Chapter 87: Cass in his happy place
Birdsong filled the air, wind rustled the leaves all around them, and the sun was warm and welcoming. Cass was in pure bliss.
After the last few days he’d had, this was a nice break, even if it was for a moment. He had been so upset when Sam had ’highly discouraged’ him going outside, but now he was ’all better’ and Sam had stopped restricting his movement.
He actually felt great nowadays. He had no idea why, but he felt strong, like he could do anything. Maybe it was time for him to start exercising, making this body strong like his previous one? He was sure that Lord Blackburn hadn’t cared much for the physical aspects of his body, and more about the mental powers that he possessed, but Cass believed both needed to work in tandem.
He spent a lot of time working at his desk. If he didn’t exercise his body as well, things could take a turn. His shoulders would get too tight, his mind could get less sharp, and his magic practise could be affected as well. Speaking of, he hadn’t done yet today. He’d have to do it when he finished all of his meetings.
For now, it was eating the snacks that Sam hand fed him while he read his book. He was sure he was kicking his feet, a grin on his face in between bites. He didn’t care.
It was nice having someone serving him. He’d have to look into how much he was paying Sam, and Byron and Sir Forsythe. He’d probably have to raise them.
"What sort of book are you reading, my Lord?" Sam asked finally, after the two of them had been sitting in pure, unadulterated bliss for about 15 minutes. Cass chuckled.
"This is a story between a demon and a priest." Cass told him and Sam’s whole face froze.
"A...demon and a priest?" He confirmed and Cass nodded, smiling.
"Yup! The demon isn’t actually all that bad, at least so far. They don’t want to possess other humans, but they are summoned against their will because a rival gave out their name instead of their own and they were forced into a contract with a human mage. The demon is forced to take over the body of the mage, who happened to be a friend of the priest. Together, the two are working together to release the demon from the contract, and along the way, presumably, they fall in love." Cass told Sam, while Sam sat there, stunned.
"And you...don’t find anything wrong about that?" Sam asked carefully and Cass shrugged.
"Well, as far as I am aware, demons are allowed to have their own feelings. As someone who can speak to gods who definitely have their own feelings, why would I dictate what I think demons can and can’t feel? There have to be some demons who don’t want to hurt others." Cass said, turning the page. The birds continued to sing, the leaves continued to rustle, but Sam seemed quiet. He remained so for a few moments before Cass could tell that he wanted to say something else.
Glancing over at the man, Cass could see that Sam had a complicated look on his face. He seemed confused, and a little upset, but Cass didn’t know why. Was he upset that Cass had sided with a demon, even in fiction? If he believed in the same gods as the rest of this world, or at least a portion of them, that might be the case.
"What is it, Sam?" Cass asked and Sam, who had been feeding him, fiddled with the fork in his fingers. He played with it, twisting it around and around in his fingers and Cass waited patiently.
"You...you speak so calmly about these things. Demons are...they aren’t good, my Lord. They are cruel, and evil and they force not only mortals, but other demons into terrible situations. They like pain, and fear, and thrive off of it." Sam had so much anger inside of him, it almost surprised Cass.
He was speaking from the heart, and Cass, not one to deny those who did, least of all not someone like Sam, wanted to let him talk. Besides that, he liked hearing more information on the forbidden topic, and it might lead to more lore about the man who talked about everyone but himself.
"Sam," Cass started, smiling at the book in his hands. "There are always black sheep in every family, in every group. Do you, or do you not consider me the black sheep of the hero party?" Cass asked and Sam gave him a rather confused look.
"Black sheep?" He asked and Cass nodded.
"Yes. An outlier. Someone who doesn’t quite fit in. The odd one out. Am I, or am I not that in the hero party?" Cass asked and Sam frowned.
"Those two things are not equivalent. You have a deal with the gods, just like Lady Fiona does, and you work just as hard as everyone else, and you do just as much as everyone else." Sam protested and Cass chuckled.
"Being a black sheep doesn’t mean I can’t still have all those things. Belonging doesn’t really apply to those kinds of things either. If the others don’t warm to me, does it matter if I do all of those things? Will that make them like me more if they have already made up their minds?" Cass asked and Sam opened his mouth, before he looked away, his cheeks warming.
