"Almost there milady, a few more pushes and it will be all over. NOW PUSH!!" Said the woman who was helping deliver the child.

"Arghhh!!" The pregnant woman's shrill scream echoed through the room as she went through labour.

"Good milady, do it one more time." 'she will not make it at this rate if takes takes any longer' the lady thought.

"Aargh!! I-I can't do it anymore!" The cries and pleas of the woman came out as she gasped for air and cried in pain, the desperation and anguish in her voice clear as day"

"One last time milady, one last time!"

"Aargh!!!"

"The baby is out! You two, one of you has go and call for the lord to come here and the other come and assist me! Quickly now!" Practically screaming at the other two ladies in the room as she lifted the new born baby out of it's mother's vagina.

"Y-yes ma'am! Sarah, you go and call for the master I'll stay here and assist." The older of the two said as she quickly moved to the side of her superior.

"U-understood, I'll be right back with the master!" Running out the door as fast as she could as she spoke.

(5 minutes later)

the door to the room was swung open revealing a man in his early thirties wearing finely made clothes with a simple, yet elegant design. Despite his young age, the man seemed as if he has experienced much in his life, much more than the average man and the calluses on his hands from years of weapon handling and the dignified aura of a warrior that he gave off proved this fact.

"How is she! How is my wife, tell me Darla?! Were there any complications?! And what of my child?! Is it a boy or a girl?!" Rushing to his wife's side to check on her condition, the man spoke and from the man's mouth a genuinely worried voice came out, not something one would expect from a military man who spent his days vanquishing his enemies and getting covered in their blood.

"She is alright milord, but the madam will have to rest for awhile to recuperate her strength. This took quite a toll on her body as compared to when she birthed young master Howard, Sir. Your child on the other hand is as healthy as a baby boy could be. Congratulations Lord Winston, its a boy." Much calmer now as compared to her previous state, Darla the head maid has returned to her much more poised and elegant self. Despite this, the excitement in her eyes could not be any clearer at the thought of her liege's newborn and the changes he will bring to the lives of those in the estate.

"Hahahahaha! I am truly blessed. Quickly! Bring my son to me." Trying to laugh quietly as to not waken his unconscious wife, yet failing miserably as the sounds of his laughter echoed through the room, luckily for him, his wife who was fast asleep had not been woken up by it.

Mary, the maid that chose to stay behind assist Darla quickly went to her master carrying in her arms his newborn son wrapped in cloth along with her. "Here he is master."

"Hehehe. A cute one isn't he. Quickly bring Howard here, I want him to meet his new brother." Lifting up his son from the arms of servant, Henry Winston realized now would be the best time to introduce his now eldest son to his new brother. 'He looks just like his brother when he was born, small, cute and chubby. Now, what should I name him? No, I should wait for Josephine to wake up first before I decided on his name.'

Looking at son's small unopened eyes, he started lamenting on the issues of succession he'll have to experience later on in the future, whether he'd want to or not. 'Hopefully they'll learn to love and care for each other as they grow older. I have seen and heard too many stories of brothers scheming against one another, all to be the one to inherit the title of their father. No, no, no. This is not how I should be thinking. I will raise them as I should and educate them the best I can. If they still fight to inherit my title, I can still say to myself that I did the best I could for both of them.'

Sighing, he waited for the maid to come back with Howard, his first born to appear so that he can introduce them to each other. Luckily Howard was still young, only 6 years old, to innocent and naive to think of the implications of having a sibling could have on the inheritance and title that would have solely been his if not for the birth of his new brother.

In the middle of his thoughts and lamenting, the door was once again opened, revealing a young boy being led by hand, by Mary. Like his father, Howard possessed light brown hair matching with the bright blue eyes he had inherited from his mother.

"Dad, dad! I have brother now?! Let me see him! Let me see!" Quickly rushing to his father's side Howard nearly tripped on his own feet had it not been for Mary who still held him by the hand.

"Hahaha! Be careful now, your brother's body is still very soft and his bones haven't properly set yet." Watching his son nearly tripping himself in his excitement had washed away the depressing thoughts that had been plaguing his mind for the past 10 or so minutes.

"What's his name?! What's his name dad?! Why does he look so weird?"

"Nothing yet, I'm waiting for your mother to wake up before I decide. And don't call your brother weird looking, you should know that you looked like this too when you were born."

"Awww! Why can't we just name him now? Like John or Steve or something. And you should know dad it's impossible for me to look like that, the servants in the castle said I looked very cute when I was younger."

"No Howard, your mother worked very hard to give birth to your little brother. She'll be the one to decide this time. Now go back to your room, I'll wait here for your mother to waken." Smiling at his son and his little antics as he looked with great interest at his new brother who was squirming around in his father's arms before leaving with Mary.

A moment later, just as he was about to stand up to stretch his legs, he suddenly heard coughing noises coming from his left side. To his surprise and subsequent delight, it was none other than his wife, Josephine who seemed to be waking up from her sleep. After realizing this he immediately knelt back down to caress her head and gave her a light and gentle kiss on the forehead.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

"How are you honey? Are feeling ok? Do you need anything?"

"Hehehehe. As worried for me as ever. Don't worry Winston, I'm perfectly fine, I just some rest."

"Hehehe. You can't blame for my worry dear. When you gave birth to Howard, you were still strong enough to stay conscious and hold him in your arms"

"Tell me, how's our child? Is it a boy or girl?"

"Don't worry, our child is just fine and it's a wonderful baby boy."

"Luckily I did not disappoint you with a daughter.” Sighing in relief thinking that she did not disappoint her husband and was able to birth yet another boy instead of a girl.

