TBATE-The Lost Hero

Explosion

POV : Alice Leywin

It was expected that Arthur and Asher would be the most wonderful children, and I'm not saying this because I'm a doting mother.

No.

Arthur with his small tuft of radiant hair and sparkling playful eyes, almost emitting a bluish light, his gaze sometimes appearing... intelligent.

As for Asher, despite his similarities to Arthur, he's different. His contemplative demeanor makes him seem almost precociously mature, which makes me want to devour him.

No, I tell you, I'm not an doting mother. I plan to be a strict and fair mother. I can't rely on my husband to teach them a bit of art or any general sense. For heaven's sake, he tried teaching our children how to fight when they could barely crawl.

I know these little rascals will turn out just like their father if left to their own devices. I was so proud when they started crawling, almost tearing up, though I didn't realize how much trouble two moving toddlers could cause.

I swear, there's not a single moment I can take my eyes off Arthur before he crawls into the study. It's so strange. We've bought him plenty of stuffed animals and wooden toys to play with, but he always ends up in the study. At least he's the opposite of his father directly, who saw how Reynolds almost dragged him away from texts longer than the weekly paper.

As for little Asher, I always find him either asleep or with his eyes closed, lost in thought, which made me anxious if he had a problem, but the doctor explained that this is the nature of children—they sleep a lot.

Considering Arthur's excitement when we went out into the city, I decided to go shopping for groceries every two days instead of twice a week.

No, I tell you, I'm not a doting mother. This is for his education about the outside world and for fresh food at home. Yes, hahaha... that's all.

It seems my sons are interested in many things. I can't get enough of seeing their head, which seemed disproportionate to their small bodies, turning left and right as they tries to take everything around them. They are particularly fascinated by their father's practices.

Reynolds was a pretty competent adventurer back in the days. Being a B-class adventurer by the age of twenty-eight was actually a pretty fast climb. Acquiring an E-class rank, the lowest rank, required taking a test to prevent us from sending eager but ignorant adolescents to their deaths. As for the higher ranks, I've only seen a couple of A-class adventurers in my years of working there and I've yet to see an S-class adventurer, assuming they actually exist.

Through working at the Adventurer's Guild, or as we've just dubbed it the Guild Hall, back then in Valden, I saw many enthusiastic teenagers. I swear, I was surprised they didn't float away with their inflated egos.

At least they were ambitious.

Once, I was tasked with conducting a basic practical test, where the examinee simply had to demonstrate basic proficiency in mana manipulation, but before the test began, the child fell flat on his back because the sword he was carrying was too heavy for him.

Speaking of airheads, Reynolds certainly stood out at that time. The moment he saw me in the Guild Hall, his jaw literally dropped and he stood there until the man behind him in line nudged him forward. He hurriedly wiped his drool and managed to mumble, "...h...hello... can I trade in... things for the mission?" I just burst out laughing at his beet-red embarrassment.

He mustered the courage to ask me out for dinner, and we hit it off from there. Even now, I can't help but smile when I see his droopy blue eyes looking at me.