Chapter 133: Chapter 133: Long awaited confrontation

Chapter 133 – Long awaited confrontation

"Don’t you think so, uncle?"

Raven said nothing at those words. Or more accurately, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything.

The events of the morning came back to him: how Sarah had wafted away his hand, the same hand that had touched every part of her body without exception, as if it were infected by some incurable disease.

He remembered, too, with a cold heart, how she had taken those few steps backward, dodging his kiss as if she disdained the very act she had so eagerly enjoyed all this time. And the worst of all...her telling him she had a man.

A man.

That word echoed inside Raven’s mind like a curse as he stood there in front of Cassius, not realising his face was growing colder and colder by the second. He didn’t fully understand why, but he hated the mere thought of imagining Sarah with another man.

Yet he knew one thing. And that was Sarah was not supposed to be with anyone else but him. Not out of love, but simply because he needed her to be his. He needed her obsessed with him. He needed her to think of him and only him, and no one else.

And besides, he was a Prince. He was Raven Hood!

Just how did a commoner like her dare to choose someone other than him?

It was incomprehensible to Raven, and his face reflected that confusion knotted with anger, giving Cassius a perfect opening.

"You don’t look very confident, uncle." He said, arching an eyebrow. "That’s quite worrying. Don’t tell me you doubt your own ability to make a simple maid fall for you?"

"It’s... it’s not that." Raven said hesitantly, then tried to give himself an excuse. "I have simply never done such things. Courting? I have no knowledge of it. And even if I had, why would I waste time on a maid?"

His last words dripped with false arrogance.

"Now I understand why Anesthesia can’t love you." Cassius sighed.

The words cut deep. Raven fixed him with a cold glare.

"Don’t look at me like that. I mean it honestly...what did you expect? You think a woman like Anesthesia will fall in love just like that? Sorry to break it to you, but absolutely not. You need to court her. And courting does not mean giving her whatever she wants. Do that, and she will only see you as a means to an end. Not someone she can learn to love."

Cassius tilted his head. "You know that already, don’t you?"

"What do you expect me to do, then?"

"Are you a child? Queen’s skirt, I can’t spoon-feed you everything."

"You are the one who started this conversation, Cassius." Raven said, and for a brief moment something almost resembling humour crossed his face. "And as you can see, I am rather inexperienced in this domain. So tell me."

"I don’t like giving advice that won’t be followed." Cassius retorted.

"I will follow it as long as it’s convincing enough."

Cassius grinned at that, then nodded. "Wonderful. I like people who actually listen." He said, then continued, "It’s actually quite simple. Every person has their own love language, uncle. Some want to be loved in one way, others in another. All you have to do is discover what being truly loved means to Anesthesia, then love her in that way."

Raven frowned heavily. "That sounds difficult."

"For Anesthesia, absolutely." Cassius shrugged, and he was being entirely honest. "Mainly because she will never open up to you easily. Don’t glare at me, uncle. You said you don’t want lies, so take the bitter truth."

The Prince nearly rolled his eyes, but stopped, finding it unbecoming.

"However," Cassius resumed, "by ignoring her for one month, she may come to realise she could actually lose you. That will create urgency, and that urgency might become an opportunity for you to know her more deeply. Not the version she shows you, but who she truly is. And to achieve that, you first need to know how to court a woman, and how to draw information from her without making it feel like an interrogation."

He paused, smiling widely. "That is where my brilliant idea comes in, uncle: I sincerely advise you to practise first with your maid. Use her as the draft before attempting the real Chapter. And just so you know, uncle, if you can’t even manage that with a simple maid..."

He shrugged.

"...you might as well forget about Anesthesia entirely."

At that point, Raven was nodding with a serious expression and was fully convinced. Cassius’s words held a wisdom he hadn’t known he was so severely lacking in.

’Maybe that’s why Sarah left.’ He thought. ’Maybe that man has given her the kind of love she wanted...love she could never get from me.’

Immediately, everything became clearer, and Raven found within himself a new kind of motivation and purpose that had not been there that morning.

"Do you understand me now?" Cassius said, and Raven nodded.

"Will you follow my advice then?"

"Yes." Raven acquiesced with a serious tone. "I will try."

’Sarah belongs to me. And that man...’ His thoughts darkened. ’...I need to find out who he is.’

"Then it’s settled." Cassius clapped his hands three times, pulling Raven’s full attention back to him. "But as you know, uncle, all of this will be worthless if you don’t get stronger."

The Prince’s eyes widened as Cassius finally allowed his full presence to be felt, making his new rank plainly visible.

"You... you have ranked up?" Raven muttered in barely concealed shock.

"Aye."

Already?

Hadn’t Cassius only awakened a month ago?

’Was he always this talented?’ A shiver of excitement ran down his entire body.

"Well, now that the matter of women has been settled." Cassius smiled widely, cracking his neck, blood-coloured chains flickering behind his eyes. "Let’s get into the real business, shall we?"

Raven, for the first time since Cassius had known him, let out a smile. Faint. But a smile was a smile, and the Last Born was genuinely surprised by it.

