Kairen ended up explaining everything to Alan. 

Everything he had seen and experienced in the past few days, starting from his talk with the soil dude to what happened to him when he was taken by the commander, he explained all.

Of course, he had a little bit of a hard time making Alan understand what he meant sometimes. Especially when he was explaining the concept and meaning of the code name ‘Soil rain No Jutsu’ and persuading that this thing alone was proof that the soil dude was not from this world and probably belonged to Kairen’s world! 

After getting some advice from the wise? old man? Kairen returned to the training ground with him. He wanted to see if he could use his power again and there was not a better chance than this when the training ground was empty except for Kain and Alan. Captain Neal also agreed to meet him later so he ended up spending his day in the training ground. 

He practiced magic and worked on his power all day. He was also taught some new techniques by captain Neal about how he could cast faster spells so he had a lot to practice. He stayed there for the whole day.

And his next day. 

And the other day. 

And the whole week.

His days were spent in the training ground, struggling with that shitty power of his and learning new things from the captain.

“I can use it. Just a little bit. I can only control only a tiny bit of it.”

Kairen said with disappointment sensible in his voice and face.

Of course, that tiny bit was still powerful. So powerful that he could beat captain Neal once with three hits when she said she would only use low-level spells. He still wasn’t sure about how the power worked but he was grasping it little by little. 

“Too bad! You could’ve finally killed yourself easily if you were able to use that power freely again. Sigh!”

Serria shook her head, looking really sad that Kairen wouldn’t die this soon.

“You’ll become good at it if you keep training so don’t worry.”

Reyan on the other hand nodded his head while smiling. He picked up his coffee and drank the whole cup in one go. 

‘Wasn’t that bitter?’

The boy didn’t seem a little bit bothered by the bitter taste of the coffee. 

The three of them were currently sitting at a table in a cafe. They haven’t met after the mission, which was 10 days ago, so they decided to meet up again here today.

After the mission, Reyan wasn’t seen anywhere. He didn’t even answer their calls or messages and didn’t come to work. It was understandable though. After the incident with The First, the situation in his family must not be good. They must be going through a lot. 

The First was interrogated by the commander. The details of the interrogation were kept secret and none of the agents knew anything about them, but the clear thing was that he was certainly a traitor. It was proved by the commander’s unbeatable power.

‘Hmm… It must be complicated… One of their family members was a traitor while the other was the commander… Will they get punished or not?’

Whatever the case was, it must’ve been resolved by now as Reyan came back after a week and was just like himself as if nothing had happened from the beginning. 

Kairen was really curious and wanted to know the details, but it was not like he had any way to do so. Also, he was too busy struggling with his power to think about any other thing.

“Anyway, aren’t we going to another mission? The last temple in The Frozen Ocean, we haven’t visited it yet.”

Kairen picked up a piece of the cake with his fork as he asked.

“Of course, I won’t be coming but still…”

Kairen and Reyan both turned to Serria. 

“What?”

She flinched at the two gazes that had abruptly turned to her.

“Ah! You two bastards didn’t come to work so you wouldn’t know! Tsk!”

Serria shook her head with an annoyed face. Reyan was absent from work due to his family issues, and Kairen was… politely kicked out for a while and was told not to show up his face.

“Nope. We won’t be doing any other missions for now.”

“Is it because of the Bordkly’s prince?”

She nodded her head.

“Because of him coming here in a few weeks, everyone is focused on securing the city. We were told to stop our missions for a while and prepare for escorting him… But I think they meant that we had to stop causing any more troubles because they were too busy to deal with all of that shit.”

She smirked as she glanced at Kairen in between her words.

“There was no need for that though. Everything would be fine if they had just kicked the troublemaker out.”

“Hey!”

“Pffft!”

Ignoring Kairen’s protest, she chuckled and then continued to stuff the chocolate cake into her mouth. 

“Tsk!”

Kairen clicked his tongue and focused on his cake.

‘Now that I think about it… I never made up with Serria, did I?’

