CH-4 Father Came Home With Gifts

"Father!!!" William shouted while running towards the man who had just entered the house.

The man had a tall build around 6'2 feet with wide shoulders and well-toned muscles visible through his skin-tight white shirt and brown coat.

He had pale skin matching his snow-white hair and crimson eyes resembling the colour of blood.

Upon seeing the young boy, who looked like a miniature version of him, running towards him, he dropped his suitcase and bags and also ran towards the boy with a big smile on his face.

Upon reaching the boy, he picked him up from the ground and hugged him tightly. After hugging him, the man lifted the boy into the sky and started spinning.

Upon being lifted into the sky by his father, William could do nothing but laugh loudly and think about how much he missed him. 

Upon arriving, Myra saw her husband playing with their son, and she couldn't help but be a little jealous of why she wasn't greeted this way.

However, in the end, she could do nothing but sigh as she knew how much the boy adored his father.

Not wishing to interrupt their moment, she decided to wait till they were done.

Once Rex let William down and it seemed they were done, Myra went forward and greeted her husband.

"Welcome back, dear," said Myra with a smile on her face.

Upon hearing her voice, Rex smiled as he said, "I'm back".

There was a lot William wanted to talk about with his father; however, he was just waiting for his mother to finish greeting him.

"Now let's let Father go to his room and change clothes and freshen up before you talk to him, "

Myra said, seeing her son's eagerness.Upon hearing that, William had no choice but to reluctantly agree.

Upon hearing his wife's words, Rex had no choice but to go inside his room and go into his shower to freshen up.

After what seemed to be ages for William, his father returned to the living room, where he and his mother were sitting.He was wearing a black t-shirt and grey pants.

He had his hand behind his back as he entered the room with a smile eerily similar to William's, he said.

"Daddy bought gifts for his genius."Upon hearing that, William's expression lit up as he ran towards his father, asking, "Really, presents for me?".

"Of course, if not for you, who else would I buy gifts for?" Rex asked with a hint of mischief in his eyes.

Upon saying this, Rex handed William a box wrapped in red gift paper, which William took excitedly as he tore the wrapping paper.

Inside, he found a pristine wooden box covered in golden embroidery, which gave off a regal aura as if it hadn't been touched in ages.

Inside the box was a long sword around 30 cm in length with a dual-edged blade and a black handle.

The sword also had silver runes on it.

"The edge of Runerra, that's the name of the sword; this was the sword that accompanied me throughout most of my days as an adventurer; this was also the blade I used to slay the Hydra,"

Rex said as he eyed the blade with eyes filled with nostalgia, recalling his youth."

The runes etched on the blade strengthen the effect of any spells channelled into the sword; it's a very powerful rune, which helped me a lot back in the day".

"Wait, since you're gifting me a sword, does that mean?" William asked, his voice filled with anticipation.

"Yes, I've thought about it a lot and decided to finally fulfil your wish and teach you swordsmanship," Rex said, his expression full of conviction.

Upon hearing his father finally agree to what he had been asking for the past 3 years, William couldn't contain his joy, and he jumped on Rex with teary eyes, thanking him and telling him how he'd make sure not to disappoint him.

Upon hearing his son's heartfelt words, Rex couldn't help but break out of his serious expression as he smiled at him and ruffled his hair.

"Hah, alright, junior, trust me, you don't have a choice anymore. I'll be personally training you, so don't expect it to be easy," Rex said with a playful expression.

"I'll be sure to not disappoint Father.".

"Yeah, yea, but before that, did you complete today's training?" Rex asked

"Ehh," William made a weird noise as if caught red-handed.

"Heh, I knew it. Before you go do your daily training here, take this ring," Rex said with a smirk as he took a wooden box and threw it.

Willian skillfully caught the box and opened it. Inside the box was a black ring with purple engravings.

"It's a portable armour called the Armour of Bordor; it looked pretty interesting, so I bought it for you".

Upon hearing that, William had a look of surprise on his face as he wore the ring on his right index finger.

"Try channelling mana into the ring," Rex advised.

William followed his father's advice and channelled mana into the ring.

Once mana was channelled into it, the ring emitted bright purple light, and the next instant, William was covered in onyx black armour with purple engravings.

The armour covered his whole body and yet didn't obstruct movement.

"So, what do you think?" Rex asked, seemingly pleased with how the armour looked.

"It's perfect," William said as he tried moving a bit in the armour and getting used to the foreign sensation on his skin.

The next instance, the armour reverted back to a ring as William stopped channelling mana into it.

"The sword is an S-rank artifact, with the armour being B-rank; now, even if there's another assassination attempt, you should be able to defend yourself against them" Rex said with a pleased look on his face.

"Thanks for the gifts, father. I'll be sure to put them to good use".

"Now then suppress your mana and go train in your training hall".

"Yes, sir," William playfully said as he went away with a grin on his face.

*******

While William was busy training, Rex and Myra were in their room talking about the day their lives changed.

"Are you sure it's the right decision to start teaching him swordsmanship? You do realise that once he's learned swordsmanship, he'll decide to go on an adventure out in the world, and we won't be able to protect him anymore," asked Myra, thinking about the consequences of her husband's decision.

"We don't have a choice. Myra, if what you told me with telepathy about him becoming a second ascension awakened is true, we can only keep him sheltered inside for so long before he sneaks out on his own," Rex said with a defeated expression.

Back when Rex was in his room, Myra had told him about everything that had happened before he came home through telepathy, thus greatly shocking him and making him finally decide to teach William swordsmanship.

"If we can't protect him forever, we might as well prepare him for whatever lies ahead,"

Rex said as he thought about the day his son was born and the day his life forever changed.