Chapter 48 – Public’s reaction [1]

[NEW ACHIEVEMENT: Lovely Insufferable Husband.]

[Description: Wonderful. We only asked you to change her mind about you, but you did more than that. You changed her mind about everything.

Your methods were entertaining and your affection was genuine for a Desdemona. You are indeed more than an artifice of a man. However, your ancestors would certainly not recognise you because your oddity.]

[Rewards: 10,000 VP (+5,000 for Achievement); VP Boost (x2).]

[Total VP: 25,000 VP]

Cassius smiled faintly as his eyes settled on the notification, one hand stroking his chin. He was especially pleased about the VP Boost, for with it, every point he earned would be doubled when he wanted to.

’This is incredible. I might have enough for something worthwhile at the next Saturday’s Origin Store.’ He thought with quiet excitement, sitting inside the carriage with Océane at his side.

The maid wore a small, almost imperceptible smile, inwardly glad to be serving her young master again.

The past days had shown her painfully clearly how completely her life depended on him. There was barely anything she could do without him.

And Océane couldn’t be blamed for it. She didn’t remember much of her childhood, but what little remained was the memory of being trained to serve a Desdemona in that strange place.

So when the sole purpose woven into her very existence was stripped away, she had been like a person rising too high into the sky, chest constricting, breathing going shallow as the air thinned and disappeared.

The sensation had been agonising in the most internal way possible.

She drew a deep, unsteady breath, clenched her fists, and watched Cassius from the corner of her eye.

’How do I make the young master accept my presence even alongside his wife?’

She never wanted to feel that way again. Never. Her thoughts coiled restlessly, searching for answers, until Cassius’s voice landed like a sledgehammer and stopped them cold.

"Tell the Servants of Shadow to leave us the moment we enter Desde City." He ordered, looking through the tinted window. "You and I are going somewhere. Without them."

’I can’t let them know what I’m doing.’ He added inwardly, eyes narrowing. ’The Servants of Shadow are Morgan’s subordinates. Their loyalty isn’t to me.’

And he had no intention of doing what he was about to do with people he didn’t trust at his back.

"May I ask where, Young Master?" Océane asked carefully, confused by the sudden order.

"Well, the place everything avoids in Desde City. The Outskirts." He said, finding no reason to hide it.

Océane’s eyes went wide, her body straightened instinctively. "Please forgive me for overstepping, but...what are we doing there, Young Master? That’s where the all outcasts hide! You cannot just—!"

"I need to find someone, Océane." He cut in, his red eyes narrowing. "A man who knows too much about us."

He was thinking of the man Isolde had once intended to use to get inside the Desdemona Mansion and cause chaos.

Even if Isolde would no longer do such a thing, he was not comfortable leaving that kind of knowledge in the hands of someone who could still weaponise it.

Better to remove the threat before it became one.

’I hope the Tier Five Mind Barrier I obtained from Ananke’s Fractured Land will be enough.’

He truly did.

Ananke, meanwhile, could feel the faint nervousness in her Blessed.

"Do as I said." He told Océane, closing his eyes. "And to be safe, we change carriages."

Océane nodded slowly, then her eyes landed on his bloodied shirt, and she frowned slightly. "Young Master, what about your shirt? I have spare clothes in my space ring."

"Leave it." He waved a lazy hand. "This is my lucky charm from now on. Nothing should harm it."

His voice was oddly serious about a matter of clothes.

Océane said nothing, and began acting on his orders immediately.

Then something chimed inside the carriage.

Cassius’s eyes snapped open, feeling it come from his Runic Phone.

Curious, eyebrows rising, he pulled it from his pocket and found a message. His lips pulled into a smile the moment he saw who it was from.

His wife. Isolde.

She had sent a video alongside a message. He played it with anticipation only to freeze, Ananke burst into laughter inside his mind, watching the footage Isolde had recorded while he was sleeping, snoring loudly and aggressively.

