Melsei’s pained grunts and cries echoed through the relatively thin walls of the Limen Residence. On the living room couch, Rother and Shaden sat nervously while waiting for the operation to complete. Shaden uneasily stroked Shidey’s soft, black fur to calm himself from all of the noise. This was the first time he was ever involved in the birth of a baby.

He glanced at his brother who had his hands clamped together. The tension in the room was still high, considering that it had already been an hour since Melsei’s labor started.

“Did I take this long too?” asked Shaden. Looking back at his birth, he remembered being stuck inside for a very long time.

“Shoosh. I’m thinking.”

Oh. Okay. Shaden turned back and stared at his hands. Rother looked even more nervous than him. Mental-age wise, Shaden was superior to Rother. He could bear Rother’s occasional childish behavior.

After a while, Rother unclasped his hands and sat on them.

“You took three hours,” he told Shaden.

Three? That was surprisingly long. With the current technology available in reality, births were very safe and efficient. By incorporating anexide into the mother’s blood during the birth, she would feel less pain and possess more strength to safely deliver her baby. It never took longer than thirty minutes. This world had magic, but magicians were less available than machines and drugs. Even now, only a doctor and his assistant were in the room with Shaden’s parents.

He wondered who had delivered him back in Whitewater village. He still remembered the raspy voice that had threatened to spank him.

Shaden and his brother continued to sit on the couch. Sometimes Rother would get up pace around the room, his arms crossed. Shaden, starting to get bored, fetched a thick book on magic spells and started reading through it.

So, time passed slowly in the room. Until finally.

“Wahhh! Wahhhh! Wahhhh!”

Melsei’s cries stopped and were replaced by a newer, louder wail of a baby. Rother instantly got up from his bed and rushed to the bedroom. Shaden followed his example and quickly headed towards the room.

When he passed the threshold, he saw the elderly doctor carefully holding the baby in a safe position. The baby continued to cry loudly; Shaden had never seen someone cry so desperately before. The little child was practically gasping for air as it bawled and bawled. Melsei was seated on the bed, sweat drenched all over her clothes, blankets, everything. Garthan currently had his hand over Melsei’s, comforting her for her hard work.

“It’s a girl!” announced the elderly doctor. Her assistant was wiping the baby’s body with a soft towel to get all of the impurities off of her. After some dabs, she cleaned the towel inside a water bucket and repeated the process.

“Break down and disperse – Cleanse.”

At the assistant’s command, the murky water turned transparent and fresh again. She then used this water to clean the baby once more. After finishing, she fetched a dry towel from the side of the room and wrapped the baby in it. Next, the doctor cast a spell.

“Coldness, harm, make away; warmth, life, form a charm – Protection.”

Woah! Shaden had never seen the doctor’s spell before. He had never read about it in his textbooks. He did know two protection spells, but they were all shorter in length and limited in their function. This spell was clearly some steps above that.

A greenish yellowish light flowed out of the doctor’s hands and gently whirled around the newborn baby. The mist-like substance then seeped into the little child, covering her skin with a kind light. The baby was quieter now and had stabilized her breathing.

“The baby is as healthy as any other,” stated the doctor as she passed on the child to Melsei. “I suppose you understand the process of taking care of a newborn?” she said after spotting Rother and Shaden in the room. The assistant was already carrying the bucket out of the room, preparing to leave.

“Yes, doctor. Thank you for your hard work,” said Garthan.

“Thank you, doctor,” said Melsei with a tired voice.

The doctor smiled and cleansed herself with a spell. “Make sure to contact me if something unusual happens. But looking at the baby, my worry may be baseless.”

Melsei nodded her head and Garthan escorted the doctor out of the room. Taking this chance, Rother went to his mother’s side and looked at the baby.

“She’s your sister, Rother. Say hello~” said Melsei weakly. “Shaden, come see the newest member of our family.”

Rother nodded. Shaden obeyed and went to his brother’s side. He was too short to see the baby though, so Rother helped him up and put him on top of the bed.

The baby was sleeping peacefully now with her eyes closed. Shaden felt something warm in his chest. Something similar to when he made new friends, but greater. Something special.

Garthan returned to the room and took his place next to Melsei. Everyone in the family knew what the baby’s name would be already. They had discussed it numerous times during dinner. Because she was a girl, her name was partly derived from Melsei’s name. The family shared a quiet moment with the newest member of their family.

“Hello, Melany.”

〄 〄 〄

“……so then after that, I had to use this—hey Demund, are you listening?”

Demund jerked away from his daydream and turned to Rhyne.

“Oh, sorry. You were saying?”

“We were talking about the newest game that came out,” Riley explained.

“Oh yeah, right,” replied Demund. “Sorry, I don’t play games now, so my mind just…”

Rhyne facepalmed himself. “I forgot. Sorry, Demund.”

“No, no! It’s fine. It’s just…”

Demund turned his face towards his friends and scratched his head.

“How do you be a good older sibling?”

Riley and Rhyne looked at Demund with confused expressions.

“Huh?”

“Why so suddenly? Are you getting a younger sibling?”

“No, no…I was curious. Since you guys have siblings, you should know, right?”

“Well…” Riley put his hand on his chin. “Just don’t be annoying, I guess?”

“Yep. I hate it when my sister tells me to do stuff,” agreed Rhyne.

“So don’t order your siblings around?”

“Yeah. And let them have your snacks. Give them the better seat on family trips. Let them use the bathroom first. Don’t pull on their ears. Don’t get angry even if they ignore you. And when friends are over, introduce—”

“Yo, Rhyne. I think you’re right, but it’s becoming too personal,” interjected Riley. “Your older sister is a nice person though. At least you don’t have any brothers.”

