Kairen ended up sleeping over at Kain’s house. It was too late at night when his “conversation” with Kain ended. The couple asked him to stay the night. Despite being embarrassed af, he was too lazy to go all the way back to the dorm so he just accepted.

He was given the empty room in the house to sleep in and some comfy clothes to wear that were supposedly his own pajamas.

“….”

When he woke up the next morning, something was unusual. looking down at his body he could see a kid stuck to his side and deep in sleep while grabbing Kairen’s clothes with his hands.

‘What is this kid doing here?’

Kairen clearly remembered that Ariyan was asleep before he left his room.

‘Did he wake up at night and came here?’

Kairen slowly raised his upper body not to wake up Ariyan. He carefully separated the kid’s hands from his shirt and moved out of the bed.

“Mmm.”

Ariyan groaned with his eyes close and moved his hands to grab Kairen again, But Kairen was faster as he covered the kid with the blanket and distanced himself quickly. He left the room and went to wash his face while nagging inwardly.

‘Why are you clinging to me! Go sleep with your parents!’

Kairen’s was free today. His last mission was more difficult than it was supposed to be, so he was given a few days of rest after that. Today would be his last day off. Wandering around aimlessly at the house, he saw a few pictures neatly placed on a bookshelf.

“Hmm?”

Kairen leaned forward and looked closely at the pictures. He could see a picture of Kain and Alessia holding hands while standing in a beautiful jungle. A picture of Ariyan who was apparently caught while secretly licking a birthday cake. Another picture of Ariyan in which he was about three years younger than now and was being held in his father’s arms. Alessia was standing on the right side of him but he was leaning to the left and grabbing another man’s shirt by one hand while holding his father’s with another. That man seemed kinda familiar.

‘Ah wait! Isn’t that me?’

Kairen narrowed his eyes and looked at the picture again. Light brown hair and hazel eyes. It was him himself for sure. He looked a few years younger… around 20 years old or so. The picture beside him was Kain and Kairen again. This time Kairen seemed to be a teenager, he seemed too short compared to an adult Kain that was standing beside him and patting his head.

“…..”

Kairen blinked his eyes and observed the pictures. It felt weird seeing a younger version of yourself in the family photo of the people you didn’t really know. He looked at all of the pictures there one by one.

“You were awake?”

Alessia who was yawning while tidying her hair noticed Kairen and walked over to him. She also leaned forward and looked at the picture he was staring at.

“Ah!”

It was a picture of Kain’s childhood. The picture was a little bit old as some parts of it were damaged or tainted. And alongside that was a similar picture, showing a little blonde girl hugging a doll. They were both around 9-10 years old. Kairen looked around, but he couldn’t see a similar picture of himself this time.

“Are you looking for a picture of your childhood?”

Alessia asked after glancing at Kairen’s face. He nodded. He was curious to see his other version’s childhood.

“I wanted to place a picture of you as well, but there were none.”

“None?”

“Yeah. Kain said that you two met when you were 13. We don’t know anything about you before that time so there are no pictures either.”

Kairen tilted his head at what she said.

“Then where was I living until then?”

Alessia shrugged her shoulders at that.

“No one knows. Even you yourself said that you couldn’t remember anything of your past except your name. They searched a lot for your family or home but nothing was found.”

“….”

Kairen had heard something similar from Reyan before, but he was still surprised.

‘He couldn’t remember anything besides his name?’

He thought what Reyan meant by “You weren’t able to remember your past” was something like forgetting your childhood events. But to forget everything that had happened to you in 13 years… that was different.

He knew he shouldn’t feel pity for a crazed man that was the cause of half of his problems, but he felt kinda bad for him.

“Now that I think about it, you tend to forget things a lot, don’t you? A memory loss now and a memory loss back then.”

“You are right…”

“Pfft.”

Kairen didn’t really care about the previous Kairen’s past till now. He thought he only needed to follow him if he wanted to go back. He thought he had to reach the future he wanted to reach instead of him to find his own answers. The past didn’t seem that important as his goal laid in the future.

But he thought differently now. The past that he didn’t pay attention to until now wasn’t something he could ignore easily. It was too mysterious and unknown and it was affecting almost all of his actions. He couldn’t keep ignoring it

‘I should find out about his past as soon as I can.’

