"I don't know who that person is. But my acquaintance told me he seemed to be a good man since he only promised the bounty for anyone who can bring me safely to him. The knights for hire in Terra know his contact."

"That really sounds mysterious. Don't you want to find out who he is?" Maxim asked again. "Fifty thousand gold coins is a lot of money."

"Duh.. I know that. If only I can get that money for selling out myself to him, I can live comfortably now..." Emmelyn laughed at her own joke. She snorted and gave Maxim a side-eye. "I am just joking."

She added, "Look, I don't give a damn who he is or the king of Summeria and why they want me or who is that weird woman who claimed to be me and put me in so much trouble. I just want to find Myreen and get the Leoraleis to lift their curse."

"Hmm..." Maxim was deep in thought. He knew the king of Summeria who was after Emmelyn didn't have a bad intention, and he was not looking for the wrong woman.

The woman whom Emmelyn thought stole her identity was actually herself. The king was not deceived by another woman. He was indeed looking for Emmelyn. Maxim knew this for a fact because... he was Loriel Ashborn himself.

He left Summeria for years because he wanted to go on adventures and he introduced himself to Emmelyn as a commoner from Summeria. He used his childhood name, Maxim, and never told her who he really was.

Just like Emmelyn also never told him that she was a princess. See, how much they were alike? They even thought alike.

Maxim always considered Emmelyn as his kindred spirit. He had fallen in love with her when they traveled together.

Since they were heading toward Summeria, he already planned to expose his real identity to her when they reached his country. He would re-introduce himself to her and told her he was actually the crown prince of Summeria.

However, his plan crumbled because Emmelyn suddenly left him for no clear reason and he had been looking for her ever since. When he finally found out she was a princess from Wintermere which was just conquered by Draec, he felt so aggrieved on her behalf and he promised to take Wintermere back from the colonizer.

His father's sudden passing made him unable to search Emmelyn on his own. Suddenly he got a kingdom to rule. So, he had to offer rewards for other people to find her for him.

One knight for hire suddenly came to him last month and told him about Emmelyn. So, he immediately came here. Maxim couldn't believe his eyes when he saw her near the lake when he was trying to catch a rabbit out of boredom.

The young king had arrived too early and he couldn't wait to meet her. Now, they were finally reunited. Yet... why didn't he feel happy to see her?

Emmelyn had gone through so much. Listening to her story made Maxim feel so guilty that he was not there to help her.

Well.. he was here now, and he promised to punish everyone who had wronged her. Glad that she already killed that treacherous butler. But there were some other people that also deserved punishment.

That woman called Ellena, and then her uncle, the wicked Duke Preston... the former king of Draec, and then Emmelyn's husband who was after her. That stupid man chose to believe Ellena than Emmelyn? What kind of man was that? Maxim wanted to kill them all.

With that kill list in his mind, Maxim made a mental note to deal with them later. 

By the way, who was the other man from Terra who offered 50,000 gold coins to find Emmelyn? All these sounded so suspicious to him.

How could the king of Draec only offer that meager 1000 gold coins to catch the woman who allegedly killed his mother, while the mysterious client could offer 50,000 gold coins to bring Emmelyn to him safely?

If Maxim was a bounty hunter, it would be easy to know which bounty would interest him more.

Wait.. was it possible that both bounties actually came from the same person? Maxim thought it was too suspicious.

If they were from the same man, then it would make more sense.

Maybe, the reason why the king of Draec only gave the small bounty to capture Emmelyn as the alleged killer was he actually didn't want those bounty hunters to hunt Emmelyn. It was just a formality.

Was it possible that he was secretly giving so much more money for people to protect her by throwing away the second bounty under a secret identity?

Maxim looked at Emmelyn intently. His heart bled for her. He felt deep sympathy because Emmelyn had suffered so much. Gosh.. he wished he had found her sooner. Perhaps, she wouldn't suffer like this.

"Are you sure you have no idea who the second bounty is from?" he asked Emmelyn in a serious manner.

The woman shook her head. "No."

"Ahh..." Maxim was really annoyed by his own thoughts. He had a strong suspicion that the first and second bounty from Draec were actually from Emmelyn's own husband.

Maxim suspected that the king actually only pretended to chase his wife for murder, when in reality he was doing what he could to get her back safely to his side.

That sneaky bastard... Maxim thought in annoyance. It seemed the other man was not really a bad guy.

Maxim was glad Emmelyn didn't seem to think in that direction. He wouldn't share what he thought about the whole thing. He was not obliged to help Emmelyn's husband to clear his name before his wife.

Mars was guilty of leaving her in the first place to kill the witch.

Because of that, he had subjected Emmelyn to so much suffering and pain. And now, he was playing games to get her back by throwing a secret second bounty?

No. Maxim would not help the man. He got himself into this mess.

.

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From the author:

So, it looks like Maxim is smarter than Emmelyn... hahaha. He immediately guessed it correctly.

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