Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel-Chapter 143: Lilith [2] A Date with Lilith

The words spilling from Lilith’s lips wrapped around Cassian’s mind like a poisonous vine.

The sentence "We won’t part" sounded more like a curse than a promise.

The nauseous feeling in his stomach was more than a physical discomfort; it was a rejection coming from the depths of his soul.

Narrowing his eyes, Cassian tried to suppress the trembling in his voice.

"How can you still exist?" he asked, his voice ice-cold.

"Zevstyle and Kaiser... They must have completely destroyed you that day."

Hearing this question, Lilith brought her hand to her mouth and giggled gently.

"Haha! That big, scaly reptile and that conceited mad woman?" Lilith waved her hand in the air, dismissing them as if they were insignificant flies.

Then she brought her face closer to Cassian, her red eyes narrowing with a dangerous glint. "You underestimate me too much, my prince."

She took a step back and slowly turned around herself.

"What I did was just a tactical retreat," she said, her voice lowering as if sharing a secret.

"Just like I did hundreds of years ago when those stupid heroes challenged me."

Lilith’s lips curled with an implied, devilish smile. She was watching the confusion, fear, and curiosity in Cassian’s mind with amusement.

"You’re curious, aren’t you?" she whispered.

"Why am I here? Why you? What is the reality of that thing you call a ’curse’?"

"I will tell you, my prince. All of it... Not just the things about myself. About this world, arrogant gods, and those beyond even gods..."

She slowly, almost affectionately, brought her hand to Cassian’s cheek. Her fingertips were cold but carried a strange warmth.

"I don’t know if your little mind can handle this but..." she said, her voice as soft as a lullaby. "It’s worth a try."

Lilith raised her fingers into the air and snapped them.

SNAP!

Suddenly, reality shattered like glass and began to change.

Cassian’s senses were completely dulled for a moment.

The silence from a moment ago was replaced by a deafening cacophony of noise.

Sharp, unrhythmic horn sounds, the hum born from thousands of people talking at the same time, the sound of metal rubbing against metal...

Cassian blinked and looked around, his breath taken away by the view he saw.

This place... This place was neither Frosthelm, nor Veythral, nor any corner of the Empire.

He looked up.

The sky was covered in a strange blue, but what was truly shocking were those massive structures rising defiantly towards the sky.

Towers woven from glass and steel were rising as if to pierce through the clouds.

Sunlight was reflecting off the glass surfaces of the high skyscrapers.

Further away, cars were moving on the asphalt road, honking their horns.

The people around him... They were different too. No one wore armor, no one carried a sword.

They wore strange, narrow fabrics, colorful clothes.

They held small, rectangular, illuminated objects in their hands and walked while looking at them.

Cassian’s eyes widened with familiarity, but also with horror.

These buildings, this technology, this suffocating air...

"This place..." he whispered to himself. "This is Dr. Aris’s world. Earth..."

Toven’s, that is, Dr. Aris’s memories revived in a corner of his mind.

The stories he heard between white walls in the laboratory, those strange dreams he saw... They all coincided with this view.

Just then, he felt a light, playful touch on his shoulder.

A finger tapped his back twice.

Startled, Cassian quickly turned around with the reflex of reaching for his non-existent sword.

And there, in the middle of the crowd, the modern chaos, stood Lilith.

But the captivating and terrifying woman in the slit black dress from just now was gone.

Before him stood a girl who looked the same age as him, maybe older, sixteen, perhaps seventeen years old.

The outfit on her belonged to this "modern" era but was equally provocative.

A short, pleated black skirt generously displayed her legs.

She wore a short-sleeved white shirt that fit her body perfectly, her collar slightly open.

On her legs, she had long black socks coming up over her knees.

It was as if she was wearing a "school uniform," but this uniform radiated a dangerous attraction rather than innocence.

Lilith had clasped her hands behind her back, leaning slightly forward and looking at Cassian’s face.

In her blood-red eyes, there was the sparkle of a mischievous child.

"Your heart skipped a beat, didn’t it?" she asked, her voice cheerful.

There was an amused expression on her face, taking great pleasure in Cassian’s astonishment.

Then she twirled gracefully around herself like a ballerina.

Her black skirt waved in the air, her white hair blew in the wind. She turned back to Cassian and opened her arms wide.

"How is it? Do I look beautiful?"