"I...I don’t know. I can’t imagine...that it would if they had already made up their minds." Sam muttered and Cass nodded, reading the words on the page as he continued to speak.
"I agree. I don’t think it would. In the same sense, there are probably gods who don’t want to do the work that gods do, and there are probably demons who do not want to do the work that demons do. They probably aren’t accepted by their societies, much in the same way...I am not quite the same as the rest of the hero party." Cass told him, turning to smile at Sam. "And that’s okay. That doesn’t mean that I have more sympathy for these creatures, it just means that there is usually a lot more going on than you can see. You and I can only see one perspective of any given story. Like while I am reading this story, I am seeing it from whoever’s perspective is written down. That doesn’t mean that the others don’t exist. I just will never be able to see them." Cass told him and Sam swallowed, his face pale, but his eyes wide and serious.
"I...that is a very wise thing to say, my Lord. I will take some time to reflect on this." Sam told him seriously and Cass laughed. He had said it to get Sam thinking, but he didn’t think the man would get this serious.
"It’s all in fun, Sam. There isn’t a way for most people to see their stories from different perspectives. Although it is good for people to consider others, most people never do. So don’t stay up at night thinking about these things. That isn’t my intention by telling you these things. After all, this is just a silly romance novel, something written in fun, in jest. If this was a true love story, it would be quite sad." Cass said and Sam frowned.
"Why would it be sad?" Sam asked and Cass gave him a sideways glance. His smile felt a bit bitter.
"They are lovers who can never be together. The priest would never make a deal to give up his body, and the demon would never ask that of them. They are both working to give the mage back her body, and even as they are growing their love, a third person is always there. If the priest does go through with it, and makes a promise to try and be with the demon later, there is a chance that the mage could report him to the temple and have him locked up so he is unable to do so. It does not matter that she already made a deal with a demon, I can already tell that she is not a good person. After all, who would sign a contract with a demon to hurt your friend, the priest, in the first place?" Sam gasped.
"Is that why she made a contract?" Cass nodded.
"Yes, so she can’t be trusted with anything. That’s why this feels like a fake story. A fantasy. Because everyone wins in the end, unlike real life." Cass told him, and Sam’s expression grew somber.
"Ah, yes. Exactly like real life." He murmured, and Cass smiled, staring at Sam who was deep in thought for a moment before he turned back to his story. He didn’t think that Sam would get this much thought out of this story, but he was happy to talk about it.
Like he had complained about before, the romance genre was wide, expansive, and filled with pretty much anything you could want. He’d once read a trilogy about cyberpunk pirates who roamed the world and ended with the main character captured, bred because they were secretly part of a ’nearly’ extinct race, and then ended up falling in pirate love with the person who had lied to them about their identity. Said person then stole the kid that she gave birth to shortly after making sure she survived the birth, and the baby was healthy. The second book focused on getting the stolen kid back, and the third book focused on the two of them repairing their relationship.
It was a rather interesting series, but Cass loved the politics behind it all. It was what had sucked him in for several stories.
But not the one he was currently living. This one his sister had given him, telling him it was an interesting take on an old concept. Cass hadn’t agreed, and they had gotten into a huge argument about it. Cass had said that Lady Fiona hadn’t cared about the leads enough, and that they had painted Lord Blackburn as the villain and kind of strong-armed him into the position at the end.
His sister had disagreed. She thought that the relationships between the leads were sweet, and she had wanted more scenes between Lady Fiona and Lord Blackburn because she felt that the ending hadn’t been bitter enough, while Cass had been so upset that he’d been killed almost as an afterthought that he’d nearly not finished the book.
Thankfully he had, since he was now in that book, but it still made Cass chuckle.
They were both a bit right in the end, weren’t they? It felt like everything was true, and not true at the same time. Cass had to make sure that the last part of the story didn’t happen, so maybe he tried to force Lady Fiona to at least befriend her husbands, while boinking Lady Ava on the side.
He didn’t care, as long as he didn’t die like in the story.