Life didn't get easier, even in another world

269 How many years?

“What?”

Kairen thought he heard those words wrong.

“I said, the day you are talking about is the day I came to this world.”

But what he heard were the same things.

“We came here on the same day?”

Then why didn’t they go to the same place? No wait, did his brother also have an Aaron 1 like he had a Kairen 1?

“No. That’s impossible.”

Aaron shook his head.

“Why?”

.....

“Because I didn’t leave Earth on the same day as you. I don’t have much information about how time goes in this world and how different it is from the time of Earth, but even if there is a huge difference, I still don’t think that it’s possible for me to come to this world at the same and time as you, who was transformed much sooner than me.”

‘Time passes differently here and on Earth?’

Kairen wasn’t too surprised. After all, wasn’t that what happened in fictional stories all the time? Even if not fiction, he knew that on different planets, the length of days and years are different, so there was nothing weird about time passing differently in different worlds.

What surprised him was something else.

“By that... How much later did you come here...”

“...”

There was no answer.

“How long?”

“...”

Still no answer.

“That... Is not really important-”

“It IS important!”

“Ren!”

“Just say it already! What’s so hard about it?”

“...”

Aaron lowered his head. He stared at the bandages he had put down before mumbling quietly.

“A few... years...”

“W-what?”

A few years? That long? He was still on Earth for a few years after Kairen left?

“How many years exactly?”

“Ren!”

Aaron suddenly raised his head and grabbed Kairen’s hands.

“We were talking about you right now. Tell me about-”

“Don’t change the subject!”

Kairen cut the man’s words.

“Why are you like this all of a sudden? What exactly happened on Earth after I left?”

“...”

“Don’t look at me like that and answer!”

His brother’s hold on his hands tightened as Kairen urged him to explain.

“...Not really good things...”

“....”

Kairen had already some guesses on what might have happened on Earth after he came here based on the information he got in this world. The cracks, the temples, the words of that old book in the village near one of the three ruins, Alan’s words, everything. He had made some blind guesses, but he could never be sure.

Kairen stared at Aaron, urging him to keep talking.

“You left when the eclipse was still going on, right?”

“Yes.”

“...You were forcefully moved here, right?”

“Yes. I don’t know what happened. Only some lights and cracks and then I was here.”

“I see...”

Kairen nodded his head. For some reason, a thin smile appeared on Aaron’s face after hearing his answer.

“Did you see it before you left? The destruction.”

Kairen nodded again. He had indeed seen it. Everything was destroyed in a few seconds, and Kairen was sure that things would get more and more messed up the more that the eclipse lasted.

He clearly remembers how the buildings were crumbled, cars were crashed, and people were all being pulled up. He barely survived that thanks to him transforming into this world, but what about the other people? Kairen was sure not all of them would be able to survive that pressure.

“Chaos started after that first planet that emerged in the sky. Everything got destroyed in the blink of an eye. I don’t even know how I survived that eclipse. The only thing that I know is that once I opened my eyes again, I was surrounded with... corpses.”

“...”

Looking at his brother’s solemn face, Kairen couldn’t help but wonder if he shouldn’t have asked that question. He was really curious, but it seemed that his brother didn’t feel really comfortable talking about that time.

“They had all died either from the pressure, by being hit by the flying objects, falling down from high up in the air, or other different reasons. And... A lot of them were... eaten...”

“....”

Aaron’s voice was sinking down the more he talked.

“They were eaten by monsters...”

That’s how their lives have become after the eclipse. Avoiding and fighting monsters to survive day to day, struggle to find food and shelter, and be alert near other people in fear of being betrayed by them. That’s how they had to live.

Aaron didn’t need to explain more. Kairen could already understand how their lives had changed after the eclipse when he mentioned the word ‘monsters’.

“Is that how... you are this strong?”

“Pfft!”

Aaron chuckled before nodding his head.

“You had to become strong in order to survive.”

“What about your power?”

The man shrugged his shoulders.

“They just kept appearing randomly without any prior warning or hint.”

“Oh!”

It was like this world then, wasn’t it? People would awaken their powers randomly in this world as well without any prior warning or anything.

‘Thinking this way, aren’t these two worlds similar somehow?’

Monsters appeared in this world out of nowhere as well and shortly after that people started to gain unique skills to fight against those monsters.

“Then, how did you end up in this place?”

Aaron thought for a moment before shaking his head.

“It’s a long story.”

“Come on! Tell me!”

“I’ll tell you later. But first, I should change your bandages.”

“Wait! Let’s finish talking first!”

Not listening to him, Aaron grabbed the bandages again and picked up the bottle of alcohol, wetting some clothes with it.

