Felix sat around the table, slurping up some soup.

‘Dang, this is good.’ He thought, as he savored the savory and slighty sweet aroma of the soup in his mouth.

“Felix, you're already done?” His mother asked, smiling slightly. “Cmon, I’ll get you some more.”

As she left for some more soup, Felix clenched his tiny baby fists again and again. After all, to prove that he was worthy of the Stone, his body had to be of utmost condition.

As he was still a baby, he couldn't do more traditional exercise, and had instead resorted to slowly improving his overall physique by being more active.

Seeing his mother come back with the soup, Felix dove back in again.

However, his slurping was suddenly paused when he heard the ding of the keypad of the apartment door letting in someone.

‘Is it grandpa?’ He wondered.

Just as he thought that, his grandpa really did come into the dining room.

But why did it look like he had been crying?

As Felix kept staring, a bit concerned, a second figure appeared next to him.

Felix stared at the new person.

Who was that?

And why did he look like Felix?

***

Pinera Elris’s POV

I refilled Felix’s bowl with some more soup. Smiling, I wondered how such a little body could ingest so much food.

Vaguely, I heard the ding of our apartment’s door opening.

‘Is Dad back?’ I wondered, walking back into the dining room.

Lately, he had been obsessed with finding Odon again. I thought he was over it, but…

Perhaps the Monarch had pulled him back into it?

It wasn’t like I hadn't missed Odon. I severely missed him. Sometimes, I would wake up with an aching pain in my heart because of me missing him. It was just that I knew that he wouldn't come until he finished whatever he was doing.

If he ever came back.

Sighing… I ducked into the dining room, seeing Felix looking at Dad with a weird expression.

Was it a concerned expression? Were babies capable of doing that?

Of course, Felix wasn't exactly a normal baby, judging how he had spoken from five months old.

Suddenly I noticed a second figure with Dad, sitting right next to Felix.

Who..

I stopped.

A loud crash resonated within the room as the bowl I had been holding dropped to the floor.

“O-Odon?” I whispered, emotions welling up inside.

He smiled up at me.

Oh, how I just loved how he smiled. How the edges of his eyes crinkled up like that. And how the dark blonde hair seemed to make it even brighter.

Tears began welling up inside my eyes.

He stood up and crossed over to me.

As I collapsed into his arms, sobbing, I heard him whisper to me.

“I came back home. Just as I told you I would.”

***

Felix’s mind was whirling.

As seeing his mother sobbing into the arms of a stranger, his mind seized up.

Ah…

So this was his father in this world.

Conflicted emotions seeped into his brain. After all, accepting Pinera as his mother was actually rather easy as he had never had a true mother.

However, a father…

What if he was just like Felix’s past one…

He shook the thought out of my mind. He couldn't judge someone because of his past trauma. After all, Felix was simply using them so he could take his revenge against his real father.

He just had to adjust his calculations a bit. This variable could easily be taken care of.

Felix looked at the man a bit closer.

With Felix’s same dark blonde hair, and his overall face structure, he could be Felix, albeit a bit older. The only difference was his bright green eyes, while Felix’s were blue.

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The man, slowly kissing his mother, suddenly turned towards Felix.

“So this is my son?” He softly asked, crouching down to be in front of Felix.

The two stared at each other.

Both sets of eyes seemed to glimmer in the light.

One blue, one green.

“Hey, buddy.” He said, softly tousling Felix’s hair. “I’m your father.”

Felix could barely hear that last part however, as memories that he had locked away suddenly came back, bursting.

The man’s face was once again overlapped with his past father, just like in the case with the monster.

The way he was tousling Felix’s hair…

It was just too much like his past father.

A memory came back to Felix.

There had been a day when Felix felt love for a person other than his father.

He had fallen in love with a girl. She had been kind, nice, and supportive. When others had bullied him, she had softly pulled him out of the mess, and rebuked the others.

He could still see her. Her soft, petite figure, with her flowing hair. She had been like an angel to Felix. Of course, maybe now, as Felix thought back to it, perhaps Felix had been thinking about her a bit too highly.

However, she really was the only other person than his father to support him.

At least, that was until she killed herself.

He could still remember the police report in his hand.

Just staring at the name in the top-left corner, and wishing that it was his name instead of hers.

‘Why? Why did you kill yourself? You had the perfect life. Why?’

However, Felix later found out how he was asking the wrong questions.

