Chapter 181 : 

Episode 35 : Encounter (7) 

With the children hanging out on the beach and building large sand castles, it brought about a question to Frostina when she was watching them play happily.

"My liege and Mimi, what could possibly take them this long?" 

"Beats meow! Lil spider must be ranting for hours in front of my master." Behemoth responded, yawning and resting on a rock.

Snap!

A sudden pinch was what Behemoth perceived, sensing like his tail was being cut off in that moment. "Owwh! What the meow was that?!" 

When Behemoth was waving his tail around, the pinching sensation grew as it harmed his tail, causing him to move his tail toward him to find out who did it.

..The culprit was a crab..

"Why, you!? To do something like this to the almighty Behemoth! Meow!" Behemoth hissed before tossing the crab out with a swing of his tail.

Seeing as how the crab landed on the sand and immediately ran, Behemoth chased after it. "Don't you dare run! I am an expert at catching prey!" 

In the meantime, Frostina looked over to Behemoth for a bit before taking a peek at where the children were.

"They appear to be doing quite well." Said, Frostina. 

In just a few seconds, Behemoth soon got back from chasing after the crab, biting it with his mouth. "Meow..! Catch ya!" 

‘Fool.’ Frostina commented on Behemoth's thinking process.

What Frostina meant to say was that a crab was being held captive in the mouth of Behemoth, and..

Snap! Snap!!

..Like that, Behemoth got pinched in the nose by the crab, accidentally dropping it as it started to escape from him.

"Ah ha!" Behemoth exclaimed after using his paws to press on the crab, stopping it from moving away. 

"For hurting my precious nose, I'll eat you! Be appreciative of being eaten by me, small crab! For I am the almighty and brave Behemoth!"

Rustling..

Staring at a cat and a crab, Frostina looked indifferent and cold until she unexpectedly heard a sound coming from the forest.

"..? Impossible.." Frostina muttered before she realized the dilemma instantly. "My liege?"

In a blink of an eye, Frostina understood the situation when she had witnessed a fallen JoonChul being carried by another JoonChul.

Perhaps a clone of JoonChul's.

"Divide." Frostina mouthed out to Behemoth who had also noticed it as well.

"On it!"

The fleet-footed Behemoth made haste after kicking the crab into the ocean, rushing over to the children to persuade them to move far away from the area.

Chattering..

At some point, Mya was shocked while she questioned. "Blackie! Where are you going alone?"

"Is this a challenge?! Then let's chase after it!" Noel spoke eagerly.

"Noel, this isn't the time for that." Crystal uttered on behalf of Noelle. "But let's go either way!"

In no time, Mya and Noelle looked at Noel and Crystal who were running behind Behemoth in excitement before gazing at each other and laughed it off.

"Your brother is so active, Noelle." 

Even as Mya was talking, she was conscious of Noelle being deaf, and since Crystal was gone, Mya was trying to do hand gestures while speaking as well.

Noelle, embarrassed and gleeful of Mya's consideration, nodded with a nervous grin.

"We should hurry before they go far."

"Yes..!"

In the end, they all left the beach and had sprinted into the north side of the forest to follow behind Behemoth to look after him and retrieve him.

..it was all according to plan.

‘Yes, follow me, meow!’ Behemoth thought, looking behind him to find kids following him.

Thanks to Behemoth, the children wouldn't have the chance to notice the secret hiding within the east side of the forest, a secret that would cause a disruptive atmosphere if it were to be revealed.

..And nobody wants that.

Rustling~

After surveying the vicinity, Frostina sent a signal to JoonChul to say that the close is clear for Mirai and him to walk over to the ice ship.

Without further ado, one of JoonChul's clones who wasn't the one carrying the real JoonChul, walked forward to check the surroundings one more time.

When out of nowhere..

Swoosh!!

"Aaahhhh! Why are there so many hippos on this island!!? Gahhh!"

An unexpected scream accomplished with a girl making a run for it, passing by JoonChul when a bloat of hippopotamuses chased after her as if they were really trying to knock her out.

"Alaine! Stop running! They're just hippo! Not monsters!" Louis shouted to get the attention of the scared Alaine.

"Jesus Christ!! They're literal mammal killers! I'm basically running with my skill on, Louis!"

Right after Alaine, Louis hurried behind the herd of hippopotamuses, exclaiming to Alaine to make her stop and fight back instead of running around.

Sooner or later, Alaine, Louis and a dale of hippopotamuses entered the other side of the forest, causing confusion amongst the people who had watched this phenomenon.

