Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 202

Chapter 202

Another dance ended.

Beili turned her gaze toward the youth in the crowd.

The dark Half-Mask was still facing her.

As if sensing her gaze, he started toward her.

“No.”

“Don’t forget our agreement.”

Beili murmured under her breath.

The moment the words left her lips, they were swallowed by the elegant, lively music and the clamorous laughter and conversation.

Yet the youth seemed to have heard her anyway.

He stopped. Lips pressed tight, the corners of his mouth drooping, he looked wronged-like a pet abandoned by its owner.

But it still wasn’t enough.

He still hadn’t done enough.

Next, there was still the Third Floor of the cake.

The biggest portion of all.

…

Perhaps because she’d been ignored for too long, Princess Renee was no longer at the youth’s side.

With a light sweep of her eyes, Beili found Princess Renee with Lance.

Lance was holding Princess Renee’s hand, as if trying to bring her over, but Renee was crying and making a scene.

Oh, of course-Royal Family etiquette kept Princess Renee’s crying and fussing strictly between her and her brother; no one else nearby was disturbed.

Tonight, he could dance with anyone. She’d said that herself.

Of course, not dancing with anyone was also fine. That was his freedom.

Her red eyes drifted across the Banquet Hall.

Before long, Beili spotted Doctor Cassius in the corner-blond, green-eyed, dressed in a white formal suit.

Their gazes collided without warning.

Those emerald pupils seemed, from the beginning to the end, to have been resting on her.

Only after he saw her look around the room and finally land on him did Doctor Cassius set down the even more vividly red glass of wine in his hand and walk toward her.

“I can tell from your eyes that you need me, Miss Bartholomew.”

When he reached her, Doctor Cassius’s voice was as gentle as ever, like a cool night breeze brushing past.

“Yes, Doctor Cassius. I need you to dance with me.”

Beili nodded, speaking plainly, without the slightest hesitation.

“And what we didn’t finish earlier-I need to know that, too.”

Behind the faint gleam of his monocle, his green eyes were quiet and still.

A soft curve lifted at the corner of Doctor Cassius’s lips. He offered his hand with a gentleman’s grace. “It would be my honor.”

Beili placed her hand lightly in his, and together they stepped into the dance floor.

A row of enormous, dazzling crystal chandeliers glittered overhead like a dream, casting shifting, hazy light across them.

This was Beili’s third dance tonight-and her last.

She gently rested her head beneath Doctor Cassius’s shoulder.

She felt him go rigid for an instant, then quickly relax.

The temperature throughout the Banquet Hall seemed to drop.

The Noble Ladies who weren’t dancing all sought out the wine stewards as if by unspoken agreement, asking them to bring shawls.

“The topic you left half-finished-we can continue now, Doctor Cassius,” Beili reminded him softly.

“Of course.”

Doctor Cassius’s voice was steady. “His Majesty the King asked me: since a heart can be replaced, is there such a thing as replacing the brain?”

He gave a quiet laugh.

“The kind where you place a brain into a young body, and that body obeys the brain’s every command.”

“Is he insane?”

Beili’s brows knitted. “He wants his own son’s-”

“It sounds that way, Miss Bartholomew,” Doctor Cassius said. “But don’t worry. There is no such surgery.”

Beili let out a breath and muttered, “Compared to that, I think you should leave the royal capital and never come back.”

To swap someone’s heart-do something that huge-and still stroll around in front of them for years like nothing happened.

What kind of nerves did that take?

“I’m worried about you, Miss Bartholomew,” Doctor Cassius said softly. “Cruel truths can wake people up, but most people don’t choose to accept them.”

That was painfully accurate.

Even with every clue pointing at the truth, Beili still didn’t want to accept that Ashera had been deceiving her.

That was why she’d done all this tonight-to prove Ashera didn’t know, to prove he was sincere.

Even if he didn’t have a heart.

Beili tipped her chin up slightly. Her gemlike deep-red eyes resembled roses withering too fast, churning with a dark, dying glow.

“Doctor Cassius-” she said abruptly.

“Could I trouble you… to kiss me?”

His step faltered at once; the rhythm and their footwork broke under the impact of her words.

Doctor Cassius’s emerald pupils went a little unfocused, shock flickering across his face.

“I need your help, Doctor Cassius.”

The girl’s fingertips seized his neatly pressed white collar as she lifted her cool, striking face.

Beneath her curled lashes, there was only absolute calm-and obsession.

Yes. To verify something that probably didn’t even exist, she didn’t care anymore.

A trace of hesitation flashed through Doctor Cassius’s green eyes, but he didn’t make her wait long.

He lowered his head, drawing closer.

Under the chandelier light, hair with a golden sheen fell forward.

Beili thought Doctor Cassius would kiss her lips.

Only that way could she-

But the kiss, gentle as a breath, landed only on the hair at her temple.

As if he couldn’t bear to profane her.

She frowned, about to say something.

Then, from the ceiling above, came the sound of cracking-ka-cha, ka-cha.

An entire row of crystal chandeliers split apart.

The lights flickered, blurred and unstable.

In the next second, every instrument snapped.

A sharp, grating screech tore through the Banquet Hall.

Shattered crystal rained down.

In the blink of an eye, the whole Banquet Hall plunged into darkness.