Third-person POV
By the third day, it was time for Roxas and his family and group to pack up and go back to Iloilo, which involved taking a ferry from Batangas City to Caticlan and then land travel from Caticlan to Iloilo via Capiz. Kaota decided to remain in Santa Barbara in a hotel within the municipality. 3 days ago, Roxas witnessed the internal struggle within Kirito/Evil Kirito, and he declared to him that he wasn't afraid of him unless he needed to be.
Now, today is Sunday, and 10 hours after arriving from Caticlan in the family multicab, Roxas and his family went to their local church, the Evangelical Reformed Baptist Church of Santa Barbara. It was an independent church connected to a countrywide Baptist convention, but the architectural choice highlighted its charm: the style was in the Neo-Gothic style with flares and rules of the Dutch Reformed tradition; that is, no stained images of the figures in the Christian religion.
Instead, native and Dutch art styles became occupants of the stained glass; they were colourful, made by students who experimented with stained glass art years ago.
Entering the place, Roxas's eyes were caught by a familiar figure: Sho Manabat. "Hey there, Roxas-kun…" he said to him with a warm smile.
"Kuya Sol!" Roxas ran to him for a hug. "Tagal na!"
Chuckling, Sho replied back, "Yes, nandito na ako…"
Sho had actually taken advantage of SAO's teleportation system to travel to this town where he grew up, separate from his roots in Tokyo, and he planned to teleport back after the morning service.
"Yes, how are you, Roxas?" Sho asked.
Roxas then happily nodded. "Yes, okay po ako."
His siblings were happy to reunite with Sho and his family, the Manabats, for this morning's worship service.
Later, at 9 a.m., the service began with a welcoming song, 2 songs, and a prayer for the sermon their church minister will deliver this morning. Roxas and his circle sang the latter 2 songs in their hymnbooks and looked at the small flat screen TV that had the lyrics of these songs. And then, the sermon came, and it was all about resilience in the face of trials and hard times. Everyone listened to him with hunger for wisdom and spiritual food.
Listening to the Sunday message, Sho thought of Kirito, being worried for the Black Swordsman being under Akihiko's spells in this game.
He secretly monitored his servers' world storage system using his smartphone, seeing the progress steadily growing for the great restoration once SAO was removed from this real world.
A few years ago, and even before the SAO incident, he was chosen to be a Guardian of the Border Between Life and Death by a Balitbitan tree here in Santa Barbara.