120 119. To Preserve His Sanity, Part VI

"THERE'S SOMETHING I DIDN'T UNDERSTAND," I began, still furious with what had happened back in the carnival. "You said that the carnival is for the residents to sell their things, so why was that dumbass allowed to sell his books here? Could he be lying about writing them?"

{"I can tell when someone's lying, and that wasn't what he was lying about, human!"} What?

"You can tell when a person is lying? For real?" He nodded, unbothered.

{"That's how I know that you lie all the time,"} I rolled my eyes, annoyed at him once again. {"But answering your question, yes, that's the main purpose of the Never-Ending Carnival. Nevertheless, if the person and their product can bring more visitors here, as well as provide the Archipelago with extra profit, Varius would probably allow them to do so. In Theo's case, it must be because of his fame, because according to your sworn brother, his books are very famous. If a famous writer were to come and sell his books himself here, it would be good, wouldn't?"}

Not for me, that's for sure. "Whatever! You said that wasn't what he lied about, before, right? So, what did he lie about?"

He smirked, {"When he said that he came here to sell his books, that was a lie!"}

"I knew it!" I exclaimed proudly. "He's a liar!"

{"And when he denied having come here because of you, that was also a lie,"} I felt sick all over again. When I turned to Chaos, he had that annoying arrogant grin on.

Even though I said that before, I was just teasing him. "But, how did he know I was here?"

{"He knows about your magic, doesn't he?"} I nodded. {"Maybe, when he heard that you were out of the Imperial Capital, supposedly camping, he thought that might have been a lie. And then the whole ocean-getting-frozen shit happened, and he must have associated it with you. Concluding that, if you were indeed the one who caused that accident, you would be here in the Archipelago K'hir!"} What?

"I doubt he would be smart to get to that conclusion!" I mocked. "He probably stalked me!"

Rolling his eyes, he seemed to find my idea stupid. {"Why would he do that?"}

I glared at him. "Stop siding with him, damn it!"

{"You are unreasonable, Natasha. When it comes to this boy, your intelligence leaves you hanging!"} What is that supposed to mean?

Holding him higher, I made him meet my eyes. "I don't want to touch that matter anymore, or we will begin to disagree on everything! And don't take others' sides like this. Even if I'm seemingly wrong, you have to stay with me, because I'm your bond, no one else, got it?"

{"Alright,"} his voice was firm. {"But I'll still voice my opinions!"}

Sigh. "You can do that, after all, as you guys have stated, you are not my pet. Just, pick my side, no matter what it is. We'll talk about it later after the problems are resolved!"

{"I'll never understand you humans, but whatever."}

➵➵➵

My assumption about where Cass' suite was located was right. When I rang the bell, he opened it with a kindly smile and asked for me to come in. It was a suite very much identical to mine, and just as huge. But in the middle, there was a table full of food and what seemed to be wine.

His gaze followed my eyes, "We are going to have dinner here, I hope you don't mind that. I'm not a fan of crowded places," I remember that.

Smiling, I nodded. "Yes, that is still quite fresh in my memory. And for me it's alright. It'll be better to speak with you this way, with no one else around to butt in," that's also why I didn't ask Kate or Ash to come with me.

{"They also don't know what you want to speak with your cousin,"} that was one of the reasons.

When he saw Chaos in my arms, he smiled at him. "Oh, my Goddess! What a beautiful cat, Nat. What's its name?"

{"I like him!"} Ha, how convenient!

"It's Chaos. Isn't he cute?" I pinched his cheek and he glared aAdorabledorable!"

Cass took another chair and put it between ours, "I would touch him if I wasn't so scared of him scratching my face. After all, cats are more the kind of an introverted animals. They don't go with anyone, as dogs do. really is extremely gorgeous!"

{"Why aren't all humans like this boy? It would be way more pleasant!"} Of course, he thinks that.

I let him down and he accommodated himself on the chair, with his head directed to me. "What does he eat? Should I order something?" How caring.

My gaze turned to him, {"No, I'm still satisfied by the ambrosia I ate earlier!"}

"Thank you, Cass. But he had already eaten before we came. And he's kind of picky with food, and only eats ambrosia and a special tea," like a spoiled rich kid.

He giggled. "How fancy. When we meet again, I bring some ambrosia for him!"

{"You should learn how to be pleasant company with him,"} he grinned at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Just careful not to spoil him too much. He can't get used to it, because I'm not as kind as you are."

