"Wow…"
The little girl muttered softly as she looked at the back of the boy who saved her.
Along the way, they had met with many demon beasts that wanted to eat them. But they were all killed by him with no exceptions.
Not to mention the fact that he was still carrying her mother, a wave of his hand was all it took to kill Lower and Third Class demon beasts.
Such a demonstration of power was enough for even a little girl like her to feel admiration.
"We're here."
At this moment, Jin stopped in front of a ruins that he once called home.
Portia peeked curiously from behind him before following him inside with a look of wonder in her eyes.
Since he saved her, his image in her heart was nothing short of the heroes in the fairytales.
However, upon looking at the ruins that was once the home of her savior, she became even more amazed.
She was amazed at the height of power he had reached despite living so normally.
Jin led her to the prayer room where they once had prayed together as a family and talked to their mother from time to time.
Looking at the familiar urn that held his mother's ashes, a sorrowful smile appeared on his face.
"I'm back, Mom."
He was glad that it hadn't been destroyed despite everything that had happened.
After bowing to the urn and caressing it with his hands for a while, he glanced at Portia and said, "Wait for a minute, okay?"
Seeing her nod, he carefully laid her mother's corpse on the ground.
Then, he proceeded to take the ancient book beside his mother's urn. On the cover it said; Book of the Sun.
Meanwhile, Portia only kept silent behind him.
Her eyes wandered around the room curiously, glancing at the urn from time to time.
'So that's Brother Jin's mother, huh…?' She couldn't help but feel some sorrow for him.
After all, she had already felt first hand just how painful it was to lose one's loved one, much less one's mother.
'If what I remember is right, then I would be able to execute the Solar Sacraments…'
Jin thought as he placed his hand on the book cover.
However, before he could open it, he felt something dangerous rapidly approaching them from a distance.
His eyes looked in a certain direction before he went and carried Portia to hide.
Due to the abruptness of the situation, he didn't have the time to bring her mother's corpse nor his mother's urn with them.
On the other hand, Portia didn't struggle despite how shocked she was at Jin's actions.
She looked at his face with a serious expression. His golden eyes also seemed especially scary at that moment.
'I wonder what's happening…'
She thought as she, too, looked to the direction where her savior was looking.
Tap… Tap… Tap…
Light footsteps were soon heard as a dark clothed figure entered the prayer room.
Portia didn't dare to breathe due to nervousness while Jin remained relatively confident with his concealment technique.
This was because he copied it from Brett, the intruder that had repeatedly hid in their house.
He also made use of the small amount of mana in his heart in order to "blend" themselves to their surroundings more.
There was also the fact that the dark clothes figure wasn't deliberately looking for them and didn't specialize in perception and detection.
All these variables enabled him to hide from someone with a Silver Aura Core.
"Hmmm, strange."
The dark clothed figure's deep voice resounded in the room.
"Where's the heretic's holy book? Could it be that someone took it??"
"But it's impossible. No one should know the value of that book, unless…"
"Sir Kael!"
At this moment, a few more dark clothed figures arrived and knelt before the first dark clothes figure they called Sir Kael.
"Have you contacted the others?"
However, the dark clothed figure shook his head, "I wasn't able to, Sir. I believe that they must be gathering more info—"
"Sir Kael!!!"
At this moment, another dark clothed figure arrived with heavy pants.
Frowning, Kael asked, "What is it?"
"I-I found corpses of our members in the backyard!!"
"Where!? Lead me there!"
The dark clothed figures promptly left and eent to the backyard.
'Kael, huh…'
Jin carefully engraved the name he heard deep within his mind.
'There's just so many things going on. Why did they call us heretics? Who are they? Is this why Dad warned us not to go to the outside world…?'
He felt dizzy just by the sheer amount of questions that intertwined within his mind.
Seeing the distress on his face, Portia initially wanted to move and ask him, but she was stopped by him.
Jin looked at her before lightly shaking his head.
She saw this and stopped struggling.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
After a few minutes, loud footsteps could be heard returning to the prayer room.
"How dare they!?"
Kael angrily shouted as he gritted his teeth and clenching his fists.
"Those heretics dare kill us, the ones chosen by Goddess Illumina!?" His eyes darted around the room, landing on the urn on top of a table.
He walked towards it before picking it up and opening it, "Tsk, just where the hell did they put that book!?"
Seeing that there were only ashes inside, he threw it towards the ground.
Smash—!!!
The urn shattered to pieces as the ashes in it scattered on the ground.
Seeing this, Portia immediately looked towards Jin. But his grip that became tighter forbade her from doing so.
"Shit! What am I going to report to the higher ups? That a bunch of nobody heretics managed to kill nearly half of us!?"
Kael then turned around at the few dark clothes figures that remained silent and said, "Make sure to roam the entire fortress! Ensure that the heretics won't escape."
Just as he was about to leave, he saw a corpse from the corner of his eye.
"Fucking heretics!" Kael shouted again as yellow light spurted from his hand, forming a long sword.
He then flicked his hand, shooting the sword towards the corpse.
Jin immediately tried to cover Portia's eyes with his hand, only to be stopped by her.
Her hand had no strength behind it.
This meant that if he wanted to, he could have easily used force to cover her eyes.
Nevertheless, he decided to respect her.
The moment the sword made of light made contact with the corpse, it instantly disintegrated.
"Let's go!"
Kael shouted as he and the other dark clothed figures left afterwards.
A few minutes after they left, sobbing noises started to be vaguely heard from a corner.
Jin hugged Portia tightly, knowing that no words of comfort could possibly decrease the sadness she was feeling.
His golden eyes emitted hatred as he glared at the direction where they left.