Free Web NovelChapter 561: Who are you?
"So, you weren’t always a white-haired, red-eyed twig of a man?" Byron asked mildly. Cass twitched. That...wasn’t the first question he expected.
To explain everything as quickly as possible, Cass had been very light on the details about his own life. He didn’t think it was relevant because, well...this was Cassian’s life. Why would they want to know about him?
When Cass raised his eyes to Byron, Byron’s dark gaze was unfathomable. Cass couldn’t tell what the other man was thinking. Cass gulped.
"Uh no. Normally, white hair is reserved for the elderly where I’m from." Cass admitted quietly. "Uh, nor is it normal for others to be born with colourful skin tones like pink or blue or green. You can’t change your skin tone, but more neutral tones are common. Think browns, tan, colours with a more earthy note to them. You can dye your hair, but I didn’t." Cass said. Byron narrowed his gaze, shifting, and crossed his arms.
"Are you saying my hair colour is unnatural?" He asked and Cass winced.
"You want the honest answer?" Cass asked and Byron gave a slow nod. "Then yes. You’d have to bleach your hair and then put some colour stuff on it. I’m not well versed in it because I only helped my sister once. I never saw the point in it, and apparently you aren’t allowed to dye your hair when you’re pregnant. Or, that’s what she told me. I’m not sure." Cass said nervously. His nails were digging into the spot above his kneecaps, at the start of his thighs.
He wasn’t aware of the marks he was making in his pants, the thin, white trails making the others frown but Cass didn’t notice. He couldn’t notice. He was too full of panic and fear of rejection.
"That’s fascinating. You said magic doesn’t exist there, yet your society is more advanced. How is that possible?" Byron asked and Cass swallowed.
"Well, in magic’s place is something called electricity. It can be found in nature. Um, even a few fish in our world can make it. We as a world contained it and also found ways to recreate it. Using materials found in the ground. Uh, I don’t really know much about it because by the time I came to know about it, it’s just normal. Like how you have magic lights that you probably don’t know how they work, just that they do." Cass said carefully. "We have self-driving carriages, things that can help us fly across the sky like dragons and without dying from lack of oxygen, advanced living conditions and plenty of other things. The cost of most of this is the health of the planet." Cass admitted, glancing at his Aunt for a second before dropping his gaze. "I couldn’t really do anything about that." He admitted quietly.
"So there aren’t any mages then. What do you call these people who are able to...wield this kind of knowledge and expertise?" Byron asked. He was the only one asking questions. Cass paused for a second.
"Hmm. Well, scientists, I guess. You can be all kinds of scientists too. You can specialise in the human body, or nature, or the soil or particular biomes. You can do lots of things. Schooling is both advanced and not at the same time. It’s up to each nation to educate their people and some can’t because it costs too much. While other nations make it close to free to get a higher education." Cass explained. He wondered if that answered the question or if he was giving too much information?
Cass wasn’t sure, but he was just trying to answer everything as best as he could.
"So are you a scientist in your world like you’re a mage here? You have a lot of knowledge, so I’m just curious how that works." It was flattering that Byron said that, but Cass just smiled, shaking his head.
"No. The base level of knowledge in my world is higher than this world. I’m not a scientist. I’m not really anything there. I worked any job that would take me, and did several jobs illegally. Kids aren’t allowed to work in my world until a certain age, but since it was just my sister and I, someone had to pull their weight. I couldn’t let it be my sister since she was already fighting for us already. So I did everything I could. I was fine with it. I worked hard labour jobs, anything that the owners would turn a blind eye to if they got good results." Cass wasn’t being self-deprecating, he was telling the truth.
"Kids aren’t allowed to work here either, Cass." His Aunt said quietly and Cass’ whole body twitched. He gave a bitter smile.
"Right." Cass mumbled.
"Where were your parents in all of this?" Byron asked, clearly displeased and Cass let out a slow breath.
"Gone. I don’t know where. All I know is that my sister remembered them and I never did. We were raised in an orphanage. A couple of people tried to adopt us individually but it never worked out. I made sure it never worked out. It was either all or nothing, and I also hated some of the ways that they looked at us too. I made sure to cause huge issues when those people came to the orphanage. My sister wanted to give them a chance, but I didn’t trust them." Cass growled, his anger on display for things that thankfully, didn’t come to pass.
"You have no parents?" Aunt Alysora said quietly and Cass exhaled.
"Not in this life or any other, no. It was just my sister and I." Cass clarified.
"What would you look like if you didn’t look like Cassian?" Byron asked and Cass flinched. He raised his eyes towards Byron, then slid his gaze to Sam. He didn’t look into his eyes, instead staring at his cheeks. He was too scared to see how Sam was looking at him.
"I look pretty similar to Sam. Only my eyesight is worse. Cassian has good eyes unlike me. I have short brown hair, brown eyes, and pretty normal-looking features. You wouldn’t be able to pick me out in a lineup in my world. I also have glasses, but I just got the most common and normal frames because they were the cheapest. It was my sister who wanted me to get something nice for myself, but I’d rather spend it on good food. That was the one thing I allowed myself to splurge on." Cass said. freewēbnoveℓ.com
"You looked like Sam, huh? Interesting. I can’t really see it." Byron admitted and Cass smiled slightly.