Still giggling lightly, as the gentleman he is, he helped me sit down and sat in front of me. "That aside, I wanted to thank you, Nat," he spoke catching me off guard with his kind manners. He didn't change from the Cass I remember, he was so innocent at this age.

That's why I want to preserve his sanity. I can't allow this pure boy to become someone broken like me. {"What happened to him in your first life? I can't see the memories from back then, so I'm kind of clueless."} You will understand when I tell him.

"What are you thanking me for?" I pretended not to know.

"For the help with the books. I thought I was going to get in a lot of trouble for breaking the rules, but to my surprise, when I went to meet the leader and the vice-leader, they were very kind to me. And told me that you talked to them on my behalf, and also made a deal with them so they would give me free access to all the books I need from the prohibited section of the library," he's adorable.

Cass is as tall as Theo and Ash. With olive skin, clear emerald eyes, full lips, a marked jaw, a thin nose, dark and chic eyebrows, broad shoulders, a slim but fit body, thick tights, and a beautiful dark brown wavy hair that reaches his shoulders. He's as outstanding and beautiful as I am. And he possesses telepathy, I took that magic from this side of the family.

Although I don't have it anymore, the effect of people not being able to read my thoughts stayed. This was actually what made Cass bond with me right away because he hated hearing everyone's thoughts. The same goes for uncle Martin and little Ryan, but mainly Cass.

"Don't think about it too much. You are probably, together with Ryan, the only cousins that I care about," that made him giggle. "It's been a long time since we last saw each other, Cass. There is so much to talk about," I sighed and he held my hand.

"Why don't you start with how you regained your magic?"

One thing about him, he never doubted the fact that I was born with magic because he couldn't hear my thoughts, which meant I indeed had telepathy once. And although we couldn't meet so often, when we did, I felt relieved to be with someone who believed in me. "I'm still trying to figure out how that happened."

"Did you recover both magics, Nat?" I wish.

"No. Only ice magic. My telepathy is still gone," he said nothing. "It hasn't been long since it happened, to be honest. Almost two weeks," the shock on his face made me giggle.

"That means you have no control over it!"

"Unfortunately, no. That's why I kind of... hm... accidentally froze the ocean," his jaw dropped.

"Was it you? I thought it was a sea monster," I chuckled at that.

Opening my arms, I mocked, "Well, I'm the sea monster in question!"

That made Cass burst out laughing. "Amazinreally happy for you, Nat. To know that at least you got one of your magics back and that you are extraordinarily powerful with magic. When you get it under your control, you will really become a monster. I'm lucky to have you on my side," he sure is.

{"There it is, your condescending tone!"}

Oh, come on, Chaos. It's the truth, and you know it!

"But how exactly did you get it back? Like, I know you don't know much about it. But how was the experience?" He took the glass that was covering the trays with our food and began to put some on my plate.

A smile came to my lips when I realized he still remembered all of my favorite foods and made sure to order them all. Including tiramisu for dessert. When the delicious scent of the food reached my nose, my stomach growled, making me blush and my cousin laugh. While Chaos was just, stunned.

{"You really are a foodie, damn. You ate thousands of things today in the Never-Ending Carnival, and it hasn't even been two hours since we came back. And here you are, about to eat even more!"} I held the desire to roll my eyes at him.

Don't judge me, okay? I wasn't like this before, it's just that... when I was sentenced to death back in my past life, they starved me for an excruciatingly long time. Since I came back to life, food began to have a different meaning to me. It makes me feel alive and somewhat secure.

He avoided my eyes and turned to my cousin. {"Makes sense."}

"I woke up feeling different. Something had changed in me, I just didn't know what it was before," it's a harmless lie. "Later I realized that my ice magic was somehow back. But the changes didn't end there. I began to see glimpses of the future and they are terrible and tragic, cousin," it's the easiest way to go with this.

"The future? What do you mean?" He was still calm, but I could see how uneasy he was.

"I mean exactly that. Glimpses of the future that's waiting for us if we don't do something to change it," sigh. "That's why I wanted to speak with you, Cass. You will need my help, or you won't be able to deal with the void of darkness and death that might descend on your life!"

{"Are you going to make him think that without you helping, he could die?"} Precisely.

If I don't make him think that, he will never let me help him out. And I can't allow him to become like me, Chaos. I don't wish such misery to fall upon anyone I care about. I don't want to see him losing his hope, because I know better than anyone what would happen to him if he was to fall into despair.