Day off

"Yaaaawwwn!"

Hans woke up and stretched his arms as the morning light flooded his room through the windows, casting a golden hue on everything.

A moment later, he pinched the bridge between his eyes due to a headache. It was more difficult for an awakened person to get sick, so usually, when a mage felt a headache, it was a sign of excessive consumption of mana.

This time, however, it was because of the nightmares that plagued Hans throughout the night, leaving him restless.

He kept dreaming about the dead who called his name and accused him of their death.

He also dreamt that some of the families of the deceased blamed him for the death of their loved ones.

"Not a pleasant night if I must say," he muttered to himself.

Realizing that he couldn't fall asleep anymore, Hans decided to get moving and start his day early.

Today was a day off, actually, it was the first one in the last few weeks.

His relentless pursuit of strength had left little room to even bother wasting time on things like relaxation or peace of mind.

But perhaps, it seemed that, especially for a mage like himself, taking time to rest and recharge his mind was not something to be underestimated.

The fatigue and stress that had built up after fighting the golem still accompanied him and he didn't want to face another gate in such conditions.

Luckily, because of his {Medium Body Restoration}, he could recover a bit over the night, easing his movements.

And his {Mana Route} also helped in alleviating the mental strain from the innumerable spell casting.

But even with those, his strength remained about the same as that of a Tier-2 mage, meaning he definitely couldn't enter any gates with those ranks.

But…. What to do now?

He had no friends, no hobbies, no family.

What would he do all day?

He pondered over it and after much consideration, it seemed that, for him, finding an answer to this particular question was even more difficult than clearing a gate.

Nonetheless, Hans finally found a decent option and settled on a plan. 

You see, he had just made lots of money and with his work as a hunter, it won't be difficult to get a loan from the association.

While it would be better to take it from the bank since the interest over there is lower, because of the high death rates of the hunters, banks had stopped giving loans to them quite a long time ago.

Anyway, this meant that he was almost considered rich.

And for a newly made rich person like him to live in a small flat like this truly didn't truly suit him well.

Since he had no interest in other things, all his money would be left there, becoming moldy.

Instead, it would be better for him to move into a new house.

Actually, having a good house to welcome his family wasn't the only reason he needed it, rather, it was also because the safety inside his apartment wasn't really the best, and he was always left vulnerable while he was busy creating new circles, so considering that he would grow in fame sooner or later, it would become more and more dangerous for him to live in a flat located in the city suburbs.

After searching online, Hans discovered that the highest sum of money that a registered C-Rank hunter could take was 250,000 $. That, coupled with more than a hundred thousand of savings he had in his bank account would be more than enough to buy a decent house, to say the least.

Leaving his apartment, Hans headed to a nearby real estate agency which he would often see when making his way to the association.

However, by the time he arrived, it was closed.

"Huh? Are you for real? I passed by dozens of times all this long and never saw it close but today it is??!!"

Hans cried inwardly and didn't know what to do, so he started searching for another one around him, however, much to his surprise, even the maps told him that all the estate agencies were closed.

Hans couldn't help but wonder why it was such until he looked at his phone and something dawned upon him.

It was a Sunday.

He was lost in his work so much lately that he didn't even think that there would be any break days for agencies. And now, Hans couldn't do anything other than postpone his plan.

Since he didn't have anything else to do, the young man decided to spend some of his time with Aiden.

He would always see that kid alone and even if Hans had initially approached him because of his unique class potential, he had now grown attached to the boy and wished to see him thrive.

Making someone work at such a young age wasn't something good for them and Hans was well aware of how painful it was to be alone and be forced to work at an early age.

Hans knew that he couldn't leave Aiden to fend for himself.

He messaged Aiden, who had given him his number long ago.

[Are you free right now? Care for a coffee?]

[I'm having breakfast at the bar beside the association, you can come here if you want to.] 

An immediate response came from the other side, readily agreeing to the invitation.

[Sure, wait for me, I'll be there in five minutes]

Five minutes later, Aiden arrived, clearly out of breath because of running.

"B-brother Hans," he gasped, sinking into a chair beside Hans.

"Hey, you could've taken your time, there wasn't any need for such a hurry," Hans shook his head. 

"I didn't want to keep you waiting," Aiden replied, still catching his breath.

"Ah that's not a problem; I have got nothing to do today."

The reason why Aiden had hurried to come here was because it had been three weeks since he last saw Hans. The last time the two met was during the young boy's visit to the hospital and since then, there had been no word from him whatsoever.

No messages, no visits to the association, or anything.

When he asked Emily what was going on, she simply answered, "Well, he has a matter he needs to resolve on his own, it's better that you don't disturb him." 

However, even if she said that, Aiden could grasp the curiosity in her voice which stated that she was also wondering what Hans was doing.

So when he finally got a message, Aiden wasted no time and rushed as fast as he could.

"Have you finished what you needed to do?" Aiden inquired.

Hans, quite surprised by the question, took a moment before smiling and answered, "Yes, I have."

"That's good." Aiden nodded.

The waitress approached and asked if they wanted something, Hans ordered a cream-filled brioche along with coffee, while Aiden ordered a glass of hot milk with a donut.

After the waitress took the order with a smile and walked away, a smirk formed on the corner of Hans' lips as he glanced at Aiden and sneered, "See, you really are a kid, only kids order milk at a bar."

…

Time flew quickly as the two stayed at the bar and chatted, before they could even notice it, almost an hour had passed away.

Aiden talked about how he still went to school and how he struggled to make friends, the reason being that he spent all his time after school working at the association.

Apparently, he became an orphan at the tender age of seven because of the disaster and lived in an orphanage until he turned ten, after which he awakened as a potion brewer.

After that, someone finally was willing to adopt him; the person was the current association security team leader, who adopted him because of his production class, something that was much sought after at the time and he hoped to make money out of the young boy.

The adopted father taught him many recipes and invested in him, but as time passed and Aiden's skills still hadn't grown, his new father began to despise him, leaving him to fend for himself with little support.

The once warm and welcoming smile on his face left, replaced with just disgust and hate, which were now present in his gaze every time he crossed paths with his adopted son.

After two years, his father decided to abandon him, however, since he couldn't do it publicly as it would ruin his image, in the pretext of making him experience real life, the man just sent Aiden to work, not even paying him while barely giving him a place to sleep and food on the table despite working for over eight hours every day.

Later on, the man prohibited anyone in the association from helping the young boy, threatening them with lower pay or firing.

Even though they pitied him, the workers dared not to come close to Aiden, afraid of losing their jobs.

Insiders knew the young boy's poor conditions but no one posed a helping hand, afraid of offending the association security team leader, a fearsome B-Rank warrior.

With that, Aiden grew up alone and had to spend all his time studying and working.

Later on, he met Hans, someone who continuously talked with him and also gave him attention.

The two soon became friends despite the difference in their ages being significant.

And now, there was someone he could fully trust.

In a life so dark that it was difficult to look ahead, even a faint light like Hans's kindness shone bright akin to a star, making Aiden finally feel like a normal person and bringing him the pleasure of living.

Hans felt guilty, even if for a different reason, he had approached Aiden with the same

intentions as that despicable human: to make use of his powers.

At that instance, he made another vow to himself, the moment he would be able to, he would take Aiden under his wing, send him to college, and make him live a normal life.

He wanted to do it immediately, but he had yet to obtain enough power to do so.

"You know, Aiden, I have a younger sister and she is the same age as you," Hans mentioned.

"Is she pretty?" Aiden asked, his brows raised high.

'Maybe… I should just leave him to suffer a bit more,' Hans thought in all seriousness while his face twitched.