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

"...Ren."

"...."

"Ren!"

"...."

"Hey, Ren! Wake up!"

"Ah?"

Kairen opened his eyes upon sensing someone tapping his shoulder. He blinked a few times and looked at the man who was staring at him while shaking his body.

"Ah!"

He just realized that he had been sleeping on the sofa in their house. Kairen raised his body and rubbed his sleepy eyes.

"If you sleep so much in the afternoon you won't be able to fall asleep at night, I've told this so many times, Ren!"

Kairen blankly stared at his brother who had placed two cups of tea on the table beside the sofa and was sitting down beside Kairen while scolding him.

Kairen ignored the scoldings and talked with a frown. 

"I told you to stop calling me Ren!"

His brother raised one eyebrow.

"Stop it? Why? I've been calling you that way for years!"

He then smiled.

"And that face of yours looked more cute than serious!"

Poke Poke

He poked Kairen's cheek with a mischievous smile. Kairen frowned and pressed his lips on each other.

"I'm not a kid anymore, so stop calling me Ren, and don't poke my cheek!"

He grabbed his brother's hand and lowered it by force.

"Do you mean you are a grown-up now?"

His brother narrowed his eyes and poked Kairen's cheek again.

"Yes! I'm already 15!!"

"Since when a 15-year-old is considered a grown-up? Also, your birthday was just yesterday! You want me to stop calling you Ren only because you've aged one day?"

Poke poke

"Pffttt! That's actually cute!"

Poke poke

"...."

Kairen lowered his head with a frown. As if understanding why he had such a grumpy face, his brother softly smiled at him.

"No matter what you say, Kairen. I won't let you get a part-time job!"

"Why?"

"Sigh!"

He leaned back on the sofa with a sigh.

"I thought we had reached an agreement about this before? The only thing that you must do now is to study and play around. I can earn enough money for both of us by myself."

"...."

Hearing the expected answer, Kairen frowned and clenched his fists.

"I will start working part-time jobs as soon as I turn 18!"

"Whoah! Rebelling against your brother as soon as you become an adult? How ungrateful!"

Pow pow

Kairen lightly hit his brother's shoulder with his clenched fist.

"I. Am. Not. Ungrateful!"

"Pfft!"

Poke Poke

His brother raised his finger and poked his cheek again.

"Well, I can't do anything if you want to get a job after you become an adult..."

He heard his brother's soft mumbles.

"But I hope that you study what you like, enter the university in the major you want, and get the job that you desire."

The finger that was poking him moved away and instead a hand caressed his face.

"Until then, I will support you however you want."

"...."

Kairen looked at his brother's smiling, but tired face.

"But I want to help you..."

His brother leaned towards Kairen. Two arms wrapped around Kairen's body and a warm hand caressed his back.

"You have a lot of time to work and earn money. You can help me after that."

Pat Pat

"It may be hard now. We might be struggling, living in a small house, not having enough money to buy the things we like, not being able to do lots of fun stuff... But things will become better later."

Pat Pat

"I will also find better jobs as time passes. You will get graduated. We will move to a bigger place, buy anything you like, and live comfortably... and happily."

Pat Pat

His brother was right.

They would be able to have a better life if they could both earn more money. 

Everything would be better if only Kairen could get a good job. 

Once he gets older, he will be finally able to help out his brother.

And then, they could live without worrying about money or anything else.

But not all of his brother's words were right. There was something wrong with them.

Kairen slowly moved his head, placed it on his brother's shoulder, closed his eyes, and mumbled something under his lips.

"But I'm already happy..."

. . . . . .

"Mmm..."

A groan left his lips as he felt all the muscles in his body throb. He moved his heavy eyelids and opened his eyes. What he saw once he opened his eyes was a white ceiling.

"Ah?"

Kairen turned his gaze towards the person who stood up from his seat and rushed to his side as soon as he saw Kairen open his eyes.

"...Kain?"

"Yes? How are you feeling?"

Kairen looked at Kain without answering him.

'So, it was a dream...'

Kairen felt kind of disappointed. 

He was having such a nice dream that he wished he could go back to sleep and see the rest of it. 

