As Jin continued to walk home, he noticed black smoke coming from their village.
'Is there a fire in the village again?'
In the village of Normin where all the houses were made of wood, it has become normal for a household to catch fire as it happens so often. But judging by how thick the smoke was this time, some houses must have caught fire.
Out of curiosity and concern that their house might be one of the burning ones, Jin hurried down.
A few moments later, when Jin finally got down, he suddenly smelled a strong scent of blood in the air coming from the Normin village which was strange because that the people who lived there are not fond of fighting.
Not only that, if one or two houses catch fire, most of the villagers will work together to put out the fire. However, this time, it was strangely quiet as if they didn't care.
With all the strange signs he was given, Jin started to get suspicious. Perhaps some Bandits attacked Normin, so he moved cautiously as he approached the village.
'Why's there no one guarding?' Jin wondered as soon as he arrived in front of the wooden gate.
He placed his hands on the gate with a worried face as his heart was starting to race.
"Please, I hope nothing happened."
Soon he applied force into the hand he had placed on the gate and started to push.
Seconds later when the gate finally opened, he was surprised by the dreadful sight that unfolded before him. Several houses from different directions were burning while the villagers, including the elderly, women, and even children were mercilessly killed.
Their corpses were everywhere and by the looks of it, they were probably being hunted down one by one.
Seeing all that, Jin dropped the deer and ran to his home to check on the situation of Beppo and his father. He didn't have time to rest or be in despair as he noticed that the corpses were still fresh. That means he can help a bit in the current situation.
'Is this the work of the Bandits? Damn bandit!'
"Be safe father, Beppo."
As Jin runs towards his home, he notices that there's no sign of robbing and just a pure massacre that happened there. Thus, he had doubts whether that's truly the work of Bandits or someone else. But he wasn't bothered by it as the most important at the moment was the safety of his family.
A few moments later, Jin arrived at their house.
The house is fine but it's strangely quiet inside.
He entered his house while hoping that nothing bad happened even though he already knew considering that he could no longer hear his father coughing. He just doesn't want to accept reality.
Walking towards his father's room, Jin's surroundings suddenly went into slow motion after seeing the blood coming from there.
"No... no, no, no, no!!"
And after opening the door, his ears stopped working as though he was deaf ever since, his complexion turned pale after seeing his father's bloodied body on the ground.
He fell into despair.
Jin was like that for a moment and almost lost consciousness from a sudden shock when suddenly someone grabbed his leg and helped him to come back to his senses. Although, he couldn't see who it was at first because the person was under the table, he could tell it was Beppo's hand.
"B-Beppo?!!" Jin squatted to see and when his head was at the level below the table, a horrifying sight appeared before him.
"Master? ...Is that you?"
Beppo's face has a vertical cut that blinds him while his lower half is missing. He was out of breath and definitely wouldn't last long in that state.
Seeing that, rage immediately built up inside him. He bit his lower lip and clenched his hands tightly to the point they bled. Soon, he placed the dying kid in his lap and said, "Yes... It's me, your master, my disciple."
*Huff... huff.*
Beppo held Jin's hand and answered, "Y-you f...finally... call me... your disciple. Hehe..." He chuckled before continuing. "But... please... forgive m-me... ma...ster. I couldn't... protect your father f-from him..."
"Couldn't protect from him? Are you talking about a member of a Bandit?"
"Huff... huff... No... Z-zo...diac..." After saying those words, Beppo's hand that was holding Jin gradually lost its strength. And as if he intended to stay alive and wait just to say what he wanted to say before leaving, his hand falling to the ground indicating that he was no longer in the world.
'Zodiac? Why are the 'Zodiacs' who should be everyone's 'Heroes' killing innocent people mercilessly?'
Jin wanted to have a definite answer to the question in his mind to make it clear if it was true, however, since the last person who knew that reason had also died, he was left with no idea.
He started to laugh in confusion before yelling in exasperation.
"Arghhhhh!! Shit, shit, shittt!! Why does everyone always leave me?! Why?!!"
Even though the last person who took care of him left, Jin didn't even shed tears because the anger he felt at that moment prevented him from crying.
___
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After he buried all the villagers' corpses, Jin spent the next hundred days wondering why he was the only one left in the village.
Now that the reason why he had worked so hard surviving every single and why he was so desperate to become a mage had died he couldn't think straight anymore as life became boring to him too.
'What am I going to do now?'
Is living still even that worth it?
'What if I just suici- No! Father will be disappointed in me I met him in heaven.'
Contemplating all alone in the middle of the ruined village, the thin boy with lifeless eyes as if he no longer had a care in the world, came up with a satisfying idea.
"If I'm going to waste my time running from reality, why don't I just use the rest of my time in this world to get revenge on those bastards?"
With that, even if he dies fighting them, he can at least say that he tried.
"Alright, let's do that."
Jin stood up and decided, from that moment on, he would only train for the sake of revenge. It doesn't matter if he takes a long time to prepare, what matters is that he will fight.
"But first, If I want that to happen, I need to earn money so I can attend the 'Scroll Distribution' ceremony that will take place at the 'World Library'."
Jin went to his house and got his hunting gear, after that he went straight to the forest to hunt and train his body at the same time.
'I'm 12 now, thus I only have 2 years left before the 'Scroll Distribution' happens. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so if I miss this chance, forget the revenge, I will never become a mage even if I train to the bone.'