Chapter 036 - Family

Ales walks out of his room and greets his little sister who is taking off her shoes. She's still in her summer school uniform, a white blouse with red tie and a simple black skirt.

"Oh, you're home. Welcome back, Elsa."

"Yeah," Elsa replies mindlessly at first.

"Huh..." Elsa realizes the situation and turns her head to look at Alex.

"Ah... B... Big Bro! You're back!" Elsa stammers and shouts in surprise seeing her big brother that she hasn't seen for almost a month.

"Yeah, I'm back," Alex displays a smug smile, happy that he managed to surprise his little sister.

"W... When did you get back?" Elsa asks, still agitated from the surprise.

"I got back this afternoon. You and mom weren't home, so I just went straight to my room and wait for you and mom," Alex replies still with a smile.

"Ah, I see," Elsa replies while her eyes start tearing up.

"Ah... Please don't cry. I'm sorry to have made you and mom worried," Alex gets flustered when he sees his little sister is about to start crying.

"I... I'm not crying," Elsa pouts while trying to wipe her eyes with her right hand.

"Haha..." Alex pats his little sister's head while laughing.

"Come on, let your awesome big brother tells you about my adventure while we wait for mom to come home," Alex starts bragging to try and cheer up his sister.

"Haha... Okay, awesome big bro," Elsa starts cheering up.

Alex starts telling Elsa stories about his adventures. Of course he tells her an edited version that made it sounds like he had an easy time inside the Realm of Defenders. He doesn't tell her about his advancement to the E-rank. It's best that his family knows as little as possible to not make them worry too much. After around 15 minutes of story-telling, the front door opens once again.

"Ah, big bro... Looks like mom's back. Let's greet her first. She will be glad that you're back," Elsa interrupts Alex's story.

"Yeah, let's go," Alex replies with a smile.

Elsa starts running ahead of her brother and starts shouting at her mother.

"Mom... Look who's back!"

Their mother is taking off her shoes. As she realizes what Elsa means, she looks towards Elsa and then she turns her eyes to look towards the figure on the back walking towards her.

"Welcome home, mom," Alex greets her mother with a wide smile.

"Ah... A... Alex?!" Erina replies with her eyes starting to tear up.

She runs towards her son and hugs him tightly.

"Wel... Welcome home," Erina welcomes her son with her cracking voice.

Alex just stays silent. He just hugs his mother back.

After a short while, they separated and Erina starts to calm down.

"I'm glad you're well. When did you get back?"

"Ah, big bro came back this afternoon. He was telling me the story about his adventures in the Realm of Defenders right before you came home," Elsa answers for her big brother.

"I see. Well, it's about time for dinner. You guys better get cleaned up first to get ready for dinner," Erina commands her two children.

"But, I want to hear big bro finishes his story," Elsa tries to persuade her mother to let her hear the rest of Alex's story.

"You can continue the story later. Now go get cleaned up first while I prepare dinner," Erina replies with a stare towards Elsa.

"Ah... Mom... I want to take out us for a nice dinner tonight," Alex interrupts her mother.

Elsa who was staring down after her mother scolded her a moment ago snaps her head upwards and starts cheering.

"Woaahh... Let's go eat outside. I want sushi!"

"But..." Erina shows a reluctant expression.

"Please, mom. Don't worry about money, I got some money after coming out of the Realm of Defenders. Take this as a welcome home party for me," Alex starts pleading to his hesitating mother.

"Please... Mom..." Elsa shows a begging expression.

Erina looks towards her children and sighs.

"Okay, let's go out and eat sushi tonight."

"Yaay! I love you mom," Elsa jumps up in joy and starts hugging her mother.

"You should thank your big bro," Erina smiles towards this cute daughter of her.

"Haha... Thank you, big bro. I love you," Elsa changes the target of her hug towards her big brother.

"Haha..." Alex can only laugh while looking at his cheerful little sister.

Alex can feel the constant stress he felt due to the pressure from the Realm of Defenders starts to melt away. Despite his rapid advancement and constant power up, he still had to face a life and death situation almost every day inside that realm. Other than it being a physical burden, it was also a huge pressure on him mentally.

He's still a 15-year-old teenager, facing this unknown world by himself. It was, of course, his decision to do this, so he doesn't utter a single word of complaint. But, it doesn't change the fact that the burden on him is huge. It's nice to be able to return home and recharge his mental energy and focus for a few days before going back to the high-pressure environment inside the Realm of Defender.

Alex took his family out to a nice sushi restaurant a few blocks from their apartment building. He retold the story about his adventure inside the Realm of Defenders. Of course, he still told them the edited version in order to not made them worry for him. Elsa kept praising her big bro on the way to the restaurant and back because they were able to ride the hyperloop capsule for free.

After they got back from the restaurant, Alex told his mother that he would transfer money to her account to help take care of their family. Her mother told him to not worry about it. But, after Alex's insistence, his mother gave up and let him transferred the money. Alex transferred $1,700 to her account and only kept around $100 for himself. Erina was surprised by this amount. It's still less than what she usually made in a month, but it's not too far off. She could only imagine how hard his son had to struggle to earn that much money. Of course, Alex didn't realize that him giving his mother money only made his mother worried about him more than before.

Alex now sits in his room after spending the whole evening with his family. It's now time for him to continue probing the mysterious ring his father left him.