Chapter 129 :

Episode 27 : Back in Action (3)

[As per our words, I will now hand you the item that you seek.] Eve informed everyone after appearing out of nowhere.

After her words ended, she soon walked toward the field of flowers, seemingly looking for a specific flower as she roamed the field.

While everyone waited for Eve to find whatever she was searching for, Frostina and Raiden looked at each other. When Frostina nodded, Raiden quickly nodded back and proceeded to move the coffin he was lifting, resting it on the grass in the process.

As soon as Raiden was done placing the coffin, Mirai came in with her strings to lift up the coffin's lid, removing the lid to unveil JoonChul's lifeless body.

Since it was taking longer than expected for Eve to find the right flower, Frostina and her comrades took this time to create something with flowers in this garden. No one would know what they were trying to make with the spare time, but it seemed to be somewhat important for JoonChul's revival.

And because of how they were suspiciously hiding the items they were making, HwanGi took notice of this and narrowly took a peek of what they were doing.

‘What are they..? It looks like—Huh?’ HwanGi thought, only to be disturbed by Alaine behind him.

"HwanGi! Check this out!"

When he turned around, he found Mya and Alaine in his sight, including something tiny on Mya's hands.

"That looks like a seed?" HwanGi mumbled.

Eventually, Alaine told him. "We don't actually know what this is. Seems like a seed, but what is so useful for it to be a drop item from the dryad boss?"

"Don't say that, sister Alaine. It's a seed, so it'll be a beautiful flower if we take good care of it." Mya pouted, telling Alaine.

"Mya.. You know that a flower won't be helpful in a fight right?"

"You don't even know what it is yet!"

All of a sudden, Louis went up behind them and asked them, staring directly at Alaine since he thought Alaine might be the culprit for making Mya all worked up.

"What are you arguing about?"

As obvious as it was, Alaine knew Louis's glance was all about, so she grumbled at him.

"Don't give me that look! I was just saying that a seed is pointless as a drop item from the dryad boss!"

Louis narrowed his eyes as he responded to Alaine, patting Mya's head to comfort her.

"You do make a good point, but we have no clue what it is. So don't judge it by its cover."

"Ah, jeez." Alaine scowled while crossing her arms.

Speaking of arms, Louis became aware of Alaine's non-fleshy arm, and was concerned about her decision of not regrowing her arm back with HP potions.

Louis pondered while staring at Alaine's arms. ‘Is it because the arm is powerful that she doesn't want her human arm?’

‘But she will definitely lose that silk arm when she swallows a potion, so I don't think that arm will last long.’

When he came to that conclusion, it took an awkward few seconds for him to feel an odd foreboding.

‘...Why do I feel like that's not going to happen? Like how she will keep that arm to the point of not drinking a HP potion when she's in danger? No way, right?’

Feeling like that was a horrible imagination he had visioned, Louis instantly shook his head to erase those thoughts from his mind.

"Whatever this seed is, let's keep it safe for now. Mya, why don't you keep it?" HwanGi suggested.

In Mya's response, she gladly spoke. "I'll make sure nothing happened to it!"

All of a sudden, enough to make someone jump, Eve unexpectedly uttered. [There it is! Finally, I found it.]

Some who were jolted by Eve's unexpected voice while some were unfazed by her, were fascinated by the flower she was holding.

Upon setting their eyes onto Eve's hand holding onto a flower that only a few knew of what that flower's name was, everyone's curiosity grew as they wondered what that flower was.

Thankfully, Mya called out the flower's name when she had laid eyes on it. "Lily..! That's.. a Lily Of The Valleys!"

"Holy cow.. How can you remember flowers so easily?" Alaine commented.

"Once you get used to living with plenty of different types of flowers, you'll understand, sister Alaine." Mya smiled at Alaine.

"Yeah.. But what will that flower do?"

As though Eve was waiting for Alaine to ask such a spot-on question, Eve immediately emerged right in front of Alaine's viewpoint.

Which obviously startled the heck out of Alaine. "Motherfuc—!!!"

"Nope. Nope. Nope!" Louis exclaimed.

Sadly, Alaine didn't get to express her astonishment when Louis suddenly covered her mouth to stop her from saying swear words in front of Mya.

Aside from that, Eve giggled after witnessing this scene. She then spoke with such courtesy.

[This flower will bring back the one you wanted to see once again. Whoever one of you wants to take this and revive your loved one?]

Nobody said a word in that short moment, sooner or later, someone finally uttered after taking a deep breath.

"I will."

Before Frostina declared, she had taken a peek at HwanGi since she was curious if he was going to speak at the same time as her, but it appeared not.

Afterwards, she thought as she averted her glance back at Eve. ‘So he didn't want to be the one who resurrects my Liege? I'm glad.’

———

Meanwhile inside the subconsciousness of Wang JoonChul…

An archangel appearing as if she was trying to embrace the subconscious body of JoonChul, was folding her wings around him to give him her protection.

