The Beginning After The End novel Chapter 3

ALICE LEYWIN’S POV:

Arthur had to be the most adorable baby, and I’m not saying this because I’m a doting mother.

No.

Him and his scruffy little patch of glowing auburn hair and playful eyes, that almost radiate blue light while his gaze, at times, seemed almost... intelligent.

No no, I told you, I’m not a doting mother. I plan to be a strict and just mother. I can’t rely on my husband to teach little Art any common sense. For God’s sake, he tried to teach my baby how to fight when he could barely crawl.

I know this little rascal would turn out just like his father if I left him be. As soon as he started crawling, I was so proud I was on the verge of shedding tears, but I didn’t know how much of a handful he’d be as soon as he became mobile.

I swear, there’s not a single moment where I can take my eyes off of him before he crawls into the study room. How weird. We made sure to buy him lots of stuffed animals and wooden toys to play with, but he always ends up going to the study room. THAT, at least was directly opposite of his father, seeing how Reynolds almost gravitates away from texts longer than the weekly newspaper.

Looking at how excited he got when we went out to town, I decided to go shopping for food once every other day instead of twice a week.

No no, I told you, I’m not a doting mother. This is for his education of the outside world and for fresh food in the house. Yeah haha...that’s it.

My son seemed to be interested in a lot of things. I can’t get enough of seeing his head, that seemed so disproportional to his little body, turning left and right while trying to take everything around him in. He seemed particularly intrigued by his 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. _{freeweɓnovel.cѳm}

Working at the Adventurer Guild, or what we just called the Guild Hall, back then in Valden, I got to see too many eager teens. I swear, I was surprised they didn’t float away from having their overly inflated egos get to their heads.

At least they were ambitious.

One time, I was assigned to proctor a basic practical exam, where the examinee had to simply demonstrate fundamental competency in their mana manipulation, but before the test had even begun, the kid fell straight onto his back because the sword he was carrying had been too heavy for him.

Talking about airheads, Reynolds sure came off as one back then. The moment he saw me in the Guild Hall, his jaw literally dropped and he just stood there until the guy in line behind him elbowed him to hurry up. He hurriedly wiped away his drool and managed to mumble a "... h.. hi... can I trade in th...the stuff for the mission?" I just giggled as he turned beet red from embarrassment.

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

Art somehow wound up with both of our redeeming traits, making him that much more adorable. You should see him when I have to change his diapers. I don’t know why, but he would start turning red in his cheeks and cover his face with his tiny little fingers.

Could babies his age even get embarrassed?

The next landmark that made it to my baby journal, which is purely for educational purposes, by the way, and not because I am a doting mother, was when he first said mama.