The grand arena of Edrath buzzed with an electric, dangerous energy. The first trial had officially concluded, leaving a trail of absolute devastation in its wake. Against all historical odds, the scoreboard flashed a historic result: a dual victory shared between the ruthless Crimson Vanguard of Edrath and the enigmatic Verdant Elven Alliance.
Unfortunately, this monumental victory only caused the tension in the crowded stands to flare into open hostility. It was an organizational nightmare; not only were the winners the most formidable, unhinged students on the continent, but their home nations were practically locked in a cold war. The spreadsheets didn't lie. The Crimson Vanguard had secured the top spot by a narrow margin, possessing far more elimination tokens than any other faction due to their brutal tactics. The Elven Alliance, on the other hand, had methodically cleared the map, hunting the highest volume of high-tier monsters.
But unlike the elves, Cassian's Vanguard had played a dual strategy. They didn't choose between resources and violence; they hunted both heads and monsters with terrifying, corporate efficiency.
As the exhausted competitors were formally dismissed back to their allocated recovery fields, the stadium erupted into heated arguments among the foreign delegates. Taking advantage of the chaos, Sora quietly slipped away from the team. Slipping past the outer security perimeters, he hurried to the private dressing rooms to change out of his dirt stained Vanguard uniform and back into his ordinary, simple female academy attire.
Dropping the uniform into Elias's hands, Sora breathed a sigh of relief. "Please have someone wash this immediately, Elias. And thank you for taking care of me."
"As you wish, Mr Sora," Elias replied with a crisp bow, handling the fabric with practiced ease.
A few minutes later, Sora snuck back up to the high-tier seating zone, slipping into the royal box right beside Cassian's velvet chair. He sat down gracefully, smoothing out his skirt as though he had been sitting there playing the role of a quiet, fragile commoner the entire afternoon.
Unfortunately, the real trouble had only just arrived.
The atmosphere inside the upper pavilion shifted from heavy anticipation to a suffocating, terrifying pressure. The heavy oak doors at the end of the stone corridor groaned open, and a solemn procession from the Central Cathedral marched directly into the high-tier zone.
Clad in heavy, gold-embroidered white vestments that dragged against the marble, the high priests moved with a rigid, terrifying authority. Silver sensory thuribles swung slowly from their heavy chains, filling the corridor with a thick, concentrated cloud of holy incense that made the air burn with divine energy.
Their purpose here was routine—or at least, it was supposed to be. It was a formal spiritual audit, a mandatory sweep to ensure no forbidden sorcery, demonic corruption, or dark-element anomalies had contaminated the royal championship match.
As the head inquisitor approached the Crown Prince's royal box, his sharp eyes immediately locked onto Sora. His gaze lingered. Too long. Far too long.
Sora's heart nearly stopped. His hands instinctively clamped over his stomach beneath his tunic. Beneath that simple academy uniform, his half-elven core was currently harboring an impossible imperial child—a fragile life that pulsed with pure, concentrated dark-element mana. To make matters worse, the aristocratic and religious prejudices of the clergy were instantly triggered by his presence. A common girl sitting on equal footing with the empire's heir was a stain on their metrics.
The priest raised a heavy, golden diagnostic artifact. The complex holy crystals embedded within its frame began to hum, casting a searching, radiant light toward him.
"Your Highness," the inquisitor spoke, his voice dripping with false politeness and condescending piety. "The High Court demands absolute purity within the sovereign perimeter. This... unverified commoner woman at your side possesses an exceptionally dense, yet highly obscured mana frequency. By the sacred laws of the Holy See, she must undergo a primary spiritual scan to verify her lineage."
If that radiant beam touched his skin, the golden artifact would peel back his glamour within seconds. The baby, the bond, the dark mana, the heresy—everything would be laid bare to the entire empire.
But Cassian didn't even turn his head. His silver-crimson eyes remained locked on the arena below, his deadpan expression an absolute fortress of ice.
"The lady has already been logged, audited, and approved by my executive office, Priest," Cassian said, his voice flat, cutting through the thick incense like a blade. "Your administrative interference at this hour is merely a calculated means to create unnecessary trouble, isn't it?"
The inquisitor's smile tightened, his eyes narrowing. "Even a Crown Prince must yield to the purity scan, Lord Cassian. We must ensure no darkness taints the throne."
The priest stepped forward, raising the humming artifact. The searching beam of light began moving directly toward Sora's chest.
Sora's breath hitched. His eyes widened in childlike panic, his fierce Moonborn instincts completely failing him under the terrifying threat to his child. Shivering, he shrank back, trying to physically disappear into Cassian's shadow.
*Clank.*
The heavy sound of polished steel echoed through the royal box.
