Chapter 111 :

Episode 24 : Crystal (4)

During a short period of time, Frostina had been thinking of ways to proceed with the upcoming stages without JoonChul.

Except, she was doing this all alone without discussing it with the rest of ‘The Rebels’ Guild. Although that wasn't a problem, it left the others having nothing to do but wait for Frostina's words.

With Mirai and Raiden helping to treat Noel and Behemoth still sulking about JoonChul's death, there wasn't anyone Frostina could talk with.

Of course, there was HwanGi, but..

"HwanGi! HWANGI!" Alaine called out to HwanGi who had been standing in the same spot without moving a muscle.

She sighed. "Geez."

As she stood in front of HwanGi and was waving her hands at him to snap him out of it, Alaine was going to give up on him if HwanGi kept staying like this.

Despite attempting her utmost to help HwanGi regain his composure, she was planning to do many things later.

"Okay, snow will work right?" Alaine asked herself before making a snowball from the snow below her.

While she was preparing to throw it straight at HwanGi's face, an idea emerged inside her head, prompting her to stop and sneer at her brilliant idea.

"Hehe."

———

Later on, Mya was sitting beside Louis, biting onto a skewer with the same fish that she had helped to catch with Louis and JoonChul.

Upon each and every bite, she became anxious and unhappy, not understanding the whole situation where JoonChul's comrades were.

Soon after, she couldn't finish the skewer and just stopped munching completely, hence Louis had taken notice of Mya and her expression.

"Do you not like it?" Louis asked, glancing at her with a pretentious bright smile.

Mya gazed back at him and spoke in concern. "No, I like it.. But is uncle JoonChul okay?"

"..He's fine."

"Are you lying..? I know what the expressions on uncle JoonChul's friends mean.."

"Oh.. You do?"

"It's the same as when my papa saw mama." Mya spoke with a sad expression.

"I see."

Patting her head to comfort her, Louis was losing ways to distract her attention from JoonChul and now he had to make Mya stop thinking about her deceased mother, that being the case, Louis was looking around to find something to distract Mya.

That was when he spotted Alaine doing something strange to HwanGi as he murmured. "Qu'est ce qui se passe?"

( "Qu'est ce qui se passe" means "What's happening?" )

"Big brother? What is it?" Mya stared at Louis who had a stunned expression on his face.

"Oh, right. It's nothing."

Though Louis said that, Mya was a bit worried about him and was also curious about why he was surprised. And thus, Mya took a glance at the sight where Louis was looking at.

..And that was when she had found a snowman, a big one at that.

"Isn't that where uncle HwanGi is..?" Mya uttered in amazement before standing up to run toward there.

When Mya got upright, Louis also stood up as well and wanted to check out what Alaine was trying to do. As a result, Mya and Louis moved toward that spot to discover Alaine piling more and more snow onto HwanGi.

"Alaine.. What are you doing?" Louis felt a bit dumbfounded and asked Alaine.

Since Alaine was concentrating on trolling HwanGi, she became startled when she heard Louis as she responded.

"Don't scare me like that! Jeez.. Can't you see I'm doing my best to help HwanGi wake up?"

"But is that a probable method? Or are you trying to freeze him to death?"

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood. Can't you see the other being sad and such? What am I supposed to do but stand and watch them being miserable..?"

"...You're right, I guess." Louis rubbed his temple at how Alaine just spoke something obvious, he then looked at Mya.

Before he suggested to Mya, he was already nudging her toward the snowman.

"Why don't you play with Alaine, Mya? You might help uncle HwanGi wake up from his nap."

By then, Mya walked up toward the front of the snowman before finding HwanGi's eyes opened instead of closed. So she asked Louis a question.

"But uncle HwanGi isn't asleep though?"

"Oh, there's a condition where people don't usually have their eyelids close completely. So uncle HwanGi is actually sleeping right now."

..Obviously a lie from Louis.

Looking thrilled for a moment before switching to a worried one, Mya asked to confirm. "Woah, I had never seen that before! But won't uncle be angry if I turn him into a giant snowman?"

In an instance, Alaine came in and held Mya's hand, putting a snowball on her hand and smiling at Mya.

Alaine said. "Everything is fine. HwanGi won't get mad over something like this."

After that, Mya glanced at Alaine's face before turning to look at Louis, finding him nodding at her. "Alright, I'll play too."

———

Meanwhile in HwanGi's head…

‘I couldn't protect him..’ HwanGi thought to himself while not noticing himself getting covered with snow.

‘JoonChul-ssi died…’

HwanGi swore that he himself wanted to make himself stronger to protect everyone around him, but how?

The person he wanted to protect the most, was already dead right in front of him. As a matter of fact, HwanGi still thought that JoonChul might possibly be Sans, so of course, HwanGi felt more disappointed and ashamed of himself.

‘If he's not Sans, it's still my fault that I couldn't save him.’

