Chapter 135: Damian’s Declaration!

For several long seconds, nobody inside the study moved.

Paulina stared at Damian as though he had casually reached into the heavens and dragged down the sun for a conversation, Julia’s expression had become completely unreadable, while Janet’s mouth remained hanging open without a single sarcastic remark escaping it.

Eunice was worse than all of them, sitting rigidly with the newly formed holy mark of Orpheus glowing faintly upon her forehead while tears still clung to her eyelashes.

Damian looked from one woman to another.

Then his lips slowly curled upward. "What’s wrong? You ladies look like you’ve seen a god."

Janet’s mouth snapped shut.

Julia recovered first and immediately shot to her feet. "We did see a god, you lunatic! You screamed at Orpheus to ’roll down here,’ threatened him to his face, demanded that he reorganize Eunice’s religious life around you, threw him a bag and somehow made him agree!"

Paulina stood immediately afterward, her tail puffing behind her from agitation. "How did you even do that?! Why could you move when none of us could? What was inside that bag, and why did a Divine Spirit suddenly change his mind after seeing it?"

Janet finally recovered enough to join the assault, climbing onto the edge of her seat and pointing an accusing finger toward Damian. "Forget the bag for a moment! Why did Orpheus look at you like that?! He went from wanting to smite you into ash to acting like you’d shoved something horrifyingly important beneath his nose!"

Three women began talking over one another almost immediately.

Julia wanted to know what Damian had relied upon when challenging a Divine Spirit.

Paulina wanted to know why Orpheus apparently knew about practically everyone around Damian.

Janet wanted answers about the mysterious foreign objects badly enough that Damian could practically see the Rogue planning how to steal information directly from his bedroom if he remained stubborn.

Damian raised both hands.

"Girls, girls, relax. Nobody is being denied answers," he promised, waiting until the barrage slowed slightly before continuing.

"You’re all going to understand what happened, what I gave him, why the Divine Spirits care and a great deal more besides."

Janet immediately narrowed her eyes. "All of it?"

"Everything you’re entitled to know as my women," Damian replied without hesitation.

"But not yet."

Julia’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but Damian had already turned away from them and toward Eunice.

The Priestess still had not said a word.

The others noticed and slowly settled down, the questions that had seemed so urgent moments earlier losing their importance when they saw her expression.

Eunice looked like someone had taken every certainty she possessed about her future, thrown them into the air and politely informed her that gravity was now optional.

Damian’s voice softened.

"Eunice."

Her eyes finally moved toward him.

"You alright?"

That simple question seemed to bring her back into the room more effectively than everything else.

Eunice blinked several times, glanced toward Paulina, Julia and Janet, then touched the glowing mark on her forehead as though she still expected it to disappear. "I... don’t know."

Damian nodded.

That was a fair answer.

Eunice lowered her hand, her expression becoming increasingly emotional as everything that had happened finally caught up with her. "Damian... why?"

He remained silent.

"Why would you do all of that for me?" Eunice asked, her voice becoming smaller despite her best efforts to remain composed.

"You challenged Lord Orpheus directly, insulted him repeatedly and gave him something valuable enough that a Divine Spirit immediately accepted demands that should have been absurd."

Damian leaned back and sighed.

"Because I really only had two options."

Eunice frowned.

"The first was figuring out why you took the oath in the first place and resolving whatever was behind it," Damian explained.

"Maybe there was some grief, obligation, family issue, religious event or something else that pushed you toward celibacy and the Church strongly enough that we could address the source rather than the symptom."

Eunice immediately looked uncomfortable.

Damian noticed.

"But you already told me you weren’t ready to share those reasons, and I meant it when I said I wasn’t going to force them out of you," he continued.

"The problem was that you were also preparing to walk away before I could wait however many months or years it took for you to feel comfortable telling me."

Eunice lowered her gaze.

"So that left option two: deal with the keeper of the oath directly!" Damian shrugged.

Paulina’s lips twitched while Julia rubbed her forehead.

Janet quietly muttered, "Only Damian could describe bullying a god as the clumsier option."

Damian ignored her.

Eunice looked toward him again, the sadness in her eyes mixing with something considerably warmer. "You could have let me go."

Damian’s expression stilled.

"That was also an option. And judging from Lord Orpheus’s reaction, whatever you gave him was extremely precious," Eunice continued softly.

Her gaze became more searching.

"It was connected to your secrets as an Otherworlder, wasn’t it?"

Damian did not bother lying.

"Yes."

All four women became attentive.

Damian rested one arm across the chair. "I gave him something every Divine Spirit in Valoria wants, and once the others learn he has it, they’ll probably hound him day and night just for a peek."

Their expressions changed.

Damian smiled faintly. "Forget an oath. If I’d told Orpheus to close every Holy Light Church on the continent in exchange for what was inside that bag, I genuinely think he would’ve stopped and considered it."

