Chapter 196: Chapter 196: Got You!
Chapter 196 – Got You!
In another part of the testing ground, Omm coughed up a mouthful of water, struggling for a moment to breathe.
He dragged himself out of the river he had fallen into and onto the riverbank, where the soil was oddly covered in red stones bearing engravings.
"Why are you so weak?" Jeanne asked leisurely, sitting on the riverbank to the far left, her clothes soaked and clinging to her body.
Omm looked at her with puzzled eyes, then instinctively lowered them.
"Why... why did you do that, Miss Safara?"
"Jeanne."
"Pardon?"
"Call me Jeanne, Omm." Jeanne said with a commanding tone. "Not Miss Safara."
Omm’s hazel eyes furrowed deeper, baffled by all of this.
What exactly was happening, and why was this woman so strange?
He pressed his lips together, sighed, and spoke again.
"J-Jeanne... why did you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Why did you take me with you when you fell?"
"Because I wanted to." Jeanne replied calmly, looking at him steadily, and even moving closer, making him instinctively crawl backward. "And also because you still haven’t answered my question. What is your relationship with Meadow?"
"What do you mean by relationship? Miss Wealth is my boss."
Jeanne’s brow furrowed, instantly disliking the word "boss" coming from his mouth when addressing Meadow.
"There is nothing else?"
"I don’t understand, Mi—Jeanne... what else besides that?" He asked, still retreating.
Losing patience, she used her black flame to create a wall of fire behind Omm, leaving him no way to retreat.
Omm yelped in surprise.
Jeanne then closed the distance in an instant, going so far as to bring her head within an inch of his own.
She instinctively sniffed his scent, and smelled nothing in particular. Omm was mundane in every sense of the term.
The Shepherd, meanwhile, was losing his entire mind. He began to stutter, embarrassed by such outrageous proximity, wishing nothing more than to run away.
"Miss—! Uh, J-Jeanne? Please, can you... can you give me some space? It’s... uh... it’s quite inappropriate. Please? I-I’m sorry?"
Jeanne said nothing and simply stared at Omm.
The more she looked at him — harmless, utterly confused and oddly weak — the more something deep within her seemed to awaken.
A beast she had never known was inside her, trying to claw its way back to the surface of her being.
Omm Min Jambar looked like a lost puppy left in the rain, clueless and hopeless, overwhelmed by everything around him.
And Jeanne couldn’t suppress her desire to take him, and own him entirely.
She had never seen someone so harmless and so pure in her entire life.
’He is... so different from my family. So different! So different from all these spoiled nobles!’
Despite deliberately leaving her clothes wet, Omm didn’t even look at her body. Vorn’s breath, he wasn’t even looking at her face, preferring to look down.
Jeanne began to understand why Meadow seemed to love protecting him so much.
He was different from Emrys, who would and could never stop staring at her body whenever the chance presented itself.
With all these observations, Jeanne made a decision.
The second decision she had ever consciously made in her entire life.
’I want to own him. This man... this harmless and innocent man... I want him for myself!’
"Omm," she said quickly, her breathing slightly uneven, "Meadow Wealth might be richer, but I am stronger than her. I can protect you better, and I will protect you. I just want you to swear loyalty to me."
She smiled, her expression crazed, her golden eyes darkening.
"Swear it, and I will never let anyone touch you." She moved closer. "And I will let you keep my Key until I find yours, so we can enter our doors together."
Omm was utterly speechless.
It was true that he held Jeanne’s key, but what in the Lord’s name was happening?
"J-Jeanne—!"
"Ohoho, so you’re Jeanne? Jeanne Safara?" An amused voice suddenly echoed behind them.
They snapped their heads toward the sound and saw a man lazily waving his hand in greeting, dispelling at the same time the wall of black flame Jeanne had made.
An ordinary-looking woman stood beside him.
Jeanne looked at the man and frowned deeply, heavily annoyed at being disturbed.
"Who are you?"
"I am Jurkil Julaibib." Lazy said, smiling. "And it seems you hold the Key of my close friend here. Is that right, Diaila?"
"Yes." Diaila replied, looking at Jeanne. "She’s the one."
Julaibib smiled wider.
"Target confirmed." He said. "Easy way or hard way? I usually prefer the hard way, but since I’ve found a potential mother today, I’ll enjoy the easy way more."
He cocked his head.
"What do you think, Jannah—!"
"Jeanne, Lazy. Her name is Jeanne, not Jannah."
"My bad. I’m bad with names."
"Yet you didn’t forget my mother’s name."
"Because she is a mother."
Diaila sighed. However, the woman looked as though she had gotten used to Lazy’s personality faster than anyone.
Her adaptability was worthy of respect.
Jeanne, meanwhile, looked at Omm, who was staring at Julaibib as if recognising him.
She moved and put him behind her, her eyes instantly filling with murderous intent.
"I will kill you for disturbing me."
Lazy chuckled nonchalantly. "Hard way, then."
Without another word, he raised his hand, palm facing the sky.
His essence churned, and an illusory deck — phasing in and out of reality — appeared above it.
