Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 189

Chapter 189

“You have known about such distant events for a long time, Miss Bartholomew.”

The blonde-haired, blue-eyed youth looked at her with a hint of surprise. After a moment of thought, he asked, “Was it Mr. Vulture from the Flea Nest who told you?”

“Mr. Vulture can indeed find out certain things,” she replied tactfully. “But for such secret information, I learned it through other methods-ones that cost a significant amount of Mana.”

After all, she had already managed to track him into his dreams. With such a rate of growth, it wasn’t surprising that she could investigate things from the past.

The youth’s emotions flickered and vanished. He gently lowered his green eyes and answered her previous question in a gentle tone.

“You are right, Miss Bartholomew. I was the one who performed His Majesty’s heart transplant surgery.”

He recalled, “At the time, I was still a physician in the palace. I did many things for Your Highness Cumberland back then-the current King-so he trusted me implicitly.”

Hearing Doctor Cassius admit it, her theory was confirmed. She continued to press, “Then, that heart surgery back then was actually a heart exchange between the King and the Former King, wasn’t it, Doctor Cassius?”

Doctor Cassius, in his youthful form, nodded slightly.

After a moment, he asked, “Miss Bartholomew, how much do you know?”

“I know about the three prophecies Bertie Swan gave to the Royal Family. I know you were there at the scene, and I know you performed the heart exchange for His Majesty after the prophecy…”

Beili paused. She realized that Doctor Cassius already knew everything she did.

Except, of course, for this last thing-

“His Majesty intends to remove his own heart right after Prince Cyril’s Coming-of-Age Ceremony.”

“I imagine he will seek you out to perform this surgery, Doctor Cassius.”

She looked at the youth. “So, I need your help. I need you to tell me the location and time of the surgery before it happens.”

Listening to her words, a trace of confusion surfaced on the youth’s immature face.

“What do you want His Majesty’s heart for, Miss Bartholomew?” he asked.

“Because I made a promise to someone, Doctor Cassius.”

Beili’s red eyes shifted slightly, her voice gentle and light. “I’m going to help him take back what was borrowed. One of those things is a heart, and it just happens to be with His Majesty right now.”

The youth parted his lips slightly, the words on the tip of his tongue, but he stopped himself.

His averted green eyes turned sorrowful once more, his expression a complex swirl of emotions.

“Perhaps… Miss Bartholomew.”

After lowering his gaze for a few moments, he finally answered her with a smile.

“I told you once before: the truth is often cruel, and it comes with unexpected dangers.”

He paused for a beat.

“Are you prepared to know the truth now?”

Beili was momentarily stunned. She blinked her red eyes in confusion before nodding seriously.

“Of course. There is nothing to fear. Cruelty keeps me sober.”

“As you wish.”

Doctor Cassius reached out a hand to her and said slowly, “Words are pale and powerless, Miss Bartholomew. If you want to know the truth, come and see it within my memories.”

Beili glanced at that fair hand, then gently placed her own in his.

At that moment, the book on the youth’s lap began to flip rapidly with a rustling sound.

Beili looked down at the book, and her entire vision was instantly sucked into it.

The whole world seemed to flip along with the pages.

That night was very chilly.

A carriage drove out from the side gate of the palace, its wheels rolling with a dull thud in the silent night.

The night wind blew in through the hollowed-out windows, bringing a slight chill to the face.

Beili’s perspective rose along with someone’s gaze.

She saw a familiar half-face revealed beneath the wide brim of a black cloak opposite the carriage.

Beili whispered the name in her heart.

Bertie Swan.

She remained silent.

The person sitting across from Bertie Swan was equally quiet, but through his seemingly casual glances, Beili could tell he had been watching the young woman the entire time.

The quiet atmosphere lasted until the carriage entered the slums and stopped in front of a simple, ordinary house.

He got out, used a key to open the door, turned around, and made a gentlemanly gesture of “after you” to Bertie Swan.

“The most dangerous place is the safest place.”

Beili heard Doctor Cassius say in a gentle tone, “They won’t find this place, Miss Bertie. You can rest here in peace.”

After inviting the young woman inside, Doctor Cassius asked her solicitously, “Miss Bertie, would you like to take off your cloak? There is a coat rack here.”

“Miss Bertie, you probably haven’t had dinner yet, have you?”

…

In her field of vision, Bertie Swan sat down on a chair, pulled the hood of her cloak back, and stared at him expressionlessly.

Seeing that she didn’t answer, Doctor Cassius didn’t mind. He continued softly to himself, “Even if you’ve had dinner, you’ll want something hot after going through something like that.”

After thinking quickly for two seconds, he suggested with a clear smile in his voice, “I’ll make you a cup of hot cocoa, alright?”

