The morning sun filtered softly through the heavy velvet curtains of the secluded townhouse, casting long, golden lines across the disheveled silk sheets. After an incredibly intense night, the frantic, territorial storm within Sora's body had finally quieted. The raw, heavy dark mana that had saturated his veins was gently overridden and suppressed by his very own elemental and natural half-elven mana.
With his internal structures perfectly balanced, Sora sat up, testing his energy. The biological anomaly in his core was perfectly hidden. He realized with a small, quiet thrill that his concealment magic was fully operational again. If he wanted to, he could easily disguise himself as a commoner or a pregnant human woman to go shopping in the lower valley with Elias without a single soul realizing his true species.
His brief moment of morning bliss, however, was cut short.
Cassian sat on the edge of the mattress, fully dressed in his crisp, dark imperial uniform. He leaned closer, pressing a gentle, lingering peck against Sora's porcelain forehead.
"The Academy competition is finally coming up tomorrow and today is going to be quite a long day," Cassian murmured, his voice a cool, steady baritone as he adjusted his immaculate white gloves. "And as one of the core representatives of the Senior Elite Sector, I will be gone for a while, Sora. But listen to me: the moment I return, my focus will be entirely on you okay?, For now I will manage the paperwork, handle the council and the students. But once everything is done I will only focus on raising this bundle together, trust me."
'And, of course, finding the remaining ancient artifacts required to clear my final objective and go back to Earth,' Cassian added silently to his on thoughts. The corporate empire here was a magnificent tool, but his ultimate destination lay beyond this fictional chessboard.
But his parting words didn't put Sora at any ease. Instead, warped entirely by a volatile cocktail of half-elven hormones and intense codependency, the boy began to tremble violently. The sheets twisted in his white-knuckled grip.
"You are abandoning me, aren't you?"
Sora whispered, his raven eyes instantly filling with a profound, unhinged grief. "Because I am a liability... because my existence threatens your new crown—"
"Sora, no. Of course not," Cassian sighed, his corporate deadpan facade tightening slightly.
"My prince, you'll spend time with another people!" Sora cried out, the hormones completely hijacking his logic as hot tears spilled down his pale cheeks. He lunged forward, clutching at the lapels of Cassian's coat. "People who aren't pregnant like me! You'll have meetings, you'll have banquets, you'll have time with *them*... and I will be left here all alone in the dark to raise this child myself!"
"God, no!" Cassian groaned, throwing his hands up in sheer exhaustion.
"Elias will be right here to take care of you until I come back!, The whole area is locked! There are no other people to see—I am merely going to a mandatory school recreation event!"
Sora's eyes flashed with a desperate, childlike inspiration. "Then take me with you!"
"No, Sora. Are you crazy?!" Cassian hissed.
His voice suddenly dropped into a roaring, authoritative corporate tone, his crimson eyes flashing with a sharp, ancient malice that instantly echoed off the stone walls. The sudden spike of dark authority startled Sora completely. The half-elf flinched, pulling his hands back as he shrank into the pillows, trembling and sobbing in genuine fright.
Cassian closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as he let out a long, weary exhale.
'So pregnant people are completely the same across every universe,' he thought, his internal mercenary voice deadpanning in absolute despair.
'No amount of mystical elven blood changes basic maternal hysteria. This is a severe threat to my daily focus. And gods why do I have to experience this in every lifetime?, is it a must for me to have kids whether intentionally or unintentionally, in any manner and with anyone in every fucking timeline that I live through?....this is seriously absurd, truly!'
"Sweetheart....my beautiful Sora" Cassian murmured, softening his posture and leaning closer to pull the weeping boy back into his arms, gently rubbing his back through the silk sheets. "I will only be gone for three weeks. Just three weeks, Sora. And then I will come straight back to this house to take care of you."
Sora sniffled, his long elven ears twitching as he looked up through wet lashes, his lower lip quivering. "Is the reason why you won't take me with you... because I am pregnant? Your Highness, my core has completely stabilized. I can hide my pregnancy just fine. I can change my shape; no one will ever know. Please don't leave me here... I am really, really scared."
Cassian stared at the boy for a long, silent moment. His analytical mind ran the risk-benefit calculations.
'Leaving a volatile, unhinged half-elf alone in a townhouse for twenty one days might actually result in a massive psychological liquidation that could damage the child. But if Sora could truly disguise himself flawlessly then–...'
"Show me your disguises," Cassian commanded flatly.
Sora wiped his tears, a sudden, eager smile breaking through his grief. He slid out of bed, his natural mana swirling around his form like a shimmering, iridescent mist. Within seconds, the boy began cycling through a staggering database of identities.
