A few more months passed and Noel’s due date was swiftly approaching. It was the third of June and based on what the doctor said it could happen any day. Noel was relaxing on the couch as if nothing was different. Owari could only smile wryly at that. She had been so relaxed during her pregnancy that even her doctor worried. Usually women get overly emotional and have frequent outbursts when they are pregnant.
“Why would I snap at you? I’m just glad you’re here.” Was all she said on the matter. Though it did reveal that she was far more lonely than she had let on before as she often brought up how happy Owari was here for her. Though that also could just be that she was afraid to face it alone and just wasn’t showing it.
Owari was currently out in the city. He needed to buy some basic necessities for having a baby like buying diapers and baby clothing. Noel was obviously with him. It was still odd for random passersby to come over and congratulate them. It was quite obvious that Noel was pregnant. In the end they got used to it. Just like the stares from before it just became a new part of life.
After buying everything they went home and rested, especially Noel who found it harder and harder to move, much to her annoyance and Owari’s amusement. Noel made a point of meditating instead of sleeping closer to the end of it as it was hard for her to lie down. Owari of course joined her. After today they planned to meditate until the day came. They weren’t sure how it would affect things, but it was probably the reason she was so much calmer and not as emotional during all of this.
It was three days later, on the sixth that things changed. Noel was finally ready to give birth. She knew it even before she showed any signs. Her meditation allowed her to have a more intuitive understanding of her body. They made their way to the hospital and along the way she started going into labor. They quickly got to the hospital and everything seemed to be going well.
During the actual birthing process Noel didn’t make a squeak. But Owari could tell how painful it was. Mostly because he was holding her hand and she literally broke almost every bone in his hand. He had even reinforced it with sapphire mana. In the end the whole process lasted a few hours and eventually the baby was born. It was a girl, they hadn’t known until just now as there was no way of knowing. Because of that they had come up with names for both genders.
However there was one worrying thing. “She has as much mana as you did when I first met you.” Owari said to Noel who was too tired to notice.
“Is she albino?” Noel asked.
“No. She’s normal.” The doctor said in shock. How could it rival an adult albino in mana capacity?
“Makes sense. She is our kid after all.” Noel smiled lightly, though even that was tiring.
“So about her name, do you have one yet?” The doctor asked as he wrapped the baby up and handed it to Noel for her to see. They would have to take it away soon, but she had suffered a lot so she deserved this much.
“Yes. Her name is Sophia. It was my grandmother’s name.” Noel chuckled. After a few more moments she reluctantly handed the baby over and laid back to rest.
Owari went and got his hand checked out. The doctor was surprised by the state of his hand. He even asked if Owari smashed it with a sledgehammer. He just shrugged and said ‘Something like that.’ and ended it there. After getting some medicine to heal his hand he made his way back to Noel’s room and meditated beside her bed while he waited for her to recover.
It took a full day after the baby was born for them to go home. Noel put the baby in the car seat and they prepared to leave. She claimed that it was her right to do everything with the baby first because she gave birth to it. At which point Owari didn’t argue much but did remind her she broke his hand pretty badly when she was giving birth which was arguably more painful. Especially given how slow it happened due to him reinforcing his hand.
Her response was ‘So that’s what those cracking noises were.’ with a smile on her face. Owari gave up at that point. He wasn’t too against giving her the rights to do everything with the baby first. She’d get sick of caring for her eventually anyway. When they got home they put the baby in the crib in her room which was just next door. They had set it up like this so they could get to the baby quicker when she cried. After all, the other bedroom was down the stairs.
The next day they went out and bought some clothes for girls, as well as some baby toys. “It’s so good to be able to walk normally again!” Noel said as they got home while raising her hands over her head. “And to be able to stretch.”
“I bet it does. You looked like a zombie, shuffling along all the time.” Owari laughed, getting a glare from Noel.
“I’d be careful if I was you, I broke your hand once and I can do it again.” She crossed her arms in front of your chest.
“I can handle the pain.” Owari shrugged, causing Noel to give up.
After that their life turned very monotonous. They gave up sleep after the first day of trying. The baby woke them up three times that night. Instead they decided to meditate and take turns on who cared for the baby. Luckily they were feeding it with formula so Owari could feed it without having to wake Noel up when it wouldn’t stop crying for him. They decided on formula because with modern medicine it was the healthier option.
It took them a month to get used to their new schedule, and then another month to learn which cries meant what need she had. They were very careful and caring. They would go to her as soon as she cried and carefully cradle her and make sure she knew they were there for her. It was important to form that bond in their younger years. It was also why they took turns, so she wouldn’t favor either parent. By month three she was very comfortable around Owari and Noel.
