Chapter 175 :

Episode 35 : Encounter (1)

After a few minutes had passed, the floating ice ship that was sailing to look for an island, had finally landed onto a random island's beach.

While the ship was preparing to land, Louis, HwanGi and I had already changed back to our usual clothes since it was meaningless to wear swimsuits when we'll be exploring an island soon.

‘We didn't get to wear the swimsuit that long.’ I thought.

Swoosh..

Once the ship was placed perfectly on the beach of the island thanks to Frostina and Raiden, all the members of ‘The Rebels’ Guild had gotten off the ship slowly but surely.

"Phew.." I uttered.

We weren't in a rush or anything, so it was best for everyone to take a breather and get used to this island for now.

"Hm?"

Thrilled by taking a single step on the beach, Alaine seemed to be having a blast by gasping at the island's scenery. "Wow! I never thought our first island would be this jumbo in size!"

Dazed, Louis mumbled in awe. "It's amazing.. The beach looks small compared to the forest and mountains.." 

"So pretty! The trees and bushes!" Mya sparkled in joy from the sight of nature.

For them to express such bafflement for a single island, I wonder how they'll react to the next extravagant places we will visit in the future.

‘..There's too many places that's going to look out of this world from now on.’ I mused.

Despite that, I'm sure everyone wouldn't get to enjoy every scenery without getting interrupted by the events in store for us in every stage.

"Enjoy while you can, because you won't get to take a long look after this." I warned those bewildered folks.

Alaine, looking flabbergasted and slightly frightened, nervously asked me. "Don't tell me there's something bad on this island? Or dangerous mobs and stuff like that?!"

I smiled which brought chills to Alaine as she gulped anxiously. 

"JoonChul.. Is it.. Something worse than the things I said?"

Then, Louis spoke to me. "Whatever it is, I want to know."

I could tell within a glance that Louis was thinking about protecting Mya, and might as well add Noelle and Noel on his list to protect.

「 To protect someone, one must be strong. 」

That was what I taught my comrades since they had people who are as special as the world to them. 

And I too have my precious comrades who I wish to protect in all my lives, whether it brings about my deaths, it doesn't matter as long as I protect my comrades.

I mused. ‘..Though, I do make sure not to die as much as I did back in the days.’

Since my comrades might need therapy if I were to die in front of them again and again, I wouldn't want to see their grief-stricken expression while close to death's door..

‘Louis.’ I glanced at him.

In a matter of fact, when I took a glimpse at Louis, I couldn't express how enraged I was by his foolishness.

How can he think of protecting someone when he's weaker than them? That's just being a burden instead.

For that reason..

I spoke in a serious tone. "There's not any dangerous mobs here. Instead, you all will be undergoing harsh training to further master your skills and weapons." 

A little shocked by my statement, Alaine questioned me with a puzzled look. "Huh? Is that all..? But why? I don't get it at all.. Why do I need to train my skills?"

"Do we need to train, JoonChul-ssi? We're fine right now." HwanGi asked as well.

Of course it's natural to seem confused by what I stated. 

The moment we were transported to this strange world as Earthlings, we learned skills that activated without doing anything, so it didn't seem odd when we just let the skills do its things.

..However, that's just plain wrong.

"I'll show you an example." I said to everyone as I nodded at Mirai.

[Imitation of ‘Silk Threads’ Lv. 4 has been activated.]

[Player ‘16’ has activated her Skill, ‘Silk Threads’ Lv. ???.]

In my hands, I managed to create an embroidery by using Mirai's skill in about a couple of minutes or so, while on the other hand, Mirai was able to entirely make a full-blown good-looking long sleeve shirt, a hat and pants in a matter of seconds.

"So cool! Even the designs are unbelievable! Can I have those?" Amazed, Alaine selfishly looked at Mirai's creation with puppy eyes.

Nonetheless, Mirai responded. "Yes, it's for you to wear when you explore the island and train later~" 

By then, she handed the clothes to Alaine quickly before Mirai came to me to have a look at my embroidery.

"How is it? Did I improve?" I asked Mirai.

Without a reply, Mirai appeared to be taking a hard look while I was awkwardly waiting for a response.

Though, I didn't have to feel awkward by her since I was more annoyed by everyone being surprised by Mirai's efficiency.

I sighed. ‘They didn't give mine a peek.’ 

‘It's not that I'm sad. Just annoyed.’

‘Master is sad.’ Lucifer confirmed it.

I sighed again.

"Captain.. This looks so aesthetic~!" Mirai complimented me, blushing and smiling at my embroidery.

While Mirai praised me in my efforts to make embroidery, I also received some praises from my comrades. 

Raiden, Frostina and Behemoth all seemed to like how my embroidery looked and told me how realistic it appeared.