First, a distinguished, elderly human scholar. Then, a rugged, middle-aged dwarven merchant. Then, a sharp-eyed beast-kin mercenary. But as the magic continued to shift, Sora began showcasing a multitude of incredibly beautiful, breathtakingly hot beings—both male and female—with flawless curves, striking jawlines, and an intense, seductive charm that defied natural laws.
*Drip.*
Cassian froze, his nose slightly bleeding. He slowly raised a white-gloved hand to his face and his fingers pulled back stained with a sudden, violent streak of crimson. His mind completely short-circuited as his head filled with an absolute, unhinged mountain of lust. The visual data was entirely outside his expected parameters.
"Wow..."
Cassian choked out, quickly wiping his nose with a silk handkerchief.
Sora giggled, the mist settling around him as he tilted his head playfully.
"So... can I come with you?"
Cassian cleared his throat, forcing his professional, deadpan mask back into place, though his eyes remained dilated. "Turn back to your human disguise... but make it the girl version of it. The face you used when we first met."
Sora nodded, his mana flashing one final time. The long elven ears vanished, the jawline softened into an exquisitely beautiful, raven-haired young woman with sharp, captivating human eyes and a slender, perfectly masked silhouette. It was the beautiful Sora from their first night, only that his body curved now into feminine features. Totally Cassian's type.
"Perfect," Cassian murmured, his eyes tracking the transformation with absolute satisfaction. "Totally perfect... Alright, then. From now on, you are an official transferred student from the southern provinces. A close, trusted friend of mine since childhood and you're from a distant noble house. Got it?"
Sora tilted her head, a playful pout forming on her new lips. "Why can't I just pose as your girlfriend, Your Highness?...I am your mate after all."
"For strict political reasons I can't, I'm sorry" Cassian countered smoothly, his corporate brain instantly flagging the legal compliance errors. "The Edrath Council and the high nobility will immediately demand to know your family lineage, your dowry, and your political backing. We don't need that audit. Your name stays exactly the same: Sora Curzon okay?"
Sora smiled, thoroughly pleased to have won the negotiation. She stepped closer, invading Cassian's personal space without a single shred of her previous fear. Leaning directly into the prince's ear, her soft, warm breath fanned against his cheek as she dropped her voice into a sultry, wicked whisper.
"Thank you, Your Highness, for indulging my wild whims," Sora purred, casting a sly, dangerous look over her shoulder as she winked. "And for that... I promise I'll pay you back generously the moment we are completely alone in the academy dorms. And in this form."
*****
The master bedroom of the secluded townhouse was quiet once more, save for the rustle of silk as Sora—now looking like an exquisitely beautiful, raven-haired young woman—began selecting tailored, mid-tier provincial robes from the wardrobe to solidify her new identity as a childhood friend.
Cassian stood near the vanity, pulling a fresh pair of pristine white gloves from his travel case. Bringing Sora along was risky, but it was far more optimized than leaving an unhinged half-elf behind to accidentally trigger a structural security breach at the estate.
The heavy double doors of the lower foyer opened silently as Cassian descended the grand staircase, Sora trailing exactly half a step behind him in perfect, modest compliance.
Sir Lucien Arden stood waiting near the carriage, his posture a rigid monument of silver-plated steel. The moment his ice-blue eyes tracked the unfamiliar, captivating female figure walking beside the prince, his holy mana spiked instinctively, a faint hiss of divine light flaring across his gauntlets before he recognized the specific, unmistakable frequency of Sora's natural mana underneath the glamour.
Lucien's jaw tightened, his gaze shifting directly to Cassian with a tense, unblinking intensity.
"Your Highness... the manifest for the Academy competition did not include a provincial transfer student. To introduce an unverified person into the core sector is an unnecessary operational hazard."
"Sora has been properly vetted and reclassified, Lucien," Cassian drawled, his voice a cool, deadpan baritone as he stepped into the carriage, not wasting a single unit of breath on a political debate. "Sora Curzon is joining the delegation as a personal childhood acquaintance under my direct crown sponsorship. Elias has already processed the academic paperwork. You will adjust the security perimeter to accommodate her presence as well. Please."
Lucien stood frozen for a fraction of a second, his internal jealousy flaring wildly as he looked at Sora, who offered the Knight Commander a small, thoroughly pleased and incredibly smug smile from beneath her hood. The realization hit Lucien like an iron weight—Cassian was completely rewriting the rules of his own empire to indulge this creature's whims.
But what could be possibly do?
"By your supreme command, Crown Prince," Lucien murmured, his voice dropping into a hollow, freezing note of absolute submission as he slammed the carriage door shut, locking the three of them into a new, incredibly dangerous academic game.
*****