Chapter 4: 4. Family

2 days back:

Young master James was sitting with his wife on the terrace of their house on the estate. They were enjoying the view below.

People could be seen moving around going to their businesses. They were their people. 

They included the guards that guarded the state, the maids that were responsible for various kinds of chores in the estate, the cooks that fed them all, the soldiers that operated outside the estate and last but not least, the clansmen. They were their brothers, sisters-in-law, nephews, nieces, and other blood relatives.

Guards were essentially a branch of the soldiers. They guarded the estate and ran some minor errands. 

While the Soldiers were responsible for the major ones. They had to deal with many internal affairs in the city such as guarding the shops, manning the walls, policing the streets, investigating various crimes, fighting rival families etc.

In addition to that, they also had to deal with the things outside of the city limits, such as guarding the merchant caravans, fighting the ferocious wild animals that destroy farmlands and sometimes sadly acting as a sacrifice to hold back the beasts in case of beast attacks before the cultivator help arrive.

The cities sometimes suffered from beast attacks. Although the countryside was safe but sometimes, beasts slipped through the front lines and attacked the caravans or population centres they found.

This was a strong eat weak cultivation world. Only the strength was what mattered the most. 

Although the weak normal people were protected to some extent by noble clans and cultivator sects, what could they do in face of overwhelming strength that no one could stop? There were numerous examples of calamities in known recorded history.

The world was old, very old. There were ruins of various past civilisations dotting the lands. Some of the civilisations were recorded but most of them were unrecorded in the history books. 

Initially, the ruins contained many wonderful and mysterious things. Nobody could figure out the inner workings of most of them and only knew how to use them. They were the testament to the great glorious civilisations that lived in the world before.

They were of huge importance to scientists around the globe. They were extensively researched by scientists. They were not allowed to be removed from their ruins except in some special cases. 

But later, shortly after the Great Battle of the Moon, they had been salvaged from their resting places in order to aid the dying humanity with their desperate struggle against the rampaging beasts. 

Even scraps were not spared to help them against the beasts. Hence, the ruins had long lost their importance and were just historical evidence of ages long past. The world had a very rich history.

James was sitting with his wife on their estate. Estate could also be called the clan grounds. It was basically a group of well-maintained and well-furnished buildings a bit east of the city centre.

James was the son of Rokas who was the clan lord of the Rokas Family or better known as the Rokas clan.

Rokas was a seventy years old middle-aged man. He was middle-aged according to the standards of the second-level cultivators. If seen from a mortal's perspective, this was very old age and the person may very well be on his death bed. 

The second level of cultivation doubled a person's lifespan. His height was five feet ten inches, a norm among the people. His eyes were black and had long shoulder-length blonde hair, a trait transferred to his progeny perfectly. 

He seemed like a good-natured middle-aged uncle next door to anyone if he or she did not know his identity.

Rokas clan was a newly rising clan in the city. Backed by a strong cultivator, they were quickly developing businesses in the city. Some of the clansmen even started reaching out to the nearby new cities for trade. 

Trade with a bigger and older city in the west was also on the horizon. Though they were still facing friction with the other city clans, thus making their day-to-day affairs difficult sometimes.

The city they were residing in was known as Worlen. It was a newly made city. It was just a few years old with newly built city walls and the influx of immigrants from the nearby areas. 

The city had three noble clans. One of them was the Rokas clan which was formed by Rokas himself. He did so when he had hit the second level of cultivation many years ago. 

The Leo clan and the Storm clan were the other two clans of the city. They were older clans and had a history of a couple of hundreds of years. Two centuries were nothing for a big city but for a town, they amounted to rather significant years of progress.

It was understandable why Rokas named his clan "Rokas". But if it was asked from some of the remaining hundred years plus elderly, most would say that Leo's first head chose his clan's name on a whim with no rhyme or reason. 

While the Storm's original head was rumoured to have a lightening based technique. That was the reason, he named his clan Storm clan. From then on, the technique had been passed on to successive generations.

The three clans ruled the city jointly. They had their businesses and their force. Friction and subterfuge existed between them and sometimes it even escalated to direct clashes. Every clan wanted to expand and become stronger. 

They were maintaining a fragile balance between them for the last few years. The laws of the kingdom they were in were rather lax regarding interclan bloodshed. 

Clans used to rise and fall in this world with the passage of time. Every moment a clan was being formed as well as another one being destroyed in some parts of the world.

