Life didn't get easier, even in another world

228 Three weeks

Kairen opened his eyes and brushed his face with a hand.

“Haaaah!”

He took a deep breath and turned to the heavy thing he was feeling on his arm.

“Huuu... Huuuu...”

He could hear the peaceful breathing of a little kid sticking to his arm and sleeping.

Kairen moved his hand and carefully touched the kid’s forehead so that he wouldn’t wake him up.

‘It’s not hot...’

He heaved a sigh of relief. The kid had some minor fevers for some days recently, so he had to check him to make sure he was fine.

After making sure that the kid was fine, Kairen slowly pulled his arm out of the kid’s grasp.

.....

“Ung...”

Ariyan tossed and turned a few times, but didn’t wake up. Covering his body with the blanket, Kairen walked out of the room, heading to the yard. It was still dark and there were a few hours left until the sun would rise. Sitting on the chair in the yard, Kairen stared at the sky.

‘There was no need to show them to me in my dreams, I already remember everything.’

The dream just made his night’s sleep ruined. He had remembered all of those memories on the same day of the explosion and knew about everything that had happened so there was no need to see them again in his dreams.

‘The visions...’

They were all related to the things that would happen in the future, and most of them had already happened. There were still a few ones that Kairen didn’t know which incident were they related to. He thought and searched his memories but didn’t find the answer. So he assumed that they hadn’t happened yet.

Leaning on the chair, he thought about the dream he had. A normal day of visiting his friend’s house was ruined like that because of the vision he saw.

‘Huh, Reyan used to be like that before...’

He still remembered the boy’s teary eyes and worried face.

‘Come to think of it, when I... came...’

When he came to this world...

He didn’t know if it was right to tell that he had come to this body one day after he remembered all of those things. The memories made him think that he was the person who had lived those things, and no one else.

Now that he knew everything, it felt that he had really lost his memories and one point and nothing else just like the others said.

He was confused. Really confused.

Was that even possible? He clearly knew and remembered that he had been living with his brother since he was 13 until he was 23, but now there was another life that he seemed to have lived. Could someone live two lives?

Kairen shook his head.

‘Let’s not think about complicated stuff.’

He looked at the airplane passing the dark sky that looked like a shooting star.

‘Reyan was like that at first...’

When he opened his eyes to the hospital and met Reyan for the first time, he acted the same way as he did in Kairen’s dream. He would stick to him and stare at him with teary eyes for days, asking him how he felt and worrying about him all day.

But now he was different. He was angry or annoyed 90% of the time. He still protected Kairen and helped him a lot, but always with an angry face and cursing him under his lips.

‘Is it also because of me losing my memories?’

That boy had changed quite a lot in the past few months.

‘Well, not that I don’t understand...’

Wouldn’t everyone change a little bit after their only friend suddenly forgot about them? There was also Serria as a friend, but they didn’t get along really well and it was mostly because of Kairen that the three of them hung out with each other. So it was almost like Reyan was left alone all of a sudden.

And not only his friend had lost his memories, but he had also changed into a complete jerk!

‘I even laughed at him after that incident alongside Serria...’

It was natural for Serria to laugh at him after what he did on that mission, she didn’t know anything after all, but Kairen was different.

That mission.

The butler he saw when he visited Reyan’s house, the one that brought him medicine and looked oddly familiar. It was him. The same prisoner that Reyan beat up in his mission as a guard in the central prison.

Just a few months after Kairen’s visit to Reyan’s house, his mother was poisoned. The culprit was none other than that butler. His mother survived, but the damage she had taken didn’t completely heal and to this day, she suffers from the after-effects of that murder attempt.

Kairen now knew why he was like that when he was assigned to work at the prison for a week as their experience-gaining mission and why he ruined his scores with such a stupid action. He was even absent for a few days after that, but Kairen didn’t even care about it back then.

‘He died in the recent accident thought.’

The traitor butled was one of the victims of the recent attack on the prison. He died when The Fifth and The First destroyed the prison to run away. He had a weak unique skill, but that apparently wasn’t good enough to save his life from those two monsters.

