Last Born Of The Des Chapter 45: Sweet Poison

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Sweet Poison

Chapter 45 – Sweet Poison

Isolde was pacing restlessly around her room, each step churning with hidden doubt, her mind refusing to settle, knowing that Cassius was with her mother at that exact moment.

What were they even talking about?

She had no bloody idea. But...

’I hope — I just hope — nothing goes wrong.’ She whispered inwardly, lips pressed into a tight line, her fingers turning a purple ring over and over.

Anesthesia’s space ring.

She had already looked inside, and what she found made her curse her family quietly for such blatant favouritism. There were dozens of healing potions — more than five of them Tier Five — alongside essence recovery potions, food, drinks, and a lump of cash.

It was sixteen thousand eight hundred SN. The equivalent, and Cassius would have confirmed it from Earth’s perspective, of exactly sixteen thousand eight hundred USD.

That wasn’t the kind of money nobles typically carried on them. They all knew better with thieves, scammers, and desperate souls being everywhere, all of them ready to take a finger along with the ring.

And so those noble’s money lived in Runic Bank Cards from the Tycoon’s Ch??teau.

’If this much was sitting loose in her space ring, she was probably about to spend it, wasn’t she? On what? What could Anesthesia need this much cash for?’

Her brows knitted into focus, thoughts parading inside her mind. She felt she was on the edge of something useful if she could only work it out.

But then Isolde groaned, fell backward onto the bed, and cursed repeatedly at the ceiling.

’I cannot focus!’ She screamed internally, punching the mattress like a child mid-tantrum, Cassius flooding her mind and refused to leave.

This was more serious than she had initially thought.

Because it wasn’t only that she was worried about what her mother might do to him. Isolde couldn’t help but feel a deep, profound sadness at his absence.

They were together for only two, maybe three days. She knew that. But she had never been this close to another person for this long — sleeping in the same bed, eating together, smoking together, fighting together, walking together.

And far more importantly, she had never once been in a relationship where she was not the background character; the one everyone’s eyes slid past as if the world had drawn a veil over her existence.

A veil only Cassius had ever been able — or willing — to pierce through.

’I don’t want to lose this feeling.’ She thought, shutting her eyes and her fists tightly. ’I don’t want to go back to being unseen. Unheard.’

That realisation made her curse again, and this time with a weight of helplessness underneath it.

Cassius was a poison. One that had gotten into her heart and was now spreading through her entire body like something she couldn’t exorcise.

There was a cure, yes, and it was simply kill it. And if Isolde was determined and willing to risk everything, it wasn’t even an impossible task.

But would a woman who had finally regained feeling in her hands because of a poison that stimulated her nervous system ever willingly stop taking that poison?

How — after tasting what it felt like to use her hands, to reach out and feel the world and let her inner self shape things — could anyone agree to let that go?

In the same way, how could someone who had barely known love willingly kill the only person who had ever made her feel it? Even if that person was a poison that might eventually bring her down?

Humans were complex beings, as most agreed. They were beings of reason, as all acknowledged. But most innately and profoundly, they were beings of passion.

And the most effective killer of reason was passion. And the most dangerous passion for a woman starved of love was, undeniably, love itself.

So...

’Let me take the poison in. I welcome it. I accept it. And truly, a poison is not a poison if it heals more than it hurts.’

Whether that was genuine truth or a lie coated in enough truth to make herself feel better...Isolde didn’t know. Didn’t want to know.

And as if the Queen of Fate herself had decided to test her resolve, the space around the room wavered. Isolde felt the wavelength shift, accommodating an entirely new group of sound waves bleeding in from another space.

She leapt to her feet instantly, recognising her mother’s Skill. And she was right. Cassius appeared — his body reconstructed from sound — and immediately dropped onto his ass on the floor with a loud thud.

"Queen’s breath!" He cursed, irritated, his head spinning from the unusual landing.

’Damn you, Sophia!’

"You’re back." Isolde said immediately, her voice slightly strained, unable to stop the warmth spreading through her chest at the sight of him. "How was the meeting?" She asked, nerves plain in her voice, and reached her hand out instinctively to help him up.

Cassius noticed it, and for a split second he wondered if it was the last attempt but he saw nothing of the sort. Pleasantly surprised, irritation already forgotten, he took her hand and let himself be pulled to his feet.

"Nothing to worry about." He said, standing in front of her and dusting off his hands. "I told you I would make your mother like me."

"Did she act warmly?"

"Definitely."

"Then it’s probably all an act." Isolde narrowed her eyes. "My mother doesn’t love people. Except my sister. Anesthesia is literally the heart of that woman. Anyone else, she appraises them. She’ll love you the way a man loves a useful tool."

"For my usefulness." He concluded, nodding. Ananke had said the same.

"For your usefulness." Isolde confirmed. "But if she was willing to play that warmly, then you convinced her enough. She sees something worth keeping."

"There was no way I was going to fail at showing how much I love you." Cassius chuckled, giving her a wink. "Hell, I might become a renowned scholar like The Fool with incredible eloquence if it means explaining my love for you to the world. Hm, yes yes, another Fool indeed, this time made by love."

"Aren’t you embarrassed?" Isolde couldn’t help but ask, a faint blush rising. "To show your...your love so openly?"

She had observed many men over the years and barely any of them showed their love openly.

But Cassius was completely different from any of them...and that terrified and overwhelmed her in equal measure.

And the doubt that all of this was merely a dangerous, thrilling game for him to win kept stubbornly sprouting in her mind.

"You are asking the wrong question." He shook his head. "Why should I be embarrassed to show you my love? That’s like asking why a singer loves to sing."

"That analogy is complete bullshit."

"Shut up, darling. The point is what matters." He rolled his eyes. "Do you understand it? My love for you is — and I am not afraid to say that — a part of me. A part of my identity."

Isolde’s heart stopped at the weight of those words.

"And I will not accept anything in this world," he continued, leaning forward until their noses almost brushed, their breaths mingling like two snakes slowly finding their way toward each other, "that would stop me from experiencing that part of myself in the way I choose to."

’Just like what Kaden once told me.’ He added inwardly. ’Ah, good friend, I miss you dearly.’

"Your turn now." Cassius resumed, his smile quiet and serious at once. "This is the last day. My maid is waiting to leave in forty minutes."

Isolde’s lips quivered slightly at the word home. Her purple eyes stayed locked on his red ones.

"Tell me your decision. I need to know, Isolde Amaris."

He paused, eyes deadly serious.

"I need to know if we are together from now on. You and I."

’Oh... Vorn take my soul!’

—End of Chapter 45—