Chapter 271: Then beg
After speaking to the Duke, Cass didn’t really care what order he spoke to the rest of the nobles in. They did, but Cass didn’t have to give a flying fuck about them.
They were all of a lower class than Cass, and it only added to his power play.
Two birds, one stone.
If they couldn’t handle even a single gram of the amount of disrespect that they had been giving to not only Fiona, but to the hero party as a whole, they could go suck a full ass. Cass didn’t need to put up with their shit.
Not after putting a Duke in his place.
The first noble Cass saw he didn’t even sit down to talk to. The man was so full of rancid air that Cass gave him two looks, listened to him for 10 seconds, and told him absolutely in no way was he retracting what he had said, and he could leave now or else someone would remove him.
He’d left in a tizzy. Clearly not expecting to be treated that way because he’d come to Cass’ house . That was a big thing in this world, and Cass didn’t give a fuck. Disrespect was disrespect, and as far as he was concerned, they all needed to be whipped into shape.
The second and third went slightly better. Cass at least got to sit down before he kicked them out. Had a semi reasonable conversation with the second, but the third was just being an ass by the second minute. Cass kept moving.
He had plenty of rooms to shove these idiot nobles, and Ser Hune was making sure they didn’t empty.
There was one room that had several in it, and they were attempting to gang up on Cass with numbers. What was one small man against 5 big bag nobles?
That sounded like a bad porno, and Cass had already had his fill this morning.
They mistook the colour on Cass’ cheeks after he’d thought that thought as fear or embarrassment, not knowing who they were actually dealing with because the nobles who were sequestered in their rooms weren’t able to talk to each other.
Cass had a feeling the second round of nobles would be a bit more demure. A bit more acquiescing. Especially after Sir Sanders had to get involved and kick a noble out with a menacing grin on his face. As someone who grew up in an orphanage, he probably took great joy in doing that.
Cass was glad he could give that to him.
Either way, the group of nobles thought that their numbers had worked, and Cass let them think that. He’d sat down, and they loomed over him. They were ranting, raving. Trying to placate him with flowery words, bullshit coming out of their mouth wrapped with pretty words and empty promises. They just wanted what he had to offer.
Money.
Without strings attached. Like they had been doing before now. Not realising that the more they spoke, the higher their interest rose. There were no such things as fixed interest in this time, it was whatever the hell Cass decided it was.
These fools had no idea who they were messing with.
"Why should I do anything that you’ve asked of me?" Cass finally said into a moment of silence when they were gathering their breaths, all of them having yapped at the same time like tiny dogs trying to intimidate a bigger one. One of the men sputtered.
"I beg your pardon?" He said and Cass smirked. It was a telling one, that clearly sent shivers down all of their spines.
"Oh? Is that an offer?" Cass stood up, slowly, carefully, crossing his arms across his chest as he stood at his full height. He wasn’t a terribly tall man, but age and weight had made the rest of them feel smaller than him. Worthless.
The men sputtered, clearly not expecting this kind of reaction from Cass. They had expected him to bend. Why they had thought that was beyond him. When Lord Blackburn had given them this money he had warned them about the risks. Lord Blackburn was a fair demon. A fair devil. He never lied, and told you exactly what you owed him.
These fools were idiots to not listen to him and for ignoring him because he was honest.
Cass leaned forward slightly, glancing around at the group before shifting his leg forward, showing off his nice, clean boot. "If you are so desperate for my pardon, my kindness, my money, then do what comes naturally to those of a lower status. Beg me. Entertain me. Prove to me why I should save you when you’ve filled my ears with false promises and thinly veiled insults." They looked ill, several of them looking like they were going to faint.
Cass raised an eyebrow, making a pointed look towards his shoe, before meeting every eye in the room.
"Well? Are you? You should go first. After all, you’re the one who suggested it." Cass said mildly to the one who had spurred this on. The man stumbled back, clearly not anticipating that Cass would hold them to their word. They were all slowly realising that this wasn’t the Lord Blackburn that they had been told about.
