NOVEL NEXT Chapter 385: Let Me Drown!
Nala'seyes lingered on Cassius's face, so close to hers she could feel the warmth of his breath. Her heart gave a strange flutter as a thought trickled through her mind, soft but insistent: her instincts hadn't been wrong.
This man really was interesting. More than interesting, he was easy. Easy to talk to, easy to bicker with, easy to...exist beside.
Normally, when she spoke, when she blurted out her eccentric thoughts or rambled on about something nobody else would dare to say, the air always grew heavy.
People smiled politely, nodded along, but their eyes betrayed the awkwardness, the discomfort. They never said it aloud, but she could feel it, the silent judgment, the recoil. Her honesty, her strange way of viewing things, always made others uneasy.
But here? With him? It wasn't like that at all.
She could say anything, anything, and instead of recoiling, he would simply one-up her. No awkward silence, no dismay, no pitying looks.
Just a man who smirked, bantered back, and made her nonsense feel...natural. Fun. She couldn't help but cling tighter with her tail, the coils firm around his legs, as if to anchor him there in case he slipped away.
And gods above, with how close they were right now...their faces just inches apart, their breaths mingling...it almost felt like one of those moments.
The kind of moment where two people kissed, where their lips simply brushed together because it was the natural thing to do.
The thought shot through her like lightning. Her cheeks flushed hot.
But then, just as quickly, she shoved the thought down, her eyes dropping to the long pale coil of her tail. A sigh ghosted past her lips.
"Someone like me…" She muttered to herself, bitterly. "Something like that would never happen."
But then, her entire body froze. Her mind backtracked. 'Wait. Wait a minute.'
'If he was alive now...if he had only been pretending to be dead...then—'
Her eyes widened in sheer horror. Slowly, almost mechanically, she turned her gaze back to him.
"Wait. Hold on a minute." Her voice cracked. "If you were really faking your death, just lying there on the ground...doesn't that mean you…" She gulped. "…you heard everything I said?"
Cassius tilted his head, brows furrowing in confusion. "Everything you said?"
And then the realization hit him too. His lips curled into a knowing smirk.
"Ohhh...that's what you mean." His eyes gleamed with mischief as he leaned in closer. "Well, you said so many things, Nala, I don't even know which part to bring up first."
Her cheeks burned as she immediately groaned, clutching her head. "Don't you dare—"
"Was it the part..." He interrupted smoothly. "...where you declared me your husband and yourself my grieving widow? Already planning to tell the world how your husband died heroically saving you?"
Her groan deepened, her face hiding in her hands.
"Or maybe it was the part where you decided I wasn't just your husband—oh no, I was also some kind of noble son. Filthy rich, powerful enough to talk to kings and queens whenever I wanted." He chuckled darkly. "Didn't know I'd been promoted while dead."
"Stop…" She whined, her cheeks blazing crimson.
"Or…" He leaned in so close his breath tickled her ear. "...maybe it was the fact that you wanted my babies."
Nala jolted, her entire body stiffening. "S-Stop! You don't need to say it out loud!"
But Cassius wasn't finished. His grin widened, utterly merciless.
"You didn't just want me to stuff my face in your breasts, no, that wasn't enough. You wanted me to fill your belly full of children. My children. That's what you really wanted, wasn't it?"
Her face was practically steaming now, her hands slapping over her ears. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
But Cassius leaned back, enjoying every second, his tone dropping into a mocking whisper.
"No, no, Nala, you're forgetting the best one. The most shameless one of them all."
His eyes glinted as he smirked.
"You wanted to use my corpse. To take advantage of my dead body. To make yourself pregnant with my child even after I'd supposedly passed on."
He shook his head in false disbelief.
"I'll admit I'm shameless, but that? That's a whole new level. You're the queen of shamelessness herself."
"...The snake girl who wanted to fuck a corpse."
Nala froze like a statue, her entire face red from the roots of her hair to the tips of her ears. Her mouth opened and closed, but no sound came out.
Cassius smirked, savoring her expression. "What's wrong, Nala? Nothing to say? Cat got your tongue?"
For a moment she just stared at him, her eyes wide, her body trembling. Then, suddenly, her finger shot out, pointing behind him.