‘I did cheat a bit by using my other lives for this single embroidery though.’ I coughed to hide my shame.

Unexpectedly, Mya's compliment caught me off guard. "Is this a p-pink rose, ahjussi? It's so pleasing to the eyes." 

I wondered as I gazed at Mya looking mesmerized. ‘Ahjussi..? So she's really starting to call me that, huh?’ 

"Papa..!" Noelle called me as she did hand signs to let me know it was beautiful to her as well.

‘My daughter is too adorable.’ I coughed to hide my proudness when I saw her cute hands moving adorably.

‘Darn, I'm really acting like a father because of Lucas' subconsciousness.’

In the end, along with Noelle, Noel and HwanGi also gave me each of their compliments which led Alaine and Louis to pay attention to my embroidery too.

Chattering..

"...Pfft." At that point, I was obviously stunned by their compliments, so I unknowingly laughed. 

"Eh~? Why are you laughing?" Alaine asked.

"Pfft.. It's nothing."

Raiden then had a great idea. "Sensei is just surprised, that's all. Why don't we give him more compliments, everyone?"

‘Wait, no. Don't do that.’ I thought.

"Hoho~ Won't captain love that?" Mirai smiled with a sly giggle.

Let's change the topic, shall we? I can't afford to be bombarded with compliments on every side.

"Ahem.."

Eventually, I grinned and held Mirai's hand to give her the embroidery I made. "Here, it was my intention to present this to you, Mimi."

"..Ehh?!" Mirai gasped. 

Her cheeks were swiftly getting redder and redder with every second, appearing as if a steam was going off her head.

Smiling at her cuteness, I mused as I caressed her head. ‘How cute.’ 

"Oh my, oh my~!" Alaine suddenly gave me a strange giggle.

Was it something weird for her to be giggling this way? Alaine was sending me odd looks with her face, and I didn't want to understand those.

"Ahem.." I pretentiously coughed. "As I said earlier, our skills and weapon masteries need to be trained."

I resumed. "From the example I made, Mirai can make clothing much faster than me, including the finer details on those clothing as you can see by the clothes."

"But for me, it took me quite awhile only to make a simple handkerchief for Mirai."

"Now can you tell me what the example meant?" I asked them, watching them trying to think of an answer.

Swoosh~

At that point, Mya's hand was raised as she was waiting for me to call on her. In spite of me not understanding why she needed to do that, I called her before she quickly gave me an answer.

"H-Hm.. Is it the speed in which we use the skill?"

Mya was nervous. Though, she made it seem like I'm a strict teacher who is absolutely mean or something along that line.

‘You are mean.’ Lucifer commented.

‘..Lucifer.’ I groaned inwardly.

Anyways, I told Mya. "You're closely right, Mya. Anyone else with other ideas?"

"Isn't because your skill is lower than Mirai's?" Hands raised, Alaine answered. 

"Nope. Any more answers?"

At that moment, I wasn't expecting the correct answer from everyone, just answers that were close to the right one, would suscipe.

Yet, I was wrong until someone shocked me a little bit, and that was HwanGi's response. "Efficient. Efficiency in using your skills, and the ability to use your skills as if these were your talents. Is that the right answer?" 

"..Yes, that's correct. The more we get used to skills, the more we use them efficiently and faster."

As smart as HwanGi was, I wished he could use that to tell himself that being a hero is pointless in the life we'll be trailing.

"Ohhhh, I get it now!" Alaine said and asked. "If we can utilize our skills much better than the skill level itself does, will we improve ourselves? Is that right?"

Without warning, Raiden clapped while feeling proud of Alaine. "Yup! Good job, my disciple! No matter how low of a skill you have, if your efficiency with it is great, then you can possibly beat someone with a much higher leveled skill."

"Wow.. I haven't thought of that.. And here I was spamming my skills, haha.."

"It's alright, my pupil. We didn't have much time with all the chao happening in the last world."

And with that, I informed everyone. "I'll be assigning everyone of you with my comrades to train you all. But for now, you can take the time to relax until the afternoon." 

Uneased, Alaine grumbled before she sighed in defeat. "Oof.. I can feel the intensity of the training we'll be having soon.. 'Cause there's no way JoonChul would make the training easy.." 

"What about the children?" Louis asked, ignoring Alaine who was grim.

"They are included as well."

Once I said that, Louis' face turned overly furious because he was madly overprotective of children, so seeing that I suggested Mya, Noelle and Noel should be having a tough training, it clearly sparked a raging fire in Louis.

Immediately, I cursed as I was feeling quite vexed by Louis. ‘Shitty moron.’

There was no way I would allow myself to listen to the bullshit Louis might or may not be saying to me soon. 

‘I'm tired of it.’ Agitated, I stared.

Without a delay, I spoke and let Louis notice my annoyed glare, not allowing him to start talking. "No words. Keep it shut tight, Louis."

