Falling For the cruel king

8. Troop from Devpura

Human minds are tricky little things to understand. One can spend their whole life with someone believing they know them. But in the end, that same person turns out to be someone completely different and unknown. Your lover can be your pain, your sworn enemy can be your friend, and your friend... your friend can be a traitor. Just as Devraj became a traitor to Mahendra. Devraj broke Mahendra's trust and faith Way before Chandraraj, the father of Devraj ever attacked Mahendra's kingdom.

Still to this date, just the name of Devraj is enough to boil the blood inside Mahendra's veins.

Mahendra wakes up in his bedroom. It's almost noon.
"How long have I been out?" He wonders. He stumbles out of bed. His vision is still blurry. What happened last night? He doesn't remember. And the pounding headache makes it feel like his nerves are going to pop.

The clouds seem to have cleared. The sky is shining bright with the sun at its peak.
Mahendra discovers himself wearing nothing but a dhoti. His mid-length dark locks of hair look like a mess. The muscular structure of his body shines under the sun as he struggles to keep his eyes open.

The memories from the last night started coming back to him one by one. He remembers blue chandeliers, beautiful dancers, their lustrous bodies, music, and alcohol. Lots of alcohol.
He remembers Devangi, her sweet face, her touch, her intoxicating voice.
But then he remembers their argument, him lashing out at her and almost choking her to death.

"Shit! What have I done!" He curses under his breath as he quickly puts a kurta on. He starts rushing out of his room in a frenzy. But then he stops.

"Why should I care?" He thinks to himself. "Who even is she?" His thoughts continue.
"That's right. She is the sister of that bastard, that low-life. They don't care about me," he tells himself.

Still under the influence, he walks out of his bedroom.
He walks towards Devangi's chamber in a grumpy manner. He forgets all about his royal mannerisms and opens the door of her chamber with a loud thud only to find out that there is no one in there. He doesn't even know what is wrong with him, he just knows that he is enraged and he blames it on Devangi.
Hearing all the commotion, 2 guards rush toward Devangi's chamber.

They stand near the door and bow down to the prince. But before they could even say anything, Mahendra asks them in an angry and loud voice,
"Where is the princess?"

Devangi on the other hand is in the royal garden with Chandrika. They are both sitting near the large pond in the garden. Beautiful aquatic flowers were blooming in the pond such as water Lily, lotus, and water hawthorn. The reflection of the sunny sky in the pond makes it look like those flowers are floating in the sky. A cold soothing breeze is flowing by the lake.