Chapter 89 – Dream of Earth

It was strange.

It truly was, for it was the first time since he had been reborn into this world of Sunu Gaal that Cassius dreamed of his life on Earth...so achingly vividly.

Yet if it was only that, it would not have been so strange to him. But the point was, Cassius hadn’t dreamed of his parents back on Earth, nor even of his best friend, Kaden.

He had dreamed of a woman. The woman who was the reason — the origin — of his unhealthy obsession with dangerous women, and who had made him who he was.

Katherine, The Godmother. That was what she was called. She was the leader of a renowned Mafia — The Fallen Angel — in Paris, that sold all types of drugs, killed influential people, and stole anything they wanted and could benefit from.

They had a network of connections that was staggering, with high-ranking people in France secretly working with them.

It was into that Mafia gang that Noah, back on Earth — in his dark phase, having lost his family, and having suddenly developed a love for villains — had tried to join in order to act like one.

And what better way to do so than to enter a Mafia gang? So he did exactly that. And that was when he met her, on his very first day, as if in a twist of ridiculous fate:

’Now, now, now, what is a pretty boy like you doing here, huh, pretty boy?’

Katherine, the Godmother, with a cigarette on her heart-shaped pink grinning lips, her blue eyes glowing like sapphire lit by endless light, and hair dark as midnight, had said to him in a sweet voice.

Noah had been entranced, struck by the inviting yet dangerous aura she emitted, yet he still managed to answer. ’To make a living.’ He lied. ’I am an orphan.’

At those words, Katherine had looked at him for a full three minutes, her eyes unwavering on his own, before she smiled mysteriously and accepted.

Noah was relieved, but still nervous about his choice.

However, Katherine put him at ease. He didn’t know why, but she had taken a liking to him at first glance and immediately took him under her wing.

He had watched her kill men and women, sell drugs that ruined other people’s lives, ignite gang wars between rivals, and escape the police every single time with the help of inside spies.

Yet throughout all of those affairs, without exception, Katherine had always refused to let Noah participate in any of their activities.

In fact, whenever she took him along, she always told him to wear a mask and hide his face.

The mask was white with golden stripes.

’Now, now, now, just watch, pretty boy.’ She would always say with her ever-grinning face, always smoking. ’I don’t want you staining your hands with any of this, okay? After all, tell me, pretty boy, will your parents, resting in heaven, be proud of you if you do?’

Those words had hit Noah like a speeding truck. It was true, embarrassingly even, that he hadn’t thought about it that way. To him, he had simply been trying to relate to the villain characters he admired and get closer to them.

It was childish, perhaps. No, not perhaps. It was. But it had been the only way he’d found to cope with everything that was happening to him.

Yet Katherine had never let him act. ’Only watch,’ she would often repeat when they were alone. ’Only witness the darkness of the underworld. Know what kind of life we are living. Realise it’s not worth it. And go back to your own life before it becomes too late, pretty boy. Now, now, now, why don’t you answer me, pretty boy?’

Noah had never understood why Katherine held him in such high regard. Him, a young edgy boy at the time.

Yet it was those words — those moments with Katherine — that had forged an important part of his character within him. A part that made him who he was now, as Cassius Desdemona.

A part that loved dangerous women.

Because it was a dangerous woman — one who could kill in the morning and in the evening talk with him about love stories over extensive smoking — who had saved him from a path of self-destruction.

After some time, Noah had begun to see her as a big sister. Or rather, as a kind of mother figure. She had looked strangely happy about that, as if seeing in him something else...or rather, someone else.

That was when he knew she had lost her little brother, just as he had lost his family.

Two people struck by the same pain had met. One had already taken the dark path and knew the regret that came with it. The other had wanted to take it, but was stopped and protected by the first.

That was how their relationship had been. Until Noah became known for it, earning him a nickname whispered throughout the underworld with respect and twisted amusement: the Angel of Death.

Because he was the Angel of Katherine, who was considered the incarnation of Death and the Queen of the Underworld. And, also, because he was the sole untainted being inside a tainted world.

Their relationship had continued in that way.

Until the day Katherine, too, died under the assault of the police, brought down by her numerous crimes. A painful death. Yet a death that made her smile — because at least, her angel was safe, and had gone back to the heavens where he belonged.

And so...

GASP!!!!

Cassius jolted upright on the bed, his heart pounding so loudly his own ears rang, a sharp pain — less physical and more psychological — spreading through his whole body.

