Chapter 184 :

Episode 36 : Upskilling (3)

At 4PM, the weapon training that ‘The Rebels’ Guild was undertaking, was over for the day, lending time for them to do their daily needs.

On the right side of the ice ship, the water was crowded with ladies who were taking a bath there.

Wearing swimsuits that Mirai had specially made for them, the ladies from ‘The Rebels’ Guild were having a great time hanging out and easing their muscles from the workout they did earlier.

Splash!!

Along with the splashes of water, Alaine cheered as she was having fun swimming in the water. "Woo! The water is just right! Haha!"

"Sister Alaine, ah! You're getting water on my face." Mya giggled, using her arm to block the splashes.

Meanwhile, Noelle, smiling and laughing quietly, swayed the water at Mya's direction before diving down to hide.

Without a doubt, Mya wasn't aware after she got wet because of Noelle. "Gah! Who did that?"

"Definitely wasn't me, Mya!" Alaine claimed.

"Really?"

"Hey! It wasn't me! Ah, Mya. Stop it, haha!"

Mistakenly thinking it was Alaine, Mya spattered a handful of water at Alaine before swimming away from her.

"Oh no, you don't, little girl!" Delightful, Alaine spoke while swimming fast to catch up with Mya.

..Splash!!!

"Ehhhhh!?!!" Shocked as she should be, Alaine felt a sudden touch on her legs, getting dragged underwater right after.

In the end, Noelle was the one who popped out from where Alaine had submerged into the water, stunning Mya who had watched this sight.

"Did you do that, Elle?" Mya giggled, swimming toward Noelle.

..Splatter!!

All of the sudden, Alaine emerged out of the water with a huge splash which flabbergasted both Mya and Noelle who found themselves in front of a small wave coming their way.

"Eek! Sister Alaine!!" Mya exclaimed before getting crushed by the wave.

Alaine, entertained and thrilled, uttered loud and clear. "Haha! This is what you girls get for teaming up on me~!"

"Haa!!"

Sooner or later, Mya's head surfaced to the water swiftly, grumbling and pouting at Alaine. "But sister Alaine is a big girl while we're the little girls."

"Yeah! That's right! You little girls better be prepared! Muhaha~!" Alaine was certainly having an incredible time joking and playing with Mya and Noelle.

While Noelle, Mya and Alaine were enjoying themselves, there was Crystal who was just floating on water like a feather, watching everything that had happened.

Later on, Crystal sighed. "If only there were snacks for me to chew on while I watch these ladies, that would be relaxing."

At that point, Crystal sighed again as she just went with the flow, wandering randomly around because of the wavering water.

Thud!

"Hm? Who did I bump into?" Crystal said, opening her eyes to witness something she didn't want to see.

The person Crystal gently knocked into was Frostina who was finding comfort within the warm water and was far from any disturbances and noises caused by Mya, Noelle and Alaine.

Eventually, Crystal averted her eyes elsewhere to avoid having to glance at two cabbages referring to Frostina's chest.

‘I'm being delusional! I'm so hungryyy that I'm seeing things!’ Crystal covered her eyes, softly pressing her foot onto Frostina's arm before launching herself somewhere far from Frostina.

During this, Frostina was staring at Crystal who was getting close to floating toward Mya's, Noelle's and Alaine's play area.

"Big sis, are you enjoying yourself? Then.. Do you want a massage?" Swimming forward, Mirai smiled blissfully while talking to Frostina.

With a slight grin, Frostina nodded to Mirai.

"Heh~ I'll make you feel sleepy, big sis. So you shouldn't be shocked if you fall asleep~"

As per her words, Mirai went ahead and rested her gentle hands onto Frostina's shoulders, pressing and massaging Frostina with great care to her skin.

Rustling…

Out of nowhere, Frostina asked Mirai, speaking with a tone of seriousness and concerns. "Are you not worried about my liege?"

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"Of course, I would be worried~! Captain is severely injured! Not only that, he even encountered 'her'."

"Would you believe it if I state that my liege may be storing his wrath deep down?"

"..Oh." Mirai stopped massaging as though she was trying to find the words to say to Frostina. "Captain.. He.. must be very enraged."

"..Yes."

"I couldn't do anything to help captain.. Why am I so weak? I could have done more than just collect droplets of holy blood.."

While Mirai was speaking to Frostina, the former's hands tightened onto the latter's shoulders, showing great frustration and uselessness from just the tight grips.

‘I do understand you, Mimi. I too feel helpless. You were by his side while I was standing idly on the beach.’ Frostina thought after she closed her eyes to make it seem like she was trying to deny reality.

