Chapter 440: My Knight In Shining Armour

Cassius stepped into the open hot-spring with only a towel around his waist and stopped for a moment, surprised by what he saw.

Pools of clear water steamed gently beneath a sky now thick with stars; flowering shrubs ringed the edges, their scents mixing with the rising heat. It was serene, romantic even, the sort of place nobles would pay fortunes to visit.

He found himself thinking that if the fishing trade ever failed, this could become a hot-spring village instead. The thought made him smile; he was glad he was guided here, blood-soaked and exhausted, to something almost sacred.

Still, he couldn’t plunge straight into the spring with all the filth on him.

Beside the main pool stood a large wooden vat filled with hot water and a jug. He lifted it, poured the scalding water over himself, and began to scrub, rubbing away the dried blood until his skin shone clean again. The water turned pink, running down in rivulets across the stones.

But as he washed, his face softened. Nala’s expression returned to his mind, the frozen stare she’d worn when he looked back.

He had expected fear; he had wanted her to see him for what he truly was. From the start he had known she might never have witnessed such brutality, yet he’d let her watch anyway.

The thing was...every other woman in his life had already seen some shadow of that side of him, had learned what kind of man he could be.

But Nala hadn’t.

She’d only known the charm, the warmth, the small kindnesses. So he’d shown her the truth, ugly and unvarnished. If she was to walk beside him, she had to see it now, not later. Better to know the monster early than pretend he didn’t exist.

But she had gone still—silent, eyes wide with something between terror and disbelief. Maybe it had been too much. Maybe he had misjudged what she could take.

He sighed quietly, running his fingers through his wet hair, the steam curling around him like smoke. Perhaps making her witness all that had been a mistake.

He rinsed the last of the blood from his hands and turned toward the main pool. And just as he was about to enter the spring—out of the corner of his eye—something rippled beneath the water, something white and long.

His muscles tensed. For a moment he thought fatigue was playing tricks on him.

Then the shape moved again, slow and mesmerizing.

His mind jumped immediately to the Leviathan; the thought of that massive serpent crammed inside the small hot spring made his pulse jump. Instinct took over.

He stepped forward, ready to strike if it surfaced and just like he thought—the creature actually jumped out of the water like it was trying to give him a surprise attack.

But Cassius was already ready.

His right fist shot forward with a crack that split the air, the rush of wind swirling the mist into rings. The blow was fast enough to blur, aimed straight for the shape that burst from the pool.

He meant to obliterate it, whatever it was, it would leave nothing but pulp.

But a heartbeat before impact, he saw it clearly.

A face, human, young, blue, eyes wide with terror. His own eyes went wide too and he immediately stopped the strike mid-swing, the muscles in his arm locking so hard that veins stood out against his skin. His fist hung inches from the woman’s nose.

It was Nala.

She was dripping wet, hair plastered against her shoulders, eyes as big as moons. The gust from his halted strike had blown her bangs back and sent ripples across the water.

And now, she stared at the hovering fist, then down at her reflection, then back at him, realization dawning that if that punch had landed her head would have been nothing but a mist of blood.

A bead of sweat rolled down her cheek even as steam rose around her.

Cassius then drew back sharply, his heart thudding as he asked in disbelief, "Nala! What the hell? What are you doing here?"

She blinked, still trying to steady her breath before slowly realising what he almost did and asked back in a outraged manner,

"What am I doing here?....First tell me why you are trying to kill me, Cassius?!"

She snapped, voice climbing in pitch.

"If that punch had landed, the entire spring would be red! Grandma said it needed a new paint job, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t mean my blood all over the rocks!"

"What are you talking about Nala? Who in the world is trying to kill you?" He exhaled through his nose, running a hand through his hair. "You were the one who came bursting out of the water like a monster!"

"...For a second I thought the Leviathan had slithered into the pool, I was defending myself!"

