"What?" Hearing Milo's chosen last name, Lothur stood up from where he was and looked at Jil with astonishment on his face.
"Jansen? Are you sure?" He asked in a louder tone, for the strongest family in Leopoldine had exactly that surname!
The Jansen family was descended from someone from northern Concordia who supposedly went to the area where Leopoldine would be born centuries later to live in seclusion, in peace.
According to many organizations in the area, this family seemed to be hiding from something from the beginning, but no one knew for sure what it was.
Thinking about it, Lothur immediately thought that it all made sense and understood why a mid-level power in continental terms would be hiding in that weak state.
Virtually every state on the continent had Saints, and they acted openly. But in Leopoldine, things were different, and the Saints of the area acted like Sages, acting from the shadows, in seclusion, and away from the material world.
She confirmed what she had said. "I'm sure he added that last name. I was an Origin Saint at the time, so there was no way I could be wrong.
Whether this Jansen family is his creation, I can't say for sure. But I hope it is. Milo deserves it."
"Have you heard this name before?" She asked with interest, for the last time she had looked up Milo was 2,200 years ago.
She did not know what had happened to him after that, so this woman was naturally curious.
When she had looked for Milo, she only wanted to know if he was well or if he had died. After discovering that he had recovered from his years in prison and had become a high-level Transcendent and married, she returned to her home and never mentioned his name again.
"Don't worry, my sister Petra died 180 years ago, and no one else in my family knows about him," Jil said, reassuring Lothur.
"Yes, I have heard this name in the south of the continent. There is a family in Leopoldine that goes by that name, and they are the strongest in the area." He said, knowing that if this woman wanted to investigate, she would easily find out.
"Oh? If they are descendants of Milo, then he was very successful." She smiled in satisfaction.
Jil felt terrible about the whole story. Soon after Petra had met Milo, she had also heard about him and talked to him several times.
Jil had a good impression of Milo and thought well of him. After her family had gone against Milo and his people, she suffered a lot and felt terrible for centuries.
She was naturally happy when she heard that things might have turned out well for him.
She continued to smile and said. "If they are related to Milo, I believe you will be able to complete your mission easily."
Lothur clenched his fists and smiled. "Yes, it will be easier if they are indeed Milo's descendants."
He sat back down and took a deep breath, thinking about his long journey just to find out that one of his partners at the Ritter Motor Company was very likely related to that soul fragment.
'Who knew, huh? If that's really the case, then a real member of that family just barely missed out on Mathias' inheritance.' He thought about it, considering that this former demon hunter's place of inheritance was exactly in the state influenced by such a family.
While Lothur thought about it, Jil felt less guilty about what had happened to Milo's people.
She had already 'buried' the bad feelings she had for what her father and younger sister had done back then. But as she talked about it, she felt the weight of it all again.
Fortunately, Lothur gave her some good news, and she could almost feel a sense of relief.
Talking about it after so many years had been difficult, but it was also great for her. After keeping it in her heart for so long, revealing it all to someone was liberating!
She closed her eyes as Lothur remained silent, suddenly feeling something strange inside of her.
'This feeling...' Her eyes opened wide, and she felt her cultivation move as her understanding of the world changed.
Lothur also felt something and looked at this woman, narrowing his eyes at the reaction inside her body.n0VELusb.c0m
"You... Are you evolving?" He opened his mouth when he noticed the spiritual energy suddenly shifting around Jil's body.
Jil looked down at herself and felt what had held her back at level 21 for centuries.
"Thank you, Evan. You've helped me a lot." She looked at him gratefully. "I guess we'll have to part now. I'm going into seclusion to try to make a breakthrough.
You don't need to wait for me, for now, that's all we need to talk about. I'd like to hear about this family if fate brings us together again.
Good luck on your journey."
Jil hurriedly disappeared to the sacred place of her family, where an old man in such a place just opened his eyes when he felt something coming out of her.
Lothur felt the aura of a Sage for the first time, and naturally, a great fear grew in his heart.
He could hide from Saints with ease, but not from Sages!
When he realized that one had just awakened, probably to help Jil in her advancement, he immediately left the area without looking back.
...
A few moments later, Lothur appeared 50 kilometers away from the Von Weber family's imperial palace, sweating profusely and looking extremely pale.
'Damn it, is this the aura of a Sage?' He wondered as he had felt such a strong power surge through the palace moments ago that he thought he would meet his end there.
Considering the more than 7,000 power points of Jil's Soul, Lothur immediately thought this other aura was over 10,000 points!
That was a level of power he could not risk attracting, or else he would be eliminated without having a chance to regenerate his body!
So he had fled without hesitation, lucky that Jil had welcomed him and that no one from the imperial family had started a hunt against him.
However, as he flew south to continue his escape from the capital, a spatial rift suddenly appeared in front of him, and a sizeable greenish-brown claw emerged from it.
"I found you, young hybrid!" A voice reached his ears, making Lothur feel even more terrified as he realized that the thing had suddenly enveloped his body, leaving him no room to escape.
"Oh, shit!"
He was pulled into the spatial rift in a single moment and completely disappeared from the area!
...