It was a dead body. A face that was also familiar as Cassius had seen her as the maid who had taken care of his room though he had also moved her away from the place as she seed to be soone who would make a habit out of hurting Arabella.
But why was she dead?
Cassius who had stepped down bent his knees to look at the cold body and noted that it shouldn’t be less than ten minutes ago since the maid was dead. Then he heard a series of rushing footsteps and turned back only to find Karnala who had breathed out a hurried breath after running in such a hurry.
She had co back to the room, sweating only to find Cassius with a cold body of Nora which made her to furrow her eyebrows slightly. She bowed her head, "My apologies for being far too tardy, Your Highness."
"Since when have you left?" Cassius inquired and looking at Arabella who was now better, Karnala turned to him and answered steadily.
"Around fifteen minutes ago, Your Highness."
"So you left for fifteen minutes and this maid had died for ten minutes," Cassius narrowed his eyes, "You didn’t kill her?"
"I have promised to never kill unless you have directed to," Karnala answered politely but understood the aning behind this all. She clutched her hands together, "That would an soone else had killed the maid."
"If it isn’t you or , then it could be soone else," Cassius stood up as he scrutinized the dead body, "But do you know what is odd, Karnala?"
Karnala looked at the dead Nora and nodded, "She doesn’t have wounds. Might it be poisoned?"
"No. She hadn’t drunk or eaten anything," Cassius said as he had bent down to check for obvious spots but there was nothing. "It’s as if she had just seen sothing horrifying that caused her heart to just co to a stop. Interrogate if soone else had co into the room."
But Cassius doubted it was anyone from the castle.
Murders inside these walls were never without reason. There was always a motive and always sothing to gain from soone else’s death. And even then, the risk was too high as killing within the castle wasn’t just a cri; it was a gamble with your life. The punishnt was brutal and the tortures would even turn away any professional assassins within the land. No one with half a brain would dare to kill unless they had sothing solid waiting for them on the other side was gold, power, and protection from a higher up.
That would make sense if the person they had wanted to kill was Arabella.
But yet.. this? A re maid? Even worse she had been removed from serving him, which ant that she would have even less reason for being killed.
If it had been for paynt, they would’ve chosen soone of higher value. Soone whose death tipped a scale or served a purpose. Not a servant with no secrets, no leverage, and no reason to die. It didn’t make sense.
Which made it worse. So much worse.
"Should we open an investigation throughout the castle, Your Highness?" Karnala questioned as it was the only right way to take care of such a problem. Usually, they would magnify the sudden death by spreading news and interrogating all servants to find the real perpetrator behind the kill but Cassius shook his head in response which made her wary.
Cassius could co to two possible conclusions.
One that the maid had seen sothing and had accidentally killed herself, almost too stupid of a conclusion but isn’t worse than the second conclusion he had made.
That being...
His red eyes stopped at Arabella.
He had seen her losing consciousness and being high in fever. He also knew this was the Arabella he had picked and saved from the brothel after she had been injected with that strange potion.
He also knew that though she could kill to protect herself, she wouldn’t be capable of causing such a mysterious death.
But this was the only logical answer he could muster. Either soone had killed Nora beforehand and her body had been discarded accidentally here so soone could pin the death to Arabella or that the maid had foolishly tried to do sothing to hurt Bella and was killed in exchange for his birdie.
Covering his mouth, Cassius stayed a long ti in his own thoughts until he finally broke his silence as he could tell it was making Karnala even more nervous than a death sentence.
He spoke, "Ask whether there were any servants around or any who had seen what’s happening but don’t explain what had happened," he then kicked Nora’s ankle slightly, "And this brings it to William’s house."
"But Doctor William is still absent, Your Highness," explained Karnala.
"He wouldn’t be anyti soon," Cassius turned to her, showing a smile, "Unless he has a death wish that is."
Karnala understood what he ant and at once bowed her head. She moved Nora’s body away from his room, quickly doing what had been asked by her master, leaving Cassius to be alone with Arabella who was fast asleep.
Slowly Cassius leaned toward his sleeping birdie, narrowing his red eyes. The candlelight beside him softly let a golden glow to highlight the curves of his cheeks, his red eyes that were eyeing her turning lighter than its usual dark crimson hue.
He studied her pale face that seed to be in such a pain in quiet.
What is she?
Arabella was sothing that she herself didn’t even know or understand.
That should be impossible as he knew what he was even though he was an anomaly to the entire world. But that was what caught his attention.
An anomaly.
What if she was like him? An anomaly? But what if it was even worse?
Like an anomaly who was made before her birth, thus why she wasn’t even aware of what she truly was?
That could be.
But that could also be his hopeful wish. Deep down wishing that his birdie wasn’t soone who wanted to kill him, wasn’t soone who had been lying and acting to be soone she wasn’t so she could capture his heart.
After all, this wasn’t the first ti soone had used this trick on him and usually, he wouldn’t be so foolish to trust anyone. But this ti, he couldn’t help but wish the opposite of what his usual reasoning and logic would have told him to do.
Cassius in a trance reached out his hands, placing his fingers like a necklace over Arabella’s frail neck with his red eyes that had grown darker in a ponder that even the candlelight beside him couldn’t dispel.
Then an old mory seeped its way back into his mind, unwelco and vivid even though he disliked reminiscing it. He had been just a child, no older than nine, his small fra lashed to a cold stone pillar. The chill of it bit into his spine, but what was more chilling to him was the image of that monstrous demons whose na was better known as Voltaire.
The Voltaire that now he commands as his own power. The Voltaire, a demon, that he had killed by his own hands when he was still nine.
But did his mother ever care how young he was?
Of course not.
The late Queen, like the King, had been insatiable in her thirst for power and control. To her, a son wasn’t sothing to protect, it was a weapon to forge. And what greater weapon than a boy destined to conquer Hell itself?
That was the magnitude of power she craved. A monstrous kind of power that could even go against the ruler of Hell.
And she would have traded anything for it, even her own son. Especially her ownson.
To the Queen, Cassius wasn’t only her child, he was the world for her. The world that she wanted to achieve. And if it ant pushing him to the edge of death, so be it after all, rcy had no place in the pursuit of a crown that could command the world.
That was love.
The love that his mother had ever and only taught him.
It wasn’t sweet or loving, it was never selfless or kind. It was always a give and take kind of love, one full of misery and sacrifice which his mother would always call a symbol of her ocean deep love for him.
Cassius eventually pulled away his hands from Arabella’s neck, placing his hands over his face for a cover.
Dear mother. Even by the power you had cursed to have, I can’t kill the person who have carved her existence deep to my heart.
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