There's No Love In the Deathzone (BL)-Chapter 754: Side Story 4. Endless Journey - 37

Kar rarely cursed, but he had been cursing a lot during his training sessions with Han Joon.

"Dad, you’re a liar..." he mumbled to the pillow at the end of yet another rigorous training.

At least, he had the time to grumble first instead of immediately falling asleep. It seemed like he had finally adapted to the strain that the training placed on both his physical and mental state.

"Am I too greedy?"

He trained his close combat skills and mana control at the same time, thinking that he already learned them separately enough at home and in the academy. But doing it together was another matter altogether. Trying to maintain his mana circulation while concentrating on combat technique felt like moving sluggishly while everything around him became several times faster.

It messed with his head, it messed with his body, and his Uncle was merciless. Kar thought his fathers were already whipping him hard, but Han Joon...Han Joon was a demon. The amount of time Kar heard the word ’again’ made him think he would hate hearing it at the end of it all.

And Han Joon said it was only the first level. Only a training level. There was a real combat level and then the real field combat level. Before he reached that level, Uncle Joon wouldn’t give him a pass for the dungeon practice.

Kar had no idea how long it would take to even pass the first level.

At least he stayed in his uncle’s nice mansion, though. The basement training ground was almost as big as the Academy’s, but since no one was there except him, it felt even bigger. Definitely bigger than the one back home.

Oh, he wondered how Asa was doing over there. He had heard from Aunt Dheera and the others that his father’s training was also known to be hard.

But it wasn’t like he had a leeway to wonder about someone else.

"You look miserable," Radia arched his brow when Kar dragged himself sleepily to the breakfast table one day.

"Thanks for the update, Uncle."

"He’s getting used to it," Han Joon gave a brief assessment.

"Good job."

"Ugh..."

Radia chuckled when the older twin drank his black sesame milk in a daze. "You said your Dad told you about it already."

"Uhh...yeah, but..." Kar glanced at Han Joon.

"Uncle, you didn’t purposefully make it harder for me, did you?"

Han Joon leaned toward his husband instead. "What do you think, darling?"

"Hmm..." Radia, who had seen both Bassena’s training in the past and Kar’s recent one, compared them in his mind while rolling a goldenberry on his tongue. "In my eyes, Bassena had it harsher."

Kar widened his eyes. "No way?!"

Radia chuckled. "But I also don’t think he was lying to you," he said. "It’s just that you have different conditions."

"What do you mean?"

"When your Dad met us the first time, he was like a wild beast," Radia smiled as he reminisced. "A wild beast who had to survive getting beaten and starved every day--not to mention the constant mental torture."

The boy blinked slowly, looking even more in a daze.

"Of course, for such a beast, Joon’s training wouldn’t be very hard--at least, not as hard as you found," Radia explained. "No matter how hard your parents trained you before, they never did it until you passed out, or let you starve until you were thinking of eating bugs, right?"

Kar narrowed his eyes. "Of course?"

"Well, that’s why," Han Joon said. "You were in a different state of mind already."

"It’s like giving stale, hard bread to someone who usually ate coarse bread and someone who usually ate fresh, pillowy bread," Radia lifted a butter roll and pulled it apart. "The former would think the stale bread is not tasty, but edible; while the latter would probably question whether or not the bread was fit to be consumed by humans."

Kar looked at the food in front of him. All nice, fresh, delicious food. Just like the food he got back home. And clothes, and toys, and access, and the love he didn’t need to ask for but received already. Of course, he knew how good his life had been, but at that time, it was down on him how big of a privilege it was to have those things he thought were normal to have.

"But that’s okay," Han Joon patted the dazed kid. "After eating it a few times, you can’t help but get used to the bread."

That might be so, but at that point, Kar also thinking about something else. He looked at his uncles, asking cautiously. "Was Dad...really experienced all that?"

Han Joon tilted his head. "Hmm? Did he not tell you about his family?"

Kar chewed the inside of his cheek. "Uhh...I knew about the Vaski, but not the details of what happened to Dad there..."

"Hmm...you don’t really have to know all of that--at least not now. Just know that they were assholes and he had a harsh childhood after your grandma died," Radia said.

"I see..." the boy rolled the salad fork between his thumb and forefinger, frowning slightly. Looking at the salad reminded him of his other father, who loved fresh fruit and vegetables. "Then...what about Father? I only know he used to live in the red zone, but I don’t really know what it’s like since there’s no red zone..."

"Right," Han Joon smiled. The boy’s generation rarely knew there used to be another tier below the orange zone. "Thanks to your fathers, we no longer have red zones."