The study became silent again.

Paulina swallowed, Julia’s eyes sharpened as she processed the implications, while Janet’s earlier curiosity about the Bag of Holding transformed into genuine awe.

The fact that Damian had summoned Orpheus, insulted him, made outrageous demands and then actually won the negotiation made it rather difficult to dismiss his statement as ordinary boasting.

Eunice seemed almost horrified by the value involved.

"Then why? If it was worth that much, you could have asked for anything," she whispered.

Damian watched her silently.

"A Divine Boon, knowledge, power, protection... or something for your future family," Eunice continued, increasingly emotional.

She shook her head slowly.

"Why waste it on me?"

Damian’s gaze softened.

"Because you’re worth it."

Eunice froze.

The words were simple.

Almost offensively simple compared with the cosmic nonsense that had just occurred, yet they struck Eunice harder than Orpheus’s divine pressure ever could.

’Because you’re worth it.’

Her lips parted in surprise as the study blurred in her vision, tears immediately filling her eyes as something inside her chest seemed to collapse completely.

Her heart felt as though someone had ripped it out, beaten every remaining defense around it into mush with a mallet, then placed the thoroughly softened thing back where it belonged.

She had spent days agonizing over rejecting Damian, telling herself that duty mattered, that her oath mattered, and that her faith mattered.

That affection, however deep, could not become the excuse she used to abandon principles she had chosen willingly.

Then the man she rejected had responded by dragging the problem before her god and spending something of immeasurable value because, apparently, losing her was unacceptable.

What the hell was she supposed to do with that?!

Damian slowly stood.

The movement drew the attention of all four women, and the easy humor surrounding him faded as he looked at each of them in turn.

"Make no mistake," Damian began.

"I didn’t ask any of you to become my women because I was bored, because I wanted a little entertainment, or because I thought you were beautiful and wanted to sleep with you."

Janet opened her mouth.

Damian pointed at her without looking. "Do not ruin the moment."

Janet closed it.

Paulina almost laughed through her emotions, while Julia’s lips twitched before Damian’s seriousness drew them back into the weight of his words.

"Before I ever made that first offer, I asked myself a question," Damian continued, his gaze moving from Paulina to Julia, then Janet and finally Eunice.

"On this long journey through my second life here in Valoria, who do I actually want beside me?"

Nobody interrupted him.

"Who do I want to wake up beside, argue with, laugh with and come home to?" Damian asked.

"Who do I want standing with me when everything is going well, and who do I trust to still be there when everything has gone completely to shit?"

His voice became heavier.

"Who do I want to start a family with someday? Who would I trust with my secrets, my life, the lives of my children and everything I intend to build?"

Damian looked each woman directly in the eyes.

"When I asked myself those questions, the people who came to mind were each of you."

Paulina’s tail began moving before she noticed and trapped it beneath one thigh.

Julia’s face had gone completely red.

Janet’s eyes glistened again despite the Rogue repeatedly blinking as though moisture could be defeated through stubbornness.

Eunice simply cried.

Damian was not the type to blush violently, stare at the floor and poke his fingers together like some teenage boy experiencing his first crush.

Maybe that worked for some people, but not for him, after all he’d been through.

His love had never felt like some constant storm of butterflies making rational thought impossible.

It felt heavier than that, and far more deliberate.

It was duty and purpose, the deep certainty that these people were his, not as possessions, but as lives he had willingly tied to his own.

It meant wanting to protect them, wanting to provide for them, and wanting to see them grow into whatever they dreamed of becoming.

It meant possessing enough power that no random monster, noble, Fey, cultivator or Divine Spirit could simply rip that future away.

It meant accepting that there would be moments when their happiness cost him something, whether money, time, pain, risk, or perhaps one day, blood.

And if those costs came?

Damian would gladly pay them.

Because men had crossed oceans for the people they loved.

They built homes, fought wars, worked themselves bloody, killed when necessary, and died when there was no other choice.

Damian Baines was no different.

He had already chosen these women.

Now he wanted them to understand what that choice actually meant.

"I’m not promising that I’ll become some perfect husband who never pisses you off," Damian admitted, allowing a faint smile to return.

"Let’s be realistic here, because all four of you have known me long enough to understand that would be blatant fraud."

An amused laugh escaped Eunice, Paulina chuckled, and Julia wiped one eye while pretending there had absolutely not been anything there.

Damian’s smile faded again into something sincere.

"But I am promising that if you stand beside me, I will stand beside you," he said.

"I’ll protect you when I can, trust you when I can’t, help you grow until nobody can casually threaten your lives, and make sure this family we’re building becomes something worth belonging to."

His gaze settled upon Eunice last.

"That is what I meant when I asked you to join me."

Eunice covered her mouth.

There was no ambiguity remaining, no playful flirting, nor joking invitation that could be dismissed as Damian being Damian.

