CHAPTER 383: IT’S A BLOODY MESS!-II

In less than six minutes, they were all seated inside the now, emptied study of Baron Mitch. Arabella hardly spared the room a glance, still reeling from how swiftly the Baron’s household had bent to Cassius’s will.

At the mere mention that their master lay at death’s door and that he, Cassius, their King, would be assuming authority over the mansion, the butler and maids had scrambled to obey. The study had been cleared without protest, and the Baron himself was carried to another chamber where a physician was summoned to tend his wounds.

Curiosity clung thick in the air. She saw it in the servants’ darting eyes, in the way their hands trembled as they poured water or adjusted the furniture. Yet not one dared to question him. Rank alone silenced them, leaving only furtive glances before they withdrew.

Though Arabella had borne the title of lady for several days now, the weight of standing above others still pressed against her shoulders, strange and ill fitting. The memory of her old life made the new deference still difficult for her to adjust.

"I was shunned once, too," Xavier said quietly, his fingers curled around a porcelain teacup. When he noticed her watching, he smiled faintly. "Just like you and your sister. I was despised for letting a wolf slip past the fence of my village."

Arabella blinked, her chest tightening with a familiar ache. She remembered too well the stifling eyes of a small village, how every step, every breath seemed measured, judged. A single misstep became a curse upon the community, a superstition branded as blasphemy. There was no room for error, no mercy for the different.

"And as an orphan with no way to survive, I had no choice but to forage in the forest," Xavier continued, his voice steady but quiet. "Sometimes I cut myself on thorns shrubs or stones. When I returned to the village, drops of blood would stain the ground. The elders claimed it lured the wolves. After one attack claimed the life of the elder’s only grandson, the blame fell on me. I was cast out, hunted from my home, and forced to live in the forest alone."

Arabella’s chest tightened. She could so easily imagine her own life unraveling the same way, had she ever made such a mistake. Her sympathy for Xavier welled, but when she glanced at Cassius, he only lounged in his chair, a faint yawn escaping his lips. Not a trace of pity stirred his expression.

"Since I was banished and had no means to survive on my own," Xavier went on, "I wandered deeper until I found a hut hidden in the heart of the forest. That was when I met her..."

"The witch?" Arabella asked softly.

"She insisted she was not a witch," Xavier corrected. "She said witches are blessed by the gods, and such gifts are not granted freely. Even so, I believed she was one. I still do. But when I later saw the Witch of the Ice Forest, she told me the girl could only have been a sorceress. Someone who could wield magic, close to witchcraft, but without the divine strength of a true witch."

"But the power to see the future," Arabella murmured. "She had it?"

Xavier inclined his head. "Yes. That was the gift she relied on most, a sight that pierced into what was yet to come. But it was never at her command. Whenever she wished to glimpse a person’s fate, the vision came at random. She often told me it wasn’t her will to see the future, but the world’s will to reveal it."

"So the sorceress could only see what the world allowed her to," Cassius mused, a faint hum curling off his lips. "How very... prophetic."

"She wasn’t wrong," Xavier said quickly, leaning forward as though to defend her. "The visions she spoke of, and the ones I now inherit, they hold the power to alter the course of the world itself."

Cassius tilted his head, his crimson eyes narrowing with interest. "And how did her power come to you? You claimed you never wanted it to vanish, and that became your reason for turning into a vampire. I suspect it was because you understood how fragile the human body is, how swiftly death comes for it. Fearing that her gift would be lost forever, you chose eternity."

Xavier lowered his gaze, voice softening. "You are... correct, Your Majesty. The power resides in me now. But as I said, it does not heed my will, and my prophetic sight is weaker than hers ever was." A faint sorrow edged his words, as though he already mourned a gift that did not truly belong to him.

"Then show me," Cassius pressed, a sharp grin tugging at his mouth. He leaned forward, curiosity gleaming in his eyes like a blade catching light. "Show me how you peek into the future."

For a moment, Xavier peeked toward Arabella, like a child asking for his mother’s permission before making his move and when Arabella nodded in return as she was also curious, Xavier reached out his hand to the table, "I would need a parchment, a quill with an ink, and any gem you have lying alone."

"Gem?" Arabella echoed. "Is there a specific gem that needs to be used?"

"I do have the ones I often use, but they aren’t with me now. When those loansharks dragged me away, I dropped my entire suitcase along with the dolls," he said with a pout, as if he was more upset at the thought of losing the dolls than the gems.

"If it’s the doll I have them," Arabella reached out from her pocket giving him the doll Cassius and Arabella which immediately brought sparkling lights to Xavier’s eyes.

"Yes! Yes! Those are the ones, inside those two dolls are gems," said Xavier excitedly as he pulled the dolls to his hands.

"Your debts, who owed it?" Cassius then questioned and though he didn’t expect such personal question, Xavier replied quickly.

"I am an orphan so I didn’t have any bond of family. That is when I met a woman named Wendy and we became close. I treated her as my own sister but one day she left and with a debt that now they force me to carry."

"Wendy?" Arabella had heard the name before... but where?

"When did she suddenly disappear?" Cassius then inquired and Xavier thoughtfully counted by his fingers.

"It should be a month and two weeks ago."

"That’s when the envoys come to Versailles as well..." Arabella studied. Wendy. Wendy... Wendy!