The steward still felt as though smoke was coming out of his ears and didn’t even know how to reply to this question at all.
Bets? What bets? For what? Where would they even be at this point?
"Oh? You want to bet on ?" Urolius’ elder brother smiled brightly. "You have good taste."
"My husband, actually," Cassarae replied.
"Whoa. Aren’t we moving a little fast?"
Cassarae looked back toward the Thryskai and then down toward his crotch.
"I’m getting so weird energy from you. You’re more familiar with ’fast’ than you’re letting on."
The Thryskai blinked, then looked down at his crotch too.
"What a firecracker, this woman..." he mumbled beneath his breath.
Urolius burst into laughter, earning him a kick from his elder brother.
"Hey, hey, you’re taking it out on a bit too fast, aren’t you, Vaernon?"
"Haha, very funny." Vaernon reached forward and picked his little brother up by the back of the collar. "I’m glad to see that you’ve recovered from your injuries enough to make these silly little jokes. Hopefully Gianni doesn’t have to save your ass too much today."
Urolius froze, and then his eyes flashed with a deathly cold intent as though recalling Sylas.
"Don’t you worry, I’ll handle everything today. We won’t have to show off our trump card so easily."
"How nice of you."
Vaernon let go.
"Cassarae. With ." Wei stepped out from the gathering crowd and spoke with a cool deanor.
Giving the others a glance and a wink, Cassarae left, following Wei around a corner.
...
"What do you think you’re doing?" Wei asked slowly. Her aura didn’t leak much, but it was enough to make Cassarae feel especially small.
The power of a D-tier wasn’t small. The power of a D-tier that was both so close to the C-tier and a genius on Wei’s level... that was even more difficult to manage.
Cassarae stood to her full height. She towered over Wei even if she wore flat-soled shoes. However, height and power were two different things.
Even so, the fact Cassarae could bear to stand to her full height before Wei’s fury spoke volus about the strength of her Will.
"A gamble," Cassarae said calmly.
"Did you really co here to gamble on sothing like this? You must have used all your rit just to learn that this event was happening in the first place. Do you think that’s worth it?"
Cassarae had a great deal of rit from the Milky Way Branch, but she had wiped it all out just to learn of this event.
Information wasn’t free even to Petals of the Seeing Thorn mbers, even if it was discounted. And for rits from such a small corner of the universe, they would easily be wiped out by such high-caliber information.
Why would Cassarae trade all of those valuable rits for... Aether Stones? It didn’t make any sense.
Petals of the Seeing Thorn rits were worth way more than even C-Grade Aether Stones, and they couldn’t be traded for with money.
Information was power. And power couldn’t be bought... at least not the top-tier information, that is.
"You’re misunderstanding. My bet is against the Thryskai."
Wei’s eyes widened. "You—?!"
Cassarae coughed and took a step back. Wei reined in her power quickly enough, but the weight of her shock was heavy nonetheless. It felt like she was looking at a madwoman.
"What are you thinking?!" she hissed. "Do you know that these are direct orders from the Matriarch?! Her favorite daughter is the wife of Patriarch Kaelthar’s first son. Not the first son of a generation—his first son. Period. Do you know how important her position is here?! What the hell are you thinking?!"
Wei wasn’t even thinking about the betrayal just yet, or how Cassarae’s actions would certainly blow back on her.
"Hey, Wei. The man you love is in the Sanctum too, isn’t he?" Cassarae asked with a smile, having already regained her composure.
For the first ti, a truly dangerous light flashed in Wei’s eyes.
"Do you think you can use this to threaten ? The Thryskai aren’t aiming to destroy the Sanctum in the first place—they just want it as an additional pawn. If you’re this type of person as an F-tier, do you think I’d keep you by my side? I could kill you right here and now. No one would bat an eye."
"I assure you that my husband would certainly bat an eye," Cassarae said.
"No one knows who the hell your husband is," Wei hissed, her fury monts from bubbling over into a true tirade. If not for the fact they were still in public, she would have already lashed out with true force.
"Yet," Cassarae replied nonchalantly. "You see, he has a habit of gallivanting and skirt-chasing. I plan to teach him a lesson very soon, but first he’s going to have to help out of this predicant."
"Predicant?" Wei took a deep breath, exhaling. Sowhere deep inside, she began to "understand" that Cassarae was just a madwoman with hallucinations of grandeur. This was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. "Cassarae, what you’ve done here is ruin your life. Your mission was not nearly important enough to be a huge setback for the branch. Even if you wreaked all the havoc you could, you would gain yourself a few weeks at best. And since you ca back and exposed yourself so easily, you will get a few days instead."
"I guess we’ll see."
Wei almost lost herself to rage, but then she shook her head, a hint of sadness flashing in her eyes.
It was rare to find soone so straightforward in the organization. She thought she had found soone she could trust, only for Cassarae to stab her in the back too.
"Right now, you think that I’m only harming you. Maybe it’ll take a few years, but there’ll co a day where you thank for this," Cassarae said slowly.
Wei opened her mouth to retort, but another sound interrupted their conversation.
"The Beast Warlord Sanctum has arrived!"
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