Chapter 3 – Family Bonding

Dinner unfolded in the midst of an uncomfortable silence; the food wasn't unpleasant, and nothing particularly awful had transpired. However, an unmistakable tension hung heavily over both Newt and Paris.

Newt, typically calm, found himself grappling with a growing sense of unease. Witnessing his father's unusual display of anger had left him on edge.

Meanwhile, Paris experienced a complex mix of emotions, part embarrassment, part concern that he might have jeopardized his relationship with Newt, the only family he had left.

He could remember the sight of his son trembling as he yelled and told him he would disown him if he learnt that witchcraft. Though he believed what he had done was right, he knew it wasn’t right to be that forceful with him.

It was hard for him to get out of his head that his son was an adult, but he wasn’t even 2 years old.

Despite wanting to mend any possible mental wounds inflicted, Paris didn’t know how, he was alone in this situation, eventually opting to instead try and get Newt to forget the incident, he was only a bit over 1 year old, what are the odds he would remember this?

After a heavy sigh, Paris decided to fill the empty silence with the first thing that came to mind. "So… How was your day, Newt?"

"Um, it was… pretty good.” Newt hesitantly answered.

Paris could feel a part of his heart crack under the hesitation and discomfort from his kin, seeing the only person left he cared for actively hesitate to be honest with him was soul crushing, worse, he couldn’t blame him.

“Look, Newt, I… I’m sorry about earlier, I just… huff.” Paris breathes out as he tries to explain himself, the words dancing on his tongue evading his every attempt at forming a coherent sentence.

“I don’t… I don’t have the best experiences with…” Paris pauses, clears his throat and continues, “Mages. My history with them can be only described as hostile. I won’t get into the details, you’re too young for that, but at the thought of you becoming like… them, it made me angry, very angry. I shouldn’t have treated you like that, I’m sorry.” Paris bows his head towards Newt.

Newt on the other hand was looking at the sorrowful man deeply, he didn’t know the full story behind his actions, but he was regretful for his actions and trying to make amends. His father was just another person unaware of what he should do.

Admittedly, Newt didn’t really hold anything against his father, he was in an emotionally vulnerable state when his father had come, he wasn’t shaken by what his father did, but his memories.

“It’s alright Dad, I wasn’t… I’m not scared, it was a tense situation. You had your reasons, I get it.” Newt tried to comfort his father.

“R-really? Is it alright?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, you’re forgiven.” Newt got up and gave his dad a hug, patting him on his back.

The warmth and comfort heating up Paris’s chest as a wave of emotion rolled over him, tears beginning to pool in his eyes, on the verge of crying, desperately fighting letting any loose.

“Though… If you still feel bad, I wouldn’t mind being allowed to go out more. I haven’t been to any shop or anything!” Newt childishly pouted, putting on a bit of an act but still voicing his desire to explore the new world he had been thrust into.

Paris begins to fall into thought, reflecting on past instances where he could have brought Newt out, he realized the thought had never crossed his mind, was it normal to take out your 14-month-old child to town? He didn’t know, yet Paris apologized nonetheless, "Sorry, Newt. I’ll try to take you out more often.” Scratching the back of his head a little.

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“Thanks Dad!" Newt beamed at the thought of an entirely new world to explore. Paris on the other hand had a severe mix of worry and fear creep up trying to infiltrate Paris's thoughts as he considered letting Newt wander the town by himself.

"Only if you stay with me at all times. You can be on your own only if you know how to defend yourself," Paris added, gradually feeling more at ease. Naturally, Newt agreed to this proposal without hesitation.

“’Defend yourself’? Dad, no offense, do you even know how to protect yourself?” Newt asked.

His father was quite fit and seemed to work out, but that didn’t equate to combat experience, if anything the parent would better be described as a bookworm, and if he wasn’t wrong, Paris ran an organization of some sort and was constantly busy with paperwork.

“Of course! It may not look like it, but your old man use to be in the army, I was one of the most skilled swordsmen of my generation! People would be in awe if they knew you were my son.” He, full of proud boasted, not entirely true, but he wanted to look good in the eyes of his kid.

Why wouldn’t he? Everyone wants to be someone admired by their children, the thought of Newt looking up to him brought a grin to his face.

Newt on the other hand was quite shocked, but his dad had no reason to lie to him, so it was probably true.

‘Even this bookworm could protect himself well, yet I…’ the memory of the metal barrel pointing towards him as his body shook. Paris saw this but didn’t say anything.

“D-dad, could you teach me swordsmanship?”

Newt was desperate, he didn’t want his life to end so swiftly, without being able to put up a fight at all.

Paris breathed a sigh of relief as his thoughts that Newt was shaking in excitement were confirmed, in his mind at least, to be true.

“Of course, Newt, I was going to teach you anyway!” Paris elatedly responded.

“Thanks Dad.” Newt happily responds, a warm sensation spreading in his stomach at the kindness of his father.

Paris hadn't finished his sentence however, "When you're older."

"Huh?! Why?!" Newt childishly voiced his confusion.

His father smiled at him as he replied, "Sometimes learning too early can be a detri-bad, it can be bad."

Clearing his throat as he corrected himself.

Newt pouted but relented considering his lack of knowledge in the subject and decided to trust the expert.

"Fine!"

Paris seeing this starts to curl his lips as he holds back a chuckle.

As a comfortable silence began to set, Newt realized that he hadn’t posed the very question he was asked.

“How was your day?”

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As time quickly passed, Newt experienced his true first look at the civilization as he visited the town near his home, if he had to summarize his first impression it would be, peaceful with questionable living.

Risput was a small city, which at first glance, seems nice to live in with a lack of crime.

While Newt didn’t immediately notice this, the more he tried to explore the outskirts of the city, the living quality of people degraded drastically, the people living there are treated nicely but there is a clear distinction between the two different groups.

Although he couldn’t truly explore the city to his full interest due to a lack of valid reason to give his father and the potential risk.

Yet his father didn’t seem to have any problem with him venturing a bit into the slums, as long as he stood close to his father as they purchased what they needed.

This didn’t stop Newt from getting a rough grasp on Risput.

The city seems to be solely held up by two powers, one, the merchants, keeping the general livelihoods for those in the central areas more luxurious with money to spare, sadly this doesn’t help most of the slums due to a lack of stable income.

The other power however, the Church, devoted to the Pantheon of Gods, each god reigning over each of the base elemental powers, fire, water, earth, light, darkness, lightning.

They are also said to control facets of life, the Light and Darkness Gods are said to govern Life and Death respectively, Fire was meant to govern War, Water was meant to govern Growth, Earth was meant to govern Civilization and Lightning was… Not known to Newt, or more accurately the fruit seller informing Newt as he bought some orange-like fruit as his father haggled with a craftsman close by.

Generally, people devote themselves to one of the Gods, but not many devoted themselves to the God of Lightning, if you wished to build a business or anything similar, you usually devoted yourself to the God of Earth, if you were a farmer, you would devote yourself to the God of Water and so on.

The church was a large force holding up the city, seemingly along many others if his talks with some of the merchants and children he passed was anything to gleam. Easily the largest organization or establishment in the world, providing free food to those needing, free healing from the Light Priests with their Holy Power, blessing crops to enhance the growth and quality of them, and more.

It was an understatement to say it was the backbone of humanity,

Newt’s interest was, suffice to say, piqued and reaffirmed his decision to eventually further delve into the mythology and religion, especially considering his circumstances, but he had better things to do for now so he filed the thought for the future.