Chapter 128 :

Episode 27 : Back in Action (2)

"Mya.. How did you survive that moment where you were crushed?" Louis asked Mya while he was getting treated by Mirai.

Mya who was crouching down and taking a closer look at the flowers, stood up from her spot. "Which one?"

"..Which?! Eek..!" 

When Louis heard that, his body jumped out of flexibility which caused Mirai to mistreat his back. 

And without a doubt, Mirai warned Louis as she tried to fix the mistake she made, slowly sprouting her strings from her fingers. 

"Don't move or else you'll have a bent backbone." 

"R-Right.." Louis responded back nervously.

After that, Louis's nose picked up a relaxing scent radiating from where Mya was. So naturally out of curiosity, Louis turned his glance back to Mya, suddenly discovering her in front of him with her hands behind her.

It appeared as if she was shy about the object she was trying to hide from Louis, making Louis wonder if that something she was hiding was a good or bad thing.

"What is it, Mya?" Louis smiled, attempting to take a peek at her back to find out what the object was.

And as may be expected, Mya noticed him quickly before he could discover the gift she was going to hand over to Louis.

"D-Don't look!" Mya stuttered.

"Huh?" 

"Please close your eyes.. I don't want you to see my gift just yet."

‘So it was a present. Phew, for a second there, I thought it might be something horrible.' Louis sighed for a bit before closing his eyes.

In fact, Louis was still concerned about Mya, whatever she does now, made Louis more anxious by the seconds which was why he was keeping his eyes on her at all times.

Mya muttered. "Erm.."

After a short moment, Mya proceeded to place something on Louis's head which led him to believe it was a hat or possibly something else.

‘What could it be? And… Why does Mirai's strings feel so ticklish? I might actually start laughing!’ 

Louis pondered, holding back his laughter when he was also feeling Mirai's strings attached to his waist. As he was sensitive to Mirai's strings, Louis was nearly close to letting out a chuckle from his trembling mouth.

In a blink of an eye, Louis bit his lower lip to hold back his laughter as best as he could, since he didn't want to hurt Mya's feelings.

‘Urgh.. Don't laugh. Don't! Not when Mya is giving me a gift! It would look like I'm laughing at her present if I were to laugh right now!’

As he unpleasantly waited for Mya to finish putting whatever her gift was on Louis's head, Mirai seemed to have noticed Louis's sensitivity to her threads.

"Heh." Mirai giggled soundlessly to herself as she noticed how pitiful this boy really was. ‘Not only did he get his face torn off by Behemoth's claws, he also received quite a terrible back pain.’

‘He's a very unlucky boy.’ Mirai giggled again behind Louis's back. ‘Or is he lucky since I'm here to aid him?’

Somehow, Louis felt like Mirai was thinking badly about him or was it just his imagination?

Afterwards, he heard Mya's voice. "All done! Whoa, brother Louis looks so awesome!"

"Then, can I open my eyes now?" Louis asked.

"Of course!"

Finally opening back his eyes, Louis was met with a blade in front of his face. For a second there, Louis was shocked to see a dagger in his sight until he discovered it was Alaine who pulled her dagger out.

‘Don't tell me she is still angry about that time?’ Louis gulped, staring at Alaine's teasing face.

Giggling, Alaine asked Louis who was looking directly at her. "Pfft. Aren't you going to look at yourself, flower boy?"

"Flower boy..??" 

In due course, Louis shifted his gaze back on Alaine's blade to see his reflection. Looking at what Mya's gift was, Louis was stunned by Mya's craftsmanship.

"A flower crown? This is beautiful, Mya." 

Louis complimented Mya's art as he was beaming a grin on his face to show how much he loved Mya's present.

All of a sudden, Mya shook her hands and head before grabbing onto Alaine's hand, saying this. 

"Sister Alaine helped me with this! She learned how to do it while in Phase 3 of the event! She's so talented, isn't she?"

Taken aback, Louis replied after a short period of time from dazing at Alaine. "Yes, she definitely is talented."

Alaine blushed in amazement by Louis's words as she turned her head away and left the area to hide her flustered face.

She wasn't alone though. 

After Alaine left, Louis's cheeks began to change colors, blushing from the fact that he actually complimented Alaine, along with him noticing Alaine's red cheeks.

‘Oh flowers.. This is bad for me. Having a crush in this situation is not good, is it?’ 

Lowering his face down as he tried to deny his feelings for Alaine, Louis took a deep breath. Before hearing Mirai's voice, Louis felt that his waist was entirely covered by threads.

Mirai smiled as she spoke. "This will do for now. Your back will be fine in a matter of minutes. But do get some rest for your health." 

Eventually, Mirai stood upright after she was done with wrapping her ‘Miracle Web’ on Louis's back. Prompting Louis to get back on his feet as he gave his body a stretch to ease his muscles.

When Louis felt his body as good as new, he quickly waved his hand toward Mirai who was walking back to her comrades.

And gave his thanks to her. "Thank you, Mirai!"

Though Mirai halted her steps for a moment, she didn't turn back nor respond to Louis. Either way, at least Louis managed to say his thanks.

Afterwards, Louis took out his shirt from his inventory and wore it to cover himself, since all this time while he was being treated, he was actually bare chested.

"So Mya, shall we talk about how you survive that crash?" Louis asked Mya.

Mya, seeming as though she was daydreaming, snapped out of it after hearing Louis's question.