The deck was engraved with many strange symbols, but strangely, there were words in a different language that anyone could understand:
Souls Deck.
Lazy turned the deck toward Diaila, opened it, and spoke.
"Choose for me. I’m usually bad with luck and always summon that annoying man."
Diaila hesitated a moment, confused, but ended up simply picking a random card.
The card glowed and appeared in front of Lazy.
It was the card of The Emperor.
"Oh no! Not him!"
But too late.
The card dissolved into black-reddish light and entered Lazy.
In the next second, before the eyes of all watching, Lazy began to transform, his body shifting.
He grew taller and more imposing, and a luxurious illusory emperor’s armour framed his body.
Inside him, a lost soul finally appeared, taking Julaibib from his previous Soulless state to a man with a Soul.
Instantly, an overwhelming authority pressed down on all of them.
The ground flattened and the river seemed to shrink in on itself.
Only Diaila was unharmed.
Omm’s breath caught and his mind went blank.
Jeanne knelt on the ground, her golden eyes wide with shock.
"Bow before The Emperor." Lazy said, and inside his mind...
’Soulless commoner, it’s been a while! Have you missed the greatness of I, Horo—’
’Shut up, old man!’
...
’She’s running?’
Cassius realised instantly as he ran toward Theophane using the thread Ananke had created.
[Something is strange.]
’I can tell that much!’
His speed was unbelievably fast, zigzagging through the rocky landscape with ease.
He had expected to reach Theophane by now, but he was unable to get close to her.
Theophane was running, and the way she did it was strange, as if she was running in circles.
With that, Cassius arrived at the only logical explanation.
’She knows I’m coming. No, not only that. She can somehow sense me and avoid me at the same time.’
[It seems so.] Ananke frowned slightly, surprised. [This girl has Fate affinity. And an abnormally strong one at that, Cassius. I can’t help you more than this without putting you at risk by using more GeumGeum.]
’I know, Queen. Don’t worry.’ Cassius grunted in annoyance. ’But how can she run this fast? Theophane is not a fighter. Someone must be helping her.’
Which was not surprising to Cassius, considering Theophane’s celestial beauty, the beauty he had seen in the Game.
The same beauty that had made her the number one female character in the first game with the largest fanbase and, yes, absolute gooners.
’Though I heard there was someone better in the second game? How? It seems impossible to be more beautiful than her, objectively speaking.’
Or maybe it was not just beauty.
Cassius sighed as he let his thoughts wander, trying to figure out how to reach Theophane quickly, and suddenly felt a prickling sensation at the back of his neck.
A sense of danger.
He abruptly stopped in his tracks, cracking the earth with the suddenness and force of the action, as an upside-down head appeared out of nowhere in front of him.
"Are you Cassius Desdemona?" The woman said with a giggling tone, her face covered by a white mask.
Hanging upside down, her long silver hair fell gently downward.
Cassius looked at the woman and immediately knew who she was.
And the sight of her brought a wide smile to his face, thanking Lady Luck, as an idea struck him like a bolt of lightning.
"I am indeed." He answered. "Do you know me?"
"Honey~" she slurred, "everyone knows you, with your background and after what you’ve done in this test. Some participants are even calling you an angel!"
"Well, Nafissatou, I know you too."
"Huh?" Nafissatou exclaimed, surprised by his words.
However, Cassius was far too rushed to waste time on explanations.
This time, he had to be direct and merciless.
So he leaned his face toward hers and whispered in a way only she could hear.
"I know you, Nafissatou. And when I say I know you..." He smiled. "I mean I know who you are behind that beautiful mask."
"You—!"
"Don’t react in any obvious way. You don’t want me shouting all over the Academy that the daughter of the 9th Seat of the Kurppe Kingdom is here, do you? The same Seat who killed, during the past war between our two Kingdoms, the youngest son of the Vice Dean. Oh my~ I can already picture how much love you’ll get from the Vice Dean."
Nafissatou’s body shook uncontrollably, her eyes behind her mask going abnormally wide.
"And I’m not done yet, you know." Cassius whispered further. "Because exposing you also means exposing the one who helped you enter this test so easily. The traitor called—!"
"What do you want?" Nafissatou lost all her amusement in an instant, her heart pounding in her chest as she looked at Cassius.
She wasn’t even in the Academy yet and she had already been found?
How?
How did he know?
She was losing her mind, fearing what her father would do to her if she ever failed his task.
That single thought made her body shudder in pure fear, a trauma from long ago slowly resurfacing in her mind.
However, Cassius’s danger sense was howling.
He wasn’t sensing Emrys and Omar approaching, but something was wrong.
Looking at the thread connecting him to Theophane, he realised she was no longer running.
His sense of wrongness deepened.
So, without giving Nafissatou time to gather herself, he spoke.
"Whose key do you hold?"
Nafissatou gritted her teeth. "Someone named William Castria."
"And who holds yours?"
"Jurkil Julaibib."
Cassius smiled immediately.
"I don’t need to tell you what would happen if you try anything behind my back. You can try to kill me or whatever else you like. But as long as I don’t die, and you’ve done something, I will make you go through something even your abusive father never did to you."
