The Martial Unity

Chapter 3437: Budding Father

”Waaaa...!” the boisterous cry of an infant lit up in a warm room. ”Waaaa...!”

Kane crouched, gazing at his young son with a soft gaze of affection as he rocked the cradle gently despite the immense power within his arms. The dark room within their home grew quiet as his baby son stopped crying, calming down in the presence of his father.

He simply rocked his son’s cradle gently, enjoying the blissful silence of his dozing baby boy. The air in the room was laced with the odor of milk, kept warm by a special room heater that ensured that none of the visceral cold that the Town of Hajin experienced each year could so much as touch him.

The baby boy was plump, with bouncy cheeks that gently jiggled with each rocking motion. His light olive skin resembled Fae’s fair skin, while, in turn, he had inherited Fae’s silky silver hair.

Kane was happy that the young boy had inherited his clear green eyes, however.

Kane himself looked distinctly different since his son was born a month ago. His green hair had grown longer, approaching his shoulders, while an unkempt beard had grown out before he even realized it.

Dark bags hung under his eyes, denoting his sleep deprivation to anyone who took a single glance at him. Yet, his expression was soft and gentle despite being worn from just a single month of parenthood.

It had proven to be more stressful and more tiring than any training he had ever undergone in his entire life, including some of the craziest times he had gone through with Rui while they journeyed through the Panama Continent together when they were both Squires.

He hadn’t trained at all in the last month to any serious degree with any of the Upper Realms of power. He couldn’t afford to be knocked out in this crucial phase when his family needed him.

Of course, ’need’ was not strictly true. Fae was from the Dullahan Family, which was powerful even after the death of her grandmother, while Kane was a Martial Sage, making him one of the most powerful men in the Kandrian Empire. It was trivial for him to hire an entire team of the best maids, butlers, and nannies to take care of his son and help Fae while she recovered from a rather stressful delivery.

Kane wanted to be there for her every day and every moment that she and their son needed him. He wanted her to get enough sleep and rest to relax and regain her health with as much time as she needed.

It certainly helped, even if she insisted on taking care of their son for much of the day, insisting on feeding him herself while Kane took the rest of the day and the night to help her unwind.

It was tiring, yet fulfilling in a way that he hadn’t ever experienced in his life. Much of his life had been centered around running away from his family, while the remaining half of it was dedicated to keeping up with Rui.

Both of these goals were rather self-centered around his needs and ambitions. Even when he started his relationship with Fae, it had been one of passion and the fruit of many years of unrequited attraction and affection.

But not even his relationship with Fae, wonderful as it was, was able to compare to the pure soulful sensation of purpose and meaning that taking care of his son gave him. From the moment he had gazed at his son, he felt as though his entire life up until that point was meaningless.

Of course, he was cognizant that it wasn’t. His experiences, his bonds with the most important people in his life like Fae, Rui, and his father, had shaped him into who he was today.

Yet, none of those bonds could compare to the indescribable bond he had already forged with his son from the moment he was born.

He slowly leaned forward to his son, kissing him on the forehead gently.

”I love you, Runark.”

It was the name that they had chosen for their baby son, made from the first two letters of his godfather’s name. Kane’s only regret was that neither Rui nor his father had been on the continent for his son’s birth, but he knew that it was selfish of him to expect Rui to be there.

Especially when the fate of human civilization was greatly contingent on how Rui spent his priceless time, while his father was apparently spending time in unreality or whatever. He couldn’t wait for both of them to return so that he could show off his brilliant baby boy to the two of them.

Just a month as a father had changed his perspective on everything.

Suddenly, the future of human civilization was vastly more important than it had ever been in the past. Kane was not the most noble of men with a heart connected to the people, or anything of the sort. That didn’t mean that he was apathetic, but he was never the type to eagerly throw himself into danger and take grave risks to protect human civilization, although he had done that with the eldritch chimera.

Even when he married Fae, he took a rather nonchalant attitude to the trajectory of human civilization.

However, now that he was blessed with a son whose future was the future of human civilization, the matter took on absolute importance in his mind. He couldn’t afford to shrug it off and be confident in his strength as a Martial Sage to just ignore everything else.

He needed to ensure that human civilization not only survived but also thrived for the sake of his son. It also meant that he needed to get much stronger than he currently was to ensure that he could help protect human civilization and secure a prosperous future for his son.

His green eyes sharpened seriously as he gazed at his son. ”I will protect you no matter what.”