Chapter 39 :

Episode 9 : Repay (3)

The moment JoonChul left, Alaine had been staring at the lady who was treating HwanGi.

She couldn't help it since she was left alone in the room with HwanGi, the two strangers and the cat who was sleeping on the edge of the bed.

She was quite nervous, mostly from the awkward atmosphere in the room. Thus, she could only stare at the two people and the resting cat.

"How long are you going to watch?" Mirai said without looking at Alaine, only focusing on nursing HwanGi.

"Eh? I.. uh." Alaine was thinking of prolonging the conversation, so she asked. "Right, I was wondering what your name is."

"..." Mirai didn't answer.

"Sorry about that. She doesn't like introducing herself." Raiden interrupted.

"Ah. I see." Alaine nodded.

"My name is Takumi Raiden. And you are?"

"I am Katharina Alaine."

Raiden smiled at her. "A pleasure to meet you, Alaine."

"Shh." Mirai interrupted with her fingers touching HwanGi's chest.

‘He was touched in the chest.. I need to quickly erase the ‘Wither’.’ Mirai mused to herself.

Without any further to do, she took off HwanGi's shirt which revealed a cluster of black vines spreading across every part of his body.

Luckily for Alaine, she covered her eyes before she could see this hideous sight. "What are you doing!?"

Mirai didn't answer instead Raiden did. "She is just treating him. This is a common thing."

Mirai then caressed HwanGi's chest to pinpoint which location had the most concentrated part of the hidden skill, ‘Wither’.

When she discovered it, she released her strings out of her fingers, using those strings as needles before inserting them inside HwanGi.

After some time of searching, Mirai finally pulled out a small seed which was the source of the overspreading vines.

Mirai smiled at Raiden as if she was implying ‘I did it!’.

Raiden clapped to congratulate her. "You're the best as always, Mimi."

Alaine uncovered her eyes, wanting to ask whether or not Mirai was done giving HwanGi the treatment. However..

What she saw the first thing was HwanGi's chest, her face began to turn red after laying her eyes on such a handsome body...

Immediately, she took the shirt, putting it back on HwanGi to stop herself from looking at him. "You could have covered his chest! Jeez..!"

Mirai giggled for a little bit before crushing the unwanted seed with her strings. "He'll be fine."

As she said that, HwanGi's eyes started to open. "..?"

Alaine cheerfully said while looking away because she didn't want HwanGi to see her red face. "Oh! You're awake!"

HwanGi was quite shocked by the two strangers suddenly in his room, including the sleeping cat. "Are they your friends, Alaine?"

"No way, they are JoonChul's friends."

The name ‘JoonChul’ caused HwanGi's eyes to go wide open. He was caught unexpected by this unpredictable situation.

Excluding that, he realized he wasn't suffering from the unknown thing that was affecting him.

He even checked his chest to see if the vines were gone, in which they were. "But how..?"

Mirai took out her fan that she hasn't been using for such a long time.

One flip of the fan caused her hair to flutter in the air from the wind created by the fan, then she spoke. "You sir, are fine now. You should replenish your HP and the other."

Mirai handed HwanGi the potions that were on the table.

HwanGi was about to thank her until he was disturbed by Raiden. "Mimi, could you check on me as well?"

"Why would I need to?" Mirai raised one of her eyebrows while folding her fan.

"Captain told me that."

"If he says so, then there's definitely something wrong." Mirai gently tapped her lips with her fan before pointing the fan at a chair. "Rai, sit down. I need to check on you."

"Okay." Raiden walked toward the chair before sitting down on it.

HwanGi and Alaine just watched those two do their things. Until Alaine whispered something to HwanGi. "Are you okay?"

HwanGi replied back in a low voice while drinking one of his HP potions. "Yes, by the way, did you really mean the ‘JoonChul’?"

"Yeah. Do you think I would lie?"

"I still have little trust in you."

"Oh come on, I saved you many times."

"And I'm quite grateful to you."

"Ah. One more thing, JoonChul killed people."

HwanGi was a bit baffled as he denied. "Maybe he accidentally did it."

"He smiled. He smiled at those people's deaths."

HwanGi became quiet and stopped drinking the potions..

"Even though I was fighting against someone, I caught a slight glimpse on JoonChul's expression." Alaine shivered after remembering that scene.

"Tell me everything about the time when you're with him." HwanGi demanded with a serious expression on his face.

———

"Finally! I got it out." Mirai exclaimed while holding onto the seed.

HwanGi and Alaine who were chatting with each other, were caught off guard by Mirai's sudden loud voice.

"How did that get there..?" Raiden was caught by surprise when he saw that seed, scratching his head where the seed should have been.

A moment of silence occurred when Miria was thinking of something. "..! Do you remember that person who touched your head?"

"Yes? Oh. He or she must have used ‘Wither’ on me?"

"If that's what I think it is, then that person must be the cause." Mirai exhaled a sigh of relief. "But fortunately, we stopped it before it could harm you, Rai."

"Excuse me, but what is that seed?" HwanGi questioned Mirai.

Mirai destroyed the seed again using her strings. "It is the cause of the suffering you experience."

"Such a small thing can be this deadly?"

"Meow meow mrow!" Said by Behemoth who was awake from his catnap.

From Raiden and Mirai's perspectives, Behemoth meant. ‘Like me! I'm small but deadly!’

But since HwanGi and Alaine couldn't understand, they didn't pay much attention to it.

"Aww! So cute!" Alaine hugged Behemoth, cuddling with him.

"Hehe." Mirai giggled from seeing this ridiculous sight.

At that moment, a knock on the door reverberated inside the room..

..Knock knock..

Raiden quickly got off the chair to answer the door because he knew who was behind that door.

He grabbed the doorknob, twisting it to open the door…