[Satan… No, JoonChul.. I can't let you go. Or else.. or else..]

Her lips slowly but surely were quivering from the thoughts of not being able to speak her words fully. By then, the archangel tightened her embrace on JoonChul.

[I never wanted for you to live endless lives of miseries and regrets, ...but this time, I wish for you to get reborn.]

[..Instead of living in your 777th life, please.. just die and be reborn in your 778th life.]

[...If only you can listen to me like back then, we..]

"...Michael."

[...!?]

The archangel became bewildered by the sudden voice she had heard, thinking that somehow JoonChul was active in his subconsciousness.

...

...

[...Oh. It was only my imagination.]

Disappointed by the fact that her mind tricked her into thinking that JoonChul was awake, the saddened archangel bit her lips to the point of bleeding a tiny speck of sparks.

[Satan.. I'm trying my best. So please, get reborn. Because I really don't want to lose you permanently!]

Without anticipating it, a binding light dazzling out of nowhere, was gleaming its luminosity over the archangel who remained hugging onto JoonChul's subconsciousness.

[No.. This can't be possible!? How could they!? …!!!]

As she was speaking in astoundment, she precipitously sensed JoonChul's subconsciousness growing dim from within her touch.

[No! No, no! You must not be revived! Satan! JoonChul!!!]

During the time that her clutches couldn't keep JoonChul safe within her arms, the brilliance light above her head continued to shine brightly in every second.

..And so as JoonChul's subconsciousness grew faint from the moment the light arrived.

In the long run, the archangel Michael was left alone without JoonChul in her sight, nowhere to be seen and nothing to sense his presence.

[...This.. can't be..]

Even though her hopes were seeming like they were at a loss, she instantly got back on her feet and unfurled her wings to show that she still had a long way to go to give up now.

[I have plenty of time..]

[I'll do anything to get you out of danger, Satan.]

In the end, the archangel Michael let a bittersweet smile engrave on her face as she glimpsed at the light, vanishing in her spot without leaving a trace of herself within JoonChul's mind.

———

After a short while..

Feeling like my slumber took forever, I was slowly waking up from my long rest. And not only that, it seemed like I made everyone worried over me as usual.

"Did you miss me?" I spoke softly since I had been dead for a while, my voice was a bit unpleasant.

From what I had been greeted with when I had first opened my eyes and rose up from the coffin, were everyone's stunning faces.

Of course, it was an unusual sight to see for anyone, but for me, that was normalized to the point of it being common.

‘But why aren't they used to it?’ I thought while dazing at my comrades.

"It's truly a miracle! Captain!" Mirai gasped with her hands together before leaping toward me to enfold me in her arms.

Yes, it has been a while, hasn't it? From the look of it, it must have taken them forever trying to find a revival item for me while also dealing with the stage.

And…

It looked like I will be meeting old acquaintances, won't I? But that wasn't important right now. Currently, I needed to apologize for my sudden death and most necessarily, my apology to the twins.

"I'm sorry, everyone." Speaking in a heartfelt way and lowering my head, I held Mirai in my arms and firmly hugged her.

"Captain…."

"..Don't say anything, I know."

It didn't take me a second to know that Mirai was sniffling on my chest while I was embracing her. Moreover, she sniveled even more once I apologized to her.

"Sensei, welcome back." Raiden said, pulling a grin on his face while attempting to hold back his tears.

"Yes, I'm back."

I smiled before shifting my gaze toward Frostina to find her turning her back on me.

Even if Frostina was cold and uninterested, she is still a kind-hearted person through and through. And at this moment, she was taking her time by crying her heart out.

"Master! Master!" Behemoth exclaimed as he had jumped into the coffin, and he was rubbing his head against my hand, showing me his affection.

Right, Behemoth must have missed my hands that always pat his head and help scratch him.

And thus, I didn't say a word and just ruffled Behemoth's head while I was releasing Mirai from our long and earnest hug.

Eventually, I was curious about the place we were in, and it was clearly obvious that I knew what this garden was and why everybody was here in the first place.

‘They managed to complete the event without a scratch?’ When I thought that, I soon spotted Alaine's arm which looked different than her usual arm.

‘Never mind. There was a scratch.’

[Hello, Sa—]

The moment I almost heard my real name exiting out from Eve's mouth, I instantly sent my hellacious glare straight at Eve's unsettled eyes, daunting her not to reveal my identity.

Through lip reading, I let Eve interpret my words as follows. "Do not mention my true name, Eve."

Luckily, Eve understood what I was attempting to say and speedily turned her head away to not look at my glare.

[Hehe…] Eve giggled nervously like a bunny who was shivering from standing close to a lion.

Good for her, if she were to ignore my threat, I would have demolished her in an instant just like a lion.

"Silly girl." I sighed.