Chapter 113: Prepare the Tea
"They weren’t bad people. They used me for their own benefit, but I also got something out of them. Especially their sect leader; she knew perfectly well how special I was—something I still hadn’t realized—and she squeezed every last drop out of it."
Then, he turned his gaze toward the woman:
"And you? Isn’t that exactly why you brought me here? Why you pulled me out of that world along with those annoying old men? Isn’t that right, Siyin?"
"Are you comparing me to those women?"
"Shouldn’t I? I suppose not..." A softer expression appeared on his face, mixed with clear contradiction.
Suddenly, Siyin’s face in the hot springs contorted. The effect of Jinghua’s elixir was forcibly broken by her.
A deep frown and volcanic fury erupted instantly the moment she realized what had happened.
Siyin’s face flushed a deep red as she became aware of what she had been doing: she had thought he had returned and was pleasuring herself in that shameful way.
"JING-HUA!" she screamed.
There was no one else capable of such a thing.
The fox girl’s tail, which had been swaying as she watched her older sister pleasure herself, froze mid-motion.
She glanced at her companion and immediately fled the scene.
Yifei remained frozen in place, staring at Siyin, who had just caught them. Sweat began to form on her forehead.
...
Cassandra Demor tensed in her seat.
She observed the man who had completely changed his demeanor in an instant.
Showing insecurity wasn’t like her, so she simply furrowed her brow and coldly assessed the change.
She raised an eyebrow, settled back into her seat, and acted as though she still held complete control of the situation.
"Seems like they forgot to inform me about a few things..." she whispered, loud enough to be heard, though her soft tone betrayed that she was still processing the shift.
"Not really. I’ve been Caelia’s little plaything, and there’s not much more to add."
"Oh?" she asked with irony. "Then what exactly is your relationship with Elara?"
"Currently, she’s my slave. Her masochism is hard to hide; I’m sure you’ve noticed," he replied with a shrug, downplaying the matter.
"Slave? You have some nerve calling her that in front of me."
"What can I say? I’m confident."
"I see. It’s curious that you can withstand my pressure, even though I’m being gentle with you..."
"And I appreciate that detail," Cassian concluded, giving her a provocative smile.
"Very well."
The atmosphere changed in an instant. Cassandra increased her pressure, determined to wipe the arrogant smile off the man’s face.
But Cassian had grown bored long ago. He stood up from his seat and looked coldly at the woman who was supposedly the pillar of power in the Demor family.
"From this conversation, I understand that you support Elara. I really have no interest in anything else. I was only curious to meet you, that’s all. I’ll accept the invitation you arranged with Elara: I’ll come visit her from time to time. I hope that doesn’t bother you."
He paused before adding:
"By the way... I see you handle the ’forbidden arts’ that Elara practices quite well, but I think I know where they come from. If you keep relying solely on that, it’s no wonder you haven’t been able to break through your current realm."
Cassandra frowned, intrigued despite her fury.
"Is that so? I’d like to hear more about that."
"But I’m not interested in talking anymore. I’ve already given you enough information as payment for having ’taken care’ of that bitch."
The woman shot up from her armchair, startled. This lack of respect had gone too far. She no longer wanted to simply teach the man a lesson—she wanted to destroy him.
Cassandra didn’t wait.
The air in the hall crystallized under her fury, and with an almost imperceptible wave of her hand, a blast of mana mixed with darkness shot straight toward Cassian’s neck.
It wasn’t an attack meant to subdue him; it was an execution.
However, Cassian didn’t move.
Just before the impact reached him, a strange vibration swept through the air.
Cassandra’s attack didn’t explode—it simply... vanished, as if reality itself had swallowed her technique.
"I told you, Cassandra," he said, walking calmly toward the exit while her aura grew erratic. "I’m not interested in talking anymore."
Cassandra remained frozen, her hand still outstretched. Her eyes, once filled with absolute authority, now trembled slightly with disbelief.
No one in this empire should have been able to dissolve her energy like that—much less a man who didn’t emit a single trace of mana.
"How...?" she began, but her voice broke at Cassian’s indifference.
He didn’t stop or turn around to look at her.
His figure receded down the corridor.
"I’ll come back soon," his voice echoed through the hallway, soft yet laden with an authority that made the shadows on the walls retreat. "Prepare some tea for me next time," he added, lazily waving his hand in farewell.
The Ancestor didn’t stay still for long. She immediately left the room to go find Elara.
Seeing the state of her mentor—normally impeccable, now visibly shaken—the princess wore an uncertain look. She deeply feared what her master might have said or done to provoke such a reaction.
"Who is he really?" Cassandra demanded without preamble. "Why is he pretending to be a mediocre noble from my empire? What does he truly want?"
Elara looked at her, unsure what to say.
Even she didn’t have the answers to those questions. But if there was one thing she knew for certain, it was that Cassian hated when people interfered with his inner circle or when things dragged on senselessly.
"I don’t know... but I think it’s best not to provoke him," Elara whispered.
Those words instantly extinguished Cassandra’s agitation, plunging the room into an even heavier silence.
...
A few hours earlier, when Cassian had already left to pay Elara a "visit."
Cassane and Margery were spending time at the Academy.
"It’s good to see you finally broke through that bottleneck, Margery."
The woman with long hair and violet eyes smiled proudly.
"I thought I’d never get out of the fourth circle..." she replied, leaning back relaxed in her seat. "Though you’re one to talk. You’ve also been improving. Looks like we’re progressing together, since you’ve advanced to the fifth circle as well."
Cassane’s expression became unreadable. She lowered her head and murmured:
"I suppose you’re right."
In her mind, she couldn’t stop thinking about the legacy, the incident with the beasts during the exam, and all the times she had recently felt powerless in front of a certain person. A heavy sigh escaped her lips. Margery looked at her with understanding but didn’t know what to say to cheer her up.
"Margery..." Cassane hesitated for a moment. "How well do you really know your brother?"
But just then, a group of guards approached them, and one of them began to report:
"Margery Varkas, by order of Emperor Alric Heidelberg Demor, you are commanded to accompany us on a visit to the allied empire of Pradiles."
