Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 434: Chapter 434: Prelude of the Wedding [3]

Chapter 434 – Prelude of the Wedding [3]

The day passed, and morning arrived peacefully over the Royal Hood Palace, calm and soothing as servants moved here and there, attending to their duties.

The same, however, could not be said about Cassius’s room.

"What are you doing, Isolde?!" Cassius struggled beneath his wife, his limbs rising and falling as Isolde sat on top of him and pressed a pillow directly against his face.

His voice came out muffled beneath it as he tried to push her away, though he wasn’t using any of his powers, relying solely on his physical strength.

And it just so happened that Isolde’s physical strength was on par with his own.

"What do you mean, what am I doing?" she asked, pressing the pillow even harder against his face and earning a rough cough from Cassius. "I am making sure you shut your mouth when you sleep! How can you snore so loudly? How can you even do such a thing at your big damn age?"

"As if I do it on purpose!" Cassius defended himself. "And you’re one to talk. You couldn’t stop hitting me with your limbs while you slept. Did I complain?"

"It’s not as annoying as you."

"It’s more annoying than you think. Now get off me. Or do you plan to call your mother and prepare the entire wedding by yourself?"

Those words immediately reminded Isolde of their current situation, and her movements stopped.

There were only four days left until the wedding, and yet nothing seemed ready.

Four days. Only four.

Strangely enough, Isolde began to feel stressed.

What if something went wrong?

It was a ridiculous fear considering everything she had survived, yet strength did absolutely nothing to soothe it. Isolde was simply too accustomed to being disappointed whenever she desperately wanted something in her life.

Things rarely went the way she wanted them to.

Very rarely.

And now that she wanted this wedding so badly, some part of her couldn’t stop wondering whether life would find a way to take that from her too.

’Fuck.’

Lost in those thoughts, Isolde finally liberated Cassius from the pillow, though she remained seated on top of him, staring down with worried eyes.

Eyes Cassius understood in a heartbeat.

"It’ll be okay," he said. "I’ll call your mother and tell her."

"I know, but what if she asks about me? What if she asks why I’m not the one calling her? Maybe she’ll say no because of that." Isolde’s thoughts were already running wild.

"I don’t think she will. And even if she does, I’ll find a way to redirect her attention somewhere else. Just trust me." Cassius spoke in a calming tone despite being somewhat nervous himself about the rapidly approaching day. "All you need to do is get ready. Did Anesthesia reply?"

The change was immediate.

A bright smile suddenly appeared on Isolde’s face, and Cassius found himself transfixed by the almost childish joy within it, the kind of smile no one would expect from a woman so accustomed to death that she had even died once herself.

"She replied, and she said yes." Isolde went as far as showing him the message Anesthesia had sent her. "Don’t mind how rudely she wrote it. What matters is that she’s coming. Now I won’t be alone at my wedding, at least."

"That’s a relief," Cassius replied, genuinely happy for her.

Then, without warning, he flipped their positions, sending Isolde onto her back before climbing over her and sitting on top of her instead.

He leaned forward until their faces hovered close together, both of them wearing smiles that were equal parts excited and nervous.

"I also got confirmation from Klaus. And I think things will be easier now because Love is coming too. She said she’ll handle all the clothes for the wedding party, and I think we can trust her with that. She was practically raised in that industry."

"Love?" Isolde muttered in confusion. "Love de Bayard? Wait, what? What did I miss?"

The Last Born laughed.

"Far too much. But just know that somehow, and I say somehow because even I don’t know how or when the fuck it happened, Klaus and Love have become...very close. I would bet both my arms that those two love each other."

"No way!"

"Yes way. I have a flair for this kind of stuff." Cassius touched his nose proudly. "Trust me."

"How did Emrys allow that? Queen’s skirt! He got cucked twice?" Isolde was barely stopping herself from barking out a laugh, only because she didn’t want to disturb the entire Royal Household.

"Well, what can Emrys do? Fight Klaus for Love?" Cassius scoffed. "That guy is too arrogant for something like that. But anyway, forget about Storm Boy and trust me. In a couple of months, you’ll hear that Love and Klaus are together. Maybe even getting married."

"Those two were supposed to marry anyway," Isolde said, remembering the past. "It didn’t happen for many reasons. Yet now...they somehow found each other again, and this time without anyone forcing them together."

Cassius stared at her for a moment.

