- Red Echo Eyes, The Unfairness and Injustice -

Hansung Yu decided to split them into teams. One team was to look for Khun Edahn and the other team was to look for their companions.

Team A was for looking companions and face Big Breeder:

- Hansung Yu

- Khun Aguero Agnes

- 25th Bam

- 25th Charlotte

- Endorsi

Team B was to look for Khun Edahn:

- Rak Wraithraiser

- Khun Altaira Rain

- Batis and Medley (his daughter)

- Boro

- Sachi

- Hockney.

Both Rak and Altaira insisted to be in the team A. Instead of arguing with them, Hansung Yu simply agreed to their wish and let them join the team A. Rak who was happy to join the team A was dabbing.

Team A will be going to Cold Island while Team B will go to Sweet Castle.

'If either Celeste or Noah is here, they'll probably go to Sweet Castle to devour the sweets there' Altaira thought. 'I hope they don't end up in the Sweet Castle as I don't want them to suffer toothache.'

If Celeste suffers toothache, then Altaira will stay next to her and accompanied her for three days three nights until she recovers. If it is Noah who suffers it, then he will just randomly take care of him. The thought of him genuinely taking care of Noah somehow made him feel shiver running down on his back. He must be dying if he genuinely wanting to take care of Noah.

The Sweet Castle, according to Hansung Yu, was a place that they will not be able to go even if they beat Big Breeder's grand quest. It was a place made for Khun Edahn. In another word, Celeste and Noah wouldn't be there. Hearing this, Altaira was secretly relieved.

Apparently, Hansung Yu had made a promise with Khun Edahn about something. He mentioned that this promise was rather a sad promise.

After saying good- bye, they went to different stages.

The team A went to the Cold Island.

The Cold Island was just like its name, a cold place without any plants growing in that place. The temperature of the air was quite low and there was a tall tower in this stage. That white tower was quite far from their current place.

As what mentioned before, the temperature of the air was quite low. Charlotte couldn't help but to sneeze softly again and again as she couldn't stand the temperature.

Bam was worried of Charlotte. In order to make her felt warm, he was planning to take off his coat and give it to her. Her coat was wet because Khun pulled her to the sea in the first place. Seeing how Bam was handing his coat to her, Charlotte smiled and shook her head. She didn't want her brother to suffer from coldness to help her.

"Charlie, I thought that your lotus is a sacred lotus" said Altaira calmly. "A sacred lotus is a sacred flower, fire and ice are supposed to have no effect to you."

"Probably b- because my power.......my...power isn't s- strong enough... to unleash its full potential" Charlotte answered before she sneezed again. "Who... would have guessed... this place is really...c- c- cold...?"

She really had underestimated the temperature here. She didn't even have an extra coat.

'Indeed, one should never underestimate his enemies and also his surroundings' she thought and looked at her hands that had started to change color because of the coldness. 'If I know that this place will be cold as hell in white, I should have brought one more coat for myself.'

"Use this."

Khun handed her a blue coat.

"This...isn't this yours?" Charlotte asked him. She shook her head and took one step backward, "I- if you give this to me...wha- what about you...?"

"Well, unlike you, I had a better preparation" Khun said, emphasizing the words "unlike you", scolding her. "You better use this first. Otherwise, you might freeze to death."

Charlotte looked at Khun pondered for awhile before she nodded her head and agreed. She wore the blue coat that he gave to her and felt better than before. But her hands were still trembling and Khun noticed that.

"Don't just wear the cloak" said Khun. He wrapped the white scarf around her carefully and also gave her a pair of gloves, "There you go."

To be more specific, Khun didn't just hand it to her. He carefully and gently put it on her, even the gloves. He even put a hat on her. This warm gesture, Charlotte was sure that this wasn't Khun's ordinary behavior. A guy like him would just hand over the coat, scarf and gloves to his teammate and let him wear it all on his own. Putting these things to someone else sounded rather unimaginable when the person she was talking with was Khun. Therefore, she kept looking at him, bewildered.

"All done."

