Chapter 213 – A Long Day
Isolde smiled softly, looking at the peaceful face of the sleeping Cassius. He looked so innocent, so harmless and so achingly beautiful that she had this urge to kiss his face all over, marking him the way a wolf marks its territory with its scent.
However, that burning desire didn’t last long, as he began to snore, the sound like heavy metal scraping against dry, ragged stone.
She rolled her eyes, wondering when he would ever stop this habit, and allowed herself to wonder why he even snored.
’But then I’d have to ask myself why I sleep as if I’m fighting someone. Better not go down that route.’
She chuckled.
Subtly, she applied her power over his mouth and killed the sound before it reached her ears. Sighing in contentment, she continued admiring his face once more.
"You’ve grown more beautiful again, Cass." She shook her head wryly, her hair swaying with each motion. "I can already tell you’re going to be a problem for me. You only entered the Academy today, and I’ve already received seven challenges."
It was laughable.
It seemed some women found her unworthy of Cassius and were challenging her to humiliate her.
There were women from the second year all the way up to her own. Isolde was so surprised she laughed, not knowing whether to take these challenges seriously or not.
But she knew she had to. Otherwise they would keep coming, thinking she was afraid of them.
’But why bother? I simply need to kill one of them as a warning, while making sure the Academy doesn’t find out. I have no time to entertain them all.’
That was her best idea yet.
Grinning, she stretched out her hand.
"I wonder," she whispered, caressing his face, "how much this Academy will change because of you?"
Or more broadly, because of the Golden Generation.
Because Isolde knew that the top students of every year had heard about this Golden Generation from the teachers, who couldn’t stop saying this generation would be the best.
And to say something like that in front of young people full of testosterone and pride in equal measure — or even greater — in their own strength and talent... was like politely asking them to cause problems.
Isolde could already envision the higher years trying to put Cassius and his peers in their place.
’It would be a nice thing to witness. Though it would be hard to touch Cass. The Twins are his siblings, I’m his wife, and Head Teacher Sera is his aunt.’
’Not to mention he’s the Dean’s disciple. And the fact that he’s stronger than anyone could easily provoke without heavy repercussions. Yes, one would have to be a fool to provoke him.’
But fools were never lacking anywhere.
Suddenly, Isolde halted her thoughts, remembering something. Still caressing her husband with her left hand, she reached out with her right and summoned her phone.
The Academy had its own Net, where everyone could see the Challenges some famous rankers made, news about famous students dating or hating with each other, or anything that could be a hot topic.
There was one famous site that was achingly good at uncovering the private lives of the top rankers.
It was a site called Gossip Girl. The best of the best.
Isolde instinctively clicked on the site to look at today’s news, but remembered that wasn’t her initial intention.
She cursed herself silently.
’Gossip Girl has us so addicted. The worst part is that we pay a monthly subscription just to peer into the lives of others. How rich is he or she?’
Still, it was a clever idea to create the site in a place that loved drama.
Chuckling again, she opened E-Chat and saw numerous messages from... Cassie Isolde, her now little sister.
All of them were asking her to show her Big Brother Cassius, as she loved to call him.
<Call me, big sister! Call me! I want to see big brother Cassius! He was so cool! I’ll brag everywhere that he’s my big brother! But call me! Please! And I miss you! Yes! Yes! I miss you! And Aunt Aissatou is scary!!! Come back!!>
Messages like these... came in the dozens.
Relenting, her eyebrows twitching, Isolde held up her phone and took a couple of pictures of Cassius’s resting face.
She sent them to Cassie, her lips smiling at having, for once, a normal conversation with "family."
<He’s sleeping. I’ll call you next time.> she added beside the pictures.
It was late, and Isolde didn’t expect any answer. Especially after telling Cassie to sleep early.
And yet...
<Big brother is so beautiful!!!! Why don’t I look like him?!>
Angry veins popped up on Isolde’s face.
’This damn sister!’
She grabbed her phone, irritated, and began sending Cassie warnings about staying up so late, threatening to take back the phone at this rate.
Cassie went to sleep immediately after, apologising and begging for her phone not to be confiscated, afraid of losing her only way to communicate with her family.
Isolde exhaled, looked at Cassius, then lay down peacefully beside him, hugging him.
"It was a long day."
...