"Should I take that as a sign that people who are meant to be together will always find their way back to each other, no matter how long the road between them might be?"

Something churned inside him the moment the words left his mouth.

Something he couldn’t name.

A part of himself he hadn’t even known existed until that very instant seemed to stir somewhere deep within him, responding to his own words in a way he couldn’t understand.

What was that feeling?

"I want to believe it," Isolde said.

She smiled and leaned upward to kiss the tip of his nose.

"It might be true. It might not be. But even if it’s false, I want us to be the exception. I want to believe that we were meant for each other."

"In every kind of life?" Cassius asked, a faint grin appearing on his face. "No matter who we were? No matter what we were?"

And just like that, something changed.

Isolde remembered the man from those strange memories that did not belong to any life she remembered living.

She had never been able to see his face properly. It had always remained beyond her reach, blurred and indistinct no matter how desperately she tried to remember.

Yet the moment Cassius spoke of another life, another existence, the face of that man began to clear.

Slowly, steadily, the fog cleared. Not all of it, only his smile.

But that was enough.

Isolde’s heart skipped a beat. Because she was looking at Cassius above her right now, and the smile on his face...

It was the same. The exact same smile of that man.

’Oh, Queen...’

"Do you believe that, Isolde?" Cassius asked.

The Soundless Slayer looked at him for several seconds before her expression blossomed into the brightest smile she could give, her heart suddenly so full that she wanted to kiss him.

And then kiss him again.

"What I know for certain is that no matter the life, the world, the universe, the reality..." She continued as though there could never be enough words to encompass all the possibilities. "I would always choose you."

"Would you?"

"Without any doubt," she replied. "If you didn’t exist, I would simply stay alone forever. See? I’m not like you, who kept dating one woman after another back on Earth."

"Argh. Not again." Cassius grumbled, though a chuckle escaped him as he finally climbed off her. "It’s in the past. Forget about it, will you?"

"I can’t."

"Try. It’s easier than you think."

Then he extended a hand toward her, smiling. "You already know my answer, don’t you? I would always choose you too."

Isolde mirrored his smile, took his hand and allowed him to pull her up.

Cassius gave her no more time to dwell on it.

He grabbed his phone, placed a finger against his lips to tell Isolde to remain silent, and called her mother.

It took three attempts before Sophia finally answered, already sounding irritated and apparently busy with something.

Cassius could have sworn he heard her muttering about Desde City somehow being hotter than Storm City, but he wisely ignored that and began negotiating his way into inviting her to the wedding.

Surprisingly, it took considerably less effort than he had expected.

In fact, Sophia asked about Isolde herself, wondering whether her daughter was alright.

Cassius and Isolde exchanged equally surprised looks.

Neither had expected that.

Still, Cassius answered her questions while Isolde remained beside him, unusually speechless.

The call didn’t last much longer.

Immediately afterward, Cassius called his own home in Desde City.

Jabbar, the butler from the Tribe of the Children of the Night, answered and informed him that neither of his parents was available.

Cassius had expected that answer.

And somehow, expecting it did nothing to make hearing it hurt less to realize that his mother and father wouldn’t be present at his wedding.

He tried to console himself with the knowledge that his siblings would be there, at least, but the ache remained somewhere inside him, stubborn and unwilling to disappear.

The next several hours passed through calls, messages, arrangements and reservations.

Cassius informed Naty and Kei out of both friendship and respect, and to his surprise, both offered to help with the preparations, though Naty sounded suspiciously like Kei had forced the offer out of her.

Cassius didn’t refuse. He needed all the help he could get.

He sent invitations to his master, Mallory, then Cassandra and Bishop. Omm received one as well, along with Meadow, Sarah, William and Diary.

And, simply because the thought of not doing it offended him personally, Cassius also invited Emrys Stormblessed.

If nothing else, it might piss the Storm boy off.

Once everything was done, Cassius finally began training with the flute, informing the Snake that it had better turn him into a professional before his wedding.

Naturally, the Snake took that as a challenge.

From there, time moved much faster than either Cassius or Isolde wanted.

Three days before the wedding, everyone close to them knew.

Two days before the wedding, the entire Badur Kingdom knew, and the Church of Death had begun its preparations.

One day before the wedding, the Land of Death itself seemed to tremble with excitement, and with something else no one could quite name.

Then, finally, September 1st arrived.

Isolde Amaris’s twenty-second birthday.

And, somehow, her wedding day.

—End of Chapter 434—