Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel

Chapter 216: Unexpected Winter

Chapter 216: Unexpected Winter

"I’m freezing..." Iris whispered, as she was torn from the warm, safe arms of sleep by a ruthless cold.

She curled up in her bed, shivering, pulling her thin summer blanket up to her chin and drawing her knees to her chest. But the freezing air continued to seep through the walls of the room, piercing her to the bone.

"Achoo!"

She fluttered her eyes open with a cute, little sneeze. "Why is it so cold..." she mumbled, slowly sitting up in bed with sleep-heavy eyes.

The room had literally turned into an icebox. When Iris let out a deep breath, she saw the warm air from her mouth instantly turn into white vapor, drifting and fading in the room.

As her sleepiness slowly gave way to bewilderment, she hugged her arms, shivering as she stepped onto the wooden floor. The floor was too freezing to even step on.

Trembling, with her arms wrapped around herself, she headed for the window. Thin, elegant ice crystals had formed at the edges of the glass. With shaking fingers, Iris wiped the condensation off the glass and looked outside.

Her eyes shot wide open.

It had snowed.

It hadn’t just snowed; it had covered the entire academy courtyard, the roofs, and the branches of the trees in a thick, pure white blanket. Snowflakes were still drifting down from the sky.

Iris froze in place. For a few seconds, her brain refused to process the sight before her. Then, as she turned around and yawned toward her bed, lightning struck her mind.

"IT SNOWED?!" she screamed, her voice echoing off the walls of the room. All her sleepiness vanished instantly. In a panic, she dashed barefoot back to the window, undid the latch, and threw it wide open.

The moment she opened it, the freezing, biting winter wind hit her directly in the face, blowing through her messy red hair.

With her eyes wide in horror, she ran her hands through her messy, flame-red hair.

"No way! No no no no!" she began to wail to herself, pacing around the room. "How many months have I been asleep?! Summer ended, autumn passed, and winter is here! I missed an entire semester! I missed the exams! I’m definitely expelled! Oh God... Did my body go into a coma or something? Or did someone cast a century-long sleep curse on me?! Did I age? I need to look in a mirror right now!"

Iris was so panicked she was ready to stand in front of the mirror and look for wrinkles. Finally, the sound of cheerful laughter from outside caught her attention.

Looking out the window again, she saw cheerful students down in the academy courtyard, wearing their uniforms, having snowball fights, and building snowmen.

If months had passed, everyone wouldn’t be this relaxed.

"I need to find out what’s going on!" she said, rushing to her closet. With trembling hands, she threw on her academy uniform and dashed out of the dormitory like a storm.

The moment she stepped onto the thick, white blanket of snow in the courtyard...

*SMACK!*

A freezing, wet snowball exploded right in the middle of her head. As Iris stumbled from the impact and tried to brush the snow out of her hair, a cheerful laugh rang out from ahead.

"Ahahaha! Got you right in the forehead, Iris!"

Iris blinked and looked toward the voice. It was her closest friend at the academy, Myra. Holding a freshly packed snowball, her cheeks flushed from the cold, she was grinning at her.

"Myra!"

The moment Iris saw a familiar face, especially her friend who still looked the exact same age, she felt such an overwhelming wave of joy and relief that she ran toward her and hugged her tightly around the neck.

"Thank God!" Iris said, her eyes tearing up slightly. Her voice trembled with panic and fear. "Myra, please tell me the truth... How long have I been asleep?! What month is it? What did I miss?!"

Myra was dumbfounded by Iris’s overly dramatic and panicked state. Dropping the snowball in her hand, she held Iris by the shoulders and gently pushed her back.

"Huh? What? How should I know, girl? What time did you go to sleep yesterday? You slept for eight or nine hours tops."

Iris froze at what she heard. "Eight hours? Months didn’t pass?"

As Iris slowly began to grasp the situation, her heartbeat returned to normal, but the confusion in her head only grew. She looked at the massive whiteness around her, at the freezing wind.

"If months haven’t passed..." Iris murmured, wrapping her arms around her skirt. "What is going on, Myra? Why is it snowing?!"

Myra shrugged; she was just as clueless about the situation. "I don’t know. It suddenly started snowing in the night. When we woke up, everywhere was like this."

Iris frowned. Her eyes drifted to the massive towers of the academy and the snow-covered roofs of the capital on the horizon.

"This... this is impossible. If this isn’t a natural phenomenon, there’s only one possibility left. But to think someone cast a spell like this, that someone exists with such immense, terrifying power to bring winter to the entire capital in an instant... It’s impossible even for a demigod."

Myra giggled upon hearing Iris’s deep, philosophical, and terrifying theories. "I guess Mother Nature just brought winter back a little early to make up for that suffocating, hellish heat, huh?"

