Duke Shane Drakethrone was running in the hallway, with his black hair disheveled, swinging as he paced around the hallway. He opened the door to the chamber where Alex was sleeping peacefully. Sera was seated beside Alex on the bed, looking over Alex. The sun had just risen, and the room was slowly basking in the light of the morning rays.
Sera put her finger to her lips, signaling Shane to keep quiet. He closed the door slowly, took steady steps to stand beside Sera, and looked over his son's face, searching for scars but found none. He breathed a sigh of relief. Sera, with the help of their healer, had already healed Alex completely. Every noble family kept healers for war and for themselves. Though only one healer remained in their estate as others went to help troops that fought against beasts, this healer had fully restored Alex.
Duke slowly put his hand over his son's face, felt the warm, he was tired from fighting all night against beast tides that had tried to attack their city, and as soon as he knew about Alex was inside the gate from Sera; she had sent him message immediately after finding Alex had entered the gate, he quickened and ended all the beasts with his troops and returned the very moment all the beast were killed, he had not taken an once of sleep, stress had overwhelmed him, not because of beast but for the well being of his son. He knew more than anything that level 1s were not strong and were akin to normal humans; in fact, they were normal humans, with feeble strength. Though Alex was different from other level 1s, he was not very strong either.
Sera slowly stood from the bed and hugged her husband from the back,"He is fine. Dear, you are tired, you should take some rest." She could feel his shoulders sagging from fighting and tension; his suit was filled with cuts from beasts, likely from a high-ranking beast, maybe from a paragon rank beast. She clutched tight to her husband's back; she, too, was overwhelmed yesterday, but did not feel like putting any more burdens on her husband's shoulders.
Shane just replied," Hmm.." Clearly not wanting to leave his son's side, while fighting, he was having so many bad feelings and thoughts that he was so unfocused and was not defensive at all. Beast had taken advantage of his neglegence, giving him cuts and claw marks around body, he would heal naturally due to his high healing property thanks to paragon rank and didn't let healer heal him other than for some rare instance where he was cut deep all due to his own fault, and partly due to feeling his troops will need it more than him.
Morning sun rays extended far and wide inside the room, falling on Alex's face. Shane put his hand over his son's face, not wanting the rays to disturb his son's sleep, and Sera, seeing this, was about to close the window and put on the curtains, but Alex's eyelashes started fluttering slowly, as his eyes fully opened.
Alex opened his eyes to see a hand above his face. It nearly made him scream, fearing someone had come to take him. Trauma from yesterday's encounter had left him deeply fearful, but upon closer look and tracing the hand, he found it was his father's hand. He breathed a sigh of relief; he was afraid someone had come to kidnap him or something.
Grand Duke, seeing his son's changing face into a myriad of emotions, stifled a laugh."Son, are you afraid of my hand or what?"
Alex looked at his father's smug expression and replied,"You nearly made me lose my soul. Who puts their hand on their son's face in the morning?"
Grand Duke laughed even more,"Son, it seems you need more training, you could not even identify your father from his hand. I just came from fighting beasts, and this is how you welcome your father. It seems you need some beating." Sera pinched her husband's waist, seeing how he kept on teasing their son. Grand Duke put on an 'ouch' face as he looked at his wife, with a sorry face, saying 'sorry' slowly.
Alex wanted to turn his face away from his parents' bickering, but stopped as he looked down at his father's waist and body, seeing cut marks on the suit. He jumped over the bed and hugged his father,"Sorry, father, I did not mean to hurt you. I was really afraid when you put your hand over my face. You should rest, you are injured."
Grand Duke, shocked by his son's reaction, hugged his son back and ruffled his son's black hair, which was tinged with blue at its end, reminding him of his wife's hair,"Silly son, your father just needs sleep, do not worry so much."
Alex kept on hugging and nodded, "Hmm." Seeing the love between father and son, Sera felt happy and blissful. In a noble family, it was very normal to have a strained relationship between father and son, but here it was the opposite.
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