Ensnaring his Dark Moon-Chapter 368: Cooking

’’Have you lost your mind after being abandoned by Luciana?" Esme snapped despite not wanting to be harsh.

Cardan looked at her like a hurt puppy who was stabbed right in the chest.

Esme massaged her forehead before she inhaled a deep breath, ’’I looked at you like that because I discovered something.’’

’’What?"

’’There is a waterfall nearby. I can hear the noise of falling water. That means, the land around it must be marshy as well. It will not take it long for us to find our way out,’’ Esme contemplated for a moment before she added, ’’As long as you can hold on and use your powers without breaking apart."

Cardan arched an eyebrow at her mockery, ’’Child’s play,’’ he raised his hand.

Even though the walls of this cave seemed to be bound by some spell that he could somehow sense, the ground seemed just ordinary.

Esme noticed five black snakes formed from the fume at his fingertips, struggling to break away.

Cardan snapped his fingers and they shot towards the ground.

’Boom’

A loud sound reverberated in the place they were in and a huge slanted hole appeared in the ground near Cardan’s feet.

And followed by the loud sound, Esme’s sharp ears picked up the gradual vanishing noise of the ground falling. And Esme did not have to ask Cardan to know that it must be doing of those tiny ink snake-like creatures. Wherever they went, they paved a path.

Cardan stepped inside the dark path and illuminated it.

Once he checked and made sure that everything was fine, he turned around and offered his hand to Esme who was standing outside, ’’Step in.’’

Esme scoffed as she walked past him, ’’I am not weak.’’

’’Certainly, Lady Esme, do protect me when the time comes,’’ Cardan turned his face to the left.

Esme harrumphed and turned her face towards the right.

Both the people proceeded on their path without looking at each other.

One day later.

"We are finally out of that godforsaken place...’’ Cardan trailed off midway when his eyes fell on the view in front of him.

The setting sun cast a warm glow on the never-ending lands of green. Birds chirped as they flew towards the waterfall in the center of the lush lands. With their shallow beaks, they caught fish before flying away. The banks of the waterfall were filled with myriad flowers that Cardan had never seen before and the air in that place seemed to be magical, infusing a sense of spiritual serenity in him.

When Cardan turned to look at Esme, he discovered that she was equally fascinated.

’’What do you think of this place?"

Esme looked around in a daze before she said, ’’That we would have ended up staying inside that cave if I listened to your words.’’

Cardan rolled his eyes. This woman sure loved to brag.

But being the bigger person that he was, he did not bother with her.

Later that night, Cardan roasted fish while Esme glanced at him with a raised brow.

While she was equipped with divine hellfire, she was not immune to all fires in the world as a mermaid. Their bodies were of the kind that burned and hurt at the existence of fire.

Hence Cardan was the one to arrange food for them both.

"I never knew you could do this,’’ Esme said after observing him for some time.

’’When I was a child, I used to spend a lot of time with the maids that my father had arranged for me,’’ Cardan responded to her question casually as he flipped the fish to the other side with expertise.

Esme noticed the way he used the word ’child’. Perhaps, he was referring to a time when he did not have an understanding of the world, when he had yet to be corrupted by his mother, ’’What else did they teach you?" Esme asked him, seeing that he did not seem to have any objection to talking about it.

She did not want to remain silent.

When they remained silent, the eeriness of the place started creeping in on her. Beautiful as the place was, she was terrified of the things that she could not see. The fear of the unknown settled in on her in the most terrifying manner and Esme knew that she had to keep her mind off those things. Aleister’s and Luciana’s whereabouts were unknown and her heart remained at unrest that something might go wrong with them.

’’A lot of other things,’’ Cardan’s response took Esme’s attention. The man paused for a moment before he added, ’’Those maids had children who played with toys. They taught me how to make those toys. I observed the maids cooking snow deers and I asked them to teach me that as well. I also learned how to make oils.’’

’’Oils?" Esme was amused.

Cardan nodded, ’’Oils from heavenly flowers. When you go to heaven with my brother, visit my chamber and I will show you the oils I made back then,’’ he shrugged, "I might present you one if I feel like it."

’’You have them till now?" Esme was stunned, ’’Haven’t they gone bad?"

’’They are heavenly flowers. They never go bad,’’ Cardan rolled his eyes, ’’You plebs won’t understand.’’

Esme did not take the humiliation to heart. She was beyond amazed to discover these things, ’’It sounds like you had an adventurous childhood.’’

’’Yes, they used to be good people. They were good to me.’’

’’Used to be?" Esme regretted the moment the question slipped out of her mouth. Those maids must not be immortals. They probably passed away and their children should have grown up to become soldiers for the Dark Castle. They would revere Cardan as their prince instead of befriending him, ’’Forget that I asked...’’

’’I killed them.’’

Cardan’s words cut Esme off.

The words he uttered made her jaw drop. She looked at him, partly in disbelief and partly in horror, unable to say a single word.

The warmth of those stories that he shared with her was replaced with a chill that crept down her spine just at the thought of the annihilation that must have transpired in the walls of the Dark Castle.

’’Why would you?"

Cardan did not say anything but he just looked at her before going back to cook the fish, ’’They were weaknesses,’’ he uttered just when she thought he would not answer her question.