Chapter 170 :

Episode 33 : A Disaster (10)

[Stage #21 has begun.]

"Haha." I let out a faint laugh as I looked over the stage's description.

[Stage #??‽ : ?¿?.]

+

Stage Information: ErrOor! eRRoR¡‽

Stage Task: Errror!!

Time Limit: Error¡

Reward: ErRor!¡

Failure: eRrOr¡!

+

"What the heck? Is the system broken or something?" Alaine commented on the strange texts.

"As curious as you are, Alaine.. shouldn't you be treating yourself..?" Louis spoke, groaning as he flopped to the deck.

"You should worry about yourself more, Louis.. Oh my gosh.."

Surely she would be astonished by the amount of burns and injuries Louis had received.

Considering that players bombarded him just to kill Noelle and Noel to weaken the Dragon's strength, I expected him to be dead.

To my surprise, he survived under all of those attacks and managed to defend enough of the attacks until I came to help.

Of course, he did receive some of Crystal's support until she suddenly disappeared like melted ice.

‘A familiar can't stay for long if its caster is running low on mana.’ I thought while staring at Noelle who was sleeping in my arms.

"Brother Louis!" Mya shouted, running toward him the moment she saw him.

Louis, looking at Mya, smiled as if his injuries were natural. "Why do you still look horrified when you already saw me in this state earlier, Mya?"

"It's just awful to see brother Louis like this!"

As the others were talking and worrying about one another, I sighed in relief as I sat down on the ship's floor, almost like I was too exhausted to try standing.

"My plan worked without fail.." I muttered quietly to myself, looking straight at my comrades and the others.

To be frank, I wasn't expecting my plan to work. Actually, I believed my work would fail and backfire on me for a single mistake.

And yet, we managed to survive and beat Stage 20 while being transported to the ‘Atlantic’ World.

I should be glad that the glitches and errors didn't cross over the world transference and corrupt it enough to transfer us to other worlds like in my past lives.

..Cause that's what happened back then.

Somebody must be wondering how I met Mirai, Behemoth and Raiden since they are in different worlds in further stages.

Without those past glitches, I would never have met Mirai, Behemoth and Raiden. Of course, including my other comrades that had died..

‘Ha.. All of my friends.’ I shut my eyes as I wanted to recall my precious comrades who had died fighting for my sake.

"Tell me if I'm making it through.. If what I chose was the right path?"

Whether I was reminiscing about the past, words just subconsciously left my lips when remembering all of those endless encounters of friends and foes.

I sighed, telling myself. "Shut up."

What's the point of being depressed for all my lives being an attempt to get the amnesty scroll and beat the ‘Creators’?

‘777 deaths are nothing to me.’ I lied.

"Haha." I chuckled at my foolish attempt in lying to myself. "Darn it all, I need something to distract myself from these depressed thoughts."

Upon searching for a way to distract myself, I started to look through my memories during the fight against the Ice Dragon.

‘Wait.. Hold on a minute.’ I thought when I realized from recalling the event.

"Did I really mistake Eric as Lucas while seeing Noelle?"

(↑ Referring to Ch 167 where JoonChul mistook Eric (The one who met Frostina) for Lucas (The one who met the Absolute Twins.))

(↑ Definitely not the writer's mistake of confusing both of those names… Definitely not…… )

I said randomly. "Don't fix that mistake because I want them to experience the mistake of mistaking other names."

"My embarrassment is now theirs." I smirked mercilessly.

..Tap~

"Hm?"

Slowly but surely, my eyes that were closed this entire time, unfolded to notice the child in my hands had finally awakened from her slumber.

Looking at her hand on my cheek, I smiled while shifting my gaze at her. "Did you sleep well, Elle?"

Noelle, as shy as she could be, wasn't talking to me when she greeted me with a grin.

Even as her body didn't move that much while in a slumber, she seemed to be forcing herself to use her left hand to tell me something.

Her index finger aimed at her chest.

Then, her index finger on her chin.

At last, her index pointed toward me..

..And I told her, knowing what she was trying to tell me. "I miss you too."