Cassian swallowed. To be honest, yes, she looked breathtaking.

Even these foreign clothes couldn’t overshadow her supernatural beauty.

But Cassian had no intention of praising her or feeding her ego.

"No," said Cassian, his voice flat and expressionless. He turned his eyes to another direction.

Lilith pursed her lips, puffing out one cheek with fake resentment.

"How cold you are..." she said, her voice sounding like a whine. "Is this how a person treats their lover?"

Then she suddenly reached out and tried to hold Cassian’s hand.

Reflexively, Cassian pulled his hand back. "Don’t touch me!"

But Lilith was stubborn.

She lunged forward, interlacing her fingers with his without allowing Cassian to escape.

"Don’t be a spoilsport, my prince," she said, her voice suddenly becoming serious but the smile on her face not fading. "We are on a date right now."

Cassian pulled to withdraw his hand. But facing the painful truth, his strength wasn’t enough.

"Is there a problem, honey?" asked Lilith, tilting her head slightly to the side.

She was acting as if everything was normal.

A cold drop of sweat formed on Cassian’s forehead.

When Cassian didn’t answer, choosing to remain silent by gritting his teeth, Lilith smiled with satisfaction.

"Great!" she said. "Then let’s start our date. You wouldn’t want to keep me waiting, would you?"

She got even closer to Cassian, leaned her shoulder against his, and started dragging him along.

In the crowded, noisy streets of the city, holding hands, they began their walk as a strange couple.

The surroundings were a complete mixture of chaos and order.

Moving pictures flowed on massive, illuminated billboards, lifeless mannequins in shop windows displayed the latest fashion.

People... They seemed not to see Cassian.

Or maybe they saw but didn’t care.

The air was filled with exhaust fumes, perfume, and the smell of hot dogs coming from the kiosk at the corner of the street.

Cassian wrinkled his nose in this confusion of smells.

This world... was much more suffocating, much greyer than what he saw in Dr. Aris’s memories.

But Lilith was cheerful as if she was in an amusement park.

Looking from window to window, her hair blowing in the wind of passing cars, occasionally squeezing Cassian’s hand tighter and smiling at him.

After a while, Lilith suddenly stopped. With her finger, she pointed to a shop across the street with a pink awning, its window full of colorful cakes.

"Honey, honey! Look at that!" she said excitedly, jumping in place just like a small child. "Let’s try this place! I’m craving sweets!"

Without giving Cassian a chance to object, she dragged him by the arm into the traffic.

Cars passed by them honking, braking, but Lilith didn’t even care.

She dragged him towards the patisserie.

And they entered.

Inside, defying the grey and noisy air outside, was furnished with pastel colors, smelling of vanilla and freshly baked dough.

Soft music was playing.

It wasn’t too crowded inside; there were a few couples and lonely people working on their laptops.

Lilith spotted an empty table by the window overlooking the outside.

"Let’s sit here, honey," she said and dragged Cassian there.

Like a puppet, Cassian sat on the chair indicated.

He was wondering how long this nonsense would last, when Lilith would come to the main point.

But for now, he had no choice but to play this game.

Lilith sat opposite him and picked up the menu on the table. She started turning the pages eagerly, her eyes shining.

"My God..." she mumbled. "Look at that chocolate soufflé... And what about that raspberry tart? They all look so beautiful! I want to eat them all!"

She lifted her head from the menu and looked at Cassian, who was staring blankly out the window.

"Did you make a choice, honey?" she asked.

Cassian turned to her, narrowing his eyes. His patience was about to run out.

"What are you trying to do?" he said, his voice threatening. "This illusion, this ridiculous game... What is your purpose? To drive me mad?"

Lilith tilted her head to the side cutely, as if she didn’t understand. She blinked her eyes.

"What do you mean, honey?" she said innocently. "I just want to have a good time with you. Can’t I?"

Then her tone became a bit sharper, the dangerous glint returned to her eyes.

"Did you forget? We are on a date right now. And such boring questions are not asked on dates."

She returned to the menu, running her finger over a picture.

"Woowww... I think I’ll order this."

She raised her hand and called out to the waitress in a cheerful tone.

"Excuse me! Could you look here?"

A young waitress wearing an apron came to their side with a notepad in her hand.

Smiling, she said, "Welcome. Have you decided on your orders?"

Lilith spoke enthusiastically as if making the most important decision in the world.

