Ancestral Lineage-Chapter 467: Ethan in Tension

Ethan had never experienced childbirth before. His first child, Regnare, was adopted. His second child, who was his only biological child, was born when he was in a coma. So this was his first time experiencing the tension that came with childbirth that he’d read about a day ago.

It had been two days since the baby shower, and Harley was due to bring the kids into the world. Ethan paced back and forth in the corridor of the imperial hospital, chewing his fingernails like he had a grudge with them. His expression was pale, and sweat covered his brow.

With him in the corridor were the guys: Trevor, Lamair, Regnare, Reginald, Jerry, Galeno with a sulking face, Maverick, Stygian, Sage, Apole, and Ethan’s father, Zark. Harley’s parents were also there, but they were with the girls inside the delivery room to provide support for their daughter.

Regnare held his phone with which he recorded his father... Live. In seconds, the video was out on the net with the caption...

THE EMPEROR IS TENSED UP. ANTICIPATE THE COMING OF THE NEW ROYALS.

If he knew what Regnare was doing, he would have used a mass telepathy to wipe everyone’s memory clean of the footage, but he was too tense to realize it, and none of the others bothered to stop Regnare.

It was payback for disrupting their sleep!

"Daddy... Mother Clara said I should give you this soda before you finish up your hands." Delphina’s cute voice drifted into their ears as she tugged on Ethan’s sleeves and handed him five cans of soda.

Regnare hurriedly switched cameras to show the others, who played along and did all sorts of poses, especially Maverick and Stygian, who wanted to show flex muscles.

Ethan paused mid–nail-bite, the exact image of a man who had just been handed a lifeline in the shape of a carbonated beverage. Delphina’s tiny hand reached up, clutching the five cans like tribute to a stressed-out deity.

He blinked down at her. She blinked up at him.

He took the sodas.

Then immediately dropped one.

Not because he meant to, but because the moment he touched the can, the sound of Harley’s muffled groan from inside the delivery room leaked through the reinforced door. His nerves short-circuited. The can bounced on the floor, rolled toward Trevor’s foot, and was promptly kicked back like a football.

Regnare, ever the opportunistic gremlin, caught that exact moment on camera.

The livestream chat exploded somewhere in the digital void.

Trevor leaned against the wall. "If you keep going at those fingers, you’ll enter labor before she does."

Zark snorted. "He looks more terrified than the time he woke up from that coma and thought the nurses were angels."

"When was that?" Lamair asked in confusion.

Regnare zoomed in dramatically on Ethan’s pale face, adding sparkly filters that made him look like a panicked ethereal being.

The camera then whipped around to Delphina, who handed out the rest of the sodas to the men, who immediately transformed into posers.

Maverick flexed so hard that the can in his grip dented. "Make sure you get my good side. Actually, all my sides are good."

Stygian crossed his arms, shadows curling theatrically around his biceps. "Strength is temporary. Aesthetic is eternal."

Lamair flicked his hair like a model in a shampoo commercial, which caused Apole to choke on laughter.

Galeno, still sulking for reasons only he knew, turned away, only for Reginald to yank him back into the frame like a disgruntled prop.

Even Sage, who usually radiated monk-like serenity, raised a soda can in the air as if blessing the livestream.

Trevor struck a pose so ridiculous, one leg up, one hand outstretched, soda balanced on his head, that Regnare had to slap a "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME" banner across the feed.

Through all this, Ethan stood frozen in the middle of the corridor with Delphina tugging lightly at his sleeve again.

"Daddy, drink. Mother Clara says the babies won’t come faster if you panic."

"I’m not panicking." Ethan’s voice came out in a trembling whisper.

Regnare shoved the camera in his face.

The viewers got a full close-up of a man questioning every life choice that led to this moment.

Trevor chuckled. "You’re panicking."

Zark folded his arms, smirking. "He’s absolutely panicking."

Maverick flexed again. "He’s panicking harder than Apole when Qirantha sneezes."

Apole sputtered. "Wha?!"

The entire corridor was filled with laughter and nervous energy.

Behind the door, another muffled cry sounded, a raw, real reminder of the miracle underway.

Ethan’s expression shifted. The panic didn’t vanish, but it focused. Sharpened.

He straightened.

"Alright," he muttered, cracking open the soda with a shaky hand. "Okay. I can do this. I’m ready."

Regnare caught that moment, too.

The livestream title updated.

THE EMPEROR HAS ENTERED PHASE TWO OF FATHERHOOD PANIC. STAY TUNED.

And the cosmic tension of childbirth rolled on.

Ethan cracked open one of the sodas with the trembling intensity of a man about to defuse a bomb.

The psssht echoed through the hallway like a divine trumpet. He took a gulp, too fast, and immediately choked, sputtering and coughing like he’d been sniped by carbonation itself.

Trevor slapped his back. "Breathe, Your Majesty. Don’t die before your wife finishes giving birth."

Lamair nodded sagely. "It’d be embarrassing for the children if their father perished because of soda."

Regnare zoomed the camera dramatically on Ethan’s face. "Historic moment: Emperor nearly assassinated by fizzy drink."

"Regnare." Ethan pointed at him, eyes watery from choking. "I swear... once this is over... I’m grounding you for a year."

