Chapter 243: Chapter 243: I Can Go Lower.
Chapter 243 – I Can Go Lower.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Klaus repeatedly banged on the door of Love and Diaila’s room, his face completely placid, not caring about the kind of noise he was making that late at night.
He continued his relentless pounding until the door cracked open to reveal the smiling face of Love, who looked as though she’d been expecting him.
That face alone confirmed what Klaus had been thinking since he realized he’d been attacked.
He might be a troublemaker, but he hadn’t done anything yet to anyone at the level that would provoke an attack like this.
No one except Love.
"Careful, Klaus." Love drawled, smiling gently as if she were the most innocent person in the world, "It’s not wise for a man to bang like crazy on the door of two women at night. What might others think, I wonder?"
"So it was you."
"I don’t know what you mean." Love said, then scoffed with disdain, "Is that what you expected me to say?"
She leaned her face forward and whispered into his ear.
"I was the one, Klaus. I cracked your skull, stepped on your face, and left you sprawled on the ground like a damn bloody bitch." She hissed, "But wait...don’t tell me you think that’s the only thing I’ve done to you?"
She smiled and took out her phone, thrusting the screen straight into his face.
"Why don’t you look at these beautiful pictures? I’m pretty sure Gossip Girl would love this! It would, without a doubt, be a Hot Topic! Don’t you think, Klaus? You and I have similar tastes, I’d guess, from last time with that video."
Klaus said absolutely nothing. He simply stared at the pictures, taking in his own unfocused eyes atop a terrified woman.
No matter how one looked at it, everything pointed to a horrific fact that could destroy his whole reputation with one click.
What was even more cunning about this scheme was that Love had been smart enough not to pick herself.
It was far more believable that he — a rich noble heir — would attack a commoner, someone obviously in a poor state, than that a noble girl, someone with such high talent, like Love, would.
Love’s plan was calculated.
And he had lost.
"You publish my video," she whispered, smiling again, knowing her leverage had worked, "and I’ll publish these lovely pictures. Do we have a deal, Klaus?"
"Love...Love...Love..." Klaus repeated, shaking his head slowly, "Is this how far you’re ready to go?"
"Klaus," she growled, "I’m ready to go as far as you can imagine, and even beyond. Anything. I’m ready for anything. And if I fall, I’ll bring you down with me."
"Perfect." Klaus whispered, lifting his hand and tucking a stray pink hair behind her ear, "I’ll match your dedication from now on, Love. You think you know who I am?"
"I don’t need to know who you are." She flicked away his hand, "But if I post those pictures, everyone will."
"You won’t do it." Klaus said, "Do you know why? Because you need your reputation more than I need mine. Your reputation is your entire damn life. I’m a fucking noble by birth, Love. My family is one of the oldest in this Kingdom. Reputation doesn’t define who I am. I am Klaus Handoff, Heir of the Spirit Bloodline. And how long do you think this will last if you post them?"
He smiled coldly.
"I’ll take them down easily. And do you think people will dare say something about me? You said it yourself," he leaned even closer, "I’m Cassius’s childhood friend. Who wants to stain the reputation of Angel? You?"
Love’s eyes hardened even further, her jaw clenching tight. "Your bluff won’t work on me. You can take it down? Maybe. But by then I’ll have already made most students think badly of you. That’s all I need, idiot. And as for Cassius..."
She grinned harshly, "are you leaning on your friend’s status now? You’re more pathetic than I thought."
"I am, Love." He said, "I truly am. And this isn’t even my lowest point. I can go lower. Way, fucking lower."
He lifted his finger and tapped her nose three times before she could even move.
"You broke mine. I’ll break yours."
Klaus looked at her coldly, then drove his fist into her face, causing Love’s head to recoil sharply against the door.
She let out a choked cry, her eyes wide as she plastered her two hands atop her face, blood dripping from her cracked nose.
She stared at him, wide eyed, as if surprised by the act, and looked at Klaus.
The man’s eyes were dead empty, yet hiding something murderous and malicious deep inside.
Love’s eyes became empty of blind rage.
"I swear in my life that I’ll have your head, Klaus." She snarled, blood dripping as the pain stabbed inside her mind, "I swear!"
"Next time, I will make sure it hurts even more. Now, Love, be mindful of the weather in the coming days." He said, finally turning to enter his room,
"I’ve heard a raging wind is coming."
He entered his room and closed the door behind him. Love was left there, blood on her face, silent.
"I should have broken his damned neck," Love hissed, her heart seething with rage. She looked at the blood staining her hand, the throbbing pain still echoing through her skull.
She gritted her teeth, pink essence gathering in her eyes as though it might erupt and lay waste to everything around her. Slowly, however, she forced herself to calm down, trying to take comfort in what she had achieved.
As long as she had these pictures...
...her secret was safe.
Yet it wasn’t enough. Knowing Klaus held her weakness didn’t sit well with Love.
And so...
’...next phase of the plan.’
She turned, hands still on her bleeding nose, and walked back into her room, mind full of dark thoughts.
...
While Klaus had decided to drop all pretense, suddenly finding new resolve within himself, his friend Cassius didn’t allow himself to be idle either.
He couldn’t afford to.
Cassius didn’t sleep once he got back home. All the rest he’d wanted to enjoy simply evaporated.
He was left alone, with energy to spare. Far too much, even.
So he trained.
His aunt Seraphim was no longer there, but Cassius had learned all he needed to learn. All that was left was to get used to it and master it.
It was easier, far easier to get used to dancing than to what he’d been training before.
So in under two hours, Cassius managed to achieve his First Adaptation in dancing. That adaptation caused his First Snake Loop for controlling his steps to increase by leaps and bounds.
That breakthrough opened his eyes to the deeper mechanics of Adaptation.
He now realized that many domains overlapped. Having the adaptation of one domain made it easier to adapt in another, because the qualities required were essentially identical, just nuanced and expressed differently.
With dancing, Cassius’s mastery over his steps became staggering. And the feeling of finding such a clever shortcut motivated him even more.
His power was still not sealed yet. And having now lived a fair number of hours without it, Cassius was able to grasp his body even better than before, understanding the difference between the two states at the most fundamental level.
He also used the opportunity to summon Stella, letting the little white snake take its full form, slithering through his body as he danced.
The more he danced, the more he understood how to even out his steps, and the better he danced.
Two Adaptations increasing at the same time, each accelerating the other.
Cassius was in a trance.
And Stella was happy to be back around her master, hissing joyfully.
Yet even during those dancing moments, he still found time to ponder Stella’s future.
How should he take care of her?
She needed to eat powerful beasts to grow stronger and be useful.
’Hm...she? Her? Why am I talking about her like the snake is female?’
Was it because of the name? Cassius didn’t know, but it hardly mattered. He doubted the snake even had a gender.
Setting that stray thought aside, he continued to wonder how to feed her.
There was the possibility of asking his master about some beasts she might give him.
Cassius planned to do so.
However, he had a much better idea.
An idea that would not only help make Stella deeply strong, but also greatly weaken Emrys.
It was simple: take Emrys’s beasts and feed them to Stella.
One of those beasts would be gained as a gift from the Twins in the second year.
The other would be given by the White Phoenix. The third one, if he recalled correctly, would come from a divine gift itself.
All of them...
’...must be used to feed my Stella. Tomorrow we have class. Helene’s class. Maybe I’ll get the chance to see these twins myself.’
Cassius’s eyes curved into a demonic smile as he laughed and danced with his snake.
—End of Chapter 243—
