Thirteen looked at his cell phone and read its contents with a solemn expression on his face.
He was holding his phone with his right hand, while his left was lightly patting the head of a little girl, whose head was resting on his lap, from time to time.
She was Thirteen's two-year-old little sister, and her name was Remi.
Aside from their mother, Remi was very attached to her older brother, Zion, who made her feel safe and protected.
Whenever she saw him, she would follow him like a little duckling following her mother duck.
Their mother, Alessia, found this very endearing, so she allowed Remi to follow her brother around, indirectly making him her nanny.
At first, Thirteen found this little creature quite amusing and thought that babysitting her would be a trivial task, but it turned out that he had underestimated how attached a toddler could be to someone.
Remi was quite clingy and would often cry whenever her brother hid from her or ran away from her.
Although she didn't disturb him whenever he trained or was doing something important, she would always be around him during the times when he was idle.
"Awww, my daughter is sleeping," Gerald smiled as he walked toward his two children, who were seated on a bench facing the garden. "How cute."
"Shut up, Pops." Thirteen glared at his father. "If Remi wakes up, I'll show mom your porn stash."
The corner of Gerald's lips twitched when he heard his son's words. He and his wife had already accepted that their son's personality had changed after the incident due to amnesia.
However, whenever he talked to the boy, he often felt that he was talking to an equal instead of a child.
"You wouldn't dare..."
"Try me."
The two stared at each other for nearly half a minute before Gerald sighed and raised his hands in surrender.
"We need to talk," Gerald said in a solemn tone. "It's about your brother, Mikhail."
A month had passed since Thirteen had imparted the God of War Axe Technique to his older brother, Mikhail.
Since then, there had been an explosive growth in his fighting ability, surprising Gerald and Alessia.
When Mikhail and Shasha sparred with each other, the one who always won was Mikhail.
While people might think that this was understandable since Mikhail was stronger, the reality was that Shasha was actually a genius Fencer.
Before her older brother learned the technique that was imparted to him by Thirteen, Shasha had always been the winner whenever the two of them sparred.
But now, things had changed. Despite not being a genius and only having strong foundations, Mikhail managed to surpass Shasha in a short period of time.
Despite training harder under their mother's tutelage, Shasha felt that, no matter how much she trained, she wouldn't be able to beat her older brother.
Of course, she couldn't beat Thirteen either.
But she and Mikhail had already accepted that, even if they worked together, they would be unable to beat their five-year-old brother, who seemed to know what they were about to do before they could even do it.
Thirteen could predict when they would strike, where they would strike, and the proper method to counterattack.
In fact, Thirteen would spar with his siblings at least once every day, making sure that they built a solid foundation.
Gerald and Alessia even felt that they could leave their second youngest child in charge of their children's training by himself.
"Mmm," Thirteen replied. "I'll come after Remi wakes up. I'll let her sleep for half an hour longer."
Hearing his reply, Gerald nodded. "You can find us in the Training Grounds."
After saying what he needed to say, he walked away with a smile on his face.
There was one thing that he liked about this son of his. Whenever he said something, he would do it.
Since Thirteen already said that he would come to look for them after half an hour had passed, he would definitely do it without fail.
Half an hour later...
Thirteen arrived at the Training Ground, holding Remi's hand.
"Go to Mama first, okay?" Thirteen patted his sister's head. "I'll play with you later."
Remi smiled before she tottered towards their mother with her hands spread wide.
"Mama!"
"Remi!"
Alessia lovingly picked up her daughter and peppered her cheeks with kisses, making the toddler giggle.
Thirteen then approached his siblings and father before placing his hands on his waist.
"So? What's the problem?" Thirteen asked.
"Your sister wanted to learn a technique from you as well," Alessia replied as he walked towards them, carrying Remi in her arms. "Also, if the technique is good, I want to learn it as well."
"Oh?" Thirteen arched an eyebrow, but a faint smile could be seen on his face.
He had originally wanted to teach Alessia a technique, but he held back for the time being.
His plan was to let everyone see Mikhail's improvement, giving credibility to his teachings. Seeing that his scheme worked, he decided to proceed to the next phase of his Plan.
And that was to strengthen his entire family!
After spending more than a month with his new family, he understood their situation more or less.
As a "disowned" member of the Prestigious Leventis Family, their father and mother worked very hard to support their family.
Well, it was mostly their father who went into Solterra to do missions, while Alessia looked after the kids.
Despite being a member of a Prestigious Family, Gerald didn't get any support from them. The only proof that he once belonged to that family was his surname.
"What about you, Pops?" Thirteen asked. "Want to learn an amazing technique that will surpass the Leventis Sword Art?"
Gerald rubbed his chin. "I want to know if what you did to Mikhail was a fluke or not. If you manage to strengthen your sister and your mother, I will accept your proposal."
"Heh... I think you are making a big misunderstanding here, Pops," Thirteen said with a smirk. "Since you rejected my offer, you will have to beg me to teach you a technique when you change your mind. This is a limited-time offer, so choose wisely."
Gerald was a bit conflicted about making this choice. The Leventis Sword Art was a technique that was taught to him at a young age, and he had been using it since then.
The technique had already been ingrained in his body like muscle memory, making him feel that if he decided to start all over again with a new technique, all the years he trained would be wasted.
Seeing his hesitation, Thirteen no longer insisted and asked Shasha and his mother to follow him to his room, where he would inscribe the Runic Letters on their bodies.
He knew for certain that it would only be a matter of time before his father finally gave in, and when that day happened, he would never be the same again.
Gerald and Alessia didn't know how their son was able to impart Martial Techniques to them, and they would be lying if they said that they weren't curious how he was able to do that.
Alessia planned on asking this question to Zion, but since he was busy at the moment, she decided to ask him later after she received an upgrade to her own Martial Technique.