Chapter 36

Chapter 36

Fren’s words were too harsh and cold for a child. Although he didn’t grow physically, Fren experienced mental growth. Showing his childish appearance in front of Yuria was simply a choice to monopolize her affection.

Hearing Fren’s sharp voice strongly refuse to recognize Cain as his father, Cain sneered.”You kept whining like a child, so I was wondering if there was a problem with the awakening, but I guess not.”

If something went wrong with Fren during the awakening, it just meant that he was weak. This didn’t really matter to Cain; however, he didn’t want Yuria to suffer due to her worrying about Fren’s weakness. So for a split second, he was slightly concerned, but luckily this didn’t seem to be the case.

“And… I hope you will not approach my mother needlessly just because you’re my father,” Fren, who blatantly ignored Cain’s words, said only what he wanted. The formal sword-like words spat out by a four-year-old child felt awkward, but neither Fren nor Cain were bothered by it.

“That’s something a kid shouldn’t care about.” Cain rebutted. Even though Cain’s demeanor was always friendly towards Yuria, Cain’s attitude toward Fren was utterly cold. The atmosphere flowing between the two was unbelievably icy for a father-son relationship.

“She’s my mother.” Fren said coolly, unafraid of Cain’s aura, he let loose his own energy.

“I’m also your father.”

“That’s funny.” Fren scoffed, right now, it felt like Cain was trying to promote himself as a father, while not feeling a speck of emotions towards him, his son. Regardless, it didn’t matter. Cain didn’t even know he existed before, so he just had to ignore him like he always had. Cain being his father didn’t change a thing, the only family he had chosen was Yuria. A meaningless bloodline could be cut off at any time. For now, he would accept Cain for Yuria’s sake. Once Fren had complete control over his energy, he was thinking of cutting off Cain for good.

In this world, and in his world, only Yuria and he could exist. The rest didn’t matter, and Fren didn’t want to put them in his world.

At that moment,

“Ah.”

While preparing food, Yuria frowned as she dropped the ladle she was holding. Yuria had her finger cut by a piece of glass while cleaning a while ago. Just as she was about to tend to her wound, Fren woke up, and Yuria, who was preoccupied by this, didn’t even think about the wound on her finger. Then, when the handle of the ladle with water touched her finger, she hissed in pain and dropped it. Before Cain could react, Fren quickly approached Yuria.

“Mom, are you okay?” Fren gently questioned, slipping back into his child-like tone, and looked at Yuria with a worried expression.

“I’m okay. I was just a little surprised.”

“But mom, blood.” Fren spoke with moist eyes.

“It will stop soon.” Yuria looked apologetic because she seemed to have worried Fren without reason.

“Fren knows how to cure it.”

“It’s fine.” Although there was blood, the wound was not deep. It would heal quickly without any treatment.

“No, mom bleeding. Hurt,” Fren said while holding Yuria’s palm with both hands, looking sullenly down at her bleeding finger.

“Okay. Then Fren will treat me?” Treating the wound was not difficult. For that reason, it seemed better to receive treatment than to worry Fren, but before the child could bring a first aid kit, Cain hurried over to her.

“Would you reach out your hand?” Cain requested, holding out his own hand ot Yuria.

“Yes?” Yuria consented with a puzzled expression on her face, and gently held out her hand. Cain carefully took it and directed his energy into her hand, such a small wound could be healed with just his energy. For a moment, a black light flowed from Cain’s hand, encompassing Yuria’s finger and Yuria’s wound healed. At the same time, Fren snatched Cain’s hand away from Yuria’s.

“Fren?” Yuria inquired, taken aback by Fren’s sudden action.

“Mom hand hurts. But that one- took mom’s hand.” Although it was a fragmented sentence, Yuria could understand Fren’s words. It meant that Fren had roughly grabbed Cain’s hand because he was worried that Yuria would get hurt from Cain holding her injured hand.

“It’s to heal me. Look, don’t I look all better now?” Yuria faithfully answered Fren’s words, thinking that Cain’s ability to heal wounds by simply holding hands and letting out energy without any treatment was pretty astounding.

At Yuria’s words, Cain put on a proud expression on his face. “Little brat, you’re too young to know how to do it.”

Fren’s face hardened at Cain’s words. As he said, Fren did not know how to use energy to heal the wounds of others. All Fren knew was to hurt and kill others, he was unaware of the fact that he could heal someone using his own energy. So he was upset at the fact that Cain knew how to do it but he didn’t. Fren was a young demon who had just finished awakening, there’s no way he could know about such an ability. Still, he didn’t feel good because he felt like he lost to Cain. If Cain knew how to do it, he had to know how to do it too. That way, Yuria wouldn’t ask Cain for help.

She wouldn’t need Cain at all.

“Fren is mom’s favorite in the world.” Fren said while looking up at Yuria with an expression that seemed to ask, ‘Is that right?’

