"Drax!"
Drax cheerfully exclaimed his chosen name to his mother as he clapped his hand.
Freya poked his cheek and smiled. "Drax? Is that what you want, dear?"
Drax nodded a few times.
Freya thought and shook her slightly for a second.
Even if she didn't understand what the name meant since it was an unknown word to her, she had no choice but to allow it.
It was not like she could intervene or change it.
After all, she had the right to only one name as the mother of the child, and not two.
It was soon her turn to choose a name for her child — a name that would be his middle name.
Just like Drax, Freya already knew what name she was going to bestow on him.
It had to be symbolic, especially after she thought that Drax had chosen the first random word that came to his mind as his first name despite being an intelligent child.
Unbeknownst to her, Drax's name was coincidentally symbolic to his person as well.
With the name 'Drax' sharing origins and ties to the words 'strong' and 'dragon', it represented half of what he was.
Freya picked up the brush, dipped it in the pool of ink and wrote the name she had chosen right under the one Drax had written.
Like before, the brush instantly dried up when she was done but she held on to it as if expecting something to happen.
"The souls of our ancestors gone and the souls of elves living, bear me witness this day as I bestow a name upon my son," Freya began to speak as if praying to invisible beings.
Drax was left confused as the Elf Queen continued for a while.
However, he soon understood what she was doing and who she was speaking to.
Drax observed the lanterns above them once again and noticed that they were glowing a little bit more than when he saw them the first time.
It was like they heard Freya's words.
The several shining lanterns represented the souls of every living elf in the world, whether they were within Avalonia or beyond it.
Freya soon paused and looked at her child who was confused as she guided his face towards her with a finger on his chin.
Drax stared at his mother, his eyes moving from side to side as he got a closer view of her adorable golden eyes.
"...On this day, with the ancestors and the souls of elves living bearing me witness, I name you… Drax Manawyn van Elenor."
Freya had gone for a name that also represented something vital to Drax's being.
Manawyn translated to 'born from mana', a reference to how she had summoned Drax to the World of Xenithia with Alucard's help.
Immediately she spoke Drax's full name, a gust of wind burst into the room out of nowhere.
Flowers danced and the lanterns moved to the rhythm of the wind.
Even the parchment upon which his names were written started to absorb the names, changing back into an empty scroll.
…But that was not all.
After the names 'Drax' and 'Manawyn' had been absorbed into the magical paper, a burst of blinding light shone from the centre of the parchment.
Freya immediately covered Drax's eyes with her hand while closing her simultaneously.
The light did not last more than two seconds before they felt normalcy return.
Opening her eyes first to make sure that all was well, Freya then removed her hand, allowing Drax to observe the beautiful thing that happened next.
"Woahhh…!" Drax uttered with a gaping mouth as he watched a slowly revolving lantern lift up from the parchment and head towards the dark space above them.
Freya nodded in the direction of the lantern, drawing Drax's attention to the newly formed magical lantern.
"Look, sweetie," she said, "it's your name."
Drax watched closely to see his name etched on the body of a floating orangish lantern.
"Mother…"
"Yes, sweetheart."
"What does that lantern do?" the half-elf asked.
"Those…" Freya guided her eyes to the lanterns as they watched the newest one with Drax's name joining the myriad of them floating in the dark space.
"Those are the Lanterns of Life," the Elf Queen began to explain. "As long as a lantern shines, it means that the owner is alive. When the light of a lantern dims, it means trouble for the owner and when it completely fades and loses its light, the lantern disappears from there…"
Freya paused as her tone of voice turned a tad gloomy as she recalled the memories of fallen comrades.
"...it means the owner is dead."
Her mood immediately turned cheerful as soon as she noticed that her gloom was starting to rub off on her little boy.
Freya stroked his hair. "We, as the rulers of Avalonia, are also custodians of the Lanterns of Life. Only people, like us, with blood of elven royalty can access this place. This, my dear, is one of the heritages of the elves."
Drax shifted his gaze to the lanterns.
This time around, Drax looked at them from a new perspective.
It was as if he had received enlightenment after Freya's explanation.
The young elf knew that these lanterns were not ordinary but he couldn't have guessed that they had this much value to the elven culture.
"As my son and the young prince of Avalonia, Drax," Freya called his attention. "You are the Protector of the Elves and also a Custodian of the Lanterns of Life."
The half-elf felt a cloak of authority and duty fall over his shoulders as he listened to the Elf Queen.
He did not expect that he would receive such a high stake role in this reincarnated life and this made him even more excited.
'It almost feels too good to be true,' Drax thought as he considered the favourable circumstances he had reincarnated into. 'First, I'm the son of two queens, an elf queen and a dragon queen. Then I received a system and incredible mana points. Now, I'm not just any elf but my mother's heir…'
Drax unknowingly cooed out of excitement.
'It's almost as if I'm a main character or something like that and whoever or whatever god was responsible for bringing me here is, indeed, showering me with their blessing.'
As Drax was thinking through this, he felt a sudden sting in his navel.
Before he could realise it, the sting turned into a burning sensation.
'Aahh! What the—'