Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 492: Chapter 482: The Brother I Have Lost

Chapter 492 – The Brother I Have Lost

Cassandra fell to the floor, right in front of the runic elevator’s door.

Passing students and workers spared her a glance, wondering what the Third Year Palatine was doing.

But she paid them no mind.

Even Bishop was talking to her, yet her mind couldn’t process his voice at that instant.

Her head was full of Cassius’s last words echoing, and each time they echoed, her heart beat so fast that Cassandra wouldn’t have been shocked if it actually stopped from the strain.

’Stella... did he just say Stella?’ she thought, wondering if she had misheard, but that was not the case.

Cassius had said Stella. And he had said he had named his snake after his dead sister.

A sister who had died before she was even two years old, in a random accident.

All of this... looked eerily like her very own situation.

’But how is it possible? No, it’s not possible.’

Then again, why wouldn’t it be possible?

If she had been reincarnated into this world, in the body of Cassandra of Patience, after dying on Earth, then what said her brother couldn’t have been reincarnated here too?

And if she chose to be optimistic and trust the clues she had picked up from that conversation... was her brother, Noah, reincarnated as Cassius in this world?

’I was... I was close to my brother all this time? Cassius? Cassius Desdemona is my... brother?’

Her eyes widened, and tears began to well up in them.

The world around her disappeared completely as this realization, one she desperately hoped was true, began to settle deep in her mind.

However, Cassandra couldn’t bring herself to fully believe it without confirmation.

She needed it, and she needed it now.

She snapped her head towards Bishop, who was kneeling beside her, looking at her with his one eye brimming with worry.

"What’s going on?" he asked, holding her shoulders. "Why did you fall, and why are you crying? No, first, do you need something?"

"Cassius," Cassandra rasped, raising her hand to wipe the tears from her eyes. "Where is Cassius? Where did he go?"

"What? How the hell am I supposed to know?" Alexander Bishop replied in confusion. "But based on the teleportation, maybe to his master, the Dean? Why? What the fuck is going on here?"

"I need to see him. Immediately." She tried to push herself up, her body still trembling.

"At the Dean’s office?" He shook his head. "That’s the worst choice you could make. And you forget that we are not allowed into the Tower without permission. Palatine or not."

"We have ignored the rules of this academy more times than we can count," Cassandra hissed, pushing Bishop away, her patience wearing extremely thin. "We can ignore them this time too. And you don’t have to come. I know the way."

Copycat narrowed his eye. "You know I hardly care about rules. But I still need to know what is going on so I can act accordingly. I am completely lost here."

"I will explain once I can," Cassandra said, knowing it was a lie. "I just need to see Cassius. I have... a question to ask him. Only one."

’And I will know whether he is really my brother or not.’

Then what? What if he was her brother? What would she do?

Cassandra of Patience didn’t know, just like most things lately. And she didn’t need to know in order to want the answer.

She now stood up fully beside Bishop. Only then did she notice the number of people gawking at her, at them, from all sides, some of them even taking out their phones to record them.

She narrowed her eyes, having little patience for this kind of thing.

But even the time she would spend dealing with these weaklings would be a terrible waste in her pursuit of the truth.

"Could you... take care of these people for me while I am gone?" Cassandra asked Bishop, yet her aura began to boil, rising higher and higher, causing the air around them to tighten like a snake wrapping around its prey.

Her words were not whispered.

"Fuck! I told you not to be nosy and record!"

"I haven’t done anything! I am innocent!"

"Vorn take me, I knew being in the same place as two Palatines early in the morning was a fucking curse!"

The students complained, and some of them began to run, trying to get out of the building.

Alexander sighed. "Beating these shitheads will earn me some fines. Will you pay me back?"

Cassandra’s eyes hardened. "I won’t need to. For recording me without consent, they will have to compensate me. Just take it."

"How much?"

"Everything they have."

And the Drunken Widow’s body blurred, slipping past the crowd of students and heading straight to the Tower to meet Cassius.

Alexander Bishop was left there alone, facing them. His blind eye was itching, and he suppressed the urge to scratch it.

Sweeping his eye around him, he parted his lips.

"I will go easy on you today."

"Vorn’s puffy balls, fuck you, Palatines!" one of them screamed, his face red with anger.

"Dude, I am being nice today," Copycat said to the one who had cursed him.

"I SAID FUCK YOU, PALATINES!"

His lips twitched, and his blind eye itched even more. He sighed and took one step...

"No rest for the gentle souls in this damned world."

...and the whole inside of the building was devoured by purple flames.

...

"Cassius Desdemona."

"Yes, ma’am."

"Is it just me, or have you been looking down on me lately?"

"How could I ever look down on a dragon as great as you? I am always in awe when—!"

"Spare me your words drenched in lies today."

"That..." His lips twitched as he stood in front of his master in her office. "...kinda hurt? I thought I was your favorite disciple, master."

"Favorite doesn’t mean I can’t say what is true," Mallory replied, her silver draconic eye narrowed on her disciple. "And now you have changed. Come closer."

"I prefer—!"

Cassius’s mouth snapped shut as his body moved on its own under the command hidden behind his master’s words.

He stood two steps from her in an instant, his face spasming with stress over what she would say and do.

’The power of words... is my master’s Aspect related to Voice? Queen’s breath.’

Mallory leaned her face closer, sniffed him, and immediately frowned. "You smell like her."

"Her?" Cassius said, his heart skipping a beat, already knowing who she was talking about.

"Blanche," the Dean spat, her eyes glowing with anger. "What did I say about getting close to her, Cassius Desdemona? Was it because of meeting her, or whatever happened, that I have been feeling these painful sensations? Just what have you been up to?"

It was the first time Cassius had seen his master angry about something he had done. And at that instant, he completely understood why. And truth be told, he had no explanation or excuse for what he had done.

He had been curious and wanted answers, and he had decided to pursue them even while knowing that his master would not be happy about it.

It was not a mistake. It was deliberate. And that made it even harder to shoulder when confronted with it directly.

His mood was already slightly down after remembering his sister, and Stella had returned to being a ring because of his master.

But still, Cassius did the only thing he could do and replied to his master. "I am sorry, master. I needed some information only she could give me, and... and I disobeyed your order for that. I am sorry."

"Would you have been honest about this and shared it with me if I didn’t have the means to find out by myself?" Mallory asked, and Cassius grimaced slightly.

It was hard to tell.

Cassius loved being honest with the people he cared about, but most of the information he had been given was too delicate to share.

And more often than not, he liked to omit information so as not to hurt anyone or put himself in an awkward situation.

Just like now.

"I... don’t know. Maybe?" he replied.

The Last Dragon looked at her disciple and shook her head after a moment. She was old enough, and had been through enough in life, to understand people like Cassius.

They didn’t lie because they enjoyed it, but because they genuinely believed it was the better solution.

But that was precisely how it all began. The moment lying became something one could rationalize, the act itself would gradually cease to burden the mind or the soul, until one day, lying even to those they loved would seem perfectly reasonable.

After all, it was necessary, wasn’t it? It was for their own good, wasn’t it? And so they would continue lying, creating troubles and problems that a single honest word might have prevented in the first place.

Lies. Treachery.

’One word of a lie, and years of a relationship could be ground to dust.’

For someone with the power of Voice, Mallory knew just how much power words held.

Thinking that, she looked back at her disciple and, after careful consideration, opened a gate into the realm of Mountains and Seas.

"Come, disciple," Mallory said, stepping into the realm. "Let me teach you why you shouldn’t disobey your master, and lie to her."

—End of Chapter 492—