"Defending yourself?" Her jaw dropped. "The Leviathan? Cassius, think for one second! That creature’s bigger than this entire hot spring—how in the world would it fit into this tiny pool? Are you out of your mind?"

He looked at the water, then back at her, then frowned.

"When you put it that way...it does sound a little stupid." He muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "Whatever, forget it."

He let out a breath and fixed his eyes on her again.

"What are you even doing here, sneaking around like that?"

But as the words left his mouth, his gaze slid down almost involuntarily. She wasn’t wearing her usual dress; a single towel was wrapped around her body, clinging to her curves, the damp cloth outlining every line.

Her shoulders gleamed with droplets, her collarbone catching the starlight. He froze for a second, mesmerized. The heat rising from the pool blurred the world around her, turning her into something unreal.

Nala noticed his stare. The fear on her face faded, replaced first by embarrassment, then by a sly pride. She tilted her chin up slightly, a faint smile curling her lips.

"You’re surprised, aren’t you?" She said with a teasing lift of her chin. "You didn’t expect this, did you?"

Cassius blinked again, caught between amusement and disbelief, as he said, "Surprised isn’t the word I’d use. You scared ten years off my life!"

"Good!" She laughed, tossing her wet hair back. "That means it worked. I wanted to surprise you, scare you a little, for what you did earlier today. So I snuck in through the back door before you even got here, hid underwater, and waited for you to show up."

She let out a triumphant giggle.

"Almost died in the process, but judging by your face, it was totally worth it. You really did get scared."

Cassius simply stared at her for a moment, blinking as droplets of water slid down his temple.

He’d expected Nala to be shaken, to maybe still be trembling after what she’d seen earlier that day, the blood, the screams, the utter brutality of what he’d done.

Yet here she was, standing waist-deep in the steaming spring, speaking to him with the same teasing lilt as though nothing at all had happened.

"...Wait." Cassius said slowly, brows knitting. "Why are you speaking to me so normally?"

Nala blinked. "Huh?"

"I mean..." He said, gesturing toward her with a half-wet hand. "...aren’t you supposed to be, I don’t know...scared of me? Avoiding eye contact, trembling, emotionally scarred for life, all of that?"

But Nala only tilted her head slightly in confusion. "Why would I be scared of you?"

"Why?" He repeated, genuinely baffled. "I mean, you just saw me massacre those people back there. You saw it, Nala. You were standing right there, watching and you even looked terrified."

"I even called out to you and you didn’t say anything, you didn’t even blink. I thought you were frozen from shock or horror or something."

But once again, Nala snorted, raising an eyebrow.

"Why would you think that was because of was scared, Cassius?" She scoffed, planting a hand on her hip. "That wasn’t fear. I wasn’t scared at all."

"But, then why were you standing there like a statue?" He asked. "I mean, you were staring at me like...like you were about to cry, or run away—"

"Before I say the actual reason I was standing like that, Cassius...." She said, cutting him off with quiet certainty. "...first let me tell you something."

She slithered closer, her voice steady as her eyes locked onto his.

"No matter what you do, I will never be scared of you. You could rip apart a thousand more bodies like that, and I’d still be right here—right beside you."

Her hand found his, fingers lacing tight.

"So, yon’t you ever doubt me again. Not for a second. There won’t ever be a moment in my life where I’m ever afraid of you."

She said before smiling and mischievously adding as she pinched his cheeks,

"Not to mention when you have such a handsome face, it’s really hard to get scared by you and if you really want to scare me, gain a few scars or something. Or else it’s useless."

Hearing her speak and seeing her smile, for a long moment Cassius didn’t speak.

The tension that had been sitting deep in his chest all this time began to ease, and the weight that had lingered there since the massacre finally slipped away.

She wasn’t scared of him after all. All that time he had been replaying her frozen expression, imagining disgust, imagining horror—but she had felt none of that.

Still, curiosity flickered behind his eyes.

"Then what was that look for?" He asked slowly. "You were just staring at me, silent, not moving. What was I supposed to think? You didn’t even blink. I thought you were horrified. Was that not...obvious?"

