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

The man walked in and sent a glance at the young man who was sitting on a chair, hugging a bunch of newspapers, and staring at the air.

“You are one of Aaron’s relatieves?”

Kairen jolted up a little bit, snapping out of his dazed and depressed state by the man’s voice, and turned to look at him.

“Yeah.”

“Hmmm...”

The man seized him, frowning slightly in the process, but he said nothing and walked to Kairen’s side.

“I didn’t know he had any relatives alive. He never talked about someone named Jack in his family.”

Kairen scratched his cheek and let out a chuckle.

.....

“We’ve lived in separate places for a long time, so it’s only natural for him to think that I’m dead.”

Once again, Kairen’s words were not wrong even the slightest.

“Hmmm... So what do you want now?”

The middle-aged man hummed once again, pulled out a chair, and sat down on it. Crossing his legs, he folded his arms and stared at Kairen, his gaze so piercing that made Kairen feel like the man was gazing at his soul.

“Do you know of any of Ron’s relatives that are still alive?”

Kairen initially wanted to ask about Aaron’s home or the place he stayed at, but after finding out about him having a family here, he thought that might not be a good idea. No one would be happy if some distant relative of your husband suddenly appeared and asked to be allowed to stay at your house, especially if your husband has disappeared for a long time with no news of him being dead or alive!

‘Now that I think about it, why didn’t Ron try to come back here? Does he not want to live with his wife? Huh... Family problems?’

Kairen secretly shook his head.

‘That doesn’t match Ron’s personality. No matter what happens between him and one of his family members, he is not the kind of person to leave them alone and run away, not in such a dangerous world!’

“...Ron?”

Just realizing his slip of the tongue, Kairen straightened his posture and gave the man a smile.

“Aaron! I meant Aaron, Ahem!”

“Would some distant relative call someone with a nickname after not seeing them for years, I wonder...”

“...”

The low but deep voice of the man resounded in Klein’s ears as he subconsciously lowered his head and swallowed his saliva.

‘I made a mistake in less than one minute after seeing this man...’

Kairen thought for a second before letting out a sigh.

‘Why does it matter? I’ll leave this place soon anyway... I... I hope...’

As soon as that thought surfaced in his mind, Kairen smiled at the middle-aged man with a sincere expression.

“Anyway, does he have any living relatives? Oh, first, what should I address you, sir?”

“...Daniel Madden.” The man paused for a second before continuing, “And as much as I know, there is no one related to Aaron that is still alive.”

“Oh...”

Kairen half-expected that, but he was still a little bit disappointed. They didn’t have many relatives, to begin with, and they didn’t really like to see or even hear from those small number of people who were related to them. It was because of what some of those people had done to them after their parents passed away. They tricked the young and inexperienced Aaron, making him afraid that if he didn’t listen to them, the 13-year-old Kairen would be taken to an orphanage.

That’s how Aaron and Kairen ended up losing a large portion of the money that their parents had left behind, leaving them with a small sum of money enough to rent a tiny house and stay alive for a while until Aaron found a job.

Thus, even if any of those bastards were still alive, Kairen was not really willing to see them. Maybe he could give them a fright by knocking on their doors and acting like a dead person who had come back to life, looking exactly the same as the day he died, or maybe he could threaten them by using his power and get a little bit of revenge for what they’ve done to him and his brother, but unfortunately, they were dead.

‘Haha! Did the money you stole from two orphans save you from the monsters? Nope! Bastards!’

The fact that he felt somewhat happy about some people’s death made Kairen feel a little bit guilty, but he couldn’t deny his true feelings.

“Too bad.”, He mumbled in order to seem depressed in front of the man named Daniel Madden.

“You don’t seem too sad.”

“...”

‘Bro, can you stop analyzing me for two seconds?’

Kairen swallowed the words that threatened to jump out of his mouth and instead, he heaved a sigh and looked down at the floor.

“Well, I can’t deny the fact that I’ve gotten used to death in the past few years...”

His voice trailed off as his expression looked somewhat shadowed. Kairen was not really good at lying, but he was a professional in making up bullshit. The mixture of these two made him look kinda stupid when he tried to hide things, attempting to say things that sounded like the truth but were mixed with random bullshit.

“Hmm...” Daniel nodded his head slightly as if in understanding.

“Um... Doesn’t he have any friends that can help me out?”

“Help you out?” Daniel, with the same piercing gaze as before, stared right into Kairen’s eyes, making the young man stiffen up a little bit. “In what aspect do you need help from Aaron’s friends?”

The stiff Kairen lowered his gaze a little bit. He didn’t really like to ask for help from strangers. Not just strangers, but also the ones he knew. Back when his study at the academy ended and he had no place to go, Kain tricked him into living in his place, and when he was living in his house, he always wanted to return his favor somehow. It was the same when he was living with Aaron, he never liked to be on the receiving end of people’s favor.

However, after considering it a little bit and battling with himself for a while, he decided to put away his shame and ask for a place to stay. After all, this was a whole other world and no one knew him, also, he would leave this place soon, actually, he hoped to leave this place soon, thus, he wouldn’t be ashamed of what he had done in the future.

“I know it’s shameless but I need a place to stay for a while...”

The only change in Daniel’s expression was his slightly raising his brow.

“You can stay here then.”

“Pardon?”

Without waiting for Kairen to express his surprise, Daniel stood up from his seat and walked to the door.

“As Aaron’s former best friend, I’ll lend you a helping hand for a while.”

Slam

The man left the room and closed the door behind him.