Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 256: Chapter 256: My Body, I will Give You

Chapter 256 – My Body, I Will Give You

”Do you want to drink something?” Naomi asked sensually, once she’d made sure Cassius was comfortably seated on her blue-draped bed.

Being the 10th ranker of the second year, she had enough EP to decorate her room and buy plenty of things to make it...quite enjoyable.

A subtle scent blanketed the whole room, a pleasant blend that seemed to be a mix of vanilla and coconut.

”A drink?” Cassius muttered, eyes darting around the room, analyzing it, ”I’ll have water, if that’s alright.”

”Of course it is! Just wait a moment, Angel!” She said excitedly and disappeared, heading to the kitchen area on the other side of the room.

Cassius said nothing about the strangeness of the situation. He simply sat there, his mind turning over what he was about to do.

At first, when the initial shock of Coco’s death had hit him like an uppercut, all he’d wanted was to storm toward Naomi and slaughter her outright.

He would have delivered the vengeance Coco deserved, and been done with it, without much effort.

Cassius knew, after all, that he could kill Naomi without anyone tracing it back to him.

But his decision had shifted after thinking it through a bit longer.

Doing that would only solve the immediate problem, giving him a brief satisfaction — if even that — while opening up new problems he couldn’t fully control.

Taking all of that into account, Cassius decided on something else entirely. Something that would honor Coco’s memory and comfort the broken man named Cripple.

As he mulled this over, Naomi returned with a glass of water in hand.

Cassius’s eyebrow arched at the sight of her new outfit.

She now wore tight black shorts that showed off her figure to a maddening degree, paired with a short, loose, sleeveless white shirt that fluttered open here and there, revealing far more skin than a shirt was meant to.

With his sharp eyes, Cassius could tell there was nothing underneath it.

He neither commented nor reacted to the change of clothes. Instead, he took the glass of water with a practiced smile, giving Naomi more confidence.

”So this is what you wanted, Angel.” Naomi purred, sitting close beside him; so close her skin pressed against his, her scent flooding his senses.

Again, Cassius acted as though nothing had happened.

”What I wanted?” He said, questioning, ”What do you mean?”

”Oh, you don’t need to play clueless anymore, you know?” Naomi laughed merrily, her blue-and-black eyes mesmerizing despite the madness lurking beneath, ”All you wanted was to come into my room alone at night, didn’t you? And I noticed you used an artifact to turn invisible, too.”

She leaned in, whispering slowly against his ear,

”I understand what you’re doing, Angel. You’re a married man, after all. You can’t be seen entering a woman’s room at this hour, can you?”

”You seem to be misunderstanding, Naomi. I came because you wanted to talk to me.”

”But then you could have waited until tomorrow morning. You didn’t. Stop pretending, Angel. And oh, don’t think I’m judging you. I like it, actually.” She giggled, ”It just means you saw something in me worth all this trouble.”

”Why don’t you tell me the reason you wanted to talk to me, Naomi?” Cassius said, glancing at her from the corner of his eye, ”Or should I just come back tomorrow morning?”

”I’ll tell you, of course, if you’re in such a hurry.” She said, then tilted her head, ”but I thought you’d want to do something else first...”

Her voice was suggestive, and her actions backed it up as she pushed her cleavage into view and slowly spread her legs, clearly hoping to entice him into action.

Yet Cassius’s crimson eyes remained still as water. His heart beat at the exact same rate it had from the start, not skipping once.

”I want to know first, before anything else.” He said with a tone of finality, leaving no room for argument.

Naomi narrowed her eyes at him, about to say something more, only to fall silent as Cassius smiled at her,

”I wouldn’t want to do what I want to do with you, without knowing what you want from me.” He whispered, in a tone so gentle, one none had never used with her before, that Naomi was left speechless by its softness, ”I hope you understand.”

”Oh, of course I do!” She said, louder than she’d intended, her heart racing now, ”And Angel, you truly are beautiful. Those crazy girls weren’t lying at all. You’re so beautiful.”

Naomi was genuinely surprised. This was the first time she’d truly noticed how dangerously beautiful Angel was.

Beautiful in a way that made her heart skip a beat. Since when had anyone been able to make her feel that way?

Neither Copycat nor Zakaria had managed it.

And yet this man...