‘Maybe I should apologize to him?’

But that didn’t seem right either. It wasn’t his fault that he lost those memories... Um, no maybe because he was thrown to this body?

Anyway, nothing was his fault so does he really have to apologize?

“Hmmm...”

Humming to himself, he kept staring at the sky until it gradually brightened up. Realizing that the sun was already out, Kairen walked back inside the house.

“Ariyan, wake up!”

He shook the small body of the kid.

“Hnngg...”

“I know you are awake, open your eyes!”

“No!”

Ariyan covered his head with the blanket.

“Come on, you are going to be late for your classes.”

“No!”

Pull

Kairen pulled aside the blanket.

“Get upppp!”

“I want to sleep!”

“You’ve slept enough!”

“No, I- Hahaha! Hehehehe uncleeeeee hahaha!”

The kid struggled to get away from his uncle who suddenly started to tickle his side, but he was too small and weak to run away from an adult man.

“Now, get ready.”

Finally letting go of the kid, Kairen stood up from the bed.

“Noo! I don’t want to go to the kindergarten anymore!”

“Haaa! This again!”

Kairen shook his head.

‘Why is it so hard to deal with kids? What do you mean by you don’t want to go?’

Kairen still remembered how he woke up every day and excitedly rushed to the kindergarten or the school when he was a kid, never nagging about them as they were really enjoyable. Why are kids these days like this!

Even after he persuaded the kid to eat his breakfast and get ready, he would cling to him on the way to the kindergarten and not let go of him. It was really hard to stand up with a kid clinging to your arm in the subway. He often ended up receiving the pitting gazes of the others in the subway.

Well, not that Kairen didn’t understand the kid. His parents suddenly disappeared and didn’t come back even after three weeks have passed, so it was natural that he would be more clingy and nag a lot. He would often have fevers and wake up at night to cry for the first two weeks, but now he had gotten a little bit better.

Kairen had to stay home for three whole weeks to take care of him. It has only been three days since he was going back to work and Ariyan was back to his classes.

Fortunately, Ariyan didn’t act clingy and childish anymore as soon as they arrived at the kindergarten. It was probably because he was embarrassed to do such things in front of his friend and then get laughed at. Whatever the reason, it was a good thing for Kairen.

Finally arriving at the headquarters, he stood beside the elevator, waiting for it to come down.

Ding

It was when he received a message.

‘Captain Neal?’

Kairen opened the message almost immediately.

-Up for sparring this evening?

It had been weeks since he had last practiced, so why not?

.....

Sending his answer, he got into the elevator. The next moment, he was in the familiar hall of unit 5.

Unlike most of the times when the atmosphere in the hall was friendly and joyous even though they had lots of work to do, these days the atmosphere was most of the time, tense.

Was it because of the war?

Yes, probably most of it was because of the war between Hainston and Bordkly that broke out a few days after the incident in the capital.

It might also be because of the words of the president.

The team leader of unit 6 is a traitor.

That was what the president said once he woke up. No one knows how he survived when the agents who were far away from the explosion had all died. He said something about a ring that the team leader of unit 6 was holding and that the thing must’ve done something.

Still, nothing could be confirmed as the team leader was not found anywhere, neither alive nor dead.

Since that day, the situation for all other units was not good. They were under direct watch and some people had to go through being questioned, almost being interrogated.

“You’re late again!”

As soon as he entered the hall, he got scolded by deputy team leader Bray.

“Sorry.”

“Haha, it’s okay it’s okay!”

She smiled at Kairen, patted his shoulder, and walked to her office.

“Hey, you are back!”

Putting his hand on Reyan’s shoulder, he leaned over to look at his face.

“Says the one who was absent for three weeks.”

He received an annoyed glare in return.

“At least I was someone who was at their home, not someone whose whereabouts were unclear!”

One of those people who had to go through an interrogation was obviously Reyan. He, who had a traitor uncle, a suspiciously killed dad, a more than suspicious best friend, and also had a deep grudge against a prisoner killed in the central prison’s chaos, was one of those who would get interrogated even if they were from a well-known family.