Outside a certain room in the Aizen Kingdom's royal castle, a handsome man who looked like he was in his late twenties paced back and forth. He had a head full of black hair, and beautiful blue eyes. The man was wearing a simple but elegant-looking black outfit, but even an untrained eye could notice that it was made of high-quality material.

"Why is it taking so long?" The man said anxiously. His forehead and his back were damp with cold sweat. He stopped pacing for a moment to wipe his forehead, but then resumed pacing shortly afterward. He couldn't help but worriedly say, "Is there something wrong after all? Shouldn't we go and check?"

"My king, you worry too much." A large man tried to placate his lord, with a hint of exasperation in his voice. The large man was built like a mountain, with bulging muscles threatening to explode out of his clothes. The large man was wearing a form-fitting black shirt and grey pants that seemed to prioritize ease of movement. Despite the man's size, it would not be the first thing that most people would notice, for the man had a pair of brown wolf ears on top of his head, in addition to the human ones on the side of his head. The wolf-eared man spoke proudly, "My sister is strong. She won't die just from childbirth."

"Oh?" The first man, the king, asked with a hint of pleasant surprise, "Do the women of the Warbeast race always make it out of childbirth?"

"Uh..." The wolf-eared man hesitated a bit, but answered anyway, "They don't. Some of them die too..."

"Then how can you be so sure that Vianna will be okay!?" The king hysterically retorted.

"I-I meant that in the sense that Vianna herself is strong..." The wolf-eared man stammered. "You know she's only held back her Ascension because she wanted to bear your child, Rodin-- I mean, my king."

"Enough of that. You may be my knight, but you're also my brother-in-law, Viktor. We're alone here anyways. No need for titles, especially with the current situation..." The King's, Rodin Aizenwald's, words' trailed off. He was again reminded that his precious wife was currently birthing his second son. His first child was born to his first wife, who died during childbirth. His current worrying was well-warranted.

"..." Viktor, the wolf-eared man, scratched his cheek awkwardly. "You really are worrying too much. Hasn't Vianna told the story of my tenth birthday? She came ho--"

Viktor was just about to regale the uneasy king when an ear-piercing yell came out of the room they were standing outside of. "DON'T YOU DARE TELL HIM ABOUT THAT!!"

"..." Viktor stiffened, then shut his mouth. After a moment though, he grinned in amusement. "See? She even has enough energy to shout like that. All while presumably pushing a child out of her you-know-what. She'll be fine, Rodin."

"But still..." Rodin just couldn't help being worried. Naturally, he was worried that he might lose Vianna, but he was also anxious that his child would be stillborn. For some reason, only thoughts of the worst happening came to Rodin's mind. There was also the fact that this would be the first time a child between a human and a Warbeast would be born. What if the child turned out warped in some way? What if it had some sort of abnormality?

'If it does somehow end up like that... then it is my duty to shower it with love. I have to make sure the child doesn't think I hate it because he's different!' Rodin resolutely thought.

"Besides..." Viktor continued. "Us Warbeasts have really good hearing. So, while you've been pacing back and forth, hemming and hawing here, she's been listening to it all. Ya think that's gonna make childbirth easier?"

"Ah!" Rodin froze in realization. "I-I-I have to get out of here then!"

"RODIN! YOU STAY RIGHT THERE!!" Vianna shouted from within the room.

"..." Rodin immediately stopped, and just stood there awkwardly. He couldn't pace around since it would disturb Vianna, but she didn't want him to leave either. But he couldn't help but pace around since he was so worried!

"Gahahaha!" Viktor just laughed wantonly at the troubles of his king.

The two had to wait outside for two more hours before they started hearing the sound of a baby's loud crying from within the room. A woman, most likely one of the midwives, burst out of the room with joy on her face.

"Your majesty! It's a healthy baby boy!" The midwife elatedly exclaimed.

"Vianna!!" Rodin heard what the midwife said, and he was quite happy that he now had a second son, but making sure that his beloved was okay was his top priority. He pushed his way into the room to check on Vianna's condition.

"A boy, hm?" Viktor nodded in approval. Girls were good, but he preferred that his sister have a boy. Growing up, he knew that there were all sorts of... complications when it came to women growing up, but if her child was a boy, couldn't he, as an uncle, teach him quite a lot of things? And the best part was that he didn't have to deal with the complications! He pointed towards the animal ears on top of his head and asked, "By the way, did the baby have ears like mine?"