In a matter of seconds, my deaf yet lovely daughter's eyes fell with tears when she was going in for a tight embrace.

Hugging me as she shredded tears, she was quick to become aware that I was her father the moment she saw me.

"I'm sorry." I apologized when I hugged her as warmly and comfortingly as I could give her.

Smack. Smack. Smack!

The apology probably caused her to start hitting my back with her fists, smacking me whereas her tears wetted my coat.

I know I might have a hard time understanding emotions, but somehow and somewhere..

Noelle must be extremely furious and depressed from my long disappearance that she felt immensely saddened by me.

Needless to say, she hated me for not coming to check on her or seeing her once during all those times.

However, what would happen if I were to apologize to her?

Her mind must be conflicted by wanting to forgive me as well as hating me enough to not forgive me.

‘I know.. I know, Noelle.’ Woeful, I bit my lower lip in regret while taking all of her hits.

I didn't speak a word. More or less, I just couldn't have the urge to do so until she forgives me.

I wanted her to hit me as many times as she desired, and no matter what, I'll take it all without a word.

In other words, it seemed Lucas' subconsciousness had taken over me completely, but I assumed it's fine.

‘I'm still me. And he's still me.’

———

Somewhere on a mountain that was changing the environment..

"Sister!" Pearl shouted toward Alexandrite.

As it happened, Alexandrite was recovering her wings while she was resting on the ground.

When she spotted Pearl coming her way, Alexandrite was excited and overjoyed to think Pearl was worried about her.

‘My lovely sister is too kind.’ Alexandrite's lips curved upward in delight.

"How can you be so reckless?! This is the exact reason why I didn't want you to oversee the stages." Pearl scolded Alexandrite.

Alexandrite grinned even while being scolded by Pearl. ‘Even her scolding is wonderful.’

"Alex.. I do not wish for you to endanger yourself for us." Pearl's voice started to sound doleful.

Alexandrite, when heard her sister's voice in this way, responded to reassure Pearl with a grin. "It's for my sisters' sake. I'll do anything for my sweet and lovely sisters."

"..."

No words to say, Pearl let out a sigh while resting her hand on her temple. "If Moonstone was here, she would have said something that goes along the line of—"

Out of the blue, a moon-like shape emerged on the portal before the appearance of someone had exited that said portal.

"If you adore us dearly, Alexandrite, please bring a stop to us worrying about your recklessness and well-being." Spoken by Moonstone who appeared, laid her mysterious glance on her two sisters.

"Luna!" Happy to see two of her sisters, Alexandrite exclaimed.

Instead of speaking, Moonstone's face under the bluish veil was expressing her denial of being called "Luna".

Shortly after, Pearl stated while tapping the star that was hollering around her the whole time, showcasing a video as well as the system that was crashing little by little.

"This is not the appropriate time to be having a silly conversation. Currently, the situation has gotten much worse by the glitches caused by ‘The Rebels’ Guild."

Alexandrite being healed by Moonstone's crescents, commented in a serious tone unlike her usual self. "I expected ‘The Rebels’ would go for that method, but to think they managed to pull it off is already unthinkable."

"The Plum Blossom seeds were supposed to be planted right after the Ice Dragon, Bianca's defeat. When grown to a tree, it would have performed like the previous world tree, Cupressus Sempervirens, as a connection to the next world."

"But by planting and growing the Plum Blossom seeds amidst the boss battle, it would cause an immense amount of glitches and errors to occur unpredictably. Isn't that unlikely?"

"Probably so, I presume somebody has given a hand to their plans, if not, there would be no possible route to enhance the Plum Blossom Tree's growth in that short time."

"Certainty, I agree with you, Pearl. The Plum Blossom Tree was the main problem of glitches. It is also another reason why the previous ‘Helpers’ who are now Archangels, fixed that problem."

"Yet, the problem happened again.."

"Truly unfortunate as they say, cause this will allow the players quite an extension of duration in Stage #21 since we are required to solve the glitches."

Fully recovered thanks to Moonstone, Alexandrite stood up and flapped her wings to give them a go before hearing Pearl say.

