Chapter 237: Seraphim Hood
Chapter 237: Chapter 237: Seraphim Hood
Chapter 237 – Seraphim Hood
Cassius’s mouth was slightly open in an O shape, the current situation far too unexpected.
’Why does something always happen when I want to rest?’ He instantly complained inwardly, beginning to think the world didn’t want him to laze around even a moment.
However, he swiftly refocused on the current situation, staring at the smiling face of his aunt, Seraphim Hood.
The first thing that came to his mind — to his great shame, alas — was how disfigured her face was. Maps of scars covered every inch of it, from her lips to her nose, even the edges of her eyelids and eyebrows.
None of these scars looked healed at all. Some still trickled a wisp of blood, while others had infected the surrounding wounds, creating deep, rotting skin that refused to peel away and instead blackened.
Cassius had never taken the time to truly look at his aunt, and now that he did, he realised just how cruel and cold King Dantes Hood could be.
The fact that he had inflicted this kind of pain on his own blood sister was something Cassius couldn’t fathom at all.
No matter the situation, he didn’t think himself capable of doing this to his own subordinate, let alone a sibling.
’She must be in perpetual pain.’ Cassius thought. ’Yet she’s always smiling every time I see her.’
Was it because she was strong... or simply because it was her coping mechanism?
Cassius truly didn’t know how to feel about all of this.
He could neither blame his grandfather Dantes for his actions, nor stop himself from pitying his aunt.
A pity he hadn’t felt at all when Horus Skygazer told him about the tumour his grandfather had inflicted on him.
But this was different.
Because beneath this ugly, wounded, torn-apart face was the same face as his own mother’s.
Which meant, by extension, that his features and hers were very similar.
And it was a conclusion Seraphim reached after admiring Cassius while he observed her.
"Looking at you up so close," Seraphim whispered, slowly rising to her feet and walking toward him with deliberate slowness, her steps echoing across the enclosed room, "you look even more like me, pretty."
Her voice was deep, profound, filled with a twisted love and deep longing whose origin Cassius didn’t know.
In a couple of breaths, she was an inch from him. Her scent caressed his nose: nothing but the familiar scent of blood, clinging to her like a bloody hood.
Seraphim lifted her right hand and placed it on his left cheek. Cold. Cold like stone.
Yet he said and did nothing, looking at her face worthy of a nightmare.
Slowly, as if wishing to feel every inch of his smooth skin, his aunt began to gently caress his face.
"You... look exactly like me."
"I do indeed." Cassius finally answered, attempting a smile. "Hello, Aunt Sera. I think this is our first time meeting."
"Oh, but no. I’ve met you before." Seraphim chuckled hollowly, pointing at her face. "But maybe you no longer remember, because of my current appearance."
He immediately shook his head in denial. "No, not at all. I’m just terribly bad with memories, so I tend to forget many things. But a little change in your face wouldn’t make me forget you."
"Is that so, pretty?" her voice eased considerably, almost holding a note of joy.
"Yes, of course."
Seraphim smiled, the sight enough to subtly make Cassius shiver. It was instinctive. A reaction he couldn’t control at all when something so frightening was close to him.
"You really look like me." She repeated, caressing his face with a longing expression. "You really do, Cassius. You’re so pretty. I was pretty, once upon a time. You know? Very pretty. I had many men and women chasing after me. Very pretty I was, once upon a time."
"You’re still pretty, aunt."
"Do not." Seraphim’s voice instantly took a dark tone.
Cassius’s eyes widened slightly, seeing her eyes slowly rotating like sinuous gears within their sockets. "Do not try to make me believe something false." She warned. "Because if you do, and the next time I look at my reflection I find my face something I want to rip the skin off of..."
Her voice lowered dangerously.
"...I might not be able to bear the anger of your lie, Cassius. And I might do something my sister would hate me forever for. Now, do you hear me?"
She then smiled gently again, her eyes returning to normal.
"Don’t lie about my face. Don’t even say anything about it. Alright?"
"...alright." Cassius managed to respond, sincerely feeling that his aunt might kill him if he did it again.
The amount of anger he’d glimpsed in her outburst was heartbreaking.
Heartbreaking, because he knew he wasn’t the target of her anger. She was her own target.
Seraphim Hood hated herself more than one could imagine. And she hated her face more than anything.
And yet... she was also the type to hurt everyone but herself whenever she lost her unstable control over her own emotions.
Once again, Cassius cursed his luck.
He was already in a weakened state, barely able to walk without feeling his weight increase.