Lucien Arden stepped forward, his towering, armor-clad frame moving with blinding speed. He planted himself directly into the path of the scanning beam, completely obscuring Sora from the clergy's sight. The holy light struck his silver chest plate instead, reflecting harmlessly against his armor.
In that single, agonizing moment, the Knight Commander of the Holy Order committed the ultimate, irreversible sin against the Church he had served his entire life.
With a subtle, deliberate command to his internal core, Lucien forced his own high-tier holy mana to erupt outward. He intentionally spoofed the frequency, flooding the priests' sensory artifacts with a blinding, deceptive wave of his own pure divine energy. To the inquisitor's sensors, the entire royal box suddenly registered as a flawless, pristine sanctuary of holy light, completely cloaking the half-elf and his forbidden pregnancy.
Lucien stared down at the high priest. His ice-blue eyes were burning with a freezing, almost demonic intensity that made the older man's blood run cold. His voice vibrated with a terrifying authority.
"The perimeter is clean, Inquisitor," Lucien deadpanned, his hand resting heavily on the pommel of his sword. "I have personally overseen this woman's security clearance. And if you dare to question my holy calibration again..." The air in the box grew heavy enough to crack the stone floor. "...I will log your actions as a direct act of treason against the Crown."
The inquisitor flinched, the golden artifact sputtering and sparking helplessly under the sheer kinetic weight of Lucien's spoofed mana. The priest swallowed hard, taking a frantic step backward.
"C-Commander Arden... forgive me," the priest stammered, sweating beneath his gold vestments. "If you have personally verified the lady... then we shall conclude the audit immediately."
With a hurried bow, the priests quickly retreated down the stone corridor, their silver thuribles clattering in their haste.
When the corridor was completely empty, nobody spoke. Lucien remained standing where he was, his back to the room. His hands were clenched so tightly against his sword hilt that his knuckles turned white. Internally, his soul felt completely rotten. He had lied to the Church he has served for all his life, manipulated holy authority, and committed sacrilege—all to protect a creature his prince cherished. The promise of his damnation was now written in permanent ink, and he was left to wither in the toxic heat of his own envy.
And there was no turning back.
*****
That evening, the central cafeteria hall of the Academy was transformed into a chaotic sanctuary. The members of the Crimson Vanguard flooded the high tables to celebrate their absolute victory, indulging in a massive feast. Although they had originally placed bets on who would pay, Cassian had casually stepped in and offered to cover the entire invoice with his executive budget, leading to loud cheers from the underclassmen.
However, the celebration brought a different kind of battlefield. As the night went on, foreign princesses, wealthy noble daughters, and high-ranking female elites swarmed the high tables, desperately throwing themselves at the Crown Prince in hopes of securing a secondary marriage contract.
"Your Highness, your students performed exceptionally well in the first trial," a visiting eastern countess purred, leaning forward. She slid close enough to brush her silk shoulder against Cassian's uniform, her eyes wide with ambition. "I could tell that you worked incredibly hard training them personally."
Cassian politely nodded his head, keeping his posture perfectly straight. "Thank you, Countess. The result speaks for itself."
Across the room, Sora stood in a dark corner of the banquet hall. His female glamour was visually flawless, but his hormones had been completely hijacked by a toxic, overwhelming wave of jealousy. He didn't say a single word. He simply stood there like a beautiful, raven-haired ghost, unleashing a silent, unblinking glare of such savage, predatory hostility toward the crowd.
Every single noblewoman who dared to approach Cassian would suddenly freeze mid-sentence, shudder violently as if a ghost had walked over their grave, and make a frantic excuse to exit the conversation. One princess dropped her glass; another completely forgot what she was saying.
'Lucien is the only exception allowed to stand that close to Cassian,' Sora thought fiercely, his eyes flashing dark in the shadows. 'The rest of you human leeches can fuck off!'
But as he watched Cassian nod politely to yet another high-born lady, his shoulders suddenly slumped. The fierce anger vanished, leaving behind a cold, crushing sadness.
"That's what I would like to say," Sora mumbled to himself, his voice cracking slightly as he stared down at his shoes.
"But he doesn't completely belong to me either. I may be his fated mate... but I am only a liability to him. Again and again, I should just know my place."
By ten o'clock, Sora couldn't stand the sight any longer. He was thoroughly exhausted—physically, emotionally, and mentally. Slipping out of the cafeteria unnoticed, he used his natural elven agility to bypass the guards patrolling the dormitory corridors, breaking straight into Cassian's private royal quarters effortlessly, just as he always did.
Just then, at midnight, Cassian finally managed to escape the relentless horde of noble marriage candidates. He cracked open the door to his bedchamber, loosening his collar with a tired sigh, and stopped dead in his tracks.
Sora was already there. He was sleeping peacefully on the large canopy bed, curled up into a small, fragile ball against the silk pillows.
