Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 144: Date with Lilith [3]

Cassian placed the silver fork in his hand on the edge of the plate as the surprisingly delicious taste of the lemon meringue in his mouth slowly faded.

He fixed his eyes on Lilith, who was eating the cream of her strawberry cake with a great appetite across the table. His gaze was sharp, questioning, and uncompromising.

As if feeling this intense gaze, Lilith lifted her head slightly.

While cleaning the cream stain on the corner of her lips with her tongue, a smile spread across her face.

"What is it?" she asked, her voice like a playful melody. "Did my beauty leave you speechless so you can’t take your eyes off me, honey? Or do you want some of my cake?"

Cassian ignored this mocking and flirtatious attitude.

"Hundreds of years ago,"

"When you fought with the heroes... You said you didn’t lose, but just made a ’tactical retreat’."

He locked his eyes onto Lilith’s blood-red eyes.

"What did that mean? History books, legends, even those carrying your blood say you were destroyed. If you are that strong, why did you die?"

The cheerful sparkle in Lilith’s eyes froze for a moment, then shone with a deeper, darker light. She sighed, waving the fork in her hand in the air.

"Ehhh... Seriously?" she said, like a whining child. "Is this the time to talk about this now? We are on a date right now! Look around, music is playing, people are laughing, we are eating sweets... Why are you ruining the mood?"

Cassian didn’t answer. He just looked. Without blinking even a millimeter, he waited for his answer patiently and stubbornly.

Lilith finally sighed deeply, exaggeratedly, as if giving up.

She put her hand under her chin with a weary attitude and turned her eyes out the window.

"Their numbers..." she said, her voice suddenly changed, the spoiled girl tone gone, replaced by the voice of a woman carrying the fatigue of thousands of years. "Their numbers were many times more than mine."

Her eyes drifted away.

"They weren’t just crowded either. All of them... Were avatars chosen personally by those damn gods. They had artifacts in their hands bestowed by their gods, possessing power to shake the world. Each one was strong enough to destroy an army alone."

Her lips curled with a bitter smile.

"On the other hand, I... Was alone."

She turned her gaze back to Cassian.

"Can you imagine, honey? Dozens of angry, blessed, and testosterone-filled men gathered for a single woman... Their only goal is to tear you apart, to erase your existence from the universe. Wasn’t a fair fight, was it?"

Cassian frowned.

"What about the other witches?" he asked. "Weren’t they on your side? Why didn’t they fight beside you?"

"Other witches?"

Hearing this question, Lilith let out a short, mocking laugh. "Ahahaha" "Ah, my naive prince..." she said, shaking her head. "Something called a witch... It’s just a fairytale invented by humans to give a name to their fears."

She started playing with the napkin on the table.

"Besides, even if there is a species called ’witch’... I am the first. And actually, I am the only one."

Seeing the confusion on Cassian’s face, she smiled.

"I know you are confused. After all, you met small, cute but annoying girls in the forest, didn’t you?"

Lilith leaned forward, her voice turning into a whisper.

"They are not my daughters or heirs to my lineage. They are just... side effects of my curse."

She split the strawberry cake in front of her right down the middle with her fork. The red strawberry sauce spread on the white plate like blood.

"Let me explain it this way," she said, fixing her eyes on the red sauce.

"When a child from the lineage of heroes is born with my curse... The world wants to balance this great, dark energy. And in addition to this, a ’witch’ is born. That child is the carrier of the curse; the witch is the reflection of that curse."

She raised her eyes and looked at Cassian. Her gaze was sharp.

"And the life source of that witch is the life of the child born with the curse itself. As long as the child breathes, the witch lives. If the child dies... the witch fades too."

"Of course, there are cases where the witch continues to live, but these situations are quite rare." Lilith set aside a small slice of the cake.

"For this, the witch needs to sever her existence from everything and become independent or..." She pointed her spoon at Cassian. "She needed to believe in the false promises I offered them and bind their existence to me or rather to you."

He now understood why those girls in the forest, especially Olivia who looked so much like her, called him "Prince", why they were so devoted to him.

Their existence depended on Cassian’s existence. He was not a savior, but their life support unit.

Lilith pointed her fork at Cassian with a dangerous, predatory expression on her face.

