“What are you talking about, Klein?” Ella asked, her voice cursed with a quiver that she could not seem to subside.

Klein gave no words of reply. Instead, he inched closer, the ferocity in his eyes not faltering for even a second. It was quite obvious. He meant business. The other children could see this too—Ray in particular.

“Hey! What’s this talk about killing El, Klein?” Ray jumped in front of the oldest of them, a grimace painted on his face. “Explain yourself before I lose it!”

Klein looked at the loud mouthed blonde haired boy. “And what if you do? What can you do about it?”

Ray shivered. He narrowed his eyes. “Like hell I’ll let you kill Ella! What are you even talking about?! I don’t understand anything about what’s going on. We should be having morning prayers now!” He tightened his grips as he spoke, but Ella could see how frightened he was due to standing before Klein.

It was not unusual; Klein was not only the oldest of them all, he had lived in the Cathedral before they had all come running along, and most of all, he was far more experienced and stronger when it came to their Attributes, that was why he was their leader. Even if the rest of the children ganged up against him they would stand no chance; the only way they would was if Ella also partook in that fight.

After all, she was the only one whose Attributes came a bit close to Klein’s, and she had a trump card. Her Active Skill was at Supreme Level, while his was at the Intermediate Level.

Nun Cathleen had made sure they knew such information about themselves so they knew how to act around each other—especially around Klein and Ella when they relayed her instructions.

Then why? Why was Klein suddenly provoking Ray despite knowing he wouldn’t be able to fight all of them at once with her being involved?

Of course, Ella didn’t want to fight, but if the other option was losing her life, then she would be left with no choice.

What was she to do?

Sean’s hand tightened around hers and her pensive expression lightened as she saw his smiling face.

“It’s going to be alright,” he mouthed to her before taking his hand away from hers and stepping forward to stand beside J. “There’s no need to fight,” he voiced, and as he’d intended the children turned their attention towards him.

Klein’s eyes were still lucid, while Ray’s was quite heated. It was obvious that he blamed the boy for all of this. After all, his arrival had thrown the home he’d lived in into disarray in less than a day.

“I just want to leave and continue on my journey,” Sean resumed with tightened fists. The gazes of the kids were eating into him. “It was not like I ever intended to stay. We were just offered to spend the night and since the night is over isn’t it only natural that I don’t overstay my welcome?”

Ray’s gaze softened and he turned back to Klein. “The rascal’s right, Klein. Why are you trying to stop him from leaving even to the point of wanting to fight Ella? It makes no sense.”

Klein stared at Sean for a while before turning to Ella.

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They were the only three who knew what exactly was going on here—why Sean wasn’t allowed to leave.

“You can’t,” Klein said to Sean. “Stay here. This place is safer.”

“I already have people I’m traveling with,” Sean replied, resting his hand on J in return.

Klein seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then he said, “They’ll leave you.”

J growled even fiercer than before. It was almost to the point that it felt like she would pounce at Klein any second now. Although, he obviously wasn’t frightened. In fact, he paid her no mind. And rightfully so. J was a mentally mutated beast, but her abilities were definitely not enough to cause him any worries.

Sean rubbed his hand across J’s back, relaxing her temper as much as he could. He also tried to keep a stoic face. “They won’t. Rain’s coming. Any moment now he will be here.”

Klein’s expression hardened for the first time. “That… I doubt that.”

“Huh?” Ray’s brows furrowed. “Why would you doubt that?”

Before any other words could leave Ray’s lips, Klein shoved him aside, and in an instant appeared before Ella.

A loud gasp echoed from the children around, although they were barely able to react before Klein and Ella’s figures blurred and resurfaced a considerable distance away.

In a one on one, none of them could match Klein’s speed.

“What are you doing?!” Ray and Sean shouted at the same time. J was not silent to what had occurred as well.

“Stay back!” Klein voiced as he conjured a flaming knife from his shadow. “Come any closer and I really will stab it into her.”

Everyone paused at that declaration. The tension in the air was palpable.

“Are you really going to kill me?” Ella asked with a strained voice. Sean also had greater points assigned to his Strength than her, which was why he could hold her collar and she could not wriggle free. “He doesn’t want to stay, Klein. Why do we have to force him to?”

Klein kept his attention on the children he had successfully chained back, but still gave enough to Ella. “That was not the question I asked,” he said.

“Huh?”

“I asked if you wanted to leave?” Ella remained silent. “After what happened to Kelvin, I do not blame you. But you know they’ll come after you if you leave.” Their voices were in a whisper to keep the details of their discussion away from the other kids. To them, they were protecting their friends.

“I’m not going,” Ella said after a few seconds. “I just don’t want that boy to be forced to stay here. Since he’s not yet one of us, if he manages to escape on time they won’t chase after him. His guardians have a plan. They’re on their way. So, please, just go back and stop Nun Cathleen from coming here.”

The knife in Klein’s hand vanished, causing dazed expressions to paint the rest of the kids’ face. They seemingly forgot to rush to Ella’s rescue as they had been intending to do.

He sighed. “No. I won’t let you do this alone. I’ll help you… If you want to leave too.” Ella was surprised. His actions now were contradicting the words he had spewed out earlier on. What was this? Klein noticed and added, “That was a farce. I wanted to take you away from the rest of them and talk, but I could not think of any other effective method.” He let go of her collar.

“Really?”

“And besides. I think it’s already too late. What the boy should be doing now isn’t waiting but running. We should help him and the Jaguar get somewhere far away. Since the boy’s guardians aren’t yet here, that means only one thing: They are either dead or have already abandoned him; in other words, Nun Cathleen should already be on her way.”

“Smart boy~”

Klein and Ella flinched and pounced backward a considerable distance at the appearance of a voice they knew all too well. And then, at that moment, the figure bearing the voice slowly manifested where they had been standing a while back.

Nun Cathleen, with a smile on her face.

“What I don’t understand, though, is why you know such things? What did I miss, Klein, Ella?”