Life didn't get easier, even in another world.

He stepped out of the teleportation circle and looked around.

“Move! Move!”

“Everyone, evacuate!”

“Terrorists! It’s them again!”

“Move the bodies!”

“Move the citizens to a safe place.”

“The president! Have you found him?”

“He is still alive! He is being transported to the hospital!”

.....

“What about the others?”

He requested team leader Dains to let him teleport to this location. The president’s office, which had exploded not long ago.

The place was in utter chaos.

Ordinary people, politicians, agents, police officers, doctors, everyone was panicked. Even while being visibly scared, they all were doing their jobs.

The citizens were being guided to a safe location. The politicians too were being escorted to a hideout. The doctors were visiting the injured. The agents were trying to find the bodies of the dead.

“Alessia...”

He looked at the faces of the agents one by one, searching for one person among them.

“Alessia...”

Not finding the person he was searching for, Kain stepped toward the doctors and healers who were healing the injured. This time, he searched the faces of the wounded once.

“Sir, what are you doing here? Are you injured?”

An agent stopped him from approaching further.

“I was... I’m unit 6’s deputy team leader...”

Kain took out a card and showed it to the agent standing guard.

“Ah!”

As if understanding the situation, the agent nodded his head. Kain put his ID card inside his pocket and asked in a hesitant voice.

“I wanted to... meet the injured ones from our unit.”

“....”

The agent frowned.

“The... The injured ones? Do you, by any chance, mean the ones who were caught in the explosion?”

“Yes.”

The agent glanced at Kain’s firm face and then averted his gaze.

“I’m sorry sir.”

He shook his head.

“There were no injured ones from unit 6.”

He lowered his head.

The meaning of his words was clear. There were no injured once. They were all dead.

“Then...”

Kain clenched his trembling fists.

“...Then, let me see the bodies...”

“....”

The agent raised his head again. After examining Kain’s face for a few seconds, he bit his lips and shook his head again.

“You know how that bomb is, sir. I’m sorry but nothing much remains from the bodies-”

“It’s okay!”

Kain interrupted the agent’s words.

“It’s okay. Just let me see whatever there is.”

“....”

The agent nodded his head.

“Alright, sir.”

He then turned towards someone else.

“Hey, stand in my position till I’m back.”

He gestured to another agent. The other agent came to where they were standing, and the first agent started walking somewhere while Kain followed him behind.

“It’s this place, sir.”

After a few minutes of walking, the agent stopped near a half-broken wall. The wall seemed to have belonged to a small room as the room on the other side was visible from the gap on the wall.

“We couldn’t find the bodies of everyone. Most of them must’ve turned to nothing after the explosion so there was nothing left from them as a corpse.”

He pointed at the room with his hand. There, some objects with white clothes on them were visible.

“However, there were some bodies that were in a better condition. We don’t know the reason why they were still fine after such an explosion.”

Kain stepped inside the room.

“Still, it’s not a good sight, sir.”

Completely ignoring the agent’s words, Kain walked towards the bodies that were being covered with white clothes.

PULL

He pulled the white clothes off of one of the bodies. The body under the cloth was... really disgusting. The whole thing was burnt and had turned into a black object with no limps and nothing to make it recognizable as a person’s corpse.

“.....”

Kain put the white cloth down on the corpse with a trembling hand. Looking at the body one last time, he stepped towards the other corpse.

PULL

This one too was in a similar condition to the last one. It only had one hand left with a half-burnt upper body.

“....”

Once again, Kain put down the white cloth.

“Damn it.”

He wanted to move to the next body, but his feet didn’t move. His hands were trembling and his heart was about to jump out of his chest.

It wasn’t easy. Seeing the ones he had spent days with, fought alongside, and survived a lot of life-threatening crises in such a condition was not easy.

“Again...”

This was the second time.

The second time this thing had happened to his unit. The second time he was experiencing this pain.

TAP

He took a step towards another corpse. Taking a deep breath, he pulled up the white cloth on the body once again.

“....”

