Lin was sick of her friends, sick of them teasing her about her lack of taste.

Every now and then they would gather and hunt for food and have some fun away from their families. Lin was an orphan so she never had any family, meaning she was always free and really looked forward to the gatherings.

However, “And that’s why she can never get a man,” Den said. “I mean who would stick out for a-”

Eyes a little misty, Lin left. Usually, she fumed, cursed them, or just gave into the temptation and fought, beating Den to a pulp. However, that day… she didn’t bother. She just left the woods, and traveled due north, ready to leave the south, leave everything behind.

She didn’t have anything here, no family, no ties. Her friends probably didn’t even consider her their friend. So, why would she stay behind in this mess?

To her surprise, she was being trailed by those morons but they of course kept their distance. Lin understood leaving was stupid and she was going to change her mind halfway, but since those guys were following her, she kept up appearances and actually fumed even more.

So, she kept going. She kept going for hours and hours and in the middle of the day… reached a particular point in the field of grass.

Something, no, a baby was there, in the grass. A naked, baby in the middle of virtually nowhere.

She stared at the baby. “Are you alone too?” She said.

‘I’m talking to a baby?’ She almost chuckled to herself but didn’t. Cause her friends were here.

The baby had taken a liking to her and stared at her, almost in a daze of sorts. Maybe he’d never seen a Southerner before?

“Get away from that thing,” Den said.

It wasn’t unheard of extraordinarily high rank fiends to possess the corpses of fallen children and use them as bait to lure in prey. And everyone there knew that. Precisely why they pointed their bows at an innocent child.

It pissed Lin off. To the point, she ground her teeth, and glared. She’d experienced something similar in the past. When her parents died, no one took her in. They stayed away from her, out of fear. Fear that she might die and then invite strong fiends….

But she didn’t die. And she wasn’t going to let this kid die here either.

She picked him up firm in her embrace and faced her friends, or rather former friends. “Buzz off, he’s mine~!”

And walked away.

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“Ow come on…!” Den grumbled and although the others felt the same, they didn’t or rather couldn’t say anything.

They stayed in the sidelines all this time, watched the two fight and enjoyed it, and now… they were powerless to do anything anymore.

Lin took the boy back home, tried her best to raise him on her own. She didn’t have milk, but she did have her guardian angel, Sisna, who came by every time the boy was hungry and cried.

How old was he? Five months at best? Yet the boy was so patient and so well behaved. Lin did have the lingering feelings that it was possible he was possessed but, but she dismissed it the moment she felt his warmth. She named him Soleir Arnius, after her grandfather Solstar.

Sol was her light in the darkness. The only thing left in her life. The only thing she could fight for.

And it didn’t matter what the world said, what the church said, she was going to raise him, she was going to raise him to be a good man.

…

“No,” she said. “He’s not possessed,” Lin said.

Lyra took a sip. “Well, if you say so. But what’s your secret then? How’s he so damn well behaved and mature?”

“I’m not sure but… I think he might have some lingering memories of his previous life.”

“Wait… really? Then he might be a hero candidate? I’ve been hearing rumors about the demons being restless. It’s possible.” Lyra leaned in, a twinkle in her eyes.

“No, he’s below average. With no particular talent for magic.”

“That bad, huh?” Lyra sighed. “Then just raising him would be tough. But given how mature he is already I doubt the church would be able to do anything to him. They surely won’t give up though.”

“I won’t let them.”

Lyra giggled. “Yeah, I know. But you won’t be here forever. Besides… you haven’t told him about the Passing, have you?”

“Not ye-”

“Moooom…!”

Her ears perked up for a second, almost disregarding everything Lyra said. A tiny voice, Lin heard a tiny voice but her ears picked up the voice anyway. She staggered up, the chair fell flat on the ground with a thud.

“What’s wrong?” Lyra stood up.

“It’s Sol. He never calls me Mom, yet… yet I felt he called out to me.”

“Might just be your imagination. I didn’t hear-” She paused. “I don’t sense their presence anywhere near us.”

“Exactly!”

So she ran, she ran straight out, and then noticed foot prints and hoof prints. “Sisna was with them….” She almost groaned. “He never calls me mom. Something happened,” she ran faster.

Lyra jumped around in the trees but couldn’t keep up. “We got that much!”

They ran fast and by the time Lin reached the end, it was already over. Sol was hunched over Lia, both a bloody mess and Sisna was engaging a Dual Head Tiger. A midrank fiend.

Lia’s mind went empty, as she jumped past the boy and cleaved the tiger’s head in a split second. She didn’t care about anything or anyone else, she just grabbed her boy to her chest. And that’s when she realized, the blood… all of it was Sol’s.

‘Oh no…’ Her chest went cold.

The boy was going to die.

Sol… was going to die.

“Mothe-”

But he was still conscious, surely- “It’s going to be alright,” she tried to sound as reassuring as possible but she herself wasn’t sure.

“Mom…” But just then for the first time ever, he called her mom… and went out cold.

Lin’s eyes leaked, despite her not crying. She just sat there, dazed, unable to close them. Yet, they just leaked.

“Baah…” the goat came closer, and started licking Sol’s wounds.

Lin instinctively tried to move the boy but the goat, Sisna rammed Lin away and kept on licking the boy’s wounds.

“What is it doing?” Lyra descended, grabbed her kid and after making sure she was alright, brought her attention to the glowing goat and the glowing boy.

The boy stopped glowing as did the goat… and then the goat started leaving, before disappearing completely the goat looked over at Lin and the boy once, and then dashed off.

“Sharing,” Lin said, dragging her little boy back to her chest.