Chapter 250: A Small Favor

Chapter 250: A Small Favor

How had it come to this?

All I had to do was reach an agreement with him. That was the task I’d been given. I would approach him, explain that he had no reason to concern himself with our cult’s affairs, and reach a compromise.

It was supposed to be easy.

After all, the Prince of the Void was at his weakest. He had lost almost everything in the war in the North. Despite his terrifying power, he was supposed to be someone who had failed to protect even the people he loved, his honor shattered and his heart broken.

Wouldn’t someone like that be afraid of losing everything again?

Reminding him of that should have been enough.

But now I couldn’t look away from the red eyes in front of me.

I didn’t know when the hand holding my hair had let go. My body hadn’t fallen. I could feel a floor beneath my feet, but when I looked down, there was only darkness.

My arms weren’t chained.

And yet I couldn’t move them.

I focused all my attention on my hands, trying to move my fingers. The hands I’d tried to grab his wrist with a moment ago... They were still there. I could feel them.

But they acted as though they no longer belonged to me.

Cassian stood a few steps in front of me.

I could make out his face in the darkness. His white hair, the slight tilt of his head, that small curve of his lips...

He was watching me.

He wasn’t in a hurry, nor was he moving toward me. It was as though he had already done everything he needed to do.

Something inside me shrank when the enormous eye behind him fixed its gaze on me.

I felt it in my chest, but I knew the pain wasn’t coming from there. It was deeper, somewhere I had thought was hidden behind my body.

My soul...

Before that gaze, my soul was as defenseless as a tiny insect writhing in an open palm.

The thousands of red eyes around us turned toward me at once.

Even if I could have turned my head, I wouldn’t have found anywhere to hide. Eyes filled every part of the darkness. Some were so close that I thought they would touch my face when I blinked.

For a moment, I felt as though all my thoughts were exposed.

The cult. My assignment. The words I’d prepared before speaking to him. That little hint I’d thought would work when I mentioned the people he loved...

It was as though all of it had been dragged out of the place where I’d tried to hide it.

Something was wrong.

This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.

Had my god lied to me?

I rejected the thought before I could even finish it.

No.

My god had never lied to me before. I owed him everything. My power, my knowledge, the person I was today...

His wisdom couldn’t have been wrong.

I must have made a mistake. Said something I shouldn’t have, misunderstood my task, or misjudged the condition of the being before me.

My god knew that.

He could see me.

Then why was I still here?

"My god..."

I barely managed to force the words past my lips.

Cassian’s expression didn’t change.

But the eye behind him opened a little wider.

A hand rose from beneath my feet.

Black fingers closed around my ankle. Then my other foot was caught. More hands reached out of the darkness and wrapped around my legs, waist, and arms.

I thought they were cold.

Then that cold slipped beneath my skin.

My first scream escaped before I understood what was happening. The fingers were holding my legs, but the pain rose from inside my chest. Something had caught hold of me from within and was pulling me down.

Were they clawing at my flesh?

Or my soul?

I couldn’t tell the difference.

As they dragged me down, the darkness rose to my knees. The hands didn’t let go. I tried to gather mana to break free, but the moment I reached for my core, a new pain spread through my entire body.

It was as though trying to use a part of myself was all it took for them to tear it away.

I tried to breathe.

My chest expanded. Just as I thought air had entered my lungs, it hardened in my throat. I couldn’t swallow it or force it out. Every attempt to breathe made the feeling of suffocation worse.

I couldn’t die.

I couldn’t pass out.

Even when I closed my eyes, the red stares wouldn’t disappear.

I tried to say my god’s name again. This time, my tongue stumbled halfway through the word. Only a muffled, unintelligible sound came out.

The hands pulled me farther down.

When I was buried in darkness up to my shoulders, something approached my ear. I thought I would hear a voice. A threat, an order, perhaps a few words telling me what I could do to escape...

Instead, I felt a faint crack inside my head.

Pain began spreading from my temples. The edges of my memories were warping. I thought of the white corridor, but I couldn’t remember where the windows were. I tried to hear my own voice in my mind. The voice that came wasn’t mine.

In a panic, I repeated my name.

Damian.

Damian Blackthorne.

That was my name.

If I lost that too, what would be left of me?

Suddenly, the hands loosened.

I could lift my head. A pale light had appeared in the distance. White stone, the edge of a window...

The corridor.

My breath trembled.

My god had heard me.

The moment I tried to reach for the light, fingers emerged from the darkness and caught my chin.

My face was turned upward again.

The enormous red eye was still there.

The light went out.

This time, I realized I was screaming. I screamed until my voice gave out, then the voice I’d thought was gone rose from my throat again.

How much time had passed?

A few breaths?

Hours?

After a while, I stopped thinking about what I needed to do to escape. Trying to guess which part of me the next pain would come from was no use either.

I only wanted someone to make it stop.

Why wasn’t my god saving me?

Couldn’t he hear me?

Couldn’t he reach this place?

Or...

One of Cassian’s titles came to mind.

Godslayer.