"Ah, Sir Viktor." The midwife bowed reverently towards Viktor. Viktor and Vianna had only shown up in their Kingdom a few decades ago, and yet Viktor had already shot up the ranks and became the strongest Ascendant Knight in their Kingdom. In Aizen, where knights were highly revered, Viktor was a household hero despite being from a previously unknown race. The midwife reverently replied, "My apologies, I did not see any Warbeast parts..."

"That's fine." Viktor just shrugged at the answer. He wasn't disappointed at all. Even if his nephew wasn't actually a Warbeast like them, the pup was still part of the pack. For Viktor, the baby being a human changed nothing. He smiled cordially at the midwife as he entered the room. "Thank you for your hard work. Because of you and the others, I have a nephew now."

"Ah, n-no, I was just doing my job..." The midwife shyly stammered. She took a step back to give way for the large man to enter.

When Rodin entered the room in a hurry, but then he was surprised by what he saw.

"Ah. Look! He's grabbing my finger! His grip is strong too!" Vianna exclaimed as she held the newborn baby in her left arm while holding out her right forefinger to it. The baby was grabbing at it quite tightly, since Vianna was excitedly jumping around in excitement.

Yes, she was jumping around.

"What in the world are you doing!?!?" Rodin hysterically shrieked. He had rushed in here, worried for his wife's safety, only to find her hopping around excitedly with their newborn baby in her arms. The midwives around them had already given up trying to stop her and were just looking at her warmly, as she reveled in the joy of her first child.

"Ack." Vianna, a beautiful warbeast woman with a head full of long white hair, flinched at her husband's yelling. But then her eyes widened in realization and she glared at Rodin angrily as she scolded, "Why are you shouting? Do you want the child to grow up deaf? Huh?"

"Ghh..." Rodin groaned. He had only started shouting because of her ridiculous actions, so why was he the one getting scolded? Wasn't he supposed to be the one scolding anybody? Nevertheless, Rodin, the King of Aizen, calmed himself and asked in a slightly quieter voice than how he would usually talk, "Vianna, why are you standing around already? Shouldn't you be laying down? What if your body..."

"Ahh, ahh. Be quiet. I know my body more than anyone. And I say, that I'm okay." Vianna confidently said. She then turned her head to look at her baby lovingly. "Besides, how could I just stay in bed when I finally have a baby? I have to quickly do some motherly things so that he doesn't mistakenly think that some other woman is his mother."

"I don't think you have to worry about that..." Rodin shook her head in exasperation. When they had first met, Rodin had associated Vianna's strange way of thinking to a difference in cultures among different races. But he had gradually found out that it wasn't their cultures that were different, it was just that Vianna's head was made of different things. In any case, his wife seemed to be okay. Or rather, he chose to believe it, since if he voiced his opposition, Vianna would just get agitated, and that might end up really making something bad happen.

One of the lessons that his grandfather had taught him on how to maintain a happy marriage, was to "Know when to stay quiet, and let the storm pass". Rodin had always thought that his Grandfather was a wise man, a wise father, and a wise king, however, Rodin's opinion was that he was wisest as a husband. So, Rodin decided to put his grandfather's teachings to good use.

Rodin, who decided that he wanted to be a wise husband as well, threw away the words he wanted to say regarding his wife's health and chose to take a good look at his newborn son instead.

Perhaps as a strange mix of Vianna's snow-white hair and his black hair, the newborn's hair was grey. The baby's eyes were closed, so Rodin couldn't really tell what his eye color was. There wasn't much to look at, the newborn baby looked just like any other newborn baby. However, Rodin had a different opinion.

'Hm. As expected of me.' Rodin inwardly nodded to himself. 'It's impossible for my son to not be handsome.'

If someone were to hear Rodin's thoughts, they might've just shrugged it off as the idiotic doting of a father.

However!

This was Rodin's second child. When his first child, Roland, had been born, Rodin had also thought that the newborn was handsome. Roland was ten years old now. A ten-year-old boy that was incredibly handsome. Rodin had been right all along.