‘I might have stopped my liege from punching the HwanGi clone, but it isn't enough to ease him. I mostly interrupted his vent.’

‘What a fool I am.’ Frostina's hands that once calmed down her liege, were now clenched.

Before long, Frostina slowly opened her eyes to finally accept the reality, noticing that Mirai was restarting the massage.

When silence came saturating the moment, Frostina and Mirai stayed quiet as they did whatever they wanted without speaking a word.

Rustling…

For that lengthy and awkward silence, Frostina and Mirai both spiritually understood that the atmosphere had gotten too gloomy.

Slowly but surely, the two were withered away by the downcast thoughts of incompetence toward their beloved captain/liege, expressing their dispirit in their own ways right this moment.

In time, Frostina blankly looked at the reflection of her cold and pale white face on the water, worrying about her liege as a frown formed faintly.

‘..How infatuated must my liege be feeling right now?’

———

On the other side where the ice ship was acting as a wall to block anyone from looking, the beach on the left was filled to the brim with ‘The Rebels’ Guild's men and the uncomfortable atmosphere that arrived with them.

Whoosh~

There was nothing but men minding their things and not bringing up a subject to converse about.

..Why?

Because clone JoonChul's and Louis' relationship was one-sidedly conflicting to describe, and since they chose not to talk to each other after their training, they both remained quiet and far from each other.

Noel is on the edge of the beach, and because he doesn't know how to swim, he was taking his time learning it properly.

And half of the reason being he was in a grumpy mood because of his tutor, Frostina.

On the other hand, there were clone HwanGi and Raiden.

Aside from clone HwanGi who was also clone JoonChul, he didn't bother to utter a word and just enjoyed the water as much as he could.

Raiden was a pitiful man who was in between the silence and dismaying ambience by himself.

Even though there was Behemoth who was staying very close to Raiden's head, not moving an inch or else he would descend to the depth of the threatening water he despised so much of, Behemoth didn't talk that much..

"Meow! The water that made me seasick, is my enemies!" Behemoth declared, hissing at the water.

..Unless it was about water.

In the end, Raiden had no options to leave because he wanted to be engulfed by the warmth of the sea and be satisfied by the water washing him clean.

..But how can Raiden enjoy such a moment when the atmosphere wasn't right for it?

Bright and breezy, Raiden asked with a zestful smile. "So Louis Kun, how was your training? Did you feel that you have some improvement to your trident mastery?"

"It was nothing. Just complicated." Louis replied without a breath of energy.

"Uh huh, anything else?"

"No."

"Oh, alright. It looks like you need time to think about something, so I'll just be quiet."

In any case..

‘It's too awkward!!’ Raiden grovelled inwardly.

Even for the friendly and active Raiden, he couldn't soften the atmosphere by just starting a conversation.

There is only one option left..

Raiden had only his Sensei to have a chit chat with, removing clone HwanGi because as always, it's just clone JoonChul in disguise of HwanGi.

Nonetheless, it would be more convincing if Raiden were to talk to clone HwanGi to make it seem natural as though the real HwanGi hadn't disappeared.

However..

Raiden pondered. ‘It's already bothersome for Sensei to act like HwanGi Kun who has the opposite ideas and nature as him. I wouldn't want to trouble Sensei.’

‘But it would appear somewhat suspicious. I also wouldn't want that to happen and waste Sensei's effort in hiding the fact that HwanGi had vanished.’

Sooner or later, Raiden was having a hard time choosing between speaking with clone HwanGi or conversing with clone JoonChul.

‘It's back to square one..’ Raiden let out a distressed sigh.

In due course, Raiden unexpectedly spotted his sensei doing something with his hands, observing him closely until Raiden figured out what his sensei was attempting to do.

‘So Sensei is preparing himself for 'that'. I can't wait to listen to it once more. Time and time again, it still lingers in my head and would never leave..’

Raiden sorrowfully grinned before closing his eyes to reimagine that one scene where his Sensei performed a masterpiece.

‘Is this his way of decreasing his anger by replacing it with despair instead? How sad…’

While Raiden took a despondent glimpse at clone JoonChul, the former watched the latter moving his hands in a way that was playing a certain instrument.

More accurately, it seemed to be a violin his sensei was playing in the air..

‘I remembered that sensei told me that the music wasn't his, and that made me admire him more.’

‘Someone who wouldn't claim other's art as theirs, is someone who I can follow with confidence.’

‘What was that song's title again? I can't seem to remember. Uh..’

