Chapter 6: Nightfall and new discoveries – Cassis

After they had rescued Violet’s mother, Cassis decided that they should all go to sleep—to escape the burning questions in his family’s eyes. They agreed, exhaustion settling deep into their bones. The second floor had three bedrooms and one bathroom. They could barricade the stairs leading upwards and take refuge in the separate rooms: his parents in their master bedroom, Liam with Violet and her mother in his room, and Cassis with Arianna in his childhood room.

Liam and their mother protested against Cassis keeping watch alone, but he didn’t trust them yet to notice any approaching monsters in time. After some back and forth, he relented, allowing them to take the last third of the night shift together. That seemed to satisfy them, and soon they all went about settling in.

Together, Cassis and his mother carried his father to bed. Liam picked up Violet’s mother and placed her in his own bed, while he opted to sleep on his bean bag chair. Violet curled up beside her mother on the queen-sized mattress. Cassis only had a single bed, having moved out at eighteen, while Liam still lived at home despite being twenty-three.

Once everyone was situated, Cassis lifted Arianna into his arms, carrying her to his bed. He kept the blanket wrapped around her carefully. She remained asleep, her breathing soft and steady. He placed her down before getting up and barricading the upper part of the stairs with his and Liam's desks. Tired he came back to his childhood room and settled into his old desk chair, ready to stand guard.

His mother and brother came by to say goodnight. Before they retreated to their rooms, Cassis cautioned them against turning on the lights or making any loud noises. Even a small mistake could attract unwanted attention.

Cassis wasn’t sure how well they’d sleep, but at least in each room, there was someone capable of fighting. That was the best they could do for now.

As the house grew quiet, he took the opportunity to clean the poker, wiping off the dried blood as old habits resurfaced. Then, curiosity overtook him, and he pulled up his status page.

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Status

* Name: Cassis Walker

* MS (Mana Saturation): 2%

* Race: Human

* Rank: F

* Features: Awareness (basic), Mana Perception (basic), Stamina Capacity (low)

* Unique: None

* Level: 3

* Class: None

* Skills: None

* Ability:

* Elemental Affinity: Unlocked, to be discovered

* Unique: None

* Spells: None

* Titles: [The One Who Returned]

* Patron: None

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Unlike in many games, there were no hp and mp, no stats or points to upgrade himself. Mana Saturation could be raised by building a mana circuit within the body, which would make him stronger even at his current rank. He mused over this—he would have to form a mana circuit soon, but it was too dangerous to attempt during the first wave of monsters. He already knew his elemental affinity from his last life: Fire. The system wouldn’t acknowledge it until he “discovered” it again. To do so, he needed to become aware of fire mana in his surroundings. He had to table this, too, as he didn't have the time and security to work on sensing mana. Before reaching E-rank, he wouldn’t be able to actively manipulate it anyway, but he could start sensing it now through meditation. That would help him later.

The title [The One Who Returned] was new. He could guess what it was, but he selected it and read:

Given to an awakener who did the impossible and returned to the past.

Bonus: Faster skill and spell acquisition and growth due to past life experiences and knowledge

That was pretty much what he thought. The bonus was nice, as grinding skills and spells was difficult, to say the least.

However, his next goal was reaching Level 5 and obtaining a basic class.

He already knew which one he would pick—Warrior.

That was his fighting style.

If he had a sword, he’d fight even better, but beggars couldn’t be choosers. For now, the poker would have to do.

Cassis sat in silence, turning plans over in his mind for hours. His thoughts only ceased when he noticed Arianna stirring, her breathing shifting as her body slowly awoke from deep sleep. Cassis immediately pushed himself up from the chair and moved to her side, kneeling on the floor. As soon as her eyes fluttered open, he leaned over her, his expression shadowed with concern.

"What were you thinking?" he whispered, his voice low but firm. "Running headfirst into danger like that? What if something had gone wrong? What if you'd gotten yourself killed?"

Arianna blinked at him, still groggy, but as she processed his words, a small smirk tugged at her lips. "Nice to see you too, Cassis."

He exhaled sharply, shaking his head. "I'm serious, Ari. You took a huge risk. That potion—what if it hadn’t worked? What if something had gone wrong? You could have died, or worse."