"Returning to the main topic..." she said. "I was all alone in that war. An army of gods in front of me, and no one behind me. And my chance of winning... was close to zero."

She suddenly stabbed the fork in her hand into the cake and mashed the slice into puree in an instant.

"Of course, I didn’t let them just win, experience the intoxication of victory," she said, her voice ambitious. "I killed the majority of them right there. I drank their blood, broke their bones. But the remaining ones..."

Her eyes drifted.

"Before they could lay a hand on me, before they could pollute my body with their holy weapons... I destroyed myself. Physically, I completely ceased to exist. But not spiritually. I bound my existence to them as a curse."

She leaned back, the wild expression on her face replaced by a sneaky satisfaction.

"As long as my curse existed, I continued to live in their lineage, in their blood, in their breath. They thought they killed me but actually, they imprisoned me inside themselves, in their most intimate places, in their lineage."

She grimaced.

"But... Damn it, none of the children born for centuries... None of them had the potential to handle the weight of my soul and become my new body."

"All were weak. All broke and went. So I waited. In the dark, in the blood, I waited silently."

Her eyes shone, looking at Cassian like a treasure.

"But I knew," she said softly. "One day... One day my handsome prince will come to this world. From that cursed blood, that perfect vessel capable of carrying my power will be born. And he will bring me back to life."

"Bring back to life?"

Cassian’s eyes widened. His hands under the table formed into fists. His body tensed, every muscle ready for war.

"If..." said Cassian, his voice like a threatening growl. "If you try to take over my body, invade my mind... I swear, I will destroy you. I will tear that soul of yours apart, wipe you from existence, Lilith. I won’t hesitate to do to you what I did to Nerath."

Lilith wasn’t scared by this threat. On the contrary, she giggled. She put her hand on her cheek and looked at Cassian with admiration.

"You are so romantic, honey," she said. "These wild attitudes of yours sweep me off my feet. But don’t worry, I don’t have eyes on your muscular and handsome body. Meaning... at least not in the sense of entering inside it."

She winked.

"You can create a new body for me, after all. Just like you did for Julian and Cordelia... Even more beautiful, more perfect. I would prefer you to make a body for me with your own hands."

Narrowing his eyes, Cassian asked, "Do you really believe I will do that!"

"Of course!" she shouted, opening her arms wide. "After all, we are each other’s most precious! Our souls are knotted together. Even..."

She waved her finger in the air.

"...we can even be considered childhood friends. Did you forget? I have been with you since the moment you were born. In that cold room, in that laboratory, in those tortures... I was beside you in every scream, every tear. I watched you from within."

Cassian’s face shadowed. Those moments... The darkest, most painful moments of his life.

"How can I forget..." said Cassian, his voice full of an irony as sharp as a knife. "They were unforgettable moments for me. How can I forget that hell I lived through thanks to that ’curse’ of yours?"

The conversation was blocked. Tension was poisoning the sugary air of the patisserie.

As if wanting to disperse this tension, Lilith suddenly stood up.

"Let’s go, honey! This place started to get boring."

After Cassian and Lilith left the patisserie, they returned to the noisy chaos of the street.

Lilith pointed to the blue bicycle on the sidewalk without wasting any time.

"Look!" she said, her eyes shining. "The bicycle is still there! Waiting for us!"

Cassian stared at the bicycle, then at Lilith.

"I won’t ride."

Lilith put her hands on her waist, frowned. "Honey! You didn’t forget the promise you just gave, did you! You said ’Maybe’!"

"I didn’t give you a promise," said Cassian in a flat voice. "’Maybe’ is not a promise. It is a possibility. And right now that possibility is zero."

He turned his back and attempted to walk away.

"Hmm... Is that so?" said Lilith from behind him, her voice taking on a cunning tone. "What a pity... And I was just thinking of giving you information about Yavres..."

Cassian froze where he stood.

Yavres.

The First God. Zevstyle’s father. The name at the head of this whole cursed cycle, this "Harvest", this game.

Even a crumb of information about him was priceless. Even Zevstyle avoided talking about her father.

Cassian sighed deeply, very deeply. His shoulders slumped.

To have to give a witch a ride on a bicycle to get information about a god... He questioned how ridiculous a point his life had come to.

He turned slowly, walked towards the blue bicycle.

