Exiled Prince: I'm the Unexpected Extra in the Novel Chapter 99

Three months had passed since the war with Nerath.

In this time, Fredrinn had managed to merge all the ruin stones in his possession with his body and soul.

As for Cassian, working day and night, he had tried to build a new body for Julian from scratch. After countless failed attempts, he had finally reached perfection.

And that day had arrived.

In the silence of the laboratory, the new body lying on a magic reinforced experimental table took its first breath. His chest rose and fell slowly.

His eyes fluttered open. In those eyes, there was no longer that bottomless, cold hatred of Nerath. There was confusion, fear, and recognition.

Julian had awakened.

Cassian had held short conversations with him to test him, and as predicted, the damage Nerath left on Julian’s soul was permanent. A large portion of Julian’s memories had been erased by the influence of those dark years, turning into a foggy void.

He could not fully remember who he was or how he got here. But there were still things he remembered.

"Fredrinn..." he whispered, his voice weak but clear. "Where is he?"

Cassian briefly explained what had happened to Julian. Although Julian could not make much sense of what he heard, he listened to Cassian carefully.

When Cassian informed Fredrinn that Julian had awakened.

The moment Fredrinn opened the door and saw his friend, his brother, sitting on the bed looking around with confused eyes.

That massive man, that invincible Dark Knight, fell to his knees.

Fredrinn began to weep like a big baby. Years of accumulated pain, longing, and guilt flowed away with those tears.

He ran and hugged Julian, touching him to check if he was real. Julian, too, hugged him with trembling arms.

Cassian stood at the threshold of the door and watched this scene silently. There was a rare, wistful but satisfied smile on his face. He did not want to interrupt this holy reunion of two friends that came after years.

On the other hand, he proudly enjoyed watching a scene that never happened in the game, one with a zero percent chance of success.

He quietly closed the door and left them alone in the room, away from the ghosts of the past.

As for the Obsidian Dawn matter...

Fredrinn and Cassian were aware of that approaching great storm, that inevitable war that would break out across the Empire.

They could not win this war with only mercenaries or their own powers. They needed the support of the Empire’s deep rooted, noble dynasties. But before asking for help, they decided to find loyal, trustworthy allies and tighten their ranks. Because they did not want their lives to end with a sudden assassination or a political move by Obsidian Dawn before they could even gather aid.

So far, they had received promises of aid from a neighboring County loyal to Frosthelm and a Marquisate of strategic importance through secret negotiations. Now their target was a much stronger, much more dangerous, and equally desperate dynasty.

The weather was cold and gloomy, rain drops were pouring from the sky like a flood. The sky had taken on a leaden color, and the sun was hidden behind the clouds.

On a muddy, rough forest road, a plain but sturdy carriage, black and bearing no noble coat of arms on its window, was jolting forward.

Its wheels crushed the mud at every turn, and the sound of the horses’ hooves mixed with the rhythm of the rain.

There were four people inside the carriage.

One was Cassian, disguised as a noble young man with black hair and black eyes, wearing a stylish, black suit that fit him perfectly.

Opposite him sat Rose, wearing a noble and formal dark blue dress instead of her usual mage robes, her hair elegantly tied up, but never letting go of the staff under her hand for a moment.

Next to her was Eric, wearing bright, silver embroidered knight armor, his helmet placed on his knees, waiting on alert.

And right next to Cassian, practically glued to his arm, resting her head on his shoulder and watching him with half sleepy eyes, was Cordelia...

The quartet’s target was the Evershade Marquisate, one of the strongest dynasties on the northern border of the Empire. They were in need of their military power and political influence in the great war against Obsidian Dawn.

Of course, they did not expect them to help unrequitedly, just out of kindness. Cassian had a plan, as always.

The Lord of the Evershade Marquisate, Aldren Stormvale. The leader of a deep rooted family charged with protecting the dangerous buffer zone between the Empire and the dark Demon Empire for centuries. A noble, proud, and powerful man.

