I Got Cheated On and Ended Up in A Beast World

Chapter 173: Chapter 173

Cassian did not answer him. His golden eyes never left Lin Wan’s sleeping form on the nearby diagnostic slab.

She looked very exhausted. Her small face had grown thinner, gaunt from her desperate escape through the woods. Ugly, dark purple bruises wrapped around her wrists where rough restraints had chafed against her pale skin during the trek back. Her breathing was quiet—almost too quiet.

Something raw and heavy inside Cassian’s chest tightened.

The physician swallowed hard, his voice cracking under the sheer pressure radiating from the king. "I... I have personally confirmed it three times." He lowered his head further, until his nose touched the stone. "The female... is carrying new life."

The infirmary became deathly still. Even the flames of the candles seemed to freeze, stopping their flickering entirely.

Cassian’s expression remained unreadable, a mask of pure ice. "...It appears my ears may be playing a game with me, Repeat what you just said."

The command was calm. Too calm. A low, vibrating growl that made the stone floor hum.

The physician’s heart nearly failed him. "Y-Your Majesty..." He took a shaking, ragged breath. "The female... is with child. The royal bloodline has taken root within her. It is still young.... but there is no mistake."

Silence. Dead, terrifying silence. No one in the room dared to breathe. The young maids standing near the heavy doorway exchanged horrified, wide-eyed glances before lowering their heads, wishing they could become invisible.

Cassian stood motionless, like an ancient monument. His mind blanked. For a long, disorienting moment, nothing else in the world existed except those few spoken words.

With child.

His child.

It was structurally impossible. No... not impossible.

His gaze slowly, deliberately drifted back down to Lin Wan’s pale face. He remembered every single night they had spent together. Every moment she had stubbornly, fiercely glared at him through her tears. Every time she had cried out in anger. Every single time she had trembled beneath his frame while refusing to surrender her proud, unbroken spirit to his commands.

His child was growing inside that small, fragile body.

His chest suddenly felt strangely, unbearably tight—an unfamiliar sensation that irritated his instincts. He frowned, his brows knitting tight.

The royal physician, seeing that frown, mistook the silence for absolute displeasure and executioner’s wrath. Cold sweat soaked through the old man’s medical robes.

"Your Majesty!" he shrieked, his voice desperate. "I swear upon my very soul! There is no mistake in my diagnosis! The pulse is exceptionally weak because the pregnancy is still in its earliest, most volatile stage—but it carries the unmistakable, heavy resonance of the Manticore royal bloodline! The child itself is healthy, rooted firmly. The female... is simply too physically and spiritually exhausted to sustain it comfortably."

Cassian finally spoke, his deep voice cutting through the panic. "...Leave."

The physician blinked, his breath catching in his throat. "Y-Your Majesty?"

"I said..." Cassian’s golden eyes shifted slowly, pinning everyone inside the room with lethal intent. "...Leave."

Every servant and guard in the vicinity immediately dropped to their knees, scrambling backward toward the exit. "Yes, Your Majesty!"

Within seconds, the enormous chamber emptied. Only Cassian remained standing. And Lin Wan, oblivious.

The heavy, enchanted doors closed with a deep, echoing rumble that shook the dust from the pillars. Silence returned.

Cassian slowly walked toward the bedside, his heavy leather boots clicking softly across the marble floor. He stopped directly beside her head. She was sleeping peacefully now, the medicine finally taking effect, unaware that her greatest, most guarded secret had just been laid bare before her captor.

His gaze lowered, tracing the lines of her face down to her throat, and finally... toward her flat stomach. There was nothing to see yet. Her body was still just as slender, just as fragile as the day he had first claimed her. Yet beneath those thick layers of gold embroidered silk... his heir was resting.

The first royal child to be conceived in countless years of their race.

The last successful royal birth had happened centuries ago, before the great wars. Many queens had tried. Many noble females of pure blood had been brought to the citadel.

Many carefully arranged political marriages had been consummated. And yet, nothing. Not a single child had ever survived the potency of the bloodline. Some females never conceived at all; others lost the fetus before it could even form a soul core.

