William pov


    That girl! She took my authority and my words too lightly. I could not believe that she didn''te here even when I had clearly told her that it was her practice session.


    I was fuming with anger when Kirian came running to me.


    "Why are you alone? Did I not ask you to bring Abigail with you? Has she denieding or you were not able to find her. You are being too negligent. From now, you will practice 18 hours a day.'''' I looked at him sharply with my fuming eyes. All of them were useless.


    He shook his head as he bowed, "your highness, Abigail is having a match in the training ground." I raised a brow at his quivering voice and his face was drained of every color.


    "Why were you so tense when she was having a match? Do you have doubts on her skills or thepetitor is too strong.`` Both could not be the case. Josephine was the strongest among the female knights as she was taught by all the best masters in the empire. And even if it was a male kngt, defeating Abigail was not that easy.


    She had even defeated Gerard in the past.


    "Your highness, she is fighting against Vivian, the girl who was going to participate in the annual knightspetition but we injured her horse andter she fell and broke her leg so she was not able to participate." my eyes narrowed as i remembered she was hired by my precious empress to keep an eye on me. But the most important thing was, she was famous for using underhanded methods in fencing.


    "Did you find something suspicious?" I asked as I ran towards my horse.


    "No, your highness. But Abigail wasmenting that the girl was using a rusty sword instead of a new one. So she was afraid that she would be medter. And asked the girl to either change her sword or use it on the grass to show the sharpness of the sword." replied the man with a confused voice and my eyes widened.


    "Did you even know what it meant? A sword could only be rusty by leaving it carelessly for a long period of time or you have used poison on it. If the girl is still taking the sword for fencing. There was no way that it was left carelessly.`` I exined to the man who was still looking confused and he finally ran as his eyes turned serious.


    "That is despicable. Was she not afraid that Abigail''s father will hunt her and kill herter. She still belong to her father''s order of knights.'''' I shook my head at his naivety.


    "Do you think this is so easy? If the empress is supporting her there is no way that a duke would be able to capture her. Either the empress will hide her for the time being andter award her with a grand prize and better life or she would tempt the girl by that offer and kill her instead when the mission would bepleted. But I am not worried about the girl. I am afraid about the little bird. Though she is strong enough to win. There was no way that she would have escaped from even a minor scratch in thepetition. And we still did not know how lethal the poison is.'''' I kicked my horse to increase his speed as our sacred hiding spot was too far from the academy.


    "We will bete your highness." i red at the man who was not only dumb but speaking negatively too.


    "You should have stopped them right there. What kind of a knight are you?" I did not want to shout but I couldn''t help it. This was not the first time that Abigail was targeted. A lot of times attacks were happening to her but this was the most direct one. And if the knight was still working for the empress then the previous attacks were done by her too. But why?


    And just a few days ago when they met, it did not feel like she had hatred towards Abigail since long. It felt like recent dissatisfaction.


    "Haiyaa" i tightened the reins further as hundreds rode through cutting the air.


    Finally we reached the ground where arge crowd had gathered. I jumped from the horse and walked towards the crowd.


    "What is happening here?" I asked as many of them noticed me and bowed their heads.


    "Your highness." They greeted me, gaining the attention of others too.


    "Why is there so much crowd?" I asked, trying my best to sound calm.


    "A new knight, Abigail, had the audacity to challenge an older and senour knight, Vivian. So they are having a small fencingpetition now." came the quick voice of a group of girls standing at the distance. Though they all were looking at me with a sweet smile on their face, the maliciousness in their eyes was hard to hide from me.


    "Abigail is my knight. Who has given her the permission to challenge anyone for a fight?" I asked in an annoyed voice and their faces shone.


    "Yes, your highness. Abigail is too haughty and stubborn; she did not listen to anyone in the ss and seldom attended it. Even master Theodore was annoyed with her. I think others are still bearing her as she is the daughter of themandant of the first order of knights and she is serving you. In fact…." she continued with her speech on how wrong Abigail was as she continued to follow me when i tried to cross the crowd and reach toward my little bird.


    I knew that she could fall in trouble if she tried to enter in my life again yet i was selfish enough to keep luring her towards me. I felt a lump forming in my throat as I finally saw her struggling to stay away from the sword.


    Vivian wasn''t even trying to win. As if she knew that she did not have any chance against Abigail. She was just trying to attack her lethal part of the body. So that one blow would be enough to take her life. Her attacks were fixed on her chest area and lower regions. Once she even tried to attack her forehead.


    If I interrupt now, I was afraid that I would disturb Abigail''s concentration, and Vivian would get a chance to attack her. But I couldn''t let it continue as there was a high chance that the posino would be lethal enough to kill her on the spot.


    I closed my eyes and my teeth gritted as I made the grave decision.


    "Your highness, you can not interfere among them. It will show how much you favor her!" I did not like the interference of Kirian at all.


    "I will go and try to stop the fight." he pleaded but when he looked into my cold eyes, he already knew the answer.


    He took several steps away when he saw that my eyes were filled with bloodlust.


    "Your highness."


    "Your highness" several girls looked at me and smiled and tried toe closer to me, but when they saw my face they took two steps back too.


    I, who was always filled with a soft smile, lust and carelessness, was filled with ferocity and hatred for now. I have always thought that if i did not interfere in their matters, they would let me live and leave the people i adore alone but that was all my wishful thinking. They would continue to hate me and hurt every person around me.


    My grip on the sword thighted as I saw how confident the girl was that she could kill a higher noble. I wanted to shred her into pieces to show her, to show the world that I could not bear it anymore.


    I moved towards them with my sword in my hands and attacked Vivian on her hands from behind.


    Vivian was so immersed in attacking that she only noticed someone''s presence when her sword was only one centimeters away from Abigail. Her sword fell down with my attack and she turned to see who had interfered in their fight but her eyes widened when she saw me.


    "Your hi.." I did not give a chance toplete her sentence when I used the sword and stabbed it in her stomach.


    She looked at me horrified as color drained her face. A gush of blood came streaming out from the stomach but I was beyond ready to end it here.


    I took out the sword mercilessly and this time, I attacked her hands. I cut her right hand in one swift motion and she fell to the ground.


    I could hear gasps and screams but all I saw was red, all I saw was that my lover could have died!


    "I am not going to spare you at all."