Chapter 15

Chapter 15

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When Lante Agrece chose a woman, he considered various factors. In other words, their attractiveness wasn’t the only prerequisite. Take for example, my mother and stepmothers. They all had nearly nothing in common. Appearance-wise, they ranged from an eye-popping beauty like my mother, to my almost somber-looking stepmother. Their personalities were also vastly different. Some were bold and loud like lionesses, while others were tame and timid like houseplants, while many others fell somewhere in between.

I’d always written off Lante’s preference in women to be some unexplained lapse in his judgment, but the truth was far more shocking. I had recently discovered that there was a method to his quirkiness. Each of his wives had been selected based on their respective special talents. It seemed he had been working to create a sort of genetic melting pot.

Still, I’d bet any money that the reason he chose my mother was for no other reason but her “beauty.” This might sound harsh, but in all honesty, my mother had no other redeeming qualities. Sure, I appreciated her calm and placid demeanor, but in this family they didn’t off any advantages at all. I’d bet Jeremy’s beautiful hair that our father hardly found such a personality very attractive. But since what had kept me from being killed at eight years old was the comeliness I had inherited from my mother, one could argue that I actually owed her a great deal.

So yes, I knew I probably seemed ungrateful for avoiding her the way I had that day. But that realization didn’t leave me wishing I could run right to her either.

Clack.

After escorting Jeremy to his room, I set off to see Cassis. Normally, I might have lingered a while longer with him just to please his needy side, but there was no time to waste that day. Besides, the fact that I had chosen him over my own mother should have been enough to satisfy his ego. Plus, it was in my best interest to keep him at a certain distance.

As I entered the room Cassis was lying in, I frowned at his sorry state. He was still bound with the magical cuffs, and his mouth was still gagged as it had been earlier.

“So they barely treated him, huh?” Indeed, his major injuries had been treated, but the smaller cuts and bruises remained untouched.

I drew closer to take a look at his wrists and ankles. So much of his skin had been rubbed raw by the cuffs that the sight alone made me wince. When I raised his hand slightly, a clanging sound reverberated throughout the room due to the metal chain connecting his wrist to a pillar. There were similar chains linked to his ankles.

The entire room was drenched in an atmosphere of death. Perhaps that was why seeing Cassis lying in the middle of the floor made the whole scene look even more forlorn. Of course, it was an improvement from the dungeon where he had been shackled directly to the wall, but still...

The first thing I did was remove the gag from his mouth. There was nothing I could about the cuffs, but I did begin to treat the wounds on his wrists and ankles with a balm before wrapping them in bandages. After inspecting the wounds on the other parts of his body, I took my time treating each one by hand. Even though I was well aware of such practices, it still amazed me how cruelly our clan treated these so-called “toys” in our possession. Then again, it wasn’t as if such treatment stopped at the toys. There simply wasn’t anything Agreces didn’t take too far.

After tending to Cassis’ wounds, I decided to stay in the room for a bit to sit by his side and gaze at his face. Unconscious like that, he was the picture of gentleness. I gritted my teeth as I pondered how the Agreces could torture a person who seemed so kind and innocent. Indeed, the Agreces were as evil as evil could be and did not deserve to exist in any world.

I sighed as I leaned against the wall. I had been going at full speed lately, so it came as no surprise that I was dog-tired. On top of that, all the stress and anxiety I had regarding Cassis was finally catching up to me now that he was in my custody.

I glanced over at his still body. He looked so sad and pathetic lying on the bare floor with his body riddled with wounds. After a moment, I moved closer, then lifted his head to lay it on my lap. Through the thin layer of my dress’s fabric, I could gauge the full weight of his head. I was certain my lap was at least a little more comfortable than the hard floor. I knew there was nothing I could have done earlier while Lante was pummeling him, but even so I felt sorry. So yes, that is why I decided to place his head on my lap.

Watching Cassis get attacked like that, I felt a prickle as the conscience I had hidden away somewhere while living as an Agrece reappear only to accuse me of complicity. As I looked down at his face, my heart went out to him. Cassis was a highly respected and beloved member of the Pedelian clan. And he wasn’t just any member, but their heir-apparent. No one had any doubts that he had a glorious future in store for him. However, in the novel, Cassis suffers a pitifully tragic death. Even three years after Sylvia discovers the truth of his disappearance, none of the other Pedelians have any idea about his death.

In the novel, Jeremy was your average evil villain, but one who became a fool around attractive women. His foolish streak was truly relentless. That’s why even after abducting Sylvia, he would later voluntarily divulge the information about Cassis’ death to her. He told her in detail that her brother died broken after having been mercilessly played with and tortured as an Agrece “toy.” And he had indeed been broken both physically and mentally in the end. I don’t remember the Blue Heir who passed without grief or glory while imprisoned at the Agrece compound, but I don’t think I could recall the details accurately even if I did. But the one thing I do remember clearly was that Cassis had been treated horrifically all throughout his stay.

It was a strange sensation to look upon someone whose future had already been foretold. Then it dawned on me that my future was far from rosy either. At least not according to the novel. If there had been a mirror in that room, I would have seen not one, but two people who would get cut down in the prime of their lives reflected back at me.

“I don’t want to die...”

There was only one way to avoid that fate. I had to save Cassis. But... what if I failed in freeing him from the Agreces’ clutches? There was still the Jeremy option. I had speculated that I might be able to prevent him from abducting Sylvia later. Or better yet, making it so that he and Sylvia would never meet in the first place. Of course, these were all just contingency plans in case my plan to free Cassis went south.

While all those thoughts swirled around in my head, my hand had been moving on its own. To my surprise, I saw that it had begun to caress Cassis’ hair the way I often did to Jeremy’s. It was actually rather peaceful in that otherwise dire situation. Perhaps it was the fact that Cassis was fully under my supervision. It finally felt as if he was within my control.

There were times when the Agrece siblings would share their “toys,” but neither Jeremy nor Charlotte would ever entertain such a thought as they were both possessive types. I figured I would probably have to use a similar excuse to guard against the others in the future. That was the only way I would be able to keep Cassis safer than he had been in the dungeon. But I did have to keep in mind how Cassis appeared to the others. Lante would not have taken kindly to seeing a robust Pedelian under my supervision.

In the midst of these thoughts, my hand suddenly stopped moving. Looking down, I saw that Cassis was still lying quietly with his eyes closed. My aimless stroking had messed up his hair, and it had fallen over his brow.

“How odd,”

I mumbled to myself. My finger had felt something rather unexpected.

“How is his hair so soft? It’s almost as if someone washed it for him.”

I was surprised because it felt almost as silky as Jeremy’s. There was even a volume to it like the sort one would get right after washing their hair.

But that was impossible. While Jeremy had been enjoying the pleasures of life as a coddled young master, Cassis had been rolling in the dirt and stink of the basement dungeon. He hadn’t even been offered proper food in that accursed place, only torture. A wash was out of the question. His blood-soaked body was proof enough of that. What’s more, there were still flecks of blood in his hair. And it was even less likely that someone had washed him.

Then suddenly an odd feeling came over me. It was similar to the uncertainty I had felt earlier while watching him get dragged away.

“He doesn’t even smell.”

I realized just then that he had been that way even when he was in the dungeon. As I muttered to myself, I felt Cassis’ head tilt slightly to one side. It was barely discernible, but I was certain of the movement. Had I not been staring at his face as his head rested in my lap, I wouldn’t have noticed.

Suddenly, a thought pulsed through my mind. Could he be awake?