’...he’s better than I thought. If I have him...if I have him, I can finally rest easy. I’ll have protection, and someone...someone I think I could learn to love. He’s just so beautiful. And he seems sweet. I don’t care about his wife. Nobles keep mistresses and second wives all the time, after all. I’ll be the mistress he becomes obsessed with.’

Naomi had already built an entire plan in her head, growing more and more confident.

She’d completely forgotten the humiliation Cassius had dealt her that morning, and Coco’s death entirely.

In that moment, all she could see was her future. And it looked bright.

She smiled at Cassius, drawing even closer.

”As you know, I’m the 10th ranker of the second year.” She began, adopting her most fragile voice, ”But I’ve offended my Palatine, and now I risk being challenged by him. I’ll certainly lose. No one can beat Copycat. Even Cassandra, the Drunken Widow, struggled against him, and that was when Copycat had only just entered the Academy.”

”That strong?”

”Of course, yes! How could you beat someone who can copy everything about you? Your skills, your movements, even...” Naomi swallowed, ”...your very thoughts? Copycat gets inside your mind. He becomes another you...then a better you.”

Cassius narrowed his eyes at that. He knew of Copycat from the Game, but not as much as he would have liked.

The man was the type to constantly take missions and climb the ranks, ignoring everything else unless someone stepped into his carefully built little kingdom.

’Copycat, huh...can you copy someone who’s always adapting? I wonder.’

”What did you do to offend him?” He asked next.

”I did nothing!” Naomi shrieked immediately, ”he loves me, but I don’t love him. That’s why he feels like I’ve wronged him! But...but how can I be with someone I don’t love? You...Angel, you understand me, right? You’re so much better than him. I know you’ll understand.”

”I understand you well enough. But what I don’t understand is what you want from me.”

”Protection.” Naomi said directly, looking at him with hope, setting her pride aside, ”I need protection, Angel. And only you, another Palatine, can give me that.”

”Didn’t you just say he was strong?” Cassius tilted his head, ”What do you expect me to do?”

”Your name alone will make him think twice before touching me. That’s all I want.”

”Is that so?” Cassius murmured, then nodded slowly, ”Alright. But first, what would I gain from it?”

It seemed this was the question she’d been waiting for.

Naomi ran her hands over her body shamelessly, staring deep into his eyes, smiling with mania, ”I can give you what you see in front of you. Everything. I won’t tell a single soul, I swear it. I’ll take an Oath. I’ll also tell you everything I know about the second year, and everyone in it.”

She smiled, unhinged, ”Just protect me, Angel. Protect me from becoming a slave, and I’ll give you everything.”

Naomi had reached her lowest point after killing Coco. Now, more than ever, she understood how fragile life was.

And that knowledge had made her ready to shamelessly discard her pride, all for survival.

She was ready for anything. Anything at all, to survive. And in Angel, she had finally found that possibility.

Cassius could guess as much, and he nearly smiled at it. But he reined in his feelings and parted his lips:

”You know yourself how dangerous what you’re asking is, don’t you?”

”But look at what I’m offering you!” She bellowed, running her hands over herself as if it were the greatest thing in all of Sunu Gaal.

Cassius wouldn’t have denied that claim, had the woman been anyone but Naomi. But it was Naomi.

It was women like her that some foolish men would encounter and mistake for the norm, assuming all women were like this. And that misconception was exactly what led men to lose the respect and reverence women naturally deserved.

Still, he could somehow understand them.

Because as he looked at Naomi, openly selling herself after murdering an innocent girl who’d wanted nothing but happiness, Cassius found himself deeply disgusted by her.

He pressed his tongue against the roof of his mouth, swallowing his disgust, and spoke again:

”I’d die before I ever got proper use out of what you’re offering. I don’t think it’s worth it.”

”Then what?” Naomi hissed, staring intently at him, ”What do you want?”

”You see, my maid is currently in a rather poor state.” Cassius began, smiling at her, ”And as the Last Born of the Desdemona, not having a maid for certain tasks makes life quite difficult.”

”You...you don’t mean?” Her eyes widened, her heart skipping a beat.

Cassius’s smile deepened, ”Yes, that’s exactly what I mean, Naomi.”

He paused, tilted his head, and...

”Be my maid.”

—End of Chapter 256—