No ideas on what the title of the music his sensei played, Raiden began to mumble the lyrics quietly to himself. "And I swear that I'm not gonna lose you now.."

"I keep you in my life somehow." With a deep longing tone, Louis sang along with Raiden.

To Raiden's surprise, he didn't expect Louis to know the lyrics, but then again, it was originally from Earth, so the chances of Louis knowing this song is high.

Out of nowhere, clone HwanGi proceeded to sing along as well. "And even when the lights go down, down."

"I could never lose you now." Clone JoonChul sang before shifting his anguish gaze at the wide ocean.

As shocked as Raiden was, he looked at Louis who was also stunned by the three men, commenting. "I didn't know you guys knew this song."

Clone JoonChul averted his glance back at Louis, putting up a pretentious smile. "It has deep meaning to me."

"..? I'm sorry."

"I don't need your pity. This is what life is where people can disappear when you least expect it."

"Still, don't you feel sad? I know how you feel.. I also lost my sister to cancer, and I still couldn't cope with that fact."

"You only lost one where I had lost much more."

"It's true that I lost one, but wouldn't the feeling of losing someone stay the same?"

Quiet clone JoonChul went before he speedily changed the subject. "Weren't you furious because of me earlier? Why are you suddenly talking to me? Did my apology work?"

"JoonChul, I am still furious. But I can't stay mad at someone who was singing with a heart wrenching voice and an expression that was melancholic to look at."

From what Louis had spoken, clone JoonChul exhaled a sigh before splashing water onto his face to refresh himself.

During this, Louis slowly started to rethink the things he had thought of JoonChul, but he currently wasn't sure anymore of what he would imagine JoonChul to be.

In the end, Louis uttered. "Who knew you had this side of yours."

"It's obvious I do. I'm more human than you."

Although JoonChul is a devil, he's lived lives as a human countless times and experienced things that a human wouldn't imagine.

..So that makes him human, right?

"Oh! I recalled the title now! It's ‘Lose You Now’!" Elated, Raiden named the song all of them were singing earlier. "Am I right? Or am I wrong?"

"You're right. That's the song." Louis responded. "It's one of my favorites and not many people know about it. You didn't know how shocked I was when I found out you guys heard this song."

"Really?! How come? This song is such a masterpiece and.." Raiden's expression slowly looked crestfallen. "..Meaningful.."

Shortly after, clone JoonChul spoke. "A masterpiece is a masterpiece to you, but not to others."

"Well said, JoonChul." Louis agreed for once. "I wish there was a piano here. I could let the kids listen to that song while they sleep."

"One instrument wouldn't do much without the other necessary instruments."

"Yes, I know that."

At that moment, Raiden witnessed the sight of Louis and JoonChul talking comfortably to each other for once.

Not only that, the awkward atmosphere that Raiden wished to eliminate was gone completely.

Enough to brighten Raiden's day and raise the moment of peace in the sea that Raiden so desired.

"A job well done to me." Raiden sparkled in content.

Whoosh~!

"What did I miss?" Noel, still in a bad mood, grumbled. "And uncle Raiden, why do you look so happy? I didn't miss something fun, did I?!"

"No, no. Nothing happened."

After finally knowing to swim, Noel was looking forward to some fun time in the sea. "If that's so.. Then! Give me the kitty! I want to play with it in the water!"

"Well.. He wouldn't like it."

"Blackie sure would like it if I take it for a swim!"

"No, no, no. He really doesn't like it!"

SPLASH!

"Wow! Noel! Please stop it!" Raiden cried out as Noel was trying to climb on the former's body to get to Behemoth.

"This is fun!"

"Really now?" Raiden chuckled before chucking Noel into the water.

Realizing that he had tossed Noel into the direction where his sensei was, Raiden panicked a little bit when he saw the water splashed into clone JoonChul as well as Louis.

Clone JoonChul spoke slowly which sounded very menacing to Raiden. "What is this, Rai?"

"Sensei.. You see! I was playing around with Noel."

SPLASH!!!

At that moment, clone JoonChul went silent for a bit until he raised his hand up and slammed it down to form a huge splash toward Raiden.

And just in case, clone JoonChul grabbed Noel out of the water to make sure he wasn't drowning.

"Sensei!" Raiden exclaimed in excitement as water splashed into him. "I can do better!"

Splassssh!!!

"Oiiii! Don't leave me outta this!" Noel sneered as he swam and splashed along the way.

In the meantime, Louis and clone HwanGi just watched two grown men and one teen hanging out in the sea.

‘Should I join?’ Louis thought, leaning on the 'no' side of his question. "Haha.. Never mind."