They had a fight a while ago but now it seemed such a thing had never happened. They were talking and spending time with each other like always.

To be honest, Kairen didn’t want to go apologies to her no matter what. His pride just didn’t let him to. He knew that he had gone too far probably, but he still didn’t want to admit that. Probably Serria was feeling the same way as she never stepped up to apologize.

‘Anyway, this is good.’

As long as she wouldn’t annoy him too much, everything was good. Let’s just get along with each other.

. . . . . 

“Waaah! I don’t want toooo!”

While yelling loudly, Ariyan grabbed Kain’s pants.

“PAPAAAA!”

“Ariyan stop being stubborn and just go in!”

“NOO! Waaahhh!”

He bawled his eyes out as he pulled Kain’s pants.

“Ariyan dear, you’re a grown-up boy now! You shouldn’t act like this!”

Alessia crouched down and stroked the kid’s cheek.

“No!”

But Ariyan avoided her and instead buried his face in Kain’s pants.

“I don’t want to go!”

He mumbled quietly.

“Don’t leave me here!”

He then pulled Kain’s pants.

“Papaa! PLEASEEEEE!”

And gave him a pleading look with his big and round dark gray eyes.

“….”

“….”

That must’ve been a strong blow as the pair of helpless parents exchanged glances with shaking pupils. Kairen could clearly see the guilt on their faces.

How did this happen?

The talk started a few weeks ago when Ariyan didn’t stop nagging about not going out at all and not being able to play.

“Just wait a little bit more, and you will be able to find a lot of new friends.”

The kid’s eyes sparkled at his mother’s words.

“Really?”

“Really!”

“How??”

He jumped down from Kairen’s lap and ran to his mom. 

“You will go to a nice place starting from fall.”

“Nice place?”

Alessia smiled as she nodded.

“Yes. It’s called kindergarten!”

The kid was really happy back then. He was really excited about going to the kindergarten where he would find lots of friends.

Until he found out that he would have to stay there alone, without his parents or even his uncle around. For a few hours at that!

“Nooo!”

He cried.

“I don’t want new friends! Don’t leave me here! NOOOOO!”

“….”

“….”

Alessia and Kain’s faces were getting clouded with guilt more and more each second.

“L-look Ariyan, isn’t it really nice? You will play all day and learn new things-“

“I don’t want to learn new things, mama!”

“You won’t be bored until we return from work-“

“Papaaaa!!!!”

He pulled his pants and yelled louder.

“SHHH!”

Alessia smiled awkwardly at the other parents who were gathered around the kindergarten and their children who were all looking at the noisy kid with blank faces.

“Hic! Sniff!”

“….”

“….”

The couple looked at the kid helplessly and watched him sniff and cry without saying anything. 

Grab

Until someone grabbed the kid from behind and pulled him back, separating him from Kain’s pants.

“Waaahh!”

Ariyan struggled to get out of the grasp, but he couldn’t do so.

“I’ll stay here with you today so stop crying!”

Kairen put the kid down and peeked at Kain and Alessia.

‘I’m doing this sacrifice only for you two so run for it until I can hold him back!’

“…”

“…”

“Uncle will stay here?”

Ariyan rubbed his teary eyes with his sleeve.

“Yes. Look at that bench over there!”

Kairen pointed at a bench in the kindergarten’s yard.

“I will sit there until you come out. You can see me through the window if you want!”

“….”

While the kid was examining if he could really see the bench if he sat beside the window, his two parents jumped into the car.

‘Thank you, little bro!’

‘I will cook you your favorite food for dinner!’

Kairen shook his head.

‘Such incompetent parents!’

Be ashamed of yourselves!

Patting the kid’s back, Kairen pushed him inside the building. 

“Now go. I’ll sit here so don’t worry!”

“Un!”

Walking inside and turning to look back at Kairen with suspicious eyes, The kid finally entered the place he hated so much. 

‘I mean… this os cold.’

The weather was really chilly. 

This was truly a sacrifice!