"That’s okay. The only people who have seen what I look like are the gods, anyways." Cass muttered. "Which I didn’t even believe in before I died." Cass muttered. "Sucks to find out at the last minute that not only did you die suddenly, but that the things you believed were true were a lie. If I had known I would have prayed more, but the gods of my world aren’t the same as this one. They have a one god religion that has taken over most of the world." Cass told them.
"Like the Demon King?" Byron asked and Cass winced. frёeωebɳovel.com
"Uh, no. Yes? That would get you beaten up if you said in my world. They have a demon, er devil who is a bad guy. They call him Satan over there. He tempts people to fall down and commit sins. Pretty Demon King coded but heroes don’t rise up periodically to defeat him. It’s only happened once, if it did happen." Cass muttered. "We also shouldn’t talk about it. I’m not well versed in it, and despite my sister trying, I never cared for it. Why would I? Their god says that they’ll help the weak and impoverished and that never fucking happened to my sister and I. No random person tried to help us, and when someone did, they always wanted something from us. It was never good either." Cass’ nails dug deep into his knees. He wasn’t even aware of the pain.
"It sounds like your sister was very important to you." His Aunt said carefully. Cass nodded.
"We only had each other." Cass muttered. "Then she fell in love and we had...him too." Cass said. "Her husband was nice. A...knight, like Gideon. Fought in wars. He was very important. He was away when I passed. I hope that didn’t affect my sister’s pregnancy." Cass whispered, guilt eating him alive. He never wanted to be the one to cause her any pain. It still bothered him that he had passed the way that he had.
"I’m sure she didn’t see it that way." His Aunt said and Cass chuckled.
"She’s very much like me. She probably cursed my name as they buried me." Cass’ chest ached painfully. "I just want to know that she’s okay. That she survived without me. I was supposed to be there for her as she grew her family. I was supposed to be her rock." Cass muttered.
"What about your own happiness?" Byron asked. "You keep talking about Cassian this, your sister that, but what about you, Cass? What do you want?" Cass blinked.
"What?" Cass was so shocked that he met Byron’s gaze head on. For the first time since he’d entered this room he was able to read what someone else’s eyes said. And Byron? He was pissed.
He leaned forward, his bright blue hair falling into his face.
"My Lord," he said tartly, "you work so hard to make sure everyone else is fucking happy. That includes a man who isn’t even fucking here anymore. Who made a deal with the gods in exchange to let someone else take over his life so that he didn’t fuck it up anymore. I’ve never known this man. Sure, I know that you’re upset because you feel like you know him and you took over his body, but I don’t know him. I know you, and I’ve watched you bend over backwards in situations that make no fucking sense to me. Now that I have more context, I get it a bit, but I still don’t understand. You made a deal to protect your family because the gods threatened you. You made another deal with them to get insight into how that family was doing. I get it because I have a family I care about too, but I’m also selfish enough to know that I want things too. So, why the fuck haven’t you said a single thing about how this would benefit you right now? Why are you behaving as if this has nothing to do with you? What do you want the outcome of this to be?" Byron asked.
Cass felt his jaw fall. He didn’t expect this blow up from Byron, of all people, but maybe he should have.
Byron was a dragon, after all. A historically greedy, selfish race that went after what they wanted. That was originally the only reason that Byron started to work for Cass in the first place.
"Well, um, up until now I thought I would be able to leave after I completed my deal." The words left Cass’ mouth, his confusion and surprise at Byron’s words making him maybe a little too honest.
"You thought that you could leave after this?" Edgar’s voice was a knife to Cass’ heart. He had been silent this whole time. Sitting next to Gideon on a couch together as Cass spoke. Cass had avoided looking at them almost entirely, worried what they would be looking at him like.
The way that Edgar’s voice wavered as he spoke, like he was already crying, had Cass tensing.
"I didn’t think I could leave." Cass said slowly, knowing that he probably shouldn’t say this. "I was certain that I could. I...I tried not to form attachments to anything here." Cass admitted. "I tried to keep my distance."
"You call making me fall in love with you, keeping your distance?" Edgar sounded heartbroken and Cass winced. He hadn’t planned on that. That wasn’t something he had tried to do, but blaming Edgar for it wasn’t exactly the smart thing to do here either.
"I was planning to do what the gods let Fiona do. In fact, I’m pretty sure that they had us switch places." Cass mumbled. He knew he was in the wrong, he just didn’t really know why.
"You were planning to leave us like Fiona did?" Edgar repeated and Cass could hear his anger and sorrow in his voice. "You were going to leave all of us? Even Lucian?" Edgar asked and Cass had no words. Cass let out a soft breath, his body trembling. He wouldn’t look at anyone.
"Is it really me that you even like?" Cass whispered. Everything was out there, so why not blow everything up? Give them a reason to not stay with him if they didn’t want to. It was...only right.
