Chapter 119: Emma’s Selfishness
The room was dead silent.
No moans, no playful bickering, and no military shouts echoing off the walls. Just the quiet, peaceful stillness that usually settles after a hurricane passes.
In the dark bedroom that was only lit with moonlight filtering through curtains, Eren lay on his bed while his arm wrapped around his pink-haired muscle mommy. Emma was still her maid uniform, curling up tightly against his side and her head resting over his heart.
She held him with a possessive grip while Eren idly ran his fingers through her long, silk-soft pink hair, twirling the ends between his fingers.
Neither of them said a word for a long time.
Eren tilted his head down, looking at his scary yet cute girlfriend. Though her expression was relaxed and happy, he could easily pick up the faint underlying conflict and quiet doubt etched across her gorgeous, tanned face.
He gently tucked a stray strand of pink hair behind her ear, his thumb brushing against her warm skin.
"So..." Eren murmured softly with a soothing hum. "Is sleeping soundly in your boyfriend’s arms is the request you were talking about? Because, Captain... that just sounds like basic boyfriend work."
Emma huffs against his chest, her arms tightening around his waist.
"That’s not the main request, you idiot..." she whispered, her usual harsh edge completely absent, replaced by vulnerability.
She buried her face deeper into the crook of his neck.
"It’s... something far more selfish," Emma admitted, her voice muffled against his skin. "Something greedy. Something personal... and I need you—and only you—to listen to it. And to help me fulfill it."
She paused, taking a slow, shaky breath that made her chest rise against his ribs. "It’s a choice that will completely change my life, Eren. Are you... actually willing to listen to a selfish request like that?"
"My dear Captain..." Eren whispered, his dark blue eyes locking onto hers. "If it’s a request from my girlfriend... I’d gladly give you whatever you want."
Emma’s face burned like a miniature sun against his collarbone, her fingers digging into his ribs.
"I want... I want to have your first baby," she blurted out, her voice barely above a squeak.
The room froze. Time dropped to zero frames per second.
Eren’s brain overheated trying to process the absolute megaton warhead she had just dropped directly onto him.
He lay there like a paused video game character, his dark blue eyes staring blankly at the ceiling while every emotional circuit in his head sparked and short-circuited simultaneously.
"I... think I just have a hearing problem," Eren murmured slowly, blinking once. "Could you perhaps repeat that, my dear Captain? Preferably in a language where words make sense?"
Emma’s head whipped up, her storm-grey eyes flaring as the embarrassment threatened to kill her on the spot. "I said I want your first baby, you idiot! Do not make me say it a third time!"
Eren let out a nervous chuckle, running a hand over his face. "Captain... you do realize I turn twenty in three months, right? I haven’t even cleared the graduation, and you’re already trying to fast-track us into parenthood?"
Emma didn’t hit him. She didn’t shout. Instead, she slowly let her head sink back onto his chest.
"Eren..." Emma whispered, her storm-grey eyes staring blankly at the room. "Do you remember how I actually ended up at the Volsver Manor as a child?"
"Of course. You were a war orphan from the Valdoria Kingdom during the border campaign fourteen years ago. My father found you wandering the ruins alone, took pity on a child who had lost her family in a devastating conflict, and brought you home."
Emma let out a bitter laugh that vibrated against his ribs.
"It’s a complete lie."
Eren paused, shifting his gaze down to look at her, deliberately putting on a confused face while knowing the truth.
"I never lost a family, Eren," Emma confessed, her voice trembling slightly as her fingers clutched him.
"Because I never had one to begin with. I wasn’t an orphan... I was raised as a living military weapon by Valdoria’s shadow corps from the exact day I was born. I never knew a mother’s hug, a father’s warmth, or a single act of selfless affection. I was born strictly to kill. By the time I was eight years old, my hands were already soaked in blood."
Eren didn’t say a word; he pulled her closer against him as she began to tremble, remembering her horrific past.
"When your father’s knights raided our facility, I slaughtered three of his elite men before he personally subdued me. By all means, Duke should have executed me on the spot. But instead of seeing a monster... he looked at me and saw a terrified child trapped inside a weapon’s orders. He brought me home. He erased my past, forged my identity, and gave me a life."
She paused, taking a shaky, ragged breath, resting her chin on his broad chest as she looked into his eyes.
"I will be eternally grateful to House Volsver for saving me. I respect them. I would die for them. But... it was always gratitude, Eren—never familial love. I have lived my entire life without ever knowing what a real family feels like. I never saw my mother’s face... and more than anything in this cold, brutal world... I want to know what it feels like to love a child as a mother."
"I don’t want just any family, Eren," Emma muttered softly. "I want your child. I want to build a real bloodline with the man who made me feel like a woman. So... will you give me your first baby?"
Eren looked down into those fierce, storm-grey eyes and widened.
He understood her pain. As Eric, he craved the warmth of a real family, searching for a place to belong in a world that only ever viewed him as a nuisance. She was adored as a legendary knight captain, pitied as a war orphan by House Volsver, and desired as a lover by him.
But at her very core, she was just a lonely soul yearning for a bond.
Eren chuckled as he pulled her close until their foreheads rested together.
"You know, Captain...you really do know how to assign the most exhausting work of my entire life, don’t you?"
Emma’s breath hitched, her storm-grey eyes widening slightly.
"Does that mean...?" she rasped out, her voice trembling with cautious hope.
"It means I’ll do my best," Eren answered smoothly, his dark blue eyes locking onto hers with absolute, unshakable resolve. "If my gorgeous, muscular girlfriend wants to build a real family... I’d be an absolute fool to turn down the offer."
A sudden, overwhelming wave of relief washed over Emma. A teary smile broke across her tanned face as she let out a soft, breathless giggle, the suffocating tension that had gripped her chest for years evaporating.
"Idiot... I don’t mean right this second, obviously. You still have to graduate, build your reputation first. But... I just needed to know you were on board."