Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 216: Chapter 216: Ingredients for Recovery

Chapter 216 – Ingredients for Recovery

After such a question, Cassius fell into a solemn silence, looking at the eye, which was now blinking rapidly.

The wide mouth was also shifting from one emotion to another: a smile, a sneer, even a ferocious scowl.

The strange sight, however, did not last long. Seconds later, everything stopped, and the mouth shut before opening wide, revealing a row of dazzlingly beautiful teeth.

{Here is the answer to your question, Child of Desdemona.}

{For your arms: Take the blood of at least a Dragon Saint level entity, the bones of the Bloodelven Flat-Faced Fish mixed with the heart-blood of a monster walking the Shadow Path, and all of that combined with the Origin blood of the Desdemona.}

{For your eye: Take the eyes of a Fire Spirit at the rank of {Lord} and mix them with the Origin blood of the Desdemona.}

Cassius’s blood pumped through his internal system, a sense of excitement he rarely felt rising within him. He made sure to memorise all the ingredients he needed, just in time for the mouth and the eye to dissolve and disappear completely.

He closed his eyes slowly, recalling each of them in his mind, and realised that most were ingredients he didn’t even know.

The only one he was familiar with was the Fire Spirit at the {Lord} rank. All the others were completely unknown.

’Hm, but there’s no need to worry. The Queen probably knows them, and my master too. She’s a dragon, after all, supposed to have been alive even when my Ancestor Amate still walked the earth.’

He smiled faintly.

’It’s truly fortunate that I’m the Dean’s disciple.’ He took a sip of his tea, the sweet, hot honey warming his throat, then grasped his phone to contact her. ’I hope she has all the ingredients, or can get them fast.’

Otherwise, it would be a real bother to seek them out himself.

And he was quite impatient.

The phone began to ring. And Cassius waited a very long time before the call was finally picked up.

”Why are you calling me this early?” Mallory’s irritated, annoyed voice, filtered through the phone, pierced his ears.

Undaunted, Cassius replied, ”Master, your disciple is in dire need of your help.”

”Speak.”

”I need some ingredients.” He said. ”I need all of them to regain my arms and eye. And I think only you can help me with this.”

Mallory audibly paused, then spoke with an intrigued tone. ”What kind of ingredients are we talking about?”

Cassius truthfully told her what he needed, and after he finished, the Last Born had never heard a silence so loud in all his life.

He smiled dryly, knowing full well that these ingredients were not the usual kind one needed to reforge missing parts of the body.

After almost a minute of silence, Mallory finally found the strength to speak again, rather than simply hang up.

”Do you truly realise what you’re asking?”

”I might not. But this is what I need. Take it as an investment whose results you’ll see soon enough.”

”You like to talk big.”

”Sometimes you have to, in order to find the strength to take one more step forward.” His lips curled into a smile. ”Will you help me? You certainly won’t regret it.”

”I probably won’t, if you know what you’re doing.” Mallory said. ”And knowing you, you’re not foolish enough to do something you have no idea about.”

”Does that mean...?”

”I’ll help you.” Mallory accepted, then in a tone that obviously held a cold smile, ”But I need something from you in return.”

Cassius arched an eyebrow. ”What is that?”

”It’s about your dear aunt, Seraphim Hood.”

”What about her? Do you want her among us?”

”Seraphim?” Mallory laughed as if she had heard the best joke of her life. ”That would be the most idiotic thing to do. Seraphim, little bastard, hear me well, is chaos, greed, hunger, instability and corruption all mixed into one single vessel. It’s no wonder her brother disfigured her face with such malice. I don’t need her with us. Instead, I need her to be with one of the other two factions.”

Cassius couldn’t refute any of her claims. His aunt was indeed like that.

She was problematic to the core, and in the Game, she had suffered greatly when Emrys entered the Academy.

’And I know her concerning love of torture. No wonder she’s the Head Teacher responsible for the House of Sanctions.’

”So my aunt is neutral? Taking no side?”

”Yes.” Mallory replied. ”She doesn’t care who loses and who wins. She’ll keep doing what she enjoys in either case. We’ll never lack people for her to thoroughly question.”

”I don’t doubt that.” He nodded. ”So you want her in another faction because she’ll naturally create conflict within it, which could benefit us.”

”Exactly.”

Cassius thought about it for a moment, then nodded. ”I’ll talk with her and see what can be done. However, all of it is off if I see she’d be in too much danger.”

”That’s acceptable. And in fact, do not send her into Adam’s faction. He is far too dangerously unpredictable for your aunt.”

”How strong is Teacher Kai, for you to be so worried about him?”

”Powerful, little bastard. Powerful. But if it were only power, that would be easy to manage.” She sighed. ”But Adam is a snake, and his Aspect is one of the most dangerous and versatile I’ve ever witnessed.”

”His Aspect?”

”Transmutation.”

”What?”

”He can transmute anything from one thing into another. In simple terms, you’ll likely never meet a greater Alchemist in your life than Adam Kai.”

Cassius’s heart skipped a beat. He had known Teacher Kai’s power was unusual back in the Game, but since he had never seen him fight, he couldn’t have known the true nature of his Aspect.

”Dangerous.” He whispered, frowning.

