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

Chapter 220: Old Memories and a Single Bed

A Firefly in the Middle of Winter [3]

The silence in the room was warm, sweet, yet equally tense, in stark contrast to the freezing blizzard battering the streets of the capital outside.

Iris cast stolen glances at Cassian over the rim of the hot chocolate mug she gripped tightly with both hands, having already drunk half of it.

Finally, unable to bear this heavy silence, she giggled nervously.

"I never imagined it like this..." Iris said, her voice like a soft melody filling the room.

"I mean... For years, I always dreamed of seeing you again. I played out hundreds of things in my head that I would say to you when we met. But now you’re here and I... I don’t even know what to talk about."

Cassian watched the girl silently. Human interactions were usually uncomfortable for him, but Iris’s current state oddly put him at ease.

Iris took a deep breath and asked the question she was dying to know.

"After that day... what happened to you?"

The blank expression on Cassian’s face didn’t change for even a second. He quickly sifted through the bloody, brutal pages of the past in his mind. There were so many lies he could tell, but he chose the purest and most cruel truth.

"I died," he said in a flat voice.

Iris’s hands trembled, causing the hot chocolate in the mug to ripple slightly. Her eyes opened wide in shock and horror. "Huh...? B-but... You’re here."

"I came back to life."

Iris was completely confused. How could someone die and come back to life? Was this a spell? Or was Cassian talking about a metaphorical death?

The thousands of dark scenarios spinning in her mind caused her face to pale.

"I’m sorry, Iris," Cassian interjected, a firm but gentle wall in his voice. "I don’t want to talk about these things."

Iris instantly panicked. Thinking her curiosity had hurt him, that she had reopened past traumas, she felt a massive wave of guilt. Quickly setting her mug on the nightstand, she waved her hands frantically.

"Sorry! I’m really sorry! I didn’t mean to pressure you. Please just forget it!"

Seeing the girl’s extreme panic, Cassian reached out slightly and placed his hand on her trembling shoulder. "It’s fine," he said in a calming tone.

At Cassian’s touch, Iris took a deep breath, dropped her shoulders, and slowly calmed down.

At that moment, Iris’s eyes caught on Cassian’s white hair, specifically the small, elegant braid he kept tied, hanging from the side of his hair.

Glancing at him from the corner of her eye, she spoke softly without raising her voice: "That braid... It suits you."

Cassian reached up and touched his own braid at this unexpected compliment.

’Cecilia...’

The name of the girl whose face he couldn’t even remember appeared in his mind. Cecilia had braided this into his hair.

Even though Cecilia was no longer by his side, Cassian had never undone this braid from his hair.

In a way, carrying this small braid eased his conscience; it kept the human emotions he had felt in the past and that strange bond alive.

However, Cassian would never mention Cecilia or the true meaning of this braid to Iris.

Even if he did, it wouldn’t matter; it would only make this fragile moment between them even more complicated and weird.

Wanting to lighten the mood and break the silence, Iris began talking about her own life, about those long years that had passed in Cassian’s absence.

When the topic came to the Inferna Duchy, she grimaced and shrugged. "My mother, Seraphina... Can you believe it, she did everything she could to raise me as a typical, boring noble lady!"

"Corsets from morning till night, tea parties, etiquette rules... And she was so against me coming to the academy! If my dad hadn’t allowed it, she would’ve never sent me here."

Iris giggled and leaned a bit closer to Cassian. "She even took it so far that for the past few years, she tried to betroth me to some noble boys who came to the duchy to see me! It’s like a joke, isn’t it?"

Saying this, Iris tilted her head with a mischievous smile and looked into Cassian’s eyes. "What’s this? Could it be... Are you jealous?" she asked, searching for a crumb of emotion on his soulless face.

The reaction she expected was a blush or an attempt at denial. However, without the slightest hesitation, Cassian looked straight into Iris’s eyes with his red ones and answered with absolute honesty.

"Yes."

Iris’s mischievous smile froze instantly, her cheeks suddenly turning as red as a tomato.

Cassian’s overly honest, direct answer had caught her completely off guard. Clearing her throat, trying to calm her racing heartbeat, she hurriedly changed the subject.

"D-did I mention Evelyn?!" she said quickly, laughing. "She really became a legend. She reached the Demigod level before even turning forty! The whole empire is talking about her as one of the youngest humans in history to become a demigod!"

At this information, Cassian did a quick analysis in his mind. In the game’s storyline, Evelyn had died a gruesome death trying to protect the duchy during the Bloody Festival attack on the Inferna Duchy.

But now... the interventions Cassian made in the past had created a butterfly effect, allowing Evelyn to survive and even surpass her limits to become a Demigod.

Iris continued talking nonstop. She talked about how busy her father, Duke Theo, was with the duchy’s affairs, and how little time he could spare for her. Then her voice rose cheerfully.

"And Elara! Elara finally got married! She even has a tiny, sweet newborn baby! Right now they live in the capital with her husband. I visit her on weekends."

Iris turned to Cassian with eyes sparkling with hope. "This weekend... should we go see her together? She’ll be so happy to see you!"

Cassian didn’t want to reject the girl’s excitement. "Alright."

However, he noticed that while talking about her family, she hadn’t mentioned one person’s name at all.

"What about Aron?" Cassian asked.

Iris’s cheerful, bubbly mood extinguished instantly. Her shoulders slumped, and her gaze dropped to the white bedsheets. Her voice came out weak and trembling.