It was also around this time that they started to bring her out for others to see. Obviously Rebecca, Lance, and Erica had already seen the baby, but Noel and Owari were very protective over her the last three months due to her vulnerability. They had basically become hermits these last few months while they waited for their baby to acclimate to life outside.
The first people they brought the baby to was Rebecca and Erica. Erica often stayed with Rebecca so they were banking on the fact that she would be there. To no one's surprise, she was. When they brought the baby over to Rebecca, who answered the door, blinked in shock.
“I thought you two were going to raise the poor thing in seclusion.” She joked. “Come on in, I’m sure Erica will be happy to see you.”
“Alright.” Noel and Owari made their way inside and into the living room. Erica was sitting on the couch reading a book. When she sensed the magic in the room she already knew who it was. Only two people she knew had that level of mana. She looked up with a smile.
“How has your training been going?” Owari asked.
“I’m mid gold. Still not good enough.” She said as she walked over to Noel who was holding the baby. “Can I hold her yet?” She asked pleadingly.
“As long as you’re careful.” Noel handed her Sophia.
“I feel so old.” Rebecca said off to the side with a sigh.
“It’s been six years since we all met after all. And a lot has happened.” Noel watched Erica who was holding Sophia like she was fine china and would break if she wasn’t careful.
“Geez, so long?” Rebecca gasped. “Now I feel even older!”
“You’re an old lady.” Noel joked.
“Maybe I should propose to Lance, he’s too meek to do it himself.” Rebecca said bitterly.
“Maybe he just prefers a girl who takes the lead?” Owari suggested.
“Only one way to find out!” Rebecca said spiritedly. She was going to go marry Lance even if he said no!
“I feel kinda bad now. Poor Lance.” Even though Owari said that he was laughing.
“Speaking of Lance though, are you going to see him after this?” Rebecca asked curiously.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“He should be at work right? It might be a bit much to come in with a baby. We’ll see him next time he gets a day off.” Owari felt it wasn’t exactly professional to bring a baby to his workplace. “Besides he’s not as over the moon about this baby as you and Erica who have been begging to see her.”
“Of course we have! Babies are cute.” Rebecca said as she poked Sophia’s cheek.
“You won’t be saying that when you have to raise one.” Owari chuckled.
“But I’m not, so they’re still cute. Raising them is the parents job.” Rebecca took the baby over and cradled it gently.
“Girls are weird.” Owari sat off to the side watching all the girls playing with the baby who was having a blast.
They all played with the baby until they started to get bored. It wasn’t exactly unexpected. You could only coo at a baby for so long before the baby gets used to it and stops giving the desired reaction. Plus she was somewhat wary around new people so while she was having fun, she wasn’t as expressive as usual.
Eventually Noel took the baby back and it was time to go. Erica begged to stay over and Noel easily caved in. Erica wanted to help take care of the baby to see what it was like. She didn’t have any interest in having a child of her own though. Over all these years she hadn’t once shown an interest in boys. Even now when she was older and had become a beauty and had countless guys who were trying to get her attention, she never showed an interest in them.
When they got home Owari grabbed the mail and went into the study. He had been keeping up with the war this whole time from afar. So far it was very back and forth. One thing that was eventually agreed upon was to allow common people to move freely. This way the continent wouldn’t remain fractured. But each side still wanted to be able to claim every city as theirs. It turned into a political game where having the most territories under your control meant you were winning.
Of course there were benefits to being in control of a city. After all the taxes one pays goes to whichever side was controlling them. Which also made this an economic war on top of everything else. It was a huge mess, and because of the whole thing the magical beast problem was getting worse. As he read the documents he realized that magical beast related issues are up 30%. Even trains were getting attacked by this point even if it was usually ineffective. Owari had a headache just reading it.
As he sat there thinking about the whole problem and was considering what he should recommend as a solution, Noel walked in and sat down on his lap looking up at him. “I missed being able to do this.” She sighed in contentment. “So what is it this time?”
“This war is causing a huge problem. Most hunters are so focused on hunting one another that they’ve ignored their main duty.” He sighed.
“To be fair you haven’t been hunting either.” Noel smirked.
“Yeah but I have a baby now. Besides, I send out my magical beasts to keep the area culled. That’s why we don’t have problems in this region.” He even sent Draco and Garm to go out further away from the city so as to protect most of the region. As fast as they are it’s easy for them to escape most chases. Nobody messes with them anyway as they’ve ranked up to mid platinum at this point. Even Hebi was close. Meanwhile Draco was inching ever closer to awakening his dragon blood.
