Chapter 915: I Want To Meet My Nephew

The words hit Ragnora like a slap to the face.

Her mind went completely blank. Her heart stopped. The entire world seemed to freeze around her.

"I have loved you..." Cassius continued, his voice raw with emotion. "...from the very first moment I saw you. When you walked onto that battlefield and cut down an S-class monster with a single swing of your sword. When you stood there in the dust and the blood, looking like a goddess of war made flesh. I looked at you and I thought—"

He shook his head.

"I thought, ’There she is. There’s the woman I’ve been searching for my entire life.’"

Ragnora’s mouth opened, but no words came out.

"Do you have any idea." Cassius pressed on. "How much it pained me to watch you talk about yourself like you were unworthy of love? To hear you list all the reasons why no one could ever want you, when every single one of those reasons was something I adored about you? Your strength. Your size. Your scars. Your power. The way you command armies and protect your people and still find time to read romance novels in secret."

Ragnora finally found her voice. It came out as barely a whisper.

"Wait. Hold on. Cassius. What are you saying right now? Are you...are you joking?! Is this some sort of prank!? Because if it is, I need you to tell me right now, because I can’t—I can’t go through that again. Not after last night. Not after—"

"God damn it, Ragnora!" He grabbed her face in both hands and held her gaze with his own. "This is exactly why you’re such a pain in the ass!"

"A pain in the—"

"Yes. A pain in the ass! Even when I’m confessing directly to you—literally saying the words ’I love you’ out loud—you’re still doubting. Still questioning. Still waiting for the other shoe to drop."

His voice softened.

"But I suppose I understand. After everything you’ve been through. After a lifetime of being told or telling yourself that no one could ever want you. I suppose this kind of thing takes a while to sink in."

He stroked her cheek with his thumb.

"So let me make it absolutely, unequivocally, unmistakably clear. Right here. Right now. No room for doubt."

He looked into her golden eyes with all the sincerity he possessed.

"I love you, Ragnora. I love you from the bottom of my heart."

Ragnora’s breath caught in her throat.

"Think about it." Cassius continued, his voice growing more gentle. "Do you really believe that a man who was simply performing a service would hold you the way I held you last night?"

"Would touch you the way I touched you...?"

"Would whisper the things I whispered into your ear...?

"Would make love to you with such desperate, aching passion...?"

He shook his head slowly.

"No matter how good an actor I am, no matter how skilled I am in bed—it’s simply not possible to fake what I felt last night!"

"The tenderness. The hunger. The reverence. Every caress, every kiss, every whispered word came from a place of genuine love! I thought—I truly thought—you could feel it. I thought my heart was speaking directly to yours through every touch!"

Ragnora’s eyes glistened with welling tears.

"And as for giving you a child and then disappearing?"

Cassius let out a derisive snort.

"As if I would do something like that! I’m not the kind of man who plants a child in a woman and then vanishes into the night, never to be seen again. Surely you know me better than that by now."

"I-I know! But I thought—I assumed—"

"You assumed wrong." He pressed his forehead against hers. "I love you, Ragnora. I want to be with you. I want to raise our child together. I want to bring you home and introduce you to the rest of my family. I want to wake up next to you every morning and fall asleep beside you every night. I want—"

He stopped, catching his breath.

"I want everything. All of it. With you."

The silence that followed was so profound that Ragnora could hear her own heartbeat.

She stared at the man who had turned her entire world upside down in three short days and slowly, piece by piece, the truth began to assemble itself in her mind.

The way he had looked at her on that first day—not with fear or awe like everyone else, but with something hungrier.

The way he had made that ridiculous list, turning what should have been an awkward transaction into something playful and sweet.

The way he had held her hand and cooked with her and danced with her and made her feel, for the first time in her life, like she wasn’t a might general but a woman.

The way he had kissed her. Touched her. Whispered her name like it was a prayer.

None of that had been an act...

None of it...

"So you..." Her voice came out small, trembling. "You actually love me? From the very beginning?"

"From the very first moment."

"You looked at me—at all of this—" She gestured at her massive, scarred body. "—and you saw...someone worth loving?"

"I saw the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met."

"The scars. The muscles. The—"

"All of it. Every inch." He stroked her cheek. "Especially the parts you’ve been hiding."

Ragnora felt something break inside her—not painfully, but like a dam finally giving way after holding back a flood for decades. The tears that had been trickling down her face became a torrent.

Her body shook with sobs that seemed to come from somewhere deeper than her chest.

"I thought..." She managed between gasps. "I thought I was unlovable. I thought no one could ever...I thought I would die alone, surrounded by adopted children who called me Commander instead of Mother. I thought..."

"I know what you thought." Cassius pulled her against him, wrapping his arms around her as best he could. "And you were wrong. You were so wrong, Ragnora."

"I was wrong." She whispered, the words feeling strange and unfamiliar on her tongue. "I was wrong."

"You were."

"Cassius?"

"Yes?"

"I love you too."

The words came out before she could stop them.

"I love you. I love you, Cassius" She repeated, the words growing stronger with each repetition. "I think—I think I’ve loved you since the night you held my hand for the first time. Maybe even before that. Maybe since the moment you barged into my life and started calling the magic tower a phallus and making everyone around you laugh."