Her smirk faded slightly, but the teasing light in her eyes remained. "Worse than dying? Do tell."

He scowled at her. "You know what I mean. You don’t know what kind of consequences your actions might have in this world. You shouldn’t have—"

"—Saved your father’s life?" she interrupted, raising an eyebrow. "Because I’d do it again in a heartbeat, Cassis. And you know it."

His jaw tightened. He wanted to argue, to tell her that she should have let him handle it, that she didn’t need to throw herself into danger like that—but he couldn’t. Because she was right. He had been incapacitated at that moment. He needed to do better.

Instead, he let out a long breath and finally muttered, "Thank you... for saving him."

Arianna smiled, a warm, almost smug expression. "See? Was that so hard?"

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Cassis rolled his eyes, choosing not to dignify that with a response. Instead, he filled her in on everything that had happened while she had been unconscious—Violet’s situation, how it came to be that the orc attacked his house, how they had saved Violet’s mother by making her an awakener, but her still needing a potion to heal all the way.

Arianna’s eyes brightened at that. "This is great!" she said, sitting up a little more. "You’re finally overcoming your loner status. Helping other people is the first step." She grinned at him like a proud parent, and Cassis felt something in his chest tighten—discomfort, embarrassment... something else he didn’t want to examine too closely. And a vaguely insulted feeling was there, too. He was 42 years old, at least mentally, and she only 27.

She must have noticed, because her grin turned mischievous. "Aw, don’t tell me you’re getting all sentimental on me. Cassis, are you blushing?"

He scowled. "Shut up."

She chuckled, clearly enjoying herself before her expression turned more serious. "Cassis... do you remember the future?"

His body tensed. "What?"

"You’ve had some slip-ups," she pointed out. "You knew how to fight too well for someone from a peaceful world, you knew about my potions, you didn’t deny your whole ‘lone wolf’ thing. And when you awakened, you said you were ‘the same again.’ So, tell me the truth. Do you remember?"

His thoughts raced, but outwardly, his expression remained blank. Poker face on. He considered his options, then finally settled on a mix of truth and deception.

"Yes," he admitted. "I remember the future. After our fight, you disappeared. The world almost fell apart four years later. By then, the seventh wave was about to hit, and only a few A-rank and S-rank warriors were left. Avaria was doomed. So, I went into an S-rank dungeon, thinking I’d go out in a blaze. I fought a dragon and then found the strangest artifact: a wishing lamp. Seeing hope, I wished to save my world. Next thing I knew, I was back at the start of the apocalypse, fourteen years in the past. Everything happened as I remembered—until you appeared. The rest, you know."

Arianna frowned, clearly mulling over his words. Something about his story felt off, but she couldn’t quite place it. Then she focused on one particular detail. "So, I really died in that car accident, huh? Otherwise, I wouldn’t have disappeared on you."

Cassis’s face darkened. He said nothing. In hindsight he should have know something bad had happened to her. She was his patron and only companion, after all.

Arianna studied him for a moment, but let it go. Instead, she asked, "But why am I here?"

He shamelessly shrugged. "No idea. But now we need to plan for the future. Last time, the first wave lasted for forty-eight hours. Around seven hours should have passed by now. I need to get stronger and reach level five. So tomorrow, I’ll go out and hunt some monsters. You guys will be safe as long as you don’t move around too much or make noise."

Arianna narrowed her eyes at him. "You dimwit! You’re trying to do everything alone again! I’m coming with you, obviously. I want to get stronger too."

Cassis opened his mouth to protest but stopped himself when he saw her determined expression. Why was she so damn cute when she was angry? He shook his head, startled by his own thoughts. Where had that come from? Still, he had to admit—she was right. He was trying to do things differently this time. Having a competent companion wouldn’t be a bad thing.

"Are you still a patron?" Cassis asked.

Arianna nodded. "Yeah, I think I can even do the exclusive contract with you again. That would be best, because the patron shop has become quite expensive for some reason. The potion for your father cost double the amount of points. If we enter a contract, I get a fifty percent discount on certain items. Potions are included in that. Want to enter into the contract now?"

