Chapter 4: The Mouse Hole and the Hound's Trap

The moment I met the murderous intent blazing in Cassian’s eyes, all the scattered pieces inside me clicked into place with an icy chill. It wasn’t fear, but a feeling closer to the exhilaration a hunter feels watching their prey take its first step into a trap.

The perfectly controlled muscles of his face twitched minutely. I could see just how desperately he was clinging to his reason. He would move. He had to. Now that his perfect mask had been ripped away and his family’s honor dragged through the mud, he would lose his composure and strike like a snake. And I already knew which path he would take.

“Elly, are you okay? You look pale.”

Chloe whispered beside me, her face full of concern. Her genuine worry pricked my heart for a moment, but I quickly composed my expression. For the person I was now, pure friendship was a luxury, and perhaps even a poison that could endanger Chloe. All I needed was cold, hard calculation. I deliberately tore my gaze away from Cassian and gave Chloe a faint smile.

“No, I’m fine. It’s just… such a shocking article. Should we find our seats? It’s getting too noisy to eat.”

To deliberately grate on his nerves, I acted as if I knew nothing, casually linking my arm with Chloe’s and walking deeper into the dining hall. The stare boring into my back was as sharp as a blade, but I didn’t look back once.

It was just as I’d predicted. For the rest of the morning, Cassian hovered around me. He didn’t approach me directly, but in the lecture hall corridors and on the garden paths, his eyes were always on me. It was no longer the tender gaze that had once whispered of love. It was the eye of a viper—a dark, persistent stare, waiting for the right moment to sink its fangs into my neck. Knowing his intentions perfectly, I willingly walked onto the stage he had set. When the last lecture ended and everyone was heading back to the dorms, I made an excuse about returning a textbook and headed for the most deserted place in the ‘Academy: the Old Archives.’ The creak of old wooden floors, the air thick with the smell of dust and mothballs. The deep shadows cast between the shelves seemed like a stage prepared just for him. Sure enough, just as I reached the deepest part of the archives…

Thud.

A heavy sound echoed from behind me as the door was shut and bolted. My heart sank, but I didn’t let it show as I slowly turned around. There, just as I had expected, stood Cassian de Argen. He was no longer smiling the gentle smile of a socialite. His perfectly coiffed silver hair was a mess, and his well-pressed uniform was wrinkled. His amber eyes blazed with fury and humiliation, and he was breathing heavily, like a cornered beast.

“This was your doing, Eliana.”

His voice, stripped of its mask, was rougher and lower than any I had ever heard from him. I widened my eyes, putting on the most innocent face in the world. This was my greatest weapon: my delicate appearance, and the pure, naive girl he remembered from the past.

“What are you talking about, Cassian? Why did you suddenly lock the door?”

“Don’t play dumb!”

He strode forward. The narrow space between the bookshelves seemed to fill with his rage.

“No one else could have leaked that garbage to the press! The Marques pigment? The red vine berry oil? How… How in the world did you know about that?”

His voice was filled with anger, but underneath it, I could hear a clear note of fear. The fear of having his family’s deepest secret exposed to the world by an unknown party. I decided to provoke that fear even further.

“Know what? Why are you asking me about something you did, Cassian?”

I took a step back, looking at him with eyes full of contempt and disappointment.

“So the newspaper article was true. Your family… you really were involved in forgery? How could you? I trusted you…”

My words were like oil on a fire.

“Shut up!”

Cassian finally lost all control. He closed the distance in an instant and grabbed my arm roughly. A searing pain shot through my wrist, as if the bone would break under his grip.

“Trust? You dare pity me? All of this is because of you… because you stood in my way!”

His face was inches from mine. In his eyes, I no longer saw the gentle lover from my past, but a completely unfamiliar beast.

“I’m warning you. If you ever stand in my way again, it won’t be the guillotine. I’ll snap your neck right here.”

That was the moment. As if I had been waiting for it, I twisted my wrist against the Argen family signet ring on his hand. The hard, sharp edge of the crest dug into my soft skin. Slice. A line of blood bloomed on my white wrist. Cassian looked momentarily startled, but I didn’t give him an opening.

“Aah!”

I screamed, a sound loud enough to shake the archives, and ripped my hand away from his grasp.

“What are you doing, Cassian! What did I do wrong! How… how could you do this!”

My performance was flawless. Real tears streamed from my eyes like waterfalls, and my voice was that of a victim, choked with betrayal and shock. Bang! Bang! Bang!

“What’s going on! Is someone in there?”

“Did you just hear a woman scream?”

Just in time, other students passing by heard my scream and began pounding on the door. Everything was going according to my plan. Cassian’s face was a mask of horror. He seemed to finally realize what he had done and what kind of trap he had fallen into. But it was too late. Sobbing, I stumbled back and ran to the door. With trembling hands, I unlatched the bolt and threw the door open. A crowd of worried students stood outside. And what they saw was me, crying with blood trickling from my injured wrist, and behind me, the menacing, threatening figure of Cassian. A dramatic contrast. A perfect tableau.

