“Little girl, what is your name?” Merlin asked with his eye twitching. ‘I was also there to save you, wasn’t I? I didn’t see you clinging on to me like this. Why did you choose Miles over me?’

“I don’t know. People call me... monster.” She said pitifully.

“How about I give you a name?” Merlin asked, trying to look cute as much as he could.

“Big brother should do it.” She said, looking at Miles.

“Um, okay.” Miles thought to himself. ‘What should I name her?’ He thought to himself. “Rayen it is then!” He answered after pondering for more than ten minutes.

“Rayen, pink flower.” Uncle Gordon mused on the name then nodded, “Nice name!”

“Okay.” The girl, now named Rayen nodded too.

“Okay, Rayen. As your big brother said it already. The decision is yours to make, and if you want to go with your big brother Miles, then it is fine too. But Miles lives alone and spends most of his time in Portal World. It means you will be alone for a long time.” Merlin said kneeling on one knee in front of the girl so they could have eye contact.

“Also, all the other children taken by us will live together. Wouldn’t you like to live with them? If you do, we will give you a contract, and you will earn lots of money just by living with your friends. And when you grow up, we will offer you a job, and you can choose to not accept it. What do you say?” Merlin asked as nicely as he could.

“I still want to live with Big Brother Miles.” She said, without even looking at Merlin. “I lived alone my whole life and can live alone from now on. If Big Brother Miles wants, I can take care of his house.”

Miles didn’t know how to react. He always claimed he wasn’t a hero, and he still thought so. He saved them because he was there, and that was it. So he wasn’t expecting the girl to be grateful to him.

“If you want to live with me until you can do it on your own, you are very welcome, but you shouldn’t feel grateful or indebted to me. I don’t want you to throw away your future because of me.” Miles said.

“What Merlin offered isn’t bad and you will live extravagantly if you go with him. But if you still want to come with me, it is okay too.”

“I will go with you,” Rayen said resolutely. Merlin could only sigh helplessly, and let her go with Miles. Maybe in the future, she will change her mind, he thought.

“Seems like me offering you to be my disciple or my adopted daughter will not sway you either.” Uncle Gordon said with a bellyful of laughter. Merlin and Miles looked at him with disdain.

“What are you looking at, you brat!” Gordon snapped at Merlin, “You were worse than me!”

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They all laughed after that and left Uncle Gordon’s house after talking a little longer. They decided to walk on the way back since Rayen was all healed now. And Gordon’s house was not far from Cross mansion anyway.

“I know what you did with other children. I have no opinion on it.” Miles said after walking for a while. How could he not see their intentions? Although they weren’t as villainous as the kidnappers, the military wouldn’t let goodies go like that. The Cross family would nurture and ‘educate’ them to be their devoted soldiers in the future.

But it was still much better than letting them register in an orphanage. There, they would grow up with competition and without any love. IF they were lucky, they would have a hot meal every night, and if not, most of the time they would sleep with an empty stomach.

“It is good that you can see things clearly. What we do is not nefarious, but benefits both parties. Those kids who grow up in the family are still grateful to us. Isn’t Serzen one of them? After becoming this strong and having earned as much as he did, why does he work for us still?” Merlin asked.

“You are right. I know it is better than all other options. I don’t say I would have done the same, but I see your point of view.” Miles answered. He didn’t think he would raise children to work for him when they reached the required age. He could reason with their way of thinking, so he said that he was okay. After all, Miles helped Merlin to save the children even if Merlin didn’t need him to help. But since he did, Merlin had to ask him if he had any plans with other children.

But Miles didn’t have the option to take them with him, they weren’t spoils of war either. The only reason he took in Rayen was that she wanted to go with him, and Miles thought it was for the best. With her rare ability, whoever heard it would come and pester her. At some point, they would even try to kidnap her, but now that she was with Miles, no one even would know of her existence. None of the Cross Family’s competitors would think that such a rare ability would be wasted on cripple grandson. They would assume Rayen had regular ability at best.

They arrived at the mansion not long after and walked into the living room. The family was already there discussing what had happened. Quinn was in another room, didn’t want to be nosy while the family was talking, but Merlin went to bring her too. After all, she wasn’t just anybody either. Her father was chief of Police, running the whole organization. He got the position after Quinn’s grandfather died in battle. So, she would know more than the Cross family.

“Have you heard anything from your father, lass?” Mercer asked after Merlin entered with Quinn. While Merlin went to bring Quinn, Miles handed Rayen to one of the maids for her to take care of Rayen and entered the living room.

“My father is looking into every officer in the organization with the help of Mother AI, so there should be some results pretty soon. Purging will commence when the Mother AI finds all the names.” Quinn explained.

She was part of the army, but her grandfather was the previous chief of the office and her father the current one, she had inside information. The reason for her to be in the army was also a deal made with the army when Unity was created.

There were lots of previous examples where the army and police stand on opposite sides and hinder each other's progress instead of helping the ruling government and citizens of the country. To prevent that, each family would send their descendants to the opposite party and they would prosper together. Merlin was too important for the Cross Family, and Marcela’s ability was too special, so Mercer was planning to send Miles, but Miles refused it.

Now, it would be Marcela accepting the quest. That was one of the reasons why Miles left the family. He didn’t like people making life-changing decisions for him. So, he had a big argument with Mercer not long before he left the family.