He was drenched in sweat, his clothes plastered to his skin, especially his face, where pain and sorrow and anguish were displayed openly.

He ducked his head, looking at his hands fisting the bedsheets, and felt tears flowing down his cheeks.

’Ah, Queen above, why now?’ He thought with building irritation, knowing this was not the time to be sentimental, yet finding no strength in him to stop the tears.

He raised his hands and buried his face in them, allowing himself to let everything out, his mind replaying the moments he had shared with Katherine back on Earth.

[Cassius...] Ananke whispered with concern, her own heart hurting at the sight of her Blessed in such sadness. [It... is okay. Don’t cry.]

Cassius didn’t answer, falling silent, doing everything he could to regain control of his emotions.

’I thought I had made peace with that.’ He thought with a self-mocking smile. ’So why now? Why now of all times?’

Why was he remembering Katherine? Why was he remembering his Godmother, his sister, his mother, his protector...the one who, alongside Kaden, had taught him his most important lessons in life?

He didn’t know. And he had no way of knowing.

But Cassius knew he didn’t have the luxury of letting himself be swallowed by grief. He had other things to achieve. Important things that concerned the life and death of those he had come to care for and love in his new life.

So it was with that determined feeling that he lifted his head, wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand, and looked at the two beings who had been there, apparently, since before he woke.

Dantes and Morenna Hood.

The King and Queen of the Badur Kingdom.

"I came to see how the Last Born was doing." Dantes said, his voice neutral, his red eyes carrying the feeling of thousands of flies floating within them. "But I didn’t expect a crybaby. Is this who you called cute, Morenna?"

Morenna smiled simply. "Isn’t he cute though?"

Cassius smiled awkwardly. "Hello, grandmother." He nodded toward Morenna, then shifted his attention to Dantes — who now wore his true appearance: a man around forty, with a fine black moustache, red hair and red eyes — and tilted his head in mild confusion.

"How should I address you?" He asked sheepishly. "Uncle or grandfather? Let’s decide right now. It’s quite confusing, I’ll admit."

Morenna chuckled beside them, while Dantes looked at Cassius deeply, then clicked his tongue.

"He looks just like Sefira." He said, took a single step, and his face was a breath away from Cassius in an instant. Cassius nearly jumped. "But you feel like Seraphim."

Cassius’s lips twitched. "And how does my aunt feel, grandfather?"

"Like a snake."

"Are you complimenting me, uncle?"

Dantes looked at him for a long moment, then smiled, amused. "Maybe I am, Cassius." He said. "In any case, I can see it."

"See what?"

"You are better than my useless son."

Morenna’s expression tightened slightly at those words. She was displeased at anyone speaking ill of her son. But she knew it was useless to say that to Dantes: the Plague King of Hood simply disliked his son’s character.

"Not in terms of power. You are weaker than him, that is certain." Dantes clarified. "But in terms of character."

He stretched out his hand, gave Cassius a light tap on the shoulder, then straightened his back. "Now that I have seen you and have a glimpse of who you are, I will leave you, Cassius."

"Already?" He said before Dantes could disappear, smiling. "Why so soon? I was expecting the two of us to sit around dead corpses with some good wine and talk about everything and anything. Ah yes, I would very much love some hidden secrets about my mother."

Dantes was silent for a long moment, visibly caught off guard by that bluntness, before he erupted into laughter.

"I was right." He chuckled, looking nothing like anything most people knew of him. "You are indeed better than that lad Raven. But I have matters to attend to, Cassius. Let’s do this before you go back, shall we?"

Without waiting for an answer, he disappeared into a cloud of crimson-black flies.

Now only Cassius and Morenna remained inside the room, their eyes finding each other immediately.

Morenna smirked. "How interesting." She remarked, then, "I have cleared out my whole day just for you, sweetheart." She extended her hand. "How about a day with your grandmother?"

Cassius nodded, not minding at all — he knew it was Thursday that his meeting with Meadow Wealth would come. That girl had been arrogant enough to make him wait for a meeting with her.

He could only accept the situation for now.

So he lifted his hand, feeling at the same time the change in his body’s strength and the continuous spiral of dense essence churning within him, and grasped his grandmother’s hand.

"Why not, grandma?" He smiled, and Morenna grinned wildly at his face.

"My beautiful grandson!" She said with enthusiasm, pulling Cassius into a sudden hug full of warmth. "Grandma will show you everything in this house!"

"Now let’s go! First stop: the kitchen!"

—End of Chapter 89—