Chapter 12

Chapter 12

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Three days passed before I laid eyes on Cassis again. A new sentry had been assigned to guard the dungeon. The one who Charlotte had attacked was still recovering. In the meantime, I had gained Lante’s approval to enter the basement dungeon. Thanks to Charlotte’s outburst, I had no trouble visiting Cassis anymore.

“How does your body feel? Are you holding up?”

I spoke while entering Cassis’ cell, and he turned towards my voice. It had been a while since I had last seen him. It was then that I realized he still did not act all that much like a prisoner. His expression remained stoic, and his eyes were as bright as they had been that first day he arrived. He also showed zero intent to answer me. Instead, just as he had from the moment I first came to his cell, he did nothing but stare straight at me.

Finally, he spoke.

“Roxana.”

I could not help feeling taken aback after hearing him utter my name for the first time. Blinking away my embarrassment, I tried to steady my thoughts. Names were intended for people to use when speaking to one another, and I had told him mine, so what was the big deal?

Then he asked rather softly, “How long has it been since you were last here?”

I lowered my head slightly before answering.

“A week.”

“I see.”

Even to my own ear, I sounded stilted, but so did he.

“I thought it might have been longer.”

As Cassis spoke, his voice betrayed no particular sentiment. Still, hearing him admit that he had thought I’d been gone longer gave me an odd sensation. Of course, Cassis likely meant nothing by it. I had engineered it so that once Charlotte was in the doghouse with our father, she wouldn’t be able to go anywhere near Cassis again.

There was also a part of me that wished Cassis would acknowledge that he needed me, if only briefly. That was why I had left him alone for an entire seven days. I did nothing to prevent Charlotte’s attack, even though I knew I had seen it coming from a mile away, then left him to suffer with his injuries all alone.

With his stoic face, he suddenly spoke.

“Well, are you just going to stand there?”

I almost flinched at his words. It was so unexpected for him to offer me anything close to an invitation to get near him. I suppose he could tell that I was still standing by the doorway, so he spoke again more slowly.

“Come here, Roxana.”

A whisper both low and earnest rang in my ear again, but his face betrayed no emotion. After hesitating shortly, I moved toward him.

“All right. I came to tend to your injuries, anyway.”

As his eyes seemed to take in all of my movements, he went on.

“I thought you said it wasn’t a good idea to treat my external injuries in case someone takes notice.”

“I did, but the situation has changed since then.”

He probably still found it strange that I had hurt him multiple times just to feed him medicine. As I walked closer to Cassis, he gazed quietly in my direction. However, overcome by an odd sensation, I stopped midway.

“What’s the matter?” he asked while lowering his eyelids halfway.

“Come closer.”

He didn’t say it so much as a command, but for some reason I found it difficult not to abide. I began walking forward again. I could tell I was being controlled in a way, but my ego would not allow me to admit it, so I acted as if everything I did was of my own will.

I also took note that the left cuff seemed to have been the one that had snapped off as the one currently around his left wrist was completely free of blood. His handsome face also bore new wounds. A bitter taste swelled in my mouth as I recalled how Charlotte had been responsible for them.

Once near enough to him, I touched him here and there to gauge his condition. Contrary to my initial concerns, his limbs were all intact, but there were various fairly severe slashes to his midriff. All the same, I needed to inspect. The right shoulder blade was likely fractured, and there was a deep gash in his stomach. However, as I looked upon the bluish bruise there, I pondered if I had caused that one.

“You’ve been wounded pretty severely. If your injuries go untreated any longer, you could suffer some serious complications.”

I spoke as if that much should be obvious to anyone, even though I had deliberately not looked in on him for an entire week.

“You did well persevering through such pain, but you don’t have to worry now that I’m here.”

There was a strange air in the room. I looked up at him out of curiosity. There was Cassis Pedelian staring down at me with a wholly unfamiliar glint in his eyes. He looked at me with such concentration that for a moment I thought he had stopped breathing. Despite the various wounds, his face stood out rigidly like a sculpture. Those sun-like golden eyes of his continued to pierce straight through me. There was inexplicable confusion and perplexity in that gaze. Then I suddenly realized the source of my uneasiness.

“So that’s why,” I mumbled to myself. As if my whisper shook him awake, Cassis began to breathe again. That’s right. I’ve figured you out.

Cassis was standing so close to me that I could feel his breath. I gave him a feint smile as I said, “So from this distance you can see me now?”

I have to admit it made me a bit happy to finally see that look of bewilderment on Cassis’ face. Still, he was the Blue Heir for a reason, and returned to his somber self soon enough. His eyes, which moments ago had seemed to be pulsating in tiny wavelets, regained their calm. Compared to some of the Agreces who even after years still melted at the mere sight of me, Cassis’ controlled his reaction well. Perhaps a little too well.

“I wouldn’t have minded if you were a bit more shocked,” I said playfully.

“I wasn’t shocked.”

“Really?”

I knew he was lying. He stopped talking after hearing how little I believed him. His face became rigid yet again, but this time it was for a different reason. I had supposed that he was simply shocked at himself for having been so roused by my beauty, albeit temporarily, but that was a natural reaction. I couldn’t fathom why he would act so oddly about it. Honestly, anyone who had laid eyes on me up until then was always so awestruck that their first reaction was often to check that they weren’t dreaming. By the time I was a teenager, it happened more often than I could count. Not to mention, my beauty was literally honed to be wielded as a weapon.

But this is all my roundabout way of saying that even the famed Blue Heir stood no chance of stifling the flush of emotion he felt upon seeing me properly. Especially considering that at the time, he was a healthy 17-year-old boy. Perhaps he might have been able to, had he been older and more experienced, but not yet. In fact, Cassis’ ability to remain composed enough to avoid making a scene upon seeing me was no small feat. A recent example of such a scene involved the dungeon guard, Yoan who Charlotte drugged and beat up. He had been unable to deny me anything after just one encounter. He had been reduced to a babbling Yes-man within seconds, then managed a few intelligible sentences after some time.

On the contrary, Cassis’ reaction was hardly interesting. He silently focused his eyes on my face, but the smitten expression I had grown accustomed to was nowhere in sight. His gaze actually seemed chillier than usual. In fact, it had been icy from the moment I stepped into his cell. Looking into his eyes from so close up, the iciness was even more palpable.

“What’s on your mind?”

I asked without avoiding his gaze. For some reason, I sensed that I could guess the meaning of the cold light in his eyes.

“You aren’t by any chance thinking about killing me, are you?” I said quietly, but with deliberate provocation. However, Cassis remained silent. Someone in his shoes would normally react in shock after hearing such a thing, but he obviously wasn’t normal.

“Just ask me what you want to know. Now that you’ve seen what I look like, I’m sure there’s something.”

Although I took after my mother almost entirely, that didn’t mean I bore zero resemblance to Lante. My scarlet-red eyes were the exact same color as his.

At that moment I noticed his golden eyes light up as if they were aflame again. But rather than question what I was up to, Cassis simply stared at me as if he’d already guessed my game. Then he said quietly, “Roxana Agrece.”

He had added three new syllables to the name I had told him before— A-Gre-Ce. I had no reason not to answer him.

“Yes, that’s me.”