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

“Ah, I almost forgot to say it.”

Hearing his voice, Ariyan raised his head to look up at his uncle.

“I’ll be leaving for work tomorrow. I will probably come back the night, but I won’t be able to come to pick you up from the kindergarten.”

“....”

Ariyan looked at him with a not surprised face.

“Will granny Neal come again? Or uncle Reyan?”

“I’ll talk to Mrs. Neal and ask her if she can look after you.”

Ariyan smiled widely.

.....

“Granny Neal takes care of me even if you don’t talk to her!”

The way Ariyan talked about that middle-aged woman showed just how he liked her. Their first meeting didn’t go really well, but Ariyan now liked that woman so much that his face brightened up every time they saw her, or even when they talked about her.

“Yes, I know. Still, I must talk to her. I might not be able to come back the night, so you probably will have to stay with her for tomorrow.”

“Uh...”

Ariyan’s bright face faded in an instant. He pouted his lips and lowered his head before mumbling something under his lips.

“Uncle gets hurt every time he doesn’t come back from work at night...”

“Huh?”

Kairen blinked his eyes.

“Uncle comes back tired and covered in small scars!”

“Uh!”

Kairen indeed came back home a few times while having minor scratches all around his body, but he was never really ‘injured’. And yes, he would be tired as hell after his missions. Especially nowadays that he had to work for two units and both of the units’ workloads have increased due to the war.

“I’ll be more careful.”

Ha said in a reassuring voice.

“...”

Ariyan just silently looked at his face before going back to hugging Kairen’s neck.

“Can’t uncle stop working?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t go to work, uncle.”

Ariyan was mumbling like earlier once again.

“Huh? Why not?”

“Because work is bad!”

“But what should I do then if I don’t work?”

“I don’t know. Uncle can play with me, or sleep at home, or go out with his friends, or play games! Anything but work! Work is bad! I hate work!”

“...”

Kairen silently sighed.

He could guess, no, he was almost sure what the source of this kid’s hatred was. Of course, it was his parents again. For him, whose parents left for ‘work’ and didn’t come back, the said ‘work’ was sure to become a source of hatred.

And Kairen wasn’t sure if he could do something about it.

“Then, who will earn money?”

“...T-that...”

“You need to work to have money, and you have to have money to live a comfortable life.”

“...”

The kid was silent.

Tap Tap Tap

Ariyan didn’t say anything and Kairen just continued to walk to their house.

“Then, don’t get hurt...”

Ariyan said again after several minutes as he raised his head.

“I’ll be more careful.”

“Really?”

Ariyan was now looking into Kairen’s eyes.

“Promise?”

“Yes. Promise. I’ll try not to get hurt-”

“No!”

Ariyan shook his head.

“Uncle won’t get hurt!”

He said while still staring at Kairen’s eyes.

SSHHHHH

“Uncle won’t get hurt!”

“.....”

Kairen froze in his place.

‘What?’

His eyes widened in shock.

‘Did his eyes...’

He couldn’t take his eyes off of the eyes of the kid he was holding in his arms.

‘Did his eyes just glow?’

It was only for a moment, but Kairen was sure. He was sure that he didn’t see wrong. He saw Ariyan’s eyes glow just now, for a moment, when he said those words about Kairen not getting hurt, his eyes shone for a moment. They glowed dark gray.

‘What?’

What just happened?

Why would a kid’s eyes glow all of a sudden? And also, what was with that color? It was kinda scary as well, Kairen had goosebumps all over his body.

“Uncle?”

Ariyan tilted his head, staring at Kairen with a clueless face.

“Why did you stop? Is something wrong?”

“...Huh?”

The kid’s voice made Kairen snap out of his thoughts.

“Are you tired from holding me?”

Ariyan said while looking at Kairen with slightly guilty eyes.

“Oh? It’s fine!”

Kairen lied, but it was not like he could say the truth. He would deal with his backache somehow later.

‘Did I see things?’