‘What must I do to make him use his brain? I better beat some senses into his head in the afternoon.’ I pondered.

All of the sudden, Raiden clapped his hands again to finish the discussion as though he predicted a fight between me and Louis were going to happen if he didn't intervene.

As clear as day, I was quite pleased with Raiden's quick thinking, on the other hand, Louis looked pissed yet surpassing deep down after Raiden's intervention.

Louis must have figured that a fight right here is no better than a brawl in front of the children he was overprotective for.

Anyways, Raiden told everyone. "Alright, everybody! We're done on this part. Now we get to explore the island to our heart's content!"

Exhilarating after being stuffed with the training talk, Alaine cheered up quite quickly. "Wooo! I almost forgot about that! What're we doing standing idly on the beach!? We should start looking around!" 

Seeing how excited they were for adventure, even the kids as well, I found it to be refreshing. 

Even though I wasn't all that interested in the island's exploration, I must say that this was a sight to see.

So I told them. "Go have fun with that. Bring whatever you find and explore as much as you want. I'll make sure to cook up some good meals for you all when you get back." 

Alaine sorta mistook me. "Good grief~ Is that your way of satisfying us after what you just discussed, JoonChul?" 

"Think what you will." I shrugged.

"Oh." I remembered while I shifted my glance back at Louis, telling him just in case. "You don't need to take care and follow after Mya, Noel and Noelle."

From the words that I had voiced out, those were the ones that triggered Louis to snap into a fit of rage.

‘You think I'll allow you to bawl at me freely?’ I narrowed my eyes.

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

Whoosh~

At that moment, as carefree as I was in Louis' body, I 'casually' moved Louis in the forest which prompted Alaine to gasp and rush to catch up to Louis.

Speedily running to go after Louis, Alaine shouted. "Louis! How could you go first without meeee!?" 

Then, Raiden followed suit. "See you all later!"

"Have fun." Finally, I got back to my body after getting rid of a nuisance which was Louis.

Out of the blue, HwanHi came forward to ask me a good question. "What if they get lost in there?" 

"No worries, Raiden can find them as well as I do." 

"I see."

"Ahjussi! Can I r-really go there alone with my friends?" Mya with sparkly eyes fidgeted her fingers as if HwanGi wasn't going to allow it.

To my surprise, HwanGi replied happily as though he trusted my decision. "Yes, you can go."

At that point, I was obviously stunned by his choice and trust. 

For him to be okay with Mya, Noel and Noelle to explore an unknown island by themselves was something that I would expect HwanGi to refuse.

"Come on, Noel and Elle. Let's go on an adventure!" Mya told Noel and Noelle before sprinting off together excitedly.

I pondered with a frown. ‘..Interesting. To think that Mya befriended Noelle and got to call her by her nickname, Elle.’ 

The name Noel and Noelle sounded exactly the same, so it should be obvious that Noelle would allow Mya to call her, ‘Elle’.

..Though, I feel quite sad that I'm not the only one calling Noelle that nickname.

Anyhow, when I was watching those children venturing into the forest, I felt a glance coming from my right.

Gazing at me, HwanGi spoke without a hint of lies. "JoonChul-ssi, I trust you." 

"..." I was silent, not because I was speechless of him earlier.

"I'll be going as well, JoonChul-ssi."

Not long after, HwanGi finally went into the forest, and as much as I wanted to say something to HwanGi, I was very shocked by his trust in me that I remained quiet.

‘HwanGi.. His trust and words are truly baffling.’

Suddenly, Mirai looked over to me, asking me while holding her handkerchief with care. "Captain, what are you doing standing there~? Was there something wrong with HwanGi leaving?"

"No, no. Just surprised, that's all."

In due course, Frostina faintly grinned at me. "My liege is vulnerable to surprises today."

"Seeing your elegant smile is also a surprise." I replied instantly.

Without expecting it, Mirai pouted and crossed her arms at me as if I did something wrong. "Captain! Hmp..!!" 

"What is it, Mimi?"

"Hmph!" 

While I was wondering why Mirai wasn't talking to me, Frostina turned her head as though she didn't want me to see her face.

Unfortunately for her, I could see her ear turning red just like how Mirai's cheeks blushed red like a rose.

Curious, I thought. ‘Now I wish I could understand these.’ 

‘Sadly, you erased your memories related to romance.’ Lucifer spoke quietly to himself.

‘What is it?’

‘Nothing, foolish master.’

‘You have been behaving salty. Is it because I said I wouldn't polish you?’

‘Certainly not.’

‘Certainly yes with that tone of voice.’ I sighed. ‘Fine, I'll polish you.’

‘I am happy.’

‘Your tone changed too quickly, Lucifer.’

‘It's just your imagination, master.’