Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 142: Exiled Prince and Lilith [1]
The door to the room opened.
Eula was wearing thick wool pajamas. Her golden blonde hair was messy; she couldn’t stand the noise inside any longer while preparing for bed.
Eula took a deep breath when she saw the heavy atmosphere in the room and Olivia’s teary eyes.
She turned her gaze to Cassian, who was still standing upright and menacingly. She narrowed her red eyes.
"Seriously?"
"Instead of apologizing to her... are you interrogating her right now?"
There wasn’t the slightest sign of regret on Cassian’s face. On the contrary, his lips curled with a mocking twist. He shrugged his shoulders.
"Why not?" he said coolly.
"What I need right now is not your fake love, your fake family games, or your hot soup," he hissed. "The only thing I need is information."
"I still don’t know why you kidnapped me. While I am wasting time here with you, the people I truly care about might be in danger."
His voice rose, the anxiety inside him turning into anger and exploding.
"Thanks to you, I don’t even know what state they are in!"
Eula sighed deeply. Her shoulders slumped. The angry expression on her face gave way to a weary acceptance.
"Okay," said Eula, her voice calmer now.
She turned around and headed towards the door. She put her hand on the doorknob.
"Follow me."
Olivia, who was cowering in the corner, jumped up in panic. "Eula!" she called out, her voice trembling with fear. "What are you doing? It’s not time yet! We don’t know if he is ready!"
Eula stopped but didn’t turn back.
"If he wants to learn, we shouldn’t stop him, sister," she said, her voice firm. "If he hates us, let him hate. If he wants to go, let’s let him go. But if he wants to learn... Let him learn. There is no point in forcing fate."
She turned her head slightly over her shoulder and fixed her eyes on Cassian.
"Isn’t that right, my prince?"
There was no mockery in this address this time; there was more of a challenge.
"Come on, follow me," she said and opened the door. The cold from outside rushed in. "You will learn everything you want to learn."
Cassian’s eyes stabbed menacingly into Eula’s back. This sudden change... This surrender... boded no good at all.
Cassian stood up and walked behind Eula. Olivia also followed them with anxious steps after a moment of hesitation.
The three walked through the silent streets of the snow-covered village. The wind howled, snowflakes hit their faces, but none of them minded the cold.
They went to the end of the village, towards the mountains.
They stopped in front of the huge, sharp rocks piercing the sky. Eula stood on a flat area at the foot of the rocks.
She took out a small knife from her pocket. Without hesitation, she made a deep cut in her palm. Warm, red blood dripped onto the snow.
Eula pressed her bleeding hand against the steep mountain surface in front of her, against the dull grey rock.
When the bloody hand contacted the mountain, a crimson light shone on the rock surface.
First, a thin crack formed, then the rocks parted noisily to both sides as if they were alive.
In the bosom of the mountain, a pitch-black cave entrance opened. From inside, a dusty and ancient air, trapped for centuries, blew out.
Without even looking back, Eula stepped into the darkness.
Cassian paused for a moment. His instincts were warning him; this cave was no ordinary place.
But it was too late to turn back. Decisively, he plunged into the darkness after Eula. Olivia also followed them, clasping her hands on her chest.
Inside was completely insulated from the storm outside. It was quiet, damp, and cold.
Eula lit a small, magical fire in her palm. Orange flames created dancing shadows on the wet walls of the cave. They continued walking.
They were descending deep into the cave. Moss-covered stones, dripping water, and echoing footsteps...
Minutes later, they came to the end of the path. Before them stood a massive door, completely contrary to the natural structure of the cave.
The door was black as if made of obsidian, and it was engraved with complex purple runes that seemed to move constantly, making it hard for the human eye to follow.
The aura radiating from the door felt quite familiar to Cassian.
Eula stepped aside and turned to Cassian. There was a strange, sad expression on her face.
"Your turn," she said.
Cassian looked at Eula, then at that spooky runic door.
"Why me?" he asked.
"Because," Eula said, her voice echoing. "This door opens only to our prince."
Cassian understood what he had to do.
He took the knife from Eula’s hand. He pressed the sharp metal into his own palm and split his skin.
He placed his bloody hand on the cold obsidian door.
The door absorbed Cassian’s blood like a sponge. The runes glowed with a purple light, vibrated, and then opened to both sides with a heavy, creaking sound.
Inside... It was pitch black. There was no light, no sound. Just a feeling of endless emptiness.
As Cassian was about to take a step, Eula stopped him.
"You are on your own from here on, my prince," said Eula. Her voice was respectful now. "We cannot enter. We must not."
"The answers to all the questions you seek," she said, pointing to the darkness. "Are behind this door. But let me warn you... You might not like it."
Cassian cast one last look at Eula. Then at Olivia. Olivia’s eyes were full of tears, looking as if Cassian was going to his death.
Cassian took a deep breath. He pushed aside his fear and doubt. He took a step towards the door and entered the darkness.
The moment he entered, the massive door behind him sealed shut with a loud noise, as if it would never open again.
Cassian was left all alone in absolute darkness. He couldn’t even hear his own breathing.
And then... Those familiar blue lights, System notifications began to appear before his eyes.
[Entered Restricted Area] [Connecting...] [You have 99+ unread messages from Lilith.] [Accessing messages...] [ERROR!] [Access to messages is blocked by a 3rd factor.] [Zevstyle’s Blessing detected.] [Analyzing blocking factor...] [External factor (Zevstyle) is ineffective in this area.] [Block removed!]
