Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 130: Crimson Eyes, Azure Truth [1]

The War for the North[18]

After finally reaching an agreement with this stubborn girl, Cassian returned to his bed.

He pulled the quilt, which he had managed to reclaim from Cecilia, over himself to cover his entire frame, rested his head on the soft pillow, and turned his back to her.

He tried to ignore Cecilia, who lay silent on the other end of the bed, her knees drawn up to her chest.

However, the aura in the room was so intense that even with his eyes closed, he knew she was there; he could feel those azure eyes boring into the nape of his neck.

In that hazy realm between sleep and wakefulness, his voice emerged deeper and more drowsy than usual.

Cecilia’s request, "I want to know you," caused unpleasant memories to surface one by one in his mind. It was to the point where, even though Cassian’s red eyes were closed, they flickered with suppressed hatred and rage beneath his eyelids.

Inevitably, this drove sleep away from Cassian.

Cassian could have offered Cecilia a brief summary of what he had lived through until today, or simply spun a fabricated tale.

But he did not. Cassian knew, deep down, the truth lying behind Cecilia’s peculiar and adolescent behavior.

She genuinely wanted to trust him. She wanted to form a real bond, to accept him as a friend.

For Cecilia to set aside her suspicious, lonely personality that trusted no one and grant Cassian such a chance...

Cassian felt he had to reciprocate these sincere feelings.

"It all began when I opened my eyes to this world as a cursed child..."

Cassian recounted everything he had experienced from the day he was born until this very moment.

From the smallest detail to the greatest event, he told it all.

Sometimes his breathing quickened, sometimes he clenched his teeth, and at other times, his tone shifted into something nostalgic and peaceful.

Since he was under the quilt, Cecilia could not see Cassian’s facial expressions, but she could more or less understand from his narrative.

He spoke of being abandoned by his family due to the curse of a witch named Lilith, then being saved in a forest by a mad scientist from another world, only to spend years wasted as a test subject at that same man’s hands, and finally gaining a fleeting freedom by killing him.

He spoke of being found by a girl named Iris, how she opened her home to him, taught him love, taught him what life, affection, and the world were like, and showed him the peace of eating a sweet meal.

Cassian’s voice trembled; it seemed he was holding back tears.

He spoke of the handful of peace he found in the Duchy of Inferna, of Duchess Serephina’s motherly love, Duke Veynar’s fatherly demeanor, and the affection of Elara and Evelyn, who were like masters and older sisters to him.

All of it... He told her how it was all ripped away by a cult sworn to destroy the world.

He described the helplessness of his newfound family in the face of this destruction, and how a piece of metal called the "Crown of Madness" seized his soul, consuming his sense of self and turning him into the person he was now.

He whispered of dying and being resurrected, of gaining allies and people he could call brothers, and of standing chest-to-chest with a god alongside them and bringing that god down.

Cassian, in a drowsy tone, continued to recount everything he had lived without looking back.

Although unrest and hatred stirred in his heart, it was not yet time.

He was very close to taking his revenge on Luin; he just needed to be patient a little longer.

When Cassian’s story ended, the room fell into a deep silence. Only the howling of the storm outside, straining against the windows, could be heard.

A few seconds passed. Cassian thought Cecilia had fallen asleep or had fallen silent out of disgust for what she had heard.

But just then, he felt a slender but firm pair of arms wrap around his waist over the quilt. He felt the weight of a head resting against his back.

Cassian’s eyes widened in surprise. His body went rigid, but he did not flee.

"What are you doing?" he asked. His voice was stifled, raspy, and bewildered.

"I am hugging you," Cecilia said. Her voice was the softest, most human tone he had heard from her yet. The ice queen was gone, replaced by a compassionate girl.

"Why?" asked Cassian, still unable to make sense of this illogical action.

"Because you were suffering while you told it," Cecilia said, tightening her arms slightly.

"You are mistaken," said Cassian, offering a weak denial.

