Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 1044, 09.1043: "Dad!"

Upon hearing this, Horatio frowned deeply. Jadvig's concerns coincided with his own.

It seems I can only rely on myself.
He made a silent decision: [I'll use the Omen Fragment every so often... even if it significantly increases my 'Corruption Threshold,' forcing me to use it sparingly for a long time and allowing enough time for Iron Hand to purify the corruption value...]
During this special period shrouded in the shadow of the Tyrant Star omen, he would rather overdraw his remaining uses of the omen fragments than risk his children, comrades, and the great cause of saving the nation.

He slowly closed his eyes, and amidst the devout prayers around him, he sank his consciousness into that cold and dangerous sea of ​​psionic energy, beginning to explore a corner of the future hidden beneath the veil of reality.

"..."

The steel hand on his left arm trembled almost imperceptibly. A surge of psionic energy, a mixture of blackish-purple and eerie blue, flowed swiftly through the corrugated grooves on the surface of his arm, like a living venomous snake, bringing a bone-chilling cold that penetrated to the marrow.

In his dark vision, three ominous, crystal-like fragments, shimmering with an ominous light, unfolded one after another before him.

The first fragment depicts the priest Hieronymus Doloros preaching fervently, his voice filled with inspiring power, echoing beneath the church's dome.

The second fragment depicts the baptism of his second son, Albert. Cold holy water drips onto the baby's smooth forehead, and the child lets out a loud cry, a cry full of vitality.

In the third fragment, the nuns of the Sisters of the Martyrs and the Holy Rosary stand together, chanting a solemn hymn, their solemn faces illuminated by candlelight…

The scenes depicted in the three fragments were not strange at all; they were all routine procedures commonly found in the Sacrament of Sanctuary.

But it was precisely this “normality” that intensified Horatio’s unease.

If attacks occur during the day, will everything really be peaceful at night?
[I will perform another divination after the second scene, that is, after Albert's baptism, is over.]
He calmly planned in his mind when to use the omen fragment in the next round.

“The magnificent church in Sintira is truly impressive. It is an honor for our little Albert to be baptized in such a sacred and solemn place.”

Louise, sitting to Horatio's left, looked at the magnificent and resplendent Cathedral of Enlightenment and exclaimed in admiration.

Then, she turned her head, gazed into Horatio's eyes, and said softly, "If we ever get back to Cadia, I will definitely take you to see the Holy Temple of the Sun in our hometown."

It is a sanctuary cast from the armor steel of warships and the gun steel of cannons, and decorated only with hard granite.

Although it lacked the grandeur of this place, it possessed a unique aura of warriors and soldiers, a steely, awe-inspiring presence.

Under the careful care of the Holy Rose Sisters, she quickly regained her mobility after childbirth and even assisted Horatio with a great deal of draft and paperwork regarding the formation of the Orbital Landing Force.

"A church made of armor steel and gun steel? That sounds very much in line with the spirit of the Cardiacs."

Horatio imagined the style of the church; it must have been a unique and extraordinary sight, full of power and perseverance.

"father!"

Suddenly, beside Louise, in Lina's arms, a childish voice awoke from her slumber.

"It's so noisy here."

Horace awoke. He had been sound asleep from the pastor’s long and drowsy sermon, until Dolores’s impassioned and rousing shouts woke him from his dream.

Horace, who was over a year old, stretched and looked around at the unfamiliar and magnificent surroundings with curiosity, calling out to his father.

This was the first time Horatio, who was used to all sorts of titles, had heard such an affectionate address from the mouth of a babbling child.

The word 'father' was like a stone thrown into a tranquil lake, allowing Horatio, whose heart had grown increasingly cold and hardened by the power struggles of the imperial court and the close-quarters battles with heretics and aliens, to feel a warmth called 'blood kinship'.

He blinked, pondering Horace's words.

“The word order is wrong, little master. It should be ‘it’s noisy here,’” Lina lowered her head and patiently corrected him with a gentleness that seemed to have exhausted all her energy. “It’s noisy here,” little Horace repeated clearly, looking into his teacher’s eyes.

"You've had a tough time these past few days, Lina." Horatio's face broke into a rare, genuine smile.

He turned to the girl in the white dress and said, "Little Horace is thriving thanks to you. I know that taking care of a child is no easy task."

"Thank you," he said sincerely.

“Isn’t this also my duty?” Lina gently pushed up her gold-rimmed glasses, which had been knocked askew by the child’s soft little hand. There were already faint dark circles under her eyes.

The tireless work of taking care of the child day and night has given this originally cold and aloof unmarried girl a mature and gentle maternal quality that transcends her age.

It's clear that this woman, who usually keeps a distance like ice, really loves children.

She chuckled softly, “When I was still Falida’s personal maid, we talked about this once when we got up early to comb her hair.”

I said at the time that if the young lady had children in the future, perhaps I would become her children's teacher.

She laughed at the time, saying that talking about that was too far off. She probably never imagined that love and children would come so quickly.

“I still have a lot to ask you about this, Miss Lina!” Louise’s cheeks flushed slightly, her face showing a happy kind of distress. “I don’t know any of this. The military academy never taught me how to have children… Now I feel like a completely unfamiliar piece has been forcibly inserted into the puzzle of my life, a piece that wasn’t originally in the puzzle box.”

Unfamiliar, and sudden.

As she said, the Imperial Military Academy only teaches knowledge of war and killing, and at most a little carefully selected sex education—such as how to properly use protective sheaths in a battlefield environment, and how to cleverly use these sheaths to protect gun barrels from sand and dust, or to store clean drinking water to deal with enemy poisoning attacks.

The rest are common sense that one discovers on their own, and usually do not require instruction.

As a result, military cadets gradually came to regard the military use of these protective covers as just as important as their original function.

For Louise, becoming a mother was a completely unfamiliar territory.

She wasn't sure if she was ready.

She wished she could spend more time with her children, but Farida's own experience told her that for people like her, this was likely a wish that could never be fulfilled.

"Don't worry, Ms. Louise. I will do everything I can to help you."

Lina yawned, covering herself with her hand ladylike gesture.

It was clear that Horace Jr. was keeping her up at night—in order not to affect the captain and chief military commissioner's performance of their duties, Horace Jr.'s cradle had always been placed in the intelligence officer's bedroom.

She bore almost all the nighttime crying and diaper changes by herself.

"Miss Lina, you've worked so hard. I'll think of a way to share the burden of taking care of the child."

"I will try my best to make time to educate them," Horatio said softly. For him, the long and tedious Mass of the State Church was far more soporific than a high-intensity battle.

He prefers chatting with his loved ones or playing simple high-fives with his children to listening to sermons.

Just then, on the pulpit, Monsignor Hieronymus Doloroso's voice suddenly rose, booming like thunder in the church, interrupting Horatio's immersion in the heartwarming father-son moment and pulling him back to the cold reality that felt like a dark forest.

"Today, the Cathedral of Enlightenment welcomes a descendant of a hero! This hero, along with other great heroes, saved the Gothic Sector from extinction during the Empire's darkest hour!"

(End of this chapter)