Chapter 7

In his bed, Cassian woke up to Amelia struggling under the blanket trying to break free from his embrace. Seeing Amelia squirming in his arms, Cassian smiled at her action.

      Meanwhile, Amelia, who realized that Cassian had woken up, was annoyed.

"You woke up? Do you mind taking your arms off me? I need a bath."

"No."

      Cassian ignored Amelia's request, he just buried his head in Amelia's nape and kissed her neck.

"Stop doing that! You're making me feel ticklish!"

      Amelia could feel Cassian's breath and lips on her nape, it made her entire upper body feel tingly.

"Cassian, stop!"

      Realizing that her efforts were in vain, Amelia finally gave up and let Cassian do whatever he liked. After a few minutes, Cassian was finally satisfied, but he still didn't let Amelia out of his arms.

       Unlike Cassian who felt satisfied, Amelia simply felt annoyed. This was one of the worst mornings she had ever had, considering what happened last night left her feeling extremely irritated. Not just annoyed at Cassian, but she also felt annoyed at herself for enjoying it.

"Why are you pouting?"

      Hearing Cassian ask that casually, Amelia turned around and gave him a sharp look.

"Do you really need to ask that?"

"I did it gently, didn't I? Just like I promised."

      Amelia was silent, she hated to admit it, but Cassian's treatment of her last night was indeed gentle. Amelia's mood was only getting worse, and Cassian realized that.

 He also realized there was nothing he could do to make Amelia's mood better, so Cassian decided to turn Amelia around to face him.

      Now that they were facing each other, Amelia was forced to look into Cassian's eyes because she couldn't look the other way.

"What?"

      Without answering Amelia, Cassian brought his face closer to hers. Realizing what Cassian wanted to do, Amelia tried to move his face away but it was too late. Cassian's lips had landed on hers.

"Mmf!"

      If he couldn't make Amelia's mood better, he would just make her get used to it, until she felt that all this was natural. So that's what Cassian was doing, he was going to get Amelia used to his kisses, his touch, and so on.

      He just needed to keep doing all that, until it got to a point where Amelia would feel happy when he did it.

      Cassian continued to press his lips against Amelia's, he only let go when he felt Amelia start to pant.

"Hah... Hah.... Seriously.... Why did you do that?"

"Morning kiss."

      Hearing Cassian say that casually, Amelia realized that she should do this every morning.

"Seriously?"

      For some reason, Cassian liked seeing Amelia resisting. Even now, seeing Amelia struggling despite her panting, made Cassian want to kiss her even more.

      But he couldn't do that, because he heard a knock on the door. There was only one person who usually woke him up. Still holding Amelia, Cassian told the person to come in.

      After getting permission from Cassian, Mona appeared from behind the door. Mona rarely woke Cassian up this early, which meant something was happening. And just as Cassian thought, Mona did bring a bad news.

"Sir, sorry to wake you up this early, but I have something to tell you."

*Sigh*

And here i thought today's gonna be a peaceful day.

      Despite his reluctance, Cassian soon released Amelia and got out of bed. Meanwhile, Amelia immediately hid herself under the covers because she still felt embarrassed to be seen by other people naked, even though those other people were only Mona who had seen her in a similar condition when she prepared her last night.

      Unlike Amelia who was embarrassed, Mona did not change her expression seeing Amelia's condition because she had expected this to happen. She only gave Amelia a glance before looking at Cassian who was sitting on the side of the bed.

"There was another attack last night."

"Bandit?"

"No, sir. This time was different, one of our surviving knights said that the attacker was a creature that looked like a woman with large claws."

      Cassian raised one eyebrow.

A woman with big claws? A monster? No, I think it was a curse being, which means a Warlock, huh?

"How many victims were there?"

      Mona paused for a moment, she seemed a little hesitant to say.

"We have sixteen dead, and eleven injured."

"That means more than half of the guarding knights died, huh."

      Although Cassian's tone sounded relaxed, but he was actually a bit annoyed. This was the first time there were casualties on his side. Plus, from Mona's expression and seeing how quickly she reported this to him, the thing must still be in the mine.

"I'll be there soon to check it out."

      Cassian immediately got up from the bed, but Mona stepped in front of him to stop him.

"What's wrong, Mona? That thing is still there, right? I'd better go check it out myself."

"I know, sir. But you'd better get dressed first."

      Cassian's mind was so blinded by annoyance that he didn't realize he wasn't dressed yet.

"Oh, you're right."

"And take a shower too."

