That night…
Jin and Tanya were the only ones in the room.
Their parents said that they had some private matters to discuss so they requested them to sleep in the other room for the night.
The siblings thought that it was adult matters so they obediently followed their parents' request.
They didn't think much of it. After all, it was only for one night. And their parents seemed to have a lot to talk about.
Jin tossed and turned in the bed, but he still couldn't fall asleep. He had been staring at the ceiling for almost an hour but he didn't feel drowsy at all.
He glanced at his sister who was sleeping soundly before getting up.
'I'll just read a few books.' He decided silently as he carefully got down from the bed.
Navigating his way through the dim interior of the house, he arrived at the first floor after a minute or two.
While walking, he noticed the room where they prayed.
Creak~
He opened the door and saw the bag containing the loot that his father brought back from the expedition.
Seeing it made Jin's heart beat loudly.
Earlier, when Leo opened the bag to show them the things he looted from the vampire's lair, Jin noticed something that seemed to be a book.
Jin had been curious about what kind of book would be in a vampire's lair and how would it be so valuable to the point that his father took it with him.
He stepped towards the bag nervously.
He soon arrived in front of it, hesitating if it was okay to do what he was about to do.
'It's just one book. I'll just read it and place it back.' Jin convinced himself while opening the bag.
The bag contained all sorts of things, rings, gold, necklaces, scrolls and other kinds of jewelry.
Jin carefully rummaged through the bag, he made sure to not touch the jewelry since he had read some books about things with curses.
Before long, he found a book covered in dark leather.
It had a magical feeling to it. Jin could also see some traces of blood red mana particles on the book.
He carefully picked it up and let the light of the oil lamp shine on it.
The red words "The Art of Vampirism" could be seen on the cover of the notebook.
Jin couldn't tell if it was just red ink or real blood that was used to write the title of the book.
He checked the book but didn't find anything regarding its author.
Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, he opened the book.
Jin saw blood red words neatly written on each page of the book.
'Is the vampire originally a human?' Jin wondered. He had read books about vampires and knew that it was possible to be converted to one through some means.
The reason he wondered about it was because the book was clearly written in human language.
Jin shook his head to clear his thoughts, choosing to focus on reading the book.
Seconds, minutes, and soon enough, hours passed by.
It was only then that Jin closed the book.
"Disgusting…" Jin felt like he was about to throw up. He himself couldn't believe that he managed to finish the entire book.
What's stranger was the fact that he instantly understood and comprehended the things inside the book.
As he grew, Jin started to discover more things about himself.
He often saw his father train his swordsmanship techniques in their backyard. Jin was only about 5 years old at the time, but he seemed to strangely be able to see through his father's swordsmanship.
Not only that, his father looked incredibly slow in his eyes as he slashed his sword.
It's weakness, how to improve it, nothing was concealed in his eyes.
'Seeing mana and aura… Energies that are normally invisible to the naked eye. Seeing through my father's swordsmanship which looked incredibly slow to me… Now, I can also perfectly comprehend the vampirism arts recorded in this book…' Jin analyzed himself, he thought in the past that it was something that was normal for everyone.
However, he discovered that he was mistaken and that those things were unique to him.
'Well, it won't change the fact that I have no energy core and circuits so there's that…' He shook his head as he smiled self-deprecatingly.
Jin looked at the book in his hands and decided to return it to his father's bag.
He made sure to organize everything the way it perfectly was before he rummaged through it.
Doing so wasn't hard since he memorized and remembered how everything was placed before.
'I shouldn't have read that…' Jin mulled over with a sense of dissatisfaction as he exited the room.
Now that his curiosity was finally satisfied, he started to feel sleepy.
* * *
One year later…
Jin and Tanya were now 9 years old.
It was 3 in the afternoon and Jin was reading a book in their mini library.
He and his sister would go through the Awakening Ceremony next year which made him both excited and nervous.
The book he was reading was about supernatural powers and espers.
'Strange…' Jin thought. No matter what book he read, they would always state one thing.
It was the fact that "supernatural powers are inexplicable".
This meant that even powerful mages and warriors, as well as scholars were unable to find the origin of the so-called "supernatural powers".
'Or maybe they do know something… just that they didn't release it in public.' Jin thought, feeling that it was very plausible that that was the case.
Creak!
"Bwother! Bwother!"
Just as he was about to resume reading, the door to the mini library was opened.
Jin turned to look at his little sister who seemed to call him out in desperation and was flabbergasted when he saw her state.
She was crying hard and her fists were gripping the side of her shirt.
"What happened, sister? Did someone bully you?" Jin asked in concern. He asked despite knowing that his sister herself was likely the one bullying others.
"Hic! Hic… I-Its Mom!" Tanya said with difficulty.
Jin's eyes darkened, "Where's Mother?"