Chapter 157 :

Episode 32 : Value What One Has (2)

After getting rescued by JoonChul and being brought to the surface of the next floor, HwanGi stood by himself, avoiding others to collect his thoughts for a moment.

[Stage #17 has ended.]

[Stage 17's reward—

"Close."

HwanGi, not finding it to be the right time for this, shut off the panels and received his rewards without any noise clouding his mind.

"I wasn't in my right mind when I almost sacrificed myself.. That feeling that desired me to save others, why did it happen at that moment?"

As he remembered the time where his eyes started to trick his vision and headaches paining him, HwanGi began to wonder if that was a mere coincidence.

"But one thing for sure, I wouldn't want my friends to be injured in any way, so I would have done the same thing even without that feeling."

Murmuring to himself, HwanGi was staring blankly at the floor before he had closed his eyes.

Eventually, HwanGi proceeded to question himself if his action was right, using JoonChul's words as guidance. "Yet, was it a mistake to save others?"

"I just can't sit still when the people around me are suffering."

"..It almost feels like my rotten luck is the cause of the troubles that have appeared lately."

Clank..

Slowly but surely, HwanGi's sword that was being pulled off from his sheath, was reflecting his conflicted expression on the blade quite clearly.

Seeing his face up close, he wasn't fazed by his handsomeness as he just gazed with a disinterested look on him.

In no time, while observing his face as it meant nothing, he sneakily shifted the blade to reveal who was behind.

When he found the reflections to show Louis and Alaine who were showing concern for him, despite them having frostbite everywhere on their bodies and equipment, they expressed their worries to him in this situation.

Which made HwanGi beam a faint smile as though he was glad they cared about him.

‘If I were to die, would their worried expressions worsen to despair?’ He thought, turning his smile into a frown.

After shaking his head to get rid of those negative thoughts for now, HwanGi moved his blade to the left where JoonChul's comrades were.

Looking at them for a second until he was immediately caught off guard by their eyes locking on him the moment he stared at the blade.

Flinched and startled, he pondered. ‘They are still as amazing as always.’

In the end, he had moved the blade again and found the reflection to be JoonChul leaning on the chilly wall, crossing his arms as if he was mad about something.

HwanGi frowned, dispirited. "Of course, he's furious. Even with his calm expression, I know he's still mad at me.."

After all he was doing now was to ignore the things that had happened earlier, he noticed himself to be drowned with those thoughts again.

"Ah.."

The things that popped up most inside his mind, was the nickname from his childhood.

"Hans. I haven't heard my nickname in a while."

A nickname that his childhood friend used not quite often, was something precious to HwanGi.

What's more precious though, was his one and only childhood friend, Sans.

"I hope the one who called me that, is truly Sans."

For all that, he was reminded of how pathetic he was to be talking about that during the time of being saved by JoonChul, making himself look like a fool who was talking nonsense while in a crisis.

"That was embarrassing." HwanGi flustered.

Nonetheless, he couldn't even blame himself for that because his hope for his childhood friend to be close to him again was too overwhelming.

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Afterwards, HwanGi mumbled as he sheathed his sword, unaware that JoonChul was secretly staring at him at the end.

"JoonChul-ssi, I know you're selfish and villainous, but you're only trying to care for your friends, and since you also care about Alaine, Mya and Louis, you even made me look after them."

Without delay, HwanGi immediately shook his head from those false words that left his mouth.

As though he only spoke those words to not hate possibly his childhood friend, HwanGi started thinking.

"There's no point in thinking he's my childhood friend."

"It will only lead to disappointment if I keep on thinking about it. Plus, it already caused me to think stupidly right in front of JoonChul-ssi when he was rescuing me."

"I'm truly a fool as per Frostina's word."

———

Currently tapping the messages about the stage's completion and compensation, I was getting annoyed and losing most of my energy while I received my reward.

"I'm stressed."

I sighed all my leftover energy out while I leaned on the icy wall of this big and wide temple.

"Why do I always feel tired whenever it's about HwanGi?"

"Ha.. That imbecile."

Because of him, I had to give my guild a very short break to recover in which I didn't want to.

If we were to idly stay and recover, then we would lose our chances at getting good items from the next stage.

In addition, I can't allow any players to pass through the boss room of the final stage of this world.

As a result of Noelle being a vassal, I couldn't afford to waste time to the point where players would easily go to the boss room and defeat the boss.

If they did, then..

‘It would be too late for Noelle..’

Thud!

‘Damnit! Why does trouble always come to me?!’ I thought after smacking the wall behind me to vent my frustrations.

"My stress is building up too much."

Slow and steady resting my eyes for a moment, I spotted Behemoth walking toward me before he called for me.

"Master! Master!"

"Is there something you need? A fish? Or milk? Which one?"

Gasped, Behemoth seemed shocked. "Is Master being nice to me??"

"..."

So, the cause for him to be surprised was my sudden kindness? Was that a joke?

I felt slightly irritated when I responded to him. "What? When have I ever not been kind?"

"Nothing, meow! I only came to make sure Master is fine."

"As you can see that I'm not."

All of the sudden, someone joined in during my conversation with a cat, but as I was too tired to even bother to look, I didn't know who it was until I heard her voice.

"Of course, Captain is tired. Why would he be standing here alone while looking like he could collapse at any minute?"

..It was my cute comrade, Mirai.

And as usual, Behemoth hissed until he began to create yet another quarrel with Mirai. "Haa! Yeah right! I knew the moment I saw him!"

"Is that so~? Fufufu~!"

"What is with that creepy laugh?"

‘Ha.. I can't deal with this.’ Sighing a long one, I removed myself from those two before things got any worse.

Upon walking straight forward, I couldn't help but feel a rush of fatigue overflowing my head.

