Free Web NovelChapter 10: Everyone Surprised
The room fell into absolute silence for a few seconds after Aurora’s scream.
Lukas, sitting upright in the crib, looked at his parents with a calmness that belonged to no two-and-a-half-month-old baby.
His violet eyes, identical to Aurora’s, moved across their faces with attentive, almost analytical curiosity.
He didn’t know exactly what had happened. He didn’t know why he could suddenly control his body. He didn’t know where the strength that had allowed him to sit up so effortlessly had come from.
But he knew it wasn’t normal.
’Judging by their reaction... it’s definitely not normal.’
Clavor was the first to break the silence.
He approached the crib with cautious, slow steps, as if Lukas were a legendary creature that might disappear at any moment.
The man leaned over the crib, his dark brown eyes analyzing every detail of his son with the precision of a general inspecting a battlefield.
Lukas’s upright posture, so steady, so natural. His little arms firmly resting against the sides of the crib, his tiny fingers curled around the wood.
"This..." he murmured, his voice hoarse with astonishment.
Aurora was still holding Lukas’s face with trembling hands, her pale fingers touching his soft cheeks as if they needed confirmation that he was real.
"He’s only two and a half months old, Clavor!" Her voice wavered, sometimes high-pitched with shock, sometimes low with disbelief.
"Two and a half months! Asmon only sat up by himself when he was almost seven months old! Judite was even later!"
Clavor nodded slowly, his brow furrowing. freewebnσvel.cѳm
"I remember. Asmon was strong, but it took time. Every child has their own pace."
He looked at Lukas again, narrowing his eyes.
"But this seems a little too much."
The commotion did not take long to attract the rest of the family.
The mansion’s stone corridors echoed with the sound of hurried footsteps, first light and uneven, Judite, then heavy and steady, Asmon.
Their voices blended into muffled questions that Lukas couldn’t distinguish, but the tone was clear. What happened? Why did Mom scream?
Asmon and Judite appeared running down the corridor, practically colliding with each other at the bedroom door.
The boy shoved his younger sister aside with a rough gesture, not out of malice, but with the urgency of someone who had heard an alarmed scream and didn’t know whether it was an emergency or a celebration.
"What happened?!" Asmon asked, panting, still sweaty from training. His linen shirt was soaked, clinging to his chest, and his brown hair was so wet it looked painted onto his forehead. freewёbnoνel.com
The training sword was still in his right hand, its blunted blade gleaming with droplets of sweat.
His eyes widened when he saw his younger brother.
Lukas was sitting.
Not lying down. Not being supported. Not propped up with pillows or resting in someone’s lap.
Sitting.
Straight-backed and steady, like a tiny improvised king seated upon a throne in the middle of the crib.
"Damn... Lukas?" Asmon let the sword fall to the floor with a metallic crash, but he didn’t even seem to notice.
He approached the crib with clumsy steps, his eyes fixed on his brother.
"How... how is he doing that?"
Judite, with her four years of age and all the energy packed into her tiny body, let out a sharp squeal of excitement that pierced the air like an arrow.
She ran to the crib, pushing Asmon aside, this time successfully, since her older brother was too distracted to resist. She stood on tiptoe, her bare little toes twisting against the wooden floor to gain a few extra inches of height.
"He’s sitting up!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands.
"Sitting up for real! Look, Asmon! Lukas is like a tiny grown-up!"
"He’s not like a tiny grown-up," Asmon replied, still stunned.
"Tiny grown-ups are dwarves. And he doesn’t look like a dwarf. I think."
"But he’s sitting up!" Judite insisted, as if that were the only relevant fact in the universe.
Asmon shook his head, an incredulous smile on his lips.
"This is crazy. I could barely roll over in bed at that age, probably. Mom always said I was lazy."
He looked at Lukas with a new expression on his face, something between admiration and a trace of envy.
"He’s going to be a monster, Father!"
Clavor, who had been observing the scene with his arms crossed over his chest, finally spoke.
"Maybe." His voice was deep and measured.
He approached the crib again and placed a large hand on Lukas’s head, stroking his thin white hair with a mixture of pride and disbelief.
His calloused fingers, marked by years of swordsmanship, were surprisingly gentle against his son’s sensitive scalp.
A rare smile appeared at the corner of his mouth, softening the scar on his left cheek. It was the kind of smile rarely seen on the face of Clavor Dmond, so rare that Asmon and Judite exchanged surprised glances.
"That’s a good sign," he said, his voice firm but filled with satisfaction.
"Lukas will grow strong. Faster and more powerful than we imagined."
He paused, his dark brown eyes fixed on his son’s violet ones.
"Perhaps he’s a little... special."
Aurora looked at her husband, still worried, but now proud as well. She gently caressed the back of Clavor’s hand, which still rested on Lukas’s head.
"Special how?" she asked softly.
"What do you mean by that?"
Clavor took a moment before answering.
"I don’t know yet," he admitted at last.
"But I can feel it. Deep down. There’s something different about this boy."
Judite, oblivious to the tension among the adults, continued hopping around the crib and clapping her hands.
"My little brother is the strongest!" she sang, inventing a melody on the spot.
"The strongest in the whole world! I’m going to tell everyone!"
Asmon laughed and ruffled her hair with his sweaty hand.
"Easy there, little one. Let’s let him grow up first. If you tell everyone now, they’ll all want to come see him, then Mom will get nervous, Dad will have to kill somebody, and it’ll be a huge hassle."
"Dad isn’t going to kill anyone!" Judite protested, horrified.
"Dad has already killed a lot of people," Asmon replied with the casualness of someone discussing the weather.
"It was his job."
"Asmon!" Aurora interrupted, her voice sharp.
"That’s not something to talk about around the baby."
Asmon raised his hands in surrender.
"Alright, alright. I didn’t say anything."