He was worse.
Only one of the men got down on his knees, his whole frame shaking. He must have been desperate to do it with an audience around. He was sweating so much that Cass knew he would have to get the carpet detailed after they were gone. He was a mess, and he didn’t even do it properly. He was a shivering, shaking tiny dog faced with someone who had been involved in fucked up power plays his whole life.
They didn’t know that they were dealing with someone who’d started work young, had to take his beatings quietly so that he could continue to work and bring money home, and had learned to live with the rage inside of him. A man who had no pride or honour to cling onto anymore. But he knew that others did.
It was probably a little twisted of him to do what he was doing, but seeing them all huffing and wheezing, their greed literally manifesting in front of them was almost therapeutic for Cass. He liked seeing these fools beg and plead for what they considered their ’normal’. As if they hadn’t been exploiting their people to live well above their means. Was Cass any better?
No. But that didn’t matter. Cass did his best to give back. He was making up for the parts where Lord Blackburn had forgotten, because he couldn’t have known. He was an abused child, who had never felt affection or a warm touch pretty much his whole life. He wasn’t going to use his money for good. He didn’t know what ’good’ was.
Cass was going to do that for him. And it started now.
Cass made the noble who had come forward, so desperate and probably in deep debt not just to him, but to the Blackburn name, kiss his shoe over and over. Cass was never satisfied with how he did it. The first time the man only kissed his shoe. Didn’t even say he was sorry. Didn’t even know why he was doing it.
Cass was a hard teacher. Making the man beg and plead for even the right words. It was a painful watch for the others. Cass could see how they were squirming, could see how the man beneath him was beginning to understand the true depth of what they had lost, and what they were going to have to do to crawl out of the hole they had made for themselves.
Cass gave him the words, gave him what he needed to say, and still kept him apologising and begging properly until it drove the point home. Until they could see the disgust on Cass’ face when the man still couldn’t get the right intonation for him. Still couldn’t mean it. Still was trying to serve only himself.
They weren’t desperate for anyone but themselves.
Cass was going to stand on business, and these fools had taken enough of his damn money. If you wanted more, you needed to offer something to him for it. You needed to throw your whole soul into it.
They had made him out to be the demon of the Blackburn family? Well, now they were going to face him as the monster they had made him.
But only the nobles. Cass wasn’t going to take it out on the common people. He would take the funds that he would normally pump to the nobles and set up organisations to fund the cities properly.
They didn’t need to suffer because of this pissing match. They didn’t need to know how big of a dick Cass was swinging around. They just needed to know that they were safe from it.
After Cass had left that room, they had stopped by to get his shoes cleaned before going to the next noble.
Finally, the first round of nobles were cleared out, and Ser Hune had been showing in the second round of nobles while he had been doing so.
Cass could tell, as soon as he entered the first room with a noble in it, that they had been somewhat briefed. The first few were still a little uppity, still full of themselves, but at a certain point the nobles, as soon as he opened the doors, began pleading. They would fall to their knees, their hands clasped, tears sometimes in their eyes as they begged Cass to rethink his decision.
Rethink what he was doing.
It said something about Cass that a shiver ran down his spine hearing them like this. Seeing them so desperate and greedy. He wasn’t sure if it was the fairy part of him that was glad to see humans begging for something from him, or if it was the demon part of him that was so tickled, getting pleasure from this that made his mood pick up.
Cass wasn’t sure he ever wanted to find out what the answer was. All he knew was that by the time he’d told Ser Hune to not let anymore nobles in, he felt full. Like he’d eaten a full damn meal and he had to stop himself from grinning from ear to ear in the hallway between meetings.
It was too villain-like if he did that. Even if these fools were doing decidedly bad things with the money he was giving them. He was supposed to be changing his image, not feeding it.