(BL) The Villain wants a Divorce!

”I have some snacks tucked away in my bag, Sir Forsythe, so you can put the Sam card away. I do need to go speak with the others and find out the current state of affairs.” Cass told him and Draken cleared his throat. Cass and Sir Forsythe turned their gaze towards him.

He puffed up his chest, a little proud.

”It appears that the dungeon is spreading. Getting bigger. They have seen an increase in monsters leaving the dungeon, but only one type. So far, no one from any of the nearby towns has disappeared or gotten injured, but there is a strange phenomenon that others are seeing their loved ones in the faces of the monsters.” Cass’ eyes widened, horror filling his veins.

”Is that normal? When I read up more about them, that didn’t get mentioned once.” Cass said and Draken’s proud look faded as he shook his head, his eyes turning grim.

”Well, it’s not anything I’ve ever noticed before, so I can’t say. What I can say is that in all the times that I’ve encountered undead, not once did they look like someone I cared about or knew unless something terrible had happened. They checked. Apparently, these people were still alive.” Cass hated that. He hated the implication.

That wasn’t something mentioned in the book. Why was the dungeon changing? Fuck, was it his fault? Or had Lady Fiona never written about this in the book? He wouldn’t know, and frankly, after finding out the results of his last talk, he certainly didn’t want to speak to the gods now.

Finding out that they had manipulated his emotions was awful, and not something that he wanted to experience again. He wanted to limit his contact with them. Even if...he had a lot of questions.

”That’s good, but terrible. Are they talking about that right now, or was everyone briefed while I was asleep?” Cass asked Draken and Draken smirked.

”They are talking about it right now. You’re sly. You knew what kind of questions to ask.” He said, amused, and Cass rolled his eyes. He was a beast, and about 10 times the size of him, probably, in his true form. Cass would be surprised if he couldn’t hear what the others were talking about from this distance. He would assume some kind of magic was involved.

Cass took a moment to look around, taking in everything that he could in the darkness. The trees were tall, thin, like fingers reaching all around. Some loomed nearby, their bare branches reaching towards the others, while some reached for the sky. As far as Cass knew, it wasn’t winter, so the trees shouldn’t be bare.

He could only assume that this was a result of the dungeons’ influence on the area around them. He wondered if after they cleared the dungeon if it would go back to normal, or if it would stay this way for some time? He was interested to see what the outcome would be once they were done. There was a third option, where the temple people were here more to deal with the after effects of the dungeon than to actually assist them, and that one did sound a bit more realistic. Even if this was a magical world, that didn’t mean everything related to magic was instantaneous.

”Are we going to go in right away?” Cass asked and Draken gave him a curious look.

”No. Not after hearing that news. Lady Fiona seems a bit worried, a bit shaken. She just asked if the undead had appeared as anyone in the party that went to check on this report.” Ah. That was a rather serious concern. They wouldn’t want to accidentally attack each other, especially not with Draken, Lady Fiona, or Lord Ridgewood’s power.

That was going to be an instant K.O. Hey, it would be one crazy way to go. One death to falling debris, one to being cut down by your wife. Ha.

That would be one for the story books. Get rid of the sub villain without even knowing it.

Cass chuckled, and Draken furrowed his brow.

”How is this funny?” He asked and Cass jerked. He tried his best to wipe his smile from his face, but was having a hard time.

”Oh, no, that is terrible. I just had a funny thought.” Draken crossed his arms, plumping up that damn chest and stared at Cass.

”Care to share? I like jokes and funny thoughts.” Draken said and Cass shook his head, smiling. He reached out, patting Draken on the shoulder before turning and reaching into his side bag. He rifled around before pulling out a wrapped snack that Sam had packed for him. It was some kind of cookie that Sam had made, and it was wrapped with a leaf for safe keeping. Apparently, the leaf had some kind of preserving power and Cass was just impressed by that fact alone.

Cass bit down on the cookie, pleased by the buttery taste. It was nice. It was sweet, and Cass realised that most of the snacks that had been packed away were just that. Sweet treats. He was briefly worried about his sugar levels until he realised that he did have some cooked potatoes, and meat in here as well. Dried, through the power of Draken’s magic. Apparently the dragon made a mean jerky, and that was one of the reasons he had been busy.