Cassius’s face broke into a grin so wide it seemed to split his face in half.

"See?! Was that so hard?!"

"It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done!" Ragnora admitted. "Harder than fighting dragons. Harder than holding up collapsing mines. Because it meant admitting that I deserved something I’d spent my whole life believing I couldn’t have."

"And now?"

"Now..." She let out a shaky laugh. "Now I believe it. I believe you. I-I believe in us."

She kissed him—not with passion or hunger this time, but with something softer. Something deeper. A kiss of gratitude and relief and hope and love, all mingled together in a single, perfect moment.

When they finally pulled apart, Ragnora asked in a tiny, almost childlike voice:

"Is it really true? Will your family really accept me? And Isabelle—will she truly be alright with this?"

Cassius scoffed. "Isabelle? She’s been pushing me toward you from the very beginning. She’ll probably throw a parade when she finds out you’re joining the family. Honestly, I’m a little worried for you—she’s going to pester you every single day now that her idol has officially become her sister-wife."

Ragnora giggled at the thought.

"I don’t mind that at all. If that’s the price of joining your family, I’ll pay it gladly."

"But what about the other women? Will they accept me too?"

"Without hesitation. Our family is built on love—genuine love, freely given. Everyone is welcoming. Everyone is kind. You’ll fit right in, Ragnora. I promise."

Tears welled in her eyes once more.

Not just a lover...

Not just a child...

But a family! A whole family! Something she’d been denied since she was six years old when her parents had left her behind with nothing but a note.

It was worth more than a castle made of gold.

But then, as thoughts of family swirled through her mind, another face surfaced. Someone she hadn’t seen in many years. Someone who was, in a way, the closest thing to blood family she had left.

Her expression shifted, growing more serious.

"Cassius...can you do me a favor?"

"Anything. Name it."

She took a deep breath.

"There’s someone I need to visit. Someone I should have visited a long time ago. And now that I’ve finally found the courage to believe in myself..."

She took a deep breath.

"I want to go to the Holyfield estate and...I want to see my nephew."

Cassius went very still.

"My nephew Cassius." Ragnora continued, not noticing his reaction. "Big Sis Florence’s son. The child I should have been there for. The child I abandoned because I was too consumed by guilt and grief and my own weakness to face him."

Her voice grew thick with emotion.

"All these years, I’ve stayed away. I told myself it was because of the rules his father put in place. Because of the fight we had. Because of my duties here. But the truth..."

She looked down at her hands.

"The truth is, I was ashamed. Ashamed that I couldn’t save Florence. Ashamed that I let her son grow up without a mother."

"But I’m not going to hide anymore."

She looked up at Cassius, and her golden eyes were blazing with determination.

"I want to see him, Cassius. I want to tell him I’m sorry. I want to ask for his forgiveness. And I want..." Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. "I want him to name our child."

Cassius’s heart stopped.

"It would be like...like Big Sis Florence herself naming our baby."

Ragnora continued, a fragile smile crossing her features.

"She was the one who saved me. The one who gave me a family when I had nothing. And her son—he’s the closest thing to her I have left. If he could be the one to give our child their name..."

She clutched Cassius’s hands.

"I know it might be difficult. I don’t even know if he’ll want to see me. But I have to try. After everything you’ve given me—after the courage you’ve helped me find—I have to try."

She gazed at him with those beautiful golden eyes, so full of hope and fear and desperate love.

"So please, Cassius. Can we go to the Holyfield estate? Can my nephew name our child?"

Cassius stared at her. His expression was caught somewhere between panic and hilarity and deep, profound awkwardness.

"Ah. Well. Um. You see..."

The Cassius she was talking about, of course, was him!

The nephew she wanted to visit, the child Florence had left behind was currently sitting in front of her, naked, having just finished confessing his love for her.

And she had absolutely no idea.

It was one of the most absurd situations Cassius had ever found himself in. And given his life, that was saying something.

He knew he should tell her who he really was—that he wasn’t just some wandering merchant and mana researcher, but the very nephew she was so desperate to meet.

But the words caught in his throat.

How could he possibly explain?

How could he reveal, after everything they’d shared, that he’d been hiding his true identity from the very beginning?

Would she be angry? Would she feel betrayed? Would she think everything between us was built on a lie?

He couldn’t bear that. Not now. Not when she had finally opened her heart to him.

So instead, he forced a smile and pulled her close.

"Of course, Ragnora!" He said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Of course! If that’s what you want, then we’ll go to the Holyfield estate. We’ll find your nephew. And he’ll name our child."

"Really? You mean it!?" Ragnora’s face lit up with a joy so pure it made his heart ache.

"Really. Truly. Absolutely."

"Oh, Cassius!" She threw her arms around him, squeezing him against her chest with enough force to crack a lesser man’s ribs. "Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You’re welcome. Just...maybe looser? A little looser? I need to breathe."

"Sorry! I’m sorry. I just—I’m so happy—"

"I know." He cupped her cheek. "I know."

’I’ll tell her.’ He promised himself. ’Soon. When the time is right. When I’ve figured out how to explain it without breaking her heart.’

’But for now...for now, let her have this. Let her be happy.’