“Cassian… did that to Eliana…”

“Gods, her arm is bleeding…”

Whispers spread through the corridor like wildfire. Cassian couldn’t offer a single excuse. He could only stare blankly, his gaze shifting between the blood on his own hand and the wound on my wrist. I had exposed his violent nature to the world, burying him once more, this time socially. Instantly, a new rumor swept through the Academy.

[Cassian de Argen, taking his anger about the newspaper article out on a female student who isn't even his fiancée, resorted to violence.]

The honor of the Argen family had now fallen to a point beyond recovery. A cold satisfaction washed over me, and I smiled faintly all the way to the infirmary.

***

That evening, I dragged my exhausted body back to my dorm room. The day’s commotion and acting had taken a greater mental toll than I’d expected. But my heart felt lighter than ever. The first step of my revenge had been an unequivocal success. However, an unexpected guest was standing in front of my door. His eyes met mine, and he bowed his head mechanically. Neat brown hair, and dark green eyes from which no emotion could be read. His appearance was plain enough to go unnoticed among the flamboyant nobles, but his sturdy build and disciplined posture told me he was no ordinary man. I recognized him. The man who had stood like a shadow behind Rixian de Valois at the auction house last night. The second-in-command of the Special Investigations Unit, Leo Baumann. He opened his mouth, his face impassive.

“You are Miss Eliana Bester?”

I hid my tension and nodded.

“Yes, I am.”

“His Grace the Duke wishes to hear the answer regarding the ‘old book in the Academy library.’”

My heart plummeted. The thought that the time had come crossed my mind, and I waited for his next words. Leo Baumann looked me straight in the eye and continued, as if reciting a line.

“I must ask you to accompany me.”

The blood in my veins seemed to run cold.

‘The old book in the Academy library.’

It was the lie I had told Rixian last night. He hadn’t believed me. No, he must have been suspicious from the start, digging into my background. He couldn’t possibly be unaware of this morning’s newspaper article and the incident with Cassian. I knew I couldn’t refuse. His summons was not an invitation, but a command that could not be denied.

A short time later, I found myself not at the Academy, nor at the Valois duchy, but in the deepest part of the Imperial Palace, a place I had entered after passing through heavy security. It was the ‘Secret Appraisal Chamber,’ where the Imperial family’s secret artifacts were stored and appraised, a place never before opened to an outsider. Rixian de Valois stood there alone. Without even looking back at me, he was staring down at a large velvet table in the center of the room. Scattered across it were the shattered fragments of a mirror. The silver frame was tarnished black, and the hundreds of broken pieces made it difficult to even guess its original form. But a faint, sacred aura emanating from each shard proved that this was no ordinary object. ‘The first Empress’s Mirror…’ A memory from my past life flashed through my mind. The so-called ‘cursed holy relic’ that no one had been able to restore. A notoriously difficult artifact, shrouded in grim rumors that every craftsman who attempted to fix it had met with an unknown misfortune. Just then, Rixian finally turned to look at me. His blue eyes were devoid of any emotion, which made them all the more menacing. His gaze flickered briefly to my bandaged wrist, but he asked nothing about it. His indifference was like that of someone looking at a stone on the road. He spoke, his voice as cold as ice.

“Was the source of your information truly a single old book?”

His question pierced through everything—my exposé at the auction, the article under the name ‘Veritas,’ and my scheme against Cassian. He had connected all the dots, drawn a line, and seemed almost certain that I stood at the end of it. I remained silent. Any more clumsy lies won’t work on him. He seemed to take my silence as an affirmation, and the corner of his mouth lifted slightly. It was less a smile and more the mark of a predator who had driven its prey into a trap.

“Cut the pointless lies. You have two choices, Eliana Bester.”

He gestured toward the broken mirror.

“First, you prove your value. Restore that mirror perfectly. If you succeed, I will give you the opportunity to make a deal with me.”

His voice grew even lower, more chilling.

“Second, you refuse and pay a visit to my unit’s interrogation chamber. We have many ways of making even the most stubborn lips talk there. The source of your information, the details of your little revenge plot, and the truth your eyes can see… all of it.”

His words were a clear threat, and an offer I couldn’t refuse. He wasn’t demanding that I prove my identity. Instead, he was telling me to prove my ‘value’ and show that I was worthy of making a ‘deal’ with him. If I were an ordinary Academy student, I would have crumbled in terror. But I wasn’t. I met his gaze directly, without flinching. In his eyes, I saw not only danger, but also opportunity. Rixian de Valois, the Mad Dog of the Empire. He could become the most powerful weapon for my revenge, or the most dangerous enemy who could slit my throat. There was no choice. I had to survive, and I had to complete my revenge. To do that, I had to at least pretend to take his hand. I slowly bowed my head. It was not a bow of submission, but a knight’s pledge before another war was to begin.

“…When do I begin the restoration, Your Grace?"