The Manticore royal bloodline had been slowly, inevitably marching toward total extinction. It was one of the greatest, most terrifying secrets hidden beneath the prosperous, ruthless facade of the Manticore Empire.

And now... the impossible had happened inside a fragile female captive.

Cassian slowly reached out his right hand, his large, scarred palm hovering just inches above her stomach. Just above it. Not making contact. He frowned deeply, concentrating his spiritual senses.

He could barely feel it—just the faintest, almost nonexistent warm thread of life pulsing in sync with her own heartbeat. If the physician hadn’t examined her with specialized energy, even he would have overlooked it entirely.

His jaw tightened, the muscles ticking violently. "...You’re weaker than an ant," his voice was barely a rough whisper, scraping against the silence. "And yet... you carry my blood."

His hand finally descended, resting gently, almost hesitantly, over the thick silk blanket covering her torso. For the very first time since he had brought her to the citadel, his touch contained no brute force. No harsh restraint. No command. Only a strange, radiating warmth that even he failed to fully understand.

Lin Wan shifted unconsciously beneath his palm, a small, pained frown appearing between her brows. "No..." she murmured weakly in her sleep, her head turning side to side on the pillow. "Don’t... please..."

Cassian’s golden eyes darkened, his hand freezing over her body. Even asleep... even dreaming... she was still terrified of his presence. His fingers slowly curled into the fabric of the blanket, pulling it tight.

That realization hurt far more than he ever expected it to.

He remembered the riverbank. The unadulterated hatred burning in her eyes. The way she had chosen a swift death over returning to his palace. The way she had stubbornly tried to starve herself upon her return. Back then, his pride had told him it was simple rebellion. A female testing her limits.

Now, watching her sleep so utterly defenseless, so broken... something deep inside his ancient mind quietly asked—was it really just rebellion? Or had he truly become the monstrous tyrant she believed him to be? Although there was no denying it. He was a tyrant. A demon. Whatever it is people call him.

His gaze lingered on the dark purple bruises around her wrists. He remembered locking her inside this dark chamber. Ordering heavy guards around her perimeter every hour of the day. Dragging her back through the mud after her escape.

The image of her crying desperately in the neutral canyon surfaced in his mind again. ’I hate you...’ Those frantic words echoed through the silent chamber like a curse. For the first time... they no longer sounded like defiance to his ears. They sounded... broken.

Cassian slowly closed his eyes, a heavy, ragged breath escaping his chest. "...Foolish female," his voice was unusually quiet, coated in a strange weariness. "You’ve made everything... complicated."

A gentle, hesitant knock interrupted the heavy silence of the room. "Your Majesty."

It was one of his senior palace attendants waiting outside the threshold.

Cassian’s expression snapped back to its usual stone-cold, ruthless mask. He pulled his hand away from the bed, straightening his massive spine. "Enter."

The attendant stepped inside carefully, dropping to both knees immediately without looking up. "The high council requests your presence in the war chamber immediately, Your Majesty. The northern territories have begun mobilizing their forces. Our border scouts report that the Silver leopard Patriarch has successfully united the fractured Silver leopard clans under his banner. They’ve already started destroying every spatial array connected to our upper realms. Their grand army is gathering at the pass."

Cassian listened to the report without a single change in his cold expression, his posture completely rigid. "Wang..." the name rolled quietly, dangerously off his tongue. "So. The old leopard finally decides to leave his mountain."

The attendant lowered his head until it brushed the floor. "Our intelligence spies estimate nearly one hundred thousand elite warriors are marching. They’re preparing for an all out war against the citadel."

Cassian looked once more down at the sleeping, fragile figure of Lin Wan. Then, very slowly, a cold, lethal smile spread across his lips. "Good."

The attendant blinked in confusion, risking a glance upward. "...Your Majesty?"

"I was wondering how long it would take him to muster the courage," Cassian’s golden eyes became frighteningly calm, glowing with a predatory light. "If he truly wants to cross my gates to reach her... let him come."

He turned on his heel, his heavy black robes swirling around his boots as he walked toward the exit. "But double the elite security around this specific tower. No one enters this courtyard without my personal permission. No one."

The attendant immediately bowed. "As the King commands."