Legend | Celeste Academy Series BK #2

Chapter 30 ♕ The True Victim

It wasn't even a second later that she started sobbing. The poor Asthore buried her face in her hands, wailing loudly as Corvan allowed a smirk to grace his lips for a brief moment. He did not know he had such a sadistic side to him, but seeing this girl cry made him satisfied. He disapproved of her attitude as it grated his nerves. To think she could even go so far as to think that he would ever marry her, then she was wrong.

How annoying.

The doors cracked open and Keelan and Brindon entered, Faolan behind them. Keelan almost fainted—squealed like a girl, rather—as he saw the grand feast laid out on the table. His eyes sparkled as he practically leaped forward to stuff himself. Brindon, however, was uncaring.

"Milady?" Faolan called out.

She continued to sob.

"Milady!" He rushed forward, worried. "Why are you crying, milady?"

Asthore wailed.

Corvan raised a brow as he watched the demon trying to console the girl. The distraught look in his eyes as he knelt by her side to soothe her made him suspicious. He must care for the girl to a great extent if he acted that way. Right from the start, he did not seem as though he was after something else—anything material to satisfy himself. It almost seemed as though he was doing this. For her sake.

Perhaps Asthore was not actually the victim in this situation.

It was the demon.

Asthore's face snapped forward as Keelan lunged for a chicken leg. Mouth watering, he brought it to his face and opened his mouth wide when Asthore screamed at him to stop, her voice ringing throughout the whole room.

"Do not even dare take a bite out of that!" She yelled, pointing a finger at him with a flushed face.

"W-what . . ." Keelan looked shocked, saddened, and disappointed. The emotions mixed and swirled within his eyes and sparkled as a drool dripped from the corner of his mouth. "Why?" His voice was on the verge of whining. It even trembled.

"No one will eat! I said no one!"

"But after I finally got to see food . . ." His eyes started to tear up and his lips quivering as he reluctantly lowered the chicken leg. "All I get to do is stare at it!" He sobbed.

Brindon came forward and patted him on the back, offering his silent comfort.

Corvan felt his aggravation worsening. "You think the world revolves around you only?"

"Do not say anymore." Faolan growled at him. "If you dare hurt her—"

The first ranker cut him off. "You think keeping her from pain will let her learn?" He hissed back. "A child whose life is a bed of roses will only feel it with greater magnitude than others. If I saying these words made her cry, then I wonder what would happen to her if she experienced life outside these walls? A ruler would have to shoulder thousands of suffering souls, solve millions of problems, protect hundreds of lives, endure the pain—all without shedding one tear. For his people, he must stand strong. A life of a leader is a life of a selfless sacrifice. Your life is not your own."

He eyed the crying girl as Faolan, who stood frozen while gaping and seething at him like a cat, was unable to say anything to counter his words.

"She—"

"You think the life she's living right now can even be considered one?" He turned his nose up and stared the two of them down as he did many times before. "A life is not without pain. To live a purely happy life is nothing but a blissful dream. For to experience pain is to live. For to live is to experience pain. To suffer is to be free. To be free is to suffer."