While Isolde decided to sleep after such a long day, in the same Hades Building, in her own room on the third floor, Esmeray was in quite a predicament.
She was exhausted and dying to sleep, but her eyes were fixed on her phone, where Dorian’s number glowed ominously, daring her to press the "call" button.
’I was so eager to call him earlier, but now... now fear is drowning me.’
She stood up from her bed, wearing nothing but her red panties, everything else bare.
She paced around, paying no mind to the decorations, her mind and heart constantly battling over what to do.
’There are so many risks. I’m sure Dorian wouldn’t want to sleep with his own family. Telling him means risking losing him forever. But also...’
She hissed a sigh.
’...not telling him means I’ll have to whore myself out again, sleeping with everyone just to dull the aching lust.’
That was no longer something Esmeray wanted to do. She was tired of it.
All she wanted was one person, only one, and she would be satisfied.
She had lived this wretched life long enough to know it was no way to live, and a part of her dreaded what would become of her if she truly chose to live that way, consumed by lust and nothing else.
Sometimes the thought was far too tempting, so tempting her body ached at the mere idea of not allowing herself to give in.
And in those moments, Esmeray always sat cross-legged on the floor and began to think of her brother, her father and mother.
They... wouldn’t want her to fall so low.
And that moment was happening right now.
So, sitting on the floor, Esmeray steadied her breathing.
’Cupid’s Curse.’ She thought, clenching her fists. ’The only way to dispel it is by using Cupid’s blood. A god’s blood. But... Dorian can produce the same effect in me. Why? Does he have the blood of the god? Or is there another way I don’t know of?’
She had researched her curse for a long time now, and knew most of how it worked.
But the mystery of how Dorian soothed her lust still eluded her.
Esmeray sighed, looked at her phone again, her heart pounding in her chest, and sighed even more.
’I’m afraid.’
She closed her eyes, her body shaking as she tried to control her fear mixed with lust.
’I’m afraid of losing my only path to salvation. I’m afraid. But... but I cannot live like this forever.’
So she had to choose.
However, Esmeray mercifully managed to fall asleep before she was forced to make a choice, and she did so on the floor, her breathing unsteady, body shaking, face flushed crimson.
"...Dorian..."
...
Meanwhile, in the third and last dormitory for the first three years, named the Persephone Building, Klaus was slowly walking toward his own room, having spent all this time wandering around the Academy.
His face bore an excited but proud smile.
He had spotted many intriguing threads over the past few hours. But the most interesting of all was that woman.
’Who sits alone playing piano with no audience? A foolish girl indeed. But she must be happy that I was her audience, right, Windy?’
’Of course, Klaus!!’ She answered in her usual high-pitched voice. ’Klaus is the best! The best! She’s happy, no doubt about it! But Klaus, when will you meet my family? They all want to see you!’
Windy pouted.
She had been asking Klaus to meet her family for a while now, but he always deflected, finding excuses.
She thought it was because he didn’t want to meet her family. But Klaus was simply reluctant because of what his mother had told him about what it meant for a Handoff to meet their Spirit’s family.
It was no simple matter.
’I’m not ready.’ He said honestly, for the first time in a while. ’But I’ll go one day. I promise you.’
"You will???" She shouted in his ear, hugging it.
He winced with irritation, but still answered. "Yes, I—!"
"Are you stalking me now? Are you that obsessed?"
Klaus halted, turning his head toward the voice.
His eyes rolled in exasperation.
Love de Bayard was standing there, her body bandaged all over, wearing casual clothes, a bag of food in her right hand.
She was glaring at him.
He looked at her for a moment, then decided she wasn’t worth wasting time on, like the rest of the dumb bitches.
He ignored her completely and continued down the hallway, checking his key to remember his room number.
"Are you ignoring me now??" Love shouted after him.
"Yes, I am. So if you have any dignity left in you, shut the fuck up." He said, Windy sticking her tongue out at her.
Love’s body trembled with barely concealed anger. She exhaled, trying to calm her heart, and walked.
However, she was walking the same way as Klaus.
She began to frown, sensing something, thinking it had to be a joke.
Finally, Klaus stopped in front of the door numbered 34. While she stopped at the door numbered 33.
The two halted, then slowly looked at each other, realising the cruel truth.
"I must be cursed at this point."
"Why the fuck him???"
—End of Chapter 213—