nameless tavern.

Two figures were happily laughing and talking. A girl who was fourteen years old and a seventeen-year-old boy. They were naturally Astoria and Sam. Sam also often joined the army as a reserve and fought many battles. Astoria didn’t have many things to contribute. She gave moral support to her brothers and became a minor character in this war.

However, she didn’t mind. Instead, she was extremely happy.

Her father rewarded her with an unbelievable sum of money for getting the Zenith pill formula and because she had much more free time now, she enjoyed spending it with Sam. Sam had already mourned and mostly moved on from Nala, and these two had instead grown extremely close.

Astoria felt like she had a crush on him but didn’t know what to do. She just decided to spend more time with him for now.

However, at this moment, a hooded figure was staring daggers at the two of them. Its icy gaze was filled with hatred and malice. ‘Astoria…’ the figure whispered to itself.

As if sensing something Astoria turned around. But the figure quickly tried to hide and turned back. But she noticed this and started walking towards him. The hooded figure panicked and started retreating.

"Stop him!" she cried.

Immediately many people in the tavern reacted. They all knew her identity as the young miss of the village head’s family, and she often came to this bar and was familiar with everyone. They all surrounded the man and stopped him from moving any further.

The man panicked even more and tried to leave forcefully but one of Astoria’s guards punched him in the face and forced him down to his knees as Astoria finally arrived.

“Remove his hood,” she ordered another guard.

The guard followed her orders and removed his hood, holding the man’s head up by his hair and forced him to look up at Astoria while the other guard kept him down. The man was pale and skinny, as if he hadn't eaten properly in a long time. He had a hateful gaze as he looked at her.

She struggled to recognise this man but could sense his animosity.

‘Who is he?’ she thought but then remembered something.

Even though he was very different, his facial features were still very similar to a person in her memory.

Henry!

According to the official story, Henry betrayed the Leon village and sold the Zenith pill recipe to an outsider for money. As a result, he was exiled, and no one had heard from him again. After Jain village started producing the pills, everyone thought that the person who bought the recipe was Holt, or somehow related to Holt. No one knew that the entire plot was orchestrated by that little, innocent looking girl.

No one except Henry.

Seeing Astoria’s act that day, he realised that she had been lying the whole time. She never wanted to marry and run away with him at all.

So then why did she give him the bag and tell him to wait at the eastern gate? Why did the bag have treasures from the village? Why were her clothes bloody without any wounds? Why was there blood on his dagger that he didn’t use?

He recollected the headmistress’ suspicions about Astoria, and he realised how stupid he was!

He was being played all along!

The only one who suspected Astoria was the headmistress and she was dead. And now, everything was perfectly framed to make him look like the culprit!

For several weeks he was interrogated by the guards to tell them who he sold the Zenith pill recipe too. He tried his best to explain his innocence and how Astoria orchestrated everything, but no one believed him.

How could they?

It was his word against hers, and all the evidence pointed to him as the culprit. Adding onto that Astoria’s stellar performance, everyone believed that Henry was the culprit and he was just trying to blame everything on Astoria as a last attempt of getting away with it.

Soon, news that the Jain village was mass producing the Zenith pill reached Leon, and Byron decided to give up. Even if he got Henry to confess, there was nothing they could do about it anymore.

So, he just kicked him out of the village.

Henry was confused and didn’t know where to go. But he also knew that the Zenith pill formula was bought by someone in the Jain village. He knew then that Astoria must be linked to this village and decided to follow her here.

But after coming here, he still had no money. He was working some menial jobs and made just enough money to barely get by. He tried to inquire about an Olivia Higson, but no one knew who she was.

That’s when he realised that even the name might be fake!

This girl had come and turned his life upside down and he did not even know her name!

Could there be a greater idiot in the world than him?

Helpless, he was doing whatever work he could to survive, while trying to investigate Astoria. By chance, he saw Astoria in the streets one day.

Enraged, he called out the name ‘Olivia’ to get her attention, but she did not respond. It was a busy street so she probably did not even hear him.

However, someone else on the street became annoyed by Henry’s yelling and tried to see who he was calling. He then looked at Henry with a strange gaze.

“Why are you calling the young miss of the village as Olivia? Everyone knows her name is Astoria. Are you dumb or something?”

And then the final piece of the puzzle was revealed. The girl belonged to the village head’s family. She infiltrated his mansion, planned and stole the Zenith pill recipe, killed the headmistress and some guards, framed him for everything, and returned to her village to share the recipe and live her happy life.

