The Devil's Temptation!

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Annalise found that to only be a tale of her imagination because when she turned around, sir Arlow was the one who stood at the entrance way with his arm folded behind his back, erasing the smile which was starting to form on her lips and causing her fist to clench in fury.

Could she hate this man more than she already did?

Meeting her gaze, a silent scoff escaped from sir Arlow’s lips as he proudly made his way to stand before the altar, bowing his head before the King to show his complete loyalty.

“Your majesty, only an hour left before her execution is carried out, she must be looking for opportunities to escape and it wouldn’t be wise to let her fulfill a certain wish, afterall she’d meet them in the afterlife.”

“You monster!” Those words finally escaped from Anna’s mouth as she walked up to sir Arlow, finding his tone to be very disrespectful and cynical, most especially when he’s indirectly mentioning her parents and bringing them up in a conversation which certainly has nothing to do with him.

.....

“You’re nothing more than an evil man! Stop pretending like you actually consider caring for my parents when we know it’s nothing but a basic lie!” The anger fumed in her big brown eyes that it got the guards alarmed, making them point their weapons directly at her in case she tries something in defiance to her words.

Seeing the weapons which were pointed right at her, the fear which normally overwhelmed her heart was no longer there, almost like her days of sulking had erased that fear and faded away like smoke. Her fiery gaze remained locked on sir Arlow who finally met her gaze with a sigh.

“You dare speak maiden!?”

“Everyone has the right to voice out their opinion, either a maid or general and mine isn’t different.” She shot back, surprising sir Arlow who never expected her to speak up with such atrocity, but that look was immediately masked with a glimpse of anger which only Anna was able to notice.

“I have nothing to say to a murderer.”

“But I have something to say to you.” She stood her ground, stealing a glance at the King who was rather amused by the scene being displayed before him. Annalise had always been respectful, even before the King but right now, she wasn’t going to bother about what anyone thinks of her, if she’s seen as a villain, then so be it.

“You claimed I’m the murderer of those people, you placed every word correctly and leaving me trapped, but you weren’t even there when the murder took place, you knew everything, does that equally mean you’ve been monitoring my movements in the palace?” She questioned, causing a glint of fury to flash past his eyes but he said nothing in response, which satisfied Anna to some extent.

“Okay let’s assume I’m the killer,” she suggested with folded arms, looking optimistic like she was actually thinking about something but what everyone didn’t expect at all was for her to snatch the sword of a certain guard, pushing him down to the floor by skillfully giving him a kick in the abs and pointing the tip of the sword at sir Arlow’s face.

“Then I might as well kill you right here! At least then your accusations will be proven right.” Clearly she had been overcomes by the anger which sir Arlow had manage to stir inside of her but he was back to being the pretentious being that he was, faking himself as the victim in all of this while Anna really moved with the intent to kill him but was stopped halfway by the king’s orders.

“Annalise! What has gotten into you!” The king uttered in disbelief by her unacceptable actions and Anna had expected it, sir Arlow was one of the king’s trusted warrior, and here she was pointing a sword at his face, she committed another crime and right in front of the King, this was what sir Arlow wanted and she gave it to him.

“What did I tell you, your majesty, she’s a maniac! A slow poison that threatens to rip the kingdom of its peace. She shouldn’t be let into the streets of Euphrasia, who knows she might cause another bloodshed.”

“Not until I kill you first!”

“Anna!”

Once again, Annalise came to a sudden halt due to the king’s tone. She really wanted to kill this man who was standing and accusing her wrongly for something she never did and her anger took over her will to think completely.

“I thought of fulfilling your last wish since I owe you that much for being faithfully helpful to my daughter but you present me with this side of you?”

Clearly, the king was offended by her actions as more guards surrounded Annalise, seizing the sword from her grip and handcuffing her hands with the chain. She barely resisted and let them do as they pleased, she had accepted this fate already but that doesn’t mean she was ready to die over something she was clueless about.

“Take her back to the dungeons and keep her under surveillance until it’s time for the execution.” The king strongly declared his order but Anna’s gaze never shifted from sir Arlow who secretly dashed a triumphant smile along her direction.

“You risked your chance of surviving to a very low percentage, what will you do now?” He mouthed but a bitter smile formed at the corner of Anna’s lips which stunned sir Arlow.

He wanted to see her suffer, he wanted to see the pain in her eyes but instead she was smiling at him, the pain he wanted to see in her eyes wasn’t there at all. Instead they held a silent promise which didn’t fit properly to his system.

“My chances of surviving and your chances of dying, we’ll see who has the low percentage at the end of this war.”

With that, the guards took her away, sending her back to the cold dungeon while sir Arlow pondered on her last words. He shook her thoughts away, finding her statement rather impossible to believe. She’s a fool and his wish of finally getting rid of her after so many failed attempts throughout the years will finally come true today.

~

Annalise quietly remained in her cell while peeling at the skin in her fingers, staring at the wall opposite her but in reality, she was staring at nothing at all. Her expression was one who felt she deserved justice from all these accusations being placed on her head like a bunch of firewood.

Ever since she was little, she has been accused of so many things. Even when the kingdom of Euphrasia was facing a serious drought due to lack of water, she got blamed as the people claimed it was her mark that caused the droughts to strike Euphrasia so heavily.

All her life she has been accused of so many things that it made her wonder if there was anyone out there who was suffering just as much as she was. If there was someone who’d understand her pain and see her for who she really was?

Was there really someone out there who’d accept her despite bearing a mark she barely understands??

As the questions came, so were the negative answers that followed it as she shook her head with a sad smile. She doubts there was and her expression immediately looked saddened, she’d be dead anyways so what’s the use of thinking if there was really someone like that out there.

While rampaging on her thoughts, the shadowy figure of someone standing before her cell caught her attention as she studied it while tilting her head to the side.

It made her look up when she figured out it wasn’t her imagination and to her surprise, it was the physician, he stood before her cell while glancing back and forth in case someone saw him.

“It’s you!” Annalise couldn’t hide her exclamation as she finally realized it was actually the old physician but he looked rather alarmed about something and kept his expression serious.

“No time to explain, you have to leave Euphrasia now before the guards get here.”

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The Baroness Misbehaves