Chapter 138: Chapter 138: Complicated feelings

Chapter 138 – Complicated feelings

Inside the training ground, both Cassius and Isolde sat on the floor cross-legged, facing each other.

Isolde was doing the talking, explaining everything that had happened between Anesthesia and her, doing her best to tell it accurately.

But she had to admit it was exceedingly difficult.

She couldn’t count how many times throughout the telling she had softened certain aspects of the events — mainly those concerning herself — in order to appear less horrendous and hypocritical in front of Cassius.

It was instinctive. As if her mind and heart were trying to protect themselves — not by lying in the truest sense, but by staying close enough to the truth for it to pass as truth.

Isolde didn’t even fully understand why she was doing it.

She, more than anyone in this world, understood how much Cassius loved her and how far he was willing to go for her.

But if there was one thing that could possibly rival his love for her...it was his love for his family.

Cassius Desdemona was a family man. And that had become even clearer in the incident just now.

So she couldn’t help but wonder...and doubt. How would Cassius think of her, knowing she was the one who had started this entire vicious cycle?

She was the one who had been jealous of her sister. The one who had wished her nothing but harm over something petty. The one who had allowed their relationship to develop into what it had become.

What would he think, once he realised she didn’t share the love of family he valued so deeply?

Because until now, Cassius had accepted her plan to make her family pay mainly because he believed they had wronged her. And Isolde remembered even from the beginning, during their three days at Amaris House, how Cassius had implicitly shared his own reluctance about hurting her family purely for the sake of vengeance.

She didn’t blame him. She knew where that love had come from.

But that knowledge only deepened her dread as she confessed — edges softened — to her husband.

And yet, even with all the softening in the world, she could not escape the heart of it.

"...I started all of it." She finished, her voice strangely short.

She felt the instinctive urge to lower her head, dreading the sight of disappointment in Cassius’s eyes.

But Isolde waved that cowardly impulse away immediately and fixed her gaze on her husband.

She was ready to take all the blame.

Cassius’s face, however, was mostly neutral, barely any of his thoughts about the situation showing. The only thing Isolde could make out was a faint, curious interest.

"I see." Cassius said, smiling wryly. "Well, I did not expect this at all, darling. And it makes things a bit more complicated."

"Complicated?"

"Aye." He nodded. "Because now we have to revisit the question of what you will do about your sister and your parents." He said with a quiet exhale. "What they did to you is undeniable. You would be within your own right to want to make them pay. But it is equally a fact that all of this began with you."

Isolde clenched her jaw at those plain, blunt words of truth. "I..." she began, then sighed tiredly. "I don’t know, Cass. I truly don’t. I still want to make them pay. But knowing this changes something I can’t put into words. Can you imagine, for just a second, what would have happened if my heart had been free of envy and jealousy toward my sister?"

She smiled slowly, almost in a daze, her mind wandering into a world of created illusions.

"Maybe we would have been a real family. It probably wouldn’t have changed the fact that Anesthesia was the favourite. But... at least, they would have loved me too. Given me what they could. And I would have been satisfied with it."

"Only because you have lived so long without their love." Cassius said. "Now that you understand how precious it is, you would learn to cherish even what little you could have had."

"But it’s too late." Isolde shook her head. "We have reached a point of no return. They can no longer love me as their daughter. And I... don’t think I can forget everything I went through. Not even knowing I am not the victim I believed myself to be."

"So you will still have them killed?"

"I don’t know."

"Well, you don’t have to decide." Cassius said. "Not now, at least. Learning this so late must have been deeply unsettling. Take your time and think it through." 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Are you not blaming me?"

"I mean, you can hardly blame a little child for feeling insecure and jealous." Cassius chuckled. "It was your parents who should have known better. If they hadn’t taken such drastic measures and pushed you away, things might have gone differently."

"But talking about ’might have’ is a waste of time." Isolde retorted. "What’s done is done."

"Aye." He nodded, and fell quiet for a moment. Then, a couple of seconds later, "In any case, I have your back regardless of whatever decision you make."

He stood up from the floor, stretching his body until a series of satisfying cracks echoed through the room.

"But only if you are absolutely certain about your decision." He added, looking at her with a serious face. "I will not watch you make a choice that shatters you to pieces. Because that would be my fate too."

Isolde chuckled and rose to face him. She was relieved, relieved that Cassius hadn’t judged her, and relieved that he hadn’t tried to impose his own beliefs about family, leaving the decision entirely to her.

"I promise." She said.

"Good. Now then," Cassius’s lips curved into a deliberately provocative smile. "The last time we duelled... it was a draw."

"No, I won."

Cassius ignored her.

"I think it is time for a rematch, darling." He continued. "This time with your full power."

"Has having two new skills gone to your head?"

"You think I can’t win?"

"You can’t."

"Then let’s make a wager, since you are so confident."

Isolde paused, then smirked. "What are the terms?"

"If I win, you cook all my meals until Saturday." He proposed. "Quite simple, right?"

Isolde’s lips twitched heavily. Cassius knew perfectly well she couldn’t cook.

However...

"Fine. But if I win," she smiled slowly, "you bark for me."

Cassius rolled his eyes immediately. "I knew that was your thing. And I said I wouldn’t judge, but why in the Queen’s name do you want to hear me bark?"

"Do you accept or not?" Isolde retorted. "Don’t go shy on me now."

"Are you trying to ragebait me into this? Your technique needs work. Should I teach you?"

"Do you accept or not?" She asked again.

Cassius looked at her for a long moment, then nodded. "I accept."

Isolde immediately bared a wide, gleaming grin.

"Should I find a dog to teach you how to do it properly?"

"We will discuss that once you have won."

Isolde shrugged.

And the second duel between the couple began.

...

While the morning inside the Royal Palace stretched abnormally long — filled with events that had no business occurring in a single sitting — the King and Queen of the Kingdom were hidden deep underground beneath the palace itself.

In front of them lay thirty-three dead bodies spread across a wide space, every one of them headless, stomachs split open, their insides spilling and smearing the floor.

The ground was no longer ground. It was a horrific landscape of blood, intestines and organs.

Added to that, the stench was unbearable, so thick that a hazy crimson fog hung low and cold over the entire space.

Yet neither the King nor the Queen flinched. They were focused entirely on what was happening at their feet.

The blood from all thirty-three men and women was moving — slowly but steadily — writing unknown words across the floor.

It didn’t take long for Dantes and Morenna to understand that the words were revealing the location they had been searching for.

The location of the Crimson Daggers’ base.

Dantes shifted his gaze, looked at Morenna briefly, then moved past her, his red eyes settling on Hel Hood, who was sitting calmly atop a severed head.

"The location has been revealed." He said, smiling. "Is there anything either of you need before going?"

The two women looked at him steadily. Then, wordlessly, they both disappeared, their combined voices echoing behind them.

""Nothing.""

—End of Chapter 138—