Unlike the other two bodies, this one wasn’t missing a limb or its head. It was burnt and nothing was recognizable from its face, but it was still not as damaged as the other two.

But none of those differences between the corpses were important for Kain.

“....”

Because his eyes were locked on one of the dead person’s fingers. More specifically, on a thing on it.

He was only staring at the ring on the person’s finger.

.....

His hand subconsciously moved towards the similar ring on the finger of his other hand.

“Ah!”

The cloth fell out of his grasp.

THUD

And he fell to his knees.

“Ah!”

He stared at the unrecognizable corpse.

“Al... Ales-”

Unable to utter that name, he closed his mouth and lovered his head while grasping the ring on his finger.

“Brat!”

Someone came inside the room.

“We don’t have much time. We’ve got to take care of those bombs!”

He was right. There wasn’t much time.

On the paper given to them by the soil dude, the time of the explosion was also mentioned besides the location. According to it, they only had 40 minutes left.

‘Explosives...’

Kain still had his head down.

‘Take care of the bombs...’

He glanced at the dead body before him.

‘I should protect the city...’

He was reminded of something. Some words that someone had told him some time ago.

-The bastard who is playing the hero in front of a group of monsters isn’t stupid at all! Yeah! Right!

-You could’ve picked up your wife and son and run away if you just wanted to protect your family instead of fighting the whole monsters.

-Yeah yeah. It would be better if we stood there and fought until the shit was beaten out of us! Yeah! So cool! So brave!

-Do you even understand what the fuck you do? Save your family if you want to save your family, shithead! You would be in heaven if the team leader and Reyan arrived a little bit late! Not only you but also your family would have been dead by now. THIS IS NOT HOW YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO SAVE YOUR FAMILY! Who cares if some stranger dies? Huh?

“Hey! Get up!”

Alan grabbed Kain’s shoulder and shook his body.

‘Pick up your family and run away...’

Instead of listening to Alan, Kain was only repeating the same things in his head.

‘I should take Ariyan out of here.’

He couldn’t let his son stay here. He had to keep him safe. At all costs, he had to be kept safe.

‘I still have 40 minutes left. I can take him to somewhere safe...’

Kain was still staring at the dead body.

‘What’s the point of doing it?’

What was the point of saving everyone? Why did he need to do it? He only needed his family to live the rest of his life in happiness.

Was there a need for the rest of the people in the capital to be saved? He didn’t want to do it.

Why would he?

What would happen in the end?

His wife had spent her whole life protecting the others, only to meet such a fate?

What would she get in return for her life?

She died such a meaningless death, caught in an explosion that was supposed to kill someone else. The one who was supposed to get killed was there, still kicking and instead, her wife was here, dead.

She didn’t even have a proper corpse.

The people she had saved so many times until now would only say ‘It was her job.’ and move on, forget her completely.

‘I should grab Ariyan and run.’

‘I should take him and run away.’

‘I have to protect him.’

He had to hurry. Hurry up so that he and his son would be in a safe place by the time of the explosion.

But why wasn’t his body moving?

He was scared. He wanted to run away. It was the first time in his life that he was feeling this way. He wanted to hole up in a corner and hide, maybe cry for several hours without anyone seeing him.

“Brat!!!!”

SLAM

Alan smacked the back of Kain’s head.

“Pull yourself together!”

“Ah!”

Kain touched his neck which was throbbing with pain.

“We’ve got to go!”

He finally raised his head and looked up at Alan.

He had to go.

Go to take care of the bombs, or go take his son and run away.

Either case, he had to get up and move.

Kain grabbed the white cloth again. Moved it, and covered the burnt face of a person that was the most beautiful woman in his life.

He then got up.

“Give me the paper, brat!”

Alan moved his hand, asking Kain to give the paper with the location to him.

Kain nodded his head and moved his hand to his pocket.

But he froze in his place before he could even grab the paper in his pocket.

BAAAAAAAAANNGGGG

It was because of the loud voice that came from the other side of the city.

“What-”

Once he turned his head, he could see pillars of fire going into the air from a building far away from them.

“It’s...”

The place that was on fire.

“The central prison?”