Life didn't get easier, even in another world

287 Ocean of guilt

His body felt heavy and it ached all over. He couldn’t feel the things that were going on around him. Seconds before losing consciousness, he could only hear some shouts and sense someone shaking and lifting his body. That was all.

“Mmm...”

And now, he was beginning to sense things again. Like the annoying pain, the headache, and thirst. He could also understand that he was laying on a soft thing, like a mattress, and a blanket was covering him. It was warm and cozy and he felt really pleasant despite the pain. After sleeping on a wooden bed for ten days, this mattress and blanket felt like heaven to him.

‘No, I don’t want to wake up.’

Despite being awake, he refused to open his eyes. He wanted to sleep more. Just a little bit more.

“Kairen? Are you awake?”

He heard the very familiar voice of Reyan.

‘Nope. I’m not.’

But he didn’t respond.

.....

“He is awake? I’ll go call the doctor!”

And then heard Serria before the sounds of footsteps and the opening and closing of the door.

‘Is it a hospital?’

Yeah. That must be it. He was in a hospital again. Nice. They must’ve managed to escape that place then.

‘Hmm... wait.’

Why didn’t he hear Aaron’s voice? If he was in the room, he would be the first one to rush at Kairen... And there was no way that he wouldn’t be in the room when Kairen was sick...

“Ron!”

Kairen snapped his eyes open.

“Wah!”

Startled by Kairen’s sudden shout, Reyan flinched slightly and took one step back. He was completely ignored by Kairen, who was busy scanning the room.

‘It’s SMF’s hospital...’

They were really back. They had returned to SMF but... Where was his brother?

Kairen turned his gaze to Reyan while moving his upper body to sit.

“You shouldn’t move yet-”

“Where is Ron?”

Reyan closed his mouth.

“Hey! Where is Ron?”

His reaction was making Kairen anxious. Thinking about the various possibilities that might’ve happened was making him even more nervous. Did something happen to him? Did they not make it here altogether? Was he attacked?

Did he leave Kairen here and return back?

“Don’t look at me like that, I couldn’t do anything!”

Reyan said, somewhat apologizing.

“What? What happened?”

Clack

The door of the room opened at that moment and Serria entered with a doctor behind her.

“What’s with the atmosphere?”

She looked between Kairen and Reyan, confused. Meanwhile, the doctor brushed past Serria and Reyan and approached Kairen, starting to examine him immediately.

“How are you feeling?”

Kairen answered the doctor without taking his eyes off of Reyan.

“Like shit. Tell me what happened to Ron.”

“Do you have pain?”

“Yeah! No first, tell me what happened back at that place. By the way, how long was I asleep?”

“...Alright, I’ll tell you. And you were asleep for half a day.”

“Do you have a headache or feel nauseous and weak?”

“Yeah.”

“We ran away from there. Like, literally ran away. That dude carried you on his back and we ran till we reached a nearby military camp.”

Poke Poke

The doctor was doing some strange stuff, pushing and poking different parts of Kairen’s body.

“Yeah and we stole a car and drove till we reached the borders. We were teleported here later.”

Serria also chimed in. Now that Kairen looked closely, he could see some bandages on the two’s bodies. They must’ve gotten injured during these 10 days as well.

‘So they all returned together?’

Knowing that made Kairen relax a little bit. His brother had come with them, he didn’t go anywhere else. Wasn’t that awesome?

“What about the others?”

“They had returned before us. That girl who always sticks to that soil dude...”

“Claire?”

“Yeah, her. She had created a portal and sent everyone to a location far away from where we were as soon as they confronted The First.”

“Why didn’t you- Owww!”

Kairen glanced at the doctor for the first time, only to see him pushing a needle into his arm.

‘Huh? Whatever.’

He turned around.

“Why didn’t you come back with Claire as well?”

Serria rolled her eyes at that question.

“That dude called her... With a phone that was somehow intact after that battle? Yeah. And she said ‘I’ve reached my limit of using my power for today. I can’t create a portal to come to you guys!’, and so we had to find another way.”