Astoria was her name.

Who was Henry?

An extremely prideful man.

This man had been completely played for a fool by this little girl. He was furious. All his hatred directed towards her. He wanted to kill her right at that moment, but he saw her meet up with Sam and was surrounded by guards all the time.

He couldn’t do anything!

He hated them all. He hated them, hated them, hated them to the core! He wanted them all to die a miserable death! Death by being stoned! Death in the most painful way a thousand times!

Die! Die! DIE!

Hatred, rage, malice, fury flared up, completely consuming him.

So intense was his animosity that Astoria sensed it even though she was sitting far away in the tavern.

Never could she imagine that she would meet him in such a way. In fact, she held no hatred towards him, even some pity. He was just a pawn she had used for her own purposes. She felt bad about what she did for some time, especially given that he had actually cared about her originally, but soon stopped herself.

He destroyed Nala’s life and turned it upside down. She went from being a high-ranking maid about to get married to a loving fiancée, to being sold as a slave, and dying alone. He turned another girl’s life upside down, and she turned his life upside down.

Moreover, because of her actions, her brother, and the entire village of Jain was profiting. When compared to the wellbeing of the whole village, how could one man’s life compare?

Saying so, she convinced herself that she didn’t do anything wrong. If she started feeling sorry for Henry, then she would begin hating herself and become weak again.

She couldn’t allow that.

She finally had her happy ending, why would she ruin it for some Henry who no one even cared about anymore?

However, Henry reappeared now and caused many complex emotions to well up in her heart.

“It’s really you!” She said surprised.

He was no longer the fat and chubby man but had grown thin and pale. He clearly couldn’t continue eating such lavish meals as before. At this point Sam walked over and recognised Henry.

“You! How dare you show your face in front of me!” he screamed.

Henry was confused.

Who was this character that randomly popped in?

Sam’s appearance had changed a lot over the past two years, so he didn’t recognise him.

“Who the heck are you?” he asked. Sam was taken aback but then he laughed. He started laughing very hard.

“Good! Very good! Let me finally tell you! It was I who destroyed you! You destroyed the life of my fiancé Nala, and I got revenge! Hahahaha! Look at you now, so pathetic! This is what you deserve, you filthy dog!” Sam started laughing crazily.

‘Nala…’ Henry thought for a moment before simultaneously recognising the name and Sam as the intruder who originally broke in.

So that’s what happened.

He was wondering why Astoria targeted him to frame everything on. He figured that he was just a convenient target, but now he realised, there was a revenge story involved too.

But that only made him angrier.

In his perspective, he did nothing wrong. Nala was just a servant, but he was nobility! How dare these two treat him in such a way for a servant girl?

Of course, that wasn’t the main reason, the pill recipe was also a big reason why they targeted him, but still it was no excuse!

How could they do this to him?

He immediately felt great hatred towards this man as well.

“It’s over already, you pig!” Sam exclaimed. “What are you staring at us like that for? Don’t you know she is the daughter of the head of the village? If you show such hostile intentions towards her, she can have you executed!”

“Give it up, you have already lost everything, there is no reason to continue fighting your fate,” Astoria agreed. She thought for a moment before throwing him a few gold coins. They bounced off his face and landed on the wooden floor.

But Henry didn’t move.

He was extremely humiliated!

He roared with fury and spat on Astoria’s face.

The whole tavern was quiet.

The audacity! Who on Earth did he think he was?

Very few people knew the actual story behind how the Jain village got the Zenith pill recipe, and these commoners were not among them.

“What are you going to do you filthy bitch?” He cursed. “Kill me? Haha! Go ahead! How could the great Me be afraid of death? I have already lost everything. You have already taken away everything. What worth does my life have now? Take it! In fact, you should kill me now! If you don’t kill me now, I swear I will make you regret ever being born in the future!”

Astoria’s face turned cold.

She didn’t want to kill him, but she couldn’t bear such disrespect. He was a nobody now, how could she let him talk to her like this? If it was just a random person, she would have already ordered her guards to kill him.

However, she still did not fully wipe away her own guilt. She knew that Henry had every reason to be mad at her, to hate her. Their relationship was unfixable.

But after everything she did to him, if she took his life as well, the guilt she had been supressing might come back ever stronger. She didn’t want to go through that. She just wanted to suppress all these emotions and forget about them.

Still, given how many bystanders there were, she couldn’t let him get away with such disrespect else she would seem weak. She could not be weak.