"That's being said. Alex, you must go and report to Emerald." Pearl said which shocked Alexandrite.

Alexandrite's serious tone changed. "Why, Pearl? I still need to give that last player a beating."

"Exactly the reason why I cannot allow you to go to the ‘Atlantic’ world!"

"That's not a good reason for me not to go and help fix the glitch problem. Oh, please, my sweet sister." Alexandrite sent puppy eyes to Pearl.

"No."

Shaa..

"Quiet."

"Wha—" Both Alexandrite and Pearl were caught off guard by Moonstone's word, yet the one they were more surprised about, was the moon symbol on the ground.

That moon symbol swiftly whooshed upward until it reached the top and above these three sisters, causing dematerialization to their bodies until three of them vanished on the spot.

It looked like Moonstone didn't bother whether one of her two sisters would be the one to report or fix the glitch issue.

So instead, Moonstone did the most logical thing she could think of which was to teleport her sisters to the headquarters.

"Luna!!!" Alexandrite cried out as if she didn't want to meet Emerald.

As for Pearl, she looked blankly baffled while feeling annoyed by Moonstone's action. "This works out fine…"

———

Splash~

In the middle of the ocean where one can only see the deep sea and sea creatures, there stood a ship sailing on the wavering water.

Still needed some polishes and fixes, the ice ship seemed to be undergoing a reconstruction since it was done in a hurry.

The one who was rebuilding the ship, stood on the top deck where the steering wheel was.

"How's the ship's wheel?" Frostina asked the person who was steering the boat's wheel.

While guiding the ship through the endless sea, Raiden gave the ship's wheel a test run before he reviewed the wheel's functionality.

"It continues on going slightly to the left when I steer to the right. Ah, and also, the wheel won't budge without using much force."

"I'll keep those in mind."

Frostina spoke briefly while her glance was on the mizzenmast with her hands swaying around to construct it using ice.

"Heeey, Sensei! Whatcha doing?"

Walking up the short stairs to reach the upper deck, Alaine waved her hands to get Raiden's attention.

Seeing his pupil coming to him, Raiden couldn't hide his blissfulness. "My pupil! What bring you here?"

"You see, Sensei.. Since Louis is fine and dandy now, I think we're gonna have a feast on the deck! Gah~ I can't wait!"

Raiden chuckled when he watched Alaine being thrilled because of a feast. "What are you going to do if there's no food to grill?"

"Eh? Food?"

"If we were having a feast, we would need a lot of meat and beverage, don't you think?"

"Right, right! Meat! We can't forget about meaaat!"

"And who's the one who has the most meat?"

"Who? Ah, JoonChul!"

"I think you'll be sad to see Sensei is sleeping soundlessly right now."

"W-What?! Then no meat?!"

Doomed with that thought, Alaine's excited expression changed so quickly that Raiden was seen holding his laughter.

‘She's cute in a way.’ Raiden thought with a laugh before he coughed to clear his throat.

All of the sudden, someone let herself in this conversation. "If it's my liege, he wouldn't forget to leave a stockpile of meat beside him when he takes a rest."

Raiden smiled, remembering that his Sensei developed that habit of leaving food next to him because he knew that everyone would definitely be hungry.

"Ahhh! Then the meat would spoil! I'm coming to get you, my meat!"

Immediately without delay, Alaine was seen boosting with speed to get to where JoonChul was, not saying a single word to Raiden and Frostina when she left.

"..." Frostina told Raiden. "Teach that child some manners, Rai."

"I'll get on with that soon, but I don't think she was acting rude. My pupil is just being cheerful as always to lighten the mood and because she just had just been through a boss battle.."

"Yes, I understand."

"Shall we go and eat with them? We're both tired already, so it wouldn't hurt to take a break. Look, even Sensei is sleeping with a child in his arms."

"..." Words didn't leave her lips when staring at JoonChul and Noelle until she finally spoke with a faint grin. "It brings back fond memories."

"Hahaha, I remembered the moment when two girls were resting on the laps of my sensei. Even though I was jealous, I can't help but think how adorable it was to see such a sight."

