Revenge: Start by Not Loving Him

On the battlements, Jessica Stewart gripped a dagger tightly, her eyes fixed on Jeremy Portman as he advanced step by step. "Jeremy, can't you spare them? They're my family."

Not a flicker of softness crossed Jeremy's face. "They're my enemies."

Jessica let out a bitter laugh. "Oh, Jeremy, how foolish of me to think you'd ever let them go. I always believed you had no emotional ties to them, that I was the one closest to your heart!" Jeremy's expression remained unyielding.

Jessica sighed, a hint of sadness creeping into her voice. "Yes, they've treated me poorly, even trying to marry me off to some old man beyond the borders. But at the end of the day, they're still my blood."

"Are they more important to you than I am?" Jeremy's face shifted slightly, but Jessica, standing atop the wall, couldn't see the change.

She shook her head. "I can't compare you to them, Jeremy. They hold no weight in my heart. But if you kill them, you become my enemies. I was always the princess of Unikon."

"You're not just a princess; you're my Jessica!" Jeremy shot back, his voice firm.

"Jeremy, how much better it would have been if we had never met," Jessica lamented, wishing their paths had never crossed, sparing her this pain.

Jeremy's expression darkened.

"Jessica, I'm giving you one chance. Either you come with me and watch them die, or you and I will have nothing to do with each other for the rest of our lives." His tone left no room for negotiation.

Tears streamed down Jessica's face, each drop a testament to the impossible choice before her.

No matter which path she chose, she would suffer for it.

Her life had been filled with hardship, and Jeremy had been her sole source of sweetness amidst the bitterness.

But now, that sweetness had turned sour.

In a moment of despair, Jessica plunged the dagger into her own flesh, the pain sharp yet somehow distant.

Jeremy watched as her blood dripped from the blade, his heart sinking as he saw her body begin to fall backward. He rushed forward, leaping off the wall to catch her, landing safely with Jessica cradled in his arms.

The first time Jeremy had met Jessica, he was five years old, and she was eight. He had been sent to Unikon as a hostage from Kinston while she was the overlooked princess of Unikon.

When he first arrived, he missed his mother terribly and hid beneath a rock formation, crying. Jessica had happened upon him, offering him candy from her pocket, her gentle voice coaxing him, "Don't cry; I've got some sweets for you."

At that moment, Jessica had been like a little sun, warming his entire world.

Fifteen years passed in Unikon, and Jeremy was no longer just Kinston's hostage; he had become a true slave of the fallen kingdom.

A decade ago, when Unikon conquered Kinston, he became a servant in the royal palace. No one would have guessed that this timid, soft-spoken servant would one day rise up.

When the army stormed the capital, he sat languidly on the throne, his eyes gloomy and cold, and simply uttered one word, "Kill!"

Because of his past, he was determined to eradicate all threats. He wouldn't allow anyone the chance to rise again. For a full day and night, the slaughter raged on, the palace awash in blood. Not a single soul was spared, from the masters to the servants, except for Jessica.

He never intended to harm her. The moment she turned the dagger on herself, he gambled everything on her survival. If she lived, she would belong to him alone, severed from Unikon forever. After all, she had always been merely a pawn of the king of Unikon.

When Jeremy led his army back to Kinston, the palace of Unikon had already become a blood-soaked ghost town.

Jessica was drifting in and out of consciousness, only able to hear the screams of battle and the cries of the wounded. She couldn't open her eyes, unable to see the devastation around her. The pain was the only sensation she could grasp.

By the time she came to, she found herself in the palace of Kinston, a place that seemed even more opulent than Unikon's had ever been.

Having come back from the brink of death, she cherished life with a newfound intensity.

When she saw Jeremy again, he had ascended to the throne as the king of Kinston while she had become a relic of a fallen nation.