But every powerful man has a weak point. Aldren’s weak point was his only son and the future heir of the dynasty, Caius Stormvale.

Caius was in the grip of a terrible and rare disease: Demonic Mana Poisoning.

This disease was a deadly condition rarely encountered in people living in regions close to the Demon Empire who frequently came into contact with demonic mana or were exposed to this energy from birth.

A human’s mana core, by its nature, could not harbor both normal mana and chaotic demonic mana in the body at the same time.

These two opposing energies would repel each other, causing a war in the core. Eventually, the mana core would collapse day by day, crack, burn the energy veins, and finally cause both the spiritual and physical death of the person in terrible pain.

Aldren had poured his fortune to cure his only son, applying to all healers, alchemists, and mages in the Empire. He had even trampled his pride and begged for help from the Holy Church.

But this was not a matter that ordinary mages could handle.

As for the Holy Church, it had not possessed a true Saint for a long time. The old Saint had mysteriously disappeared, and no new Saint had been chosen by the gods since that day.

Most of the priests serving the Holy Church, who were not as powerful as a Saint, were incapable of purifying this disease.

The few high priests who had the power stubbornly refused to do so.

According to their bigoted belief, those who caught this disease were sinners who had betrayed God, chosen the demonic path, and whose souls were polluted.

This disease was a price for their sins, and their only way to be purified was to end this miserable life and appear before the gods.

In short, Lord Aldren was in a completely desperate, exhausted state as a father. And this desperation was a unique chance for someone to find a perfect, loyal ally in the approaching war.

Cassian was resting his head against the glass, watching the rainy, gray weather outside through the misty window of the carriage. His mind was planning the speech he would make, the sentences he would form.

"Cassian," Cordelia murmured, rubbing her head even more against his shoulder. "I am bored. Why do we not take a break?"

Cassian tried to snap out of his thoughts and turn to her, but Rose beat him to it.

"God..." Rose complained, letting out a weary breath. "That girl’s voice, her stupidity. Why did we have to bring her here too? This is a diplomatic mission, not a playground trip. She will only be a hindrance."

"Besides, can you not see it is raining outside? What will you do if you go out, crawl in the mud like wild animals?"

Cordelia instantly raised her head. Those blue eyes suddenly took on an ice cold and threatening look.

"Shut up, you bitch!" she hissed. "I could not let my Cassian travel alone under the protection of useless, incompetent people like you. I am the only one who can protect him. You are just a burden."

"Look at me you little..." Rose reached for her staff in anger, but Eric intervened and tried to calm her down.

Cordelia stuck her nose in the air triumphantly and leaned Cassian’s head against herself, wrapping her arms tightly around him. "Right, Cassian? We will not separate."

Cassian sighed. Cordelia had been like this since that day.

She was overly, sickly fond and protective of Cassian.

She did not want to leave him separate from herself even for a moment, even when going to the bathroom. Although Cassian was uncomfortable with this situation and tried to stop her and put distance between them countless times, he failed every time against Cordelia’s traumatic fear and stubbornness.

Eventually, he decided to accept this situation for now.

Deep down, he hoped that one day Cordelia would get bored of him, recover, and draw a path of her own.

But seeing these attitudes, these possessive looks, he was not at all sure about the likelihood of this possibility.

Cassian looked at Eric, who was sitting helplessly opposite him, his head still on Cordelia’s shoulder, and asked. "Do we have much further to go, Eric?"

Eric looked at the signs outside the window. "The rain has worsened the roads. We need to travel for at least another 8 hours"

Cassian let out a deep, troubled sigh.

Eric smiled slightly. "You seem quite impatient, Cassian. Are you excited?"

Cassian’s face was shadowed. His eyes drifted to the narrow walls and closed ceiling of the carriage. The years he spent in that laboratory, in that small cell, came to his mind.

"It is not impatience," he replied, his voice hoarse. "It is just that... it cannot be said that I am on very good terms with enclosed spaces."