Last Born Of The Desdemona

Chapter 274: Chapter 274: Cursed Villain

Chapter 274 – Cursed Villain

”Why must everything come with pain?” Cassius cursed breathlessly, leaning back against the wall, his body drenched in sweat, so much that his clothes clung to his skin.

He grimaced in discomfort, trying to shake off the lingering pain still crawling through his mind.

He cursed again.

[Done whining?]

”Whining? Did you just say whine?”

[Did I stutter? No, of course not. A goddess like me doesn’t stutter.]

”You’ve been quite hard on me lately, Queen.” Cassius said, looking upward, as if he could see straight into the Gate of Fate and Secrecy, ”Do you still love me?”

Ananke was in a wonderfully good mood after the reward she’d just received. So she laughed freely, [I actually love you more than you could possibly imagine right now.]

”Prove it!”

[I refuse. You clearly prefer that other woman, anyway. Don’t you know Fate is better than Luck?]

”Queen, not this again.” Cassius grumbled under his breath. Ananke scoffed openly at her Blessed, her attention drawn back to the strange Book that had appeared before her.

She smiled again.

Cassius, meanwhile, was trying to make sense of the information that had flooded his mind after his so-called elevation.

”Cursed Villain, huh.” He murmured, eyebrows knitting together.

From what he could gather, this new status made it easier for him to draw close to beings on the Villain’s Path.

However, his ability to turn a Hero into a Villain had grown far more difficult than before.

In exchange, though, the rewards for pulling it off would be far greater. That, at least, kept Cassius from cursing whoever or whatever was behind this.

”Now that I’m a Cursed Villain,” Cassius made a wry face, ”Emrys’s Innate is going to be exponentially stronger against me.”

[Oh. That’s true.] Ananke nodded, recalling Emrys’s Innate, [The fact that his Innate strengthens his entire being when fighting villains, and scales with the villain’s level of villainy, really is impressive.]

”What can I say? He was practically made to counter people like me. It’s almost not funny anymore. Every time I think I’m going ahead of him, bullshit like this happens.”

[He is Chosen.] Ananke said with a sigh, [Not merely by a god, like most Chosen Ones are. Emrys Stormblessed might as well be the Original Chosen One.]

”Killing him is going to be a nightmare.”

[It will be. But so will killing you.] Ananke reassured him, [As a Cursed Villain, you’re easier to hate, but harder to kill. Though the first part is essentially useless.]

She chuckled.

[The mortal world still sees you as Angel, no matter how much you hate it. They love you.]

”Mortals see me as a hero, gods see me as a villain. How wonderful.” Cassius chuckled, wiping sweat from around his eyes, ”But I read that the gods of the Villain’s Path are stirring. Good news?”

He pressed his hands to the floor and pushed himself upright, his joints cracking with the effort.

[Depends.] Ananke said, her tone grave, [Not every god of the Villain’s Path is on your side.]

”As always.” He shrugged, unsurprised at this point. He’d just do what he could. Step by step.

The gods couldn’t touch him directly. They had to act through their Blessed. And as long as it stayed a fight between mortals, Cassius wouldn’t back down.

’Unless it’s someone exceptionally strong.’

[Haven’t you noticed anything else different since your upgrade?]

”Hm?” Cassius tilted his head, ”No? Should I have?”

[Your Fated Quests.] Ananke said, [They’re Cursed Quests now. From here on, they’ll look a bit different.]

”What do you mean by—!”

DING!

Cassius shut his mouth.

[You have received a Cursed Quest.]

[Cursed Quest: Congratulations, Little Fucker!]

[Description: We couldn’t just stay quiet when our favorite villain leveled up.

So here’s a congratulatory quest for your newfound success.

The task is simple: destroy any remaining chance for Anesthesia Amaris to reclaim her Heroine status, the very status {Sleeping Beauty of the Eternal Kingdom} is actively working to restore.

Failing this quest will lead somewhere you won’t want to see.]

[Rewards: Unknown.]

Cassius stared at the quest, expression blank, unsure what to even think of it.

He’d just finished one quest, still had one pending regarding his Second Blessing, and now this ridiculous one landed on top.

Could this damn goddess just take a break already?

”So this is what you meant by ’slightly different?’”

[Aye.]

Now he was expected to openly defy gods.