The questions he should have been asking were ‘Why did you come close to me? Why did you try to save me? You should have known it was impossible.’

‘Why did you make my father kill you?’

That's right.

Felix’s father had killed her.

Translation?

Felix had killed her.

Of course, it was indirectly. He had only given his father the drug disguised as medication. And he had never known how he would use it.

The drug had been an interesting one. It was capable of lowering one's mental intelligence, making them more prone to suggestions for a duration of time.

And his father had convinced her to jump off a cliff.

He had not known at the time. It was only after his father had betrayed him and left him for dead that he had finally told the truth to Felix.

He had been mocking him, not letting Felix die with a clear conscience. He wanted Felix to suffer in death as well.

Even after all Felix had done for him, his father did not feel a shred of mercy.

This was the man Felix’s past father was.

***

Odon Elris’s POV

I stared at my son’s eyes. For some reason, I couldn't feel the innocence of childhood. It was like I was staring into the eyes of someone who had already suffered through the harsh beating that was life.

It felt like I was staring into an abyss.

Inwardly, I laughed. There was no way. What was I thinking? I must be getting old.

How could a baby be like that?

Shaking my head, I looked at him more closely.

He really did look like me.

My heart warming at that, I lifted him up and hugged him.

“When does he sleep?” I asked, looking at Pinera.

She glanced at the clock. “He should be sleeping now. How about you tuck him in?”

“I’d love to.” I said, carrying him into his room.

As I walked, I smiled at how the apartment had not changed in the slightest. It still felt quite like home.

I ducked into Felix’s room and laid him in his crib.

I nestled in his tiny form into the soft, warm blankets and smiled.

Perhaps I should sing? After all, this was the first time he was seeing me. I had to make up for all the firsts I had missed.

Maybe this could count as the first step towards him forgiving me for not being there.

I began singing in a soft voice, a soft, pure melody my mother used to sing to me.

"Sleep, my little dreamer,

In the moonlight, I'll be your protector.

When you smiled, the world grew brighter,

Tiny hands, you held me tighter."

"Oh little dreamer on my knee,

Every lullaby, just you and me.

From your first laugh, to your first cry,

I'll keep you safe, my sweet goodbye."

"Remember when you took your first steps?

Chasing shadows while the sun wept.

Muddy shoes and giggles on the ground,

Every moment, how they fly so fast."

"Oh, little dreamer on my knee,

Every lullaby, just you and me.

From your first laugh to your first cry,

I'll keep you safe, my sweet goodbye."

I finished the song in a low note and kissed him on the cheek and then pulled up the blankets up to his chin.

I once again smiled at how alike we looked.

Then I slowly left the room.

***

Felix couldn't sleep.

What was this feeling in his chest?

Why was there warmth in it?

The melody his ‘father’ had sung to him resonated inside of Felix.

The closest he had ever felt to his past father was when Felix had managed to get some rare recipes on poisons for him.

But now…

What was that?

Really?

He touched his cheek where his ‘father’ had kissed him. As he was doing so, he felt a little bit of moisture in his cheeks.

Huh?

Why was he crying?

And then, suddenly like a torment, tears began falling out and Felix began gulping for breath.

Thoughts Felix had kept back with his anger suddenly was unleashed.

‘Wh-why?’

‘Why did his father betray him?’

‘Why was he feeling so much love from a stranger?’

More tears began running out of his eyes. It felt like a hard wall that he had built just suddenly came crashing down, unleashing the torment he had been holding down.

Felix began crying even more louder, as sadness he had thought been long extinguished with anger came flooding back.

Just then the door opened.

Felix’s father came in, concern in his eyes. Felix looked up at him, and realized the image of his past father no longer overlapped in him.

His father slowly lifted him out of the crib and began hugging him.

“Shh… it’s okay, Felix. C’mon, it's okay.” He said, massaging Felix’s back.

That just made Felix cry harder. Why was he showing more love than what his past father had shown him?

Why?!

Wh-

Finally, once again, just like in the void, his body was exhausted from the output of emotion. He slowly began to close his eyes.

However, unlike last time, there was no black, cold darkness.

Instead, his last sight was his father’s crystal green eyes staring back at him.

And there really was no ounce of doubt in Felix’s heart when he came to a conclusion.

His father really did love him.

This was his father.

Not the past man he had been born to.

And Felix happily fell asleep.