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

Kairen looked at the destroyed training targets with his eyes shining with excitement. 

Captain Neal chuckled after seeing Kairen's sparkling eyes and continued to ask him to cast different spells.

Even after 30 minutes of continuously casting different spells, Kairen still didn't feel drained. He still had lots of mana to continue doing this for one more hour.

"How is it? Do you like the new lesson?"

Captain Neal smiled with a proud face.

"Yes! It's amazing!"

Kairen was being honest here. He was more than excited to see his spells have more power while using less mana. He was tired of running out of mana every time he was in a fight but with this, he would be able to fight better for a longer time.

"But to be honest..."

Captain Neal touched her chin.

"It should've been this easy for you to use them after learning about them for the first time... People usually need years to master this skill..."

She looked at Kairen with narrowed eyes.

"Are you sure you haven't studied them before?"

"Um..."

'Well, it is likely that Kairen 1 had studied them before. No, he surely had studied them like... a lot.'

Kairen had heard that his previous self was quite a good student, so he must've studied this stuff before as well. 

As much as Kairen wanted to believe that it was because of his own efforts and intelligence that he could do things on the first try when most people found them hard even after years, he couldn't deny the possibility of Kairen 1 playing a big role in it. 

Just like how he could understand, read, and write the language of this world without learning it, he thought Kairen 1's abilities probably affected him in casting spells and doing magic, and also learning how to use these symbols.

However, Kairen couldn't explain all these things to captain Neal, so he just simply shook his head.

"I don't remember studying them before."

"Hmm... Is that so?"

Captain Neal didn't seem satisfied, but she didn't ask anything else and only nodded her head.

"I wanted to move to the next subject but... I guess it would be better to practice and master your usage of the symbols first."

Tat

She kicked a broken piece of a training target.

"You will leave for a mission tomorrow, right?"

"Yes." 

She walked towards Kairen.

"Then don't overuse your mana and get some rest."

Pat Pat

And patted his shoulder.

"...."

"...."

'Is this really captain Neal?'

Kairen was starting to doubt the reality.

Was this woman the same person who treated him like... shit?

As if reading his mind, captain Neal smiled bitterly.

"Well, I never apologized to you for the things that happened before, did I?"

"...."

She lowered her head and paused for a moment as if she was really ashamed of the things that she was saying. Even her face was starting to turn red from embarrassment.

"I guess it is true that you shouldn't dodge books by the cover! You too, don't look at me like that. My... My personality also isn't as shitty as it might seem at first! Ahem!"

"...."

'No. This definitely must be some sort of a dream.'

Kairen nodded his head with a blank face.

"Well then, I will take my leave."

She left Kairen's side and picked up her jacket.

"Oh, by the way, don't think you will escape practicing only because you are on a mission!"

"Pardon?"

Kairen could see the captain's mischievous smile.

"See you tomorrow!"

She turned away and left the training ground.

'What? What did she mean? See you tomorrow?'

Kairen stared at the closed door of the training ground.

'D-does that mean she will be coming to the mission as well?'

"...."

Kairen suddenly started to panic.

'Why would the captain of the Monster Hunting Division be joining unit 5's mission? Is it because we are going to the Stlinct Mountain range? Is it because of the monsters there? But there shouldn't be that many monsters in that mountain. Can't we take care of them on our own?'

"Hey, kiddo!"

Kairen stopped thinking about captain Neal and looked at the one who called him.

He could see Alan, who had been silently observing him the whole duration of his training, approaching him from the other side of the training ground. He opened his mouth after seeing that Kairen was looking at him.

"We have to talk ab-"

"Sure!"

"...."

Kairen didn't even wait for his sentence to finish.

"Let's talk!"

Smile

Kairen said that and smiled brightly.

"...."

Alan stopped walking as soon as he saw Kairen's smiling face. He clearly didn't expect this reaction from him.

"Do you want to go outside? Or talk here?"

"...."

'I have been waiting for ages to finally be able to talk to this man!'

Smile

Kairen smiled even more.

"..."

Alan gulped and looked away from Kairen, observing the surroundings.

"Let's go somewhere else."

He gestured to Kairen to follow him and strode to the exit.

"Alright!"