She wiped her face with a handkerchief before slowly walking closer to Henry, staring into his eyes. Henry stared right back, not the least bit afraid of his situation.

After getting close, she kicked him right in the face. Henry was already weak and now fell onto the floor. She kicked him repeatedly, stomping on his face, again, and again, and again. He was bleeding profusely and was completely swollen up.

Everyone watched this torture but was internally happy to see this arrogant newcomer be put in his place.

She kept kicking him over and over until he fell unconscious. With a cold expression, she took the heel of her shoe and stabbed it into his eye.

Henry woke up screaming in pain!

“Who gave you permission to fall unconscious while I’m punishing you?” she spoke coldly, before starting to kick him again while he was awake.

Henry could no longer speak. Tears and blood fell out of his eyes as he began crying from pain. He was extremely pathetic now.

After what seemed like a long time, Astoria finally stopped her abuse.

“Humph! You are lucky that I am in a good mood today, else I would have killed you already,” she spoke threateningly. “Leave. Leave now and never come back. If I ever see your stupid face in this village again, I will be sure to finish what I started today.”

Saying this, she turned and returned to her table and waved her hand at the guards who dragged out a bloody Henry and chucked him on the streets like a pile of trash. Sam was inwardly astonished at seeing her ruthlessness, but then recollected the image of the bloody figure standing outside his prison again.

Sam gulped. He was very glad that he was on her good books.

That girl was not to be underestimated!

Henry could barely stand up. He was in incredible pain. However, even though he thought that he couldn’t hate Astoria anymore, in this moment, he hated her with every ounce of his being.

She was vile. A demoness. He swore that he would return this humiliation a thousand-fold in the future. He would rip her apart piece by piece till she begged him for mercy but would receive none. She would die a most painful death.

‘Astoria…’ he mumbled. ‘Don’t you dare die before I can kill you!’

Thinking this, he dragged himself out of the village. Even though it was very dangerous outside villages in these times, he couldn’t bear to stay in this village any longer. Even if Astoria didn’t threaten him to leave the village, he would still do so.

As he walked, he almost fainted many times from agony but forced himself to keep walking until he found a safe spot to rest in. He didn’t know how much longer he could keep going. He was leaving a trail of blood and would soon probably die from bleeding out. But he kept going.

Astoria, Astoria, Astoria, Astoria, Astoria! Kill! Die! Demon! Bitch!

His mind was filled with utmost hatred. So much so that even his pain was only secondary. In this state, he kept forcing himself forward but suddenly bumped into something. He was already very weak, so he immediately fell down.

However, the person he had bumped into stared at him expressionlessly.

It was a black hooded figure with a mysterious, yet dangerous aura.

“Look at you,” he spoke with a deep, echoing voice. “Once a prince but now worth less than a dog. Betrayed by those you trusted, abandoned by your own kin, and shunned by the world. No one understands your pain, your side of the story. Everyone is a villain. Everyone deserves to die. Yet you are too weak to do anything about it. What you hate the most, is your own weakness.”

Henry heard this but didn’t have the strength to respond. He was surprised that this stranger could see the truth and could only smile weakly in acknowledgement.

“Those who are hailed as heroes are hypocrites. Those who must protect, instead destroy. This is the cruelty of the world,” his voice echoed deeply. “The question is this, will you be slain by the cruelty, or rise in spite of it? To fight this cruel world, we must become even more cruel. To kill those who are stronger than us, we must become even stronger. Such strength does not come easily but requires great sacrifice. Do you have what it takes to make that sacrifice?”

Henry wanted to laugh. He had nothing left to sacrifice, even his own life was fading away. What could he possibly have to sacrifice? He had nothing.

The hooded figure stared at Henry intently and continued.

“Sacrifice your friends and sacrifice your family. Sacrifice society and all that is good in this world! Sacrifice everything in the pursuit of absolute strength!”

Henry wanted to agree but he was too weak to say anything. There was not a single person he cared about. He would have no problem seeing the world burn down. In fact, he wanted to do that. No one had stood up for him. No one cared about him. He hated everyone. They could all die.

Henry just smiled further in response and the hooded man let out a wicked grin.

“In that case, I welcome you, brother, to join our ranks!” Saying this he laughed loudly and grabbed Henry from the floor. He summoned a creature which seemed to blend into the wind, making its figure indistinct. However, it conjured extremely powerful wind and lighting, which struck their surroundings like a mad storm.

In an instant, the two had disappeared. The surroundings quietened as if nothing had happened.

Only that trail of blood was left to mark the path of this fallen soul.