Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 139: The Prince Who Hated Witches

As the sound of the slap echoed and faded within the wooden beams of the room, only the weak crackle of the fire in the fireplace and Olivia’s ragged breathing remained.

Olivia pulled her hand back in sudden pain.

With her other hand, she gently cradled her hand that was starting to turn red.

Her eyes welled up for a moment, her red irises trembled, but immediately after, the "big sister" reflex brought on by years kicked in.

She had to soften the tension in the atmosphere.

She placed a forced smile on her face, the corners of her lips trembling.

"Hehe..." she said, trying to sound cheerful even though her voice came out a bit cracked. "That... that hurt a little."

However, there was not a shred of regret or a sense of pity on Cassian’s face.

His eyes were as cold and piercing as the harshest glaciers of the North.

His gaze looked at Olivia not like a victim, but like a criminal; as if that slap was just a small beginning of the punishment Olivia deserved.

Olivia could not smile anymore under the weight of these looks. Her shoulders slumped, her voice turned into a whisper.

"I guess... I guess I shouldn’t have touched you without permission. I’m sorry... I was thoughtless. Just..."

"Just what?"

Cassian approached her with a sudden and threatening movement. The distance between them closed.

Their heights were almost equal, so Cassian tilted his head slightly, bringing his lips level with Olivia’s ear.

"What the fuck are you trying to do?!"

His voice was clear, angry, and uncontrolled enough to penetrate everyone’s bones in the room. Ivy jumped in her place, Roxy pressed her book to her chest.

Cassian pulled back and swept his venomous eyes over all the witches in the room.

"My prince... Our savior..." he hissed, as if chewing and spitting the words out of his mouth.

"Giving me these ridiculous nicknames... Acting with fake family attitudes as if we’ve been friends for 40 years... Even though you knocked me out and kidnapped me against my will, acting politely as if we are at a Sunday breakfast..."

He tilted his head to the side, his voice gradually rising.

"What is your deal?! Have you lost your minds or is this a sick game where you enjoy playing with your victim?"

No one could answer. Eula opened her mouth but Cassian didn’t give her the chance.

"Because of you witches..." he said, hitting his hand on his chest, where his heart beat.

"Because of that Lilith you worship, I was born with a curse! From the moment I was born, my life turned completely into a nightmare!" "My own family abandoned me to death as soon as I was born..."

"The pain coursing through my veins, the burning I feel with every breath, the years I spent in the laboratory... Even if I told you, listed them, which one could you understand, huh?"

His eyes shone with anger, his red irises were practically on fire.

"And now you stand before me, calling that curse which turned my life into hell a ’blessing’. As if nothing happened, as if I owe you, you expect me to save you from some obscure threat?"

Cassian’s eyes narrowed. "Do you think I would lift even a finger to save your small, miserable lives?"

Cassian cast one last disgusted look at everyone in the room.

"Fuck off, Lilith’s bastards! Neither you, nor your village, nor your fate... I don’t care about any of you!"

When his words ended, the air in the room was so heavy that even breathing was difficult.

Cassian turned around and walked towards the door.

He stopped when his hand reached the door handle, turned his head slightly and looked at Eula. There was a mocking, dangerous smile on his face.

"Don’t worry," he said, reading the anxiety in Eula’s eyes.

"I won’t run away. Even if I wanted to run away anyway... you aren’t strong enough to stop me."

After hurling this last insult, he quickly opened the door. The freezing cold wave of air from outside filled the warm room.

Cassian stepped out without hesitation and slammed the door behind him violently, shaking its hinges.

"BAM!"

With the closing of the door, it was as if time started flowing again in the room, but no one could move. The silence was more deafening than the shouting just now.

Olivia stood frozen where she was, staring at the door.

She was the eldest witch in the entire village. Everyone’s big sister. She had to look strong, stand tall.

This was her duty, at least she should be able to do this.

Even if she wanted to collapse on the floor and sob right now, she couldn’t do it. Her sisters were looking at her.

She pushed back the tears gathering in her tear ducts with her will.