Kairen followed him from behind as they left the training ground.

'How should I bring up the issue?'

At first, Kairen thought that maybe Alan would know something about traveling from world to world. 

Why did he think that? He still wasn't sure himself. There was not a single thing about Alan that could prove that he wasn't from this world. Alan was only a mysterious man and nothing more. But back then, Kairen wanted to find something, anything, about the way to go back so he decided to search for him.

However, now he thought that he must've been mistaking things back then. After seeing and working with Alan for a while he thought that it wasn't likely for him to be related to this 'traveling through worlds' thing.

But now, there were other things that Kairen was more curious about and needed to ask Alan.

"Where are we going?"

After leaving the training ground, the two of them still continued to walk in SMF's vast yard.

"A place with no one around."

"..."

Kairen silently kept following him.

"Sure! T-there is no need to repeat it! I... I understand."

But he suddenly stopped walking after hearing a familiar voice. 

There was no need to look around for long as he could spot the owner of the voice almost immediately. Kairen looked at Serria who was sitting on a bench, curled up, and talking to the phone.

"I understand. I... I will come v-visit you as soon as I come back f-from my mission. Yes. Yes, I was wrong. I apologize."

"...."

She was biting her nails while talking... stuttering to be more specific and was nervously tapping the ground with her foot.

"Yes! I will buy y-you anything you want. Y-yes. Yes. You are right. I am s-sorry."

Blink Blink

Kairen opened and closed his eyes.

'Am I seeing things?'

Was that really Serria? Why was she talking like that? Who was she talking so respectfully to? Did she even know how to talk respectfully?

"OY! What are you doing!? Hurry up!"

Startled by Alan's voice that was annoyed by Kairen suddenly stopping, Serria flinched and grabbed her phone with both hands, as if she wanted to prevent any noise from leaking out. 

"...I'm coming!"

Kairen looked at Serria one last time before running towards Alan. He could still see Serria hurriedly standing up and moving the phone towards her ear again while walking away in the opposite direction of Kairen.

"I'm sorry. Y-yes. You're right dad. Y-yes. See you soon."

"...."

'Was that her dad?'

Why did she talk to her dad like that?

Kairen could sense a very vicious gaze on his back as he walked away.

'Did I do something wrong? I didn't eavesdrop or something! I just overheard her conversation with her... dad...'

She seemed so different though.

'Forget it.'

Kairen shook his head and ran to Alan. 

After walking for about 5 more minutes, they finally reached a place where there were no people nor any buildings around. 

Kairen looked around, but there was nothing to sit at. There was only grass and a few trees and bushes around them.

Plop

Alan sat on the grass and looked at Kairen with a gaze that was urging him to also sit down. Doing as he was asked to, Kairen also sat on the grass across from Alan.

"What did you want to talk about?"

Kairen asked as soon as he sat down. Alan raised one eyebrow instead of answering.

"Rather than me, I guess you were the one who wanted to have a talk with me, brat."

"...."

Kairen looked at the man's golden eyes with a serious face.

"Why do you keep calling me 'Brat'?"

Alan stared back at Kairen's hazel eyes.

"Every one of you people is a brat in my eyes."

"Why is that?"

"A brat like you wouldn't understand."

"...."

"...."

Alan folded his arms.

"Next."

Kairen didn't hesitate to ask his other question.

"Why didn't you stop that soil dude when he was killing me?"

"...."

Alan frowned, but still answered Kairen.

"Not 'didn't', I 'couldn't' stop him."

"Couldn't? Why?"

Alan shrugged.

"That is also what I want to know."

He narrowed his eyes. His gaze started to seem a little bit scary to Kairen.

"I too want to know why I couldn't stop him, and also 'you'."

Alan pointed at Kairen.

"Why is that? Tell me brat."

"...."

Kairen looked at him with a confused face.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you get it?"

"I... don't..."

Alan placed his arm on his knee and sat in a more comfortable position.

"Do you know when you can't manipulate time for someone or something?"

Kairen shook his head.

"When time is already manipulated for that person or thing."

"...."

"Meaning, time is twisted for them. Meaning they don't belong to the current flow of time.. Meaning that they don't belong to the natural flow of this world."

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