Cassian Valmont.
[New Gossip Discovered.]
<Hm?>
<Another one already?>
<Are these people incapable of behaving themselves for even five minutes?>
[Baron Cheshire Under The House Of Viscount Lewis Is a Core Operative Of The Blackwater Gang.]
<Say what now?>
<Baron Cheshire is a core operative?
Of the Blackwater gang?>
<I never got to know of this information in my past life!
No wonder we were never able to root out the spies completely no matter how many purges we ran.>
<So we had someone in our ranks that was always feeding the others vital information to keep them safe from scrutiny.>
<How lovely.>
The entire place went dead silent as all eyes turned towards the one in question who looked ready to bolt out of the place immediately and the king’s eyes turned cold.
“A Traitor…”
He spat the word out with venom as he fixed his gaze on the man in question and Cassian snapped out of his thoughts only to find, much to his dismay that the entire situation had changed from him to someone else.
“M-my king, I would never!
I’m loyal to the crown??!”
The man called Baron Cheshire cried out as he fell to his knees, his face a mask of grievance and Eldest Prince Trevor chuckled as he stared him down with a look of amusement.
“The King was merely speaking, he never called you out and neither did he say your name as the addressee.”
“Yes, so tell us, Baron Cheshire.
Why are you being so jumpy?”
The Eldest Princess completed and many others nodded in agreement as the realization flashed within the eyes of the Baron and he fell back as he deflated.
“It’s all over…”
He whispered to himself as he turned his gaze towards the culprit of his misery and killing intent bled red int his eyes as he surged to his feet.
“You!
This is all your fault!!
Why couldn’t you just be shut?!
None of these would have ever happened if you had never stepped foot in this court room!!!”
He screeched, eyes ablaze with pure unadulterated contempt and Cassian raised an eyebrow at him as he pointed to himself.
<Me?>
<I didn’t do anything!>
More like you stole my show and now I might not even be back my reward again because of you!
Baron Cheshire’s eyes flashed the longer he heard all that and he instantly reached into his clothes and pulled out a sharp dagger and instantly lunged at Cassian with an agility and strength that should never be seen in the body of a minister.
Cassian felt his eyebrow raise with mockery as his eyes flashed with amusement.
“Stop him!”
“Guards!”
Voices overlapped with each other as Baron Cheshire finally got to where Cassian was kneeling at and lunged at his chest with the sharp dagger.
SHINNNG!!
The sound scraped harshly on his ears as the dagger got closer to him and he sighed right before he flicked his right arm and it slammed hard into the elbow of the Baron.
CRACK!
“Grghh—”
The Baron let out a sharp scream as he felt his elbow dislocate cleanly from the other parts of his arm but Cassian wasn’t yet done.
A cruel light flashed in his eyes as his other leg shot out and slammed hard into the kneecap of the Baron and another resounding….
CRACK!!
CLANG!
Filled the air as the Baron’s face turned into one of utter despair as wave of pain surged through his entire body like sharp bouts of electricity was being poured into his bloodstream and this electricity came alongside the pain too.
Another scream of pain left his lips as he fell straight to the ground and Cassian smirked as he slowly stood up while picking up the dagger that had fallen to the ground.
“Now, why would you want to kill me?
I mean, I’m not the one who’s going to order for your execution.
You should go after that person, not me.
I’m harmless, you know.”
He whispered into the ears of Baron Cheshire whose entire body was trembling with agony and fear as tears sprang to his eyes.
He had thought he could take this boy down with him to avoid him saying something implicating that would also root out his other companions and had thought that it would be easy to do it since this boy was just a spoiled brat who knew nothing.
But how wrong he had been!
He looked up at Cassian whose eyes still shone with cruelty as he expertly twirled the dagger in between his fingers, somehow making it unable to even cut him at all as it did and Baron Cheshire felt cold fearful chills run down his back.
“I don’t get it…why go after the ones who had no hand in your dilemma?
Why don’t you just kill the person who wants to kill you?”
The swirling dagger stopped as the pointy blades stopped exactly pointing at Baron Cheshire.
“D-don’t kill me!”
“I’ll talk!”
“Viscount Lewis knows everything!”
“Please!”
“But you’re weak, I haven’t even done anything and you’re already calling out all your accomplices…so maybe I understand your point but why come at me?
That’s what I don’t understand and in this life of mine, I frankly despise things I find hard to understand.”
His voice turned utterly cold at that end and then the hand holding the dagger moved.
SHINNNG!
The blade sunk down into the left eyes of Baron Cheshire and blood spilled everywhere as a sharp scream filled the room and gasps echoed all around as even those who weren’t under the blade sickly and unconsciously raised a hand towards their left eyes.
A searing pain unlike anything the Baron had ever felt before surged through him from that eye but the next action that Cassian took was one that almost made the Baron go mad.
He calmly twisted the blade inside his eye socket and pushed it an inch deeper as the Baron screamed until his throat was raw but Cassian was not phased at all.
The others all around him were watching him with varying degrees of emotion on their faces as some felt fear at such ruthlessness, others felt indignation that he was serving punishments that had not been dished out by the king.
Others felt pure and utter relief that they were not on the receiving side of such high end brutality and others like the Eldest Princess and Prince were shocked to their bones.
“I don’t like the sound of your voice, Baron Cheshire.”
Cassian began as he tenderly grasped the chin of the Baron in between his left fingers and the baron stared at him with his other untouched eye that was now tinged red.
“You wanna hear a secret?”
He asked but the Baron could not find his vocabulary to even begin to respond to this mad man in front of him, all he could do was scream as endless pain washed over him.
“I could sink this dagger in a place within your throat to cut short your endless screams and you would feel the pain, yes..…”
Then he grinned and chills ran down everyone’s spine as several ministers stumbled backwards, knocking over one another in their haste to distance themselves from the standing youth.
One elderly noble nearly collapsed where he stood as even the palace guards that had arrived long ago, men accustomed to executions and war, felt cold sweat trickle down their backs.
“…but you won’t die.
Not by a long shot.”
Then he pulled out the dagger and the Baron let out a guttural scream as warm blood spurted out of his eye socket and splashed across Cassian’s face as the man fell to the ground with a loud thud.
THUDD!
Silence filled the Hall Of Ascension, complete and utter silence but it wasn’t the silence of confusion.
It was the silence of people too horrified to remember how to breathe.
Fresh blood dripped lazily from the dagger in Cassian’s hand, each crimson drop echoing across the throne room with terrifying clarity.
Tap…
Tap….
Tap…..
Every noble instinctively lowered their heads as none even dared meet the lunatic’s gaze…but some instinctively turned towards the King for help.
“Cassian…”
Cassian stiffened where he stood as he gradually got back to himself.
<Wait…>
<Did I somehow overdo it?>
<No, probably not.>
<Actually…does this still count as self-defense?
Because it should, shouldn’t it?>
<System, this should qualify for extra rewards from the king, right?>
<I mean, I just helped him neutralize a criminal so that should count right?>
<And why are they staring at me like that, he’s just passed out and taking a nice painful nap.
It’s not as if he’s dead!>
[Mission Updated.]
[Traitor Successfully Neutralized.]
[Fear Can Now Be Converted Into Villain Points.]
[Villain Points +2,500]
[Reputation: Ruthless increased.]
[Hidden Court Members Fear You.]
[Several Hidden Enemies Have Developed Fear Toward The Host.]
[New Gossip Discovered.]
Cassian froze.
<…Seriously?>
[The Blackwater Gang has activated its contingency plan.]
[Eight assassins are currently hidden inside the royal palace.]
<…You’ve got to be kidding me.>
Uh… thoughts?