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

Ariyan was adjusting to his new house quite well. He also did his best to act nice in front of Mrs. Neal, his savior from his uncle’s horrible cooking skills. Of course, Kairen didn’t let the woman cook for them all the time! He would prepare the food whenever he had the time but still, Ariyan didn’t like his food. In the end, Kairen even had to promise that he would learn how to cook from Mrs. Neal.

Mrs. Neal was a nice woman. He had only known her for a few days, but he could say that she surely had a soft spot in her heart for kids. She treated Ariyan really nicely.

Kairen expected the woman to be like her daughter. Captain Neal didn’t treat Kairen really nice at first and ignored and insulted him a lot so he thought the mother would be the same, turns out he was wrong.

She was a kind and warm woman. Aside from their facial resemblances, she wasn’t like captain Neal, not even a single bit.

Anyway, that wasn’t important right now.

Kairen smiled at the person who was sending daggers to him through his glare.

“You’ve come here to say that you are ready to go to the missions?”

Kairen nodded his head.

.....

“Yes, sir.”

“Tsk!”

The commander clicked his tongue.

‘I’m sure he would’ve kicked me out of SMF by now if it wasn’t because of my power...’

By the things Kairen had said the last time they met, it wouldn’t be surprising even if he was executed. Imagine screaming ‘I will join Phliomns.’ in front of the military commander! Kairen was really grateful that he had this power and could keep on living thanks to it.

‘Nah wait, my life wouldn’t have been this hard if not for this power in the first place...’

Kairen shook his head. There was no use thinking about it now.

“Alright. I’ll call you once I’ve assigned you your mission.”

“You will call me when you have a mission for me?”

“Yes.”

“...”

“What? Is there something you need again?”

The commander said that with a tone and a face that one felt like he was daring Kairen to ask for something else, and he would kill him for real if he did.

“No... It’s just that... Shouldn’t I get to know the unit and its members first? Like... Knowing who I am going to work with and such...”

The commander’s frowning face relaxed a little bit after seeing that Kairen didn’t have any requests.

“No. Why is there a need to know them?”

“But aren’t we going to work together?”

“Indeed. However, that doesn’t mean you need to know them.”

“...”

Seeing the dumbfounded look on Kairen’s face, the commander put down his pen and sighed.

“This unit is a secret unit! Secret! Everything is a secret, even the identities of the agents are secret!”

“Oh! I get it now!”

Kairen nodded his head.

“You got it?”

“Yes, I did.”

“Cool! Then get out.”

“....”

Kairen looked at the cool smile the commander had on his face while politely kicking Kairen out of his office.

“... I’ll take my leave then... Thank you.”

“Yeah! Go!”

“....”

Click

Kairen left the office and closed the door behind him.

‘I wonder what my first mission will be...’

Walking in the long hallway, Kairen thought about the different missions that he might get.

‘But what should I do now?’

He had already finished doing the things that Glenn had asked from him, didn’t have a lesson with captain Neal, and still had time until he had to go pick Ariyan up.

‘Ah, right...’

Kairen stopped midway and suddenly changed his path. He left the building and headed to another place. After walking for a little bit, he finally arrived at the place he wanted.

Creak

Kairen opened the door, walked in, closed the door, and walked towards the bed.

Plop

He sat down on the chair beside the hospital bed.

“Ahem, so listen.”

The man lying on the hospital bed was asleep, but Kairen started to talk regardless of that.

“We moved houses a few days ago. The house is not too far away from your house, and it’s also close to Ariyan’s kindergarten. It’s not as close as your house to the headquarters, but it’s in a nice location so coming here is easy using a bus.”

Kairen started to talk about the things that had happened recently.

“I had to borrow some stuff from your house. Once I have enough money, I’ll return them and buy my own so don’t be so mad at me. I’ve not touched more than a few furnishings. I saw there were some jewelry and other riches in your house. I placed them in a bank safe under Ariyan’s name. I was worried that while no one lives in the house, thieves will attack it so I placed all valuable things in the safe.”

Well, it was hard to create a bank account and place those stuff in a safe under the name of a 5-year-old when he wasn’t even the kid’s guardian, but he made things work using his privileges as a member of SMF. It was literally cheating but he enjoyed the legal cheating that he had earned by his sweat and blood.

