Stephen woke up in the middle in the night and his new brothers were still asleep. The moonlight was emanating the room with a shadow of the window frame that touches his brother's skin.
They were fast asleep while Baggus and others were snoring out loudly. He pushed the door's room and saw that there's light downstairs.
He walked and made a loud moan as he stretches his back while going down. He heard talking persons on the sofa so he can't wait to see who it was.
As he walked, he slowly saw the person his mother was talking to. And to his surprise, they were kissing each other. He saw the shadow and he realizes that it was his father.
"Dad!" Stephen shouted and hugged his father.
"By the way, you can already make another brother for me!" He insisted to his parents.
His father paled as he heard his child's request.
'This child has that thinking? Is he thinking that by kissing, Isabella will get pregnant?' Douglas scratched his head inwardly then he replied to Stephen.
"Well, if we can save a little money for your little sister or younger brother, then we have a go signal for it. Parenting takes a lot of preparation for the future of the children. Take that to your mind when the time comes," Douglas said as he caressed his child's head.
"Well, how're your new brothers? Are they enjoying their school life? Well, I and your mother talked about it and I accepted in her offer knowing that they're the heroes.....any news from them?"
Stephen smiled and he's about to say something, when suddenly someone observing on the corner of the wall on the staircase, fell to the floor.
He was pushed by his brothers, crowded themselves just to look and hear them.
They all woke up from Stephen's shout earlier and they walk out from the shadows. Frank talked first on behalf of the heroes.
He stands up straight then he introduced his name to Douglas, as well as the others. He caressed his head after he bowed down to him.
Douglas smiled and he said to Frank to put down the formalities.
He welcomed the heroes with a warm welcome speech. He stands up and said, "Heroes of Almaria, I sincerely apologize for the treatment of the Kingdom to our fallen heroes. On behalf of the kingdom and the remaining humanity alive, I sincerely thank you. The heroes are rumoured to be killed in action after the Tirad pass sealing mission, so the kingdom has announced that the heroes sacrificed their lives. I, as well as my family, will treat you fairly as a family and as our hero. Even the kingdom will forget you or will not acknowledge you as the true heroes, I know you will still fight for the kingdom. Thus, I congratulate you on coming back,"
Frank as well as the others, was ignited again but Frank brought a piece of bad news to Douglas.
"I appreciate your sincerity to us but our mission is still not finished. Well, the seal is broken and we have to defend again our kingdom. We will not be of much use to you because as you can see, we came back to being beginners in our strength and powers. We will still help but we're no different from your child's league. Make haste sir Douglas, for we don't know when will they come. I can only think that they will be attacking our citizens outside the walls in just a few days," Frank said worriedly to Douglas.
Frank and his brothers all sat at the floor and they all felt down for the moment. Naphtalie's sacrifice only gave them a few days to prepare and the kingdom was not yet informed.
They pleaded Douglas to inform his higher-ups to prepare for war because the hordes were coming. Stephen was shocked by the news and he never thought that they have this kind of situation.
Douglas said to them to inform the eagle corps to patrol the borders and went to the alliance. He was hoping that the alliance will respond to their warning.
Without delays, Douglas prepared to travel to the capital and kissed his beloved Isabella. While Stephen and his mom waved goodbye to Douglas.
It was still dawning when he left them. His adopted brothers all watched Douglas and wished him luck upon his travels.
"What do we do now?" Shinpatsu asked Frank.
"We will wait for the news of his father as well as hoping that it is still not too late," Frank said to Shinpatsu.
"So we will wait huh, how do we defend the kingdom?" Mistiban asked.
"We have to be strong first before anything else and let's wait for his return," Frank said while clenching his fist.
"Let's train first for the meantime," Said Stephen to them.
Meanwhile, their mom prepared breakfast of oatmeal and milk as well as mixed with raisins and dried mango chips.
While their mom was preparing food, they prepared to have a short spar with each other and honing their combat skills.
They paired each other and draw lots on who's gonna spar first.
Stephen will have a short match with Frank...of course, it's Frank, he was his inspiration when it comes to defending with shields.
But shields were not only his specialty. He was a versatile weapon user of swords and blunts but the downfall was his difficulty in using knives.
Well, knives were the most basic weapon used. Stephen begged Frank to have a short spar with him.
They paired and chose each other to spar according to the list: Mistiban–the Dread Knight was matched to Shinpatsu–the Ronin. Saber–Lycan was matched against Branmoor–Druid. While Splinter–Assassin was matched against Maldor–Ranger. Deathbane–Necromancer was matched against Baggus–Mage. While Arthras–Paladin was matched against Snap–Fighter. And for the last, it was Frank–Holy Knight and Stephen–Unspecialized.
Stephen will be against the legendary Holy Knight with Priestly skills. He was inspired as well as excited to learn new tricks from his new brother.
Hopefully, he can increase the tier of his Holy skills by experiencing this fight. They matched with each other in pairs and readied themselves in the backyard. The first to match was.....