"I assume you're not talking about me, perhaps?" Frostina's atmosphere suddenly got cold, her cheeks however were clearly and faintly red.

"Haha, gomen, gomen." Raiden chuckled nervously as if his life was about to be thrown off the ship.

Rustling~

The wind breezed soundlessly, fluttering the hair and clothes of Raiden and Frostina in this peaceful moment.

As peaceful and pleasant as it was to view the outspread of the sea and the orange sky mirroring on the sea surface, Frostina's and Raiden's expressions looked solemn yet relaxed as well.

It was then that someone's shout caught their ears. "Oi!!!!! Come down there, you two!!!"

"Oh??" Raiden's gaze fell on Alaine who was calling for them to get down since the feast was starting.

"Her shout has unnecessarily woken up my liege." Frostina's voice showed a little annoyance toward Alaine.

"Hahaha..! Why don't we get down?"

Raiden, not wanting Frostina to dislike his pupil, guided Frostina down the stairs while appeasing her as much as he could to not let Alaine be on her hate list.

‘I'm doing this for you, my disciple!’

———

After a while, I appeared to have fallen asleep while bracing all of Noelle's hits, and I wasn't the only one resting since Noelle was tired of hitting me and had gone to sleep as well.

However, both of our rest didn't last that long because a certain shout caused us to awake immediately.

I'm not gonna say who, but you get the idea.

"Come on, guys!! Time to dig in!" Alaine exclaimed as loudly as ever.

‘I can't believe all the meat I placed next to me is all gone. Were they that hungry for a feast?’ I thought.

In any case, I guess it was okay that I and Noelle had woken up from our nap, or else we would both be thirsty and hungry later on.

"Shall we eat?" I asked my daughter when I noticed her drooling over the cooked meat's smell.

She nodded toward my question although she looked to be embarrassed that I saw her drools.

‘Silly.’ I beamed a smile.

"Eat and then go to sleep later, alright?" I told her before giving her a kiss on the forehead.

‘Wait.. A forehead kiss? Hold on a damn minute. This is what I get for accepting Lucas' subconsciousness?’

As I was contemplating on my choices, Noelle's face had gotten redder when her hands were on her forehead where I had kissed.

‘Let's not think about that. For now, let's just eat.’ I sighed, shaking my head.

Chattering~ Chattering~

Our feast was soon the most comforting and fulfilling of all. While we drank and ate, we enjoyed our sweet time until the very end.

Sooner or later, it had turned night and it was time to rest, yet we were still being entertained by the feast we held.

Was it because we were exhausted from the stress of fighting that we ended up eating and drinking for an extremely long time? Who knows.

Despite that, it was a feast that we needed for us to start feeling fine and reassured enough to erase the worries of the boss battle and everything that had been going on in our lives.

Snores~

Eventually, I found Alaine, Mya and Louis sleeping on the deck with a satisfied expression on their faces.

It was natural to feel sleepy when they had just finished eating a whole bunch of food, so I didn't find it unexpected.

And then, there was HwanGi who was covering them with blankets to keep them safe from the cold of the night.

It was obvious I could notice that HwanGi was feeling tired, almost to the point of sleeping, but he still had the thought of putting others first.

"...Just like ‘her’." I mumbled.

Shortly after, all of them went to sleep through the night. What was left was my comrades who had gone to sleep after bidding goodnights to me.

There was Frostina who didn't want to sleep since she wanted to go back to rebuilding the ship, but I instructed her to sleep because I couldn't let her overworking like that.

"You should rest as well. Goodnight, my Liege." Frostina reluctantly said to me before walking away to get her good night's sleep.

"Sweet dream, Frostina."

Alone on a ship with the night sky looking as beautiful as ever, I looked over my teammates from one to another.

When my glance landed on Noelle and Noel covered with a blanket, sleeping quietly on my laps like kids, I grinned from the memories I had of my comrades.

"Peaceful.." I muttered while gazing at the sky, faintly shutting my eyes since I had gotten quite sleepy from the exhaustion and satisfaction of being full.

Truly, what a befitting end to our day.