To His Hell and Back-Chapter 260: My Little Flower

As they walked, a few more enemies came to stop them but Cassius took them out with ease as unlike Alessio, they weren’t anywhere strong enough to go toes to toes with Cassius. Lastor meanwhile went to search for Hans’ body using whatever method they could and thanks to Cassius killing the rest of the hunt team, the fog began to disperse.

Cassius then grunted and looked at his arms that was slashed by Alessio, the wound was healing far too slow along with the other wounds that was still open. His blade was made from silver but that wasn’t all, it was covered with reagent that could slow a vampire’s healing capability.

"The rest of the humans here, do you know where they are?" Cassius inquired Lastor who was so focused that a frown knit tight between his eyebrows.

"This usually happens," answered Lastor, "Specially to the people who follows the sorcerer’s words. Morpheus doesn’t like human as much as he doesn’t like vampires, so when there is a chance to eradicate them, he wouldn’t hesitate to take up the chance. When humans like them, follow all his order diligently and kills another human to satisfy their own vanity, that would be when Morpheus uses all of them as another batch of fresh experimental goods."

Cassius swept his eyes on the ground, finding some marks of struggles but that was only one. He wasn’t impressed by Morpheus’s motto of using people as his experimental animal, but he wanted to know how could Morpheus took away all the humans in the perimeter without anyone to notice and with so less mark of struggles.

They seemed to be taken away when they were in the middle of doing something which brought this into more mystery.

"How is the castle of the sorcerers look like," Cassius continued to ask while crossing his arms.

Lastor paused and spoke again, "Grandiose. It’s much bigger than the castle of Versailles, wider, two lakes on the front of the castle which continue to flow to the inside of the castle. It’s beautiful, filled with the greens, but desolate and filled with lonesome soul."

"You spent your life there. Do you not have any attachment to the place?"

"It would be a lie if I say I don’t," Lastor drawled, holding his hands together before throwing a stick which moved to the left and he followed to the left side where they reached a graveyard. "But that place has changed so much from the one I used to like. The witch had died, Morpheus had changed, and most of my friends were either killed or killed themselves in action while Morpheus used them as pawns in the chessboard."

"The witch," Cassius hummed. It was hard to think that there was someone stronger, much stronger than the rest of these sorcerers. He could acknowledge them as powerful but none could match with him. "She died even though she’s that powerful."

"She was... killed. Every being in this land have a weakness, Your Highness, just like you. There will be people who would still walk down a trap, people who would give out their weakness, all due to them wanting to protect someone else as well," Lastor then pointed to the ground, "AH! THERE!"

Cassius turned to find a rather new grave that was just made to be buried. When Cassius walked over there and looked at the gravestone, he found that it was empty, just a rock with no name carved in.

"This kind of burial doesn’t fit a man like him," Cassius then bent down only to cough and when he brought his hand to his mouth he frowned to see blood seeping out from his mouth.

"OH NO! Your Highness your wounds-"

"Stop making such a big hassle over a small wound," Cassius pushed him away and took the nearby shovel that was left to bury Hans’s body.

When Lastor stepped away, he realized that Cassius wasn’t just wounded on his arms. He had been grabbing his forearm earlier which made Lastor well aware of the wound on his arms but it turns out there was an even gaping wound on his stomach, one that allowed Lastor to look through his body to the ground beside him.

Chilled to the bone, Lastor wondered how this man didn’t once showed his pain. It was as if he was numb to it. But how could that be? Not everyone had been stabbed and been told to walk with a gaping wound that couldn’t be healed.

It’s insane, it’s impossible... unless since childhood he was made to bear such wound, disallowed to heal himself.

"You should start thinking of ways to safely unleash Arabella’s curse," Cassius who dug the grave spoke, "That’s the only reason I haven’t killed you. When you saw her, you would have to teach her everything from the basic of using magic, of controlling her power, of protecting herself."

Lastor nodded firmly, "I swear to do so, Your Highness," then he walked beside Cassius and hurriedly helped him to bring out the body. As they reached Hans, the rain began to drop from the sky above and looking upward, Cassius frowned. For some reason... his empty heart wasn’t feeling the greatest.

It was as if there was a lump on his chest, as if his heart was ordering him to return to the castle as soon as possible.

After fully retrieving Hans’s body and the fog disappeared for good, Cassius return to the horse shed and found Renard who was all bloodied over. He knelt, "I have disarmed all the enemies on the perimeter, Your Highness. I have also gathered this."

Pulling the small rolled paper, Cassius narrowed his eyes to find that what was written inside was a location.

"I suspect this is the place where those sorcerers uses to experiment on humans and vampires."

"Good work," Cassius rolled the paper and pushed it to his pocket. Then with Renard’s help, they covered Hans’ body in a linen cloth before bringing it to the horse.

Lastor who happily followed them came to a stop when Renard eyed him. Then Renard smiled but Lastor could feel genuinely how that smile didn’t reach the knights’ eyes!

"Leave him be," Cassius who had mounted his horse spoke. "He will be of help unless he doesn’t."

Lastor shivered at his last word and seeing everyone preparing to leave with Cassius who had first galloped back to the castle, he had no choice but to beg for a ride which only Renard accepted and allowed.

Lastor then prayed in his heart. He wished that the princess would be different back in the castle, that she’s nice, kind and gentle! That she wouldn’t want to kill her so quickly like the rest of the people here!

He then looked up to find a blue bird that was taking a shed from the rain then suddenly soared to the sky, flying faster than they were to the direction where the castle was. The bird continued to fly and reached a stop only at the largest tree of the castle where Lady Isabelle had stood with a parasol over her head.

She hummed, picking some flowers she saw that gleamed while crushing the other flowers she didn’t like under her heels.

Erthand walked behind her, bowing his head, "She’s captured."

"Oh no," Isabelle turned around, "She’s a little ditzy isn’t she. How could she fall for the Queen’s trap? I told her, men cannot be trusted, especially with our safety. They will sing out loud how they wish to protect you but once their interest and passion dies with time, they will treat you just like any other wildflower on the ground. Trusting a man’s words and promise, is a foolish act and now she has to fall to the Queen’s trap."

Erthand sighed and Isabelle continued to play with the flower on her hands, "So is she wounded?"

"No, rumours has it that she didn’t die even after she was stabbed."

"Oh?" Isabelle smiled, "How curious. My little flower seems to be hiding more strength than what I could imagine. Bring me to the dungeon where she is."

"But that would be difficult Your Hig-"

"Give them gold," Isabelle bent forward and grinned, "Do you think there is anyone in this world, anyone, who would ever refuse in sight of gold coins? Maybe Arabella won’t but the people here would jump to it face first. Now go and don’t waste my time."

Erthand scratched his head and finally went away with a brief sigh. By the time he came back he had gotten what Isabelle had demanded and followed her as she walked to the cold dungeon.

Isabelle was unimpressed by the dungeon, stepping the dirty ground with her dress which hems had turned dirty. While she walked she hummed, "She must be starving."

"She must be more than starving," Erthand answered with a roll of his eyes, "Are you planning to release her from the dungeon and help her escape? That won’t be a good idea, Your Highness?"

"No. Why would I do that?" Isabelle smiled as she sung, "You see Erthand. You are only memorable if you save someone in a moment where death is right before their eyes. I don’t need to save Arabella now, I need to save her when she is at the most peril. If I saddle a wound for her that would be even better- she will feel guilty for me and remember me for the rest of her life. How delightful isn’t it?!"