But when faced with an outside threat, the three clans used to join their strength to resist it, especially in case of beast attacks. Playing smart when beasts were involved was considered taboo and one of the greatest and darkest sins against the whole of humanity.

No clan wanted to be besieged by the myriads of sects due to their narrow-mindedness and greed for a few measly benefits. 

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All three clans maintained a separate guard and soldier unit. The guard unit was responsible for maintaining the security in the city and guarding the clan estates. While the soldier units were for emergencies such as war, beast attacks, bandits etc. 

The Storm clan being the oldest had three hundred soldiers in its soldier unit. The Leo clan maintained a smaller unit of two hundred and fifty soldiers. And the Rokas clan which was the youngest of the three had two hundred soldiers in its unit. 

The number of guards used to fluctuate frequently between the clans and was not fixed.

Clan head Rokas was a very active fellow. He had married three wives and sported many children. James was the youngest of them all. 

James had eight elder brothers. Out of which two had died fighting the beasts on the front lines. One was an outer disciple in a nearby sect in the east. 

Out of the remaining five, two were managing the clan's businesses, two were leading the clan's soldiers and one acted as the clan's representative in the city's government. James was also leading a small group of thirty soldiers. 

His two brothers which were involved in businesses remained outside of the city most of the time. James along with his other brothers lived with their father in Worlen. 

Rokas loved his youngest son very much. He adored him greatly in his childhood. He wanted his son to be like him, a strong and responsible person. So he started training James when he was eight years old. And it brought results.

James also had not disappointed him till now. He talked and walked like his father. Rokas was proud of him.

"Cassie, look at them. They have now learnt how to sneak around. They are just like when I and my elder brothers were small. I still remember those days. Those were good days." James said while looking at his wife lovingly. Her wife was also looking back.

"Yes, my love. I see. Soon they will have a third sibling to play with. I wonder how they will react when we give them the surprise." His wife replied.

They both then started watching two little kids playing outside their house from the terrace. Both were trying to hide from a guard. 

The guard was acting like he could not see them. They were trying to hide from him behind a bench. The bench had big holes in it.

So no matter how much they tried to hide from him, they were always in plain sight. They were playing hide and seek with the guard.

James's wife Cassandra was pregnant with her third baby. Both of them were married for six years. The elder son was four years old while the younger one was three. 

He loved his wife. They both loved each other very much. So much so, that their love for each other never waned since their marriage. It increased instead. They were always there for each other.

Cassandra was a beautiful woman. She was a bit shorter than her husband. She had black eyes and black hair, a normal combination. Her hair was very long and ended at her lower back. She did not have any noble lineage and was just a commoner. Her parents were ordinary.

James fell in love with her at first sight and sent his father to her home to ask for her hand. Her parents had no issue with the marriage and they were married with great pomp and show.

They named their elder son Michael and their second son Liam. They wanted their sons to be strong when they grow up. So that they may take care of themselves and those they hold dear. It was the wish of every parent for their children to prosper and remain happy.

Cassandra was at the end of her 9th month. The expected date of delivery was somewhere between one and two weeks. 

The entire clan was preparing for the good occasion. They were slowly decorating the estate as the date was near. They were preparing for a grand feast in the clan the day after the birth of the child. 

All of them were happy. But alas, not everything went as it was supposed to be every time. 

The world was lacking in the field of science. So they could not predict the future complications a mother can face during her pregnancy. Even the medical profession was not that advanced. Everything had to be done on time.

Two days later deep in the dark of night, James's wife started feeling pain from some point in her womb. On closer inspection, there was blood and some other unknown fluid staining her lower garment. 

James became flustered and shouted for help. This crisis was way out of his league. So instead of trying something and wasting precious time, he decided to handle the situation to those who were much more qualified than him in such matters. So he shouted for help.

Since he was a mid-stage first-level cultivator, his shout was quite loud and the entire clan woke up. The entire clan awoke from a deep slumber of the night.

His father and brothers were first to arrive at the scene. On seeing his wife, they knew that something was wrong and called for the maids.

When the maids came, they all went out of the house and clan head Rokas said to his son, "Son, let them handle it. Everything will be fine. We will be in our quarters. If you need anything from us, let us know." 

James's brothers also patted him on the shoulder and went back to their quarters to wait. In the meantime, the wives of his elder brothers entered his house.

 

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