Swish~

Frostina stared blankly, along with JoonChul and Mirai as well. They were obviously baffled by the pathetic sight they witnessed, and were utterly speechless.

They stood in sheer shock and eyes that were wishing they didn't laid their gazes on their teammates being stupid over hippopotamuses.

"Rai." Frostina called out.

Zap!

Striking like thunder, Raiden appeared with a snap, standing with a chuckle as he scratched his head. 

He literally had nothing to say about his pupil being frightened by mere animals when Alaine had already faced numerous creatures on different yet powerful calibers.

‘She isn't too mad over Alaine, is she? I can't let my disciple be in a bad relationship with my comrades! That would be very very horrific.’ Raiden thought with an anxious chuckle.

Right then and there, Raiden imagined Frostina to be raging right now, but she exceeded what he thought when she only spoke of one word.

"Divide." 

Only one word and Raiden's expression switched to a solemn one where he looked to be concerned as well as grave.

Through his sense, Raiden could sense that his sensei was in a critical condition, along with the devilish form of his.

‘How could his identity be revealed so soon?’ Raiden clenched his fists, furious over the person who forced JoonChul in that state.

Crackle!

Speed of lighting discharged into Raiden's legs before he flashed toward the direction where his pupil and Louis were, following the word Frostina had spoken of.

Why would both Behemoth and Raiden move the moment they heard the word 'divide'?

Because..

Code word, 'Divide' can only be used when Satan is forced to show his true form, and once it leaves someone's mouth, everyone of Satan's comrades would understand the situation and would always remove people from the area so that Satan's identity wouldn't be compromised. 

Fwoooshh~

"My liege." Frostina called out before she unraveled a snowflake breeze to cover the vicinity to further hide the fact of Satan's identity.

Everything was in the clear this time, which was why JoonChul's clones and Mirai had sprinted over to Frostina, lending Frostina the real body of Satan where his wounds had crystal clear light radiating from the injury.

Ignoring that his wings and horns were visual and weren't vanishing after a few minutes, meant that this was a serious injury that Satan sustained.

Mirai, feeling hurried and worried, told Frostina. "Big sis, please hide him somewhere safe in the ship! Onegai!" 

After that, Frostina nodded before gently lifting up the real body of JoonChul toward the inner deck of the ice ship, creating a whole new room with thick permafrost walls in the process.

Swish…

Before long, JoonChul was placed inside that enclosed room where Frostina had shut off any entrance to that one room, decreasing the chances of anyone encountering this.

And because it was an ice ship where one can see through, Frostina had already put that into consideration when she constructed that room.

Thanks to the permafrost walls, nobody would see or think there was a room to begin with, and the room was on the lower side of the ship where no one would go down there.

"My liege, was it that foolish human?" By 'foolish human', Frostina meant HwanGi. 

Putting that aside, Frostina had easily pieced together what may or may not occur with her liege, seeing as how the direction HwanGi went before JoonChul and Mirai went afterwards, and noticing that HwanGi didn't return with her comrades.

‘That fool must be the culprit, and.. to inflict such a wound onto my liege, it leaves only one thought.’ Frostina mused.

"A fool like him was a worthy wielder for the Excalibur? That's hard to believe."

Impressed by Frostina's cleverness, Mirai praised her. "As expected of big sis! You knew exactly what happened without anyone telling you! Sugoi!"

"I must be smart or else I won't be of much use to my liege, isn't that correct, my liege?" 

By and by, Frostina shifted her sight to the two JoonChuls before seeing each of them smiling and waving at her.

"You're already a big help, Frostina." One of the JoonChul said.

Mirai commented after spotting Frostina having a faint blush. "Captain! You're being too charming!"

"Charming? Me? With this heinous face? I doubt it."

"Hmph! You just don't know how handsome you are to us!"

"Ho? Even Rai thinks of me as handsome?"

"Eto.. I wouldn't know.. But of course, he would think you're handsome!"

"Haha. Alright, alright. I'm handsome."

During those two's conversation, Frostina came forward and asked JoonChul a good question. "What will we do now if a fool has vanished off? Must we tell the other humans and ice elves about this?"

"That would cause chaos among everyone. We can't allow them to be worried sick about 'H' in the middle of the stages."

Just to make sure, JoonChul is using 'H' as HwanGi because he wouldn't want anyone to eavesdrop and find this out, even if it was a slight chance.

By the way, Frostina understood it immediately. "Indeed, since that fool is no longer here, it will separate our guild with fools trying to find 'H'."

Eventually, Frostina asked JoonChul seriously. "My liege, must we look after these fools?"