"You push yourself too much, we already have a male heir so a daughter would not have been too bad. In fact, it could have been a blessing in disguise." Remembering what troubles he may or may not face in the not too distant future, he thought of what could have been, had he gotten a daughter instead. ‘It truly would have been a blessing in disguise.’

"You comfort me too much you know. So, have you decided on a name yet?" Softly smiling, too tired and fatigued to see the bitterness and written all over her husband’s face.

"No, I haven't decided yet, I thought of giving you the honour of naming him." Seeing his wife’s smile and realizing how happy she was at the moment, he decidedly banished his previous thoughts from his mind and gently smiled back at her.

"Thank you dear, give me amount to think."

"Take your time."

"Hmmm..."

(Several minutes of silence later)

"What about....Gabriel. I think the name would be fitting. It came from my uncle who used to give me gifts and take me out of town when I was still a little girl. He was a good man, sadly he died young, apparently his carriage was attacked while he was on his way to the capital by a group of bandits. I wish to honour him this way. Is it alright with you husband?

"I think it's a wonderful name, and your uncle would be very proud of you for doing this for him.”

"Really? Are you certain?"

"Absolutely, I was originally going to agree with whatever you decided on, and it's really not that bad of a name anyways.”

"Ok then."

"Then it's decided. Henceforth, he shall be known as Gabriel Winston son of Viscount Henry and Josephine Winston, and younger brother of Howard Winston." Handing the child to his wife, Winston quietly stood up patted the dust off his legs from kneeling and left the room so that the mother and son pair may bond in peace.

“Darla, Sarah! Tend to the needs of your mistress while I am away.”

“Yes sir!”

“Good.”

'Now that this is all over I should head back to work, it seems that a troop of marauders from the south have been terrorizing the land and targeting the merchants and caravans heading towards the town as of late.'' *sigh* 'Too much work and too little time to spend with my family, such is my life.'

With that he found himself outside of his home a castle built of stone with a 11 metre high circular outer wall 5 metres thick with 14 battlements 18 metres high designed to withstand a sieges and beast tides, a rectangular keep at the very centre 30 metres high and 27 metres wide and long, 2 gates at the east and west points each having a barbican and finally, a courtyard with a radius of 70 metres on all sides from the keep to the outer wall.

To the north and south were the training grounds for his personal guards completely loyal to him where the men practiced their craft be it sword, spear or bow and arrow. To the east and west were the barracks for the personal guards as well as a few more house for the servants such as the maids, butlers, cooks and gardeners, since only the personal servants, the family doctor, head maid and butler as well as a select few from the personal guard were allowed to reside in the keep along with his family.

While it did not possess the same regal and elegant design that other castles with spires pointing towards the sky and bright colours had, it did make up for it in sheer practicality. In return for its lacklustre appearance as compared to other castles, this one boasted a much higher level of defence and was much larger overall since it focused less on aesthetics and more on practical design making it less costly to manage. Had it been the other way around, the castle keep for its size alone would have cost a lot more, more than it did currently.

For Winston, this was the best castle that he could have ever hoped to have. It was comparable in size to the castle of Count Cerso whose territory was south of his . Luckily for Winston, the Count himself was not the type to get jealous over trivial things such as the size of ones castle nor did he view the Viscount as a threat to his reign and authority in the region. And for good reason, as the region they are in is the very frontier separating the kingdom from the untamed northern lands that belongs solely to the demons beasts that lived within uncontested for many millennia.

Because of this the nobles in the frontier formed a collaborative relationship with each other with the Viscount Winston himself acting as a second line of defence in case of a beast horde appearing, like the one that appeared many years ago when he first came to these lands. It had caused so much destruction and loss of life that the nobles who were originally combating the horde with their own individual powers had to form alliances for their mere survival. Had it not been for the last minute alliance formed by the nobles and the timely arrival of the Duke and his armies the northern lands would have been reclaimed by the demons that very same year.

And from this disaster came the rewards of survival. With tens of nobles dead or displaced and tens of thousands more peasants suffering the same conditions the Duke had to replace what was lost and give what was due to the worthy.

From expanded territories, bigger fortifications, larger castles and a general redistribution of power to conferring of titles to fill in the gaps left behind by the deceased nobles that had fallen without a proper heir or had his/her entire bloodline extinguished during the crisis. All sorts of rewards were given by the Duke himself, Winston was lucky and was able to be conferred the title of Viscount for his actions in defending a small city long enough for the peasants and refugee nobles who lost their lands to flee to safety and gave enough time for reinforcements to arrive and retake the lost city. His title grant was a smooth one with the nobles and people he saved backing him up making it so that the Duke had no choice but to reward him greatly whether he liked it or not.

Several years has passed since then, and it has been nothing but peace and quiet up in the north. News however, spreads amongst the people of a possible new beast horde coming causing nothing short of a panic amongst the populace as the memory of the previous horde is still fresh in their minds. Coupled by the fact that dozens of marauders have decided that now was the best time to act using the chaos spread amongst the people and rising prices of goods to their advantage.

"Charles!" Calling for his right hand and leader of his personal guard, Winston was eager to get back to work.

"Yes my liege." At the call of his lord, Charles a 50 year old man appeared and yet, despite his age seemed to be even more powerful than his master with grandiose muscles that seemed to bulge out of his armour specially tailored him and with eyes of a predator waiting for the moment to strike its prey.

"We have work to do, let's go."

"Understood!"

With no useless flowery words and chitchat they got on their horses and departed for the west gates, following behind them, a platoon of 50 or so men followed, each wearing armour similar to Charles' and armed with long spears and sword for close quarters combat.

That very same evening, the marauders who thought they could get away with what they have done were either killed or captured by the Viscount and his men to be later sold to slavers for some extra coin or put to work at the city to help in ongoing construction projects and such.