Cassian’s eyes opened wide like saucers. So, Zevstyle was the reason for those errors in the system, for the messages he couldn’t read all this time. That "protector" goddess of his was hiding things from him.
A new notification appeared, this one was blood red.
[Lilith wants to meet with you.] [Do you wish to accept?] [Yes / No]
Cassian’s heart was pounding in his chest. That name which turned his life into a nightmare for years, caused him to be abandoned by his family the moment he was born... Lilith. Now she wanted to talk to him.
Fear? Yes, there was. But anger was more dominant. The desire to hold her accountable surpassed everything.
"Yes," said Cassian internally. His red eyes shone with determination in the dark.
"I accept."
At that moment, the world changed.
The darkness dissolved like a drop of ink dispersing in water. The blackness around him gave way to vivid, bright colors.
Cassian blinked his eyes. He wasn’t in a cave anymore.
He was inside an old, wooden village house. Sunlight was filtering through the dusty windows, illuminating the dust motes floating in the air. In the corner, there was an old, worn bed, and a hand-woven rug on the floor.
Everything was so real, so peaceful that Cassian forgot he was at war for a moment.
In the middle of the room stood a small girl with her back to him. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞
She was perhaps 6, maybe 7 years old. She was wearing a simple, white dress.
The girl slowly turned around.
Cassian held his breath.
The girl’s hair was white as fresh snow.
Her eyes... were the exact same blood-red eyes Cassian saw in the mirror every day.
It was as if he was looking at Cassian’s childhood, or his never-born sister.
Cassian gritted his teeth, suppressing his astonishment.
"You..." he said, his voice threatening. "Are you Lilith?"
The little girl pretended not to hear Cassian’s question.
There was an expressionless, blank look on her face. It was as if she was looking not at Cassian, but through him at something behind him.
She gave no answer. She just turned around and walked out through the open wooden door towards the sunny village square.
Cassian followed her without thinking whether it was a trap.
Outside was a peaceful village that looked like it jumped out of fairytales, with lush green grass and fruit-laden trees, surrounded by a dense forest in the distance.
But it was strange... There were no people around. No sound. Not even bird chirping. It was like a dead paradise.
The girl walked towards the swing with worn ropes hanging from the old apple tree in the garden.
She sat on the swing. She gripped the ropes with her small hands. And without needing anyone to push, she started swinging gently.
Creak... Creak...
Cassian walked in front of her with quick steps. He entered the girl’s field of vision and just stood there. His shadow fell on the girl.
"I asked you a question!"
The girl ignored him again. She continued swinging. She had fixed her eyes on the horizon.
Then, she spoke with a thin, melodic yet spine-chilling voice. Her lips hardly moved.
"Will you push me?"
Cassian froze. Was this it? All this way, all this pain, all this mystery... Was it for a child who wanted to swing?
"No!" said Cassian harshly. "I didn’t come to play games."
The girl didn’t insist. She didn’t get sad, didn’t get angry. She just continued swinging.
Creak... Creak...
Cassian didn’t even move a muscle. He just watched. He waited for when this meaningless scene would break.
Suddenly, a terrible cracking sound was heard from the trunk of the tree.
CRACK!
That old apple tree, which looked solid, split in two as if struck by an invisible axe.
With the tree falling, that little child swinging on the swing also crashed to the ground.
Her small body hit the soil hard. But she didn’t cry. She didn’t try to get up. She just lay on the ground like a broken doll.
There was neither pity nor a shred of compassion inside Cassian for what he did.
He walked slowly to the girl’s side. He bent down.
Holding the girl by her collar, he lifted her into the air as if she was as light as a feather.
He looked at the girl’s face, into those empty red eyes.
"What do you think you are doing, Lilith?"
The girl’s face began to vibrate between Cassian’s hands. Her image distorted, rippled like static on a television screen.
And then... The girl’s form melted within Cassian’s hands. flowed like wax, became shapeless, and turned into black smoke mixing into nothingness.
Cassian’s hands remained empty.
Just then, a voice was heard from behind Cassian.
This time, it wasn’t that little girl’s voice.
It was a more mature, deeper, lustful but equally dangerous woman’s voice. A voice carrying the weariness and arrogance of centuries.
"Is this how you treat a child?" said the voice, in a mocking tone. "What a heartless, what a rude child I have raised..."
Cassian turned around quickly.
She was there.
Leaning on the railings of the house’s porch, she was watching him.
She wasn’t a little girl anymore.
She was a breathtakingly beautiful woman with long, wavy white hair reaching down to her waist, wearing a slit dress black as night hugging her curvy body.
Her pale skin shone like moonlight. Her facial features were flawless as if coming from an artist’s hand, but beneath that beauty, there was something wild that made one uneasy.
The woman had rested her hand on her cheek, tilting her head slightly.
Those blood-red eyes shone while looking at Cassian. In those eyes... there was both affection and a monster’s hunger.
This was the Legendary Witch Lilith.
Cassian involuntarily took a step back. The aura of the entity before him was so intense that he had difficulty breathing.
When Lilith noticed this tension in Cassian, her lips curled up.
"No need to be so tense, my prince..." she said. Her voice was like poison seeping into Cassian’s mind.
She straightened up and started walking towards Cassian with slow, gliding steps.
"After all..." she said, closing the distance between them. Her eyes shone dangerously and a soul-freezing smile appeared on her lips.
"No one can separate us anymore!"
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