“Of course, I like Fren the most in the world.” Yuria replied with a tone as if she was stating the most natural fact, causing Cain’s temper to sink. The beaming expression he had just a moment ago was suddenly distorted. He didn’t like the way the brat kept provoking him since earlier, yet it was even more frustrating because he couldn’t do anything about it. Not to mention, Fren had the biggest ally on his side. As long as Yuria was present, Cain couldn’t be rude to Fren, knowing this, Fren acted that way on purpose. Cain didn’t want to admit it, but he thought Fren certainly was his son, acting so cleverly, despite being so young.

“Tch.” Cain clicked his tongue in his dissatisfaction, choosing to leave his complaints behind and went back to his seat. Being around that little brat only hurt his feelings.

Fren also returned to his seat and quietly waited for Yuria’s food. Seeing Cain with an angry expression on his face made him feel much better. After a while, Yuria quickly brought out the meal. Just looking at the hot steamed food stimulated their appetites.

“Fren, do you want me to feed you?” Yuria asked, thinking that it might be difficult for Fren to lift a spoon since he had just finished his awakening. At that, Fren was about to nod, had it not been for Cain’s sarcastic remarks.

“He’s not even a baby, can’t he eat with his own hands.”

“Fren is still young,” Yuria said firmly.

“Yes, he is a kiddo who has just finished his first awakening. Still, if he doesn’t have the strength to pick up a spoon, you can think of his hands as useless ornaments.” Cain finished by looking at Fren and sneering.

Fren kept his mouth shut. When Yuria asked him to feed him his original purpose was, of course, to accept; however, Cain’s words interrupted this by mocking Fren’s weakness. But saying he couldn’t eat on his own- Fren didn’t like it because it felt like he was being swayed by Cain’s words.

“Fren?” Seeing Fren’s darkened expression, Yuria carefully looked at Fren.

Fren shot a bloody glare at Cain, before replying to Yuria with a confident expression, “Fren can do it alone…”

“Our Fren is all grown-up, aren’t you?” Seeing Fren’s disappointment, Yuria said with a smile to comfort him.

“I’ll do it.” Fren reconfirmed. That way, he would be able to receive more attention and affection from Yuria, Fren reasoned, so he was able to press down on his dissatisfaction and pick up the spoon.

Cain, who had been looking at Fren with a grin, gave Yuria a friendly gaze and said, “I’ll feed you.”

“What?” Yuria queried in pure confusion.

“If you pick up the spoon with those delicate hands, you might break your wrist.” A spoon in those small, fine hands. Cain couldn’t let her lift such a dangerous object. What if the spoon hurts her hand?

At Cain’s words, Yuria looked at him as if he was being ridiculous.

Didn’t my punch from a few days ago make you bleed?

“No, I can do this much.” Yuria openly refused.

“If your hands get hurt, my heart will hurt a lot.” Cain attempted to convince Yuria again, with the thought that her fragile body might not be able to handle even a single piece of air floating in the air.

Yuria easily countered, “If lifting a spoon would hurt my hand, I would have been injured countless times by now.”

“…Tch.” Cain clicked his tongue slightly. He wanted to put food directly on her cute lovely lips.

It would have been lovely to see Yuria eating the food Cain was feeding her like she was a baby bird. On the other hand, maybe it was a good thing he didn’t get to feed Yuria. When he sees such a lovely side of her, his heart might not be able to handle it. Cain treated Yuria’s rejection as a consideration for him. She refused because of his heart.

Leaving the disappointment behind, Cain also picked up a spoon and tasted Yuria’s food. At that moment, Cain’s expression subtly changed to one of slight confusion.

Was his tongue strange? Of course, the meal was made by such a lovely woman, so Cain thought it was a given that the taste would be lovely as well. Cain glanced up to see Fren, and Yuria, who actually prepared the food, were eating the meal with casual faces.

“Cain?” Yuria asked, puzzled by Cain’s thoughtful expression while eating.

“…It’s an interesting taste.” Cain spoke, he hated to admit it, but it was the first time in Cain’s life he had tasted such tasteless food. It was hard to know what it tasted like. Furthermore, it was surprising that Fren was eating it like it was the most delicious meal to exist.

“Yes?”

What do you mean? Do you mean it’s not tasty? Yuria picked up the spoon again and thoughtfully tasted the food, still not understanding. There was nothing wrong with the food. The taste was familiar, and it was okay for Yuria’s taste.

Yuria turned to Fren and asked, “Fren, perhaps, does it taste bad?”

She couldn’t feed Fren, who had been suffering, food that didn’t taste good. Fren says he isn’t picky about food, but if possible, she wanted Fren to eat only the best food.

“No, it’s delicious. Mom’s food is the most delicious in the world.” Fren said, shaking his head firmly.

“…Ho.” Cain was speechless for a moment. Seriously, Cain might have said that too if he had been a little more prepared. If it was made by Yuria, even if it was poison, he could drink it willingly.