«Lady Cassius, what are you doing?! — having regained the power of speech, the director immediately shouted: — Stop it!
The girl looked at him coldly.
«I didn't do anything.»
A barely discernible whisper went through the crowd of students next to me. Everyone was discussing the incident among themselves, but they were afraid to raise their voices so that she wouldn't hear them.
«Could it be that Rachel Cassius?»
«She's from the damned Duke's family, isn't she?»
— The director of the academy must have gone crazy, since he decided that we can study together with her!
— Don't look her in the eye! My parents told me that if you do this, you will die!
All these conversations merged into a common verbal flow, which made it clear that everyone who was here was just fiercely afraid and hated this girl.
«Take him to the infirmary,» the director ordered, and the guards immediately picked up the wounded guy, dragging him in the opposite direction.
Then, exhaling noisily, but still deciding not to make a scene in front of the freshmen who are here, the man said through his teeth:
«Lady Cassius, go to my office immediately. I'll talk to you after the ceremony is over.»
«I told you I didn't do anything.»
— It's not up for discussion. You don't want me to tell your father what happened, do you?
The remaining guards surrounded her from all sides to escort her to the right place, and Rachel, even though she was against it, had to obey.
— Don't touch me. I'll go by myself.
With an irritated shrug, she turned around and headed into the building while everyone else continued to follow her every action.
The director began to fussily urge everyone to return back to the auditorium, and the crowd eventually began to slowly disperse.
I, having left almost the very last, could not stop staring at that place in a dumb stupor.
Rachel Cassius… I could not even imagine that I would meet her in this life.
And, moreover, I had no idea that Leriana and this girl studied at the same academy!
The Cassius family has been considered cursed for several centuries. It all started with an old legend that said that the ancestor of this family was a man who signed a contract with the devil.
According to him, all the members of this family possessed superhuman beauty and strength, and lived much longer than ordinary people. But in exchange for this, each of them had a curse from birth that brought harm to other people.
There were rumors that if you look the successor of this family directly in the eyes, you will certainly get sick and die. And if you touch him, then his curse can be passed on to you, and you will live in torment all your life.
Of course, from the outside it looked more like nonsense, and sounded no more plausible than a children's story. But, nevertheless, people believed in it, and therefore feared and despised the Cassians for many years.
Moreover, the members of the Cassius family themselves were extremely closed people, and almost did not come into contact with society. They had no friends among the aristocrats, and their enemies died very early. All this combined only further reinforced their gloomy reputation.
The blood-red eyes possessed by all the descendants of this family were also considered to belong to the devil. And therefore, looking into them was considered bad, and even dangerous.
Whether good physical endurance and eye color were just unique genes, or a curse, has not yet been clarified. But even these «proofs» were enough for those people who believed that Cassias are deadly, and kill people to prolong their youth.
The reason why, despite their dark reputation, they have not yet been expelled from the kingdom was the incredible strength and power of this kind. It was the Duchy of Cassius that helped the king to win in many military conflicts and make him the strongest on the continent.
In addition, they were very rich, and their condition was compared even with the royal treasury.
Considering these factors, for many years, Cassius remained the most influential family in the country, in addition to the royal one.
And it was the man from this family who was the second main character in «Bloody Camellia».
Robert Cassius, who became a duke at a very young age, had a simply disgusting character that made him a tyrant even worse than Razor.
No, he was definitely worse.
If Razor was doing all this to get revenge on his brother and take his place on the throne, then Robert… I got incredible pleasure from all these murders.
As soon as he reached adulthood, he immediately went to war, where he did nothing but indiscriminately kill people. Before meeting with Brisney, he practically did not leave the battlefield, and even at home he mocked his servants in every possible way.
All this happened because of his mother, whom he killed at the age of eighteen.
Rachel never loved her son, and subjected him to abuse as a child. All this left an imprint on his psyche, especially after he found out that it was Rachel who caused his father's death.
Eventually, as an adult, he came after her and killed her with a poisoned blade. After that, the duke's place passed to him, and Robert used his position in every possible way for not the best purposes, before he was saved by the main character.
Or rather, Leriana's daughter, Brisney.
After meeting her, as usually happens in novels of this genre, he changed, because love healed all his mental wounds.
At the end of the story, after defeating Razor, they got married and began to live happily ever after.
At least, that's what was originally intended.
Because now, I was facing a big problem.
I wasn't going to have children in this life.
And, accordingly, there will be no one to save Robert!
After all, even if I avoid the love triangle between me and the princes, and live peacefully in the coming years, I will still be able to get the death flag.
If Robert grows up and becomes a tyrant, as he was in the novel, then nothing will be able to save this country from him.
I was sure that if not Razor, then this guy would definitely be able to start a coup and a massacre.
Considering that at the age of eighteen he already had a gigantic thirst for murder, it's scary to imagine what will happen to him in the future.
It is quite possible that he will want to do away with the kingdom that has despised him for so many years.
If this happens, then Robert, like Razor in the original novel, will come for the lives of all the nobles, including mine.
Since the Ashfords were part of the three founding families of Azeroth, he will certainly want to get our heads first.
I should have prevented it. By all means.
In order to prevent Robert from becoming a tyrant, I had to start making efforts right now.
Even without the main character, Robert will be able to become a decent person if he has a good childhood.
And that meant…
First I need to reform his mother, Rachel Cassius.