This was his promise to them.

This was his declaration of love!

......

It took quite some time before the study became emotionally functional again.

Eunice eventually ended up in Damian’s arms with her face buried against his chest while Paulina joined from one side, followed by Julia after several seconds of futile resistance.

Janet naturally declared that if everyone was hugging without her permission, she would be forced to participate for legal reasons and squeezed herself directly into the center.

By the time they separated, Eunice had not formally recited some dramatic acceptance speech.

She didn’t need to.

The way she remained beside Damian afterward, fingers quietly intertwined with his while no longer protesting the title of Madam, answered everything sufficiently.

The Four Valkyries were not breaking apart.

Apparently, they’d just become considerably more complicated.

Janet naturally ruined the emotional afterglow first.

"Excellent!" the Halfling announced while clapping both hands.

"Now that we’ve confirmed all four of us belong to Damian, I propose we immediately proceed to the bedroom and battle through the heavens!"

Julia’s face turned scarlet.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT!"

Eunice almost fell out of her chair.

"Janet!"

"What?" Janet asked innocently.

"We’ve all been under tremendous emotional strain. Physical bonding is healthy!"

"That is not what you mean and you know it!" Julia snapped.

Paulina scratched one cheek. "...I don’t completely disagree."

Three heads turned toward her.

The Wolf Beastwoman’s ears slowly flattened.

"What? I said completely."

Damian stared at all four speechlessly, then shook his head.

"Nobody is battling through any heavens tonight," he stated firmly.

"Apart from the fact that we’ve all been fighting, running around Moonveil Forest and dealing with our emotional connection for days, I’m fairly certain trying to take on all four of you simultaneously would qualify as an attempted suicide."

Janet wiggled her eyebrows.

Damian pointed at her. "Especially you. I know what you are now."

Janet placed one hand against her chest in mock offense.

Paulina looked thoughtful. "He does have a point. His Constitution is absurd for a Mage, but four-on-one seems unfair."

Damian’s eye twitched.

Why did that sound like tactical planning?

Julia folded her arms while refusing to meet anyone’s gaze. "There is also no reason to rush something like that."

"Agreed. Absolutely no reason whatsoever," Eunice replied immediately, still bright red.

Damian nodded. "Exactly. We’re not in a race."

That was a reasonable, mature, and healthy statement.

Unfortunately, all four women interpreted it in the worst possible way.

Paulina’s eyes narrowed slightly as some instinctive competitive mechanism awakened inside her.

Julia noticed Paulina’s expression and immediately became suspicious.

Janet looked from one woman to the next before a truly evil smile almost appeared, then vanished beneath practiced innocence.

Even Eunice, sweet and devout Eunice, experienced one dangerous thought before immediately becoming ashamed of herself.

If Damian wasn’t rushing...

Then technically...

Whoever reached him first would have achieved something nobody else had!

Four different plans began forming simultaneously.

Paulina’s was direct, because of course it was.

Julia’s contained far too much preparation for someone who would loudly insist she had no plan whatsoever.

Janet’s would probably violate several social conventions and perhaps one minor local ordinance.

Eunice refused to consciously develop hers, which unfortunately did not prevent her imagination from providing several unsolicited drafts.

Damian noticed none of this.

If he could read their minds, the young man would have immediately squeezed his legs together, turned pale and placed both hands protectively over his ’young master’.

He had spent all this time believing he was assembling a romantic household.

Apparently, he was scheduling a boss rush!

Heh, Future Damian would have to deal with that terrifying battlefield when it arrived.

Present Damian had something considerably more important to handle.

"Come with me. If we’re actually doing this, then there are things you need to know," he said, standing from his chair.

The mood changed.

Damian led all four women upstairs and into his bedroom, then closed the door behind them before checking it carefully.

Paulina glanced toward the bed, then toward Damian.

Her tail moved warily, and Damian saw it.

"Not why we’re here," he stated with a roll of his eyes.

"I didn’t say anything!" Paulina defended herself right away.

"You didn’t have to."

Julia hid a smile while Eunice immediately found the wall fascinating.

Janet openly looked disappointed.

Damian crossed the room and sat near the bed, gesturing for the others to make themselves comfortable.

The humor slowly faded from his expression, because what he was about to do mattered.

These women were no longer adventuring companions he liked.

They were his partners and future members of his family.

They were people he intended to empower, protect and eventually trust with the deepest secrets surrounding his existence.

That trust had to begin somewhere.

Damian looked toward Paulina, Julia, Janet and Eunice.

"Before I explain the weird things you’ve seen, the powers I possess or why Divine Spirits are interested in me, you need to understand who I was before any of that happened."

The four women settled.

Damian leaned back slightly, memories of a completely different world rising to the surface.

"So..."

He exhaled.

"My story begins on a planet called Earth."