She took a deep, shaky breath. She didn’t have the luxury to fall apart right now. She had to cheer up the others, not let despair take over the room.

She turned around slowly. She tried to place a slightly broken but still affectionate smile on her face.

"I guess..." she said, her voice a bit cracked. "I guess I unintentionally made him angry. My mistake. I acted very... very suddenly."

She clasped her hands in front of her, playing with her fingers.

"But don’t worry," she said, adding an artificial joy to her voice. "I will talk to him. When he calms down... I will apologize properly. He... he will understand us. After all, he is our prince, isn’t he?"

This desperate optimism broke Eula’s heart. Eula went to Olivia’s side with quick steps and hugged her tightly.

"We all know you didn’t do anything, sister," Eula said, resting her head on Olivia’s shoulder. "Don’t blame yourself. He... He hated us from the very beginning anyway."

Roxy adjusted her glasses and left her book completely on the table. Her voice was logical as always but sad.

"We can’t blame him for this," Roxy said. "Didn’t you listen to his story? What he lived through... After all, he is right in a way. What we call a ’blessing’ is a curse for humans..." "If our prince wasn’t someone special, he would probably share the same fate as other chosen ones."

Ivy, who had been looking at Cassian with admiration and dying to touch his hair until moments ago, was now gritting her teeth.

Her green hair had slightly puffed up with her anger. She ran to Eula and Olivia’s side, wrapped her arms around Olivia’s waist.

"Even if he is our prince..." Ivy said, her voice coming out like a growl. "He shouldn’t have spoken to you... to us like this! He can’t upset you! No matter who he is!"

She raised her head and looked at Olivia’s face. "I’m going to beat him up! You’ll see! I will shatter that snobbish attitude of his and make him come and apologize to you on his knees!"

Olivia couldn’t endure Ivy’s childish but loyal anger any longer.

A tear involuntarily escaped from her eyes and rolled down her cheek.

"Thank you, Ivy," she whispered, hugging her sisters tighter. "But don’t hurt him."

Meanwhile, Cassian took a deep breath with the wind hitting his face as he stepped out the door.

The air filling his lungs was so cold that it somewhat froze the anger inside him.

The view before him was very different from what he expected.

This was an isolated valley surrounded by mountains touching the sky.

Where he stood, there were 20-30 small houses seemingly buried in the snow. Most were worn out, their wood darkened, and holes in some places were even patched with new planks.

They were weathered but not destroyed; as if they had stood here defying these harsh winds for hundreds, maybe thousands of years.

Cassian wandered within this small village with creaking steps on the snow.

The surroundings were almost empty. Neither a human nor an animal... There was only the howling of the wind.

The weather was so cold that all the witches must have retreated to their homes, by their hearths.

"Where in the North is this?" Cassian thought. The mountains around him were so high that it was impossible to see the horizon.

He shrugged his shoulders to better analyze the situation.

His form changed along with the black smoke enveloping his body. Within seconds, a crow with pitch-black feathers appeared in place of the young man standing on the snow.

He flapped his wings and took off into the sky. But as he rose, the cold became more ruthless.

The wind entered between his feathers, biting as if to freeze his wings. After a certain altitude, even breathing became difficult.

Cassian tried to be quick. He looked down, but due to the dense fog, it wasn’t possible to see much.

The only thing he could see was the endless whiteness surrounding him, steep cliffs, and impassable mountains.

This was a blind spot not on the maps, where even birds didn’t visit.

"Great..." he thought to himself, cawing bitterly with his crow voice. "I don’t know where I am. A complete prison."

When the cold started to penetrate his bones, he couldn’t endure any longer.

He glided down to the foot of a cliff a little away from the village, which relatively blocked the wind, and landed.

When the black smoke dissipated, he had returned to human form. He wrapped himself tighter in the rough wool coat Olivia gave him.

He roughly wiped the snow off a large rock in front of him with his hand and sat on it. But the moment he sat, the ice-cold surface of the rock passed through his trousers and burned his skin.

"Damn it!" he shouted, jumping up. "What is this cold? I know the North is supposed to be cold but what is this!"