“Gah! Your kid keeps nagging all day! And he yells loudly I’m going to go deaf! I feel like I’ll die if I keep listening to all his naggings for a few more weeks. He wasn’t like this before I guess he is broken. I don’t know how to fix kids so you must come and repair him yourself.”

“....”

He looked at the sleeping man’s face. He had talked so much but he received no answer in return.

“Tsk! I feel like a fool!”

Kairen clicked his tongue with annoyance.

Sitting there, he was reminded of a conversation they had not long ago.

-If... If anything happens to the two of us... My son... Can you, If we both... um... I mean...

-I just... don’t want him to grow up the way we did.

And it wasn’t just once, but he had heard that request twice already.

Suddenly, he was really annoyed. His heart was filled with nothing but annoyance and annoyance was all he could think about.

“Arghhh, you stupid bastard!”

POW

Kairen punched the bed mattress.

“You fucking idiot! Fool! Shithead! Brainless!”

POW POW POW POW

He punched the bed with every word he said.

“Haaaaaaa!!!”

POOOWWWW

He punched the mattress with both fists as hard as he could. Then, he glanced at the sleeping man’s face.

“....”

No change of expression.

“AAAAHH!”

Kairen stood up from his seat.

.....

“You make me so annoyed! Sleep all you want, idiot! I won’t come to visit you ever again! Annoying piece of shit! And I’ll also teach your son all of the curse words I know! I’ll give him matches and send him out in winter to sell them! You heard, fucker?”

Yelling those words to the person who didn’t even listen, Kairen stumped out of the room.

‘Tsk! Stupid motherfucker! Idiot! Fool!’

Still cursing him under his lips, he strode to the hospital’s exit with an angry expression.

‘I shouldn’t have come here! I’m the fool for coming back again and again! I won’t visit that shit again! Never!’

Stop

Kairen then stopped walking.

‘Again, it’s too soon to go home...’

“Tsk!”

He clicked his tongue and turned around.

‘Annoying fool! Stupid bastard!’

While grumbling and cursing under his lips, he returned back to the hospital room.

SLAM

Slamming the door, he strode to the bed and sat on the chair again.

“I didn’t come back for you, bastard!”

He yelled at the man who didn’t even ask anything. Glaring at him, Kairen huffed and puffed even more before moving his hand and opening his palm.

FROSH

The next second, something appeared on his palm. It was a book that he had taken out of his storage item.

“Bastard, I came here to read my book in silence! Tsk!”

Cursing the man once again, he leaned back in his seat and opened the spellbook in his hands.

The high-level spells were complicated, but it was alright. Kairen, now with the memories of those 10 years of studying magic in this world, could manage to understand them somehow.

“Tsk!”

Flip

“Annoying fool!”

Flip

“I hate you!”

Flip

“I hate you so much!”

Flip Flip Flip

Reading the book and cursing the sleeping man beside him was apparently a good way to spend time as the hours flew by so fast that it was time to go pick up Ariyan now.

“Uncle????”

Ariyan was so surprised after seeing that Kairen was on time that his jaw almost dropped to the ground.

“That’s your uncle?”

“Ehhh! The famous uncle!”

“Woah! We finally got to see him!”

A bunch of small kids quickly gathered around the frozen Ariyan.

‘What?’

Kairen took one step back.

‘What are they talking about? Why are they all looking at me like that?’

The childrens’ eyes were sparkling as they stared at Kairen.

“A-Ahem!”

Ariyan finally snapped out of his daze. He put his hands on his hips, puffed his chest, and raised his chin.

“Yeah. He is my uncle! Ahem!”

Smile

He sent a bright smile to Kairen. Then, he started to walk toward Kairen with steady and elegant movements while smiling brightly.

“Uncle is here soon, hehe!”

“...Uh... Yeah...”

Kairen didn’t know how to respond to the kid who seemed to be about to explode from joy.

“Let’s go home...”

“Yeaaahhh~~”

Grabbing Kairen’s arm, Ariyan started to walk beside him while jumping up and down.

‘Really, is he this happy that I’m on time?’

Kairen glanced at the kid from time to time. The smile didn’t vanish from his face no matter how much time passed. He didn’t seem to be the naggy kid who cried all day.

“Will you be this happy if I always come to pick you up on time?”

“Yeaahhh~”

“....”

Kairen turned his head and looked forward.

‘Gah, man. I’m feeling guilty again.’

It seemed that he didn’t have to struggle so much to make the kid happy all this time.