Chapter 261 – Are You a Virgin, Cassius?
Cassius, instead of training as he was supposed to, found himself sitting under an oak tree with a dense canopy of leaves, Mallory beside him.
He was reading Still Alive, written by a nameless female author who had decided, after losing her husband and son in the First War against the Kurppe Kingdom, to share her grief.
It was a true story.
And the book described, without any filter, how she'd lived through that traumatic experience, trying to stay alive in a world that felt dead to her.
Cassius was immediately drawn in, letting himself forget everything else. He immersed his mind fully in the author's.
He felt her grief. Her helplessness. Her sense of self shattering like glass crashing to the floor after losing those who were part of her.
It was visceral and poignant.
And Cassius found himself forming a connection to a person he'd never known and probably never would, yet somehow understood better than most.
