Chapter 909: The Ultimate Item On The Menu

The truth of it settled over her like a shroud. When Cassius’s investigation was complete and the mana fiend outbreak was resolved, he would leave.

He would go back to Isabelle, back to his life, back to wherever he had come from.

And she would be alone again. She would have the memories, yes. She would cherish them forever.

But memories couldn’t keep you warm at night.

Memories couldn’t call you mother.

Still, she forced a smile through the pain.

"But it’s alright. Really. Maybe I can adopt. There are so many children out there who’ve lost their families—children displaced by monsters, orphaned by war. I could take them in. Raise them. Give them the love they deserve."

Her smile grew more genuine as she imagined it.

"I wonder what they would call me. Mother Ragnora? Mommy Ragnora? Or maybe some of them would just call me Commander." She chuckled softly. "I suppose it wouldn’t matter, as long as they were happy."

She was about to continue when Cassius suddenly moved.

He grabbed a notebook from the nearby table, tore out a blank page, and seized the quill that sat beside it. His hand moved across the paper with swift strokes.

"Cassius? What are you doing?" Ragnora leaned forward, confused. "Did I bore you with all that talk? I apologize if—"

He didn’t answer. Just kept writing.

Finally, he set the quill down with a decisive clack and looked up at her.

"You want a baby, right?"

Ragnora’s heart stopped. The way he asked the question—so grave, so serious, so heavy with implication made her feel as though the world had suddenly tilted on its axis.

"Yes." She whispered. "It’s...It’s one of my greatest wishes."

"Then take this."

He held out the paper.

Ragnora took it with trembling hands. The single sheet felt impossibly heavy, as though it carried the weight of destiny itself.

She didn’t know why, she couldn’t explain the sudden gravity that had settled over the moment.

But she knew, with a certainty that went bone-deep, that this piece of paper could change her life forever.

Slowly, she turned it over and read what he had written.

The words were simple. Just a single line in Cassius’s familiar handwriting:

"To be impregnated and bear a child—10,000 gold coins."

Ragnora gasped!

Her hand flew to her mouth!

For one disorienting moment, she felt as though her soul had left her body.

Ten thousand gold coins. That was...that was an enormous sum.

Even for someone in Ragnora’s position, it represented nearly a decade’s pay. It was more money than most people would see in a lifetime.

But the money wasn’t what made her hands shake.

It was what the money was for.

To be impregnated! To bear a child! Cassius, this silver-haired man who had somehow turned her world inside out in two short days was offering to give her a child!

His child.

Their child.

"Cassius." Her voice came out strangled. "What...What is this?"

He met her gaze steadily. His expression was calm, but his blue eyes burned with fierce determination.

"It’s exactly what it looks like, Commander. I’m tired of hearing you talk about yourself like you’re not worthy of happiness. Every woman in this world—no matter who she is, no matter what position she holds, no matter what scars she carries deserves to hold a child of her own if that’s what she wants."

He reached out and placed his hand over hers.

"Seeing you like this...hearing you talk about giving up on something you so clearly want...it’s unbearable."

"So you’re—you’re offering to—"

"I’m offering to give you a child, Ragnora. If you want one."

"But that’s—you can’t just—that doesn’t make sense! A child isn’t something you can just—"

"Commander." His voice was gentle but struck deeply. "You said yourself that I’ve become one of the closest people to your heart. Well, you’ve become the same to me. And if the closest person to my heart wants something that only I can give her, then it’s my duty—no, my privilege to provide it."

"But Cassius, this...this is too much! This goes beyond touching or kissing or...or any of the other things. This is giving me another life."

"And?"

"And you can’t just—Isabelel—what about—"

"Isabelle will be thrilled." A small, knowing smile crossed his face. "Trust me on that. She’s been dropping hints about this since the moment she found out about our arrangement."

"But—"

"Besides." Cassius leaned back, his tone shifting to something almost conversational. "You should know that I’m extremely fertile. Almost absurdly so. Back at home, I have multiple wives who are already pregnant with my children."