“If you’re worried about it just go deal with it.” Noel shrugged.
“How should I do that? Kill of magical beasts across the continent?” Owari said hopelessly.
Noel grabbed his face and starred him deep in the eyes as she often does when she is serious. “If there is a problem you cut it off at the source. Just like you always do. Who is the enemy?”
“The new order.” Owari said with certainty. They had long proven themselves to be cruel leaders.
“Then kill the new order.” She said simply.
Owari thought for a bit before his eyes became resolute. “Fine. I’ll make my move then. I don’t want our daughter to be raised in a world at war with itself.”
“That’s the man I married.” Noel chuckled. “Should I join you?”
“Protect our home and kid. Once I make my move they’ll be targeting the house and Morgana will need the help if a tough opponent comes knocking at the door. Plus with your kinetic domain you’re well suited towards defending weaker people since you can dampen the impact directly.” Owari kissed her and lifted her up as he stood.
“Alright. I’ll be the housewife this time. But next time you get to stay home and let me cause some chaos.” Noel didn’t let it slip by her that he really wanted her to stay safe.
“I’ll leave the Osiris family and Ignis families to you.” Owari relented.
“The two who caused the most trouble for us? What about you?” Noel was surprised.
“I’ll take everyone else.” He smiled viciously.
“How cool.” Noel hugged him tightly. Soon she would have to say goodbye to their homely life.
The next day Owari prepared himself to go out and immediately set off. The first target was the Howling Wulf Agency. His oldest enemy. He kicked off the ground and flew into the air before activating wind walk and dark speed step to immediately arrive above their main city. He stood above the city looking down on it coldly. He detected the aura’s of everyone within the city. He confirmed the location of the strongest person in the city.
Inside of a building in the city that had been renamed Howling Wulf city, a man sat in place surrounded by young men and women. He was giving a seminar on how to break through to platinum rank when he sensed it. Someone had been reading him somehow. It was an intuition born from battle. But he knew that someone had been looking for him and found him. That was when he and everyone else in the Howling Wulf compound felt it. The full force of a mid electrum rank hunter.
“Which faction is it?” He wondered. However he didn’t have time to think, he felt a massive surge of mana gather above the main headquarters of the Howling Wulf Agency.
Back up in the sky Owari summoned his spirit blade as well as his phantom cloak. He charged up a silver wave, then he swung it while fusing it with dark steel bite and phantom mana. The blast of silver, black, and grey flashed down and blew apart the main headquarters of the Howling Wulf Agency. He had already confirmed everyone in the building was hostile towards him.
On the top floor where the man had been sitting on an elaborate chair, he suddenly had a bad feeling and activated his most powerful defensive spirit art. A silver barrier appeared in front of him as Owari’s attack arrived. The blast of energy flowed around him and he was forced to summon barriers all around him to block the energy from flowing in. Not only that, his barriers were creaking and crack and even being scratched everywhere from the attack. After a few seconds it even shattered and he was blasted down into the ground.
“Who did it?!” From the rubble of the building an older man who appeared to be in his fifties, but was probably older, moved aside some rubble and stood up.
He was far from unscathed. His left arm was torn to shreds, his clothes were in tatters, and his skin was cut and bleeding from all over. He was nearly covered in blood. Owari looked down at him with disappointment. “You’ve grown soft haven’t you?” He said as he floated down.
“Who...?” He was confused. Who was this young man in front of him? He had never seen him before.
“My name is Owari. I’m here to kill you and destroy every trace of your agency’s existence.” He smiled cruelly.
“Owari?!” As soon as he heard the name he grew enraged. “I know you! How are you so powerful?” He felt it was incomprehensible. Owari was only in his early twenties. Yet he had the strength of most heads of families and agencies.
“I’ve been training. Thanks to you sending out so many low levels for me to train against back then I was able to grow even faster.” His smile turned into one of ridicule.
“You!” He howled with rage.
“No more barking. Let’s fight.” Owari’s sneak attack was meant to weaken his opponent so he was on a more even playfield. His opponent was a high electrum rank after all.
“You’re the one barking!” The man suddenly flashed blue and his wounds save for his left arm all healed up. A regeneration spirit art most likely.