Whether it was because my plan almost screwed up from just one guy, or it could be that I'm overworking myself after waking up from resurrection.

‘Or maybe both..’

Nevertheless, I must never give myself a long break since I have a lot of work to do by planning out the future.

If I ease up even a little, my laziness will devour me completely and my plans might fall apart all at once.

‘Master, should I deposit some of your memories inside me?’ Lucifer asked me as though he was concerned about my mentality.

"This is a normal routine for me, so no need."

‘...’

His silence told me what I needed to know, from his anxiety to his displeasure of my stubbornness.

"Ha." I chuckled to relieve my stress.

Chatter! Chatter!

Sooner or later, I could hear Mirai's and Behemoth's argument from here despite being so far away from them.

"Why hasn't anyone stopped them?"

I let out a slightly annoyed chuckle from watching them fighting before opening up my inventory to get something.

Whoosh!

In an instance, I grabbed what I needed and tossed them toward Behemoth's direction, wishing for these to at least prevent my two comrades from causing such a huge headache for me.

By the way, those things that I had thrown, were raw fish. It would be enough to keep him quiet instead of bellowing.

"Mrow! Fish!"

In my sight, a hungry cat was caught chasing the fish that I had thrown, and I couldn't understand why it seemed so funny at the same time.

I laughed, feeling my stress to be relieved faintly. "Pfft."

———

After a few minutes, the other half of ‘The Rebels’ guild were being treated by Mirai, warming them up with a campfire for now.

"..It was cold." Groaned, Alaine shivered with all her body wrapped with her fur coat.

Louis, who was keeping Mya warm, had a hardened expression on his face when he took a look at Mya's pale face. "I hope she's okay.."

"She'll be fine since Mirai is treating her, but you should care about yourself more, Louis!"

"No, I must put Mya first."

"Your health comes first too. Just take a look at your arms, they're freezing!"

"I shouldn't be worried about myself. But you, on the other hand, should be taking care of your frozen fleshy arm."

"..How did you know?! Ah, I mean, it's fine! I am perfectly alright."

In that moment, Louis exhaled a sigh before averting his gaze toward Alaine, staring straight at her. "..Alaine."

Dumbfounded by how serious Louis's eyes looked, Alaine flinched when she heard her name through Louis's lips.

"Y-Yes?"

By and by, the solemn looks that Louis gave to Alaine, turned to that of displeasure as he uttered his worries.

"I have seen this so many times, but I haven't noticed you try to take care of your body or yourself."

"..I."

When words couldn't leave Alaine's lips, she expressed her inability to give her honest response to Louis, and that was why she just denied his words.

"Ehh? I usually look after my health whenever I have the chance, so don't worry about meh." She smiled faintly.

Not buying it, Louis narrowed his glance and replied to her. "You always kept your pain inside, I can see it clearly."

"Ah shuck! You're just seeing things, Louis."

"Is it because you were abused?"

"..."

As if Louis had spoken something he shouldn't have and forgotten about their promise of not talking about their pasts, he had covered his mouth instantly when he regretted what he said.

Without expecting it, once Louis' glance was on Alaine, he spotted her looking all perplexed and frightened.

For a talkative person, Alaine at this moment wasn't answering or saying a single word, she only appeared to be emptied and speechless.

‘..I shouldn't have said that..’ Louis regretfully thought to himself.

Without wasting a second, he apologized sincerely to Alaine. "I am sorry for asking a sensitive question, Alaine.."

"..Huh? I don't need an apology."

"It's my fault for getting out of line with my words."

"It's fine, Louis. Anyways, I'm heading somewhere for a second."

"Come back soon, okay?"

Waving to her as she left this area for a bit, Louis sighed again and again, as a result of knowing he screwed up really badly.

"Dang it.. Way to go, Louis." He grunted as he ruffled up his hair.

After a moment of messing up his hair, Louis stared down at the icy floor with a blank gaze, wondering about Alaine.

‘It was the second time she looked that depressed..’

‘I should have kept my mouth shut.. Why did I have to do that..’

Again, another sigh left Louis's lips. ‘Your big brother is a fool when it comes to girls, isn't he? Lil sister..’

"..."

Out of the blue, the one in between his arms soon awoke from her nap. "Brother Louis..?"

"Mya! Thank god, you're okay!"

Waking up from her nap, she was greeted with a warm hug by Louis before she grinned tiredly at him.

..That grin didn't last long though.

"Brother Louis.. Why am I weak?"

"...?!??"

Baffled as to hear that exited from Mya's lips, Louis let Mya go from his embrace as he took a close look at her, only to find a downcast frown on her face.

"That.. you shouldn't say that about yourself, Mya. Because you're not weak at all."

"Even after I got almost frozen and ruined the whole plan? Uncle JoonChul must be so mad at me right now."

"You were not the only one who was freezing at that point, even I would have fainted a few seconds later since half of my body was entirely icy-cold. And no, JoonChul wouldn't be blaming you for this."

"..Brother Louis, is that a lie? A lie to make me feel better?"

"...No."

At that moment, Mya could feel the hesitation from Louis's response that was why she was pretending to smile.

With a fake grin, she uttered to him. "...So it was. But thank you, brother Louis."

Displeased at the fact that he couldn't do anything to comfort Mya, Louis frowned and caressed Mya's head softly, watching her smiling with such a disheartened expression.

Reminded of his deceased sister, Louis clenched his hand with an unpleasant glance. ‘What am I supposed to do, lil sis? Mya had lost her courage because of that stage..’

Asking for his deceased sister for help, Louis's eyes showed so much pain from watching Mya being this way.

‘And for her to think she said she's weak when in the past she spoke she would train to be stronger..’

‘..It hurts to see Mya this way.’ Louis bit his lip, feeling too grief-stricken. ‘Merde!’