Cassian's expression slightly softened as he slowly walked toward the bed, leaning closer to press a gentle, quiet kiss against Sora's lips. Slowly, Cassian pulled back carefully, intending to change into his sleeping robes without disturbing his sleep.
"You came back," a voice murmured in the dark.
Sora yawned, sitting up straight to look at him.
Cassian stopped in his tracks, turning around to face the bed. "Sorry. Did I wake you?" he asked, approaching him once again.
As he drew closer, his sharp senses immediately picked up an anomaly. Sora's internal mana was incredibly chaotic, pulsing with a deep, troubled sorrow.
"Not at all, my lord," Sora said quietly. "I was hardly asleep." He hesitated, pulling the blanket higher. "I'm sorry for trespassing in your quarters once again. I promise I will leave the moment my core has stabilized enough to put on my usual human glamour."
Cassian frowned, sitting on the edge of the mattress. "Why are you saying that so suddenly? This is truly unlike you, Sora. Are you feeling unwell?"
His voice softened as he reached out his hand to check Sora's forehead for a fever, but Sora unconsciously avoided his hand.
The movement was tiny.
But Cassian noticed and he froze, staring at his empty hand for a long moment before slowly pulling it back to his side.
And now that the glamour had faded completely, Cassian realized Sora was back in his original elven form, a form he had never fully witnessed before. Sora's eyes were so dark they looked like glowing black marbles in their sockets, framed by impossibly long, dark lashes.
His hair was longer and much darker than usual, it wasn't far from pitch black like a void without any shade of colour. It was cascading so smoothly down his shoulders like liquid shadow, making him look incredibly ethereal. And not to mention how his white skin was purely supple, and compared to his scrawny human disguise, his true elven form possessed lean, elegant muscles and a striking, handsome countenance that could only be described as manly. Even his voice was bolder and calmer, completely contradicting his submissive and dramatic female persona.
This was the first time Cassian was seeing Sora's original, undisguised form on full display.
'Is this what a fairy is supposed to look like?' Cassian thought, his breath catching in his throat as he analyzed the sheer visual masterpiece in front of him. 'He looks so surreal and handsome I nearly confessed my love to him. He would have been popular with women if he walked around like this in public... I'm actually jealous.'
"My lord," Sora softly smiled avoiding Cassian's eyes contact as he nervously looked away with his heart hammering against his chest.
Clearing his throat, Cassian forced his logical mind back into control and nudged Sora to look at him.
"Sora... are you perhaps upset with me tonight?"
Sora didn't answer right away but he didn't deny it either.
"If you are, I am sorry for pressuring you like that," Cassian continued, his voice lowering with genuine regret. "Perhaps I shouldn't have sent you to challenge the second round of the trial while you are pregnant. It was completely my fault, my own selfishness to win the trial that led you there. Your mana must have depleted because of that right?...the child is already draining your reserves and yet I urged you to that task. I admit I was complacent. You have every right to be angry with me."
"Your Highness, please do not apologize to a person like me," Sora said softly, her bold voice carrying a sudden, heartbreaking vulnerability. "I am okay. I also had fun during the trial. If anything... for once in my life, I didn't feel like a useless burden. I was able to help you achieve your goal, and that meant so much to me."
"If you are not upset, then why do you feel so troubled?" Cassian pressed, leaning closer. "Did something happen today that I should know about?"
Sora looked at him for a long, quiet moment. Then, looking down at his trembling palms, he faintly nodded his head.
"Your Highness–.... I think you should completely break our soul bond after I give birth to the child."
Cassian froze entirely, his logical mind short-circuiting. His heart suddenly began racing for no apparent reason, a wave of cold panic washing over his chest.
"What? Sora, you—"
"My presence is only a liability for you, Your Highness," Sora interrupted, the tears finally beginning to well up in his dark eyes. "You know very well that the entire empire detests my race. I am nothing but a forbidden being to your people—just like a magical explosive that could explode at any moment and ruin your entire life."
"And you saw it for yourself today. More people, like those priests from earlier, will keep trying to do the exact same thing."
"But Sora, I can easily protect you," Cassian argued, his analytical mind searching for solutions. "The townhouse in the lower district is completely secure, and—"
"For how long will I have to hide with your child in that townhouse, my lord?!" Sora suddenly broke down, his voice breaking as he avoided Cassian's eyes.
"As your fated mate, is that all I amount to you? A forbidden secret to be kept in the dark forever?...As a Moonborn, this hurts my pride deeply. You are mated with me. We share a literal soul resonance and a child, but yet I cannot have you for myself. I won't even be allowed to dream of marrying you. My lord you are my only mate, the only one I will ever have in this entire lifetime as Sora Curzon, and yet I can't even claim you for myself." Sora finally raised his head, his eyes bloodshot and flooded with tears.