"...H-hey..."

Kain's eyes suddenly opened wide.

"A-Are you crying?"

"No!"

Kairen looked away from kain and covered his eyes with a hand. His eyes felt kinda weird but he wasn't crying. 

"Are you about to cry?"

"NO!"

"...Okay."

Kairen moved his body to sit down. Seeing that, Kain rushed to support him. He gave him a cup of water after he sat down and then sat beside him on the bed.

"What happened?"

That was the first thing that Kairen asked because he had absolutely no idea how he ended up in a hospital. 

"...."

Kain looked at Kairen's face for a moment without answering. He then gulped and started fidgeting with his fingers.

"...You teleported everyone back to the headquarters before losing consciousness."

"AH!"

Kairen now remembered. The last thing that he saw before his sight went black was a teleportation device placed on his palm. He inserted his mana into it and fainted right afterward.

"You were unconscious for half a day... Your wounds were mostly treated by the healers and doctors, but not completely."

"Ah!"

Kairen drank the water given to him and placed the cup on the table beside the bed.

"What about that man and Claire Raid?"

"..."

Kain averted his gaze and looked out of the window.

"They ran away."

"...."

Kairen lowered his head.

"I'm not surprised anymore..."

"...Yeah..."

Taking a deep breath, Kairen moved his mana and tried to insert it into the Link spell and activate it.

"...."

But it was no use. There was no spell for him to activate in the first place.

"The spell is removed."

Kain didn't respond to him.

"That man..."

Instead, Kain turned his head and looked at Kairen with a strange gaze.

"I heard from Reyan that he... that man... acted strange as soon as he saw your face...."

Kairen nodded his head without much sought.

"Yeah. He totally changed in a second."

Kain lowered his head, opening and closing his mouth without saying anything while still fidgeting with his fingers.

'What's it?'

After hesitating a little bit, Kain finally talked.

"Do you... and that man... know each... no forget it..."

"...."

Kain raised his head and looked at Kairen's dumbfounded face.

"Forget what I said just now."

"...Okay."

Kairen nodded again and the two of them sat for a while without exchanging any words.

"What about the documents?"

"Them? That new member of yours somehow managed to retrieve them safely."

"Ah! What about the others? What happened to that village?"

"Your deputy team leader took care of things just fine. I don't know much about that case since I'm not a member of your unit."

Kairen nodded his head in understanding and didn't say anything for a while again.

"Hey..."

Kairen opened his mouth again after thinking about something for a while.

"Aren't we just... too weak?"

Kain looked back at Kairen's face.

"Yes. We are."

Kairen thought about the things that had happened today and continued to talk.

"I don't understand it."

He lowered his head and looked at his blanket. 

It was so frustrating. The fact that they got their butts beaten every time they faced Philomns was so frustrating.

Team leader Dains was cautious. At least, he tried to be as much as he could. He did his best to act in a way that his unit members would get the least damage.

However, Kairen didn't like the fact that being too cautious was preventing them from making progress. 

Why didn't he accept the man's offer? What was so bad about accepting an offer from a Philomns member?

That man didn't want to fight them. Not when they attacked their hideout and not when they met this morning. He also didn't want to kill anyone. 

Then, why did they not agree to do what he wanted? 

Was the team leader afraid that he would attack them or do anything harmful if they accepted his offer?

But he did that anyway after his offer was rejected.

Was he afraid that the man would get away from them if they removed the spell without handing the documents? 

But Kairen could place another Link on him if he only took the risk of getting punched once more.

Or did he think that they could overpower him now that there was no soil around? He wanted to capture him no matter what and bring him back?

But he must've known that the man had high physical ability and could still fight without his soil around. Or he must've thought about the possibility of that man having some soil restored somewhere to use in a fight.

If he really wanted to overpower him, he had to at least request backup.

Team leader Dains always tried to act in a way that his team would get the least damage, even if it meant that they wouldn't get the results they were after. But even though he was acting cautious, their team always got in some kind of accident and trouble which lead to the unit members getting injured. 

'He must be frustrated as well...'

No, the team leader would be more frustrated.