Chapter 375 Friends
Kairen shoved a large piece of roasted chicken into his mouth followed by a piece of soft bread. He hurriedly chewed them before taking another bite. The meat was greasy and juicy, exactly how Kairen liked it.
The food that these agents gave to Kairen was different from what he got to eat in his previous days of staying in this place. Was it because he'd saved their city? Kairen wasn't sure of the reason but decided not to think much about it. He was being treated well so why would he tire himself out trying to find out the cause of it?
Sitting opposite to him was a middle-aged blonde man. He'd been watching the younger boy eat everything they gave to him with a shocking appetite the whole time.
Kairen was doing his best to ignore Daniel's gaze.
'What's wrong with him? Do I eat too much? Is he worried about their food supply?'
Kairen was also shocked about how much he could eat without feeling full. According to Reynold, because he was using and absorbing light lever powers, it was natural for his body to consume energy at a fast pace, so it was expected that Kairen would eat more than normal.
The annoying thing was the gaze of the man that barely moved away from him.
"...Is there anything you want to say?"
Kairen hesitantly asked after finishing his plate.
"No, nothing."
Daniel shook his head with a faint smile, but he still didn't look away from Kairen.
"Uh... I see." Kairen nodded with an awkward face. "Then, um, then can you please... You see..." He stretched his neck and looked around. Wasn't it kind of rude to say someone to look away from him? But what the man was doing was also rude.
"Look away, he wants to say."
Reynold commented at that moment with a nonchalant face and voice. Daniel let out a chuckle while Kairen flinched.
"I just wanted to confirm it."
"Confirm what?"
Daniel said, Kairen asked back.
"You."
"Huh?"
Daniel chuckle. He seemed to be in a good mood.
"You see, your brother and I were quite close." Daniel leaned forward a little bit and rested his chin on his palm. "No, rather, we could be considered each other's best friends? That was what he used to say."
Kairen put down his fork and quietly listened.
"After the few survivors managed to somehow form a group to manage their lives, up until when his family lost their lives, Aaron used to be a kind and gentle man. I'm sure you know what I mean by that as you are his brother."
Of course, Kairen knew what kind of person his brother was. He was someone who enjoyed taking care of others and helping them out. He was kind to the ones close to him and treated everyone with respect. He was the kind that enjoyed having a lot of people in his company, but only chose a few as his closest friends, yet, tried to be gentle and warm to everyone he knew.
He wouldn't put himself or others to save people that he didn't know but would try his best to help them out if there was no harm, even if there was no gain to it. In contrast to that, he could go so far as bringing the sky down if it meant that he closes people would be saved or helped.
'Isn't he too good to be a human? I mean, him and everything about him is so perfect. Truly, there are no flaws about him.' Remembering what kind of person his brother was and all of his actions made Kairen feel a pleasant sense of pride.
'But...Why should he suffer like that throughout his life? Isn't it too unfair?'
His proud heart now felt some pain at the same time.
Daniel continued to talk without caring about what was going on inside Kairen's head.
"Back when the cities were not yet rebuilt, we had no choice but to stay and small camps, tents, or even out in the wild. We had to move around a lot, too, as there were very few safe places at first."
Daniel's gaze looked past Kairen and into the air as if the memories of the distant past were flashing through his eyes.
"Back then, heh! Back then, whenever we were free, mostly at nights when we needed to stand guard, Aaron would always grab a small picture and sit down beside the nearest person he found. He would show them the picture, which was apparently an old photo of his younger brother who got lost during the first monster breakout, and start talking about that little brother of his."
The edges of Daniel's lips were twitching, looking like he was trying his hardest not to laugh.
"The picture was small and damaged to the point that it was hard for one to properly see the boy's face, so Aaron would show it to his target multiple times. He'd talk about how nice and lovely his brother was the whole night."
Kairen had long let go of his fork and spoon. His hands were clasped to each other under the table, the tips of his fingers slightly shaking.
