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

Kairen sipped his tea. As he did, he made sure that didn’t look away from the person sitting in front of him even for a second. He knew that this kind of glare wouldn’t affect his shameless friend even a single bit but still kept on glaring.

“So, dear friend.”

He smiled at the girl who was adding sugar to her coffee.

“Mind giving me an explanation?”

“An explanation? About what?”

Kairen placed the empty cup on the table.

“About how exactly do you keep secrets?”

“...”

.....

Serria looked at him with a confused face while tasting the sweetness of her coffee. She frowned and sent a spiteful glare towards the coffee before looking back at Kairen with a questioning gaze.

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Hah!”

Kairen scoffed.

“Then, can you tell me how does all of SMF know that I want to change my house when I’d only exchanged some messages about the subject with you?????”

Kairen’s voice rose up and got angrier the more he talked.

“....”

Serria, attempting to add more sugar to her coffee, froze on her spot.

“T-that...”

She looked at the air.

“That’s not my fault!”

“Yeah? Then whose fault is it?”

Tap

Serria put down the cup of coffee on the table.

“I’m telling the truth! It was not my fault!”

Without any change in his expression, Kairen glared at the girl as he crossed his arms.

“I’m listening.”

“Gahh!”

She clicked her tongue and let out noise due to annoyance.

“You asked me whether I knew a suitable place for you to rent or not, right?”

Kairen nodded his head. In fact, that was the only reason Kairen had told Serria about his plans. He never intended to tell anyone before he moved. He thought as she had lived in this city more than him, she would probably know more about the houses and the rents as well.

“So I searched around, but couldn’t find a suitable place for you. The houses were either too expensive or too small. I couldn’t actually search a lot as I was just only one person and didn’t have much free time! So... Uhm!”

She coughed.

“I asked your dear friend who is from a great family and has a lot of money to look for a place for you. I mean, he has a lot of people to work for him so he could find a better place faster than I could ever!”

“Serria!”

The girl retorted her gaze.

“I... I didn’t know you didn’t want others to know about it! You never told me that it was a secret!”

That was right. Kairen didn’t tell her. He thought that she wouldn’t tell anyone anyway, and even if she did tell somebody it would only be Reyan so he didn’t insist on it being a secret.

“So? How did the whole SMF end up finding out about it?”

Serria gave Kairen a smile.

“Then... Apparently, Asa overheard us talking about it. I made sure that I didn’t talk in a loud voice and there was no one around when we talked... I don’t know how she overheard... She then went to deputy team leader Bray and also Elsie to ask them to help you out in finding a place. The two of them also asked around and talked to the others about you wanting to find a house... and... Um... In the end, deputy team leader Bray went to captain Neal and asked her about her mother’s house. Apparently, deputy team leader Bray had also lived in captain Neal’s mother’s house for a while, so she asked her if that place was empty at the moment and could be rented to someone. The captain, obviously, had to know who wanted to rent her house so she found out...”

“....”

Serria looked at Kairen’s frowning face and continued to add even more sugar to her coffee.

“What a mess...”

Kairen shook his head as he sighed.

How could such a simple request from a friend end like this? It was really a mess.

“I know right? Ack! Bleh! Why is this thing so bitter? Why did I even order it?”

She stared at the cup of coffee with hatred visible in her eyes.

“You can stop drinking it if you don’t like the taste.”

“Nope! I’ve paid money for it so I’ll drink it all even if I die!”

“...Good luck.”

Closing her eyes, Serria attempted to drink all of the coffee at once.

“Gah! Bleh! So bitter! Ack!”

Her face distorted and she started to make weird noises. At least, she managed to drink the coffee after struggling with it for a long time.

“So? What happened in the end?”

Serria asked after she was done cursing the coffee.

“Captain Neal asked me to rent her mother’s house! She said that she would be glad if I could make sure her mom was safe... And she also said her mom could look after Ariyan when I’m not home.”

“Ooh! Why are you so mad at me then? Isn’t it too good?”

“I just don’t feel like it’s alright... And I also didn’t want this kind of help!”

“Yeah yeah!”

Serria shook her head and folded her arms.

“Good luck, living at your master’s house!”

“...Huh?”

Kairen tilted his head at Serria’s resentful tone.

“No! I’m not jealous at all!”

“...Why would you be jealous?”

“I want to be captain Neal’s student as well!”

“There is nothing special about being her student! Plus, you train with other powerful people!”

“I do train with Darren and Carlson and my swordsmanship had gotten way better, but I want to improve my magic as well! It’s not fair! Not fair at all! Now that you’ve got your memories back, your magic will be much stronger than mine! Nah! I hate you so much!”

“....”

Kairen held back his laughter.

Yes. Serria was like that. She hated Kairen being a better mage than her and she didn’t hide that hatred at all. Actually, that was how they got to be friends...

‘Anyway.’

“I could ask the captain to let you come to our training sessions as well...”

Kairen moved his head from left to right. He could see Serria’s eyes suddenly sparkling.

“But I’m not sure if she will approve of it... Also, I’ve asked her a lot by now, even wanting to rent her mom’s house so...”

“....It’s fine...”

The girl said and lowered her head, apparently dealing with her disappointment.

“But are you going to live in that house?”

Kairen shrugged his shoulders.

“Probably, yes? It’s too tempting. I can’t refuse it. I probably won’t be able to find a place with the money I have, and if I do find a place I won’t be able to provide the other necessities until I get paid next month... Ugh, you see... I’ll be a shameless person if I accept the offer, but I will rather be shameless than hungry.”

Clap

.....

Serria clapped her hands with a proud face.

“That’s it! You’ve found the true meaning of life! Keep living with such a mindset, and you’ll overcome anything!”

“....”

She smiled at Kairen and leaned back again.

“Oh, then you won’t be coming to tomorrow’s mission again?”

“There is a mission? I didn’t know.”

“So you won’t come... Anyway!”

Serria suddenly jumped up from her seat.

“I have to prepare for the mission, so I’m leaving.”

“Ah, okay.”

“You too, take care of things quickly and come back to work. I’m too jealous that you do nothing and still get paid that I might really attack you one day!”

“...I’ll finish things as soon as I can and return to the missions.”

“Alright! Bye then!”

She waved her hand to Kairen and rushed out of SMF’s cafeteria.

“....”

After making sure that she had left, Kairen leaned back on his seat and once again stared at the ceiling out of habit.

‘Taking care of things...’

He had to talk to captain Neal.

. . . . .

“These are the spells I found. They are complicated spells and are hard to cast, but I’m sure you know how to cast them.”

Captain Neal looked at the papers that Kairen had given her.

“I have never seen some of these. I’d like to try them out... But why are you suddenly searching for new spells when you decided to look more into your power?”

“Wouldn’t working with my power also let me know more about it?”

Kairen pointed at the most complicated spell.

“If I can cast these complicated spells with that power, I will gain more control over it. I will probably understand more about the power as well.”

“Hmm... Right...”

The captain nodded her head in understanding and started to cast the spells.

“Um... By the way...”

“Hmm?”

She raised her head once again after hearing Karien.

“About your offer...”

“Ah, yes?”

Kairen scratched his neck.

“If it’s really alright, then can we talk about the rent?”

The captain started to smile upon hearing those words.

“Sure!”