I had smiled while saying that word a little earlier.

Now I didn’t even dare finish the thought.

My eyes found his face again. His lips weren’t moving. He was still watching me, and for the first time, there was only one thing I wanted to say to him.

It wasn’t a deal.

It wasn’t about my cult.

I tried to lower my head. I couldn’t.

"Please..."

The word escaped my trembling lips.

I didn’t know when I had stopped saying my god’s name.

But now I was begging the monster in front of me.

---

The punishment I’d given Damian had lasted a few minutes.

At least for me.

For him, it had probably felt like several months. When the darkness cleared, he wasn’t even in any condition to look at me. I wasn’t sure what state his mind was in, but I expected it would be a long time before he recovered.

I’d see how closely he’d listened once he could speak again.

For now, I was dealing with something more important.

Iris was looking at the desserts in front of her.

Our table for two at the restaurant was almost entirely covered with the dishes I’d ordered. There were slices of strawberry cake, chocolate cakes, fruit parfaits, and a few other things whose names I’d forgotten as soon as the waiter said them.

I’d ordered a dozen desserts in total.

I thought that would be enough for Iris.

She looked at the plates, then at me. She’d picked up the small fork in front of her but hadn’t touched anything yet.

"Why aren’t you eating?" I asked.

I took a sip of my coffee.

There had to be some mistake.

It made little sense that people would willingly drink something this awful.

The bitter taste spread over my tongue. I tried to keep my expression steady as I slowly set the cup back on its saucer.

This was my first time trying bitter coffee, and I was already sure it would be my last.

Iris answered without taking her eyes off the desserts.

"I don’t know..."

She lightly tapped the edge of her plate with the tip of her fork.

"I feel like something bad will happen if I eat these."

I tilted my head.

"Do you think the cakes are poisoned?"

"No, idiot. That’s not what I meant."

"Then what?"

This time, she looked at me. Her eyes held the caution of someone who suspected something but hadn’t worked out what it was yet.

I didn’t like that look very much.

"Or do you want me to feed you?" I asked.

I reached for the unused fork on the table.

Iris flushed instantly. Before I could pick it up, she cut a small piece from the cake on her plate and brought it to her mouth.

"Don’t do that in public!"

I pulled my hand back.

"I didn’t do anything."

"You were about to."

She swallowed her cake and glanced at the nearby tables. The people sitting around us were busy with their own meals, but I doubted that reassured her completely.

"You know I’m a member of the student council. Thanks to you, there are already plenty of rumors about me."

"Which ones?"

Iris looked back at me.

"Do you really want to hear them?"

I thought about it briefly.

"I don’t think so."

"Good."

She took another piece of cake. She must have noticed the taste this time, because some of the tension left her face as she lowered her fork.

So ordering all this hadn’t been a waste.

I was about to lean back in my chair and breathe a sigh of relief when Iris paused.

"That reminds me..."

She set her fork on the edge of the plate.

"I found out why you had that duel."

My shoulders tensed involuntarily.

I’d reached for my coffee cup. My fingers touched the handle, but I didn’t lift it.

Iris was watching me.

Suddenly, all the desserts on the table seemed like nowhere near enough.

"Why I had it?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Who told you?"

"Does that matter?"

Probably not.

Feeling the warmth at the back of my neck, I adjusted my jacket collar slightly. Iris watched the movement. She wasn’t smiling.

I decided to look her in the eyes as I spoke.

"Would you believe me if I said it was a misunderstanding?"

Iris didn’t answer for several seconds.

That silence wasn’t a good sign.

"So you didn’t touch that girl’s body without permission and harass her?"

My gaze drifted to the chocolate cake on the table.

"I guess I did."

Iris closed her eyes.

I sat a little straighter in my chair.

Another punishment was coming.

Perhaps she wouldn’t speak to me for a few days. Maybe an entire week. Remembering how she’d looked asleep in my bed that morning made the possibility even more troubling.

I was about to say something when Iris sighed and put a hand to her forehead.

"Sometimes I really don’t know what to do with you."

The weariness in her voice was worse than being yelled at.

I didn’t answer.

Iris lowered her hand and looked at me.

"I won’t push it."

My eyebrows rose slightly.

"But if I find out you’ve been bothering another girl, or gotten yourself involved in something like this again without my permission..."

She didn’t finish the sentence.

She didn’t need to.

"Okay," I said.

Iris kept watching me.

She must have thought the word wasn’t enough this time.

"I won’t do it again," I added.

She studied my expression for a few more seconds, then nodded slightly and picked up her fork again.

"Good."

As she cut a small piece from her cake, I pushed my coffee cup away.

The conversation hadn’t made the drink taste any better.

I looked at one of the plates in front of Iris, then at her face.

I still hadn’t fully recovered from her earlier question. I could wait for a better moment to bring up what I wanted.

But tomorrow was getting closer.

After taking another bite, Iris tucked her hair behind her ear with her free hand. Her expression had softened again.

I cleared my throat lightly.

"By the way, I wanted to ask you a small favor."