He thought to himself.

‘But it was too vivid and clear... They shone...’

Kairen resumed walking while still thinking about what he saw earlier.

“Pizza!”

.....

But he had to stop thinking again as Ariyan screamed in his ear.

“Pizza I want pizza!”

Slap Slap

He slapped Kairen’s shoulder while pointing at a fast food restaurant on the other side of the street.

“Ariyan we’ve eaten fast food too much these days.”

“Please! PLEASSSEEEEE!!!”

“Ack! Don’t scream.”

“Please uncle! Just this once! I won’t ask for pizza again!”

“Sigh!”

“Please! PLEASSEEE!!!”

Closing his eyes, the helpless young man turned around and started to walk towards a certain restaurant on the other side of the road.

. . . .

“It’s different.”

Siad the man as he picked up a slice of a pizza.

“What is different?”

Asked the young girl sitting on the other side of the table while stuffing a big slice of pizza into her mouth.

“The pizza here. They taste different.”

“Hmm?”

The girl raised an eyebrow.

“Different from what?”

“The ones I used to eat before.”

“Where did you used to eat pizza?”

“In the restaurants where I lived.”

“Where did you live?”

“In my homeland.”

“Gah!”

Claire clicked her tongue.

“No matter how I start the conversation, you never tell me where you are from. It’s too annoying too irritating!”

“Then don’t try to find out.”

“Whyyyy??? Tsk! Nevermind! I don’t care anymore.”

She turned her head to the other side and only focused on stuffing pizza into her mouth.

A few minutes passed like that in silence.

“Umm...”

After finishing her pizza completely, Claire whipped the sauce from her mouth and turned to Mr. Hey once again.

“Are we going to visit one of those creepy places again?”

Her answer came without much delay.

“Yes. Tomorrow morning.”

“I don’t like those places! They are all creepy! Why should I go search an old abandoned temple of who knows which god?”

She started her usual naggings.

“There must be a reason we are sent to these places.”

Claire peeked at the remaining slices of the pizza on Mr. Hey’s plate.

“It would be one thing if we could find anything useful there, like some hidden chests full of gold or a treasure map, but there is really nothing there! Oh, but there was that red thingie on the temple in the jungle... Why couldn’t we find anything like that when we searched that temple the other day?”

“Who knows?”

Mr. Hey shrugged.

“I know!”

Claire widened her eyes.

“It’s all because of that GPS boy! He did something in two of the temples and created chaos! If we want to find something, we should have that troublemaker around!”

“....”

“Hmph! Not that I really want to see his face ever again! He just keeps causing trouble for you! Tsk! We were nearly captured that time in that base! They almost kicked us out of the base, calling us crazy and idiots. I don’t even want to imagine what they would have done if they saw us helping SMF steal their documents. Gah!”

Claire babbled nonstop with an annoyed voice.

Mr. Hey was silent.

“And how in the world do we see him everywhere we go? Is that even logical? Why would they infiltrate that base at the same time and date as our visit? That isn’t the only time we’ve accidentally crossed paths with that boy! I’m starting to feel that we’ll see him wherever we go! I’ve even got the feeling that we’ll see them in the temple we are going to visit tomorrow!”

“....”

Mr. Hey picked up another slice of his pizza and then moved the place containing the rest towards Claire, who has been staring at the plate with solemn eyes for a while.

“That might be possible.”

Claire almost choked on her food.

“Cough. Pardon?”

“I guess they have already found out that we are visiting the temples. They will try to go there sooner than us and find the thing that is there so that we can’t have it. I’m not sure when, but they will visit that place sooner or later or might have already gone there. Still, there is a probability that we might see SMF agents again tomorrow considering the luck we had with them so far.

“.....”

Listening to his words, Claire suddenly lost all her appetite.

“No. Please not again!”

She hated this situation. She hated it so much that she couldn’t describe it in words.

“Can’t we just be criminals in peace?”

This world was really unjust.