ArHi OS: Assaissnation of Khushi.

His face doesn't change expression when they tell him the name of his next target or the pouch of gold that jingles when it's thrown in the air for him to catch. His expression and his reaction towards the payment are mechanical.

"You do realize who she is right?" There is urgency in the voice that asks him. The man's companion a bulky overweight man with palatial clothing is even more haggard.

"If you get caught, it cannot be traced back to us." The lanky man insists. "This isn't the first assassination attempt on princess Khushi, Raizada and since she is still alive and well, it is obvious that no attempts have been successful."

Raizada's smile is cold behind the cloth that's covering lower half of his face. "However this must be the first time the king's staff is sponsoring the assassination - an advantage I am sure I am the only recipient of."

The men fluster and mumble incoherent replies. The gold and diamonds in their fingers and around their neck twinkle relentlessly under full moon night. Raizada is almost invisible in his black clothing and absorbed by the darkness around them. The men's horses shuffle in distant and the sound of their hoofs pierces through eerie calmness of the forest they are in.

"Are you clear?" The lanky man, the one who is doing the deal on behalf of one of king's most trusted man insists on confirmation. Raizada revels in their discomfort and restlessness. The powerful men in kingdom are reduced to mumbling mess when left alone with a trained assassin without their guards and body men protecting them. The infinite jest was still in action.

"Yes. Now get out." Raizada barks and slinks back in the shadows. There is whisper of leaves and shuffle of grass and then total silence. He smiles when he sees panic on the faces of the two men as they scuffle and make a run for their horses. He waits till the sound of horses becomes a distant echo and then he drops on the ground from the tree he was perched on. The movement is full of grace and elegance.

Raizada is patient with his marks. He is meticulous, observes them for weeks, months if needed. He inserts himself into an environment where he can watch his mark without being obvious about it or be called out on it. He found it easier to kill royalty when they acted like royalty; when they were unware of the servants and hand maidens who went in and out of their chambers. He could easily become one and execute his mark without anyone in palace realizing for hours what had happened to the royal blood. It was something of a trademark of his and had never failed him. However he very soon realized that princess Khushi was antithesis of any kind of royalty he ever encountered.

She was obsessively involved in lives of people around her, knew the names of every maid, soldier, maiden who came to her wing of the palace. She read excessively, understood politics and finances of her kingdom, interfered in state affairs and called out on her father's staff's bullshit as she saw it. In short - she wasn't an easy target. She was the daughter of king's older brother who ruled the kingdom before dying in a hunting accident. Khushi was orphaned when her mother consumed poison unable to overcome the grief of losing her husband. Khushi was adopted by her uncle, the current king who, according to rumors, had orchestrated the whole thing. The smart girl had grown immensely popular with people of her kingdom and the king couldn't restrict her presence in the court as more than half the court were her father's supporters. No wonder they had wanted her gone, Raizada thinks viciously.

Raizada rarely ventured into "why" of the assassination part. But that didn't mean he didn't study his marks. He walked away from some of his marks because it didn't agree with some of his principles. Even assassins had their morals, codes and ethics.

He was an assassin. Not a monster.

He went in front of Khushi with bleeding cut on his forehead that had thoroughly soaked the pink dupatta on his head, a cut on his left knee that had stained the light pink skirt and several shallow cuts and bruises on his arm that was a stark contrast to his white kurta. Khushi's eyes had widened when she saw him.

"Why?" Khushi had hissed.

"It's because the pale pink of my skirt doesn't match the stubble on my chin." Raizada manufactured tears in his eyes. The effect was immediate.

Though eunuchs were protected and groomed inside a palace or under king's reign, some fell through the cracks and society was not always was kind to them. Raizada had seen this too many times during this travel and he was hoping this kingdom exercised similar bigotry.

Khushi cocked her neck towards a soldier who then walked out of the large hall and closed doors behind him. Raizada was mildly astonished at this gentle act of offering privacy and treating eunuch with respect. "Where are you from?" She had asked.