Ragnora’s brain short-circuited for the second time that evening.

"You have...what?!"

"Multiple wives. Several children. Another on the way, actually." He said it so casually, as though he were discussing the weather even though it was a lie.

"You have children? And—and multiple wives?"

"Is that so surprising?"

"I thought—I thought you and Isabelle were—I thought it was just the two of you—"

"Isabelle is my most recent wife. We’ve loved each other for quite a while, but circumstances kept us apart until recently." He added in more lies. "She hasn’t had a child yet—she’s still settling in, and we haven’t been in a hurry. But the others?"

He shrugged. "I have quite a large family waiting for me at home."

Ragnora was utterly overwhelmed. Her mental image of Cassius, the devoted husband, the loving partner to a single woman was crumbling before her eyes, replaced by something far more complex.

And yet, strangely, she didn’t feel jealous or hateful.

Any other woman, she knew, would feel a pang of possessiveness upon learning that the man she’d been growing close to had an entire household of wives and children elsewhere.

But Ragnora wasn’t any other woman. She had spent so long believing herself unworthy of love that the idea of having even a share of someone’s affection felt like an embarrassment of riches.

More than that, she was genuinely happy for him.

Someone like Cassius who made her feel so cherished, so seen, so alive deserved a family that loved him. Deserved a home full of warmth and laughter and children running through the halls.

The thought of him surrounded by that happiness made her heart swell rather than ache.

"So, you’re actually a father." Ragnora murmured, shaking her head in wonder. "You look so young. But to think you already have so many children..."

"Appearances can be deceiving."

"I suppose they can." She let out a soft laugh. "I don’t know what to say. I never imagined..."

"Anyway." Cassius waved a dismissive hand. "The point is that I’m more than capable of giving you a child. My little soldier down there—" He gestured toward his lap. "—the one that’s currently pressing against you, in case you hadn’t noticed—is more than enough weapon to handle the task."

Ragnora’s blush, which had been fading, returned with a vengeance.

"So." Cassius leaned closer, his voice dropping to an intimate murmur. "What do you say, Ragnora? Will you take the offer?"

Before she could answer, he held up a hand.

"Think carefully. Push aside all the customs and ethics and morality and everything else the world has told you. Push aside your doubts and your fears and your belief that you don’t deserve this."

"Just answer one question."

Ragnora’s breath caught. "What question?"

He looked into her eyes—those blue depths burning with an intensity that made her feel like she was the only woman in the world.

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life regretting that you never had a child? Self-loathing, self-deprecating, wondering what might have been?"

He paused.

"Or do you want to finish this tonight and spend the rest of your life with a little one formed between you and me?"

Ragnora couldn’t breathe.

"I don’t mind at all." Cassius continued. "In fact, the thought of the great Commander Ragnora bearing my child is an honor beyond anything I could have imagined. So the decision rests entirely with you."

He reached out and gently tapped her chest, right over her heart.

"What will it be, Ragnora? A lifetime of wondering? Or meeting your child in the future and seeing how beautiful they turn out to be?"

Despite saying those promise-filled lines so confidently, in Cassius’s mind a small voice was screaming at him.

’You’re rushing this! You’re absolutely rushing this, you bastard! You usually take your time with women—melt them little by little, let them come to you, swallow them whole when they’re ready.’

’But this?! You’re barely at the halfway point and you’re already going for the finish line!’

’She’s going to panic. She’s going to pull away. You’ve pushed too far, too fast, and now you’re going to ruin everything—’

But he couldn’t help it.

Seeing Ragnora so pitiful, so resigned, talking about how she would never have a child of her own—it had been too much.

The sadness in her golden eyes had struck something deep inside him, something that bypassed all his careful strategies and calculated seductions. He hadn’t been able to stop himself.

Now he could only brace for her answer and hope he hadn’t broken the fragile thing growing between them.