Ethan's POV:

"What is this?" I exclaim while Aria is putting down a huge list of names while I'm eating the delicious chicken soup, cooked by Aria. Is this a hitlist? What did these people do?

"Honey, we need to talk about names, for the baby," she announces with a menacing grin. Oh no. 

"So, what do you have in mind?" I ask the giddy woman in front of me.

"Well, I have in mind two names, which are great for the child, if it's a boy, and if it's a girl I have only one name suggestion," she responds while looking at her nails. "Do you have something in mind, Ethan?" she asks with a piercing glare, which can strike fear in any man's heart.

"No," I mumble under my breath, scared of what she'll do.

"Well then, it's great that we shall review the names together," she responds, relieving the heavy air around us.

"Great honey," I manage to respond before Aria is right in my face.

"Here are the names," she announces before chanting all the names. Adam, Aidan, Alan, Archie, Arthur... Barry... Carl... Duke... Edward... Karter... Sparrow... Xander, Xavior, and lastly Zephyr.

I feel my life, sucking away each minute. It took her around 10 minutes, to finish all the names.

"So what do you think honey," she asks, confirming if I was listening, if I wasn't, I'd be damned.

"Ah, yes some names stuck out for me, let's see," I announce, before reading every name, because I didn't listen.

"Ar-t-hur, Flet-cher, O-rion, Spencer, W-ade, and Zephyr," I read out loud, looking back at the focused woman, deep in thoughts.

"There are two names which we found sticking out, Arthur and Zephyr. Now why did you chose those two?" she interrogates me, as she still suspects me of not listening.

"Because, ugh, because they sound cool?" I answer, more like asking. Please, let it slide. 

"That's great!" she shouts, clapping our hands together.

"I chose Arthur and Zephyr because they sound good, and with nice nicknames, Art and Zeph," she continues, glancing at the horizon outside, covered in blue and yellow fireflies, clouds shaped into flying beasts. The sky, covered in violet, as darkness looms closer by the night.

"Let's go with Zephyr," I announce, looking at the silhouette of a woman in front of me.

"Why? Why do you to go with Zephyr?" she asks, interrogating me.

"I have this special feeling about it," I respond, trying to not make eye contact.

"I also have this special feeling about it!" Aria exclaims, almost jumping up and down. Why is she this happy about a name? I also jump in joy if I get to fight a bear and later take a drink with Andrew, but nooo "it's too dangerous" I always hear from Aria.

"Right, right," I mumble.

"It's settled, let's go with Zephyr," Aria exclaims, almost shouting. "Right," I answer.

It's been two months, and it's finally August, and I have been promoted to a Bronze Knight. Soldiers, in general, are classified within different ranks first comes Iron Guards, Bronze, Silver, Gold Guards then comes the second rank, Knights.

Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold, and the highest rank and status a soldier can get, Black Knight. Only the elite of the elites gets to become Black Knights and only 16 people have been recorded in history has ever been classified by the human kingdoms, attain such strength would be almost impossible without any external techniques.

The ground would tremble if they were to fight. Furthermore, if they were to be graded as adventurers, they'll surely be S-ranked at least. Usually, C-ranked or higher adventurers almost always gets to become a knight-ranked position, but since I had been slacking off a little bit, I was hired as an Iron Knight.

"I AM FINALLY PROMOTED!" I shout, barging into the living room where Aria is reading a newspaper on the brown couch. "I'm finally promoted to a Silver Knight!" I yell, holding Aria by the shoulders.

"That's great!" she responds, "I'll cook you your favorite food!" she announced with a heartfelt smile.

"So what did you do to get promoted?" Aria asks, with her hands holding her chin, with her elbows supporting her arms.

"I only reported back, did the usual stuff, and then required to report back to the Silver Knight, I thought I was in trouble. But he wished to sponsor me for my promotion," I stated, sleeving up a spoon full of chicken. 

"I later had to report for the physical examination and overlook my merits, which isn't much but it's something," I continued with my mouth full of chicken.

"Don't talk with your mouth stuffed," Aria responds, giving me a chilling feeling in my spine.

"Sorry," I mutter as I am swallowing the piece of chicken.

"That's better," Aria responds, clasping her hands together.

"In the physical examination, I had to do the physical fitness tests. Run 1000 meters, do 100 push-ups, do 100 climbing sets within a limited time frame," I convey as Aria's brown eyes are sparkling under the yellow tinted chandelier.

"So what did you get for the time?" Aria asks, enthusiastically.

"For the 1000 meters, the time limit was 3 minutes, I got 1 minute and 37 seconds. For the push-ups, 2 minutes and 15 seconds, I passed at the time 1 minute and 6 seconds," I answered, before taking another piece of chicken.

"For the climbing set, which just included a rope, the time limit was 12 minutes, and I passed it by the 7-minute mark, and because of the significant result, I was promoted by two steps" I respond, a little bit overdramatic.

"So what is the climbing test?" she questions me with a perplexed face, searching for an answer.

"The climbing set included this 20-meter tall wall, with this kind of small rope you had to use to climb up. There was this small silver bell at the top I had to ring so it counted as one set. And I was allowed to use my mana to strengthen my body. Only for this course. Not for the other," I respond, looking at the ground. It was a kind, of hell...

"There is one thing which is changing in the capital," Aria announces causing me to look up at her face, glancing at the newspaper laying on the couch, where she left it.

"What is it?" I ask the excited woman before me.

"Phaedra has ranked, up" Aria phrases it, word for word. It's not every day someone highly ranked, ranks up. 

"So, she's an SS ranked, adventurer?" I confirm with my mouth agape.

"Holy, hell. She's the first person in the modern age to be ranked, SS rank. Only one other has been confirmed to have such strength was 500 years ago," I announce, holding my palm against my head.

Adventurer ranks are ranked for someone's experience, strength, skills, and knowledge included. But everyone doesn't wish to be adventurers. So we can only imagine, what kind of existences there are on this continent.

"And she states this too: I have yet to achieve my peek," Aria continued, with eyes on the new paper.

"I think that she's a solid silver stage because she said that she has yet to achieve the peak" she continued, as my mouth was still agape.

"It takes like 5 years to each time breakthrough, I was lucky to form the mana core by the age of 15, and I am now 28. I'm only at Light-Red stage," I point out. 

"I know, but it will be a smoother ride as your insight to your core deepens, but the time will be greater once you reach a certain stage," Aria responds, "you got enough time to cry later," she continued with her hand on my shoulder.

"Thanks for the expertise," I retort jokingly.

"Enough of that, we need to think more about the journey when we are getting married," Aria announces, sounding more serious than ever.

"Right," I manage to say before she starts yapping about what we need to think about how much we need to pay, a little bit more than we thought of it before.