Survival Guide After Accidentally Kissing a Demon - Chapter 356

Chapter 356

Cassius’s gaze darkened slightly, though his face retained its usual gentle expression.

He strode toward the bedroom and pushed open the half-closed door. His eyes fell upon the empty bed.

The rumpled blankets still held a trace of warmth, but the girl who should have been lying there had vanished.

Cassius sighed softly, turned, and left the room. Using Beast Transformation, he made his way to the main hall.

The moment he entered, the hall abruptly fell silent.

Prince Cyril stood by the window, while Mr. Clarence and Miss Susanna stood off to one side. All three wore grave expressions.

“Doctor Cassius Alfredo?”

Cyril’s cold violet eyes lifted. His gaze was indifferent, and his voice carried a faint, almost imperceptible distance.

Clearly, they had been discussing something in secret and had excluded him.

Realizing this, Cassius offered them a friendly smile.

He did not mind.

“Your Highness, forgive the interruption.” Cassius smiled faintly, his tone gentle and courteous. “Miss Bartholomew is missing. I suspect someone has taken her.”

Cyril showed no surprise. Instead, he gave a cold laugh.

“Excellent. Now we have one more problem to deal with.”

His voice was icy.

“All three Holy Nails were with Bartholomew. Now that she’s become that man’s bride, will she still cooperate with us?”

Beside him, Clarence opened his mouth as though he wanted to object, but ultimately pressed his lips together and remained silent.

Helplessness and worry filled his eyes.

Clarence trusted Miss Bartholomew, but he could also see how deeply she loved the Second Prince of Sainthos.

Susanna stood to the side with her eyes lowered. Beneath the sarcasm in His Highness’s voice, she heard a hint of desolation.

The room fell quiet.

“Bride…”

Cassius murmured the word under his breath.

Noticing everyone’s tightly furrowed brows, he realized they were worried about the whereabouts of the Holy Nails.

“There’s no need to worry, Your Highness. The people who took Miss Bartholomew were in a hurry. They didn’t want to cause too much commotion, so they didn’t search the room carefully…”

Still wearing his gentle expression, he took three long red nails from his ring and held them out to the others.

“The Holy Nails are still here.”

Cyril’s gaze lingered on them for a moment, and his expression eased slightly.

“It would be best if you kept them separately.”

He accepted two and handed one each to Susanna and Clarence.

Then he turned to Cassius and explained in an emotionless voice, “Another group in the palace has disappeared as well. They must be the ones who took Bartholomew.”

“Who?” Cassius asked.

“My father and his High-level Mages.”

Cyril’s voice remained cold, but Cassius caught a flicker of complicated emotion in his violet eyes.

“You know what they’re planning, Your Highness?”

Cassius was somewhat surprised.

“I saw the mission that man gave my father…”

Cyril looked away.

“It said this was their final chance. Whichever of the three kingdoms’ kings delivers his bride to Holy Island will be granted the opportunity to have a wish fulfilled.”

He paused before continuing, “So they won’t hurt Bartholomew.”

“The groom is the man who once appeared as the Second Prince of Sainthos…”

Believing that Cassius, as a doctor, knew little about the matter, Cyril explained further.

“Doctor Cassius Alfredo, he is a darkness deeper than darkness itself, the embodiment of all evil. He does not belong to this world. He belongs to Hell. This is a secret known only to the King of Sainthos and the heirs to his throne.”

In truth, Cassius knew far more than Cyril imagined.

As His Highness spoke, however, another question surfaced in his mind. Why had that man made such a spectacle of the wedding?

He had alerted the kings of all three kingdoms and seemed intent on announcing it to the entire world, as though he would never appear again once the wedding was over…

That question stayed with Cassius.

It followed him as he left Sainthos.

It followed him as he sailed with the others to Holy Island.

Then the Holy Nails tore free from their grasp, and the Fire Seed set the Graveyard ablaze, turning it into a sea of flames.

Amid the chaos, Cassius’s green eyes, usually as still and silent as a lake, churned with towering waves as though an enormous stone had been hurled into their depths.

He finally understood why the feather had disappeared.

It was because he no longer needed the feather to show him the way.

Because… his master was returning.

…

Amid everyone’s terrified, frantic cries, Cassius’s lips spread into a smile of genuine joy.

Then something shattered in his hand.

Cassius looked down and saw a red Contract fly out of the broken ring. It unfurled in midair and ignited with eerie black flames. Only then did he realize something was wrong.

They had… entered into a Contract to descend into Hell together.

“Doctor Cassius!”

At Susanna’s panicked cry, Cassius charged into the sea of fire and raced to the end of the path.

Red flames caught on his white coat, but they spread across him with unnatural slowness, giving him enough time to remove it.

Cassius could not spare a thought for that now.

When he saw the girl entangled in black Chains, he rushed over and seized the dark Chains wrapped around her body.

Icy frost formed beneath his fingertips, nearly freezing them solid.

“You know what will happen if you do this…”

Overcome with emotion, Cassius spoke with grief and fury.

The girl knelt beside the young man, holding him in her arms. Her eyes were gently closed, as though she had fallen asleep.

Her legs had already sunk into the swamp-like darkness.

In the blink of an eye, the darkness rose past her waist.

Then her shoulders.

At last, only the veil draped behind her head remained.

Cassius knelt over the pitch-black fissure, frantically stroking her veil.

So the feather’s disappearance had signaled more than God’s return. It had also meant that she would leave forever.

He begged,

“Master… don’t leave me behind… Master…”