Chapter 44: We stan Lord Blackburn in this house
When Sam came back, he had good news. He had made a significant dent in the work left behind for him. So much so, that the person who had been sent to monitor him, but wasn’t allowed into his chambers, had gone off to let the Duke know about his efforts.
Cass wondered if that meant that they were going to report everything that had happened to Cass recently, but he didn’t really care. He was sure that Duke would actually be ecstatic if he died. He’d tried to replace him so many times already, and also kill him, so now it wouldn’t make a difference.
He had no idea that the grandson he wanted to get rid of was, essentially, gone. If he did know, he might celebrate before he realised that Cass was worse. Cass wasn’t terrified by an old man. Hell, he’d knock his knees out if he ever saw him.
Lord Blackburn solidarity.
No one gets away with abusing kids and killing gay people on his watch. Especially innocent kids and gay people. Evil gay people and evil kids?
That was different, and honestly, there weren’t that many evil gays. Unless you counted Cass, then, he’d already died once. He was in the clear. That was how karma worked, right?
Beyond that, as time went on, the gnawing pain of his stomach seemed to disappear, and Cass started to feel better. He did refuse most food for a while though, since the thought of eating made his stomach roll.
He was sure it was a trauma response, but with everything going on, he wondered if it was his, or if it was Lord Blackburn’s. It was an interesting dilemma, and one that Cass had the time to shove to the back of his mind.
He did want to speak to Lord Blackburn if it was truly him in his body. He would genuinely like that. But, there was also that chance that it was a fragment left behind, and that wouldn’t be as fun. Cass needed to harden himself if that was the case, because it wouldn’t be Lord Blackburn proper, but probably a traumatized version of himself.
It was always a traumatized version of the previous person. It made sense. Dark impressions left longer lasting effects. It was why most people considered ghosts to be evil, not good beings. Bad emotions were strong.
Cass knew that well.
So, for the next few days, without Byron to run around and grab him all of the reference and research materials that he wanted, Cass went about working on the backlog of the Duke’s work, having Sam go and get quotes for renovations of his rooms, and he stayed in.
Sam wouldn’t even let him leave to go for a walk in the gardens again. He was too fragile again, and Cass was pissed. He hated that he had to do this to his body to prove to them that he had a serious illness, but it seemed to work.
The shipments of food stopped coming in, and no one visited him.
That included Draken.
Cass would be lying if it didn’t feel like it hurt. The man had practically been begging Cass to consider him family, and then as soon as Cass pushed back, he left? That was annoying, and frustrating, and Cass hated that for even a second he’d gotten his hopes up.
That he’d even forgiven him slightly for his actions.
He’d made an excuse for him, said it was because he wasn’t human, and yet, here he was, doing something damn similar all over again. Fuck. Cass should know better.
Cass had continued to do his small magic lessons while Sam was running around busy. He hadn’t gotten much further then forming the small pool of water, but he’d done it several times over now. Cass was taking it as a small victory, happy that things were even progressing.
He was slowly feeling as if he could sense the magic in the air. It was something that was mentioned a few times in the book, and Cass was excited to gain a new sense. He was experiencing so many new things here, but he was also...
Incredibly bored.
He wanted to go to the library and maybe see if they had any romance novels, but at the same time, he did not want anyone to know that he’d taken them.
Was it...was it time to actually go into town? Could he do that?
Could he leave the safety of the castle, of his chambers, to go and explore the town proper?
He knew that there had to be one nearby, otherwise Lord Blackburn wouldn’t have negotiated to build the castle here in the first place, holy site or not. He was a businessman, and he dealt with commerce. He wasn’t going to make his home somewhere that wasn’t profitable, even if it was out of pure love that he’d married Lady Fiona.
Cass knew now that wasn’t the case, so it made even less sense.
In his own personal library, there was, eventually, a book that told him a bit about the town nearby.
It wasn’t a big place, but it was important since it bordered on the great forest, where the fairies lived. It was a hub of trade between the fairies, the normal folk, and the others that made their homes there. It was a peaceful town, where several religions resigned, not just the main religion of the gods. Cass wondered how the gods felt about that, and then laughed.
Maybe he would be able to find a shrine to some demons while he was taking a quick peek into town?
He was sure that would get their gears grinding, and that alone solidified that he was going into town.
It seemed that the town had a bustling trading community, and several of the names mentioned felt familiar. Cass had been making notes of names that felt like they were important in a small, leather book that he’d found that had been empty. He had no idea why Lord Blackburn hadn’t been using it, so Cass had taken it upon himself to begin writing in it.
Waste not, want not.
Cass had even checked it, to make sure it wasn’t a secret journal or something, but it was completely brand new, never opened before. It didn’t feel like it had been used, but it had felt important. Cass had briefly apologised to Lord Blackburn for using it since it had felt like a gift, but at the same time, don’t keep things if you aren’t going to use them. That is a waste of the intentions of the gift giver.
Either way, when cross referencing the names of several of the merchant groups, Cass found out that Lord Blackburn had a stake in them. The most interesting part was that they were not associated with the Dukedom, but with Lord Blackburn personally.
Oh ho ho. A form of rebellion against his grandfather. Cass liked.
Cass decided that he would check out at least one of these merchants, just to see what Lord Blackburn had invested in, and also planned to check out the merchant’s hall, an area that was full of other merchant stalls selling their goods and wares. It was apparently something that the fairies did in their own territory and had gained traction in this town.
Cass wondered if it was an enclosed space, like an indoor market, or if it was exposed to the elements? If it was the latter, he wondered if there was a way he could suggest to them to get something to cover the area so that they didn’t lose customers on rainy or windy days?
The second thing he would do would find a real estate agent and see if Lord Blackburn had invested in the town that way. It seemed like something someone with a lot of money would do, and it would also help him understand how much money Lord Blackburn actually had for his personal use. And what his plans were.
The third was to find a bookstore. That was for his own personal reasons, and had nothing to do with Lord Blackburn and learning about him. He hoped that Lord Blackburn would forgive him for that. He, unlike Lord Blackburn, needed to write notes about everything that was going on. At the very least, he was writing everything down in English, since he realised that the writing system, even if it came easy to him, was not the same.
Cass actually wondered if he was even speaking English, or if he was just able to understand the words because he was in Lord Blackburn’s body.
He wouldn’t lie and say that it was nice he didn’t have to learn everything from scratch, but he was still bitter he got placed into someone else’s body . Thanks ’gods’. He felt like a body snatcher, so the least he could do was do some nice things for Lord Blackburn while he was here.
Like kicking his grandfather to the curb, but in a way that felt vindictive.
Cass had already started that plan. He would write progress reports, letting his grandfather know about what he was doing with the the papers and documents he was working on, while also letting the other party, if there was one, and quietly, and politely, let them know that Lord Blackburn was taking over this issue instead of the Duke.
He may or may not have implied that the Duke was getting on in years, and as his successor, Lord Blackburn was more than happy to step in and help out where he could. If they had any questions, they could forward them to him, at his current residence, instead of towards the Blackburn Manor as Lord Blackburn was handling this issue now.
He had no doubt that a man who had tried to replace and kill a child had spread terrible rumours about Lord Blackburn behind his back. He might have even blamed him for all of the bad things that the Duke had been doing, but Cass was going to claw back his own good image with his bare hands.
While dragging that damn old man down so that he could step on him as he climbed out.
It was going to be slow at first, since he didn’t expect everyone to buy it right away, but it was going to be satisfying when the Duke realised that everything was slipping out of his hands and Cass had done it.
Lord Blackburn solidarity.
He may be a bad man, but there was no reason for him to get pushed around by a man who could die at any moment.