"My grandfather... He... passed away two years ago..."

Cassian knew how old that grumpy old man Aron was. He had already reached his limits by normal human standards. But still, he had expected that stubborn geezer to hold out a few more years, to live long enough to see Iris grow up.

Iris’s current sad, defeated state triggered a strange sense of empathy inside Cassian. Now was not the time to overthink this.

Cassian slowly reached out a finger and gently poked Iris’s sullen, sad cheek.

Iris lifted her head in surprise at this unexpected and childish attempt at comfort.

When she saw the hidden affection on Cassian’s dull face, the heavy cloud of sorrow inside her dispersed. She slowly tilted her head and rested it against Cassian’s reassuring shoulder.

Giggling, she whispered, "Don’t worry, I’m fine. After all... I have you with me now."

While the freezing blizzard continued outside the room, time seemed to stand still inside. For a few hours, with Iris’s head on Cassian’s shoulder, they sat side by side making short, everyday conversation. Mostly, though, without saying anything at all, they just drew strength from each other’s presence after all these years, from that quiet peace.

However, the hours had long passed midnight. Unable to resist her heavy eyelids any longer, Iris let out a long, sweet yawn.

"I need to get back to my room now," Iris mumbled, reluctantly sitting up from Cassian’s shoulder. She rubbed her eyes.

Just as she moved to get off the bed... Cassian gripped her wrist tightly with his hand. He didn’t let her go.

Iris paused and turned back in surprise. "Cassian?"

"Where are you going?" Cassian asked, furrowing his brows slightly. His voice sounded like a stubborn child who didn’t want to lose a toy.

"Uhhh... To my room?" Iris said, trying to explain the situation. "I need to sleep and rest. We have class early in the morning."

"Sleep here," Cassian said in a completely flat tone, as if he were stating the most normal, ordinary thing in the world.

Iris’s brain malfunctioned for a second. Her eyes darted from Cassian’s serious face to the single bed. She felt a burning heat spread from her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears.

She quickly recoiled, retreating to the very edge of the bed. But Cassian hadn’t loosened his grip on her wrist by a single millimeter.

"B-but..." Iris said, her voice completely fading from embarrassment, turning into a whisper. "That’s not proper! We... I mean you and me... In the same bed..."

"Why?" Cassian asked, genuinely finding the girl’s reaction illogical. "We’re just going to sleep."

Iris didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to explain the situation.

The phrase *’We’re just going to sleep’* sounded so simple, but the person in front of her was Cassian. The boy she hadn’t seen in years, the boy she missed like crazy, who wasn’t a child anymore. Her brain was about to catch fire from embarrassment and panic.

"Iris?" Cassian called out, looking at her frozen state. The slightly commanding, yet equally unwilling-to-let-go tone in his voice was very clear.

Iris let out a deep sigh. Looking into his determined eyes, she realized there was no way she was leaving that room tonight. And to be honest... she didn’t want to leave at all either.

"O-okay... Fine," she said obligingly, lowering her head.

A satisfied expression appeared in Cassian’s eyes. He stood up, headed to his wooden wardrobe, and pulled out an oversized, baggy t-shirt and shorts from his own clothes, handing them to Iris.

Iris took the clothes and hurried into the small, enclosed washroom area in the corner of the room. The moment she locked the door, she leaned her back against it and held her burning cheeks with her hands.

Looking at her beet-red face in the mirror, she turned on the faucet. She splashed the freezing water cupped in her hands onto her face to try and calm herself down.

"This is Cassian..." she whispered to herself, looking in the mirror.

"Calm down, Iris. Calm down! Take a deep breath... You’re just going to sleep together, that’s all. It’s Cassian. He won’t hurt you. He’s your friend... I mean... Your old friend." With this comical motivational speech she gave herself, she slipped the t-shirt on. Even though her heart raced again when Cassian’s scent filled her nose, she gathered her courage and stepped out of the washroom.

When she returned to the room, her steps faltered at the sight she saw.

Cassian... had put on pajamas dominated by blue and black colors, patterned with small white snowflakes.

Cassian was already in bed, his back resting against the wall, waiting for her.

Iris swallowed hard in embarrassment. She came to the edge of the bed, took a deep, shaky breath, and lay down.

She immediately slipped under the thick cover, shrinking her body down as much as she could, and turned her back to Cassian. ’If I sleep like this, maybe he won’t hear my heartbeat,’ she hoped.

However, Cassian possessed no such social etiquette rule about keeping their distance.

Because the bed was narrow, he moved instantly. His arm wrapped around Iris’s waist from behind, and he pulled the girl entirely against himself in a single motion.

Iris’s back was pressed flush against Cassian’s chest. Cassian buried his head in the girl’s hair, hugging her tightly.

Iris’s eyes shot wide open. She forgot how to breathe. Cassian’s arm was wrapped around her waist, his warm breath hitting the nape of her neck. Her heart was no longer beating in her chest, but pounding away inside her ears, right in the center of her brain.

"Good night, Iris," Cassian whispered in the dark, his voice sleepy and peaceful.

The room’s lights suddenly clicked off, plunging the interior into darkness.

While the blizzard battered the windows outside, Iris, burning up with a fiery blush in Cassian’s arms, realized the biggest and most absolute truth of her life at that moment:

Tonight... Getting any sleep was absolutely, positively impossible.