Raven took his stance, summoning his black Scythe out of thin air, locking his red eyes on Cassius’s.

"Don’t go easy." The Prince hissed, black essence rising like smoke around his whole body. "Let me experience what it feels like to go against Emrys at full power."

Cassius smiled. "As you wish."

Raven moved instantly.

Enhancing his legs with his essence, he kicked off the floor and propelled himself straight at Cassius, his weapon already sweeping in a diagonal arc.

Cassius didn’t move. He simply stood there, as if waiting.

And when Raven was only a couple of paces away...

...the sound of rattling chains echoed through the training room. Instantly, the floor beneath Raven split open like the maw of a beast, revealing a crimson realm where chains and blood dwelled.

Raven’s heart skipped. And before his mind could process what he was seeing, dozens of bloody chains erupted from the realm below and coiled around his body like a snake constricting its prey.

He was immobilised in a second and hit the ground, his head an inch from Cassius’s feet.

Silence briefly settled over the training ground.

The Last Born crouched down, looking at him with a wide smile, watching the colour drain quickly from Raven’s face as the chains began to absorb his blood.

Something close to terror crossed Raven’s expression.

"Well, uncle," Cassius grinned like a devil. "I am going to deeply enjoy this session."

Raven Hood, Prince of the Badur Kingdom, immediately regretted challenging Cassius Desdemona.

...

While Cassius and Raven were in the middle of a discussion that had escalated rapidly into battle, Anesthesia and Isolde were still in the dining room, their purple eyes locked on each other for nearly seven minutes, neither of them having spoken a single word.

It felt like a contest of who would crack first.

And Anesthesia was deeply surprised to see her sister — who in the past could barely hold her gaze — now doing it with complete ease.

Surprised, annoyed and deeply irritated.

At the end, she cracked.

"Well, I wonder." She said, her voice amused yet laced with hidden scorn. "Does having a husband give a woman that much confidence?"

She arched an eyebrow at Isolde. "Tell me, sister, I am honestly curious. Because I genuinely cannot understand where this recent confidence you have been so annoyingly carrying around has come from."

"Are you jealous?" Isolde said with a humourless smile.

"Of who?" Anesthesia’s eyes widened in genuine dismay, which shifted quickly into incredulous shock. "Of you? Vorn’s breath, I have never heard something so ridiculous in my eighteen years of living, sister."

"I don’t think it’s that ridiculous." Isolde retorted. "I mean, anyone would be jealous seeing me with such a handsome, loving husband, don’t you think?" She grinned. "But what about you? You know, sister, whispers travel fast and tend to be quite accurate lately. So I managed — I emphasise, I managed — to hear that your relationship with Emrys is..."

Isolde made a gesture with her hand, diving it downward, like a man or an object falling off a cliff.

It was a rather funny gesture.

Anesthesia did not laugh.

"My relationship with Emrys is none of your business, sister. And besides, aren’t you being quite pathetic?" She spat with open disdain. "The reason you have confidence now. The reason you dare to speak to me so boldly...all of it is thanks to a man?"

"I have always been embarrassed to have you as my sister." Anesthesia continued, and Isolde’s body trembled subtly at those words. "But this is truly the worst thing you could possibly do. You are proving again and again that father and mother were right not to give you much importance once my worth proved greater than yours. Because you are the type of woman who only finds meaning and confidence when she is beside — or more accurately — beneath a man. And I..."

She smiled coldly.

"...loathe that type of woman with everything I have. Do you understand where I am going with this?"

"Perfectly." Isolde answered. "And all I am hearing are the frustrated words of a woman who has been abandoned by the very person she loves. And Anesthesia, you are truly, disgustingly hypocritical."

Isolde laughed harshly. "Here you are, telling all of this bullshit about worth and dignity, when you were the very same woman who sourced other women for Emrys to sleep with. So if I am a woman who gains confidence through a man..."

She leaned her face forward, meeting those purple eyes burning with fury. "...then what does that make you? A fucking cuck? Well, if that is your particular taste just say so."

"You—!"

"And I am not even done." Isolde cut in with a silencing gesture. "After all, aren’t you here playing at being loving and devoted with the Prince only because you need him?"

"I love—!"

"Just shut up." Isolde rolled her eyes, and that alone made Anesthesia tremble with boiling rage. "You can’t lie to me. And I know with certainty that you cannot lie to the Prince forever. What happens then? Find another man to latch onto? You fucking whore."

"I am what?" Anesthesia bellowed in fury and rose from her chair in one abrupt motion, so sudden and so forceful that the table cracked and splintered apart beneath her hands. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

With nothing between them now, Anesthesia crossed to Isolde, who was already standing.

She stopped an inch from her sister, her eyes ice-cold. "Say that again, bitch."

Isolde didn’t hesitate and grinned coldly. "I said you are a fucking whore, sister. What are you going to do about it?"

"Show you what this whore can do."

No further words were needed.

Anesthesia struck Isolde with everything she had.

—End of Chapter 133—