Chapter 47: Turns Out, It Was a Lion's Cub**
"Cassel, Cassel!"
Cassel, his face fierce and threatening, was hurriedly stopped by his friend.
The friend gently spoke to Cassel, who glared back as if ready to devour him.
"Remember, Ariate is under the protection of the tower."
Cassel paused at this warning.
But only for a moment, as he replied with a darker grin.
"Do you think I'm going to hit a girl or something?"
His friends couldn't muster a response to those words.
Cassel's eyes were half-turned with fury.
Cassel, glaring at his seemingly foolish friends, gritted his teeth and laughed.
"Don't follow me. I’ll kill anyone who does."
He didn't want any interruptions.
So he cut off all those trying to back him up like a sword and headed alone to the Hydrangea garden where Evie Ariate was supposedly located.
.
.
.
Unlike the Wisteria illuminated by lanterns, the Hydrangea garden lay dormant under the faint moonlight.
Beyond the darkened Hydrangeas, a dim light could be seen.
It emanated from a circular pergola set in the center of the garden.
Cassel strode confidently towards it.
As he neared, a soft humming reached his ears, a smooth, gentle hum.
Cassel immediately recognized that sweet voice as Evie's.
The anger he had managed to cool slightly during his walk flared up to his fingertips again.
He felt an overwhelming urge to crush everything as he ran towards the pergola.
However, he froze when he was just a few steps away, taken aback by the sight.
Underneath the pergola, lit by a lantern, was Evie.
In a simple white dress, with her long hair loosely braided, she sat humming on the bench, resembling a goddess who had descended from the moon.
"Ha..."
Cassel, forgetting his anger, let out a dry laugh.
The situation was astonishing.
That beautiful face had the audacity to betray him, and now she was sitting there as if daring him to consume her.
Cassel barely restrained himself from rushing at her with scornful words.
Evie was under the tower's protection.
Hence, he knew he shouldn’t touch her.
Moreover, Cassel was convinced that Evie had some backing behind her.
So, he donned his gentleman's mask once more to coax Evie.
When Cassel stood in front of the pergola with an elegant demeanor, as he always did, Evie finally stopped her singing.
"Why are you alone?"
"Thought it would be easier to talk this way."
"So, you know you deserve to be scolded."
Cassel resumed his steps with a twisted feeling at Evie's small answer.
But then, suddenly, a wave of dizziness hit him.
'Damn, was it the alcohol?'
Cassel quickly steadied himself, feeling the world spin.
"If you're dizzy, feel free to sit down."
Evie suggested he take a seat, but Cassel ignored her and leaned against a pillar.
He then took out the paper from his pocket that detailed his misdeeds, showing it to her.
"Did you write this, Evie?"
"Yes."
"Why did you do it?"
"I needed to set an example. To show what happens when someone messes with me."
Cassel let out a dry laugh at the unexpected response.
He had not expected her to be able to say such audacious things.
Cassel thought Evie was frightened but putting on a brave front.
So he pressed on, more gently.
"So who put you up to it?"
"No one made me do it. I did it on my own."
"Foolish girl, why are you doing this? Involving yourself carelessly in such matters could lead to serious trouble. Tell me now, and I'll let you go if you reveal who made you do it."
Of course, that promise was a lie.
Cassel had no intention of letting Evie off gently for baring her claws at him.
Moreover, even if he didn't take action, Evie had already crossed a river she couldn’t return from.
Having left her handwriting on the anonymous letter, the fact that Evie was involved in slandering him would soon be exposed.
For a commoner girl to dare meddle in the nobles' intrigues; the conservative Thienda Nobles would not stand for such insubordination.
Thus, Evie's downfall was all but certain, yet Cassel prodded her again, trying to uncover his true adversary.
"I've always cherished you, and yet you do this to me?"
"It's not enough; you need to separate the head from the body and send them to Vis and Thienda if you have the nerve to call that cherishing after behaving so indecently."
What returned was a composed barrage of verbal assaults.
Evie spoke in her usual gentle voice, which made Cassel slow to grasp the meaning of her words and open his eyes wide in belated shock.
"Indecent?"
"Yes, Cassel Montera, you are indecent and vile. You're a rogue whom no one would associate with if you weren't born into a well-off family, and a mere brat who ruins the family's reputation three times a day. You're an arrogant fool who thinks it's clever to stab others in the back, a person who knows neither loyalty nor manners, yet gets enamored with cheap self-aggrandizement and lives a mean and shallow life."
Without a single crude word, Evie meticulously tore apart Cassel's character.
And so Cassel forgot to glare and was left dumbfounded.
It was the first time in his life, born into the esteemed nobility, that he had been so thoroughly insulted.
"You, are you crazy?"
"No, I'm completely sane. I almost went crazy earlier, but now I'm really fine."
Evie laughed brightly at Cassel, who stuttered in shock.
So Cassel, looking at Evie as if he had seen a ghost, could only blink at her and eventually chuckle with a gasp.
"Wow, you're really something else. Have I really been fooled all this time?"
Cassel seemed to genuinely admire her with surprise.
