Chapter 889: Romance In Every Day Life

PFFFFFT!

Cassius, who had just taken a casual sip of cold tea from a cup on the table, instantly spat it straight out, coughing violently.

"WHAT?! A slave trader?! YOU?!"

He knew slavery existed in this world. There was the legal form, criminals and prisoners of war sentenced to hard labor in state mines.

And the illegal, atrocious black-market trafficking of innocent people.

But the idea of anyone successfully capturing Ragnora was mind-boggling!

"How is that even possible?!" Cassius demanded, leaning forward. "By thirteen, your physical strength must have been terrifying! You’re telling me a band of slavers actually managed to overpower and capture you?!"

"Oh, no, no! Don’t misunderstand!" Ragnora said quickly, waving her hands. "It wasn’t like that! I actually...gave myself up to her voluntarily."

Cassius pulled back, utterly bewildered.

"You...surrendered yourself to a slaver?!"

"I was starving!" Ragnora groaned, leaning her head back against her chair in sheer embarrassment.

"I traveled for weeks trying to find physical labor jobs, but the pay was too low to buy the massive quantities of food I needed. I was dying of hunger!"

"Then I heard rumors about a famous female slave trader named Madam Verna."

She leaned in, explaining carefully. "Madam Verna ran a legal labor-slave operation, and word was that she treated her workers exceptionally well and kept them completely full and well-fed!"

"Out of pure desperation and starvation, I walked straight up to her, surrendered my freedom, and told her I would perform any physical labor she wanted—as long as it was legal, didn’t involve killing innocent people, and kept me fed."

Cassius rubbed his temples, equal parts amused and stunned.

"You traded your freedom for an all-you-can-eat buffet..."

"And she jumped at the offer!" Ragnora said with a small smile. "She saw my physical potential immediately. For three years, she assigned me to the most impossible construction, mining, and clearing missions—tasks that would take fifty men months to complete, I finished in days."

"In return, she kept her promise. She kept me fed and treated me with respect. I was legally her slave, but functionally, I was her star employee."

Her smile faded, replaced by a scowl of deep disgust.

"Sadly, when I turned sixteen...Madam Verna passed away from old age. And her despicable, scum-of-the-earth son took over the business."

Cassius’s eyes narrowed, a cold aura settling around him.

"Let me guess. He wasn’t like his mother."

"Not in the slightest." Ragnora spat, her golden eyes flashing with anger. "He was secretly involved in illegal trafficking. Because Madam Verna held my legal slave contract, ownership of my life was transferred straight to him."

"He treated me horribly—drastically cut my food rations, hurled verbal abuse at me daily, and tried to force me into illegal, violent acts."

"Why didn’t you just break his neck?" Cassius asked flatly.

"I threatened to." Ragnora chuckled darkly. "He was terrified of me, which is why he never dared push me too far. But legally, I was still bound. I didn’t want to become an outlaw or bring ruin to Madam Verna’s legacy, so I endured it, trying to figure out how to buy out my contract..."

Her eyes suddenly lit up with a breathtaking, radiant light, her gaze locking back onto Cassius.

"And that...was when I met Big Sis."

Cassius felt a sharp tug in his heart.

"I was being transported in a heavy iron cage to another territory."

Ragnora recalled, her voice filled with profound warmth.

"Madam Verna’s son was so terrified I would run away that he locked me up like a wild beast. As the carriage passed near a border town, I suddenly heard the desperate screams of people and saw smoke rising from a burning village nearby."

She smiled fiercely. "I didn’t give a damn about the slaver’s orders. I shattered the iron cage with my bare hands, ignored his panicked screaming, and sprinted straight into the burning building to save whoever I could."

"Was that when you met her?"

"Yep. I pulled Big Sis Florence and her baby from the burning building. She was barely conscious, but she looked up at me, this enormous, terrifying red ogre who’d just appeared out of nowhere and instead of fear in her eyes, there was nothing but gratitude. Pure, overwhelming gratitude."

Ragnora’s voice grew thick with emotion.

"She took me in. She paid off my slave contract—an obscene amount of money, more than I could have earned in a lifetime."

"The son was only too happy to sell me off. And from that day forward, I served the Holyfield family. Not as a slave, not as a servant, but..."

"As family." Cassius finished quietly.

"As family." Ragnora agreed. "Big Sis called me her sister. She braided my hair. She polished my horns. She sat with me for hours in the garden, talking about books and life and everything in between."

"She never once looked at me like I was a monster. She never once made me feel like a burden."

She touched her horns gently, a gesture of remembered affection.

