Chapter 841: From Knights To Fangirls

The question hung in the air.

None of them answered immediately. They all had pensive looks on their faces, genuinely considering the question.

Skadi scratched the back of her ear, looking completely panicked.

"U-Um! Master, that’s...that’s a super unfair question! You’re both so amazing! I can’t choose!"

Aisha looked away nervously, clearing her throat.

"Yeah, Cassius...Big Sis guided my spear work for years and taught me how to read enemy mana flows...but you’re...well, you’re you."

"Big Sis didn’t just guide me." Julie said, her voice carrying a weight the others’ lacked. "She mentored me."

"Of course, I already had a foundation in swordsmanship from my family—I had mentors, training, everything a noble daughter could ask for."

"But I consider Big Sis my primary mentor."

She met Cassius’s eyes. "Before she was sent to the mines, she came to my family’s estate. She trained me personally for six months. In that half-year, I learned more than in all my previous years of training combined."

"Everything I am as a warrior today...I owe to those lessons."

She thought of the distant past before finally concluding,

"Both of you are monstrous when it comes to combat, Cassius. I genuinely can’t make that judgment. It’s like asking whether fire or lightning burns hotter."

Rather than offending him, her inability to choose only stoked Cassius’s curiosity further.

These three knew exactly how formidable he was. The fact that they couldn’t decisively name him the superior instructor spoke volumes about Ragnora.

Aisha, perhaps sensing the need to change the subject, clapped her hands together.

"And there’s more! She didn’t just teach individual combat—she created entire formations for the army."

"Formations?" Cassius spun to face Aisha. "Isn’t that work for strategists and tacticians?"

"That’s the thing!" Aisha’s tail was a blur of excitement. "Big Sis wasn’t just a commander. She was also a brilliant strategist!""

"She developed formations from scratch—completely original tactical arrangements that multiplied the army’s effectiveness."

She listed them on her fingers.

"Mountain terrain? She had a formation for that!"

"Underground in the mines? She had a formation for that!"

"Fighting monsters versus fighting human enemies? Different formations entirely!"

"She basically adapted to every situation!"

"The formations she created are famous across the whole continent, Master!"

Skadi added, not wanting to be left out when it comes to praising Ragnora.

"Other stinky noble houses, even other races, have copied them. And she doesn’t mind at all! She freely shares her knowledge!"

"She’s said that as long as warriors can protect what they love, she’s satisfied."

"That’s..." Cassius shook his head. "Most commanders guard their tactical innovations jealously. They’re military secrets, advantages to hoard. She just gives them away?"

"For the sake of protecting others?" Skadi smiled softly. "Yes. That’s Big Sis is!"

The respect Cassius felt was deepening into something more profound.

A warrior who could shatter armies with her bare hands, yet chose to spend her genius on protecting lives.

A strategist who gave away her secrets freely, because keeping others safe mattered more than keeping an advantage.

And Aisha wasn’t finished.

"There’s also the administrative work." She said, with the tone of someone adding one more impossible thing to an already impossible list.

"She went through every internal record she could access. Financial reports, supply manifests, payroll documentation."

"And soon, she found where money was being skimmed, where rations were being diverted, where the distribution of pay was unequal across different units."

She met Cassius’s eyes, enjoying his reactions thoroughly.

"And she rooted all of it out. Every single source of corruption, every imbalance, every place where the warriors who were risking their lives were receiving less than they were owed. She fixed it."

"So, she was also running internal audits." Cassius muttered under his breath, not expecting her to also be a talented accountant.

"And don’t forget how she improved the supply chain!" Julie said cheerfully, as if this were simply a natural extension of everything else.

"She redesigned how rations were distributed across the entire mine area—which is massive, you understand, not just a single location—and managed to improve the quality of what people were receiving while actually bringing the overall cost down."

"More for everyone, less spent simultaneously!"

Cassius opened his mouth, closed it, and then said, with sincere bewilderment,

"Is there anything she couldn’t do?"

"We haven’t found it yet!" Skadi said brightly.

"And she wasn’t done..."

Aisha continued, a smile playing at the corner of her mouth as she watched Cassius’s expression cycle through increasing degrees of disbelief.

"She restructured the entire deployment system. The mines cover a genuinely vast territory, and before she arrived, the distribution of warriors across that territory was inconsistent—some areas overstaffed, others dangerously thin."

"She built a proper hierarchy from scratch."

"Two-person pairs, small teams, larger units, full brigade sections—each level with its own chain of command, its own communication protocols, its own escalation procedures."

"So that any threat, anywhere on the estate’s territory, could be identified, reported, and responded to in a coordinated way without everything having to flow through a single point."

She sat back and took a sip of water.

"And then she tested it. Ran drills. Found the gaps, adjusted the structure, tested it again. Kept going until it worked the way she needed it to."

The room was quiet except for the soft sound of Skadi also sitting back down in her chair.

Cassius looked at the three of them for a long moment. Then, slowly, he said:

"She sounds less like a person and more like an God of War, who was born to command a army."