“But you didn’t say- Ouch!”

Kairen flinched as soon as his brother started to change the bandages.

“Wow shit! This wound looks so disgusting!”

.....

He hasn’t seen his wound before as it was covered with bandages, but now that they were lifted, he could clearly see how gross and ugly it was.

“Do you have pain?”

“...A little bit.”

“Don’t lie!”

“I’m not- ouch! Why would I lie?”

Aaron sent Kairen a glance.

“The effect of the medicine I fed you should be fading slowly which means your pain should increase as time passes.”

Kairen opened and closed his mouth. That wasn’t wrong. The pain indeed got worse the more time passed. Kairen didn’t know it was because of the medicine and thus he was scared that if he complained about the pain his brother would stop the conversation, so he did his best to hide it.

“You fed me medicine?”

“How else did you expect me to keep you alive?”

“Uh? Yeah... How did you keep me alive?”

That question suddenly popped up in his mind. How come he hadn’t thought about it until now? How the hell was he alive and well... not really well but still not in a critical condition... when he was not even in the hospital?

“I kidnapped your team’s healer.”

Aaron said nonchalantly as he continued to apply some medicine to the wound.

“Pardon?”

“I kidnapped that girl, Asa.”

Aaron repeated that again in a tone that indicated what he had done was not a big deal. It was natural. People go around kidnapping healers and there is nothing wrong with it. Totally natural.

“What? You kidnapped... Ron!?!?!?”

Kairen on the other hand was about to faint.

“What were you thinking? Do you even know what your action’s punishment is? You also work for Phliomns, wait- Why the hell do you even work for Philomns Ron we are literally enemies oh my goddess-Ouch!”

Aaron raised an eyebrow after hearing Kairen’s words and pressed the cloth on the wound a little bit harder, not intentionally at all, making Kairen hiss in pain and flinch.

“Rather, why do you work for SMF? Who in their right minds would start working on the country’s biggest security and military organization after they were randomly thrown to another world?”

“I didn’t! Kairen 1 was already in their academy when I came here!”

“Sigh!”

Aaron stopped poking Kairen’s wound and raised his head.

“Do you still not get it, Ren?”

“Get what?”

“Sigh.”

He sighed and shook his head with a helpless expression.

“I aged back when I came here. I don’t know the reason, but I looked much younger than I was supposed to look. So much that I didn’t recognize myself at first. The same thing must have happened to you as well.”

Tap Tap Tap

Aaron tapped Kairen’s chest with a finger.

“Which means, there is no Kairen 1 and 2’s. Both of them are you... And I don’t know why you keep dividing yourself into two people.”

“....”

Kairen tilted his head.

‘Both of them were me?’

So, he was Kairen 1? The little kid that he had regained his memories about him just recently?

Then, did he really lose his memories on that day after being hit by Serria’s attack? Why in the world would he suddenly lose his memories on that day? He also had lost his memories when he came here as a 13-year-old and didn’t know anything besides his name... What the hell?

Kairen lowered his head, thinking about various things. He had thought about the possibility of him being Kairen 1 before, but for that to actually be the case... He had a strange feeling.

He aged back... That was truly strange. He had never heard of such a thing before. But in some ways, he felt a little bit glad and relieved.

He wasn’t living another person’s life. He wasn’t stealing another person’s family and friends. The feeling of distance, that he didn’t belong to them... He wouldn’t experience it anymore. He didn’t have to be careful not to get close to another person’s family too much anymore.

Still, there was something that kept bothering him.

“Is that why you hid your face?”

“Huh?”

Aaron, who had gone back to bandaging Kairen’s wounds long ago and was almost finished doing it, flinched slightly at Kairen’s sudden words.

“You said you aged back too much... That you didn’t recognize your face. Is that why you hid it?”

Aaron flinched once again.

“Uh... That... That was one of the reasons...”

He looked away from Kairen. The man hurriedly collected the medicine and the other things and put them all on the trail while avoiding Kairen’s gaze.

“Then how old were you before coming here?”

Flinch

“Uh. That is not really important-”

“It is! Tell me!”

“Here! Take your medicine-”

“Ron!”

Kairen grabbed his brother’s arm.

“Just tell me how many years passed after that eclipse until the time you came here.”

“....”

Aaron moved back his hand holding the medicine and glanced around.

“That isn’t really-”

“Ron!”

“Uhhhh!!”

He sighed and then mumbled something under his lips.

“17...”

Kairen tilted his head, blinking his eyes like a stupid fish.

“Yes?”

He thought he heard it wrong, but then his brother repeated his words again.

“17 years...”

“....”

Kairen fainted.