The immortal witch

"Spare me the pointless talk. I don't want to waste time."

C.C smiled and said:

"What an impatient child."

Seeing that C.C was still in the mood to smile and tease him, he grew wary, wondering what other tricks she had up her sleeve.

But C.C saw right through him.

"Don't bother thinking about it. You covered your tracks well. No one knows where I went."

Ask didn't take her word for it, though he did trust Jeremiah to keep things discreet.

Then a possibility occurred to him.

"I hear you've lived for a very long time, yet you still look like a woman in her prime, and your skin seems to be at its best. Why is that?"

Ask gave a delighted smile, which made C.C uneasy.

"What are you planning to do?"

Ask took the short knife from Monica and tore C.C's straitjacket apart, bit by bit.

"You-!"

C.C glared at Ask in anger, but she couldn't stop him.

Soon, her body was exposed to the chill of the cell. Her torso leaned forward, her hands and feet bound in chains, as she faced Ask in a pose that made desire hard to suppress.

"That's a much better expression. You looked practically robotic when you were so composed earlier. Now you look more like a woman."

"Does the leader of the Radical Faction, one of the three major factions, resort to such filthy methods? And a prince of Britannia, at that."

Ask smiled in delight. He was very pleased with C.C's expression.

"As long as I achieve my goal, the methods don't matter."

Seeing that her words had no effect on Ask, C.C gritted her teeth.

"You think you can make me submit with this?!"

"We won't know until we try."

Ask gave a cold laugh and examined C.C's naked body. Even he was amazed by its perfection. It was incomparably better than the bodies of the women in the imperial family.

Then Ask drew the short knife across her arm, and blood immediately welled up.

But he hadn't cut very deep or touched an artery. It was only a shallow wound.

Throughout it all, C.C's expression never changed. She kept glaring angrily at Ask, as though she were already accustomed to all this.

Ask watched the wound. Within a few minutes, it had healed completely, without even a trace of a scar.

"Just as I thought."

Ask was beginning to believe the rumor: "She is an immortal, ageless witch."

"Is that what you wanted to confirm?!"

C.C's expression turned cold. Although she had taken part in many experiments, they had all concerned Geass. This was the first time anyone had experimented on her body, and she found it repulsive.

Ask leaned closer, lifted her bangs, and looked at the strange symbol on her forehead.

"Is this the symbol of Geass?"

C.C didn't answer. She stared coldly at Ask.

"Does everyone who possesses Geass have this symbol? Or is it some kind of special mark?"

Seeing that C.C still had no intention of answering, Ask sighed helplessly.

"Honestly, I'm very gentle with women, provided they don't defy my wishes."

Ask gripped her forehead with both hands.

C.C clenched her teeth desperately. Sweat trickled down her forehead as she forced herself to endure the physical pain, staring at Ask with hatred.

The way she bared her teeth made her look as though she wanted to skin Ask alive and devour him.

"Still not ready to talk?"

Ask didn't stop what he was doing. Instead, he pressed harder.

"Ngh..."

After about five minutes, C.C finally couldn't hold back any longer. She bit down hard on her lip, but faint sounds still escaped her.

Yet it still wasn't enough to make her talk.

Ask sighed.

"Come to think of it, you're an immortal, ageless witch, aren't you? We've confirmed that your wounds heal quickly, but we haven't confirmed whether you can return from the dead."

As he spoke, Ask gave Monica a meaningful look.

Monica understood. She drew a pistol from inside her clothes, and after they both put in soundproof earplugs and moved a safe distance away, she fired straight into C.C's forehead.

Bang!

The gunshot sounded especially loud in the cramped chamber, but the room was so well soundproofed that no one outside could hear a thing.

A bloody hole immediately appeared in C.C's forehead, and her head slowly drooped.

Ask checked her breathing and heartbeat. She was undoubtedly dead, but he was taking a gamble.

C.C had remained fearless, as though she had something to rely on. But Ask had confirmed that there were no hidden forces at work, and Jeremiah had checked thoroughly before coming here as well. So what exactly gave her the confidence to fear nothing?

Ask had staked his gamble on her "immortality." If she couldn't die, she had nothing to fear.

Time passed, second by second, while Ask kept his hand over her heart.

At that moment, time seemed particularly slow to Ask.

Monica stood tensely behind him without saying a word.

The atmosphere grew heavy. Cold sweat broke out on Ask's forehead, and keeping his arm raised was becoming tiring, but his hand remained motionless over C.C's heart.

Finally, after about five minutes, he felt C.C's heartbeat beneath his palm.

He was overjoyed. He knew his gamble had paid off, but he kept it off his face and wiped the sweat from his forehead. He couldn't let C.C see him in such an embarrassing state.

"..."

C.C's lips moved, but her eyes remained closed. She hadn't woken up and seemed to be talking in her sleep.

Ask brought his ear close to her mouth and listened carefully.

"..."

...? Was that her name? Or some important word?

Ask was puzzled. The word wasn't in his vocabulary.

"Mm... mm..."

C.C's brows twitched. It seemed she was about to wake up.

Ask hurriedly resumed his earlier posture and watched C.C with a smile.

C.C opened her eyes and looked at Ask before her. For a moment, she seemed confused, but her expression immediately returned to one of disgust.

"What a loathsome... boy!"

Ask chuckled twice.

"Women usually mean the opposite of what they say. If you say you hate me, that means you like me. It's an honor to have caught Lady C.C's eye."

C.C clicked her tongue.

"Tch. Not only do you twist words, you're full of yourself too. I don't remember Marianne teaching you any of this."

"Of course. It all came from the heart after I met the beautiful C.C."

C.C pursed her lips. She admitted she couldn't beat Ask in an argument, so she simply stopped talking.