The echoes of that hellish ruin where the Black Knight fell were still fresh in their minds, even weeks later.

Fredrinn, Rose, and Cassian had returned to Veythral.

They bore the heavy costs of their victory.

The city had breathed a sigh of relief at its master's return.

But the atmosphere between these three was far more tense and fragile than before.

Since that day, Fredrinn had completely devoted himself to work.

By day, he wrestled with the administrative tasks that had piled up in his absence.

By night, he tried to control the new, dark, and mighty power that had settled in his body.

Eric had done an admirable job managing Veythral, maintaining order and peace.

But for Fredrinn, these mundane responsibilities were nothing next to the colossal worries occupying his mind.

The stone in his chest was no longer just a source of power.

It was a symbol of a bottomless darkness that constantly whispered.

It felt like a borrowed power.

And he did not yet know what its price would be.

As for Rose, she had become a ghost since that day.

The woman full of life, who always spoke her mind, was gone.

In her place was a silent, withdrawn stranger who walked in the shadows.

She had insisted on accompanying them to that ruin.

She wanted to prove her strength, to be useful to them.

But the result was a complete fiasco.

She had been little more than a burden at the most critical moments.

She owed her life to Cassian's last-second intervention.

Without Cassian's holy mana that day, she would have died from the terrible wound in her chest.

This truth had settled on her shoulders like a heavy cloak of shame.

She rarely attended Fredrinn's meetings anymore.

On the rare occasions she did, she didn't dare to lift her head and look him in the face.

And Cassian…

He was an enigma, as always.

He was rarely seen after that day.

Sometimes he would go hunting alone in the forest for days.

Sometimes he would take the form of a crow and soar meaninglessly over Veythral for hours.

And sometimes, when he was bored, he would slip into Fredrinn's study like a shadow and just watch him, doing nothing.

Even if Fredrinn tried to push him away, Cassian didn't seem to care.

It was clear he needed something to occupy his mind, to quell the storms within him.

It was now the lazy hours of the afternoon.

Sunlight streamed through the large window of the study, illuminating the expensive rug on the floor.

Fredrinn sat at his desk, trying to read some necessary documents about Veythral's trade agreements.

But the words flowed past without making sense in his mind.

His thoughts were on the other ruin raids he had to conduct.

Cassian's words echoed in his brain with a cold reality:

"The Black Knight was the easiest of the ruins."

The easiest…

The thought alone was enough to freeze Fredrinn's blood.

In that "easiest" battle, all three of them had come back from the brink of death.

He didn't even want to imagine how difficult, how deadly, the other ruins would be.

And the most dangerous part of this equation was Cassian, whom he imagined sitting in the chair right across from him.

He still knew almost nothing about him.

His power was unbelievable, despite appearing to be a 1-star level.

The ancient tricks he used, the incredible secrets he held, and his all-knowing attitude made him even more frightening.

Fredrinn couldn't trust him.

He saw him less as an ally and more as a dangerous weapon, one that could go off at any moment.

Just as he was lost in these dark thoughts, the door to his room was thrown open with a loud noise, without a knock.

The one who entered was a young man with raven-black hair cascading over his shoulders and eyes as dark as night.

Cassian.

He had taken on that familiar, black-haired form again.

He entered the room, and without a single word, he sprawled into the guest chair in front of Fredrinn's desk.

He reached out and picked a ripe pear from the fruit basket on the table.

Then, as if in the comfort of his own room, he leaned back and began to eat the pear noisily.

Cassian did this often.

Whenever he was bored or the emptiness inside him became unbearable, he would start hovering around Fredrinn like a moth to a flame.

Fredrinn took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.

He tried to ignore him, thinking he was used to this by now, and focus on his work.

But he couldn't quite manage it.

The sound of each bite of the pear stretched his nerves like a violin string.

Unable to stand it, he spoke to Cassian in an annoyed tone.

"May I ask what you are doing?"

Cassian gave a sideways glance to Fredrinn, who hadn't looked up from the document, and mumbled as he continued to eat.

"Eating a pear, as you can see."

His eyes held a bored expression, as if stating the obvious.

"I can see that much," Fredrinn grumbled. "Can't you eat your pear somewhere else?"

Cassian completely ignored the question and took another bite of his pear.

After a short, tense silence, Fredrinn gave up.

He pushed the documents aside and leaned back in his chair.

If he wasn't going to be allowed to work, he decided he might as well ask the questions that were eating away at him.

"By the way... what is your real form? What was with that white-haired, red-eyed child? Is your current appearance your real form? What exactly are you? The abilities you use aren't normal, you know that. You use the holy powers of a saint, you're a mage, you're a master warrior, and... despite being a man, you have the abilities of a witch. Wait a minute, you are a man, right? Ahh! I have so many questions for you in my head!"

Cassian listened to Fredrinn's outburst with a curious, even amused expression, all while eating his pear.

After popping the last piece into his mouth, he calmly clapped his hands together.

"I suppose I should have given you a bit more information about myself to build some real trust between us, shouldn't I?" he said, a hint of mockery in his voice.

"Whatever... I can share some things about myself with you. After all... you wouldn't betray me, would you?"

That last sentence echoed less like a question and more like a veiled threat, sending an icy wind through the room.

Cassian took Fredrinn's silence as a 'yes' and began to speak.

"I was abandoned by my family the moment I was born. I don't know why, or who my family was. After that, I was used as a lab rat for years by a crazy, old pervert."

There was no emotion on Cassian's face as he said this, as if he were telling someone else's story.

"I gained most of the abilities you see from those experiments. Ah, of course, it wasn't easy for me to gain them. I endured countless tortures. The kind your mind can't even fathom... Though I don't remember most of it, they're carved into my soul like scars."

He paused for a moment, as if lost in a distant memory.

"Anyway. I managed to escape from that old pervert one day. I even thought I had managed to find a new family for myself. But the world is a cruel place; it wouldn't let me be happy. I almost lost my life... in fact, I did die. Well, never mind that."

"Guess what happened while I was face to face with death? My 'new family', despite all the help I gave them, all the sacrifices I made, they just stood there and watched me die."

As Cassian said this, the indifference in his voice cracked, replaced by a deep disappointment.

"And try to guess who killed me: The Obsidian Dawn Order. That damned bunch of idiots... Do you know what they told me when they killed me?"

His voice trembled with a suppressed rage.

"'You don't have the right to live.' Ahh... Anyway, I get pissed just remembering it. Who does that fucking silver-haired bastard think he is? Is he the one who decides the fate of this world? My ass."

He took a deep breath to control his anger.

"I told you I wanted to save Frosthelm, didn't I? In truth, that's just an excuse. All I want is revenge. Or maybe... maybe even revenge is just an excuse. A reason I made up for myself to live."

He leaned back in his chair again, the angry expression on his face fading, replaced once more by that weary indifference.

"Anyway, anyway, anyway... To answer your question... No, this isn't my real form. And yes, that white-haired child... thanks to a special ability, I can take on any form I wish."

Before Fredrinn could understand what was happening, Cassian's body began to change before his eyes.

His height shortened, his shoulders narrowed, and his facial features softened.

His black hair turned a silvery white, and his dark eyes became a blood-red.

In seconds, the young man in the chair was gone.

In his place sat a red-eyed, white-haired child who looked to be about thirteen years old.

Fredrinn didn't know what to say, what to think.

All that power he had seen, all the pain he had endured, all the hatred he carried... it was all on the shoulders of this small child.

How much crueler could the world possibly be?

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