Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 278

Chapter 278

“Tutor Cassius, if I’m not mistaken, it seems you’ve gone back to your old line of work.”

Beili tugged at the corner of her lips, revealing a faint smile.

“You’re treating me like a patient.”

His emerald-green pupils narrowed slightly, leaving only that familiar gentleness.

“Mrs. Constance is very worried about you. She left many messages on my Communication Orb,” he said.

“But I’m not sick.”

Hearing that the client was Mrs. Constance did not surprise Beili. Her thoughts were perfectly clear as she said, “I just used up a lot of Mana all at once, and I accomplished something major with it, so my head is a little tired. I just need some time to recover.”

She breathed out softly and raised her arms in a stretch.

“I’ll be fine after a while. I promise.”

“Before this, I thought the same, Miss Bartholomew.”

Cassius took off the monocle over his right eye, tucked it into his breast pocket, and gently shook his head.

“When you saw me in class today, you looked surprised. That expression was as if you had only just discovered that I was at Holy Island Academy.”

He said softly, “But in truth, you’ve already attended my class four times. After every class, you took the initiative to talk to me for quite a while.”

Was that so…

Beili had no impression of it at all.

Oh. Actually, maybe she did have a little impression.

“My memory hasn’t been very good lately,” Beili could only say.

“Just now, as we walked from the classroom to here, you kept talking and smiling the whole way. It was the first time I’d ever seen you smile like that.”

Cassius raised a hand and pointed at the coconut trees behind him.

“When we got here, you even said you wanted to pick a coconut and see how it tasted. Then your expression suddenly changed. You sat down, as if you were thinking about something, and you looked sad.”

What?

“Don’t tell me I’ve been possessed by something unclean?”

Beili tugged at her lips in disbelief. Her red eyes paused slightly, and her pale brows lifted.

“Doctor Cassius, your healing magic is excellent, but do you know how to exorcise evil spirits?”

At the mention of exorcism, Beili remembered something.

“Don’t worry. I have a Scarab Amulet from Tilisha that can drive away evil spirits. As long as I keep it on me…”

As she spoke, she rummaged through her Spatial Bracelet, trying to find a ceramic pendant carved with an eye pattern.

Instead, she pulled out a piece of wood of a similar size.

The wooden piece turned over, revealing an oil painting.

In the painting, the background was a vast interweaving of black and crimson roses, and a fluorite streetlamp scattered misty pink light.

She and Ashera sat together on a bench.

Beili fell silent all at once.

“It’s painted very well.”

Cassius suddenly spoke beside her.

Beili’s fingertips paused. Then she tossed the wooden piece back into her Spatial Bracelet and rummaged for a while longer before finally finding the Scarab Amulet.

“Here it is.”

She held up the ceramic pendant and waved it in front of Cassius’s eyes, then tied it to her Academy uniform.

Cassius lightly patted her head.

“When I go back today, I’ll prepare some medicine for you…”

“Oh-” Her tone was somewhat resistant. “I’m really not sick. I eat well every day, sleep warmly, and live without a care…”

“It’s only some medicine to strengthen your memory.”

In a tone like coaxing a child, Cassius said to her, “And something to help you sleep better when you rest.”

Beili hesitated, then nodded.

Although she believed she wasn’t sick.

Sick? How could she be?

Who got sick just because they had a broken heart?

How could something like that possibly happen to her?
But if taking medicine could put the people who cared about her at ease, then why not?

She tilted her head back and looked up at the azure sky above Holy Island Academy. It was cloudless as far as the eye could see.

Seagulls soared past one after another in graceful arcs, their white feathers so bright they seemed to shine.

“What time is it now?”

She asked with a sigh, her pale brows drawing together slightly.

“I think I have etiquette class this afternoon. Or was it dance class? Or equestrian lessons… I hate riding horses.”

“Then don’t go,” Cassius said, following along with her words. “You don’t need to learn how to ride, Miss Bartholomew.”

A faint smile touched Beili’s lips.

…

Looking at the man’s gentle, refined features, Beili suddenly thought of what Bertie Swan had said in the dream world.

“Doctor Cassius, why did you… kill Bertie Swan’s brother?”

Beili wasn’t sure whether she should ask, but while she was still hesitating, the question had already slipped out.

A trace of doubt surfaced in her gemlike, dark-red eyes.

If Doctor Cassius hadn’t made a move against Bertie Swan’s brother, perhaps Bertie Swan’s prophetic ability never would have been awakened.

Perhaps many things would never have happened.

A lock of neatly combed-back blond hair had fallen near his temple. His quiet green eyes seemed to ripple as though a wind had passed over them, stirring fish-scale waves across their surface.

“Everyone has a greedy side, Miss Bartholomew.”

That warm smile still hung on his handsome face. After a few seconds of silence, Cassius slowly said, “You may already know the Swan Family tradition… that the two children born to the family become husband and wife after the Coming-of-Age Ceremony.”

Remembering the information the vulture had given her, she said lightly, “I know about that.”

“Then that was where my greed lay, Miss Bartholomew.”

Cassius lowered his green eyes. His hands were folded over his long legs as he spoke in a low, slow voice.

“At the time, I believed you would descend into Bertie Swan. And I did not want what would happen after the Coming-of-Age Ceremony to take place.”

He explained it in one brief sentence.

“Will you despise me for my greed?”

A trace of stiffness entered his gentle smile. Without waiting for her answer, he continued, “Even if you do, it doesn’t matter. This is simply who I am.”

“No matter how many times I did it over, if the person said to be your future husband were sitting before me, I would still give him an overdose of medicine…”

After a moment of silence.

“I won’t.”

Beili shook her head. In the sunlight, her fair face seemed even colder.

Her voice was calm as she said, “I understand you, Doctor Cassius. In truth, we’re similar. You only did it for that person, while I…”

She had done it for herself.

She tipped her head up slightly.

Beili thought-

Even if she could do it all over again, she would still draw Ashera into the Dream Cage and lock him inside forever.

Because Ashera had deceived her. Even if truth and falsehood had been mixed together, she didn’t want to be bewitched by him like Renee and dig out her own heart.

She only wanted to keep the initiative in her own hands.

So this was the best possible outcome.

The source of sin and darkness had been locked away by her.

No one else needed to die.

“You look very sad right now, Miss Bartholomew.”

Cassius spoke suddenly.

Beili raised her eyes and saw the concern and tenderness in his green gaze.

She was just about to say something to keep the atmosphere from freezing over when she heard Cassius ask, gentle and gentlemanly, “May I wipe the tears from your face?”