Beili’s gaze followed his figure as he moved.

Just as Doctor Cassius turned to walk toward the kitchen, Bertie Swan finally spoke from behind him.
“The person you’re waiting for-she didn’t descend into me.”

Those emotionless words fell softly, without a ripple of feeling. Yet, they caused the man’s walking figure to freeze instantly.

After two seconds of silence.

“Why bring this up all of a sudden?”

Beili heard Doctor Cassius’s voice turn very soft, as if he were unwilling to believe it.

“According to the original trajectory of the tree, she indeed should have descended into me, and then, as you wished, you two would have met again.”

“But she didn’t.”

The girl behind him continued in a voice devoid of any emotion, “She didn’t descend into me. You’ve found the wrong person.”

After Bertie Swan finished speaking, Beili’s field of vision shifted as her gaze dropped.

She saw Doctor Cassius bracing his hands against the table. His fair, slender fingers were taut, and his wrists trembled uncontrollably.

Clearly, he understood the meaning behind those words, and he believed her.

Turning his gaze back, he took a few steps forward and half-knelt in front of the girl.

The window behind her reflected his white clothes and a pair of emerald-green eyes.

“Then where did she go this time? Is she in Sainthos?” Doctor Cassius asked gently, his voice tinged with a hint of urgency.

“She went somewhere you cannot reach.”

“What?”

Bertie Swan looked straight at him and said, “I mean, she is temporarily no longer in this world.”

“Why?”

His voice carried a note of unbelievable sorrow as he repeated to himself, “Why?”

“Perhaps you know the reason.” Bertie Swan curled her lip, looking clearly skeptical. “Even this time, you didn’t keep your promise. You’re still searching for her.”

“I’ve already seen the look of loathing she has for you,” she said.

A mist seemed to rise in those emerald eyes.

But it wasn’t sadness; an emotion stronger than sadness flooded the man’s mind. It was a moment of panic.

But it was only brief.

The mist cleared.

In the glass window behind Bertie Swan, Beili saw Doctor Cassius’s lips turn pale, then press into a bloodless line. It was as if something had shattered within his very flesh and blood.

He stood up, walked to the door, and opened it. His voice remained gentle, but his tone had become cold and distant.

“Then please leave, Miss Bertie.”

His gaze dropped, no longer looking at her.

“I have no reason to keep you here anymore,” he said.

Bertie Swan seemed to have expected this outcome. She stood up, pulled her cloak’s hood back over her head, then walked to the doorway and looked back at him.

“If you want to see her again, come and take my daughter away when the time comes.”

She suddenly said, “Be kind to her. Find her a wealthy family.”

“What do you mean?”

Only then did Cassius raise his eyes to look at her again, asking, “She will descend into your daughter?”

The girl did not answer Cassius’s question, only saying flatly, “This is your only hope.”

She stared at him, her voice carrying emotion for the first time-a cold, resentful chill. “I know it was you who killed my brother.”

The girl left those icy words behind and turned to step out of the room, her figure gradually merging into the night.

The memory images grew blurred along with the girl’s departing back, as if shrouded by a thick layer of fog.

By the time her vision cleared again, what appeared in Beili’s sight was a table laid out with various surgical instruments. There were sharp blades, forceps, magic potions, and needles and thread for suturing wounds.

She suddenly realized she was witnessing the heart-swap surgery between the King of Santos and the Former King.

Taking advantage of the moments when Doctor Cassius occasionally glanced up, she saw a cloth curtain surrounding this small area, with several figures standing guard outside.

As expected, the heart surgery was being guarded by Mages.

Beili’s mind wandered slightly as she calculated Ashera’s chances of winning a fight against those Mages in the palace.

A moment later.

The sharp blade had already sliced open the center of the chests of the two people lying on the slabs.

A hand wrapped in a fluorescent green glow reached into the crimson flesh and pulled out a black heart.

Thus, Beili saw Ashera’s heart.

Other than him, no one’s heart would be such a deep, heavy black. It was as if thick asphalt had been dried out under the sun and condensed into a mass of hard, black solid.

However…

That black heart was not placed into the other opened chest as she had expected.

Instead, the hand wrapped in fluorescent green glow placed the black heart into a container filled with magical liquid. The liquid boiled violently the moment the heart sank in, gurgling with bubbles.

The hands closed the lid of the container and then covered it. A burst of eerie green light grew brighter in his palms.

In the next second, the container holding the black heart disappeared.

He calmly took out a red heart to replace it. The two hearts were then placed into the hollow chest cavities in turn.

Seeing this, Beili finally realized that Ashera’s heart was not inside His Majesty the King’s body.

Doctor Cassius had stolen the heart a long time ago.