"The Holyfield estate also had resources beyond anything I’d ever known. They could feed me without strain. They could house me without my size being a problem."

"For the first time in my life, I didn’t have to worry about being too much. I could simply...be."

Cassius was silent for a long moment. Then, softly, he said.

"That’s a beautiful ending to a difficult story."

"It was. It is. I owe Big Sis everything. My freedom, my purpose, my life." She met his eyes. "Everything I am today, I owe to her."

The fire crackled softly in the silence that followed.

Then Cassius spoke again.

"But you still haven’t told me what does any of this have to do with you never having a romantic relationship and reading cheesy romance books?"

Ragnora froze. Her purple blush returned with a vengeance.

"Ah! I...I got so caught up in telling my life story that I completely forgot the main point!"

Cassius burst into a fit of warm, teasing laughter.

"It’s fine, it’s fine! Though if you want to keep telling stories, we have all night!"

Ragnora shook her head frantically, her fingers.

Ragnora drew a slow breath, steadying herself for what came next. Having already revealed so much she found that the remaining truth came more easily.

The dam had already broken. What was a little more water?

"Remember when I told you that the village took care of me after my parents left?" She began, her voice softer now. "That families would rotate, each one responsible for feeding me on a given day?"

Cassius nodded. "I remember."

"Among those families was a newly married couple. They lived right next door to my parents house...the house that became just my house, after everyone left."

A gentle smile crossed her scarred features. "Their names were Agnar and Diami."

Cassius tilted his head. "Agnar and Diami? Those are..."

"Strange names to your ears?" Ragnora chuckled. "That’s simply how ogre names work. We’re a warrior race. Even our names must sound mighty—short, sharp, like the clash of steel. Ragnora. Agnar. Diami. Brenn. Kael."

She gestured toward herself. "It’s tradition. A name should feel like a weapon in your mouth."

"Ragnora." Cassius said, as though tasting the word. "It suits you."

The faintest blush crept across her crimson cheeks, but she pressed on.

"Agnar and Diami were my favorite, out of all the families who took care of me. I stayed with them more often than anyone else."

Her eyes grew distant, lost in memory as she added,

"They were...different from the other ogres."

"Different how?"

Ragnora leaned back in her chair, her massive frame settling into the worn wood.

"Ogres aren’t known for being particularly affectionate with one another. They’re a straightforward people."

"If a husband and wife have a disagreement, they don’t sit down and talk about their feelings." She snorted. "They pick up clubs and fight it out in the yard until one of them yields. That’s how problems get solved."

Cassius let out a surprised laugh. "Honestly? That sounds significantly more efficient than the tedious emotional conversations humans insist on having."

"It has its merits." Ragnora agreed, a hint of amusement in her voice.

"But Agnar and Diami were nothing like that. They were...I don’t know how to describe it. More like humans, I suppose. The way they treated each other—it was something I’d never seen before."

She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice had taken on a tender quality that seemed almost strange coming from someone of her size and stature.

"Every morning, Agnar would wake up first and prepare breakfast for both of them—nothing elaborate, just simple ogre fare. But he always arranged Diami’s plate in a certain way. The meat on the left, the bread on the right, because he knew that’s how she preferred it."

"And when she came to the table, still sleepy-eyed, he would kiss her on the forehead. Every single morning. Without fail."

Cassius found himself leaning forward, genuinely captivated.

"And Diami—she was fierce! Fiercer than Agnar, I think. She could outwrestle half the men in the village. But when she looked at her husband, her entire face would change."

"It would become...soft. Gentle. Like she was looking at the most precious thing in the world."

Ragnora shook her head slowly.

"I used to watch them from the corner of the room, pretending to be focused on my food. They would tease each other constantly—little jokes, little jabs. Diami would steal food from Agnar’s plate, and he would pretend to be offended, and then she’d feed it back to him with her own fingers, and they’d both be laughing."

She touched her chest, right over her heart.

"I remember one night, I couldn’t sleep. I got up to get water and saw them sitting together by the fire. Agnar had fallen asleep with his head in Diami’s lap, and she was just...stroking his hair. Running her fingers through it, over and over. She wasn’t reading or working or doing anything else. Just touching him. Just...being with him."

Ragnora’s voice had grown so quiet that Cassius had to strain to hear her.

"I’d never seen anything like it. My own parents had never shown that kind of affection in front of me. I didn’t even know it was possible for two people to be so...gentle with each other."

She looked up at him, her golden eyes shimmering slightly.

"That was the moment. That moment when I realized that there was something beautiful and tender and warm that I had never known existed."

"And I wanted it. Desperately. With every fiber of my being."