Nala hesitated for a moment, glancing down at the water before finally drawing in a breath. Her usual confidence faltered, replaced by a hint of shyness.

"That’s because..." She started, her fingers tightening slightly around the edge of her towel.

Cassius raised an eyebrow. "Because what?"

Her cheeks flushed faintly pink from more than just the heat.

"Because when I saw you like that, when I saw what you did, I realized something." She said slowly, as if the words were too heavy to rush. "I realized you were doing it for me. All of it."

"You could have let Marcus and those men say whatever they wanted—you could’ve just walked away, but you didn’t. You were angry. You were furious...You were pissed about what they wanted to do to me."

Her eyes met his then, steady and warm.

"And that...shocked me. No one’s ever done something like that for me before. My whole life I thought I’d never have anyone like that—someone who’d fight for me, who’d stand up for me that fiercely."

"I’d heard stories about men like that, you know? Warriors who fought for their wives’ honor, husbands who’d die before letting anyone insult their families, knights in shining armour protecting his princess...But I never thought I’d see it myself. I never thought I’d feel it."

Cassius’s expression softened as he listened. Steam drifted around them, the stars above shimmering faintly in the rippling water.

"And when I saw you like that..." Nala continued, her voice quieter now. "I didn’t see a monster. I saw someone who would destroy the world if it meant protecting me. And I think that’s when I fell into that daze you saw."

"It wasn’t fear, Cassius, I can assure you that, it was just...overwhelming for me. I was just standing there, realizing how lucky I was. How much you cared. It didn’t feel real. I didn’t know what to say."

Her lips curved into a small, shy smile.

"So no, I wasn’t scared. I was just...stunned, I guess"

Cassius blinked, unsure whether to laugh or sigh. Her words hit him harder than he expected, they were far gentler than anything he’d anticipated, and the warmth in them unraveled something inside him he didn’t even know was still wound tight.

He exhaled slowly, almost dazed himself.

"You’re telling me you weren’t even a little bothered by the way I did it?" He asked finally. "By how...messy it was?"

"Nala, I ripped them apart. Organs everywhere. Blood, bone, you saw it all. Even right now, I’m still scrubbing the last of it off. You’re telling me that doesn’t bother you even a bit?"

Nala smirked faintly, her eyes glinting.

"Not at all." She said without hesitation. "If they were ordinary people, good people, then maybe I’d have been horrified...But they weren’t. They were vile men, Cassius. Men who threatened my family, my home, me. Why should I pity them? They got what they deserved."

Her tone carried no hesitation, no tremor of doubt.

"And not to mention, when I watched you—it didn’t even look like you were killing people to me. It looked like you were cutting through rotten fish."

"You know I’ve caught fish my whole life, haven’t you?...Well, I just imagined that’s all they were, big, ugly fish. That’s how little I cared about them."

Cassius stared at her for a long moment, half amused, half amazed. There was no tremor in her voice, no flicker of doubt in her gaze. For someone who had just witnessed one of the most horrific scenes of her life, she seemed almost content.

A slow grin tugged at his mouth. "You’re something else, you know that?" He murmured.

"So I’ve been told." Nala’s laughter rang lightly through the steam.

Cassius had no idea if the women in his life were just all quietly insane, or if they simply loved him with such blind, absolute certainty that his worst deeds meant nothing in the face of their affection.

Maybe it was both. But whatever it was, he was thankful for it. Not many men got this lucky.

He was just about to suggest that since the misunderstandings were out of the way, they should finally enjoy the bath together, soak side by side, let the warmth ease the long day from their muscles, but Nala had veered straight past all that.

"Now that’s all cleared up..." She’d said with a playful sparkle in her eye. "...and you know I’m not scared of you or anything..."

He thought she was going to splash him again. Or maybe lean closer and kiss him. Something cute, lighthearted.

But instead:

"I think it’s about time I sucked your dick."