Pow! Pow!
Bam!
"How dare you try to corrupt my brother with your wickedness!?"
"Go die, Marco!"
"Ahh! Brother Jin! Help!"
…
'Don't bring me down with you…' Jin thought as he heaved a sigh of relief.
He looked back and saw Marco getting beaten up by his sister and her friends.
Earlier when Marco was showing him the book with strange pictures, Jin noticed that Marco's perverted smile caught the attention of his sister.
Feeling that something bad would happen if he was caught looking at the book along with Marco, Jin hurriedly left him alone.
Remembering the pictures in the book that Marco showed him, he blushed slightly,
'Those pictures… are surely something not good…'
The expression of his sister and her friends while they beat Marco up told Jin that he shouldn't be involved with any matters regarding that strange book ever again.
However, as a boy who had just entered his adolescence, he couldn't quite help but think of the pictures he saw earlier.
"Attention!"
Before he could dwell in it any longer, a gruff voice resounded in the training grounds.
The trainees line up properly, making Instructor Oswin nod in satisfaction, "I must say that I'm impressed by all of you during these recent months. The end of your first year at the Training Center is near. As such, I want all of you to be prepared as I will increase the intensity of your training starting today!"
As they listened to their instructor's words, each trainee had a smile on their face.
However, when they heard the latter part of his words, the smiles on their faces all simultaneously disappeared.
"Now, get into position! You'll be finishing your first year in a month, so mistakes will no longer be tolerated! Anyone who makes any mistake will receive a harsher punishment!"
"No way!"
"Please tell me he's joking…"
…
His words made the trainees discuss among themselves.
Seeing that the trainees were all complaining, Instructor Oswin said loudly, "Stop complaining! Don't you know that back in my day…"
As he ranted, the trainees had a similar thought in their minds, 'Ugh, here he goes again…'
After a long while…
"...so that's why you should all be grateful to your elders!" Instructor Oswin then sighed loudly and continued, "Now, get in position! We'll start with the sword wielders first!"
With a defeated look on their faces, the trainees holding a sword stepped forward and made a line, Jin and Tanya were among them.
Instructor Oswin looked at them briefly before speaking loudly, "Stance."
The trainees all stood with their feet shoulder-width apart which improved their stability and ensured that their weight was distributed properly.
Instructor Oswin nodded, "Downward Slash."
The trainees performed stable downward slashes repeatedly.
Although their weapons moved, their body remained firm and stable, as if they were robots mechanically slashing with their swords.
"Well done." Instructor Oswin nodded in satisfaction.
However, his eyes dilated soon after, 'That strange kid again… I guess he felt that he's compatible with the sword…'
In the crowd of trainees training with their swords, a white haired boy caught his attention.
It was Jin.
At first, Instructor Oswin was delighted because Jin was an outstanding trainee.
However, the trainee's strange actions made him have mixed feelings about him.
This was because Instructor Oswin noticed that Jin was always holding a different weapon every class.
In the beginning, he chose a longsword as his weapon, then he chose a war axe in the next class, a spear in the next class and so on and so forth.
What's stranger was the fact that no matter what weapon he held, Instructor Oswin saw that the child seemed compatible with them.
Even with the weapons like maces, clubs, scythes and other strange weapons.
Shaking his head, Instructor Oswin no longer paid attention to Jin.
As the trainees trained their swords, he looked at the crowd and said, "Those who wield spears, move forward!"
Trainees holding a spear stepped forward.
Among them, a boy with black hair could be seen with a confident expression on his face.
It was Anton.
"Stance!" Instructor Oswin proceeded to train them like the others.
* * *
A few hours later…
After finishing their classes, they all chose to head home instead of playing due to their exhaustion.
"Ugh, it's been a long day…!" Jin stretched as he walked alongside his sister.
Even with the help of Sunlight Resonance which provided him with a vast amount of stamina and his immortality which repeatedly healed his body that was continuously breaking down due to being overworked, Jin still felt exhausted.
Tanya, on the other hand, was still walking energetically.
"Why are you all so tired? It's not as if the training was hard." She said with a pout.
Clearly, she was upset because they didn't play after school.
Jin felt helpless and said, "It's fine, we can just play tomorrow. Don't you feel bad when you see how exhausted Rowena and the others are?"
'It's been almost a year and you still aren't aware of how monstrous you are…!' Jin thought with a helpless expression.
The two soon arrived at their house.
Seeing that Leo was nowhere to be seen, the siblings surmised that he was still out and didn't pay it any mind.
After all, there were many instances when their father went home late because of work.
Therefore, they ate and went straight to bed.
Seeing that Tanya was sound asleep already, Jin got up and sat on the bed.
He looked at the moon outside the window as he chanted.
[Fifth Solar Sacrament: Twilight's Embrace]
It was the fifth and final sacrament recorded in the Book of the Sun.
Even though it was incomplete due to his lack of energy organs, Jin could feel his exhaustion rapidly recovering.
'This is so magical…' He thought as he felt his mind being clear.
Twilight's Embrace was a special technique which helped with recovery.
'I remember that it was stated in the book that due to the harmful side effects of the other solar sacraments, the sister of the Goddess bestowed upon them a ritual in which they could recover throughout the night.'
Jin kept thinking, intrigued by the information recorded in the Book of the Sun.
'Sister of the Goddess?' He still didn't know what that phrase meant.
However, there was one clue recorded at the end of the Fifth Solar Sacrament's page that Jin remembered.
He silently repeated the clue as he meditated, '...to respect the moon as you would the sun…'
* * *
In a dark room, two figures were conversing.
One of them was kneeling while the other was sitting.
"Brett, are you sure about the things in your report?"
"Yes, Your Highness! I have confirmed the existence of the remnants of heretics in this place!"
"Hmmm, the Goddess has spoken. We must make sure that not a single remnant of the heretics will be spared!"
"Yes, Your Highness!"