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

“Then, let’s ask something else!”

Contrary to Kairen’s expectation, the man didn’t attack him out of anger. Instead, he turned his head to the left. Looking away from Kairen, he glanced at Aaron standing between the holy saint and his little brother. His gaze made Aaron clench his fists and take a step towards his brother out of reflex.

The holy saint, not minding what Aaron was doing, gently rose his hand and pointed at Aaron with his finger.

“Where have you gotten that thing from?”

He was pointing at the white stone on Aaron’s cloak.

“...”

Aaron simply frowned his brows. The man smiled.

“It seems like you guys don’t really understand the situation you are in.”

.....

ZZZZZ

ZZZZZ

With a flick of his hand, a huge amount of red cracks started to buzz around like small thunderbolts. It looked like a thunderstorm was swirling around the white-haired man. He tilted his head a little bit and lowered his gaze, smiling faintly at the same time.

“I can find my answers even if you don’t spit out any words... But you see, as I’m in a little bit of a hurry, I decided to talk to you guys.”

The sight of someone so holy looking, smiling while looking down with a soft gaze, with his white hair fluttering in the air, didn’t match with the scene of wild thunderstorms moving around in the background at all, but no one dared to say anything.

“I’m simply giving you a chance to survive~”

“....”

Aaron pressed his lips on each other, glanced at Kairen, then opened his mouth.

“Someone gave it to me.”

“Oh?”

The holy saint raised an eyebrow.

“And who was that ‘someone’?”

“...I don’t know.”

Aaron shook his head.

“He just came out of nowhere and... threw this thing... on my face... and then vanished...”

“...”

“...”

“...”

The group of agents and the holy saint all stared at Aaron with blank faces.

“What?”

Kairen was the only one who asked that out loud.

“Someone threw this on your face and disappeared?”

“Ahem!”

Aaron coughed awkwardly.

“Yes... I don’t know who he was, where he came from, or where he went afterward.”

“....”

Kairen stared at the white stone.

‘Seriously?’

He was expecting some kind of... impressive back story about how his brother found such a mysterious thing or something like that, but... Some random stranger had... thrown it at him...

Kairen was honestly disappointed.

“That was strange though...”

Kairen moved up his gaze to look at his brother’s hazel eyes once again after hearing him mumble.

“I knew what kind of item it was and how I could use it as soon as I touched the stone... And... it came to me in the best timing...”

He was mumbling in a voice that even Kairen, who was literally sticking to him, had difficulty hearing. Aaron wanted only Kairen to hear his words, but he wasn’t sure if the white-haired person could also hear his words or not.

“Like, how can some random stranger be in that place at that time?”

“At that place at that time-”

“Pfffttt!”

Kairen and Aaron’s conversation was cut off by the sound of someone bursting into laughter.

“Haha- Hahahahah!”

It was the holy saint who had suddenly started laughing loudly. His body was curled forward a little bit and tears seemed to be forming in his eyes.

“Hehehe haha oh my god!”

“...”

“...”

Everyone else was just silently watching the man laugh as if he had gone crazy. No, wasn’t he already crazy? How could a crazy man go even crazier?

‘That... doesn’t really matter...’

Kairen shook off those thoughts from his head and instead only focused on the man’s face. He looked really happy at the moment...

“Heh! Hehe! Gosh!”

His laughter seemed to have ended as he was now whipping his tears off of his eyes.

“How could he still be the same? Pffft!”

And then, he burst into laughter again.

“...”

“...”

Kairen and Aaron glanced at each other before each taking several steps back.

“I mean, I didn’t expect anything less!”

The holy saint was still talking to himself.

“I would’ve actually been disappointed if he had changed!”

He was now really done laughing and his face was back to normal again. He smiled at the two brothers who were watching him with blank faces and continued to talk.

“Now then, give that thing to me!”

“Huh?”

Aaron suddenly moved his hand up and grabbed the white stone. He clenched the jewelry in his fist and glared at the holy saint.

“I was only supposed to answer your question!”

The hand of the holy saint, who was reaching out to grab the stone, froze in the air. He then tilted his head.

“Who said you only had to answer my question? I don’t remember saying such a thing!”

The atmosphere was suddenly tense. The thunderstorms had come closer to the holy saint at some point and were threatening to attack Aaron and Kairen at any moment.

“Give that thing to me!”

The man was still smiling, but his gaze was cold and chilly. Aaron’s expression was no less than the holy saint. He too was making an expression that Kairen had never seen on his face.

“I can’t!”

“Why?”

The smile on the man’s face had changed to a smirk.

“Do you have a contract with it?”

“....”

“So you have already become its master, huh!”

.....

Aaron only glared at the man without responding to him.

‘A contract?’

Kairen snapped his head to his brother’s directions.

‘How can you make a contract with a... stone...’

Wait, was that thing really a stone? He already knew that it wasn’t something ordinary but... a contract... a master...

He was reminded of something at that moment, not a really pleasant memory.

Hadn’t Alan said something like this some time ago? Something about... some artifacts choosing themselves masters...

The artifacts had something to do with his power... and those cracks... the electric-like power that also looked like cracks jumping out of the white stone... the stone reacting to Kairen’s power just like how those artifacts did...

‘Huh, no way!’

Kairen felt as if cold water was splashed on his head. His heart sank and his eyes started to shake.

‘There is no way it’s the same thing!’

The stone looked nothing like those goddamned ancient artifacts. It just looked like some kind of jewelry! It was just some random stone!

To begin with, Aaron wasn’t even from this world! There was no way he could get his hands on those cursed items!

Still, the ominous feeling that had crept into his heart didn’t fade. Instead, it made Kairen feel more terrified.

He was terrified only by the thought of his brother having any contact with those cursed things.

“Ron?”

He mumbled with a weak voice while grabbing Aaron’s cloak from behind and pulling it. He glanced once at the holy saint and then whispered to Aaron.

“What does that mean?”

“...”

“What did he mean by contract?”

“...”

Aaron glanced back at Kairen for a second before avoiding his gaze and looking back at the holy saint.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“Ron!”

“I said later!”

“OH?”

Before Kairen could respond to Aaron, the white-haired man interrupted their conversation.

“Looks like you already know what will happen if that thing is separated from you... Interesting!”

He was completely ignoring Kairen now.

‘Why does he talk so much?’

Kairen couldn’t help but feel annoyed at the man’s attitude. What was his problem? He kept talking and talking to himself all the time!

‘Can’t you shut up for a moment? Are you a fucking anime character or something?’

It seemed as if he was even stating his own thoughts out loud. As if he didn’t care if people around him heard or understood his intention, and that was really annoying. It was making people feel like they were small ants in this man’s eyes.

Well, they were indeed small rats in this man’s eyes.

“But that’s... none of my business!”

The man shook his head while having a fake sad expression on his pretty face. He then reached out his hand once again as he stepped toward Aaron.

SHHHH

Soil and dust swirled around as soon as Aaron sensed that the man was about to do something. Seeing the situation, even Karien started to use his power, resulting in the shield he had created collapsing and instead, silver-gold cracks dancing around him in the air. The other three people were also ready to fight, but they were quite a distance from the two brothers and they couldn’t really know what was going on.

“Hah! How funny!”

The white-haired man glanced at the cracks created by Kairen, scoffed, and glanced at the boy for a brief second, before closing his eyes.

ZAAAAAPPP

A blood-red thunderbolt shot out from his palm.