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

Kairen mumbled after staring at the empty spots of the two men for a few seconds.

“I don’t get what just happened- cough!”

A mouthful of blood splattered on the ground.

“Ren, you have to go to the hospital!”

Kairen shook his head while whipping the blood off of his mouth.

“I don’t need it. Besides, aren’t you the one who was injured? They tortured you...”

Kairen looked at Aaron up and down.

“You seem fine though... Were you acting that whole time? Cough.”

.....

“...”

Aaron glanced at the three other people approaching them from afar as he casually patted Kairen’s back.

“It wasn’t an act... Those bastards really did anything they could to make me talk.”

“Then...”

“But I got better.”

“Cough- how can you get better all of a sudden?”

Aaron closed his mouth and instead touched the white stone that he had attached back to his cloak.

“Huh...”

He chuckled after seeing Kairen’s confused face.

“It’s because of this thing...”

Kairen also looked at the white stone.

“You knew that man...”

The feeling of fright that he had forgotten for a moment due to that red-haired man’s entrance came back to him.

“What is this stone? How did you get it? What does it do? Who was that man? Do you have a contract with it? What does that mean?”

“....”

Aaron lowered his gaze and patted Kairen once again.

“I’ll tell you later.”

“No!”

“It’s not the right time for it, Ren.”

“But I-cough!”

“Kairen!”

It was right then that Reyan rushed toward the two.

“What just happened- oh my god blood!”

He knelt down beside Kairen, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him back and fro.

“Are you crazy? Why did you use so much power and mana? Didn’t you hear what the doctor said? Do you want to die stupid bastard?”

“Stop!”

Stopping Reyan, Aaron pulled Kairen away from the angry boy.

“What are you doing? He is injured!”

“Huh? Wha-!”

Reyan looked at the other young man, dumbfounded, before shouting angrily.

“Get away from him, Philomns bastard!”

“...He is literally my brother!”

Kairen interfered in the argument.

“He works for Philomns!”

“No!”

“Kairen look-”

Aaron didn’t let the blonde boy finish his words. With an irritated face, he pointed at Reyan with a finger.

“Who is this kid anyway?”

Reyan’s face flushed with anger.

“Kid?”

“...He is my friend.”

“Heh!”

Aaron scoffed, making Reyan look even angrier.

‘What’s wrong with them?’

Kairen couldn’t understand why they were quarreling like this all of a sudden. Wasn’t this their first time meeting each other out of the battlefield? What were they fighting about anyway?

“Guys stop-ugh cough!”

And even more, blood was splattered on the ground, making the other two boys around Kairen frightened. But before they could say anything, someone else approached them.

“Who was that man?”

It was the commander. He had a few minor scratches on his body from the attack of the holy saint, but besides that, he looked fine. He was walking towards the three people with team leader Dains following behind him.

“I don’t know.”

Aaron answered straightforwardly.

“I’ve only seen him once when he approached me out of nowhere and gave this thing to me.”

Shhhh

The law was still applied. Everyone knew he was telling the truth.

The commander stared at the white stone.

“What is that?”

“Even I don’t know what it exactly is, so I can’t really explain.”

“....”

The commander looked away from Aaron and glanced around the area. Following suit, the others also looked around. They could see the half-destroyed buildings of SMF all around them. They could also see the group of soldiers and agents standing not too far away from them, all ready to fight at any moment.

“Sigh...”

The commander shook his head.

“What a mess...”

Right. It was a mess.

“Who’s gonna pay for all these...”

Kairen had to try hard not to chuckle at the commander’s disappointed voice. The commander kept looking around with a tired face before turning back to Aaron.

“The law is still applied to you two.”

He was talking about Kairen and Aaron.

“He was your brother, you said?”

Aaron frowned but still nodded his head.

“So sir Steyton...”

Shhhh

The blue hue was once again surrounding them, circling around the two brothers.

.....

“As you can see, we are currently not in a condition to keep you in SMF... And I don’t think keeping you here would benefit anyone in any way. So I’m letting you go for now.”

