Despite the treatment he was subjected to, Cassian did not lack any resources to cultivate. However, he could not use any of them except the red grade beast meat and qi stones. Using those, Cassian reached the peak of qi accumulation many years ago and was stuck there due to his low talent. Olivia too reached the peak of qi accumulation more than a decade ago. Since there was no result in using those resources, both of them refrained from seeking any other resource to avoid being in limelight.
Cassian too reached the end of his education being 18 years old. He put in his utmost effort and scored perfect marks in everything except sparring and defense which is the most important and relevant subject. People did not care about scholars or researchers in this world.
After finishing classes on the last day, Cassian was on his way to Olivia's room to spend time with her as usual. Only when its time to sleep would he go back to his room which is adjacent to hers. He was lost in his thoughts thinking about what to do in his life, when he heard someone. "Hey there, vermin. Going somewhere?" It was his sixth brother Reginald clearly frustrated with something blocking his way.
Out of all of his siblings, he dreaded meeting his sixth brother for he lacked restraint more than anything else. Every time Reginald sees Cassian, he would use him as a punching bag to alleviate his frustrations with life. Reginald (64 years old) being the most talented among his siblings with a cultivation of 4th stage Golden core, would take advantage of his favorability by committing heinous crimes and would often get away with it with little to no punishment. His usual past time is to rape a maid or a servant. Once, he tried to rape a noble woman and he got the harshest of punishments – he was fed golden core meat when he was in foundation establishment. With the trauma that he acquired, he never set his eyes on a noble woman again. Although, he married a noble woman eventually and stopped raping (at least openly).
"Sixth brother, please let me leave. It was my mistake to appear in front of you. Today was the last day of my classes. I will do my best to never be seen by you again." Cassian begged when he saw the evil smile displayed on Reginald's face as he approached him.
Reginald did not care as he grabbed Cassian by his hair and started punching him like a mad man without saying a word. After a few minutes of repeatedly punching him until his face looked like grated meat, he started breaking every bone in his body starting from toes. He took his time to enjoy the sound when a bone broke until he was left with no more bones to break. Throughout all of this, Cassian lost his voice screaming with pain.
Although Cassian was beaten up repeatedly, he was never treated the way he was being treated now, even by Reginald. Hearing the screams, the first one to arrive were the maids and servants nearby, next were his other siblings and their mothers. Even they looked troubled by what was happening before them but none dared to stop Reginald as they know that he would be the next emperor unless something unexpected happens. Reginald's mother, the fourth empress was even enjoying the sight before her until Olivia came running. The fourth empress quickly kicked Olivia's shin and broke her leg to stop her interfering in the spectacle that is happening before them.
Reginald started to skin Cassian when Erik appeared in front of them with an annoyed expression. He was happily pounding a Marquis' wife in secret in his chambers when he initially heard Cassian's scream. However, he thought that it would stop after a few moments like always. But hearing him scream like a pig being butchered for more than ten minutes, he had to stop what he was doing and arrived to see the sight of Cassian being skinned.
Frankly, even he was surprised by the extent of cruelty his sixth son could inflict. Erik knew that Cassian would avoid any limelight and is always extremely humble. However, he never stopped the bullying because he thought it was only a minor issue and would resolve itself once everyone gets used to it. His opinion was indeed correct, at least with everyone else, as they stopped beating him in the past year and would only verbally abuse him. Except Reginald that is. Today however, crossed the limit because even Olivia was harmed. Erik was truly enraged by what he saw. Although Erik thought it was a pity that he could no longer enjoy the company of Olivia, he still somewhat cared for her. He could not help but recall how lovely she looked when he took her first time and compare it with her predicament now. He felt his authority being questioned when they did not even respect the fact the Olivia is still his wife and Cassian was his son.
The first thing he did after his arrival was to punch his fourth wife with his full cultivation of 7th stage nascent soul. He did this because he knew she could take it as she was in 4th stage of nascent soul. After receiving Erik's punch, the fourth empress jaw broke and her face distorted. When she could no longer repel the strength behind the punch, she crashed through the halls and flew off the castle into the grounds where she lay dazed and disoriented. The next thing Erik did was to break Reginald's arms, legs and finally his jaw. Although he wanted to inflict more pain, he did not want to punish too severely.
After he did that, he summoned the healers and asked one of them to attend to Olivia and directed the rest of them to heal Cassian who at this point was unconscious. Olivia was cured within a minute as it was a simple broken bone, but it took around 30 minutes for three healers at 5th stage of golden core to heal Cassian completely without any lingering effects.
Throughout all of this, Reginald was moaning in pain from being beaten up by his father while his mother, already recovering due to her superior cultivation level, came back to hold him. Erik however declared that Reginald must not be healed by any healers and has to recover on his own which would take him at most a day considering his light injuries and his cultivation. Sensing that this punishment is extremely light for the crime he committed, he ordered that Reginald be fed with 100 grams of meat of the 1st stage nascent soul beast.
Hearing that everyone was horrified including Reginald. His mother who started to protest was quickly silenced with an angry look from Erik. Everyone was dismissed after that, and Erik was the last one to leave Cassian and a masked Olivia, but not before giving them a pitying look.
Olivia while crying took Cassian who is now conscious back to her room where they both sat lost in their own thoughts.
Life continued as usual after that incident except for some minor changes in the behavior of people towards Olivia and Cassian. Reginald was traumatized, not by the beating he got from Erik, but by the meat he had to shit out. It took him 3 months of constant torture for him to shit it out. He suffered extreme agony by the simple looking piece of meat. Aware of this information, no one in the castle went out of their way to treat Olivia and Cassian harshly, not even the other princes and princesses who treated them as if they did not exist.
After a few more months of deliberation with his advisor Gareth, Erik decided to marry Cassian off to Alice, the second and youngest daughter of Count Sebas of Nurid, which is the region that is both farthest from the capital and is also safe. He came to this conclusion for a few reasons. Similar to Olivia, Alice is rumored to be extremely beautiful. However, she possessed orange talent as she was born from Sebas' extramarital affair with a commoner who had red talent.
Erik had a weakness for women who he is attracted to and could not bear to let them suffer. As shallow as it might sound, he will do anything to remove the suffering of beautiful women. Although Alice grew up without a mother, she lived a relatively happy life. However, due to her low talent she could only be wed to merchants or traders at the best.
Erik thought that a noble marrying a prince who is of similar talent is better than them being married to a lowly merchant. He decided to send Cassian as well as Olivia off to Nurid so that they can spend the rest of their lives in a safe location away from the capital where people most likely would not let them live in peace. He thought of this because he felt guilty about making Olivia his wife when he could have had her be his mistress. A mistress would not have attracted as many problems when compared to being a wife.
Erik immediately summoned count Sebas and his daughter informing them of his decision. It took them 45 days of travel to arrive in the capital city. Once in Siga, Erik summoned the royal court and declared Alice and Cassian to be wed. Although most of them were jealous of Alice's looks including princes especially Reginald, once they got to know about her talent, they quickly discarded any ideas about her deeming her not worthy of the trouble it would cause with the emperor.
So, in that manner, Cassian and Olivia escaped from what could otherwise be considered as their prison and arrived in Nurid safely along with Alice and Sebas.