Young Master's PoV: Woke Up As A Villain In A Game One Day

Chapter 432: Snow Falls On Top [II]

Casey kept staring at me, unflappable and uninterested. Seconds passed like minutes before she uncrossed her legs and dipped her head forward, hands clasped together. “What?”

I carried my earlier tone. “You heard me. I want to be your ally, both politically and militarily. I will help you climb your way back to House Snowrite’s seat of power. I will help make you Duchess of Siocgard.”

The blue-haired young woman kept eyeing me dubiously. Whatever she felt, she didn’t let it on her face. “And in return, you said?”

“And in return, I said—” I spread out my hands, “—I want us to be friends. Just like friends, I’d want a few favors here and there. But none of it would be unearned or unreasonable. Nor would it be one-sided. I will hold up my end of the bargain and more. I will aid you with whatever you need as well, to the best of my abilities.”

I was done talking. I had laid out my promise.

But Casey didn’t speak, didn’t move, didn’t do anything to dignify me with a proper response. The same as before, she kept her gaze locked with mine for an uncomfortably long time. Unmoving until even I started fidgeting internally.

She was desperate. I knew her situation.

But had I not been aware of that, had I not known her story, I wouldn’t have figured out even an inkling of her real plight from how cool she was acting.

To someone looking from the outside, she was a statue of pure indifference.

I was trying not to show any annoyance, but it was becoming increasingly difficult with each passing moment.

It irks me when people have better poker faces than mine… which is almost everyone, let’s be honest.

No, but really!

Here I was, offering her a deal that would make a homeless princess weep with gratitude, and yet she was looking at me like I was some shady door-to-door salesman!

Talk about being rude.

“Friends,” Casey finally repeated. I wasn’t sure if she had scoffed the word out, but the way she said it in her foreign accent sure made it sound like that. “And pray tell, what do you offer this friend aside from empty promises I have no way of holding you to?”

I wore a quizzical look. “Why would I lie? What would I gain from that?”

She reacted with a shrug. “I don’t know why. I have no idea what any of your motives are. All I know of Samael Kaizer Theosbane is what the rumors say. A reckless hedonist. A disgraced son who hides behind his family name. Sure, he changed after joining the Academy but his mountainous ego only grew with his feats. So why should I believe a man who never took an interest in politics but suddenly cares about the succession of a Northern duchy?”

I chuckled, dry and humorless but expectant.

I was ready for this line of questioning. “Okay, so what do you want? What can I offer that would show you my sincerity?” I pretended to contemplate a bit and continued without giving her a window to speak, “How about money?”

I almost had her.

I could see I almost had her.

Even as her face remained still as a portrait, her hand tightened slightly over her knuckles. That little twitch was all the confirmation I needed.

I already knew she was in need of money. Not pocket change. Real fortune.

Her uncle had usurped her father’s throne after his death. Casey ran before he fully stepped into power. But not before he sent a coterie of assassins after her.

Nearly all of her retainers died protecting her. Even her Shadow laid out his life so she could flee. And she did… albeit not completely unscathed.

While escaping the borders, she was cut by a blade that carried the Frost-Bite rot. It was an old, insidious poison her uncle’s assassins coated their weapons with to ensure that even if the target survived the blade, the poison would slowly crystallize their veins from the inside out.

To keep the rot from freezing their blood, she needed an absurd amount of rare alchemical reagents.

Reagents that would cost more money than what small towns have in their treasury. Also, she’d only be able to find them on the black market since the Academy’s standard medical ward didn’t have them.

Even now, she was squandering funds on suppression drugs just to stay breathing. Though that wouldn’t work for long. She was living on borrowed time.

After stepping into power, her uncle had completely cut her off from the Snowrite lineage’s global accounts. She was spending what little money she had brought with her but she was bleeding dry — literally and financially.

Hers was not a good position to be in.

…So then why was she not biting?

I knew she was smart. One of the smartest characters in the game, actually. But even smart people get desperate, which I knew she was.

So then… why?

To my great annoyance, Casey straightened herself and shot me a look of undisguised disdain. “Do you think me one of your whores, Theosbane? Someone you can just throw your gold at until I bend over for you? Money can buy mercenaries, not loyalty.”

It took everything I had not to smack my face — or hers — against the nearest wall. “Fifty million Credits,” I said, patience waning. “By the morning, deposited in your shell accounts. I’m not buying you. This is a show of my goodwill. You came to Apex not only because you needed a safe haven. You also needed to gather resources and alliances, right? I’m offering you both.”

I’ll be honest.

Fifty million was way more than the initial twenty I was going to offer her. I panicked, okay! She wasn’t the only one desperate here.

I needed her on my side at any cost. Or at least not against me.

If she sided with my sister during the upcoming Mock War, I was going to have a catastrophic headache.

So while fifty million Credits was an obscene sum, I was willing to spend it. I’d need to liquidate some assets but that was an accounting problem for Juliana to handle.

Casey didn’t answer right away. Obviously. I had given her a number big enough to carry its own gravity.

Even for a highborn lady, that wasn’t a sum you could just scoff at, especially not when your veins were actively trying to turn into solid ice and your bank accounts looked like a barren tundra.

If she were to accept, she’d be able to afford the ingredients for her treatment and pay a skilled alchemist to concoct a cure. It was a perfect lifeline.

So at last, when she opened her mouth again, she looked careful. “If I am to accept, talk your terms. What are these favors going to be that you spoke of?”