"Well, I can’t say I truly know what Zein had gone through, but according to Bas, it was worse than what he experienced," Radia said.

Kar parted his lips. "What? Worse than...being in the Vaskis?"

"Well, at least Bassena could go to the academy and meet us, and once he got his license, he was basically free," Radia shrugged. "But Zein was alone from the start and had to work since he was ten."

It didn’t sound so bad or so much worse just from that, but the uncles had no heart to tell Kar about everything their fathers had gone through in detail.

"You better ask him yourself if you want to know the details. What I told you can be searched on the link if you look deep enough though."

The boy looked down at his meal again, full of thought. His fathers had been telling him and his siblings about their adventures before they had them. Exciting, heroic stuff. But they never told Kar about the hard life before then. They just seemed so happy, so content, and surrounded by people who loved them like real family.

Hearing about all of this was just...shocking.

"Karna," Radia called the boy, who immediately raised his head.

"Yes, Uncle?"

"I’m not saying you shouldn’t whine because your fathers had it harder. I’m sure they did everything so you can have a better life than them," Radia smiled at the boy’s distraught expression. "But someday, if you feel like you want to give up, just remember what your fathers had gone through, and what they were able to achieve because of their perseverance."

"And that perseverance," Han Joon pat the back of the boy’s head. "Is in your blood."

Kar clenched his hands on the table and nodded. "Yes, Uncle."

* * *

"Here they are, Young Master."

"Thank you," Byul whispered to the staff who brought him to the underground training floor. The staff nodded with a smile and left the boy on the door.

Carefully, so he wouldn’t disturb anyone, Byul tip-toed toward the staircase. It led to an arena below, and he could see his Uncle Joon and Kar had a combat practice there. He crouched on top of the stairs and peeked at them through the railing.

"Waah..."

As an unawakened, Byul rarely saw combat except inside the television. His mother was a businesswoman, and his father was a healer. Fights were far away from his life. So, when he looked at the movement of the two in the arena, he couldn’t help but stare in awe, even though he couldn’t really tell what was going on.

"Uncle and Hyung are so cool..." the boy whispered.

Just like that, he continued to watch wordlessly, as if the arena was a movie theater. In fact, he was so absorbed that he didn’t even realize he had already been there for more than an hour, and before he knew it, the training had stopped.

"Oh, if it isn’t our new middle schooler," Kar raised his brow when he saw Byul while climbing the stairs.

The boy, who just entered middle school that year, stood up. "Hyung!"

"You’re here alone?" Kar ruffled the boy’s dark hair in greeting.

"Noona is in Trinity with Appa," Byul replied. "But Mama has meetings with the company today, so I asked the driver to go here."

"Right on time for lunch," Kar nodded.

"Hehe..."

"Except that he’s been here for two hours already," Han Joon smirked, patting the boy’s head before walking past them to the basement door.

Byul pursed his lips in embarrassment. "Uhh..."

"Don’t expose him, Uncle."

"Heh," again, Han Joon smirked as he opened the door and beckoned the kids to go up.

Kar chuckled and offered his hand to the reddened boy. "Let’s go, Byul."

Taking the older boy’s hand, Byul grinned and followed them to the mansion, where the staff already prepared their lunch. He was once again fascinated by how much Kar could eat. The boy had thought the staff prepared too much food, but turned out, everything was for the growing teenager who had to spend a lot of physical and mental stamina every day.

No wonder Kar had grown even more from the last time Byul saw him. The boy was taller than Zein and almost as tall as Bassena after training for a year with Han Joon.

After they were done with lunch, Byul thought he would be able to see the cool fight again, but Han Joon shook his head. "There’s no training this afternoon."

"Oh, no!" Byul gasped. "If it’s because of me--"

"No, Byul," Han Joon ruffled his nephew’s hair. "I have somewhere else to be, and this guy had been training without rest even on weekends," he pinched the boy’s cheek. "You come at the right time."

"Really?"

"Well, I’m going to ask him to rest tomorrow, but since you’re here now--might as well, right?" Han Joon shrugged. ƒrēenovelkiss.com

This time, Kar narrowed his eyes. After all, he was rarely given time to rest before. "Really?"

"Boy, I also need a day off," Han Joon flicked Kar’s forehead. "Do you think old men don’t need to have a date? It’s been a long time since I went out with my darling."

After hearing the story about his parents, the boy went through his training harder than before, refusing a day off sometimes. Even rarely returned home. He grinned at the realization that he had been detaining his uncle. "Oops?"

For that, he received a bonk on his head before he could enjoy his half-day.