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

A kid jumped out of the building, ran as fast as he could, and clung to his side.

“You are toooooooo late!”

He looked up at his uncle with a sullen face, but then his face brightened up all of a sudden.

“Uncle uncle!”

He let go of his uncle’s legs and took one step back.

“Did you also see them?”

“See what?”

His uncle finally talked for the first time. His voice was cold and emotionless, but the kid didn’t seem to care.

.....

“Those shiny thingies! They were eveeerywhereee! There were toooo many of themmm! They were floating in the air like jewelry! They were pretyyy!!!”

“....”

The kid moved back and spread his arms out with the most cheerful face someone could have.

“And there were also those hugeeee bubbles! They were soo pretty and sparkly! And they were shining! Did you see them as well, uncle?”

“....”

The kid excitedly stared at his uncle’s face, waiting for his answer.

“Ariyan.”

“Un!”

His eyes sparkled upon hearing his name.

“Let’s go home.”

Grab

Kairen grabbed the kid’s hand and started to walk.

“Uh!”

Ariyan was disappointed that his excitement was completely ignored by his uncle, but had no choice but to follow him.

“Uncle, what is this thing around your hand?”

He looked at the white bandages wrapped around Kairen’s hand and asked with curiosity.

“Nothing.”

“Uh...”

Ariyan looked at his uncle with a dejected face. He pouted his lips a little bit. His uncle was strange today!

Changing the subject to something else, Ariyan opened his mouth again.

“How are we going to go home? Where is our car?”

While being dragged by Kairen, Ariyan looked around, searching for something. He would always go home riding their car, but the car was not here today.

“But why is uncle here? Mama was going to pick me up today!”

He once again stared at Kairen’s face.

“She... couldn’t come... so I came instead...”

“Hmph!”

The kid huffed and pouted his lips. Glancing at him for a moment, Kairen pretended that he didn’t notice his expression and continued to walk.

“Isn’t papa coming to pick us up?”

“....”

Tap

Kairen stopped moving as soon as he heard that. He held the kid’s hand tougher and bit his lip.

Kain.

Kairen didn’t believe Alan.

He said Kain’s soul was taken. Kairen didn’t buy that shit.

Kain was breathing and his heart was beating. Besides some minor injuries and a burnt arm, he had no wounds.

He didn’t listen to what Alan said anymore and brought Kain to a hospital. Kain, as well as Kairen’s wounds, were treated there. The doctors also said that Kain was fine and was not in a critical situation.

So he would wake up soon.

Why wouldn’t he wake up?

He would. He would definitely open his eyes soon.

He had also heard about Alessia. He knew that she was one of those who were caught in the explosion. Her corpse’s identity was also confirmed via tests.

‘It is too cruel...’

Why did she have to die? She, one of the kindest people Kairen had ever seen, died without even being able to do anything.

That was... That...

Kairen didn’t even know how he was supposed to express how he felt.

‘Kain knew as well...’

He said that he didn’t want to lose others besides Alessia just before the explosion. So Kairen assumed he already knew about Alessia’s death.

After Kairen destroyed the ancient artifact, the water barriers started to lose their glow and power little by little until they completely collapsed after a few minutes.

The buildings, in which the bombs were located, had obviously turned to ashes. But that was it. No one was hurt at all.

The Fifth, who was trapped inside the water barrier was nowhere to be seen after the barrier collapsed. They didn’t know if he had run away or had simply turned into crisp, and they had no way to know that as not even a corpse was left from him.

After The Fifth left the central prison to attack Kairen, the chaos there also died out slowly. The attack on the prison had a simple reason: To free The First.

The Fifth, alongside another female Philomns member, had infiltrated the central prison and set The First free, but it seemed like they were caught doing it and so they destroyed one of the building’s walls to run away.

As the wall was destroyed, many prisoners also attempted to run away. Most of them were unique power holders so it was quite hard to control them. Adding up the issue with the bombs and that most of the forces were focused on them, they had a hard time controlling the prisoners.

In the end, the commander had to step up and take care of the prisoners himself. That was how the chaos was calmed down.

The situation was taken care of. There were not many losses, only a few died from the first explosion and some got killed by The Fifth. If you counted the civilian losses, they wouldn’t even count to 20. But of course, it was still not a small number. On the other hand, they lost quite a lot of agents in one day.