"Uhm.. I was saved by my amulet!" Mya answered blissfully.

"Really? How so??"

"Because my amulet is my mom's, it's like a lucky charm! So I am thankful for this amulet." 

After saying all of that, Mya held her amulet in a tenderness manner, appearing very buoyant over this accessory. 

During this, Louis took a glimpse at Mya's expression and gesture to confirm whether she lied or not, and she didn't look like she was lying to him.

However, Louis still didn't allow himself to believe that luck was the one thing that saved Mya from that danger. 

He thought. ‘From what I saw, Mya was trapped between two tree roots, so she wouldn't be able to escape, even luck wouldn't save her from that predicament.’

‘Even if I was furious earlier, I wouldn't have missed the point where Mya escaped or dodged..’

‘Her amulet, huh?’ Louis laid his eyes on the amulet to take a good hard look at it.

After that moment, Louis just grinned normally and ruffled up Mya's hair, telling her. 

"Your lucky charm is super awesome."

———

A long period of time had passed since the event's completion… 

Needless to say, JoonChul's comrades waited patiently for the reward to be given to them immediately, so that their special person could be awakened again.

And for Noel and Crystal, they were just waiting as well, almost as if they only stayed just to see JoonChul alive again. 

‘Will father forgive me…? I did a terrible thing to him..so of course, he wouldn't forgive me..’ Noel thought with a regretful frown.

While Crystal was on Noel's shoulder, she oughta noticed Noel's expression filled with regrets.

"Everything will be fine, Noel." Crystal cheered Noel up as she stroked her paw on his cheek.

"Do you think so..? I was the one who killed my father.. There's no way he would accept my apology…"

After Noel had said that, he suddenly heard a familiar voice coming from his front.

"Then try to redeem yourself, instead of just a meaningless apology. Maybe then, you'll get his approval." 

It was Frostina. 

Upon setting his eyes on her, Noel gulped his saliva down and anxiously stood straight as though to show that he was not scared of Frostina.

"...Will that even work? I took his life! Are you saying I should pay back with my life?!" Noel replied.

"You had the power to take his life and yet, you can't even give back what you took from him?" 

Out of the blue, the surrounding started to feel eerie and wintry when Frostina had last spoken, forcing chills all over Noel's body even though his body had gone through the coldest days and nights.

As expected, Crystal also noticed the atmosphere and instantly interrupted the conversation. "Shouldn't you be going to get the reward? H-Haha…"

"Big sis! Did I do a great job~?" Mirai came forward at the right timing for Noel and Crystal.

Eventually, Frostina left those two and went toward Mirai instead. "Yes, you did so well that I'm shocked."

Not liking that response, Mirai pouted when she saw Frostina's calm expression. "You don't seem shocked though." 

"What matters is on the inside, not outside."

By then, Behemoth who was on Raiden's head, spoke and yawned. "Repeating master's words, eh?" 

Rolling her eyes the second she saw Behemoth, Mirai groaned. "No one asked." 

"I wasn't talking to you."

"Hmph."

Afterwards, Raiden chuckled at the sight of these two before glancing at Frostina and the coffin he was carrying.

Still having doubts drifting inside his head, Raiden swiftly asked a question. "Sorry if I'm being a bummer, but will it work? We have never gotten the reward nor seen anyone use the reward ever."

"It will and it must." Frostina answered straightforwardly and determinedly.

After her, Behemoth declared. "If it doesn't, I call dibs on those master of ceremonies." 

"Oh no, you don't! I want to give them a taste of their own medicine." Mirai added.

"Sure, why not? Which one? The boy or the girl?"

"The boy."

Without expecting it, Alaine had popped up from behind them and commented. "You guys are so terrifying." 

Naturally, Behemoth jolted, hissing at Alaine because he disliked how she just suddenly appeared without making a sound. 

"Ah, sorry about that, Blackie!" Alaine apologized to Behemoth.

To get to the point, Frostina quickly asked Alaine. "What is it?"

"I was wondering if I could keep this silk arm from Mirai..?" Alaine answered.

Dumbfounded, Raiden interrupted. "Are you implying you do not want your arm back, Alaine-chan?"

Without saying a word, Alaine just nodded while caressing her silk arm.

"Nande?" Mirai mumbled to herself.

At first, Mirai wanted to take back the silk arm she made, but seeing how Alaine looked already attached to it and the fact that Alaine appeared to be compatible with the silk arm, meant that Alaine could be proven more useful and stronger.

‘But it depends on big sis's answer, so I can't do anything. I wonder if big sis will allow it?’ Mirai mused while staring at Frostina.

After some time, Frostina uttered. "You may have the silk arm. However, if you want your real arm back, drink a HP potion. You'll undoubtedly get your arm back."

"Oh my gosh! Really? And no way I would get my real fleshly arm when I have Mirai's amazing silk arm!" 

Alaine, smiling for a second, looked toward Mirai to find her nodding. "Thank you so much, Mirai!"

As a response to Alaine's gratitude, Mirai beamed a smile, wondering why this teenager wanted to have this arm.

‘Alaine-Chan. Do you really want to be useful? Was my message back when that mist appeared too much for her?’ Mirai thought, staring at Alaine's gratified expression.

Mirai gently tapped her head. ‘Etto… I did say she would be useless if she was to die at that moment. There was more, but I forgot already.’

"Fufufu."