"Just... a short tour," he grumbled.

He jumped on the bicycle.

Lilith smiled with the air of a victorious queen.

She gently gathered her short skirt and sat sideways on the iron seat behind the bicycle.

Then she wrapped her arms around Cassian’s waist and hugged him tightly from behind. She rested her cheek on Cassian’s back.

"Let’s go, Mr. Driver!"

Cassian pushed on the pedals.

The bicycle moved.

First slowly, wobbling, then accelerating, they mixed into the traffic of the modern city.

The wind was hitting his face.

Massive buildings, honking cars, flashing traffic lights were flowing by around them.

A fantasy world hero, a god slayer, was riding a bicycle in a modern city with a legendary witch behind him.

This image was so absurd that Cassian could barely hold himself back from laughing.

Lilith was humming behind him as if she was the happiest person in the world, swinging her legs.

Her warmth spread from her back to Cassian’s whole body. This contact... was disturbingly human.

They drove out of the crowded, noisy center of the city towards a calmer, tree-lined area. Skyscrapers gave way to houses with gardens, horn sounds to bird sounds.

When she saw a small children’s park in the greenery by the side of the road, Lilith suddenly squeezed Cassian’s waist.

"Stop!" she shouted. "Stop there honey!"

With a sudden reflex, Cassian squeezed the brakes. The bicycle stopped with a creak.

"What happened?"

Lilith jumped off the bicycle and ran towards the park. There was an old, wooden swing with chains on both sides.

"I want to ride this!" said Lilith, sitting on the swing.

Cassian leaned the bicycle against a tree and went to her side with his hands in his pockets.

"Are you serious?" he said. "A swing?"

Lilith started swinging slightly, taking power from the ground with her feet.

"Push me," she said, fixing her eyes on Cassian. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Her voice was excited like a small child.

Cassian had given up questioning this nonsense. If he was going to get information about Yavres, he was willing to babysit.

He obediently went behind the swing and started pushing Lilith from her back.

"Faster!" giggled Lilith.

As the swing rose and fell, Lilith’s white hair was flying in the air.

After a while, Lilith’s joy gave way to a calmer, melancholic expression. She closed her eyes.

"When I was a small child..." she said, her voice mingling with the howling of the wind.

"My mother used to swing me often on the swing in the garden of our house. Just like this... This feeling... Felt nostalgic."

Cassian stopped his hand pushing the swing for a moment.

"Did you have a family?" he asked in astonishment. "You... Meaning a witch?"

Lilith answered without opening her eyes.

"Of course I did! What did you think? I was once human too! I was born, grew up, cried, laughed."

"Human huh..." whispered Cassian. This idea was so contrary to the image of the "First Witch" in his mind.

Lilith turned her head back, looked at Cassian crossly.

"Did you say something?"

"No, nothing," said Cassian and swung her faster. He didn’t want to distract from the subject.

Lilith turned back to the front, extended her legs forward.

"I was actually from a small village in the east, far away," she started telling. Her voice was as if telling a fairytale.

"My father... Was a swordsman. I mean, he claimed to be. He wasn’t strong, wasn’t talented either but he loved the sword. I used to watch him polish that rusty piece of iron every evening."

She smiled.

"And my mother... Was an ordinary, soft woman. I loved those hot, steaming meat buns she made for me... The smell is still in my nose."

The swing was going back and forth creaking.

"Or her swinging me on the swing for hours without getting bored... When I shouted ’Higher mom!’, pushing me without breaking my heart even if she was scared..."

Her eyes drifted.

"Those cheap, colorful dresses my father bought for me when returning from the city... They weren’t expensive, made of rough fabric but for me, they were the most precious treasure in the world. I would wear them and twirl around as if I were a princess."

Her voice trembled.

"I had a happy family and life. A simple, small but mine life."

The swing slowed down, came to a halt. Lilith put her feet on the ground and stopped. She bowed her head, her hair covering her face.

"Until..." she said, her voice suddenly sharpening like ice. "Until I was chosen as the avatar of that damn Yavres."

Cassian’s breath knotted in his throat. The air in the park suddenly grew cold. Bird sounds ceased.

Lilith raised her head.

There was no joy in her eyes anymore; only pure, distilled hatred and pain of thousands of years.