Nafissatou became horrified, her breath instantly shallow.
"H-How do you—!"
"Don’t go to Julaibib for your Key, and don’t give William his. I want you to find Natalia Glassscion and Keisha Silver. Block them from finding their keys, no matter what. But first, find Anesthesia Amaris and tell her you came from me, and that I know the location of Love de Bayard."
He said, and with Ananke’s help, easily obtained Love’s location through a thread.
He transferred it to Nafissatou.
"One last thing, I need you to take someone out of a river."
He looked at her masked face. "You can do that, can’t you?"
Cassius knew she could. In fact, she was the only one who could find all of them with ease.
There was a reason she had been able to find him without much trouble.
And it was simply because Nafissatou had an Inherited Gift. It was something only the Kurppe Kingdom seemed to possess in the entire Game.
Cassius didn’t know how they did it, but an Inherited Gift was something akin to a Skill — outside the Skills usually obtained by advancing through ranks — passed down from a deceased parent.
Nafissatou’s mother was dead. And before she died, she gave her daughter the Inherited Gift: "Omniscience".
Of course, it was low level for now compared to True Omniscience. But it was more than enough to map out a rough layout of the testing ground.
’How much does he know about me?’ Nafissatou asked herself, doing her best not to let her mind sink into chaos.
This was not the time.
"Now go." Cassius ordered. "And remember my words. Be a fool, and you will regret it."
This was not the time to be gentle.
Cassius had planned to bring Nafissatou to his side in a more subtle way once inside the Academy, but hard times called for harsher methods.
Nafissatou looked one last time at Cassius and felt she had just entangled herself in a situation she would regret for the rest of her life.
"And before you go, my dear Magician, teleport me." Cassius said, transferring Theophane’s location into Nafissatou’s mind. "Do it fast."
At that point, Nafissatou didn’t bother asking how he knew the name of her Aspect.
She simply stayed silent, growing more and more afraid of Cassius as the seconds passed.
She was supposed to find Emrys and speak with him and be close to him.
But she had grown curious about the recent events surrounding Cassius and decided to go to him first.
And never would she have guessed that Cassius knew this much about her when this was her very first time in the Badur Kingdom.
It was supposed to be completely impossible.
Not even a Seer could do that. She was heavily protected.
’Father was wrong... they were all wrong. Emrys Stormblessed is not the true danger here.’ She clenched her fist. ’...this man... this man is the danger!’
"Understood." She replied in a tight tone, then used her teleportation Spell on Cassius, making him vanish instantly from where he stood.
Nafissatou fell silent for a moment, gathering herself, then used her Omniscience Skill, expanding her consciousness all around her.
In a heartbeat, she found Anesthesia Amaris locked in battle with... Natalia Glassscion.
"Ahhh..." She sighed bitterly, then disappeared in turn.
...
In another part of the testing ground, Cassius appeared in a space occupied only by a wide, blue river.
He floated in the air, holding himself steady through fire.
His eyes immediately landed on Theophane, sitting leisurely on a huge black boulder in the middle of the river. On her lap lay Esmeray, asleep with a foolish smile.
His heart skipped a beat as a dangerous feeling suddenly surged within him.
At that moment, Theophane lifted her head and looked at Cassius.
Her face bore a sweet smile. A dangerous smile.
"I was right." She whispered, her voice eerily in the exact tone Cassius loved. "You have Fate’s power, don’t you?"
"What did you do to her?" Cassius asked coldly, his power rippling within him at the sight of Esmeray in such a weakened state.
"Oh, nothing at all, Desdemona. She’s simply tired after holding me while running for so long." She replied. "Instead, why don’t you come down and talk with me before the main show?"
"I’m not in the mood for your games, Theophane." Cassius’s voice took a darker tone. "Give me my Key and move away from my aunt. I will not repeat myself."
Theophane looked at him deeply, her smile never fading.
Then suddenly, her eyes closed on their own n, and when they reopened a second later, for a brief moment, they were filled with countless stars.
It was so brief that none of the spectators noticed, except the nobles and the teachers of the Academy.
Her smile then widened.
"Such an impatient man. But so be it. Why don’t you look at the fate thread you attached to me, Desdemona?"
Theophane said, pointing at him.
Cassius instinctively looked, and saw that the thread coming out of him was no longer linked to Theophane.
Instead, it had divided into two threads that disappeared into the horizon.
Understanding dawned on him fast, and his eye widened.
"We have guests, Desdemona. Why don’t you be polite and say a little hi?"
The Last Born felt a lethal danger behind his back.
He snapped his head toward it and saw a hole opening in the space in front of him.
And from that hole, Omar Ibn Omar appeared, his ugly face grinning wildly as his hand shot toward Cassius.
At the same moment, the sky above darkened dramatically, and a golden thunder struck beside him faster than he could follow.
Emrys’s face manifested before him as the lightning faded, looking anything but human, his whole body submerged in golden lightning.
’I’ve been baited?’ Cassius realized, but his thoughts came to a standstill when Omar Ibn Omar grabbed his feet and spoke in his piercing voice:
"Finally got you, you little son of a bitch."
—End of Chapter 196—