The president was in a bad condition and most of the politicians sent from Bordkly were also killed, so things weren’t good at all. Bordkly requested that the prince would come back immediately and so he and his companions had to leave the country.

At this rate, the war that the prince tried so hard to prevent would happen even faster.

Kairen took a deep breath and looked down at the kid who was waiting for his answer.

“...He won’t be coming today.”

“Uuuuhh!”

Ariyan let out a dissatisfied noise. He stomped the ground and clenched his other free fist.

“All of the other kids’ papa and mama come on time to pick them up! I’m the only one who has to wait for a looonnnggg time for them to come!”

He let go of Kairen’s hand. Now clenching both of his small fists, he moved them in the air up and down.

“And then they don’t comeeee!! They don’t come to pick me uppp!!! Uhhhhh!!!”

Ariyan said the last word while screaming.

“....”

He was right. Ever since Kain and Alessia sent him to a kindergarten, there were only a few times that they were on time to pick the kid up. He often complained about it at first, but he stopped nagging after a few days since some of his friends would also have to wait for their parents with him so Ariyan could play with them more.

But today must’ve been different.

After such an incident, no parent would let their child wander around in a place that was one of the most dangerous locations.

Well, except for the parents of this kid, who instead of rushing to him to pick him up, fought to save him.

“Ariyan...”

Kairen sat down beside the kid.

‘You shouldn’t talk about them like that.’

.....

This kid deserved to be angry, but still, Kairen thought it wasn’t right to talk about his parents like that.

‘Everything your parents did was for you. They fought so that you could live in a safe city. They worked hard for their precious child’s sake.’

Kairen wanted to tell the kid about everything his parents had done and how much they cared about him. He fully knew that at such a young age, the meaning of ‘caring’ would be things like picking the kid up and buying him ice creams and toys. He thought it was hard to explain the different ways that this kid’s parents ‘cared’ for him.

Still, Kairen wanted to tell him those words.

“Ariyan...”

But he just... couldn’t.

“I’m sorry.”

Kain will wake up soon.

He had been repeating those words to himself for hours now. He had been sitting on Kain’s side and waiting for him to wake up for several hours while repeating those words.

But he hadn’t woken up yet.

‘Maybe he will wake up this night...’

Kairen did his best to push back the scary thoughts from his mind.

‘Or probably tomorrow. Maybe the day after tomorrow or even next week.’

He will wake up.

There was no way that he wouldn’t. He had to wake up and take care of his son. He couldn’t just lose his soul or whatever else!

But Kairen couldn’t push back the guilty feelings he had.

He couldn’t stop thinking about Alan’s words. Alan, who seemed to know anything and his words seemed to always be true. Alan, who wasn’t someone to joke about such things.

He had said that Kain would never wake up.

Because his soul was taken. It was swallowed by the artifact.

‘I broke that artifact so...’

So the soul should come back, right? Even if it was swallowed, it would come back.

It had to come back.

“I’m sorry.”

“Uh?”

The kid looked at his uncle with a puzzled face.

“Sorry.”

Grabbing Ariyan’s arms, Kairen pulled the kid into his embrace.

“Uncle?”

“I’m really sorry.”

The kid struggled to get out of Kairen’s embrace, but instead, the hands hugging him held him even tighter.

“Why is uncle sorry?”

“....”

Kairen lowered his head, putting it on the small head of the boy.

“It’s my fault.”

“....”

“It’s because of me.”

“Uncle?”

Ariyan grabbed his uncle’s clothes. Feeling the heavy atmosphere and strange behavior of his uncle, he decided to only hug his uncle back in silence.

“Sorry...”

And his uncle only kept mumbling that word to his ear in a low and exhausted voice.

“Did uncle do something bad?”

“Yes.”

“What did you do?”

Kairen’s voice sank even more.

“Something unforgivable.”

“To me?”

“...Yes.”

“Uhhh!”

Ariyan raised his head a little bit.

“But uncle is a good uncle! He never does anything bad!”

“....”

The kid released Kairen and raised his arms, this time hugging Kairen’s neck.

“But I will forgive you if you buy me pizza even if you’ve done something realllyyyy bad!”

“....”

Kairen stared at the kid’s dark gray eyes.

“Pizza for the dinner, okay?”

He didn’t know what to say.

“You should also persuade mama so that she wouldn’t nag me!”

“....”

“Ah! I want soda as well!”

Pull pull

The kid pulled Kairen’s shoulders.

“Let’s go! Let’s go buy pizza!”