Rodin had a hundred percent success rate when it came to judging the looks of his son.

Rodin thought that was enough. He was confident that this son would also grow up to be extremely handsome.

While Rodin was drowning in his own musings, Viktor had already made it to the newborn's side as well. Viktor examined the baby suspiciously, scrutinizing it with narrowed eyes. This earned him a whack on the head from Vianna.

"Big brother, stop staring at my baby like that. Your face is so scary, what if he has nightmares?" Vianna glared at Viktor.

Viktor rubbed the part that had been struck while his face fully revealed how wronged he felt at the moment. "But his eyes aren't even open..."

"What?"

"Nothing..." Viktor just decided to throw away his grievances. Even though he was stronger than his sister, what would he do with that strength? Beat her? Viktor couldn't do that to a member of his pack. So he just decided to swallow the injustice that he felt. He then brought up something that he'd been thinking about since he entered the room. "Sister, your boy doesn't have our ears or tail..."

Vianna nodded. "Yes."

"But..." Viktor hesitated, as if he had trouble believing his own thoughts. "Why does he feel like us?"

"Right?" Vianna had also been wondering about that. If Viktor had sensed it since he entered the room, she had sensed it the moment the baby left her womb. Despite the strangeness, this baby was still undoubtedly her baby. That was all that really mattered to her. "Perhaps it's because he's a mix of warbeast and human?"

"But..." Viktor wavered a little, then lowered his voice as he said, "The ancestors said that babies born of two different races would normally inherit their mother's race with a small chance of it inheriting the father's instead."

"And so?" Vianna asked nonchalantly, she wasn't paying much attention to the conversation. Most of her attention was on her newborn son, who looked absolutely adorable in her eyes. She couldn't take her eyes away from him.

"There are no records of a mixed-race child," Viktor whispered, as if not wanting the midwives to hear. Rodin was also listening in, but chose to stay quiet for now.

"Well, then I suppose there's a first for everything," Vianna said matter-of-factly. "Besides, those records of yours belong to the humans to the north, who are closer to the continent where dwarves live. There aren't any records of our kind, who come from the continent to the east, coupling with a human, right?"

"Well..." Viktor tilted his head in thought. There were indeed no records of their kind coming into contact with humans. He and his sister, Vianna, were the first Warbeasts to be seen on the central continent, Sentoralle. Viktor couldn't form any counterarguments.

"Well then, that's that," Vianna said, casually putting an end to the topic. She then turned to her husband Rodin. Her face looked gloomy as she said, "Well, as agreed. You get to name him since he's a boy."

"Oh! That's right. A name!" Rodin exclaimed. He had almost forgotten. He smiled as he beheld his son.

"Even though I'm the one that suffered to bring him into this world..." Vianna sulked.

"..." Rodin felt sweat dripping from the side of his face at the invisible pressure coming off of his wife. "B-but you didn't look like you were suffering... you were even jumping around..."

"Even though I had to carry him around for nine months..." Vianna continued to pout unhappily.

"..." Rodin chose to stay silent.

"Even though, even when we were making the baby, I had to do all the moving..."

"O-o-okay, my love. N-not in front of the others, please..." Rodin tottered over behind his wife and hugged her gently, desperately trying to placate her. "W-we had an agreement, though? Remember? We would name him after the first King, Reivan, if he was a boy. P-please don't try to get out of this, I already informed the Sword Star..."

"Ghh." Vianna groaned. She stopped pouting as she looked at her husband in annoyance. "You... You're actually shameless enough to rope the master in like that? How underhanded!"

"Well... I am a politician..." Rodin smiled wryly. "So? We're agreed that the baby's name is Reivan?"

"..." Vianna eyed Rodin with resentment for a few moments, before sighing, as if she'd given up. "What can I do? Master is expecting a boy named after the first king, and since I gave birth to a boy, then he shall be named after the first king. I know how close Master was with King Reivan. Master will probably be over the moon that a prince has been named after him. I can't take away that old geezer's happiness."

"Haha!" Rodin couldn't help but laugh joyously that his ploy had worked. He looked at his son lovingly and whispered, "From now on, your name is Reivan. Reivan Aizenwald, the second prince of the Kingdom of Aizen."

The midwives all smiled widely and cheered after witnessing the naming of the second prince.