"A promise is a promise."

"I see.." Frostina understood.

"The problem is.. How do we make it look like 'H' is here when he's not?" Mirai voiced her concerns as she took out a spare fan in her inventory.

[Imitation of ‘Morph’ Lv. 2 has been activated.]

[Imitation of ‘Acting’ Lv. 2 has been activated.]

"But I am here." 

"Eek!" Suddenly stunned by what she heard and saw, Mirai jolted back when she found HwanGi standing beside her. "Ah! Is this..?"

"How smart of you, my liege." Frostina complimented when she looked over to find there was only one clone of JoonChul.

"Thank you for the compliment." JoonChul smirked while checking to find certainty that the clone in the form of HwanGi was 100% perfect. 

"Sugoi! He really looks like 'H'!" Mirai gasped.

"Though, it would be difficult to act like him, I'll try my best to make it seem like 'H' as much as I can."

"Don't worry, captain! I'll keep an eye for you and stay beside you to help you in whatever situations the clone HwanGi might be in!"

"I'm sure you will, Mimi. But do call clone HwanGi as HwanGi, or else problems will arise."

"I understand~!"

"With the problems sorted out, should we pay attention to you, my liege?" Not avoiding that subject any longer, Frostina brought it up. 

"Hm?"

"You're in grave danger by the sword of Excalibur. It'll either take a couple of days or weeks, but if it's the worst possible outcome, I won't ever permit that to ever come about." 

"No need for that look, Frostina. I understand my condition very well to know I am perfectly fine."

"Whether that's true or not, I would prefer to see it with my own eyes."

"Alright, I knew you would say that. From what I can tell, my body may be able to manage somehow."

"Somehow isn't what I desire to hear, my liege. Mimi, could you use everything you got to increase my liege's recovery?"

Fully confident in her ability, Mirai quickly answered. "If it's within my abilities, then yes~!"

"Excellent, I'll hand you this frost key to give you access to my liege's room."

"Hai! I'll do my utmost to make captain better again. No matter what."

"I'll leave him to you."

‘Overprotective comrades of mine..’ Clone JoonChul sighed with a carefree smile at the kindness of his comrades.

Slowly but surely, clone JoonChul shifted his gaze toward clone HwanGi, searching for any inconsistency. ‘Appearance is no problem, but acting with his personality is troublesome.’

‘Knowing that HwanGi is nice is good enough, yet for me to pretend I am him..’

‘Truly taxing.’ Clone JoonChul let out a sigh.

Sooner or later, clone JoonChul had a thought as he remembered the scenery where he failed to defeat Michael.

Moment ago when he and Mirai were dealing with Michael, they were only met with utter defeat from Michael disappearing and flicking holy light to the surroundings.

‘I don't belong to them anymore. I'm a fallen angel, I am a devil, and I am Satan.’

With a touch to his chest, clone JoonChul could still perceive the holiness within him, clutching onto his chest as to reject the divinity.

 

‘..Michael..’ Clone JoonChul murmured.

Whoosh!!

Clone JoonChul reminds himself on and on before landing a punch onto clone HwanGi's face.

Anger devoured clone JoonChul as he didn't even know he had already punched clone HwanGi, but clone JoonChul wasn't bewildered at all while glancing at the fallen clone on the ground.

Witnessing clone JoonChul's engulfed with fury, Frostina reached her hand to the fist that once punched clone HwanGi, holding onto her liege's hand as tight as possible to ease his frustration. 

Eventually, Frostina surrounded the clone JoonChul with a cooling breeze as she informed him. "My liege, rage aside, it wouldn't be wise to let it all out by punching a clone. It might dissolve if it receives sufficient damage." 

"..." Clone JoonChul stared at clone HwanGi, irides shaking in a fit of rage.

Not finding any result from this..

"My liege." Frostina let go of his hand before going for his face, moving his head to look at only her. "Calm yourself."

"..!"

Until a minute passed, calming and shutting his eyes to regain his composure, clone JoonChul took a deep breath when he laid his hands on Frostina's hands.

When clone JoonChul had cooled himself down enough, Frostina asked. "Are you alright?" 

Upon opening his eyes, clone JoonChul etched a faint grin on his face. "How could I not when I have you comforting me? Yes, I am fine."

"Excellent." She smiled faintly.

While they were doing their things, Mirai was standing with a pout, not enjoying this sight in the slightest. ‘Hmp..’

Making such a cute face, Mirai pouted until her cheeks turned cherry red. ‘Why do they look so cute together~!?’