He pulled back his hands. She lowered her head.

'Damn it....'

She held the white scar he lent to her. Her cheeks were red again.

'It's more than ten years. I still couldn't....'

At first, it was because of admiration. And that admiration slowly began to change into something deeper.

Bam who watched the two of them remained quiet at the corner. Altaira didn't miss this chance once more and said again with a very annoying voice next to Bam, "You are annoyed but helpless. You want to stop him but you can't do anything as he's helping Charlie. What are you going to do about this, huh?"

Veins were popping on his head as he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth.

'Restrain yourself. Charlotte won't be happy if her brother is hurt. What if she blames me for hurting that man?' He silently thought. 'It's not worthy to let her cry just to vent my anger off. Restrain yourself. Restrain yourself.'

"In the term of strength, Bam is stronger than you" Endorsi said to Altaira who was walking away from Bam. She was tired seeing this two trying to fight and beat each other up yet they had to restrain themselves. What made this even worse was that the one who became the reason why they fought for wasn't even aware of their battle. No, she might have noticed their conflicts and their grudges towards each other since Endorsi knew Charlotte wasn't as dense as Bam. She probably had given up in trying to fix their relationship as it was incurable. "Aren't you afraid one day he couldn't endure it anymore and beat you up?"

"He won't" Altaira answered and crossed his arms proudly. "Even if he does, I won't back down without a proper fight."

Endorsi scoffed. She was convinced that if Bam uses his full power, just one flick of finger would have defeated Altaira.

"What's wrong?" Khun asked Charlotte, ignoring both Altaira and Bam who he thought must be bickering again. He never failed to see the red thing on her cheeks.

Charlotte's lips curled up into a gentle smile as she replied, "Nothing."

"Is that so?"

Now that she had regained her composure, she could look straight to his eyes and said, "Thank you for always looking for me."

She earnestly said those words.

Those honest words seemed to cause him to feel warm on inside. He knew that she was a loyal and harmless towards her friends. It won't be the first time for her to say such genuine words. Now, he understood another reason why she was always doted and loved.

Because she was honest.

She knew how to cherish what she had.

She proved her sincerity not just by words, but also by action, pouring her feelings in every single gesture or gift even though it was just a trivial matter.

"It's fine" he replied, trying to look calm and unbothered. "We're friends. We should take care of each other."

She smiled when she heard his words and agreed with it, ignoring the small disappointment in her heart.

"Right! We're friends!" She said with a cheerful tone while inwardly she thought, 'I have to draw the line and control myself.'

'Don't fall too deep. It will hurt you instead.'

They continued their journey. In their journey, they found lots of dead animals.

Bam was surprised, "Are those...villains?!"

"It looks like there was a quest here" Hansung Yu said.

"That means...!"

Hansung Yu, "Yes. Your companion must be around here."

"Let's hurry!"

They used Bong Bong to teleport themselves to make it faster.

In the Cold Island there was a pillar. At the top of the pillar, there was a goat hiding inside it in fear. Why was it afraid? Of course it was because there were some people wanting to kill it.

In the Cold Island, most of the White Chocolates members ended up there along with the fatty and the sleepyhead. Estelle who was heavily injured before was now awake thanks to Celeste's healing butterflies.

Ever since they stepped in the Hell Train, Celeste had decided to work on her healing butterflies first. In this tower, saving someone was even harder than killing, losing someone was easier than finding a friend. She hoped by strengthening and train her healing butterflies, she won't have to lose her friends again.

'Even if I have to be separated from them, I deeply wish that separation isn't caused by death.' That was her thought at the time. 'If I could preserve one's life instead of killing his life, how nice would that be.'

But even though she had trained hard, the consequence of having butterflies that could heal any wounds and poisons was that her energy would be wasted a lot. Even so, she did not regret it. She was happy that her healing butterflies were stronger than before.

The fatty, Bero Bero, and the sleepyhead, Phonsekal Irure, were trying to make the champion villain fall from the tower thus they kept attacking it. But the tower was tougher than it looks, it was hard to destroy it. Not to mention that the White Chocolate members didn't want to help them either...

