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

Inside the half-collapsed buildings, under the bridge that had lost its surface, behind the broken stones, and near the cracked walls, numerous pairs of eyes were peeking out, staring at the group of people who were walking through the shattered road, heading to the tallest, and probably the most stable building in the area.

Among the group of people was a young man whose face was never seen in that area. The young boy was gaping at the scenes around him while being forced to follow the leader of the group to the building ahead of them. The boy’s soft-looking, light-brown hair fluttered in the air with each step he took as his hazel eyes reflected the destroyed city.

‘What in the world happened here?’

Kairen could clearly remember the few conversations he had with Aaron regarding their world after the apocalypse. Aaron had told him about how the monsters suddenly appeared all around the world, destroying everything on their path and killing every living being. He had told Kairen that the world got nearly destroyed by the first blast that came from a momentary disturbance in the gravity of the planet. He also knew that these people had fought with the monsters for years.

But he also knew that the planet had long reached a stable condition when they started to rebuild the cities and gradually take back their land from the monsters. Aaron had told him that their country was more or less restored in 10 years or so.

But now, the things that he was seeing were different from what he had imagined. The place looked as if it had gone through a war just yesterday. As if the apocalypse happened recently and the world was still damaged from it. If it wasn’t for the signs and the conversations that were in his mother tongue, Kairen wouldn’t even think of this place as the same world he used to live in.

While he was dazedly looking around, he was led to a building that looked more stable than the others in the area. Around the building, people in military uniforms were standing guard and as soon as they saw the group approach, they made their way and let them in. After walking for a little bit more, Kairen was finally brought to a fairly large room on the second floor of the building.

Sitting on a chair, Kairen watched as the people around him moved around and called each other until the iron door of the room opened and a middle-aged man with messy bread and hair walked in. He examined Kairen’s face for a brief moment before asking with a loud, sharp voice.

.....

“Who are you?”

Kairen had long prepared himself for such a question. Without batting an eye, he opened his mouth and said in a relaxed tone.

“Jack. Jack Williams.”

The middle-aged man raised a brow as he sat down opposite Kairen.

“I’ve never seen you nor I’ve heard of your name.”

“I’m new around here.”

With the same serious face, the man examined Kairen from head to toe with a piercing gaze which made Kairen subconsciously straighten his posture and swallow his saliva.

“Where are you from?”

After a few seconds of inspections, the man muttered once again.

“I... I’m the only survivor from one of the nearby villages. Our village got destroyed last week.”

“Is that so?”

Kairen nodded his head with a serious face, but he believed that the middle-aged man didn’t buy even a single word he said. The look the man was giving him told everything that was on his mind.

“Then what were you doing in that restricted area?”

“I got lost on my way here.”

“Hmm...”

The man nodded his head and got to his feet. The middle-aged man with messy blonde hair walked to the door with heavy footsteps. He stopped while grabbing the door handle and said without looking back at Kairen.

“Stay here, for the time being, Mr. Jack.”

He didn’t wait for Kairen’s answer and left the room as soon as he was done talking.

“Phew!”

Kairen leaned back in his chair as he heaved a sigh. The man came and went vaguely and didn’t chat with Kairen for long, but that short conversation was enough to leave Kairen exhausted. His body slid down on the chair a little bit as he tried to relax while thinking about the things that just happened.

‘I’m sure he didn’t believe my words... What will happen now? Will they send me to prison? But for what? It’s not like ‘appearing out of nowhere,’ is a crime...’

The sound of footsteps could be heard from outside the door, but no one entered it after the middle-aged man left, leaving Kairen alone in the empty and dark room.

‘Will Reynold come to pick me up?’

‘What if he doesn’t? Did he send me here on purpose, or did he make a mistake? What if it’s too late until he realizes that I’m back in this place?’

‘How am I going to explain how I ended up in this place? It’s not like they’ll believe me if I told them: “Yeah, actually I came back from the land of the dead, but there were some mistakes and I landed in the wrong world. Haha!” ‘

‘Nope... There is no way they’d believe me... They might even think of me as crazy... Sigh...’

‘Why am I even sitting here waiting for those people to decide on what they want to do with me? Shouldn’t I be running away now?’

‘But they were clearly more in number and each one of them was strong... My power is good at destroying and annihilating and I can’t use mana at the moment... So if I get into a fight with them, there is a high chance that they might get killed from the slight exposure to my power... Nah man, it’s not worth it. I’ll just run away when there is danger around me.’

‘Plus, it’s not like I have a place to run to... Damn it this really sucks!’

Rained in his thoughts, Kairen stared at the ceiling until the night gradually fell and everything turned dark.

. . . .

Knock Knock

After a series of gentle knocks, the door slowly opened and a woman walked inside. The middle-sized room was half-bright and half-dark. Near the door and the sofas were shrouded in darkness while the other end of the room which contained a desk and a small bookshelf was lit by the lamps. A middle-aged man was sitting behind the desk, reading some papers while fiddling with his messy blonde hair. The man raised his head and glanced at the woman that just entered his office.

“Found anything?”

The woman shook her head.

“I searched by using his name and his appearance, but I couldn’t find anything about him. I’m pretty sure that he is not from around here, and his name is also probably fake. However, I couldn’t find someone with his appearance in other organizations or special teams, not even those belonging to the other countries that we know of. Our sensors, as well as high-ranking mages, couldn’t sense any mana or aura from him, nor any other kind of powers. In short, we couldn’t gather any useful information about him.”

The middle-aged man listened to the report of his subordinate, nodding from time to time. After she was done talking, the man let out a breath and leaned back on his seat a little bit.

“For now, give him some food and take him to a room. Assign someone to monitor him all the time.”

“What do you plan on doing with him?”

“I’m still not sure. There is nothing known about him, meaning we can’t say that he is dangerous. On the outside, he looks pretty normal and weak, probably weaker than the normal citizens living outside this building... But no one can be trusted only because they are weak... For now, let’s monitor him and see what he does.”

“Yes, sir!”

The assistant nodded her head and turned to leave the room. The middle-aged man glanced at the closed door for a few seconds before turning back to read the documents in his hands.

. . . . . .

“What do you mean by that?”

Inside the dark and huge palace, Kain was staring at the red-haired Reynold with a mixed expression of worry and confusion. Reynold clicked his tongue and turned around.

“Some minor mistakes...”

“What?”

Before Kain could react, Reynold stepped outside the hall and moved to the second floor of the castle.

“Hey! Wait! Don’t run away! Answer me first!”

Running behind him, Kain shouted at the top of his lungs, only to get ignored by the redhead. Reynold walked up the stairs until he reached the second floor. Before long, he had arrived at a certain bedroom. It was the place he stayed in when he was inside the castle. He opened the door, walked to the desk, picked up a notebook, and started flipping through the notes. Standing at the door, Kain glanced at him for a second before repeating his question.

“Can you say me what exactly happened?”

Reynold’s hands stopped moving as he glanced at the young man. He chuckled and shook his head.

“I sent him back to his word.”

“To his world? Isn’t that what you should’ve done? What’s wrong with that?”

Kain, who was now leaning on the doorframe with crossed arms, blinked a few times while knitting his brows.

“Hasn’t he told you about his world, the place he came from?”