He then kicked up a piece of rubble towards Owari. Owari flicked his finger sending a force orb into the rubble, blowing it to pieces. But it was just a distraction used to let the man approach him. Owari merely smiled at that. He clearly didn’t have a lightspeed movement technique. How pitiful. Owari flashed to the side just as the man arrived and punched down at where he was. Then he swung his sword using dark steel bite. The dark blades coalesced on his sword and lengthened it. When it was swung at the man he felt immediate danger.
He ducked under the attack at the last second making it impossible for Owari to redirect his attack. Owari didn’t stop smiling all the while. Suddenly the darkness coalesced on his sword and he rushed the man with a dark speed step. When he arrived he swung his sword which was enveloped in wind mana. The man dodged it only to find another attack coming his way. Owari was using jet stream to keep his enemy on the defensive.
The power of his attacks grew, and the wind turned green-black as the dark mana was absorbed and fused using phantom mana. The attack continued to gain power as the man was forced on the defensive with no chance to counter-attack. He eventually realized things couldn’t continue this way or he’d get hit, and by a powerful attack at that. He suddenly resolved himself and punched out with a fist covered in silver light, preparing to intercept Owari’s attack.
However at the same moment Owari used silver wing and fused wind, dark, steel, and phantom mana together creating a massive blade of energy which chopped down at the man who was now unable to dodge after committing to the attack. Owari’s battle sense was much greater than this man who stopped fighting since he became a peak electrum rank fighter. He never even tried to break through to orichalcum, how could he after all these years have the same battle sense as Owari who lived and thrived in life or death combat, even if he was somewhat rusty?
Owari’s attack chopped down and destroyed the man’s arm before blasting into shrapnel and cutting up his body all over. He screamed in pain, but it was cut out by a dark steel fang through the neck decapitating him. “That’s one down.” Owari said with a much calmer smile. “Now to restore my mana.” He took a deep breath and expanded the phantom mana into a bubble to maximize the surface area. Then he had it take the mana from the air and turned it into phantom mana before reconverting it into his own mana. In less than a minute his mana was completely refilled at the cost of sucking out most of the mana in the area.
After finishing that up he retracted his cloak to cover his body and looked around to see numerous members of the Howling Wulf Agency looking at him with hostile glares. He just laughed and suddenly had an idea. He held up his sword and maximized his force affinity and swung his sword using his wind defensive technique vortex shield. He infused metal mana into it through silver wing. The vortex this created swept across tens of meters of area, slaughtering hundreds of members of the Howling Wulf Agency and injuring many more.
After that he restored his mana once again before jumping into the air and rushing off to the next destination. He would be going to the Phoenix territory to deal with the Aquila families’ bitterest rivals, the Golden Crow Agency. They were quite arrogant taking the name of a legendary creature. Even the Aquila family only took the name of a decently powerful beast. Almost nobody dared do something so bold.
When he arrived he carefully scoped out the enemy. Unlike the Howling Wulf Agency who relied on one peak electrum rank, they had a few mid-electrum ranks and half a dozen low electrum ranks. Unless he dealt a decisive first blow then he would be in a bad position. But this only served to excite him. He now remembered why he loved battle. He wanted to feel that feeling of growth he had been missing. Now he had perfect enemies, so what was he hesitating for?
He charged up the same attack he used before and blasted it down on top of the main building. Numerous people died and the three mid electrums were injured. Meanwhile two of the low electrums died, and the rest were severely injured. Owari has absurd speed and power among those of the same rank, so when given a chance to sneak attack you it’s always going to be a loss.
Owari waited and soon the three mid electrums burst out of the rubble and looked around in rage, as predictable as Howling Wulf’s head. Owari merely stood in the air until one of them noticed him. Instead of doing the logical thing and alerting his comrades, he directly attacked. He pulled out a pair of red blades on his hips and swung them horizontally together. It summoned a phoenix to attack Owari.
Owari swung his sword and only used silver wing to tear apart the phoenix, meanwhile the attack continued and struck all three of the enemies who all had to defend once again. They had used a lot of mana defending already. And now they all flashed red and their wounds slowly sealed up. This was the healing aspect of fire. It’s hard to pull off but it is possible. The downside is the pain it causes. Owari smiled as he watched their faces freeze up upon seeing him.
They were shocked a mere mid electrum could do that. But that’s what happens when you allow yourself to be sneak attacked. They were too arrogant and didn’t even bother keeping up their sensory techniques because they believed nobody would mess with them in their home cities. However they never expected someone like Owari who disregarded common courtesy and attacked them on their home turf. None of them seemed to recognize him. But he didn’t care, he merely pulled up his blade and prepared to fight.