“What! At least you can hit your brothers back.”

“You do not want to hit your brothers back. The point is, Demund, just be nice to them.”

“Hmm…”

Demund got a vague idea of what it meant to be a good older brother. Rother wasn’t that bad, but sometimes he insisted on doing things his way too much.

“So be nice and not annoying. Got it.”

〄 〄 〄

Shaden gazed at his little sister in her crib. Melany was sleeping peacefully in the place where Shaden had once slept. Time sure passed quickly. The baby looked really chubby, and Shaden poked his hand through the bars to touch her cheek. It was smooth and soft and squishy. Melany flailed her arms slightly at Shaden’s touch but remained asleep.

She always keeps her eyes closed, thought Shaden. He had tried to see everything from the moment he was born. Perhaps his parents were freaked out by him when he was younger. He had always listened to them so well and never cried.

Speaking of crying, Melany rarely cried. Melsei was very skilled at taking care of the baby thanks to her prior experience in child-rearing. Or maybe newborns didn’t cry as much. Shaden had seen online that parents lost countless hours of sleep because their babies would always wake them up in the middle of the night. But currently, Melany was being a good baby.

〄 〄 〄

Shaden took back what he thought two weeks ago. He covered his face in his pillow.

“WAAAAHHHHH!!!”

“Shhhh…it’s okay, it’s okay…”

“WAAAAAHHHH”

Because the walls were pretty thin, Shaden could hear everything, even when he was a room away from the main bedroom. The baby was crying its head off again, and the time was 2 am. What the heck was going on.

Suddenly, the noises stopped completely. It seemed like his parents activated the muting spell for the sake of their two older children. However, Shaden was completely awake now. The sudden noise had scared his living daylights out of him, causing him to be on alert. He saw Shidey’s yellow eyes on top of a drawer in the room, wide and wary of the crying noise that had suddenly disappeared.

Shaden sighed. This had been the third time the crying had happened. There was so much crying nowadays. During the day, during the night. The crying never ceased.

Since he was awake, he decided to go drink some water. When he opened the door and went to the kitchen, Rother was already there, sipping from a cup.

“Hey,” greeted Shaden.

“Hey…” said Rother with a tired voice. He had bags under his eyes. The screaming at night combined with his intense training during the day—it exhausted him.

“The baby stopped crying,” said Shaden.

“Yeah…want a drink?” offered Rother. Shaden gladly accepted the cup from him and gulped down some water.

“I never knew babies were so loud…” Rother said. “How come you never cried?”

“Who knows,” replied Shaden with a shrug.

“Haha…anyway, I’m off to bed now. See you later.”

“Okay.”

Shaden watched his brother sluggishly return to his room. The baby was destroying the family from the inside. He applauded his parents for taking the full force of the baby’s destructive tendencies. Shaden sighed. How long was this going to go on?

After emptying his cup, Shaden too returned to his room and lay down. How long would this last?

〄 〄 〄

“WAAHHHHH!!!”

“Shaden! Can you fetch the towel? And some diapers!”

“Got it!”

Shaden quickly went to the storage room and took out a fresh diaper. Then he headed to the bathroom and grabbed a towel. He was getting used to this lifestyle now. He took the items and went to the bedroom where his mother was.

“Here, mom!”

“Thank you, sweetie.”

Shaden came out of the room as he heard his mother chant a cleansing spell. This was essentially his daily life now—helping his mother take care of his little sister. Melany always cried, slept, cried some more, and slept until she woke up in an hour or two. It was a tiring process. Melsei could rarely leave the house now, and when she did, Shaden had to try his best to soothe his little sister.

He managed to pacify Melany occasionally by using his mana-hands to rock her slowly while humming to her. Since she was a baby, there was no danger of him being caught while using magic. Still, it was difficult. He couldn’t read his books in peace anymore. Melany was always crying so much.

He sighed.

〄 〄 〄

“Oh, hey. You’re awake again?”

Shaden greeted Rother at 3 a.m. after Melany started crying again. Rother smiled and offered Shaden a cup of water, which he gladly took.

“Yeah. I was about to go back now.”

“Mom and Dad have it rough.”

“I know right?”

For some reason, they felt more like friends now. Their mutual suffering was causing them to understand each other a little better. They weren’t on bad terms before, and they had become closer ever since the new family member was introduced.

Just then, Garthan came out of the room while rubbing his face.

“Oh, hi Dad,” said Rother. Shaden likewise raised his cup in a greeting manner.

Garthan rubbed his eyes. “Shaden? Aren’t you sleeping?”

“I woke up,” replied Shaden.

“But you’re not even 5…ah, we’re all suffering, aren’t we?”

Rother and Shaden nodded. Garthan fetched a cup from the sink and poured some water in it from a jar. He took some deep gulps and let out a sigh.

“Did I cry this much too?” asked Rother.

“What? No, no,” said Garthan while pouring another cup for his wife. “You did cry, but only for a week.”

Garthan weakly lifted the cup and headed towards his room.

“Go to bed, you two. You won’t grow if you don’t sleep.”

“Okay,” said Shaden and Rother simultaneously.

Honestly, Garthan was very glad his sons were being very mature. They didn’t whine, they didn’t complain; they didn’t become angry even when Melany was crying so much. They had already used multiple small-sized mana crystals to continuously set the silence spell around their room, and yet Melany’s bawling didn’t stop. He just hoped all of it would end soon. Melsei was the one suffering the most, so he had to be strong.

“See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

Shaden separated with his brother and lay on his bed. He stared the ceiling. Everything was silent now. He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.

Gosh, siblings were pretty annoying.