Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 118: The War for the North[6] Shattered Alliances
Cassian did not step back despite Cryomara’s definitive rejection. On the contrary, a brazen, defiant smile appeared on his face.
"I want the sword," he repeated, emphasizing every syllable.
Cryomara’s patience was wearing thin. The walls of the room began to tremble.
"Heir of Kaiser..." Cryomara said, her voice low and dangerous. "I think you don’t realize what kind of situation you are in, who you are talking to. This is my lair. My city. Right now, your life depends on a single breath of m-"
"What the fuck are you talking about?"
Cryomara’s words got stuck in her throat.
Cassian broke that respectful, kneeling position he had maintained until that moment.
He slowly stood up in a calm but threatening manner. He straightened his clothes, dusting them off as if they were dusty.
His voice caused an icy silence in the room.
"My life is in your hands?" Cassian laughed. But this was not a joyous laugh; it was a dark, condescending laugh.
Cassian released his aura. Against Cryomara’s dominant ice mana inside the room, he spread his own chaotic, burning, and dark aura. The air grew heavy.
"Does your feeble intellect not grasp what kind of situation you are in?" Cassian continued, stepping towards Cecilia and Cryomara.
"As you said... you are completely abandoned. Obsidian Dawn is at the door. The Empire has written you off. The people... those people you boast of protecting have been almost completely destroyed. Those remaining are either eating each other from hunger or rotting from disease. More than half of your lands are not even under your control."
Cassian paused, looking ruthlessly at Cecilia’s face.
"Every day, you live in this castle trembling with anxiety, wondering ’Will we see tomorrow?’. Don’t try to deny it! Fear has permeated the walls of this room."
Then he pointed his finger at Cryomara.
"You are still alive... because your enemy is waiting for the perfect moment to crush you. They are consuming you slowly, with pleasure. When that moment comes, when the attack begins, who will stop them?"
Cassian cast a mocking glance at Cryomara.
"You’re not going to say you’re strong enough to stop them, are you? Do you think that arrogance brought by thousands of years will be enough to stop armies?"
Cryomara grit her teeth, her eyes flashed, but Cassian did not give her the opportunity.
"Yes, you can’t! And you couldn’t!" Cassian growled. "You may be strong, Mystical Beast. But you are alone. And the power facing you exceeds your imagination."
"You are weak!" Cassian said emotionlessly. "But your greatest weakness is not just the power you possess or have lost!"
He turned his gaze back to the trembling Cecilia. His red eyes pierced through the girl’s soul.
"Your stupid emotions!"
"Your family died, Cecilia. They died. And that sword, that damned piece of metal, will not bring them back. They will never come back. Clinging to their so-called legacy, to that sword like a baby, claiming ownership will change nothing!"
Cassian took another step closer.
"If you continue to act like this, your end will be just like your family’s. You will die all alone at the head of that sword with your throat slit."
"SHUT UP!" Cecilia moaned, covering her ears with her hands.
"Tell me, Cecilia!" Cassian continued ruthlessly. "What did your family gain... in the face of that ’noble’ and tough stance? Honor? Victory? No. They caused the destruction of the people they tried to protect, the burning of their cities. And they left their only daughter, you, alone and helpless in the middle of this hell!"
"For what? Because they tried to keep something for themselves that didn’t belong to them, that they couldn’t use, that they were just hiding!"
Cassian’s voice echoed in the room like the whispers of a demon. Every word stabbed into Cecilia’s heart like a dagger.
"I am offering you salvation," Cassian said, lowering his voice. "I am offering you an army, an alliance, a future." "Just in exchange for that useless sword. I am giving you back your life! But you... you are bringing about your own end because of your ridiculous, childish emotions!"
Cassian spread his hands to his sides.
"If my only goal was the sword, I could have taken it from among the ruins after you fell, after the Obsidian Dawn slaughtered you. I could have left you to die. But I didn’t. I chose to save you. Why? Because maybe... I thought maybe there was a little logic inside that stupid head of yours."
He took a deep breath and grimaced.
"But I see that... you are not very keen on being saved. You prefer death to living."
Cassian’s ruthless tirade was cut off by a familiar, worried voice echoing in his mind.
[Brother... You went too far...] Nivelle said. Her voice was trembling.
Cassian snapped out of the fog of his anger and looked at the destruction he had created.
Cryomara had closed her eyes tightly. That proud stance was shaken. The pain of undeniable truths could be read on her face.
As for Cecilia... she was no longer a Duchess. She was a little girl collapsed on the edge of the bed, her shoulders shaking as she cried, trying to suppress her sobs.
Tears streaming from her eyes were wetting her nightgown. Cassian had trampled on her pride, her hope, and her past.
Cassian understood at that moment. He might be right. Everything he said was true. But...
The alliance he was trying to form, that bridge of trust, had just been shattered by his own hands.
The silence in the room was broken by Cryomara’s icy voice, which this time contained not anger, but deep disappointment and threat.
Without opening her eyes, she spoke.
"Leave..." Cryomara said. Her voice was like a whisper but more effective than a scream.
"Leave here, Heir of Kaiser. Immediately. Or... I swear, this day will be the last day you live."
_ _ _
The ruthless wind of Frosthelm licked against the ramparts of the Winter Keep, descending into the narrow streets of the city and making every living creature there feel the cold breath of death. Yet tonight, the coldest thing in those streets was not the wind, but the heart of a young man slumped on a black bench.
Cassian had returned to where he started, to that wooden bench.
He leaned his back against the hard surface, crossing his arms over his chest. The cold seeped through his thin clothes and settled into his bones, but he refused to use his mana to warm himself. He accepted this cold as a punishment for his stupidity. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖
Even though his eyes were closed, his mind was wide awake. He was replaying the events over and over again.
His plan had been simple.
Infiltrate, show his power, impress them, establish an alliance, and receive Mordret’s Sword in return. It should have been that simple.
But he had been wrong.
He had been too confident. His anger had blinded his logic. He had seen Cecilia Frosthelm and the Mystic Beast Cryomara merely as helpless extras who were desperate and waiting to be saved.
He had disregarded their pain, their losses, and the meaning they attributed to that sword, and he had underestimated them.
What he did was not just rude, it was disgusting. It was a chain of disasters that began with entering a girl’s bedroom to examine her undergarments and continued with insulting her family’s legacy.
Yet, in a way, Cassian did not regret it. For they were the killers of Kaiser. The person who was a true father figure to Cassian.
The moment Cryomara said she was responsible for Kaiser’s death, Cassian had not known what to do. The people he came to help were, in a way, considered his enemies.
His anger had blinded him, and he had thrown aside all the plans in his mind and spoken what was in his heart.
Alongside his regret, there was also a fire of anger inside him that would not extinguish. Mordret’s Sword.
He had failed to get that damned sword. That sword was the main reason he had come to the North, traveled all this way, and endured so much.
Without that sword, he murmured, gritting his teeth, I will have thrown my life away for nothing.
As his mind oscillated between guilt and ambition, exhaustion took over. He did not know what to say to the other lords and Fredrin; he could not just leave like this.
Cassian lifted his hand and covered his eyes. In the freezing night of the North, he fell into a restless sleep on a bench in the middle of the street.
_ _ _
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