Before he could say anything, a system message appeared.

[Chaotic Deity and Fallen Patron Arianna wishes to enter into an exclusive contract with you. Do you want to become her avatar?]

Cassis frowned. "Weren’t you a virtuous deity?" And what was up with ‘fallen patron’? Was that his fault too? He clenched his fists while guilt burned inside him. What did that mean for her?

She answered, "Well, according to the system message, I became a fallen patron when I killed the goblin because I directly interfered with the mortal world. And it seems killing a sentient being—since every F- and E-rank monster seems to be classified as one—didn’t go well with being virtuous. The system took away all my VP and made me into a chaotic deity. Can you believe that? Now I get points for all sorts of weird things, like killing sentient beings, but also for saving mortals. And it said something about keeping balance on my alignment. I need to read through my status sometime soon." She shrugged her shoulders, not too concerned about her new status.

Cassis, on the other hand, felt worse and worse listening to her. This was definitely his fault. But he couldn’t change it now. It seemed she now got points for both virtuous and evil deeds. The balance thing concerned him, but they didn’t know enough about it yet. Ignoring yet another issue—he was really getting good at that—he had another thought.

"Are you only a deity? Or are you also an awakener? Your strength definitely increased after you killed the goblin."

Arianna got that faraway look people had when checking their status. "I’m also an awakener, or more precisely, I have a pseudo-awakener physique. I have no idea what that means, but my status screen looks the same as yours except for the ‘?’ behind the race: human. Oh, nice! I’m already level two, and from how it feels, I should be level three soon. My mana saturation is at three percent already. Nice!"

Now Cassis was somewhat jealous. His MS was only at two percent. He definitely wasn’t telling her that.

"Great. After the wave ends, we can work on our mana circuits. But wouldn’t it be strange if I had a patron called Arianna and a companion called Arianna? That could make people suspicious. Can we give your patron persona a different name? A nickname maybe?"

Cassis crossed his arms, his gaze flickering between Arianna’s bright blue eyes and the matching gemstone resting against her collarbone. The sapphire pendant seemed to catch the dim light, sparkling in a way that felt almost… alive.

"What about Sapphire?" he suggested.

Arianna stilled, her fingers instinctively reaching up to touch the necklace. "How did you come up with that name?" Her voice was quieter than before, almost wary.

Cassis shrugged, trying to ignore the strange shift in the air between them. "Your eyes and your necklace. That’s a sapphire, isn’t it?"

She nodded slowly, her grip tightening around the pendant. "Yeah… It is." She hesitated, then sighed. "This necklace is special. I picked it up at an antique store when I was seventeen. It just… I don’t know, called to me." A small, self-deprecating chuckle escaped her lips. "I blew my whole allowance for the month on it. But I had this feeling—I had to get it, no matter what."

She glanced up at him, expression unreadable. "That night, I went to bed wearing it, and that was the first time I dreamt of you."

Cassis stiffened. "Me?"

She nodded again, rubbing her thumb over the smooth gemstone. "At first, it was just glimpses through a blue screen in a black room. You were always there, but you never noticed me, even when I talked to you. You totally ignored all the text messages the system sent you.” She glared at him. “Then, one night, I got so frustrated that I—" She let out a breathy laugh. "I yelled at you. But of course, you ignored me again. It was just me screaming into the void."

Something about that image unsettled him. He could almost see it—a girl trapped in a dream, screaming for someone who never turned around.

Arianna swallowed. "Then, the next night, the necklace glowed. And suddenly… you could hear me, not just the text messages, but my voice." She shook her head, expression distant. "It must be some kind of magical artifact. But I have no idea how it ended up in my world. My world doesn’t have mana. No magic, no monsters, no special abilities." Her lips quirked up slightly. "Just boring normality."

Cassis exhaled, processing everything she had just told him. Their connection had started because of a pretty piece of jewelry. That necklace… it had bridged the gap between their worlds – Avaria and Earth.

Arianna looked down at the sapphire in her hand. "But I like the name," she admitted. "Let's go with that. My patron persona will be Sapphire."

Cassis gave her a small nod, but inside, something gnawed at him. That necklace. That connection.

Just what kind of fate had tied them together?