<Here is your proof. I told you that you snore, lovely bastard. Listen to yourself and then imagine what I went through.>

’This woman...’ Cassius’s eye twitched hard, his hand holding the phone trembling, yet he was smiling.

’I didn’t want to do this. But fine.’

He replied with a photo and a message:

<I have many more of these.>

He put the phone away and closed his eyes again, wearing a peaceful smile, already missing his wife, but now he needed to clear his head and prepare for what came next.

’Let’s go.’

[I believe in you, Cassius!]

’Cute.’

[...]

...

Back in her room — which still held the scent of Cassius — Isolde was lying flat on her stomach on the bed, staring at the picture he had sent.

She was laughing. Properly laughing, looking at Cassius’s annoyed face with her arms and legs sprawled all over him.

"I mean, I always knew I was a restless sleeper." She managed between laughs. "I just didn’t want to admit it in front of you."

But that he had actually taken a picture of it...she shook her head with genuine amusement.

Then a strange thought occurred to her, and her face went red almost immediately.

But she did it anyway.

She set the photo as her wallpaper and smiled widely at it, finding it funny. Then her eyes settled on the ring bearing the name Cassius, and she closed them, peacefully. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"If this is a dream, please don’t let me wake up. Let me sleep forever."

She said it sincerely, to whatever god was willing to listen, not knowing what she would ever do if all of this turned out to be false.

But Isolde had nothing to worry about. Because less than half an hour after Cassius’s departure, Sophia and Sefira acted.

Using the Runic Net — the system that allowed news to spread across the Kingdom — they officially made the engagement between Isolde and Cassius public, formally confirming the new relationship between the Amaris and Desdemona.

It was a relationship that did not please everyone as it threatened the interests of many. And those who had been hesitant to act — calculating that the risk wasn’t worth it — now decided that not acting was the greater risk.

Decisions were made.

But it wasn’t only the powerhouses of the Kingdom who stirred. Cassius’s own generation was moving too, seeing the official engagement of someone their own age, someone they knew.

Some of them knew him very well. Very, very well.

...

Inside a chamber made entirely of mirrors, a young woman — white unblemished skin, grey hair in a pixie cut, white eyes — stood looking at her reflection, applying lipstick to her heart-shaped lips.

"It’s confirmed." The mirror in front of her suddenly trembled, a mature voice cutting through sharply. "He is getting married to the first daughter of the Amaris."

The young woman paused, the lipstick hovered an inch from her lips. Her white eyes widened slightly as the information worked its way through her mind.

"Natalia." The voice spoke again, then one of the mirrors rippled like disturbed water, showing a woman with the same features, but older. "Did you hear me?"

"I heard you, mother." Natalia scowled, lowering her hand, frowning deeply. "I heard you. But I cannot believe it."

"It is confirmed. It’s all over the Net." Her mother paused, looking at her daughter with a wry, apologetic expression. "You have wanted to be with little Cassius since you were young. I know my daughter...I know this well. But your father and all of us have already told you it’s not possible. And with this, I hope you will finally make peace with that."

"This is all your fault." Natalia growled, her white eyes as smooth as glass, reflecting the pained look on her mother’s face. "All because of your damned customs! Customs that make no sense—!"

"They do, Natalia. They do—!"

"And I don’t care!" She bellowed, voice cracking. "I said it that day and I will say it again, mother."

She leaned her face toward the mirror, eyes burning with pain and rage.

"I am not marrying my cousin. I would rather die. And I don’t care about the consequences."

Her mother fell silent, watching Natalia’s chest heave. The pain of watching the person she had loved since childhood be taken by someone else was larger than she had expected.

So she lost control.

She opened her mouth and shrieked — a sound of pure, overwhelming rage — and the landscape of mirrors that served as her chamber shattered all at once, severing the connection with her mother in the same instant.

And so Natalia Glassscion, heiress of the Tier Two Glassscion Family and childhood friend of Cassius Desdemona, locked the door of her chamber, hating the very thought of seeing her family’s faces.

—End of Chapter 48—