"Are you planning to run away?"
"That old bastard is busy dealing with the death of his three competent sons and the enemy at the border. He will have no time to come after me. This is a heaven-sent opportunity for me to stop being a cage in a bird. I can break it and become a free man. I have waited for this chance for years. Sibley, I must hold it now that it is in my hand's reach. Not to mention, the old hags may try to deal with me since they have many people to pin the blame on. If I don't run away tonight, I am afraid my days will be limited."
"What about me then?"
"Won't you accompany me?"
"I will."
Marty sold the palace, picked up whatever valuable thing he could, and secretly ran away into the dark with his study companion, abandoning his identity as a prince and starting a new life as a farmer in a well-known village.
He didn't wait for the war to end to come to a decision because he knew that the death of his three brothers, who were legitimate heirs to the throne and the kingdom's greatest General, meant the fall of the kingdom.
King Sherard wasn't even as strong as Marty's eldest stepbrother, so Marty was sure he wouldn't be able to hold back the enemy's soldier for long.
It turned out to be his best decision yet, as he got to keep his life while his father and relatives were publicly executed for invoking a war.
He felt good seeing them die.
They had treated him like a thorn in their eyes since he was born. His wives and sons bullied him just because they could. Although they couldn't kill him as it would anger the king, they didn't hold back their punches when hitting him.
He was whipped when the second mother was angered by the king's eldest son, slapped when the king's third son fell ill because of playing in the snow, and beaten when the brothers gathered together.
In their eyes, he was a mere one they could use to release their stress. He hated them to the core, and seeing them getting humiliated and beheaded made him feel endless joy, and he would have burst out laughing if he didn't fear getting noticed by the people.
He thanked the Great Sun Emperor for killing them and blended in with the crowd to return back to his village.
Only a few days later, the wanted posters of the members of the royal family that had escaped the purge circulated throughout the empire.
Overnight, Marty became a criminal that was to be killed on sight.
He woke up with knights surrounding his house.
They had come to the village to kill him.
He would have died at their hands if not for his wife revealing her sharp fangs and killing the knights.
It turned out that she was the daughter of one of the most powerful crimson mages who was abandoned in the Kingdom of Sumeria at a young age. She had inherited her mother's blood and also her powers, and she had been killing people in secret and eating them to grow stronger.
For obvious reasons, she was afraid to reveal her true self to him. She was a demon in human skin, and humans were just consumable elixirs for her. Marty was a human, and he should be afraid of her.
What she expected didn't come true.
Marty surprisingly didn't feel disgusted by her even as he saw her eating humans, and as they escaped the kingdom of Sumeria, he even acted as bait to lure some foolish knights to her so that she could eat them to fill her belly.
"Why?"
Sibley was confused as to why he was still with her.
"Because I love you."
"Aren't you afraid that I will one day turn on you and eat you alive?"
"No, I am not. I don't mind being your ration, so keep me by your side for the worst time. When you eat me, we will truly become one."
"Idiot, who will keep me warm at night if I eat you?"
This was the start of a true love story between a monster and a human who was treated as a monster by humans.
She helped him awaken by using an awakening stone and bore his child.
Sibley and his newborn child, that used human blood to grow instead of milk, were killed, though, by the empire's knight as she covered his escape.
Marty joined the rebellion and, in a few years, became its Vice-captain.
From nothing, he grew up to become a troublesome enemy of the empire.
Marty looked at Damien and thought.
'Once I get this hybrid and make his power mine, I will have the ability to fulfill my long-cherished wish.'
'But they won't let me do that.'
The chaotic beings and the crimson mages had also finished their one-sided fight and were now going for Damien. Marty's power level was more or less similar to theirs. He was an aura master, but he was a master of hidden weapons and had learned two types of Force. He was strong enough to take on a few of them but not all of them. He lacked confidence and definitely didn't want to fight them over Damien.
'Thankfully, I have come fully prepared. I have the weapons to immobilize them for a few seconds and an escape route.'
'That only leaves me with the task of subduing Damien before the others notice my intention.'
'It won't be easy.'
'But it is well worth a try.'
Marty eyed Damien venomously. If he was born with his talent, where would he be today? He surely wouldn't have lived a shitty life or watched his lover and newborn child die at the hands kf the hateful empire's knights.
"We wasted quite a lot of manpower to get this one bastard."
"Make sure he doesn't get away!"
"Yeah, right. Surround the target from all sides."
Marty, along with hundreds of others, moved towards Damien.