"Little by little, the tales about his brother spread out throughout the team. Everyone knew about his 'Lil Ren' and had memorized his face. It was both because they wanted to console their friend, and also to recognize the boy if they, by any chance, came across to him or his corpse."
Daniel shook his head and lowered his arm to the armchair.
"As his closest friend, I was one of his most frequent targets. He would tell me his whole life story from time to time without caring about the fact that he'd already described every event of his life... like, 10 times. Back then, he showed me that little picture to me soo many times that I could even draw the boy's face with my eyes closed. Ah, god! He was searching for that lost brother of his all the time."
Daniel paused for a brief second.
"He searched for his 'lil' Ren' for about 17 years."
"...."
Kairen lowered his head without saying anything. He couldn't say anything.
"From the beginning, he didn't want to believe that his brother was dead. At first, he proclaimed that he'd find him among the survivors. As a result, he'd drag the whole team to every single survivor's camp we got to know about. Not finding him in this place, he decided to travel to the nearby cities. Me and the rest of the team followed him as we didn't have anything else to go, and also because he was the strongest person among us and could protect us, weaklings.
Not finding his 'lil Ren' in other cities, he said he wanted to travel to other countries. God knows how we managed to stop him! Then, he decided to become the strongest, saying that with strength he could have a large network. We thought he was joking at first but huh, he united small and large units little by little and by the time 2 years had passed, he'd become the commander of all.
'Man, this dude is crazy', I thought at that time. He really was! I'm not joking!"
Daniel talked without stopping. He had a peaceful expression and a gentle look on his face. He looked to be truly enjoying those past memories. Even though Kairen had never asked to man to tell him anything, Daniel was kind enough to share his memories of Aaron with him. Talking about a person you both knew about wasn't something strange, not in Kairen's opinion.
It was just that Kairen wasn't ready enough to hear these out.
"After gaining the power he desired, he sent messages to the other counties and anywhere he could read out to, asking if they have anyone with his little brother's appearance and name among their survivors. He didn't even ask himself how and why would that brother of his travel to such faraway locations. Well, the answer to all of the messages was a 'No'.
We had all lost a family member or two during the first breakout. Some of us had lost our whole families on that day, so we could understand how he felt. But his actions were not right, not for himself. We saw him as someone who just couldn't accept their loss. We tried to persuade him that his loved little brother was probably dead, dead in a way that his corpse couldn't be recognized.
After a long conversation, he finally agreed that his brother was dead."
When he reached that part, Daniel rolled his eyes.
"And the next day we woke up, he had run away!"
"He ran away?"
It wasn't Kairen but Reynold who commented. He was also listening carefully to Daniel.
"Yeah! Saying that he had no reason to be a commander nor to live now that his 'lil Ren', was dead, he threw everything aside and ran away. God knows how we managed to find him and drag him back. It was Juliette who managed to locate him. The two of them were pretty close. They got close while Aaron talked about his little brother with that girl.
She later whispered to me that she had a pretty hard time persuading that dude not to end his life. They had reached an agreement that as long as that little brother's corpse was not found, they could assume that he was still alive. Saying that he could use his high position to thoroughly search everywhere for his brother's corpse, Juliette managed to drag him back to the team. She was pretty smart too. If it was me, I'd just beat the shit out of that fool. Uh... But I guess I'd be the one who'd end up beaten."
Daniel shrugged his shoulders saying that 'That's wonderful how she managed to tolerate that guy and even get married to him!', and took a sip of his water.
"Anyway, that was how we agreed not to mention anything about that brother of his that might upset Aaron. It wasn't hard to notice that the long-dead little brother, as we assumed, was the reason out friend was still moving on. Why would we want to ruin his hopes? Hmm?
But I can't deny the fact that we all thought of him as pitiful. How could someone so strong be so weak as to not believe nor accept his brother's death? How would he keep on living after he was done searching every inch of this land for that boy? It was painful to watch him still talk and look after that boy even after more than 10 years had passed, even after he'd formed a new family for himself."
Daniel raised his head and glanced at Kairen once again. He had a smile on his lips.
"But I guess he wasn't wrong after all."
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