"How do you think that makes me feel as someone who shares your very soul? I am forced to sit on the sidelines, watch you fall in love with a proper noblewoman, or watch you take a consort and concubines when you finally reign over the Empire! I will be forced to watch you in secret because I am merely a forbidden creature who can't even claim his own fated mate. To my bloodline, I would have been a laughingstock, a total failure of a man... And how exactly would you feel if you were in my position?!"
Silence fell over the room.
Cassian just looked at Sora, completely lost for words. His quick wit and calculated responses completely deserted him that very instant. Sora's outburst was entirely valid, and sadly enough, it was the harsh reality of their life together.
"Very well then..." Cassian finally sighed, lowering his gaze to the floor. He stood up, stepping forward to gently close his hands around Sora's firm, trembling fingers. "We will do as you wish. We will break the bond after you give birth."
The words came out as a quiet whisper, but they were loud enough to shatter the remaining silence. Tears instantly trickled down Sora's porcelain cheeks. Unable to hold them back any longer, he nodded, his lips pouting in a display of raw grief.
"I don't deserve happiness," Sora wept softly. "I don't even belong anywhere in this world."
"No, Sora, don't you dare say that," Cassian said firmly, pulling him closer. "You have me, and I will always take care of you. Even after birth, even if the bond is gone, I will take care of you and protect you like my own family."
Sora let out a weak, bitter laugh, shaking his head. "Cassian, don't you understand anything? Breaking a soul bond with a Moonborn means I will be completely out of your life, and out of your sight forever. The resonance will die. I am only here right now so that you can supplement my core with your mana. But once I give birth, you won't need to do that anymore. I will take the child, and I will leave this continent entirely."
"You can't do that," Cassian's grip tightened, his eyes darkening with a sudden, possessive anger.
"Yes, I can."
"Sora!" He warned but Sora could only weakly smile at him while caressing his face.
"My lord, think logically for once," Sora countered, wiping his eyes. "If you try to raise the child yourself, how will you explain his existence to your people and your high council? The child will have my blood—the forbidden bloodlines etched on his very soul. And what if he is born with the physical appearance of an elf? How will you explain that to the court?"
Cassian opened his mouth, but no words came out.
"That discovery will only get us all executed," Sora whispered. "Or even just me and the child, and I don't want that for him. I don't want that for you, either My Prince. You are destined to rule this entire Empire. Therefore, do not let a creature like me get in your way of achieving that. You have thousands of people looking up to you and supporting you for that very reason."
Cassian huffed, bringing a hand up to hit his own forehead in frustration.
'What am I even doing?' Cassian thought to himself, his internal logic fighting against the heavy ache in his chest. 'I am planning to leave this entire world for Earth anyway once I gather the artifacts. It is significantly better to follow Sora's suggestions. He is completely right, and it is the most logical path forward for both of our goals. So why am I wavering and making empty promises to this poor character?'
"Fine then," Cassian spoke up, his voice cracking slightly as he overrode his own system. He reached out, pulling Sora firmly into his embrace, burying his face into the elf's dark hair. "We will do exactly as you say. But for now, until that day comes, I will take full responsibility for you and the little girl."
Sora immediately stiffened in his arms, his sorrow momentarily replaced by a look of deep offense. "It's going to be a boy."
Cassian froze, then let out a genuine, soft chuckle. He pulled back slightly to caress Sora's smooth face, gently pecking his lips and then smirks. "Oh? You sound entirely confident."
"It is a boy," Sora insisted, pouting. "I can feel his core."
"Fine, fine," Cassian smiled, now kissing his forehead. "The little boy, then. Now rest. You must be completely exhausted from the day's trials."
Sora nodded, his dark eyes looking up at him with a childish, heartbreaking vulnerability. "Hold me while I sleep."
"Okay," Cassian murmured, unable to refuse the request. "I will hold you."
Cassian climbed onto his side of the massive canopy bed, pulling Sora into his arms and wrapping the heavy velvet blankets around them. As they settled into the pillows, Cassian carefully released a tiny fraction of his own warm mana, letting it ooze out to comfort the chaotic energy in Sora's core. Within seconds, the half-elf melted against his chest, his breathing slowing down as he fell into a deep, peaceful slumber.
Cassian stared blankly at the dark ceiling, listening to the steady rhythm of Sora's heartbeat against his ribs. For some reason, his own heart felt strangely restless, completely unstable, and dangerously soft.
'My heart is wavering,' Cassian realized, his brow furrowing in the dark. 'Is it simply because of the soul resonance forcing these emotions into my system?'
He tightened his arms around the sleeping elf, watching him instinctively snuggle closer for warmth. A small, faint smile escaped his lips. For some reason, as he looked down at the boy in his arms, that logical answer no longer felt convincing at all.
*****