CHAPTER 144: EX 144. FOREVER

Elizabeth had learned it from her mother. Diana Queen had never been a woman who wasted words. She didn’t speak unless she wanted something remembered And that day, her words had sunk deep.

"A strong soul gives birth to purpose. And high blood purity gives birth to power. But only both together," her mother had said, "can awaken a powerful talent."

Elizabeth had never forgotten that. Because from the moment Leon awakened, purpose and power seemed to follow him like shadows in the sun.

She didn’t need to be told. She’d felt it, especially during the basilisk fight.

’Back then, I unleashed my Dragon Might without holding back, yet Leon didn’t even blink. He hadn’t resisted it; he’d simply ignored it. There could only be one reason: his talent must be so powerful that it erased the very idea of race as a limit.’

She understood now what her mother had meant when she spoke about Saint-rank talents. And if Leon’s was even beyond that...

Then she had a problem.

Because talents weren’t just for combat, they determined lineage. The higher your talent, the more difficult it was to find a compatible partner. A Saint-rank trial taker could only truly reproduce with another of the same rank or bear a child without that same talent.

Which meant... if Leon was what she suspected, he might one day have to leave her, not for love or betrayal. But because biology would demand it.

She couldn’t accept that.

And so, her eyes drifted toward Nikko.

Elizabeth had always been the confident one. She wasn’t used to feeling insecurity.

But she wasn’t dumb. She’d been quiet for a reason. She’d done the math. She’d watched Leon closely. And if her guess was right, then having multiple women might be Leon’s only path forward. Not a harem built from ego or lust. But a necessity. An inevitable part of a life lived above the clouds, where few could breathe.

’If he has multiple women,’ Elizabeth thought, ’he won’t need a single wife with a Saint-level talent to stay with. If he has options, then there’s no need to search for someone stronger.’

She looked down at her plate. Her hands were steady, but her heart wasn’t.

’Instead of losing him entirely... isn’t it better to share?’

Yes. She was that crazy.

But crazy or not, she wasn’t going to let Leon go. Not to time, not to fate, and certainly not to talent.

****

Leon was taken aback by Elizabeth’s strange proposition.

’Share me?’ His brows dipped, the words looping in his mind like an error he hadn’t quite caught the first time. A long silence followed, but inside his head it was chaos. ’What the hell was Elizabeth planning? Was this a joke?’

Then his gaze shifted, as it landed on Nikko, and in that moment, everything stilled.

She was frozen, hands clenched at her knees, face turned slightly away in an effort to compose herself. But her eyes... her eyes were saying something else. That look. That same exact look from eleven years ago. That same expression she’d worn as a little girl clutching his sleeve, pleading with her eyes for him to stay.

’Please don’t leave me.’

A sharp tug pulled at his chest.

It finally hit him.

’I want to protect her.’

Not because she was weak, Nikko Yakomoto was anything but. She had awakened her Supreme talent before he even stepped into the Class Selection. She had blazed ahead with speed and strength and pride. She didn’t need saving. But that’s exactly why the feeling had faded. That urge to shield her, to stand in front of danger for her, it had disappeared, buried under the weight of her rising power.

Until now.

Because in that fragile expression, Leon saw the girl she used to be. And more importantly, he realized something else.

’I’ve liked her since that day... I just didn’t realize it.’

A soft breath escaped him, half a chuckle, half a sigh. ’If I was a main character in a novel, a lot of readers would probably be mad at me for what I’m about to do.’

He stood up without another word.

Stepping around the table, he moved to Nikko’s side. Her eyes flicked up, confused, startled. But before she could say anything, he knelt slightly, bringing himself eye-level with her.

"Nikki," Leon said, his voice quiet but steady. "The road ahead won’t be an easy one. But if you’re willing, would you walk it with me? Not behind, not ahead, but beside me... as mine."

It was Simple and direct. there was no dancing around it. That was how Leon always handled important things. And now that Elizabeth had already given her blessing in that roundabout, insane way of hers, there was no hesitation left.

Nikko didn’t answer.

She didn’t need to.

With a blur of motion, she tackled him. One second Leon was kneeling, the next he was flat on his back, arms full of Yakomoto. She clung to him like a drowning girl to driftwood, her face buried against his chest. No words. Just a raw, wordless sound of relief.

And that was all the answer he needed.

*****

Nikko never found it strange when Elizabeth first suggested they share Leon.

After all, she’d grown up surrounded by polygamy. Her father, the Governor, had so many wives that meeting a new "half-mother" was just another part of daily life. By the time she turned ten, she’d lost count.

Women came and went. Some stayed longer, some vanished without a word. Love in that kind of household wasn’t measured by exclusivity, it was measured by presence, by the rare few who stayed and who mattered.

Still, none of that meant she wasn’t nervous. Because the real issue wasn’t Elizabeth, or even the suggestion itself. It was Leon.

Nikko didn’t know how he’d take it. He was raised in a monogamous home, surrounded by the kind of loyalty that didn’t have extra rooms or shifting bonds. Would he see her as less? Would he think less of Elizabeth? Would he walk away?

Those thoughts had been clawing at her ever since the idea came up.

But the moment he said yes, not out of politeness or pressure, but with that same calm, unwavering strength he always had, her mind blanked. Her body moved on its own. One second she was watching him, the next she’d thrown herself at him, arms locked around him like a koala.

She didn’t care that she’d knocked him down. She didn’t care that Elizabeth was watching. In that moment, all that mattered was that the boy who had once held her hand in a dark alley, the boy she’d silently loved ever since, had chosen her too.

Her favorite person in the world had promised to stay by her side.

Forever.

*****

A/N: I want to cut of my hands (⁠〒⁠﹏⁠〒⁠)