"Indeed, that lowly nature of yours can't go anywhere. Still, you acted prim because there was something to gain, hiding that foul tongue of yours. I truly didn't see this coming. Should I give you a round of applause for that?"
Cassel shook his head, laughing insincerely before suddenly turning serious and gnashing his teeth.
"You lowly thing, have you lost your mind to dare...?"
Cassel growled with a devilish face.
"Fall to your knees and beg before I strip and drag you everywhere."
He meant it.
Despite whether she received the protection of the tower, at that instant, he felt capable of doing anything.
He threatened fiercely, but Evie simply sat there.
This only fueled Cassel's rage.
"Didn't you hear me?"
"I hear you just fine. It's just not words, coming from you."
Evie's voice remained calm, and Cassel felt his eyes turn over completely.
Unable to hold back any longer, he crossed the pergola in a stride and reached out to Evie.
But before Cassel could grab Evie’s hair, she seized his arm, twisted it around, and locked it behind his back.
"Ah!"
Cassel's strong arm was turned so effortlessly, and in the blink of an eye, he was on his knees, unable to get up.
Caught off guard, he struggled to shake Evie off.
Yet, for some reason, he couldn’t free himself from the small hand gripping his wrist.
"Are you going to let go of this?! Do you really want to die?!"
Cassel yelled, to which Evie responded.
"No, I don't want to die."
Then plopped down on his back.
"You little...!"
Cassel, trapped under Evie, flailed his free arm.
Yet, soon enough, that arm was also seized and pulled back towards his spine in the same manner.
"You bastard! Get off me right now!"
Cassel cursed from his knees, prostrate on the ground.
It was unbelievable.
Despite the difference in physique, he was being held down effortlessly.
Moreover, Evie, who was pinning him down, was light.
Yet, he couldn’t lift her at all.
Perhaps it was the alcohol from earlier.
His body refused to muster strength, and he felt dizzy, breathing became difficult.
His weakening upper body tilted more and more forward until Cassel's face touched the ground.
Once he was positioned like a martyr or a prisoner, Evie, seated on him, began a confession.
"It's nice to say whatever I want. I guess honesty is the best policy."
Evie said, speaking as if she had shrugged off a great burden.
Then she turned her head to greet Cassel, glaring at her.
"For this, I am truly grateful to you, Marquis. This may not be polite to say while sitting on you, but since you're an ill-mannered bloke, I'll just say it like this."
Evie laughed, silhouetted against the lantern's glow, causing Cassel to involuntarily flinch.
The atmosphere about Evie peering down at him was drastically different from usual.
"Thanks to you, Marquis, I’ve realized a lot. Earlier, you asked who put me up to this, didn't you? How lowly do you think of me to not even suspect that I did it on my own? Yet, I too was the same.”
Evie said, lounging comfortably atop Cassel’s back, crossing her legs.
“I overestimated, contrary to you. I thought all nobles from the noble land of Thienda were formidable. That they were terrifying beasts, and beings I could never aspire to match.”
Rabbits live as rabbits, lions as lions, crows as crows, but somehow humans live as emperors, nobles, and pitiable peasants.
Truly peculiar, but there's nothing to do but endure, blaming herself for having drawn a bad lot.
"But my perspective changed after watching you, Marquis. I began to think that Cassel Montera, who was born into nobility and lived easily, thinking that made him remarkable, was more of a pig about to be fed than a beast."
"A pi- pig what? This little...!"
"Stay still."
"Ugh!"
As Cassel writhed again, Evie smacked his back hard.
The unexpected slap made him open his eyes wide, and Evie sternly admonished him.
"I have to tell you everything before you pass out."
Pass out?
It was only upon hearing those words that Cassel noticed his consciousness slipping away.
Breathing became more labored, and his forehead was now damp with sweat.
"Thought you'd be alright? To toy and discard?"
Evie's voice drilled into Cassel's groggy ears.
"But no, you made a mistake. Today’s incident is just a scratch; you'll be punished continuously by me now, until you're utterly ruined."
"You, you think you can ruin someone...!"
“You have any idea how I’ve lived?”
As Cassel panted and barked, Evie posed the question with a smile.
"While you were born as the heir of the marquis family, how do you think I've made it up to here?"
Evie, for once, waited for a response.
However, Cassel could only gasp for breath, unable to speak.
In this hazy state, he realized something was amiss.
He thought it would be fine.
He thought nothing would happen.
But in the blink of an eye, he lost an important ally, tangled with former lovers even more deeply, and incurred a grudge from his cousin—all of which were painful truths.
Adding to his woes, the person who had caused all this was threatening him, stating that she hadn’t even begun.
Cassel wanted to scold her for being arrogant.
At the same time, he felt a chilling sense of danger from Evie's unfamiliar expression and tone as she pinned him down.
Cassel groaned in humiliation and defeat as his vision grew dimmer and dimmer.
Though he didn’t want to admit it, the pitiful creature he had lightly pushed off the cliff turned out to be a lion's cub after all.
And it was now intent on tearing him apart with its pent-up fury.
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