Kairen nodded his head. Claire had used her power multiple times that day, so it was only natural to run out of energy.

“So? Where is Ron?”

“Ahem!”

Serria coughed awkwardly.

“He was taken away, as well as that girl, Claire.”

“...?”

Kairen tilted his head. He still didn’t understand.

“I’m telling you that he was captured by... Uh... SMF.”

“...”

Kairen opened and closed his eyes, blinking rapidly.

“So... Is he in the... prison now?”

Despite himself not realizing it, Kairen’s voice was shaking a little bit.

‘But we did everything so that he wouldn’t get captured...’

He bit down his lip.

“N-no. Not exactly in the prison.”

Reyan had turned around at some point and was busy talking with the doctor, leaving Serria alone to explain everything.

“Team leader Dains meditated a lot and there were also The First and that traitor that was both beaten to pulps, so they didn’t move him to a prison and decided to think more about his punishment.”

‘They brought back The First and that other traitor bastard?’

No that wasn’t important now.

“P-Punishment?”

.....

Why was he hearing such scary words? What punishment? Why would they punish Aaron?

“Well yeah? He is a Philomns member after all!”

“He is not!”

Kairen almost shouted.

“Sir, you’ve got to take these medicine-”

Kairen grabbed the things that were being pushed to his face by the doctor and threw them all in his mouth.

“He is not a Philomns member?”

“Wait, you should take them with water!”

A cup of water was also handed to him. Kairen drank almost all of it in one breath before continuing to shout.

“He is not! He is, but he is not!”

SLAM

He slammed the empty cup on the table beside the bed.

“They can’t punish him! I’ve got to explain things to them!”

Kairen wanted to jump out of this bed and run to team leader Dains or even the commander to explain everything to them.

“If you want to explain things, then explain them to us.”

Reyan talked for the first time after a long while.

Kairen closed his mouth.

‘Seems like I have to explain a lot of things to a lot of people...’

He then nodded his head.

“I will explain everything to you two too.”

In his response, Reyan raised an eyebrow with a doubtful face while Serria only smiled.

“Uhh... Sorry to disturb but...”

Right then, they heard the doctor’s hesitant voice. The three people in the room turned towards the man, who was awkwardly standing back and listening to them the whole time.

“Ahem! I have to talk to the patient a little bit about his condition.”

Nod Nod Nod

As soon as the three nodded their heads, the doctor started to talk about... several complicated things? None of them understood anything about the medical term that the doctor was talking about or even knew about the medicines he was listing one by one. They just stared at him with blank faces and nodded occasionally in an attempt not to seem like some lost fish.

“So...”

Kairen started to talk once the doctor was done.

“When will I get discharged?”

“Huh?”

The doctor, as if he expected anything to be asked from him but this question, looked at Kairen with a stupid found face. His two friends also had similar expressions while glaring at him.

“What do you mean?”

Kairen tilted his head.

‘Was my question not clear enough?’

He asked again.

“When will I be discharged? I mean, when can I leave this hospital and go home?”

“Why are you asking such an obvious thing?”

The doctor had a from on his face.

“That won’t be happening in at least a few weeks.”

“...Pardon?”

It was Kairen’s turn to look stupid found.

“I thought I explained to you about your condition? You are in no shape to leave this place any time soon.”

Kairen frowned his brows.

“I will leave this hospital today.”

“Pardon?”

“What?”

“Yes?”

Kairen frowned even more at the reactions to his words.

“I said I will leave, and I WILL Leave!”

He sent one last glare to everyone before leaning back on his bed and crossing his arms.

He had to leave. He had to go back home. It has almost been 11 days! 11 Days since he had last seen Ariyan! Kairen was worried about Ariyan as much as he worried about Aaron. He had left a little kid, who was always scared of him going to work and not returning back like his parents, alone for several days.

Kairen was long drowned in his ocean of guilt.