Urmina's breath got stuck in her throat, and her eyes went as wide as they could the moment she heard Alex's words.
'Love? Me?'
Wtf?!
She couldn't believe it.
'Yeah, maybe I heard it wrong.'
In an instant, thousands of thoughts flashed past her mind, until she settled on this one.
Alex was a ruthless monster who killed anyone who so much annoyed him; there was no way he would ever fall in love with someone.
Yet, as she turned to look at Alex, all she found was him avoiding her eyes like a maiden in love. That look gave her goosebumps. Searᴄh the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
It was totally unexpected.
Not in her dreams had she ever imagined that the cold-faced Alex could ever make that expression.
'Wait a second...'
'Yeah, no. Please no... don't tell me he's blushing as well?!'
Alex, as if feeling her gaze on himself, hurriedly moved his gaze away from this side, back to surveying the surroundings, leaving Urmina to her demise.
'WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!'
Urmina, on the other hand, lowered her head, a blush creeping on her face, which she tried to hide to the best of her ability.
'Why the hell does it feel strangely good to me?!'
She could hear her heart hammering against her chest, and her breaths grew ragged. Alex's face, blushing in a way that made it seem like he was trying to hide it only to fail, kept flashing in front of her eyes.
Alex was without a doubt the finest man she had ever seen, but... but that didn't mean that he could just melt her heart like that!
'T-This isn't fair...'
She muttered as her head kept getting lower.
The surroundings got enveloped in an awkward silence. Making the thoughts in Urmina's head turn more complicated.
'I-Is it really the truth? Does he really love me?'
Those thoughts flashed in her mind. For a second, she even thought that maybe Alex was just faking it, and he had a much bigger objective in his mind, but as she thought deeply about it, that possibility didn't seem plausible.
What could Alex even gain from this type of lie? An ally? He could have as many as he wants; heck, there are people ready to do unimaginable things just to make him accept their friend request.
So, again, what was there for him to gain from lying to her? She would only be useful to him dead; she was his enemy after all, or at least that's what she thought herself to be until now.
There was nothing for him to gain from all of this.
So, does that mean that... he was speaking the truth? Was he really in love with her? Did she deserve this after all the things she had done in the past?
She was a bad girl, someone who had done things no other girl would want to do just so that she could live a better life, just to get the money worth her food.
She made use of her looks a lot and did many bad things, so was it really okay for her?
Many thoughts started flashing through her mind as her heart hammered against her rib cage. As she went on with her thoughts, she failed to notice two things.
The first was that right now, Alex was staring at her, with a face as cold as it used to be, and the other was the fact that, unlike what she had wanted to do, right now, not a single thought of killing Alex or finding his egg was flashing past her mind.
It was as if she had completely relaxed.
"When did you find out?"
It was after a while that she decided to give herself a chance; she decided to change herself for the better. She was going to accept Alex's proposal, but first, she needed to know more about it.
There were still some doubts in her mind, after all.
If it was as Alex had said, and he really did love her, then what about the incident with the death arrow? Didn't he chase her all the way just to kill her?
"Since the moment I saw you..."
Urmina didn't look up at Alex's face—not like she could as he had his back turned toward her—but from his voice alone, she could tell that he was embarrassed to admit it.
"Then why did you chance after me to kill me?"
She questioned again, her body resting on the tree's trunk she was bound to, her eyes staring at Alex's back, but the guy, instead of replying, threw something back at her.
"Here, have it if you want. I never chased after you. I just wanted to use this as an excuse to eliminate the other four."
Alex's mutter followed after it, and Urmina, who heard those words, didn't even look at the arrow thrown in front of her.
She was just too shocked by the discovery. One after another, she was getting shocks with a magnitude greater than the ones before.
"Then...?"
Urnima uttered in disbelief as something clicked in her mind.
"Yes, it was because the situation looked bad for you that I withdrew from the fight."
As she saw Alex nod his head, she sighed audibly.
She had it all wrong since the start, huh? She was never his enemy; he only saw her as one thing: his love at first sight.
She had already noticed his legs, and she knew that he didn't have one leg anymore; he was back to his prime, or maybe even stronger than he was before.
'Hahahaha.'
She laughed at herself. She laughed at how foolish she was. She couldn't even see something so clear from the start.
"I'm sorry about that..."
She muttered in a low voice, letting Alex know that she was sorry for making him lose his targets. Her eyes then turned toward the death arrow—the Artemis's Wrath—something she thought was so hard to get, thrown in front of her as if it didn't mean anything to him.
"Sigh..."
She sighed in defeat before she spoke.
"I-I am not as clean as you might think; I was and am a dirty girl, but if you still think of me as a good partner, then I don't see a problem—"
She was going to accept Alex's proposal.
She was going to give Alex and herself a chance—a chance to make things better for both of them. She was now ready to accept Alex's feelings.
She didn't hate him anymore. She had started liking him now. His image in her mind had completely changed.
But the moment she was about to finish her words...
*Woosh—Squelch*
"—Akhh–Cough!"
She choked on her own blood as she found herself impaled with a spear right in her heart.
'Wha…'
She couldn't help but be shocked again, her head moving at Alex, only to find him standing in front of her, staring down at her with a cold look in his eyes—the look she was so familiar with.
It was the look that he had in the bounty photo.
Cold like ice, as if he were devoid of any emotion, as if it were impossible for him to feel anything at all.
"W-Why—cough!"
With her body still bound and life leaving her body, she questioned with tears streaming down her cheeks, only to cough a mouthful of blood.
Why did this happen to her?
Why?! Just when she thought that she might get a chance to turn a new leaf, why did all of it have to end like this?!
With her vision blurred due to the tears and numbness in her body as life seeped out of it, she kept staring at Alex for an answer, but just as she saw his lips move, her world darkened.
She died without even being able to hear his answer.