      Since Mona was standing right in front of Cassian, she could not ignore the scent that Cassian's body gave off. Given what Cassian had done with Amelia last night, no wonder that his body gave off such a scent.

      But even for Mona, that scent was just too much.

"I'll just use a cleansing spell."

      In order not to waste time, Cassian chose to use magic instead, he had to solve the problem in the mine immediately, otherwise the mine would not be able to operate, and that was exactly what Marquis Gobla wanted.

      He actually intended to take a bath together with Amelia today, but he abandoned his intention and decided to do it another time.

                              -----------------

      When Cassian arrived at the mine, he could see Geralt and several other knights standing guard right in front of the mine entrance. Cassian walked up to them to check on the situation.

      Sensing Cassian coming, Geralt immediately turned around and saluted him.

"Milord."

"What's the situation, Geralt?"

"The monster is still inside and the injured have stabilized, sir."

" Are any of them conscious?"

"The captain, sir."

"Take me to him."

" All right, Sir. You guys! Don't take your eyes off this place, understand!?"

"Understood, Commander!"

Geralt guided Cassian towards the tent where the wounded were being treated, when he arrived, the situation of the wounded was worse than Cassian expected. 

He could see several knights who received a large claw wound on their chest, some even lost their limbs, even though they were all wearing armor.

After seeing their wounds, Cassian was almost certain of the identity of the attacking creature.

"Over here, sir."

      Following Geralt's directions, Cassian entered a tent where soldiers who had regained consciousness or were in better condition were treated. Inside he could see four sleeping knights and one of them had regained consciousness.

      When the waking knight saw Cassian, he tried to get up, but his wound prevented him from doing so.

"Calm down, Captain. I just want to ask you something, you don't need to get up."

"Thank you, M'lord."

      Hearing Cassian's words, the knight laid back down on the bed. Cassian stopped in front of the bed, before starting to ask questions.

"So what happened, Captain?"

      The knight began to tell him what happened.

      Based on the knight's story, apparently they were attacked at four in the morning, the creature suddenly appeared to attack the six guards on guard in an instant, luckily one of them was quick enough to set off the attack signal.

      Although there was only one, the knights still had trouble fighting the creature, because none of them had experience fighting cursed beings. Coupled with the darkness of the night, their casualties continued to mount.

      And just as the sun was about to rise, the creature suddenly ran into the mine.

"I'm sorry, sir. If only I was more competent as Captain, this wouldn't have happened."

"Don't lower yourself too much, Captain. I'm actually impressed that you were able to hold off the creature until sunrise."

"Pardon, Sir?"

      Cassian wasn't lying, he is impressed. He didn't expect that the ordinary knights he have could hold out against "Madcyke" for that long. No wonder more than half of his knights died, he was even surprised that some of them survived.

Either the knights he had were indeed strong, or this guy was giving orders well.

"Well, I'll give you a bonus later, Captain. For now, just rest."

"Thank you, M'lord."

      Although wondering why he was being praised, but the knight still accepted Cassian's good intentions. After all, he had a family to feed.

      Seeing Cassian come out, Geralt immediately approached him.

"So what's the plan, sir?"

"I'll kill him myself."

      Geralt didn't seem surprised to hear what Cassian said, but he asked anyway.

"Are you sure, sir? Lady Mona will be very angry if she finds out you did this."

"She can't do anything to me, Geralt. Besides, the only ones who can defeat Madcyke here are you and me. But I need you to guard the door in case the creature wants to escape and i don;t think your longsword is a good idea in a cave."

"Ahh.... Madcyke, huh? What about Ken, sir? He can also beat a Madcyke, right?"

"I'm assigning Ken and the others to another mission. Well, Albert is guarding at the border, but we can't call him here just for a matter like this."

"Very well, sir. But please be careful, you just have a child."

"I know, that's why I'll finish as soon as possible."

"Ah! Aye, sir. If there's anything, please just give me a signal, and I'll be there as soon as I can."

      Geralt was a little surprised to hear Cassian respond to his joke, normally Cassian would not bother to do that. But considering that his master had recently have a child, he thought that was probably why.

      After checking all his equipment, Cassian prepared to enter the mine. But just before he was about to enter, he heard someone calling him from behind and it wasn't Geralt's voice.

"Wait, wait for me!"

      The voice sounded too young and excited for Geralt.

"Cassian wait for me!!! I'm coming!!!"

      Cassian recognized that voice, and he didn't like it.

"Seriously, what's that fool doing here?"

      The voice was that of Duke Baccarat, he was one of the few people who could be called a "friend" of Duke Kenway.