Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 190

Chapter 190

Ashera’s heart was stolen by Doctor Cassius.

It happened during the heart transplant surgery between the King and the Former King.

At the time, Your Highness Cumberland trusted this gentle, kind physician deeply.

The doctor was his mentor and close friend, always able to offer him good advice whenever he was confused.

The doctor had once supported and championed Your Highness Cumberland with absolute conviction.

He even went so far as to add things to the Former King’s medicine over a long period-things that would make the heart feel unwell-so that Your Highness Cumberland could take the throne as soon as possible, while also speaking many good words about him in front of the Former King.

If not for this physician…

perhaps the Former King would never have agreed to the heart transplant surgery that Your Highness Cumberland volunteered to undergo.

Only-

“Doctor Cassius Alfredo.”

“Your Highness Cumberland.”

“There’s something I believe I must inform you of.”

“Please speak, Your Highness.”

“Ever since I received that heart, I develop a desire to drink blood every day. Those tall goblets used for wine in the palace-I have to drink at least three a day, and it must be human. Otherwise, even in my dreams, I dream of drinking other people’s blood.”

Your Highness Cumberland held his cup, frowning in confusion.

“But when that heart was in my father’s body, it didn’t seem to be like this… No, it wasn’t. I remember it clearly.”

“Your Highness and His Majesty are not the same. Perhaps His Majesty signed a contract with the owner of that heart.”

“I’ve considered that too, but Father refuses to reveal anything. Even with Memory Insight Magic, I can’t find a single memory. His memories are as if sealed by the most powerful Mage in the world-no one can open them.”

“That’s terrible-”

Your Highness Cumberland drained the blood in his cup in one gulp, then knitted his brows.

“I mean this taste is terrible-it makes me want to throw up, and yet I still crave it.”

“I can understand how you feel, Your Highness Cumberland.”

…

As though covered in fog.

The scenes in the memory blurred again.

When her vision finally cleared, the first thing to reach her ears was the rush of rain.

Raindrops, dense and as large as pearls, poured down from the gray, dim sky.

They fell on leaves, on branches, and on the ground carpeted with dead twigs and fallen leaves, rattling and snapping.

Beili’s line of sight lifted along with someone else’s gaze.

A forest filled her view, and a small river.

In the downpour, the river slowly swelled, its current growing more and more violent.

Beili suddenly realized she was viewing everything from a strange, top-down angle.

She… no, Doctor Cassius.

Doctor Cassius was, perhaps, hanging upside down beneath a tree branch at that moment.

As she was thinking that, she suddenly heard, faintly beneath the roar of the rain, the sound of sobbing.

And frantic footsteps-growing clearer by the second.

Very soon, a figure came running into the forest,

a small figure-a little girl.

Rain had soaked her silver-gray curls, messy strands plastered to her face.

Her little red Evening Gown was smeared with a wide swath of mud and stuck with a few rotten leaves, leaving her looking utterly wretched.

As if some beast were chasing her.

The little girl didn’t dare to cry out. Panicked and desperate, she fled blindly, until she ran into the area beneath Beili’s field of view.

A golden flash of magic suddenly struck the girl.

Her body instantly went rigid, as if turned to stone.

Then two people in red cloaks appeared and walked up to her.

A brief exchange carried through the crackling rain into Beili’s ears.

“How do we test it?” someone asked.

“Let’s do it the direct way,” the other said, drawing a dagger that gleamed with cold light from within the cloak, and without the slightest hesitation, stabbing swiftly toward the girl.

The tip of the dagger instantly punched through from her back.

Right where the heart was.

Beili watched, and a sharp, stabbing pain flared in her mind-as if the dagger had pierced her at the same time.

The dagger embedded in the heart was yanked out just as quickly. Blood streamed down, dripping onto the ground.

The girl, bound by Immobilization Magic, was eerily quiet.

She couldn’t even scream.

