Chapter 21 Encounter [1]

With that, the discussion came to an end. Once again Rishia thanked Anya and shook hands with her, expressing how grateful she was.

Ainge and Ron also made themselves swallow the reality, if Anya didn't want to talk about her marriage then there was nothing they could do. They thought that since this was a major choice in Anya's life, it is better to let her make the final decision herself.

Rishia then prepared to leave, Ron went with her to drop her outside. They went through the hallway and then arrived at the entrance, on opening the door the view of the night came into sight.

"It's fine, I can go by myself from here on," said Rishia. After the door was a garden and then there was a wall with an iron gate that connected the household to the road.

The knights that came with Rishia were waiting at the iron gate, the distance between the door and the iron gate was a little more than short so Ron decided to go with her but Rishia declined.

"Are you sure? I mean you were attacked right?" asked Ron, showing her concern.

"It's alright, after all, it was me who came here this late at night. And this distance is just a little so I will be fine," Rishia replied.

Ron still didn't seem satisfied by the answer, that was normal because if the princess was by any chance attacked when she came to visit your house then there's no doubt you will be taking the top spot on the list of suspects.

But since Rishia was pushing this matter and already decided twice, he decided to not ask again. Rishia then said goodbye to Ron and started to walk outside while Ron watched her go for a while and then closed the door.

He was walking back to where Ainge and Anya were when he suddenly remembered something.

"Now that I think about it, where did Zero go?" he muttered to himself.

***

It was night hence the view outside was pitch black, the cold breeze that was blowing at regular intervals just made it worse.

"Fuu, it's cold~," Rishia muttered while she hugged herself to warn her body.

"It's really cold outside right?"

When she was going toward the Iron Gate someone suddenly said that, it was so unexpected that for a moment it sent shivers down her spine.

She saw a lone figure standing at a distance leaning back on a tree.

For a moment she felt cautious because she thought that person can be one of those people who attacked her but soon her misunderstanding was cleared when that person slowly walked toward her and stood two-three steps before her.

Rishia recognized that person as soon as she saw him, "You…you're Anya's brother right?" she said. The person in question was none other than Zero.

"Well, in this situation I would go along with your misunderstanding if I were someone who meant to harm you so there's no point in asking like that but yeah...you are certainly right about that, I am Zero, her brother," said Zero.

Rishia took a breath of relief after that, though the way he said that left a feeling of discomfort in her.

But even so, she put a smile on her face and changed her expression to that of a princess before she said, "I'm really grateful to your sister. She risked her life to save my own."

Zero didn't reply, instead, he just stood there for a while, but after a moment he spoke.

"It would have been better if she died there," said Zero, at the same time he looked at Rishia right into her eyes.

A cold breeze passed near them, tossing a few leaves that were lying on the ground in the air.

Rishia didn't catch on to what he said, she thought she misheard something but that was not the case, the look Zero had was clearly saying that what he said was true.

He had a stiff and darkened expression on his face, the eyes that were staring at Rishia felt like those of a dead person. His voice was cold and didn't contain the least bit of expression behind it.

It made Rishia think, was he really the same person she saw in the arena this day? The aura he was giving was completely different but at the same time, she didn't feel scared because he was not giving off killing intent or anything that proved he was here to harm her.

"How can you say that? She is your sister right?" she questioned, her voice proving she was genuinely worried about this.

"Hmph, why so say? I mean she will be as good as dead after tomorrow," he replied with a chuckle.

Rishia didn't understand what he meant, she thought how a person who was lively and cheerful today can be dead the next day.

'Lively and cheerful?' she thought, and then she remembered something. The troubled expression she saw on Anya's face, 'could this be somehow related to that?' she couldn't help but think.

"What do you mean? Is Anya in some sort of bad situation?" she asked, this was a thing she wanted to know, no, she must know about this. Anya is the one who saved her life, if there is something she can do to help her then she would do it.

After all, the main reason she came here was so she could thank Anya in any way possible.

She fixated her gaze on Zero, he looked like he was thinking about whether to tell Rishia about this or not but soon it seemed like he made a decision as he opened his mouth.

"If Princess Rishia...you were to held captive by a man and used as his plaything to satisfy his sexual needs day over day repeatedly. If you were to be treated like an object and not as a human, if you were to be forced to live your life and make decisions over another person's will and not your own, if the only reason left for you to stay alive is to serve that person then," he paused before continuing.

"Then will it be any different from dying?" said Zero, finishing what he was saying.

The things he said made Rishia unable to speak for a moment, she was at a loss for words. The sheer fear that if by any chance what he said can happen to Anya made her mind go blank.

"That...…..no, I don't think it will be any different from dying. Is something like this really going to happen to Anya?" she said, her voice trembling a bit.

"She will be getting married tomorrow, against her will, to a man she doesn't even love. I have met him in person and from what I can tell, he's a total bastard, those eyes he looks at my sister with only contain lust in them," said Zero.

Rishia was shaken down to her very bones. If these horrible things were really going to happen to Anya then...she wanted to help her somehow, "Isn't there a way to save her?" she asked hurriedly.

Zero took a good pause as he closed the distance between them, looking right into her eyes he said, "There is one."