Kairen made a disicion. Maybe the first decision he had made by his will after coming to this world. After coming here, everything happened too fast that he was left with little free time to really think about a plan for his future. However, he didn’t need a plan anymore.

‘I’ll just do anything that seems necessary and search for anything important.’

Not that he had ever moved according to a plan in his life… The goal of going back to his home seemed too far away to reach, but finding a person’s past shouldn’t be that hard.

‘Let’s take it easy.’

Now, after weeks of living here, he felt like he was starting to get used to things bit by bit. He knew how to use magic, he had a place to rest and people to trust. He had some money and probably a job in the future. His mind which seemed to be numb for weeks was now slowly gaining some balance.

Kairen had been struggling for days with the guilt he felt because of killing the attackers and being unable to save those kidnapped people. Those feelings haunted him at night in his dreams and in days in all aspects of his life, but nothing could be done by sitting in a place and feeling guilty. He was tired of that feeling.

“Mama, I’m hungry…”

Kairen snapped out of his thoughts after hearing a sleepy voice. Ariyan was walking out of the room while rubbing his eyes and yawning.

“Really, Ariyan! Didn’t I tell you not to sneak into Kairen’s room every time he is here?”

“Sorry…”

‘Wait a minute, he does that every time?’

Alessia sighed and folded her arm.

“Go wake up your dad. I will prepare breakfast.”

“Okkaay.”

***

“I didn’t even know how to talk?”

Kain placed the cut vegetables in the pot and nodded his head at Kairen’s question.

“You would stare at people all the day without saying anything those days. We first thought you really had some kind of health-related problem but after some time we realized that you just didn’t know the language.”

“….”

“I know right? We were shocked as well.”

Kairen scratched his cheek nodded his head. He wanted to go back to the dormitory after breakfast, but he didn’t do so as he wanted to know more about his past. He ended up staying a little bit more.

Alessia went out to do some shopping, leaving the three of them at home. Kain, currently cooking, placed the pot containing what was supposed to become their lunch on the stove and left the kitchen. He sat down next to Kairen on the sofa. He looked at Ariyan that was playing around the two of them before raising his eyebrows.

“Hmm… If you really want to know everything, then there is one more thing, but I am not sure if it is related or not.”

“What?”

“I remember you suffering from a continuous headache back then. Well, it was more than that. Something like a really bad migraine?”

“Migraine?”

“Yeah. Doctors couldn’t understand the cause. You would often have a fever or faint because of it. It was really serious in the first few months, but it got better by itself as time passed. You couldn’t talk at first either, so those days were a little bit… um… not really nice for you I guess?”

Kairen raised his eyebrows as well.

“…It wasn’t only mental health that I lacked it seems…”

“Ahem!”

‘I now kinda get why these people worry about me so much.’

If he was sick for a period of time, it made sense that an accident like what happened to him would awaken people’s concerns towards that person again.

‘Reyan said he was friends with Kairen from high school and Kain knows him for almost 10 years. They both must have been aware of his problems.’

Ding Ding

Kairen’s phone started ringing at the moment.

“Hello? … Yes… I will be there right away.”

He stood up as soon as he finished his call and picked up his clothes.

“What’s it?”

“I’ve got another mission. They said it is urgent and I should go soon.”

“Ok… take care.”

“NOOO! DON’T GOO!”

Ariyan threw aside his toys and was about to run and stick to Kairen again when Kain grabbed him. Kain skillfully… subdued the kid?

“I’ve got him, run!”

“….”

‘Bro… what are you doing…’

“Run! I will hold him back!”

‘Is this really necessary?’

“Let me go!”

The poor child, unable to move while being held toughly in his father’s embrace desperately cried out.

‘You will kill your son at this rate!’

Kairen took a step back while still looking at the two of them. He could see Ariyan struggling, strongly pushing and kicking his dad. Kairen could guess what would happen if Kain released him. Ariyan would cling to him all day saying “Noo uncle don’t go!” the whole day.

“Bye then.”

He hurriedly wore his clothes and left the house, completely ignoring the kid.

Let’s not cause any more harm to this family.