He mused continuously. ‘But if JoonChul-ssi is truly Sans, then….!!’

‘Not only I failed the first time!’

Expressing his gloomy emotion, he was subconsciously blaming himself again and again. ‘I failed for the second time..!!’

‘I… I..’

Nothing to say anymore to himself, HwanGi soon felt at a loss and mystified at this moment.

During this, the last snowball had been placed on the one opening where the light was shining onto HwanGi's lifeless face, completely being covered and now looked like a huge snowman on the outside.

And yet, HwanGi was still not aware of what was happening around him.

"Ouch!"

Without a warning, a sharp pain generated from his waist, stinging him like he was being electrified.

Because of this, his body wavered along with the electricity crawling inside his body, causing the snow around him to fall off of his body a little bit.

And thanks to this electricity, HwanGi had regained himself as he found himself stuck inside a bunch of snow.

"What in the world?" HwanGi uttered in dumbfoundedness while he was starting to move his body a bit.

As he was going to get himself out of there, he heard giggles behind him. The giggles didn't sound like it was far from him and it sounded like an evil smirk.

When the thought of this whole snow being on HwanGi was the work of someone close to him, he was about to call Alaine because she was the only one who would do this to him.

The one who distracted him from doing so, was walking up toward HwanGi at this moment.

"HwanGi?" Frostina stood a few steps away from him, wondering why he was a snowman.

Naturally, HwanGi thought Frostina might have misunderstood he was being carefree in this grave situation or something, which was why he responded.

"This.. This isn't what you think." Going so far as to shake the snow away when he spoke.

"I see.." Frostina replied with a doubtful look.

While HwanGi was patting away the snow off his shoulder, Frostina swiftly declared to him. "As the deputy, I'll be in charge of our guild during the Guild master's absence."

"Deputy? Since when?"

"Since the beginning. Did you not check the Guild's members and their ranks?"

"..I forgot, because I didn't have time since we were busy dealing with the players.."

"Is that so?"

At that moment, HwanGi had a thought and was wondering what Frostina was doing, so he asked her. "But why are you telling me and not everyone?"

"Because you're the second deputy."

"...? I am? But why?"

"If you want to know, let me be in charge."

As obvious as it was, HwanGi was flabbergasted when he learned that he was the second deputy in ‘The Rebels’ Guild.

‘But even if I'm the deputy..’

And the fact that he knew he must not take command over the entire guild because he had no faith in his leadership nor his ability to not put his team in harm's way, made him feel that he should let Frostina do it.

‘What good am I if I'm a commander who can't protect anyone?’ HwanGi thought to himself before staring at Frostina.

"You have my permission to be in charge." HwanGi told her regretfully.

"A wise choice." As Frostina was staring at HwanGi, she found a person coming from behind him.

"Hey, HwanGi~" That person was Alaine who had joined in on the conversation.

"Alaine.." HwanGi with a clenched jaw was directing his furious gaze at Alaine which prompted her to get a shiver down her spine.

Undoubtedly, Alaine nervously mentioned. "Ahaha… Mya also helped me with pranking you."

The moment HwanGi heard Mya's name, he instantly stopped expressing his anger through body language.

‘Why did she have to involve Mya in her scheme? ..She knows I won't hurt Mya so she did this.’

While pondering in enragement, HwanGi let out an exhausted and frustrated sigh, caressing his nose to show how tired he was.

"You should thank me instead of being grumpy. I mean, you were standing up straight without speaking and moving. Mya, Louis and I were worried about you, y'know?"

"..That's right. I was.."

Realizing that HwanGi made others concerned over him, he quickly went ahead and apologized to the others.

"Be quick on apologizing because we will be departing soon, HwanGi." Frostina informed HwanGi before heading toward her comrades.

"Right."

"I'm sorry for making you worry, Alaine." The first to receive an apology from HwanGi was Alaine.

"Eh??!" She was of course greatly shocked.

The second was Mya and third was Louis. Obviously, both of them were surprised by HwanGi's apology and him bowing in front of them.

"N-No! I should be sorry for covering you in snow, uncle HwanGi!" Mya waved her hands in front of her and bowed, becoming anxious and slightly confused.

"What is this all about?" Louis's response to HwanGi's apology.

"I have made the situation much worse by making you all concerned over me. I'm sorry for that."

"Is there a need to be sorry over something like that? Of course, everyone is going to worry about you since we're a team." Louis, stating the obvious, told HwanGi.

"Yeah, HwanGi. So don't go apologizing to everyone again in the future." Alaine came close to HwanGi and had bumped her elbow on his waist.

At that moment, HwanGi beamed a grin on his face, knowing that he had come across such wonderful people like them.

"Thank you, everyone." He spoke in sincerity.

"From sorry to thank you, geez." Alaine chuckled which caused Louis to chuckle a little as well as Mya smiling.