As Iris tried to solve this illogical event in her mind, Myra suddenly slapped her freezing cold hand onto Iris’s neck.

"K-KYAAAH!" Iris let out a shrill shriek, startled. She had jumped when the cold fingers touched her skin.

"Hey! Don’t space out!" Myra laughed, hooking her arm through her friend’s and dragging her into the crowd. "Instead of thinking about what ancient power is behind this, let’s just enjoy the moment!"

---

While the cheerful hum in the academy courtyard continued, there was a silent silhouette watching the whole scene from the roof of the dormitory.

Cassian.

He was watching the scene below, or rather, a single person in the crowd.

Iris.

From up high, with a blank expression, he observed the girl’s panic-filled awakening, her hugging Myra, her cheeks flushing while playing in the snow, and her innocent, sweet demeanor.

"She’s having fun," Cassian whispered, his voice fading into the howl of the wind.

But Cassian wasn’t in a particularly good mood. Even though there was no expression on his face, an indescribable sense of unease churned inside him.

The day he first met Iris, it had been snowing.

But he couldn’t wait until winter. Nor did he have any intention of hoping nature would bless them with snow on its own.

Even if it meant breaking all the laws of nature, turning the lives of millions of people in the capital upside down, or expending a massive amount of mana that would make a demigod jealous. Just for Iris, just to replicate that memory, he had created winter himself, in a single night.

As his eyes roamed over Iris’s red hair, a quiet, unsettling question appeared in his mind.

*’I wonder... am I on her mind right now?’* Cassian thought to himself. *’Just like that day... When she sees this snow, does she remember me?’*

After watching the girl laugh with Myra and walk away, Cassian let out a deep sigh.

"Whatever," Cassian murmured, pulling his eyes away from her. As his body slowly began to meld into black smoke, he added, "I’ll find out by the end of the day," and vanished into the shadows without leaving a single trace on the roof.

---

When the bell rang toward noon, one of the first people to enter Class 1B was Cassian.

The majority of the class was still outside; the students were delaying coming to class to enjoy the snow.

As Cassian walked toward his desk, he saw someone who had already taken her place by the window, sitting silently.

Saintess Alicia.

Even though she hadn’t come to class yesterday, it seemed she had already pulled herself together.

But the moment she noticed Cassian, the girl’s body visibly tensed. Her hands gripped the edge of the desk tightly, and her pale face beneath her golden-blonde hair grew a shade paler.

Ignoring the girl’s fear, Cassian walked to his desk with silent steps and sat down.

Just as the class was about to sink into silence, a shaky but brave voice suddenly cut through it.

"Hi."

Cassian slowly turned his head to his left. Even though Alicia was avoiding his gaze and wringing her skirt with her hands, she had given that greeting.

Though Cassian showed no outward reaction, internally, he was greatly surprised by this.

"Hi," Cassian replied.

Even this one-word response exerted enough pressure to make Alicia feel as if her heart would punch through her ribcage. That weird, suffocating, ice-cold silence settled over the room once again.

Feeling that this silence would drive her crazy, Alicia nervously felt the need to start a completely nonsensical conversation.

"T-the weather..." Alicia stammered, staring stubbornly at her own hands. "The weather is quite cold today, isn’t it?"

Cassian slowly turned his head toward the snow falling outside the window. Even though he knew perfectly well who had brought the winter outside, he answered in an extremely calm voice.

"Yes, it is."

"..."

Silence again. Thinking this conversation had ended in a disaster, Alicia bit her lower lip and didn’t dare speak any further.

Fortunately, the suffocating silence was broken when the classroom door opened with a loud bang.

Cheerful students flooded inside, their cheeks, noses, and ears bright red from playing in the snow, their hair wet. The class was instantly filled with chatter and the warm, noisy atmosphere of snow adventures being shared.

When the students entered the class, they attempted to approach Saintess Alicia as usual, to talk to her and ask, *"Did you play in the snow, My Saintess?"* However, the moment they noticed the white-haired entity sitting right next to her—Cassian, and the freezing, invisible wall around him—they all stopped in their tracks. Swallowing hard in fear, they kept their heads down and moved to their own desks, getting as far away from Cassian as possible.

In the midst of that chaos, one of the last people to enter the class was Layla.

As she brushed the snow out of her hair, she scanned the room. Her eyes met Cassian’s directly in the far back corner.

The cheerful expression on Layla’s face vanished instantly, replaced by deep disgust and anger. She had absolutely no tolerance for Cassian looking at her.

Without taking her eyes off him for a second, she raised her right hand with a defiant, furious expression on her face. Clenching her fist, she raised her middle finger straight up at Cassian.

Cassian responded to the girl’s childish and rebellious gesture merely by blinking slightly. No anger, no reaction. He didn’t even care.