From there it was only matter of time when Raizada became "Arnav", Khushi's newest inclusion in her entourage and was trusted enough to be left alone with her on more than one occasion. His heart was struck in his throat when she had started to remove her clothes and demanded him to do the same right before plunging into the pool. Raizada was never scared. He had no fear of the situation he was in. He could jump in with his clothes on and drown her. He could wait for her to come back to shore, then slit her throat and disappear forever. It was all very easy. They were the only two people in this corner of the forest. She was stupid enough to trust a person who had come to her life only two months ago. He hadn't done any of that. He had bantered with her about the tax being levied on blacksmiths and the time businessmen took to deliver Iron for these blacksmiths. She had given him an inexplicable look of fondness as they walked towards her chambers. He had wished her goodnight and had heard a chuckle from her in response.

In the following three months Raizada had half a dozen opportunities to kill Khushi and make a clean getaway. Something stopped him every time. He toppled the goblet in her hand that had cold milk and a poison of his choice. In a flick of his hand the milk in her hand was poisoned. She wouldn't die immediately but in a week. Before the symptoms of poison could be known, it would be too late to save her and impossible to tie him for the crime. He berated himself later in the day for chickening out at the last minute. One night she had insisted on him sleeping in her chambers. It was an opportunity handed to him in a silver platter. He had spent entire night looking over the proposal she was working on to provide water for villages in distant parts of her kingdom and the corruption amongst chieftains. In the morning she gave him a private smile which he couldn't decipher. For one horrible moment he wondered if she knew who he was. He shrugged it off as his paranoia and forgot about it.

She invited him for a walk on a warm spring day. They were alone in the shaded area of the forest, Khushi walking in front and Arnav following couple of steps behind her respectfully. People rarely ventured in this part as the foliage in the area made the place darker than other parts of forest and not even insects lived there. It was always eerily quiet, dank and fresh moss covered the trunk of the trees giving the entire area a hazy greenish hue. For oddest reasons, Khushi liked to walk in this part. It was first time however Khushi had invited someone along with her.

"Why haven't you killed me yet?" Khushi asks out of nowhere.

Raizada stumbles at the suddenness of the question. "What?" He asks with his throat suddenly parched.

She stops and turns around. Something twists in his stomach at the resigned expression on her face. "You have been with me for ten months now. There were dozens of opportunities for you to kill me. Hell, I even crafted some of them so that there wouldn't be any interruptions if you were to carry out my assassination. So why didn't you?" Khushi asks as if she is asking if he liked the new dupatta she selected for him.

"I don't know." He replies honestly. "I wanted to. I could have. But I didn't." He adds when her jaw slacks in surprise.

"Well?" She says prompting him.

"What?" He asks, suddenly defensive.

"Aren't you going to attempt now?" She asks, flailing her hands.

"God. No!" He replies wondering what had changed.

"Why won't you?" She asks crossing her arms in front of her and her chin stubbornly jutted. He wants to pick her up and twirl and laugh.

"I don't want to, to be honest. I could have killed you within a week after I met you and not looked back." He says as a matter of fact.

"Why didn't you then?" Her stubbornness falters a little.

He shrugs. "I don't know. I know I don't want to kill you. I didn't feel like leaving you to your own devices instead."

"Because..." She prods further.

"Because you need all the protection you can get and there isn't much, to be honest. The prior assassinations attempts failed because morons were hired and you are much smarter than half of the lot out there put together. But with me, you didn't stand a chance." There is both pride and disappointment in his voice.

"So...you are my body guard now?" She asks tentatively.

"I have been your protector for a very long time," he replies sagely, adjusting his skirt. "Let's go back. This forest is seriously creepy," he says ushering out gently.

They walk in silence for few minutes before she stops. "Wait. Are you even a eunuch?" She asks in horror. When he doesn't respond, she asks again. "Are you a man then?"

He laughs as she splutters about being naked in front of him several times and telling him about the things a man should never listen.