All three of them laughed with the particular warmth of people who had been thinking something very similar for a very long time and were glad to finally hear someone else say it.

"That’s basically what she is at this point." Julie said, still smiling. "The Blood and Iron Brigade is inseparable from her. Every structure, every formation, every system they use—it came from her mind. She didn’t just lead them. She built the entire framework they live inside."

"And they love her for it." Aisha added, her voice quieter now.

"That’s the thing people outside don’t always understand. She didn’t just make them stronger or better organized."

"She made them safe. She reduced how many of them died. She made sure they were fed properly and paid fairly. She trained them so thoroughly that the threats that used to take lives stopped taking lives."

Her ears dipped slightly. "For warriors, there is no greater gift than a commander who brings people home. And they know she’s the reason more of them came home than would have otherwise."

Cassius sat in silence for a moment, letting the full scope of Ragnora’s achievements sink in.

Frontline God of War, master martial instructor, brilliant grand strategist, incorruptible administrator, and beloved leader.

The woman wasn’t just a commander. She was an absolute force of nature.

A slow smirk spread across Cassius’s lips as he rested his chin on his intertwined fingers.

"Sounds like my father handed me an absolute masterpiece of a commander."

Cassius murmured softly, his crimson eyes gleaming with cold, intense interest.

"And if a woman like that is asking the Holy Guard for help...then whatever is happening at those mines right now must be truly magnificent."

"We’ll talk about the official report later, Cassius!"

Julie said firmly, crossing her arms over her chest.

"We haven’t even touched on the individual stories about Big Sis Ragnora yet!"

Cassius blinked, utterly baffled. "Individual stories? You mean there’s more?"

"Of course there’s more!" Aisha chimed in with a triumphant smirk, leaning over the desk. "We’ve only been talking about her ties to the Blood and Iron Brigade till now!"

She leaned forward, her eyes gleaming with mischief.

"We haven’t even told you about her own achievements. The things she’s done on her own, outside of her duties."

Skadi bounced on her heels, her tail wagging furiously.

"Like how she’s constantly helping everyone all over the continent! No matter their race! No matter where they’re from!"

Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she leaned forward.

"There was this one time, Master—a massive earthquake struck the dryad kingdom years ago! And when Big Sis heard about it, knowing that the dryads were going through a disaster, she didn’t hesitate for even a second."

"She left her post immediately and went straight to the dryad kingdom!"

Her eyes sparkled as she recounted the story.

"She helped save so many lives that were trapped under the massive trees that had completely collapsed and buried everyone! She personally dug through tons of earth with her bare hands to find the dryads that were buried underneath."

"She didn’t stop until every single survivor was pulled out! So cool! So cool! She’s so damn cool!"

"Oh, and don’t forget fifteen years ago!"

Julie added quickly, her eyes wide as she paced back to the desk.

"The holy elven canopy caught fire! Their sacred, ancient trees were burning down, and the entire forest was about to turn to ash."

"Do you know what Big Sis Ragnora did?"

Julie slammed her palms together with a loud—CLAP!—that made the air in the room pop.

"She just stepped into the inferno and clapped her hands!"

Julie declared, her tone full of dramatic awe.

"The raw shockwave from her hand-clap alone blew out half the forest fire instantly! She just walked around, clapping her hands here and there, snuffing out massive wild infernos with sheer atmospheric pressure!"

"The elves practically worshipped her after that incident" Skadi said, her tail swishing with pride. "They still speak of her as their savior."

"Some of the elder dryads also wanted to give her a name in their own language, a title of honor that they’d never given to anyone outside their race before."

"Did she accept it?" Cassius asked.

"She declined politely." Aisha said, smiling. "She said she hadn’t done anything that any decent person wouldn’t do given the same capability, and that she didn’t deserve to be celebrated simply for showing up."

Julie nodded, her expression settling into something deeper—genuine reverence.

"That’s simply who Big Sis Ragnora is. She doesn’t just protect her own people or her own territory. If anyone is suffering, if anyone is in danger, she steps in without a second thought. It doesn’t matter who they are or where they come from."

Cassius couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him. "She sounds like some kind of superhero."

Skadi’s ears twitched. She tilted her head, confusion written across her features.

"Super...hero?" She separated the syllables as if tasting an unfamiliar delicacy.

Then her face lit up with sudden understanding.

"Superhero! Yes! That’s the perfect word for her, Master! A superhero who always saves everyone!"

"And she doesn’t just protect the innocent."

Aisha added, her grin taking on a slightly more mischievous edge.

"She also has a talent for putting extremely arrogant individuals firmly in their place."

Julie covered her mouth, clearly already anticipating where this was going.

"What do you mean?" Cassius asked.

"There was this one time an arrogant member of the Dragon race decided to cause trouble near the mining territory. The dragons, you see, have always been rather...haughty. They genuinely believe they’re the strongest beings in existence."

She tapped her chin thoughtfully, then turned to Julie.

"Wait—wasn’t that person actually..."

Julie’s lips curved into a slow, almost wicked smile.

"It was your uncle, Cassius."