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

Kairen blurted out the name of the person who was standing by the door as he stood up from the sofa in a daze.

PLOP

Plop plop

Bang

The books on the green-eyed man’s hands fell down one by one. His face changed from stunned to apathetic then a feared one in the span of a few seconds.

“...Kairen?”

He mumbled in a weak voice as he took in the details of the young man standing beside the sofa.

The other person in the room, the man who was at the desk, looked between the two with a puzzled face, wondering what was going on, before turning towards Reynold who was watching the scene with an indifferent expression.

.....

“What the...”

The green eyes of the man moved rapidly, looking around the room in a hast matter as he took small steps inside the room, not even minding the person whom he was here to meet.

“Ah? Kain? Is that really you?”

Kairen was still in a state of confusion.

“What? What’s going on?”

He pointed at Kain and turned to Reynold with a gaped mouth, asking what the hell was going in there.

“I’ve explained to you about this place, the void.”

“You have...”

Kairen paused and glanced back at Kain. He remembered clearly what Reynold has told him about the void.

-There are a lot of people who have lost their lives due to unexpected variables. There are several worlds that were swallowed by chaos and irregularity. One was my world, and the first one as well... But that wasn’t the only one. Countless people lost their lives as a result of that. There are also several worlds affected by variables outside of the chain, which leads to the number of souls here increasing rapidly.

‘Lost their lives due to unexpected variables... Swallowed by chaos and irregularity...’

Kairen wanted to yell that Kain was not dead, but he then remembered another thing. Something Alan had told him before about Kain.

-His soul is already taken.

Taken... Swallowed by the artifact... Swallowed by chaos... Those unfortunate souls who didn’t meet their designed destiny and reach their end come to the void...

“You’ve been here the whole time!”

Kairen yelled at Kain. The man who was approaching him stopped walking for a second, before charging at Kairen.

“Hey, why didn’t you tell me about this!”

Kairen glared at Reynold with a furious expression, but before he could hear Reynold’s answer, a hand grabbed his collar, pulled him to the right, then pushed him back.

“Wha-”

BANG

He lost his balance due to the force, fell backward, his a small table, and plopped to the ground on his butt. Kairen raised his head to look at Kain, the one who just pushed him so powerfully, with disbelief.

“What was that for...”

He actually wanted to yell at Kain, but seeing his scary face, Kairen only uttered some low-pitched mumbles.

“You!”

Kain strode over to him, grabbed his collar by a hand, raised Kairen a little bit up, clenched his other hand into a fist, and moved his arm back-

“Brainless bitch!”

-before moving his arm and punching Kairen in the face. The punch that hit the boy’s dazed face. Kairen could swear his skull nearly shattered due to the punch. Half of his face went numb almost instantly and blood oozed out of his mouth. At first, he didn’t feel any pain, but after a few seconds, he was doing his best not to cry.

“You good for nothing bastard!”

Kain threw Kairen to the ground. Kairen’s back hitting the ground made a sound that probably only Kairen himself heard, and felt as if it was about to bent in two. He still didn’t know what was going on and why he was receiving a beating, and he couldn’t really talk as his mouth and face were sore. Seeing that Kain was about to sit down beside him, Kairen closed his eyes out of reflex and did his best to move a little bit back.

‘What’s it? Why are you attacking me!’

Kairen was grabbed by his collar again despite struggling to free. He was raised a little bit, enough for the man who was sitting on top of him to punch his face without much difficulty.

‘Why aren’t you helping me!?’

Kairen sent a pleading glance at Reynold, who was just sitting on the sofa doing nothing. The other man in the room, whom Kairen had just met, was pacing around behind Kain’s back nervously, as if not knowing what he was supposed to do.

“Ugh...”

Just then, the man’s body got blurry. No, it was Kairen who was seeing him hazy and not clearly. A throbbing pain struck his head and a heavy something made it hard to breathe.

‘This again...’

The symptoms he would experience on the first days of being in this place haunted him once again. Kairen gasped with difficulty and raised his hand, grabbing Kain’s arms.

“...Kain...”

Kain didn’t seem to listen to him at all.

“I left you by yourself for a little while and you ended up dead?”

He yelled at Kairen while shaking his body back and fro, not even noticing Kairen’s gradually paling face.

“You went and got yourself killed? You died?”

BOM

Kairen’s body was smashed to the floor.

“Kain... wait- huuuu...”

“You got yourself killed?”

Drip

Drip

Even on his blurry vision, Kairen could clearly see the tears that were falling down from the green eyes of the man and wetting his face.

‘Uh, can dead cry?’

He stared at Kain’s faze in a daze.

‘No, why is he crying?’

Kairen grabbed Kain’s arms and pulled his shirt.

“....Let go...”

‘I haven’t died yet but you are killing me now.’

“Why did you die!”

Kain wasn’t paying attention to him at all. His lips were now trembling and tears were falling down nonstop. His hands holding Kairen’s collar shook as his head lowered a little bit.

“Uh... Um... Listen, Kain...”

The other man in the room hesitantly started to talk. He looked at Reynold, but seeing that he didn’t intend to do anything, he approached Kain and pulled him a little bit back by grabbing his shoulder.

“He is actually not dead... Ah, look. He is bleeding.”

The man pointed at the blood oozing out of Kairen’s mouth. Kain froze on his spot for a moment, looked at the man holding his shoulder and then at Kairen, whom he was sitting on top of his belly, then at the redhead man on the other end of the room.

“Huh...”

He let out a confused gasp while still shedding tears.

“Huuu...”

Kairen closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The splitting headache was making him want to poke and throw his guts, so he closed his mouth as well and took deep breaths.

“...But I guess you nearly killed him...”

“Huh...”

Kain gasped once again with a confused face and looked down at Kairen.

“...He’s not dead?”

He mumbled as he sniffed and whipped his face with his sleeve.

“Then how is he here...”

He poked his little brother’s cheek with a finger. It made Kairen crack his eyes open and stare at his murderer- brother.

.....

“But I’ll actually die if you don’t move away...”

“Huh? Ah!”

Kain hesitantly moved aside and sat down beside Kairen. While looking around and staring at Kairen with a blank, yet teary face for a while, he helped Kairen sit down and asked in a hesitant voice.

“You are not dead?”

“...I’m not!”

Kairen shook his head and whipped the blood off of his chin and lips. His face was still numb and was throbbing with pain. His back hurt, and his head was spinning.

“I got beaten up by a soul...”

He mumbled loud enough for Kain to hear.

“...Aren’t you a soul yourself?”

“No?”

“No?”

Kain tilted his head and then looked up at the man who was still standing behind him.

“What’s going on here?”

“I’d also like to know.”

The man turned his head to look at Reynold, the one who had brought a living human to the void, and said that he would stay there for a while. Kairen wanted to curse the catchup-headed bastard who was leisurely sitting back and watching him getting beaten up, but he couldn’t as half of his face was literally out of use.

“You are alive?”

‘How many times are you going to ask that from me?’

Kairen glared at his brother, expecting to meet his confused and blank face once again, but was welcomed with a crying Kain all of a sudden. At that moment, two hands got wrapped around his body and pulled him closer.

“Kairen.”

The man hugging him was subbing like a little kid. Kairen, frozen stiff, let Kain hug him as he wanted.

‘His body is cold...’

And realized something at that moment.

‘Ah, it’s Kain...’

He had met Kain... Someone he didn’t expect to meet here... Someone whom, despite his hopes, he never thought would ever meet again.

Kairen melted in the embrace of the man and mumbled softly.

“...Kain...”

“Hic!”

He only heard the sound of subbing in response.