Now he had to deal with an unstable aunt ready to hurt him if he said one wrong word.
’Great. Just great.’
"Do you need me for something in particular, aunt?" he asked, trying his best to keep his cute face despite the turmoil within him.
"Oh yes!" she said brightly, her smile fully returned. "You’ve been avoiding me all this time, so I came to see you personally! Am I not a lovely aunt?"
’Lovely my fucking ass.’
"I could never avoid you, aunt. Mother told me so many things about you that I wanted to see you so much." He said, his lips curling out, warmly holding the hand caressing his cheek. "It’s just that I’ve been very busy lately, lacking the time to do anything of my own. Look at me, I just got back from training all day."
Seraphim looked at his face, then her eyes shifted to his hand holding hers so gently. Her face beamed with overflowing joy.
"Sefi talked about me?"
"Of course. She always does. Memories of the two of you together."
"Hahah. Indeed, we lived through so much together! I can tell you everything Sefi did when she was young."
’I’d rather not.’
"Ha... hahah, really?"
"Yes, my pretty baby. But...are you okay?" Seraphim asked suddenly, smiling with guilt. "Did I scare you earlier? I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry. You’re so cute and gentle with me. You don’t deserve to be spoken to like that. I was just afraid."
"It’s really fine." Cassius reassured her.
’It’s really not. I was being nice and got threatened for it. What a life.’
"No!" She shook her head, her face bearing a wide, deranged smile. "It’s not fine! I should make it up to you! Poor pretty baby. My pretty. You’re so pretty. I was pretty once. You know?"
’One time. Never twice. I adapt fast, aunt.’
"Aunt, it’s really fine. Instead—!"
"I’ve decided. What if I tell you something, hm?" she smiled brightly, clapping her hands together excitedly. "Something that would definitely help you in this Academy. Information I think you’d particularly enjoy."
"Information?" Cassius was immediately interested. "Information about what?"
"You see, my pretty baby, I don’t like Emrys at all, because he seems so opposed to you." She said, leaning her face so close their foreheads touched. The sensation of his skin against his aunt’s wounded, scarred one was profoundly wrong. "Neither do I like Adam Kai, after what he did to you. I thought long and hard about what I should do to make them pay."
"And so?" Cassius couldn’t stop a devilish smile from creeping onto his lips. A smile his aunt matched perfectly, even surpassed.
"You know, my dear pretty baby, that I’m responsible for the House of Sanctions."
"Yes."
"That means I get to meet many students, teachers, and personnel in the Outer Ring who are suspicious of something related to the students’ safety and our Academy’s secrets. But you know there’s always a dark side to everything."
She chuckled coldly.
"Even more so in my profession."
"What kind of dark, aunt?"
"Sometimes I torture innocent people because they’re bothersome." She said, licking her lips. "Sometimes I kill an entire family and business living in the Outer Ring Living Quarters, aside from the Dormitories, because a talented student abused one of them, and so the rest need to be silenced."
Cassius’s features hardened instantly. Seraphim continued, unbothered by the atrocities she was spouting.
"Or sometimes one of the factions trying to dominate the Academy gives me something so I can torture a member of another until a secret is revealed for them to use." She paused, her eyes now dead serious. "This is where, my pretty baby, things get interesting. Listen well, for I won’t repeat myself."
Cassius nodded seriously, listening.
"I once tortured a member of Adam’s faction for days on end. An important one. I almost made an enemy of them after that. And I would have loved to explain to you in great detail what I did. But let me give you one piece of advice, if you ever come to want to torture someone."
She opened her mouth, tapping her perfect teeth with her nails. "Always start with the teeth, pretty. Always. Pull them out one by one — with a hammer, scissors, whatever you want. Alright?"
"...I’ll remember that."
’Teaching your nephew how to torture. What a lovely aunt indeed.’
"Now," Seraphim continued, "I was saying that I tortured an Adam member, and I discovered something rather... interesting, to say the least."
"Interesting?"
"Yes." She nodded, licking her lips. "After all, don’t you find it very interesting that Adam Kai not only has a daughter he’s hidden from all of us, but that his daughter is a Waste?"
"Teacher Kai has a daughter?" Cassius muttered, his eyes widening. "And a... Waste?"
"A Waste, yes." She laughed. "A person unable to awaken an Aspect. Who would have thought someone like Adam Kai, The Perfect Alchemist, could have such a daughter! But if you think about it, it’s not surprising at all. After all..."
Cassius gulped. Seraphim’s smile deepened.
"...what could one expect from trying to mate with a bloody Monster?"
—End of Chapter 237—