"Hey! Can't you make yourselves useful and help us here?" Bero Bero asked them angrily. "All the way only the two of us finished all the quests! Aren't you ashamed?"

"Stop provoking us" said Noah who had Celeste resting on his lap. "We won't help you. I have to take care of Celeste. Sister above anything else, you know."

This reason could be accepted.

"Then what about the rest of you?" Bero Bero pointed her index finger to Raisin and the others accusingly. "What the hell are you doing?"

Estrella was hugging Estelle tightly and replied while pouting, "I'm taking care of my twin sister. She nearly gets devoured by that old geezer White. Sister above anything else, you know."

She stuck her tongue out at Bero Bero and purposely repeated Noah's words.

"Then-"

"Before you ask me what I'm doing, I only receive orders from the leader of my team" said Raisin. "Thank you very much."

Bero Bero, "...."

She was certain that Raisin was just giving her a random excuse. He was just lazy. With such a cold weather, Raisin couldn't help but to feel kind of sleepy. But he couldn't sleep at all. If he sleeps, the others won't waste this chance to mess with him.

'I could tell that they will paint my face once I fall asleep' he thought as he glared to them. 'These monsters... ruining my sleeping chance.'

Something like this was actually not most of them will do. The only one who dared to do that will only be Estrella. But after the rest of them met Altaira and Charlotte, somehow they were influenced by their mischievousness and playfulness. Take a look at Noah, for example. At first he was a serious and cold- looking man. But after meeting Charlotte, he began to create troubles as well. If it is just Estrella one person, then he could save his dignity by beating her up later on. What if all these people worked together just to paint his face?

To be able to defeat one of them meant that he was powerful already.

'Therefore, I must not, I must never give them that kind of idea.'

And while he was being worried with his dignity, Bero Bero was angry to the point she was unsure what to say with this bunch of people.

Again, who said that the members of the White Chocolate team was dependable? They did whatever they wanted and only behaved seriously in serious situation. They found this grand quest trivial therefore, they didn't want to work at all. It was all thanks to Altaira's laziness that they became like this.

Bero Bero decided to not waste her breath at these bastards. These bastards were really driving her mad and she insisted to beat the champion villain given by the Big Breeder Jeok, a Big Breeder that had the appearance similar with bull and was in charge of the place. He watched how the two warriors doing their work properly like how they should while smoking and sweated dropped to see the rest of the warriors refusing to do anything.

'They sure are enjoying their lives here....'

Being lazy was one of the reasons why they refused to help. The other reason was that because Altaira had told to both Noah and Raisin some instructions.

"Later on, whatever missions you receive in that place, don't do it. Wait for my instructions."

'The missions that Altaira mean are probably the missions given by Big Breeder' Raisin thought. He looked at Noah who was looking at Celeste who was sleeping. 'I thought that he won't be listening to his words considering how they despised each other, but it seems like he isn't that dense or irrational.'

'I don't understand why that rascal doesn't want me to do the missions, but seeing his solemn expression, I don't think he's joking. He won't joke anything that could harm Celeste or Charlotte. For now, I'll just trust him' Noah thought.

"But I'm quite surprised" Noah said as he looked at Estrella and Estelle, changing the conversation. "I thought that you were dead at the time."

"I also didn't believe I would survive" said Estelle with a smile. "But I think the main reason why I survived is because of my eyes."

"Your eyes?" Noah echoed, hinting for more explanation.

Estelle nodded her head.

"Estrella and I came from a very special village. There, everyone has the unique eyes called 'Red Echo Eyes'. These eyes are very important for us since these eyes are our hearts" said Estelle.

"Your hearts?"

"If anyone takes our eyes away, within one week we'll wither like flower. We'll die without leaving corpses" Estelle explained as she looked at her right hand. "The Red Echo Eyes are also special since they allow us to copy others' movements."

"Copying?" Noah frowned when he heard it. "That sounds too powerful."