Her voice rang loud, frantic. "L-Leviathan! It's a Leviathan! Oh no, it's back!"
Cassius, instinctively, turned his head. "What—"
But in that instant, her tail unraveled from him, and with one powerful whip of her coils she shot off across the grass toward the lake like a white streak.
But Cassius wasn't about to let her escape. He grinned, darted forward, and caught the very tip of her tail between his fingers.
"Where are you going, Nala?" He called after her, his voice playful and taunting. "We're having a conversation here, and you're running away? That's so rude."
"Let me go!" She wailed, thrashing and tugging at her tail. "Let me go! I want to die! I'm going to drown myself in the lake!"
Cassius laughed, tugging her back toward him like a fisherman reeling in a catch.
"I can't believe I said all that!" She cried, covering her face with both hands as she kicked against the grass. "That's too much, even for me! You weren't supposed to hear it! You weren't supposed to know!" Her voice cracked with despair. "The only way I can repent is if I die! Only then will my shame be washed away!"
Cassius, still grinning, dragged her closer despite her squirming. "Oh no, Nala. You don't get to run away now. You made your shameless declarations, and now you get to live with them. Every. Single. One."
"NOOO!" She shrieked, her voice carrying all the way across the quiet lake. "LET ME DROWN, YOU SNEAKY LITTLE SNAKE!"
Cassius only laughed at her shrill wail, his grip tightening on the tip of her tail as she tried to bolt for the lake. He tugged back slowly, steadily, reeling her in like she was nothing more than a stubborn fish caught on his line.
"What are you talking about, Nala?" He teased, voice rich with amusement. "Just let you go and drown yourself in the lake? Now that's something I could never do."
"...Especially since I'm your husband, after all. There's no way a husband can let his wife drown herself right in front of him."
The word husband struck her like a slap. She froze mid-struggle, her head turning slowly, eyes wide and stunned.
"…What did you just say?"
Husband. I said husband." Cassius grinned shamelessly. "Because that's what I am, isn't it? Your husband. You're the one who declared yourself my wife, remember? So it's only natural I'd be your husband in return."
Nala's entire face turned pale and red at the same time as she thrashed in renewed panic, shaking her head frantically.
"No, no, no, no! I didn't mean it like that! I wasn't serious! And you weren't supposed to hear what I said!" She clutched at her head in mortified anguish. "It was all a big misunderstanding!"
But Cassius just chuckled, tugging her another few feet closer until her hands clawed at the grass like a child refusing to be dragged to bed.
"Oh really? A misunderstanding, huh? Funny...it didn't sound like a misunderstanding to me."
Her groan of despair muffled into her palms, but Cassius leaned down close, his tone mockingly thoughtful.
"You know, I've heard of couples whose love was so strong they'd sacrifice their lives for each other without hesitation. Noble. Tragic. Beautiful." His smirk turned evil as he looked her dead in the eye. "But you? You're on another level entirely, Nala."
Her blush deepened as he continued, voice smooth and relentless.
"You weren't just willing to give me your heart, you were willing to ride my corpse just to get my babies. That's not sacrifice." He chuckled low, tugging her a little closer. "That's devotion. Twisted, sure. Completely shameless, absolutely. But still...there's something almost romantic about it."
"You wanted me so badly you couldn't bear to live without me, so you tried to take a part of me with you. That's...unforgettable."
Nala's groan of horror rose into a scream as she clutched her head with both hands, her tail flailing.
"No, no, no! You sneaky little snake! That's not what I meant at all!" She shook violently as though trying to shake the memory from existence. "I only said that out of desperation! It wasn't real! I didn't mean it! You wouldn't understand!"
Cassius smirked, tightening his grip on her tail to stop her from slipping away again. "Oh, I understand perfectly. And I'm grateful, truly. To be loved that much, even if it's in the most absurd, shameless way possible, it's flattering."
Her groan turned into a strangled squeak, her cheeks glowing like embers. "Shut up! Shut up, you infuriating man! I hate you!"
"And yet..." Cassius murmured, his smirk never fading. "...you still love me enough to commit to the most shameless declaration I've ever heard."
"LET ME DROWN!" She shrieked again, trying to wriggle away, only for him to tug her right back into his arms.