He reached his hand to the rock. The Chaos Flames appearing in his palm enveloped the rock.

The black flames melted the ice and heated the rock. After making sure the rock was warm enough, Cassian sat down again.

He leaned his back against the rock and fell into deep thought.

He didn’t know what to do right now.

’Escape?’ Yes, he could run away from here whenever he wanted, at least he thought so.

If he used "Sovereign Form", he could pierce these mountains, crush anyone who stood in his way. He didn’t feel a power here that could match him.

But... using Sovereign Form brought great risks with it. It both consumed his energy and his enemies searching for him in the world could find his location.

More importantly... His curiosity had begun to outweigh his anger.

Why had these witches kidnapped him? "Prince", "Blessing", "Savior"... What was the truth behind this nonsense? Why did that white-haired girl, Olivia, resemble him so much? Why did he get that strange feeling when she touched him?

And those weird, warm behaviors... Kidnapping him and then acting like a family... Was this a game, or did they really feel this way?

Cassian gritted his teeth. "I will find out," he said to himself. "I will learn the truth behind these weird warm behaviors, their real intentions."

A dangerous glint appeared in his eyes.

"And if..." he thought, "If these witches are disgusting, dangerous creatures trying to use me as I think... The moment I am sure of that..."

He crushed a piece of ice he picked up in his hand.

"Even if it means sacrificing my lifespan, my memories... I will gladly kill them all. This would at least somewhat extinguish the hatred inside me."

While Cassian was constructing these bloody scenarios in his mind, he didn’t notice the steps behind him making no sound on the snow.

"What a scary desire to kill..."

He flinched at this mocking voice coming from behind but didn’t break his composure. He didn’t even turn to look. He could guess who the comer was.

"Ehh..." said the voice, this time closer and in a more dramatic tone. "I was ignored by my prince. My heart is shattered. I want to die!!"

Seeing Cassian didn’t react, the girl came even closer.

He could now feel her breath on his neck. When he turned his head slightly, he saw a purple-haired, short girl looking at him with curious eyes.

The girl extended her hand as if asking for the most normal thing in the world.

"Give me your hand," she said.

Cassian looked at the girl sternly. "Why? Another witch game?"

The girl rolled her eyes. "Come on come on, just give me your hand. I won’t bite. I’ll do something weird but you’ll like it."

Cassian extended his hand, albeit hesitantly. He was prepared; at the slightest sign of weirdness, he would burn the girl.

The girl brought her hand over Cassian’s palm and dropped a smooth, orange-glowing stone the size of a walnut into it.

As soon as the stone touched Cassian’s hand, an incredible, soft warmth began to spread through his body.

His fingertips numb from the cold tingled, his shivering shoulders relaxed. It was as if he was holding a small sun in his hand.

"This stone keeps you warm," said the purple-haired girl, smiling. "We call this ’Heart of Fire’."

The girl took out a stone similar to the one she gave Cassian from her own pocket and showed it. "You shouldn’t go out without one of these in your pocket, or you might die from the cold. I know you have your flames but... this is more practical, isn’t it? No need to waste your energy."

After giving the stone, the girl took a step back and waved her hand.

"My name is Viola, by the way. When your desire to kill subsides, let’s meet again with a calmer head. I’m still too young and beautiful to die."

She turned around and started hopping away on the snow.

"See you, my prince!" she shouted over her shoulder. "Try not to stay in the cold too much, your nose will fall off!"

Cassian just looked at the warm stone in his hand, then after the retreating girl.

The desire to kill inside him had softened somewhat along with the warmth in his hand.

He turned back to his front, put the stone in his pocket, and exhaled deeply.

"They are all uniquely weird..." he sighed.

He raised his head to the sky. His eyes habitually sought the moon, his silent friend.

But the fog and storm here were so dense that since it was daytime, there wasn’t even a moon to watch in the sky; even the sun was like a pale, white stain.

"I’m alone again," he whispered.

But the feeling of the necklace around his neck seemed to belie this sentence just a little.