"It's my fault," said the Prince, sitting down at the table. "I should have told you everything right away, and—"

  "Everything? What exactly?" Ife interrupted impatiently.

  Arenor smiled for some reason:

  "You're as impatient as you've always been."

  Hearing his words, Ife tensed; what did he mean by "always been"? Could he possibly be—

  "Actually," the Prince began to explain, "no one from this palace found you, let alone your ring."

  "Then how did you—"

  "Some guy brought your body and your ring to the palace at night," he continued to explain. "He handed you and the ring over to the night guard who was standing guard at the palace that night, then told them everything that had happened at the Night Bazaar and left, asking them to return the ring to you as soon as you regained consciousness."

  "So they just believed the stranger's words?" thought Ife. "and yet they didn't check to see if they were true?"

  In her opinion, this was completely irresponsible on the part of both the night guard and the Prince himself. In any other situation, she would have been outraged by their behavior, but now, at this moment, she was incredibly happy about it.

  This was her chance. A chance at a life without the label of "mass murderer."

  "And you just took his word for it?" she asked, calming down in an instant, causing the Prince to narrow his eyes suspiciously. "What if he was the one who actually committed the mass murder and just wanted to shift the blame onto me?"

  "Didn't you do it?" Nasir asked mockingly, causing her to hiss indignantly.

  "I didn't—" And then Arenor faltered and thought: Why did they just believe him? Why did the night watch simply trust the words of a stranger? Why had he himself simply trusted the guards' words? Why hadn't he even thought to try to verify their truthfulness? He had always been the one to double-check everything—his father had taught him that: to check everything until he had no doubt about the truth of any given thing. So why did he indiscriminately brand one man a mass murderer based on the words of another man he didn't know at all? Why? "I... I don't know," Arenor finally replied and pressed his hands to his head, feeling as if he had gone mad, because he simply couldn't find any other explanation for his behavior. "Nasir, Zafir," he called to his guards, "leave us."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "But..." Nasir protested, but immediately received a slap on the back of the head from his brother, so he had no choice but to follow Zafir out, leaving Ife and Arenor alone.

  "Tell me honestly, Airena," he began, raising his head and looking Ife straight in the eyes, "was it you who killed all those people?"

  There it was. The question she had been waiting for all this time. The question whose answer could change her entire future life.

  She raised her head and looked him straight in the eye, saying:

  "No."

  Arenor pursed his lips and then asked:

  "Then who killed them all?"

  "I don't know," she replied quickly. "I only remember those three guys knocking me out and then waking up in the royal prison."

  "And the guy who brought you here—do you think he could have been one of your kidnappers?"

  The word "no" almost slipped from her lips, because Ife remembered perfectly well that she had killed each and every one of them.

  She remembered how her divine power, without any need for her pleas or commands, took life and gave death.

  Ife remembered perfectly well that she simply could not leave anyone alive; her divine power would not allow her to do so.

  But someone had survived: someone who had knocked her unconscious with a blow to the head; someone who had brought her body and her ring to the palace; someone who had told the guards what had happened and asked them to give her her ring; someone who was the only witness; someone who—

  "I don't know," she finally replied. "I told you, I don't remember anything."

  She tensed; what if he suspected something? What if he saw through her lie? What if he was about to—

  "All right," he replied after a brief pause that seemed like an eternity to Ife. "I believe you."

  She exhaled, but wondered why the Prince had believed her so quickly. But then she thought that it didn't really matter, because if he hadn't, he would have executed her on the spot.

  Right?

  "You may go," he said. "And I apologize for not giving you this ring immediately," he added, somewhat detachedly, which greatly distressed Ife.

  She turned to leave the office, but then stopped when she heard Arenor's voice:

  "And Airena, if you ever need anything, don't hesitate to ask me for help." Pause. "Otherwise, you'll end up stealing grapes again, just like last night, just like—"

  Her face flushed and she rushed out of the office to the sound of the Prince's laughter.

  But when the door closed, Ife's blush faded like the morning mist, and Arenor's laughter waned away like the flame of an oil lamp.

  At that moment, each of them made a decision that they believed would significantly change their destinies.

  But neither of them knew that their fates had long been sealed, and that they had absolutely no influence over them.