"You look sad, Cassian," whispered Cecilia. Her words pierced through Cassian’s armor. "Behind those cunning, arrogant attitudes, acting as if you plan everything and can solve every problem... there is just a child who is suffering, abandoned, and scared."

Cecilia rested her head against Cassian’s back.

"You need love. You need someone who will never abandon you, someone who accepts you as you are. Cryomara always hugs me when I am sad. She says that love will melt even the deepest ice and heal every wound."

Cassian snapped harshly, "I don’t need you to hug me! I am not a child!"

His pride and defense mechanisms had kicked in.

"Liar!" said Cecilia with a stubborn tone. "Everyone needs love! Even a perverted, crazy lizard like you!"

"I do no—"

Cassian wanted to shout "I do not," push her away, and put that strong, indestructible mask back on his face.

But he failed. The sentence knotted in his throat.

At that exact moment, Cecilia’s warmth and words broke down the door to the darkest, most locked room of his mind.

Before his eyes came that single memory he hadn’t recalled in years, perhaps the one he had refused to remember. He had refused to remember it because this memory hurt more than any torture in the universe.

A blurred image sharpened.

Golden hair shining like the sun... Emerald green eyes full of life...

And the face of a woman looking at him with unconditional love, as if he were the most precious being in the world.

Lips whispering the name "Cassian."

The arms that pressed him to her chest, inhaling his scent, hugging him tight in those final seconds before she was forced to abandon him... His mother.

Years, wars, and deaths had faded this moment, almost erasing it. But Cecilia’s clumsy, sincere embrace forced this warmth, this feeling of being "cherished," to surface from the depths of his soul once again.

Cassian’s resistance crumbled like a sandcastle.

He could resist no longer. He shrank and curled up inside the quilt. His shoulders slumped.

He sank into silence and accepted this foreign, yet strangely familiar warmth, this human contact.

Cecilia’s arms tightened further. She reminded him of something he hadn’t tasted in a long time, something he had forgotten: the feeling of being valuable.

Cassian closed his eyes under the quilt. As a single tear slid down his cheek and wet the pillow, he fell into a peaceful sleep within Cecilia’s warmth.

Cecilia, however, did not sleep. She lay there for a while longer.

She now understood what Cryomara had meant. She had decided to give this boy, this "stranger," a chance.

After a long time, she had chosen to open the doors of her heart’s icy walls to someone, to a male no less, and trust him.

She hadn’t known if this decision was right until she listened to Cassian.

Every word Cassian spoke, that tremor in his voice, was a sincere scream torn from the depths of his heart. The events he lived through, the betrayals, the deaths... These were things no child, no human, should have to bear.

Cecilia thought of her own pain. She had lost her family, she was alone, yes. But this boy... This boy had walked through hell and was still standing. Her own suffering paled in comparison to his.

There was only one thing she felt now for this boy shivering slightly under the quilt, whose breathing was slowly steadying: Pure compassion and deep understanding.

He was just like her. A helpless child who had lived a hard life and been left without love. No matter how much he denied it, no matter how strong a mask he wore, this was his essence.

She didn’t know yet what she could do for him. But she acted on instinct.

"This is the only thing he needs right now," Cecilia thought, resting her cheek on his shoulder. "Love. And I will give him this love."

Shortly after, two wounded souls fell asleep in that room amidst the storm, holding onto each other.

While all this was happening, a silhouette sat upon the highest, snow-covered roof of the castle.

Cryomara sat motionless like a ghost, like an ice gargoyle in the middle of the storm, indifferent to the wind tossing her hair. Her eyes were closed, her face turned toward the sky.

However, her sharp ears caught not the howling of the wind, but every word whispered in the room below, every heartbeat, every sigh.

A faint, melancholic, yet pleased smile formed on her lips.

"You have lived quite a hard life, little lizard," she murmured with her ice-blue lips.

Her voice blended with the falling snow and vanished.

____

Please ignore this part. Since it’s not possible to delete the incorrect Chapter, I’m reposting this section.

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