"There are some rules before we could use this skill. First, we must get hit by opponent's attack at least once" said Estelle. "Only after being hit that we could copy their attacks for two hours. If we try to break this rule and use it longer than two hours, then our eyes will bleed and we could go blind.

Copying others' skills sound cool, but at the end, the strength of each skill that we copied from another depends on our own strength. We also can't copy irregulars' skills. As for rankers or high- rankers, unless we have advanced into rankers, otherwise we also can't use their techniques. After using the main skill of Red Echo Eyes, we'll be very weak and vulnerable so this skill could only be used once."

"So it's like that" said Noah.

Estelle looked at Estrella, putting her hair behind her ear. Estrella smiled adorably to Estelle like a cat being pampered. No matter how often they argued, at the end they were siblings and they had been separated for a long time without knowing whether each other was still alive or death. After being separated once, they treated each other better now.

"But Estrella's eyes aren't red" Noah said. "Could she use that red eyes?"

Estelle nodded her head, "Could. Eye color doesn't matter. What matters is the bloodline."

"But I heard that your tribe has been massacred right?" Raisin asked bluntly.

Estelle sadly smiled.

"I don't really know what happen since we were still children at the time, but our tribe was indeed massacred. We managed to survive and reach this far because..."

The remaining sentence, Estelle was unable to say it out loud.

Estrella who rested her head on Estelle's shoulder had stopped smiling. Both of them recalled the unpleasant memories.

Noah glared at Raisin, 'Look at your good deed. From all questions that you could ask, why do even you mention about it? Want me to cut your tongue?'

Raisin glared at him back, not wanting to lose, 'Just care for your Celeste. I accidentally mentioned about it. Don't you ever make a mistake in your life?'

Because of traveling together in the Hell Train, both Raisin and Noah had understood each other that they didn't have to speak to blame each other and to argue. They were even closer because they were together being bullied by Altaira who they found as a tyrant and was looking a way to get him back. An enemy of your enemy is a friend. Revenge doesn't wait for time. Even if it takes a hundred years, there will be a way for them to win against Altaira. A complete victory against him without suffering any losses is what they wanted.

"Anyway-" Estelle's voice distracted them. She smiled to them as if she didn't feel sad earlier. "-there is also someone who could use this pair of eyes."

"Who?" Noah asked.

Raisin, "Your brother- in- law."

"That bastard?"

Raisin inwardly congratulated Altaira, 'He didn't even deny it anymore. Could this be say as an improvement?'

"Altaira's Red Echo Eyes are stronger than us" said Estelle. "Probably because of his talent that he could use this technique for 14 hours without needing to be hit. He could copy rankers' and irregulars' skills as well. Amazing, don't you think?"

"Isn't it because his soul is from the outside?"

"Soul really doesn't matter when it comes to this thing" Estelle explained. "The eyes are the part of body, not souls."

"It can't be compared to Bam actually" said Raisin as he hugged himself and shivered. "If after 2 or 14 hours you will forget opponents' skills, his copying lasted forever. Such a monster...."

Noah curiously asked, "Then...why I never see him using those eyes?"

"That..."

Both Estrella and Raisin looked unwilling to speak and awkwardly smiled.

"He...he has his own reasons not to use it" said Estelle. "And it's not like using it matters. With his two shinsu attributes, he's powerful already. Not to mention that we're traveling together in one large and powerful group, he doesn't need to attack or participate on every single fight, right?"

"Well, you aren't wrong about that" said Noah. "He's the type of person who will rest whenever he could rest right? Why fight if you could pass the burdens to anyone else?"

Raisin agreed, "Exactly. He's precisely that kind of person."

Estrella chuckled, "If Altaira knows what you said, he'll not spare any of you off."

She said while pointed her index finger at the two men.

Noah snorted and crossed his arms, "Who is afraid of him? If he wants a fight, bring it on."

Raisin didn't say a word. Seeing him being quiet, Estrella just covered her mouth and chuckled. As much as he wanted to avenge himself, after being defeated miserably by Altaira, he still had some fear inside him.