Cassius said nothing more. He looked at the quest one last time, sighed, and dismissed it.

’Anesthesia, huh...I thought that was already settled. That goddess is relentless. How far do I need to go to make her let go of Anesthesia?’

He shook his head, took a deep breath, tilted his face upward, and let himself enjoy the wind against his skin.

Then he frowned, remembering the sweat still clinging to him.

”Argh. I need a bath.” He muttered, then started walking, heading back toward his room.

But a question surfaced in his mind as he went.

”What about the Book of Faith you obtained?” He asked his goddess, ”What is that, exactly?”

Inside the Gate of Fate and Secrecy, Ananke gazed at the translucent book before her with a deep smile.

It lay open, words continuously inscribed onto its pages by the threads of Fate within her Gate.

She’d briefly considered keeping its true nature from Cassius, but decided against it at the last moment.

[It’s a book that records the lives of my believers, how strongly they believe in me, and the best possible Fate available to them.]

”Oh?” Cassius exclaimed, ”That’s interesting. It fits your Epithet, Reader.”

[It certainly does.]

”How do you find each believer inside it? Is it organized by, hm, Chapters?”

[The book is divided into sections. Each section carries a title matching a believer.]

”What’s the title of my section?”

[What else?]

Ananke smiled knowingly, her mind drifting briefly to the destroyed timeline, even as her eyes stayed fixed on the title itself.

[Last Born Of The Desdemona, of course.]

...

At the same moment, elsewhere in the Academy, Emrys Stormblessed’s blue eyes snapped open.

He frowned, slowly pushing himself from lying down to sitting up, sending water splashing and rippling around him.

He was inside a bathtub, set in the middle of a room.

The contents of the tub kept shifting with water, wind, lightning, cycling over and over.

That constant change forced Emrys to use his wind and water affinities more heavily, attuning his body further in preparation for his remaining Blessings.

At that moment, though, he looked thoroughly puzzled.

His master noticed immediately.

”Something wrong, disciple?” Adam Kai asked, his wrinkled hand still toying with his ball, eyes closed but fixed, somehow, on Emrys.

”Hm, not really.” Emrys answered after a pause, though his frown remained, ”I suddenly feel deeply uncomfortable and irritated by something. I don’t know why, or what it even is, master.”

”Is it about the accusations you’ve received from the second year?” Adam continued, relaying information his spies had passed along, ”Naomi Holloway, Natasha Vinci. Both claim you beat them.”

”I didn’t do it.” Emrys said, his tone suddenly sharp.

”I know you didn’t. You’ve been with me this whole time. But do you think the truth matters here?” Adam tilted his head, ”Believability matters. And what they’ve said is believable enough.”

”Someone’s trying to frame me. But who?”

”Who’s your greatest rival?”

Emrys didn’t hesitate, ”Cassius Desdemona.” He replied, then frowned again, ”But you said someone also claimed Cassius beat them. So it can’t be him.”

”It’s absolutely him.”

A woman’s voice cut in coldly from within the room.

Both Emrys and Adam turned toward it and found Theophane, in all her glory, who had been silent this entire time.

”What do you mean?” Emrys asked, confused.

Adam Kai said nothing, his lips curling up knowingly.

”Cassius is the one who framed you.”

”But he was also—!”

”He most certainly did that on purpose, to make himself look innocent.” Theophane cut in, her white eyes glowing, ”After all, he’s known as your rival. If everyone points a finger at him, he’ll be the obvious suspect. But what if someone — someone unimportant in the second year, I wager — accused him instead?”

Emrys’s eyes slowly widened with understanding.

”Now you see it.” Theophane said, ”That way, he avoids suspicion entirely. And since that man isn’t a top-ranked student, he also avoids becoming a major target. But the tenth ranker accused you. The second year won’t let you off easy.”

”How...how can you be so certain of all this?” Emrys asked, never having considered a situation in this much depth before.

Theophane’s lips curled in contempt at her nephew’s lack of foresight. It was no wonder he kept suffering under Cassius’s schemes.

Still, she masked her disgust and embarrassment effectively behind a neutral expression.

”How can I be so certain?” She echoed, her face going utterly blank.

”Yes?”

The Forbidden Seer smiled.

”Because it’s exactly what I would have done, if I were Cassius.”

—End of Chapter 274—