The Dread Knight's Rage-Chapter 134: That’s My Baby

Solomon had never really thought about what attracted him to Rena when he first met her.

She was older, sure. And beautiful beyond a shadow of a doubt. But all of those things didn’t really make her stand out from other girls.

Solomon did not discover until much later that the reason he liked Rena in the first place was that she wasn’t meek.

Nothing about her said that she was a dainty, cowardly woman. She charged at life, she charged at him head-on.

That she was competent and driven only made her all the more alluring.

She wasn’t some housewife who would show him some new brand of makeup after he returned from battle. She would be on the battlefield beside him. Fighting gloriously and bringing honor to themselves while restoring their tarnished family names.

That was the type of woman he liked. Strong. Fiery. Unafraid to say what she wanted, whether it was him or to become the greatest at her craft. Most of all, they did not shy away from struggle or conflict.

Solomon had only realized that Yari and Jiaoying were those same type of women at this very moment.

As he watched Yari get a running start and strike her sister in the face with her knee, he had yet another profound realization.

’I... I am in love with them.’

Giselle’s head snapped back when Yari kneed her in the face. Not five seconds after the blow was landed, Giselle grabbed her sister out of the air and speared her through a glass coffee table.

Now, it was the older sister’s turn to beat on the younger sister. A shower of blows landed on her chest and nearly her face, but Yari protected herself with her forearms.

Using great flexibility, she lifted her legs and wrapped them around her sister’s neck from behind. She then proceeded to fling the elven woman halfway across the room, sending her crashing through the kitchen island.

Breathing heavily, both women got to their feet before they lunged at each other all over again. They began berating each other in their native language. Nila and the fae woman were the only ones who knew what they were saying.

"You bitch! I can’t believe you let me think you were dead for twenty-goddamn years! When I’m done with you, you won’t wake up for twenty more!"

Giselle revealed herself to be just as foul-mouthed and as physically domineering as her daughter.

"I didn’t have a choice back then, you overreacting little worm! But the plan was always for me to come back and get you when I was strong enough to beat our brother!"

Yari leapt over the couch and kicked her sister in the chest. "Horse shit! You faked your death, and I have to find out via word of mouth from some imprisoned space-man! You could have come to get me! You could have come to get Nila! We needed you, you incorrigible waste of space! We mourned you!"

Blood flew from Giselle’s nostrils as Yari’s heel connected. Before she could recover, Yari dropped her elbow on top of her head and nearly knocked her out cold.

Giselle bit her lip before she fell to the floor unconscious. With the swiftness of a gust of wind, she dropped down and swept Yari’s legs underneath her before punching her in the stomach and driving her into the ground.

"Do you think I wanted to leave you?? Leave my child!? I wept for you every day for seven years straight, and there wasn’t a moment I didn’t think about taking my life! But I couldn’t change my decision! Eir’vael said it was the only way to save you, my child, and all the realms!"

Exhausted, bloody, and sore, both women breathed heavily as they stared at each other, tears in their eyes. Giselle spoke in the common tongue.

"I was so scared for you... every single day. But I needed to believe that... things would work out. That these sacrifices would have been for the greater good...! I know I hurt you, Soeurette. But I was... trying to think of more than just us. Don’t you get that..?"

Yari grit her teeth as she fought the urge to cry again, ultimately losing the battle against her high emotions.

"That’s the difference between the two of us, I guess... Because I would have let billions of souls die if it meant that you got to see your daughter take her first steps..."

Against all expectations, Giselle found herself smiling as she leaned down. She placed her head against her sister’s and closed her eyes. "You always did have to have things your way, didn’t you..? But you’re losing your edge, Sun Seed. You don’t sound the least bit believable."

"...Shut up."

Yari wrapped her arms around her sister and held her tightly. Together, the two of them lay on the floor and cried together, the bitter agony of all the years they’d spent apart finally setting in.

Everett, still in the arms of his sniffling mother, turned to Solomon with an incredulous expression.

"...I’m just going to say it. What the f-"

-

Nila stood in front of her mother, as rigid as a stick figure. Sweat trickled down the back of her neck as the woman she had only seen in drawings stood right in front of her.

Granted, in all of the drawings she had seen, her mother wasn’t this bloody, and she didn’t have a bunch of bruises... but the resemblance was still mostly there.

She lifted her hands shakily and touched her daughter’s face so gently, it was as if she believed Nila would shatter with the slightest bit of force.

"Oh, my sweet girl... You’ve grown so much, I... You are so beautiful.."

Nila’s face became flushed. *A-Ahem* "I try very hard to take care of myself."

"Since when?" Everett cocked his brow.

"You forget to wash your face in the bath almost all the time..." Dakota said quietly.

Solomon was busy helping Nereid tend to Yari’s injuries. "I’ve never seen you eat a salad in the entire time I’ve known you."

Nila summoned her whip to her hand and cracked it just above her siblings’ heads. They naturally fell silent. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"My... You look so much like your grandmother..." Giselle wiped a tear from her eye. "May... may I hug you...?"

Nila swallowed, nodding with a nervous light in her eyes.

Giselle embraced her without restraint. She rubbed her daughter’s back, stroked her hair, and committed the warmth of her body to memory.

"Mommy is... so, so, sorry, Ma cherie... I owe you a lifetime of explanations and..."

"I-I do not require a lifetime... I simply... wish to know about how I was born... Why you chose to stay away from me..."

Giselle swallowed as she nodded slowly.

"I-I suppose... It’s because of how much I trusted your father."