"Yes! I’ll have that... ’Chocolate Fruit Parfait’. The biggest one, please. And I want a slice of Strawberry Cake too."

Then she pointed with her finger to Cassian sitting with a sulky face.

"And for this grumpy but handsome prince of mine..." Her eyes wandered on the menu. "...Lemon Meringue." Cassian frowned.

Lilith continued. "And for drinks... two coffees with plenty of sugar, chocolate milk. With cream on top!"

The waitress giggled, looking at Lilith’s energetic and dominant attitude and Cassian’s weary state. She thought they were a typical, slightly bickering young couple.

"I’ll bring them right away," she said and walked away after taking the order.

While waiting for the orders, Lilith rested her elbows on the table, took her chin in her palms, and started watching Cassian. Then her eye drifted out the window.

She saw a blue bicycle chained to a pole at the edge of the sidewalk. Her eyes lit up.

"Honey, honey! Look at that!" she pointed to the window excitedly. "Will you take me for a ride on the bicycle after we leave here? Like in the movies! I’ll sit on the back, you’ll drive. The wind will blow my hair..."

Cassian involuntarily looked at the bicycle.

The bicycle... The vehicle of freedom he saw in Dr. Aris’s memories. The thing children, people with no burdens rode.

The two-wheeled device seemed strangely attractive to him.

He had never ridden one. He had only seen it in Toven’s memories. Feeling the wind on his face, pedaling...

Whether he wanted to or not, he felt a small, weak desire inside. But he had no intention of having fun with Lilith, of giving her this pleasure.

Still, seeing her enthusiastic, almost begging attitude, he felt the solid ice inside him crack just a little bit.

"Maybe," he said simply, averting his gaze.

Lilith took this answer as a yes and clapped her hands with joy.

After a while, the waitress came back with a large tray in her hand.

She placed the massive parfait decorated with fruits and chocolates and the cake shining with red strawberries in front of Lilith. In front of Cassian, she left the slightly browned yellow lemon tart. She also added the coffees with plenty of foam next to them.

"Enjoy your meal," she said smiling and walked away.

Lilith took a huge spoonful from her parfait without wasting any time.

She brought the spoon full of chocolate sauce, ice cream, and fruit pieces to her mouth.

The moment she ate, closing her eyes, she mumbled, "Hmmmm..." There was an expression of pure happiness on her face.

Out of happiness, she tapped her feet on the floor under the table quickly, her heels making a rhythmic sound.

"So delicious!" she opened her eyes and looked at Cassian laughing.

Cassian hadn’t even touched his plate. He was looking suspiciously at the yellow, fancy dessert in front of him.

Lilith noticed his hesitation.

She cut a large piece from her own strawberry cake, filled her spoon, and extended it to Cassian reaching over the table.

"Come on," she said insistently. "Say AAAAA honey! Here comes the airplane!"

Cassian’s eyes narrowed. This was too much. being fed like a baby?

"I don’t wan-"

The second he opened his mouth to start objecting, Lilith quickly shoved the spoon into Cassian’s open mouth.

Cassian’s eyes widened. His mouth was stuffed.

With the spoon in his mouth, making muffled sounds, he shot sharp, murderous glares at Lilith. He wanted to strangle Lilith right there.

But...

At that moment, the taste spreading on his tongue short-circuited the anger centers in his brain.

That fresh acidity of the strawberry, the softness of the cream, that light taste of the sponge cake...

This... This was incredible.

It was so different from the tasteless salty soups, tough meats he had eaten in his life. His mind went to his memories in the Inferna Duchy with Iris for a moment. Iris loved sweets too, more than anyone else...

The sweet explosion in his mouth cleansed him of his anger, lowered his guard.

Lilith saw the momentary change, the softening on his face.

While pulling back the spoon victoriously, her eyes were shining.

"How is it?" she asked, her voice provocative. "Very good, isn’t it?"

Cassian didn’t answer after swallowing what was in his mouth. He didn’t want to give an answer.

Because he knew the answer he would give would be "Yes" and telling this to Lilith would hurt his pride.

He averted his eyes, turned his head, and looked out the window at the flowing traffic again. But his hand involuntarily reached towards the fork of the Lemon Meringue in front of him.

Lilith just giggled at this stubborn, shy attitude of his.

"Enjoy your meal, my prince," she said and continued eating her own dessert with a great appetite.