Sam told him that in the morning the day that they left. He apparently wanted it to be a secret that he had made Cass jerky, but Sam was telling him, seeing it as a begrudgingly good act. Cass could also tell that he didn’t want to give Draken a good point, so he told Cass.

Both of the men were cute in their own ways. Draken for trying to be sneaky, and Sam for not letting him.

Cass, without much thought since he had been working on his control, conjured water out of thin air, and used that to wash down the dry, but sweet cookie. Draken watched, proud, with several other people had paused what they were doing, shocked. Aghast might have been a better way to put it.

Cass, who was just trying to be casual, and careful about the water that he did consume since Lord Blackburn took it so seriously, was surprised. He knew that non chanting magic wasn’t normal, but when the hell had Lord Blackburn’s powers and capabilities ever been normal? If he had been a true villain, he could have dealt with most of the hero party that way.

Instead, he had just snatched their little trinket, and practically let Lady Fiona kill-

Cass’ eyes widened as he came to a jarring halt. Holy shit. HOLY SHIT. Wait, is that what had happened? Had Lord Blackburn, upon failing on his final task, given up? Is that what had happened?

Had he given up in the end and let them kill him? That puts a twist on everything! The shitty ending made sense now! But it begged the question.

What the fuck was so important about that damn final item that made him think it was going to solve the problem he had? And what was that problem? Was it his week-long issues? It had to be related to that. Cass couldn’t see anything else so far that would have a greater impact on his life.

Unless there was another secret that he was keeping close to his chest? Fucking damn it, Cass just wanted to know everything!

Swallowing the last of the conjured water, Cass licked his fingers of the crumbs from his cookie before he wiped his hands against each other.

”I don’t think you would find it particularly funny, so I’ll keep it to myself. It’s a joke made at my own expense.” Draken’s expression did darken at that, and Cass wanted to laugh at that. It was funny to him how he had done such a turn around. Before, only a few weeks ago, he was sure Draken would have made jokes at his expense.

Now the man was behaving as if any joke made about him was a crime. Something worthy of punishment. It was hilarious, at least to Cass.

He turned, and began to move towards the small group of the others. The people who had seen what he had done, lots of them priests for the temple, took a few steps away from him as if he was going to burn them if he got too close.

He was sure it was related to the rumours about him, but Cass took it in stride. He smiled, seeming to scare them more, and Cass chalked it up to the fact that Lord Blackburn didn’t strike him as a man who smiled much before Cass. Cass liked to do it, mainly because it helped hide what he was thinking sometimes. Vespertine had a similar practise.

”Sorry for taking my time.” Cass said as he got close enough that the conversation halted.

Lady Fiona had watched him the whole time, her gaze feeling like a brand that he had been avoiding. She didn’t react in a shocked way at Cass’ casual display of magic, while Vespertine seemed impressed, but there was something else in his gaze that Cass was outright ignoring.

Lady Ava and Lord Ridgewood had their backs to Draken and Cass as they approached, while the priests seemed to be hesitant to see him as he approached. Cass smiled wider.

”Did you get a good rest? Are you feeling better? You were sleeping so well I was almost worried.” Lady Fiona said, clearly concerned and Cass nodded.

”I am feeling much better, even if my guard is nagging me about my medication.” Cass told her, gesturing to where Sir Forsythe was only a few steps away. She nodded.

”As he should. I will gladly take up his role while inside of the dungeon. We cannot have you falling ill like that again while inside.” Her tone was serious, leaving no room for arguments. Cass’ smile tightened. Great. He had been making a joke, and had instead walked into a situation where he was going to be pestered by her when she should be worrying about other concerns.

”Fiona, I should take over that. You’re going to have your hands full, and I’ll be in the back with Cassian as well.” Vespertine spoke up. ”As the other full magic user, I’ll be able to step in if something happens. We don’t want you distracted.” Lady Fiona frowned, but nodded.

”Draken was telling me about what you were discussing. They are using illusion magic?” Cass asked and everyone froze. Cass froze too. The temple priests seemed surprised at his words and Cass wondered if he had fucked up. He knew that illusion magic was a thing in this world. He’d read about it. Why was everyone looking at him like he had three heads?