”That he is. But again, his power is not what worries me. He’s dangerous, but I am Mallory Octavia of Claweye.” His master’s voice shrank to a deadly whisper. ”And I am the Last Dragon of my kind. I hold everything within me.”

Her voice turned amused at the end.

”Now that I think about it, little bastard, we’re quite similar... Last Born of the Desdemona.”

”Is that so?”

”If your name truly means what I think it means. And the world has this habit of giving the most accurate titles, even though some don’t always make sense at first.”

”Now, master, you’re already searching for things we have in common.” He grinned. ”I see you’re starting to like me. It warms my hea—!”

”Shut up, little bastard.” She cut him off coldly. ”It will take time to prepare all the ingredients. Come to my office in the Core Ring.”

”I have to walk there?”

”You have to.”

She hung up immediately after.

Cassius chuckled. ”...what a master.”

He then looked at the blank screen of his phone, his eye unfocused, his thoughts going in all directions.

’After regaining my arms and eye, I’ll be able to function properly again.’ He mused, playing with his phone, which couldn’t help but slip free because of his damned wooden hand.

He cursed, picked it up, and did it again.

’My standing with the Dean doesn’t affect my plan much. I just need to act now with consideration for her situation, and make sure the fallout always lands on the other sides.’

Cassius already had a number of goals he needed to achieve inside the Academy.

It was this very place where the gods would forge the weapons that would destroy his family.

He would either need to kill those weapons or make them his.

Exhaling, he reached for the tea and emptied it all in one go. He stood up from his bed, briefly looking around the enormous room he had been given.

He allowed himself to explore a little, walking slowly so as not to bump into some random object because of his blind side, noticing he even had a kitchen and a large room clearly designed for personal training.

Cassius then went to take a bath, finishing in minutes.

Wearing his uniform, not bothering with the tie, he checked whether he had forgotten anything before leaving his room.

’Since it’ll take a while,’ he mused, walking down the white hallway, hands in his pockets, his feet stepping over the blue carpet, ’I might as well have breakfast. But where?’

He looked around, noticing there were rooms beside his own. He briefly wondered who might be inside them.

Arriving in front of the runic elevator, he pressed the button, waited for it to open, then stepped inside and pushed the button to descend to the ground floor.

He then leaned against the glassy wall, arms crossed over his chest, eyes closed.

A gentle scent coated the air as his thoughts continued.

’Reaching the White Phoenix before Emrys is a must. I also need to isolate Emrys further. It’s surprising that Love is still beside him despite everything. I need that woman away and broken, if necessary. She’s annoying.’

He tapped his wooden finger continuously against his forearm, hearing the sounds of the elevator descending, the automatic, emotionless voice announcing which floor he was passing.

’And the worst part is that Love won’t be the only one. There are two more girls, twin sisters in the second year, who would love Emrys to the point of insanity.’

They were two heroines.

And finally, there was another woman — it was always a woman when it came to Emrys — in the Fifth Year.

The Palatine of that year herself. Someone close to Teacher Kai.

That woman, coupled with Teacher Kai, would give Emrys the backing he needed to do whatever he wanted and hoard the many opportunities within the Academy.

’Which brings me to the point that I need to obtain that necklace before he does and that book. But for the book, I’ll need to get through a locked door inside the Library. A door that can only be opened by the blood of the Library’s Bookkeeper. But I don’t need her. I have the Master Key with me, after all.’

He could enter wherever he wanted.

Then there was Theophane Celeste.

And thinking of her, Cassius sighed wearily. ’So it’s come to this? I’d hoped she would be more reasonable.’

He didn’t know what her problem with him was, or even with his goddess — for Ananke said she didn’t remember ever meeting her — but it was clear Theophane wanted their downfall.

For all he knew, she had already begun plotting against him.

’Fine, then. Let’s do this, Theophane. Let me see if you’re as empty as you think you are.’

Cassius thought again and again, mapping out everything he needed to achieve.

However, his thoughts halted instantly when the elevator stopped on the 7th floor.

He opened his eye, staring at a woman hurriedly entering the elevator, glancing anxiously at the watch on her wrist.

”I’m late! I’m so incredibly late!” She muttered continuously, her lips trembling as she pressed the close button several times in haste.

”I think pressing it once is usually enough.” Cassius spoke dryly, amused by her chaotic presence.

The woman — quite petite, with short blonde hair and dark eyes, her makeup obviously botched — whirled her attention to him, as if only now noticing him.

Yet the moment her eyes settled on him, they widened instantly.

”I-It’s you?” She said hesitantly, then after a full second of staring, began to jump all around, throwing away her bag, smiling widely. ”Ahhh! It’s you! Angel! Angel, it’s really you!”

She began to squeal like a fangirl, immediately grabbing the hem of her uniform and yanking it up with ridiculous excitement.

”Look! I got this yesterday after four hours of waiting! I almost got myself beaten by others because of my stubbornness, hehehe!”

Cassius blinked, and looked at the t-shirt beneath her uniform. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of his own highly detailed face printed perfectly on it.

His mouth hung slightly open, surprised and completely lost for words.

However, before he could gather himself, the small woman had already taken out her phone, stepped confidently beside him, and smiled at him with stars in her heavily makeup dark eyes.

”Can I take a picture with you, Angel?? Please!!! I need to post it on the Net!”

’Queen’s holy breath, what is going on?’

[Don’t ask me.]

—End of Chapter 216—