Regnare beamed at the camera. "The Emperor has issued a threat. I accept my fate."

Galeno grumbled from the bench, legs crossed and arms folded. "Why am I even here? This isn’t a battle. There’s no blood. No undead. No explosions. Just... noises."

Jerry patted his shoulder. "It’s childbirth, dude."

"I know," Galeno huffed. "That’s the problem."

Stygian and Maverick, clearly now intoxicated by Delphina’s camera lens, flexed in unison, each strike-a-pose more absurd than the last.

Stygian threw a bicep curl at the camera.

Maverick followed with a chest pop that could’ve cracked slate.

Trevor whispered, "Do they know this is a maternity wing?"

"No," Lamair replied. "And even if they did, would it stop them?"

The two men unleashed a double–flex-lunge combo that somehow triggered a faint gust of wind.

Delphina gasped. "Amazing!"

Ethan dragged both hands down his face. "I’m surrounded by morons."

The doors slammed open.

Everybody froze, like actors caught rehearsing the wrong scene.

A nurse poked her head out, her expression the universal face of a healthcare worker who has already dealt with too much in one lifetime. "Your Majesty?"

Ethan straightened so fast his spine cracked. "Yes?! Does she need me? Did something happen? Did a baby already come out? Did all the babies come out? Am I a father again? I mean, I am, but am I now... again?"

She blinked twice. "The Empress is doing well. No babies yet."

Ethan’s shoulders slumped like he’d been unplugged.

"But," the nurse continued, "the Empress requested that everyone out here calm down. She can hear all of you."

All eyes swiveled to the camera.

Regnare immediately zoomed out and shoved the phone into his pocket like a guilty squirrel.

The nurse gestured sharply. "Less noise. Less flexing. Less... whatever he’s doing." She pointed at Maverick, who froze mid–ab crunch pose, abdominals shimmering like polished marble.

"Yes, ma’am," the entire group chorused like schoolboys.

She disappeared back inside.

The moment the door closed, Ethan resumed pacing. Faster now. More dramatic.

Stygian began pacing with him, purely for fun.

Maverick joined too, turning it into a synchronized march.

Trevor sighed and joined to keep them from crashing into a wall.

Apole joined because chaos had gravitational pull.

Zark joined because he refused to be the only sane adult in the family. Sometimes, even an Arbiter must have fun. He was just praying his wife wouldn’t find him in the process or else... only he knew what would happen.

Galeno remained seated, sulking harder, now muttering something about "humans and their bizarre rituals."

Regnare lifted his phone. "Round two..."

"DON’T."

Ten voices snapped in unison.

Regnare slowly put it down... and quietly opened the front camera to fix his hair.

Ethan stopped pacing long enough to glare at the ceiling. "I swear... You idiots, will be the end of me."

Stygian clapped him on the shoulder. "Relax, big guy. Mistress Harley is strong. She’s got this."

Maverick nodded. "I mean, she survived your libido. Childbirth should be easy."

The hallway went silent.

Slowly... painfully... Ethan turned to stare at Maverick.

Maverick realized, too late, that this was how people died.

Before execution could occur, another voice yelled from inside:

"Ethan!"

Everyone jumped.

Ethan sprinted toward the doors, but slipped on his own discarded soda can, windmilled, nearly fell, caught himself with psychic force, corrected midair, landed, and slammed both palms on the double doors.

And the doors clicked open, glowing softly with a green barrier.

A magical lock.

From inside, one of the girls yelled, "NOT YET, YOU BIG DUMMY! GET BACK OUT!"

The doors slammed shut again.

Ethan stared blankly.

Trevor whispered, "Denied by your own wives..."

Lamair nodded with reverence. "Historic."

Galeno covered his face. "I hate this family."

Ethan stomped back toward the group, flustered, red-eared, sweating, and vibrating with twenty-seven overlapping emotions.

Delphina tugged his sleeve again. "Daddy, Mother Clara said you should calm down. She said you look like a scared bunny."

Regnare zoomed the phone in again.

Ethan dragged both hands over his face. "Regnare... I’m begging you... Stop filming me!"

Regnare cut him off, narrating dramatically, "The Emperor descends into madness as the royal children prepare to enter the world. His greatest enemies? Anxiety... and aluminum cans."

Ethan pulled at his hair.

(This part might sound somewhat confusing, but ever since Zark became Ethan and Trevor’s dad, many things have changed, both in the past, present, and future, so don’t be confused...)

Zark patted his back. "Son, relax. You were born fine."

"You passed out during my birth, Dad," Ethan shot back.

Zark nodded. "And look at me now."

Ethan looked.

Zark raised his eyebrows in a smug dad-face.

Ethan groaned.

Trevor clapped once. "Okay. Someone take away his soda before he hurts himself."

Stygian saluted, snatched it from Ethan’s hand, and chugged it in one go.

Maverick started doing miniature stretches "to warm up his paternal support energy."

Galeno stared at them like they were an invasive species.

The tension, the absurdity, the looming joy, all tangled into one big emotional knot, ready to snap.

And deep inside the delivery room... something shifted.

A voice rose again. Not panicked. Not in pain.

But calling.

Firm.

Clear.

Ready.

And the hallway fell into stunned silence as Ethan braced himself... for the moment his world would change again, most terrifyingly and wonderfully.