Life didn't get easier, even in another world

352 The link

The city inside The Void became surprisingly “lively” after Reynold’s return. It was because they had all heard about a part of the news, the part that informed them about their new job, which was building a mysterious and suspicious device in the middle of the city.

In fact, none of them cared a little bit about how the thing they were assigned to do was suspicious and what they were told to build was fishy. They were all happy about the fact that they finally had something new to do and anyone who was interested rushed to the castle to help out. The construction began soon and the work was going smoothly.

In one of the various rooms on the second floor of the castle, Reynold was sitting beside the window and was looking out at the people who were moving around busing themselves with work. He watched as the excited men and women brought various materials and discussed the blueprints.

“If I’d known that they’ll be so happy, I’d order them to make random stuff from time to time...” Reynold chuckled, “Maybe I should do that from now on.”

“I don’t think they’ll be happy if they get to know that you are asking them to build random stuff that has no use.”

Behind him, Kairen interjected with an emotionless voice.

“There is no way they’ll know that.”

“I’ll tell them.”

“....”

.....

Reynold blinked a few times before heaving a sigh and looking away from the window, turning towards Kairen who was sitting on a sofa inside the room. The room was one of the many rooms that were given to Reynold. He usually only used two of the rooms that were his, one as a bedroom and one for other activities. His house was far away from the city so he had to stay at the castle when he had something to do in the city.

“Are you threatening me? Seriously?”

Reynold had a faint and warm smile on his lips, a face that didn’t show any signs of being mad, and eyes that had some unknown emotions whirling in them. Kairen turned his head to the side, avoiding eye contact with the man, and blurted out again.

“This is their right to know the truth! It’s not like you can fool everyone around you!”

His lips pouted subconsciously and his face was a little bit sullen without his noticing. He was trying his best to look serious and mad, but he was not really good at controlling his facial expression. This made the edges of Reynold’s lips twitch and rise up to a wider smile.

“Why are you sulking?”

Those words made Kairen sit up and send a glare at the redhead.

“What makes you think that I’m sulking? I’m not! But I am mad, and I am very angry at the moment! You left for ages without answering any of my questions so it’s natural for me to be mad!”

With a snort, Kairen leaned back in his seat and folded his arms in an attempt to look more serious and kinda mad, not knowing that in the eyes of the redhead, he only looked like a little kid pouting. He sent a secret glance at Reynold and discovered that the man’s smile had turned even more fond, like a parent looking at their child.

‘What the fuck, old geezer!’

Kairen turned his head around and avoided any kind of eye contact with the man that had become even scarier since the last time they met.

“When will I return home?”

Reynold took two big steps towards a sofa and plopped down on it.

“I’ll send you to your world as soon as the construction of this machine is done. I can send you back when it’s about to finish as well. Judging by how they are working, it won’t take long for the machine to be built, so you’ll go back very soon.”

Kairen nodded his head in understanding and moved to the next question.

“What should I do to create a link... Or break the link you said?”

“There is not much you need to do. Just go to the location of that machine in your world and inject it with a little bit of your power. I’ll do the rest from here.”

‘It’s that easy?’

Kairen, who originally thought he had to do a lot of complicated stuff, was taken aback for a second before nodding to himself inwardly.

‘Well, that’s a good thing!’

He didn’t want to spend time learning about some difficult stuff from Reynold in order to grasp the way to create that link between the two devices.

Now that the most important questions were answered without any problem, Kairen could move on to the question he was the most curious about.

“Tell me how I got this power.”

Reynold was not surprised by that question nor by Kairen’s tone, as if completely expecting them. He turned his head slightly, his smile widened, and his eyes clouded over a little bit.

“I’ve told you before that you got that power from me, and as for the details, there is no need for you to know.”

There is no need for you to know.

Those words echoed in Kairen’s ears, his glare turned more furious and his brows knitted. He clenched his fists unconsciously and moved a little bit in his seat. Before he could say anything, Reynold chuckled and shook his head.

“Don’t look at me like that. You will know your answer when the right time comes, but the right time is not now. Don’t rush things and don’t be impatient, Reyn, you’ll only hurt yourself that way-”

Reynold stopped mid-sentence with his mouth still half open and his expression immediately sank. He frowned a little bit and hurriedly looked away from Kairen.

‘Reyn?’

Kairen also realized the problem in his words. Reynold had once again called Kairen ‘Reyn’ while talking. Reynold also seemed taken aback by that slip of his tongue.

‘How can he mistake my name with his...?’

It if was him calling Kairen by another name, it would be understandable to some extent, but he just called Kairen by his own name...

“Trying to find out things without being prepared for them will only result in you getting hurt.”

Reynold repeated his sentence as if nothing had happened, but there was a deep frown on his face. Kairen originally wanted to argue with him. He had prepared for this conversation long ago and had even practiced his lines before his sleep several times, but for some unknown reason, he couldn’t bring himself to say any of those. It was especially after he got called that name.

‘Reyn...’

He repeated that name again and again in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more familiar it felt. In some senses, it was natural to be familiar with that name as it was the short form of Reynold, the name of the bastard sitting in front of him, but the way he felt was completely opposite of how someone would feel towards another person’s name. It was a mysterious and kinda scary feeling.

‘And why would it be dangerous for me to find out the origin of my power?’

It’s not like he had any plans of doing anything about it. Whatever had happened in the past was none of his business. He didn’t want to seek revenge or something like that, nor he intended on dwelling on the events that happened in the past. The reason he wanted to know about his power was only that he was curious. He wanted to know what had made his life so wrecked and messed up.

However, if knowing about it would make his life even more messed up... then no thanks! He didn’t want it. If Reynold was telling the truth, he’d find out about it when the right time comes. He’d rather wait than put himself in danger.

“How long has it been since I came here?”

Kairen didn’t mention the part ‘in my world’ in his question, but there was no need for that as Reynold understood what he meant.

“It must be something around... two years by now.”

“Two years...”

Kairen mumbled under his lips with some mixed feelings of shock, bitterness, and at the same time, delight. He felt bitter thinking about how he has missed two years of living with his family and friends, how Ariyan must’ve grown by now, and how his brother must’ve been living. He also felt relieved that it was only 2 years and not longer than that. Nodding to himself, he pushed his thoughts to the back of his mind and decided to think about them later. Kairen once again raised his head and asked another question he had long prepared.

“How can I save Kain?”

Once again, he didn’t completely explain what he meant by those words, but Reynold could read between the lines and understand what he was asked.

“Normally, the procedure is rather... hard and complicated, and even after preparing everything... most of the time the soul fails to return to its body even if it’s alive. There were a lot of people who attempted to go back, but either got lost in the endless void, failed to find their way and their own world between the countless locations, or even faded on the spot.”

Reynold paused, contemplated, and resumed explaining.

“However, we might be able to help Kain return to his world using the link between the two machines.”