Demon Prince's Forsaken Bride-Chapter 82: Assassination (2)

’’Why is your hair changing color?" He looked at her dumbly for a moment.

Lareina lowered her head and noticed that a few strands of her hair were deep red at the tips. In the rush earlier, Astra’s disguise had given up at some point.

The leader of assassins shot a quick look at Azrael who was in ordinary clothes before turning to Lareina, ’’There... Your Highness, you almost fooled me!"

’’Ah!" Lareina’s eyes widened as she pointed a trembling finger behind the man, ’’Help... Ghosts...’’

The man turned sound instinctively in the direction where her hand was pointing but his face darkened when he realized that he had been fooled.

Lareina ran away without looking back even once. But as she ran, she did not forget to scream towards Azrael, ’’I am counting on you for my life!"

The man followed her path but something strange happened. The woman was like an eel. Everytime he thought he caught her, she would sleep away. She ran like a bolt of lightning, maintaining two steps between them consistently. Noticing that, the man ran even more aggressively but he had barely covered a little distance when his feet bumped into something and he fell on his face.

He looked around and realized that at some point, the woman had led him into the crowd of the unconscious villagers.

Looking at her clothes, Lareina could not help but nod in appreciation. As expected, she could at least run for her life without the ’breath-taking’ corset and ’feet-binding’ skirts.

A venomous laughter sounded by her ear and she stiffened. The assassin who was on the ground earlier had covered the distance between them at some point and he was standing right behind her, holding a dagger right against her neck.

’’I was not warned to be wary of you and you managed to catch me off guard time and time again...’’

Lareina pressed a finger on the edge of the dagger and slowly pushed it back, ’’Brother, we can still negotiate, ah! You should treat women better...’’

’’You... Negotiate? The nerve of you!" The man harrumphed, ’’What can you even offer?"

’’What would you get by killing me in the first place?"

The man pressed the dagger against her skin, ’’Who asked you to be the second prince’s wife?"

’’I hate him, his family, this place from the very bottom of my heart. This poor woman has been forced into these circumstances. If things had happened according to my will, then I would be sitting in a safe place tonight, watching the moon and admiring heroes like you. But look, here I am, suffering because of a man who brought a mistress home.’’

The man fell silent for a moment.

’’And...’’

’’Shut up!" He pressed the dagger harder against her neck and a drop of blood trickled down, ’’You have quite a sleek tongue but you can stop trying. It is indeed quite a pity but no matter what you do, you will have to die tonight...’’

’’You cannot kill him,’’ Lareina calmly cut him off.

’’Not pretending anymore? Heh~ Let me tell you. These men of mine were just meant to test his strength. The real battle will starts now...’’

Hearing his words, Lareina looked over, only to see Azrael surrounded by a huge number of men.

"These are my top suicide warriors. They are trained to perfection for this day where they kill one person, even at the cost of dying with them...’’

’’They would indeed perish...’’ Lareina whispered.

The man was momentarily stunned when he saw a thick deathly aura condensing around where Azrael stood. He could barely see his assassins around there. In this moment, the leader of the assassins suddenly realized that this man had never unleashed his true power and from the very beginning, he had not used his demonic powers at all.

’’...but not with me,’’ Lareina’s voice was calm but there was a tinge of concern in it that went unnoticed by the man who was holding her with a dagger pressed against her throat.

’’Enough talking. Come with me!" Seeing that the situation seemed far from optimistic, he started dragging her away from the place.

Lareina’s eyes momentarily glossed over. Azrael’s figure had long dispersed in the crowd. With one last look at him, she let herself be dragged away.

On the other side..

Azrael, who was at a distance, had gotten restless at the sight of Lareina being captured. His movements lagged and the assassin took advantage of his absentmindedness to land a strike. A deep gash appeared on Azrael’s neck, stretching up to his chest.

His eyes frosted over and with one swift strike, he pierced the sword straight through the assassin’s heart, the aura around him intensified and his eyes clouded over.

At this moment, around 10 assassins appeared out of nowhere, surrounding Azrael in a deadlock situation.

Azrael staggered a few steps, wanting to exclude himself from this situation as he watched Lareina being dragged away by the leader of those assassins. But he had barely budged an inch from his spot with that thought in his mind when an unbearable pain clutched his heart.

’Kill them all.’

’Annihilate them.’

Voices that sounded just like his reverberated in his ears.

’They do not deserve your mercy.’

’Nobody gets to stand in your way.’

Azrael clutched his chest as he heard the assassins enclosing around him. Why does it hurt so much? He gritted his teeth, his fingers clutching the sword with a suffocating strength but nothing seemed to make the pain disperse.

’If you obliterate them, everything will get better.’ A voice echoed in his mind.

All the assassins came at him at once, aiming for vital parts of his body. Just as the swords were about to touch his body, the man suddenly lifted his head. The pair of purple eyes emanated a deathly aura.

An intense power shot out of Azrael’s body and all those men were sent flying back. His eyes traced over the place, taking in the sight of all the fallen assassins and unconscious villagers and as he tilted his chin, bloodthirst washed over his gaze. A bone-chilling arc formed on his lips and the ice sword in his hand trembled.

On the other side, things were far from optimistic for Lareina who...