“What?”

“Sir?”

Reyan and team leader Dains both looked at the commander in surprise, while Kairen was questioning his ears.

‘He will let him go?’

He changed his mind way too suddenly...

“But if you try to do anything foolish... work with Philomns, run away, betray us, sell information, or anything else that is considered working for our enemies...”

The commander pointed at Kairen.

“This boy’s heart will stop beating right at that moment.”

Shhhhh

The blue dust stopped swirling around for a second before a huge amount of it rushed towards Kairen. The dust disappeared as soon as it touched Kairen. No, it looked like it seeped inside his body rather than disappeared.

“Huh?”

Kairen let out a confused gasp and was watching the dust when Aaron suddenly grabbed his arm.

“What?”

It seemed as if Aaron was trying to somehow stop the dust, but the dust disappeared completely before he could do anything.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Startled by the loud yell, Kairen flinched and closed his eyes shut out of reflex. Even Reyan got shocked and moved a little bit away from Aaron.

“What’s the matter?”

The commander simply raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t need to worry about anything if you really don’t have any intentions of working for the enemy.”

“You can’t just place a person’s life in danger for something like this!”

“Why not?”

“You are fucking-”

“Ron! Calm down!”

Kairen hurriedly interrupted the conversation.

“It’s alright! It’s not like you are going to do anything anyway!”

He glanced around. He could see the bunch of agents and soldiers slowly approaching them while still having their guards up. It wasn’t really wise to argue with the commander when his people were surrounding them from all directions.

“You. Shut. Up!”

But it didn’t seem like Aaron understood the situation yet.

“Oho!”

The commander’s lips curled up.

“Sir Steyton, I guess you have to learn how to control your anger! This attitude of yours will cause you problems in your life.”

The commander had a happy face, the face of someone who had finally taken his revenge.

“Pfffttt!”

“This bastard- Ren? Why the hell are you laughing?!”

“Hehehe! Ahem! No nothing!”

“...Be happy that you are injured right now...”

“....”

Kairen forcefully closed his mouth shut.

‘Does that mean he would beat me up if I wasn’t injured?’

Kairen felt shivers. That was scary!

“Anyways, you have to stay within this city, and we will watch you all the time, so don’t be so happy.”

“Fuck- Haaaaa!”

Aaron opened his mouth to curse, but finally realizing tens of soldiers standing all around them, he swallowed his words with a sigh and hurriedly pulled up his hood.

“Then, you are free to go.”

“....”

“Thank you!”

Kairen thanked the commander while Aaron only glared at him. The commander turned around and walked toward the soldiers while also starting to talk on his communication device. Team leader Dains also contacted the other members of his team, asking about the situation and checking if everyone was alright.

Reyan, who had been silent the whole time, got up and dusted his clothes.

“We have to take you to a hospital.”

“What? No!”

“He is right, Ren. You have to go to the hospital.”

“I don’t want to!”

They would forcefully hold him there while they were unable to do anything about his condition. Besides, he had to go home! He had promised that little brat Ariyan!

‘Ah... Ariyan...’

The man mentioned something strange.

‘The child of Fate is protecting me?’

Did he mean that gray light that they had seen... the thing that he called the thread of Fate? That thing indeed saved Kairen but... If he really meant Ariyan then does that mean that Ariyan was... protecting him?

‘How in the world is that even possible?’

First of all, why did he call him a child of Fate? That name was also strange.

“I don’t think I can bring the car here...”

Reyan looked at tens of soldiers that were in the area, as well as the broken road and destroyed buildings. All of this destruction had happened only because that crazy man was breaking the barriers while releasing a tremendous amount of power from himself.

“Don’t be stubborn Ren, I’m worried about you!”

“I said I don’t want to!”

Kairen whipped the blood off of his mouth.

“I’ll be fine if I rest!”

“You have a fever!”

“I said no!”

Just like that, the two of them started an argument over going to the hospital.