Only her reddened eyes, and tears mixing with the rain, betrayed her agony and her deep, consuming terror.

The red-cloaked figure crouched down and began to carefully examine the little girl’s wound.
After a while-

“How is it?” another person asked.

“The bleeding has gradually stopped, and the wound is healing,” the observer replied.

“That is the power of the Butterfly Family,” the other person marveled softly. “Moreover, this child is of the Duke’s pure bloodline.”

“So, is she the one His Majesty is looking for?”

“Don’t be in such a hurry. We need to try a few more methods. The child we brought back last time was burned to death the very next day. You wouldn’t want to see His Majesty fly into a rage again, would you?”

“It’s raining now, so we can’t use fire. Let’s try water instead.”

As the words fell, the little girl, whose chest was still bleeding, was picked up by one of them.

Following the man’s movements, Beili saw the figure in the red cloak stride quickly toward the river.

The river water reached his waist.

He lowered his hands, slowly submerging the little girl into the water.

The other person stood silently on the bank, watching.

A long time passed.

When the little girl was pulled out from the water again, her exposed face and limbs were covered in a layer of winter frost, having turned a bloodless, pale blue.

She was placed on the riverbank.

The man carefully checked the little girl’s pulse, heartbeat, and breathing once more.

“How is it?” the other person asked.

After confirming repeatedly, the man shook his head and replied, “No, she’s dead.”

“…What a pity.”

The other person couldn’t help but sigh. “This was the most likely candidate for the immortal Butterfly Bloodline His Majesty has been searching for.”

“Perhaps such a person simply doesn’t exist.”

The two remained silent for a few seconds.

One of them said, “It’s time to go. I’ll clean up the bloodstains on the ground. You put the body back in the river. Even if she’s found downstream, it can be explained as her accidentally falling in and drowning.”

“Yes.”

…

The rain continued to fall.

Bead-sized raindrops pierced through the damp, misty white vapor, crashing down and splashing against the muddy ground.

Beili watched as the little girl was placed back into the river, and the two figures in red cloaks disappeared into the woods.

A small, vivid speck of red bobbed up and down, gradually vanishing into the rapid current.

It was as if she had never existed.

Faintly, Beili could hear a woman’s voice in the distance, searching and calling out.

The anxious, hoarse voice was filled with desperate urgency.

…

After confirming the two had left, the perspective shifted.

Hanging upside down from a branch, he flew to the river’s surface, then transformed back into human form and dove headfirst into the water.

…

She saw Doctor Cassius’s hand reach out toward that vivid red.

Then, the memory became blurred once more amidst the rushing, murky river water.

With a blink of an eye, the air became dry.

The sound of rain vanished, and the river was gone.

She arrived inside a room.

It was still an operating table enclosed by a cloth curtain, but the environment had changed to an ordinary room.

The ceiling was no longer magnificent; there was only one person on the table, and she was much smaller.

A white cloth completely covered the petite figure, leaving only a circular opening over the center of the chest.

Beneath the opening lay a patch of lifeless, grayish-blue skin that had been sliced open by a sharp blade, revealing flesh and blood.

She followed Doctor Cassius’s gaze as he turned slightly and saw him take a hard, black heart out of a bubbling black liquid.

Then, the black heart was fitted into the gap in the flesh and blood.

Ashera’s heart was placed into…

Beili felt her thoughts snap like a taut cotton thread cut by sharp scissors.

Her mind went blank, and her thinking stalled.

She saw those hands, enveloped in a vibrant green glow, gently and slowly suturing the wound.

She saw the white cloth pulled back to reveal the little girl’s face as she was moved from the operating table to a bed.

She slept peacefully.

The grayish-blue skin gradually regained its vitality.

She saw Doctor Cassius reach out with his fair, slender hand and gently stroke the little girl’s silver-gray hair.

She heard that gentle, familiar voice sighing softly, “As expected, a Pure-Blood of the Butterfly Family is the most suitable vessel.”