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Upon hitting 0, HwanGi and his guild members with all of their hopes resting on Mirai's, Mya's and Alaine's shoulders, watched the screen playing a live stream of where the participants were.
Did they make it? Is Alaine okay? Is everybody safe from the penalty of flowers picking?
Those questions emerged into everyone's minds after seeing the phase 1's end. Of course, there were Adam and the 'Helpers' who were being entertained by this show.
[What do you all think will happen?] Adam asked 'The Rebels' guild.
Hearing that, it prompted HwanGi to show somewhat of a concerning expression for the participants. Clearly, he was hiding it with his calm expression not to reveal his worries toward everyone and not to seem like he had no confidence in Mya's floriography.
'Even if I try to be calm, I'm still worried..'
In actuality, HwanGi was nervous about Mya making a mistake and bringing harm to Alaine and Mirai who were the ones collecting the flowers.
Yet still, even with those worries, HwanGi convinced himself that everything would be fine as long as he believed in them.
"Whatever happens, they will be alright." HwanGi answered Adam's question belatedly.
With everyone of his guild members sitting on the grass beside 'The Tree of Life', they nodded as if they agreed with HwanGi's statement before going back to observing every second of the livestream being shown to them.
Louis, who was the most worried of them all, was sitting by HwanGi's left side. As a result, HwanGi could notice Louis's concerns for Alaine.
'He must be concerned about Alaine and Mya..' HwanGi thought while he had a frown on his face.
Since witnessing Alaine's arm getting torn by the fight against the unexpected creature which was called Ents, Louis had been getting more and more anxious over her well-being instead of Mya's.
'I should reassure him a bit. It's the least I can do in this situation.'
"Louis, everything will be fine." HwanGi spoke to relieve some of Louis's stress.
Louis, who had heard HwanGi's words, responded to him. "I know, I know. But Alaine.. I could tell she was trying to hide the fact she was enduring the pain."
Troubled, Louis resumed on. "Even the fact that Mya saw such a sight.. I'm sure she will get traumatized by it."
Seeing how Louis was reacting, HwanGi had a question stuck inside his mind whenever he was watching over Louis's behavior.
Beyond question, HwanGi asked away to satisfy his curiosity. "Say.. I'm not saying you shouldn't, but I wonder why you're so anxious over Alaine and Mya."
"Wasn't I that obvious?" Louis replied.
"You always stay close to Mya and sometimes Alaine. So I was wondering why?"
"..." Louis didn't give a response as though he was trying to find an answer to his behaviors as well.
Anyways, HwanGi spoke again.
"Considering you only joined us late, I am curious why you're already attached to Alaine and Mya."
"What kind of question is that? Of course, I'll be attached to anyone since their lives matter to me. I'm not a guy like JoonChul."
"Yeah, that's true." HwanGi chuckled sadly.
Louis sighed instead of chuckling with HwanGi. "Look, the reason why I'm so concerned over Mya is because she resembled my sister."
"Oh, I understand."
"Yes, I know she isn't my sister, but she's just so like her to me."
"I see." HwanGi listening closely, shifted his eyes over to the livestream.
Upon having his glance on the video, HwanGi's eyes were filled with solace when he witnessed something great from the livestream.
It was because the three participants who were having a rough time, had finally completed the phase without any more torment.
"They did it!" HwanGi uttered with pure reassurance.
Even everyone in his guild was expressing their relief when this scene was shown to everybody, including the fact that the screen literally said.
[Players '16', '999' and '555' have fulfilled Phase 1's objective without a fault!]
[Phase 1 of Special Event, 'Garden Of Eden' has been completed.]
[They may now have a short break before Phase 2 begins.]
"Yokatta." Raiden spoke while exhaling all the tension he was stressing about.
* ( "Yokatta" Japanese → English "Thank goodness/That's a relief." )
Despite having a moment of being relieved for the participants' lives, everyone soon went back to being anxious about the next Phase and what would occur later on.
Mumbling to himself, HwanGi was pulling out the 'Remnant of The Unknown Sword' and was staring at it tensely.
"If only I had the power to save JoonChul-ssi when the polar bears attacked.. No, even if I did, I was too focused on getting this fragment that I didn't have time to help JoonChul-ssi."
"Hey, man. Don't push yourself." Louis scolded HwanGi which caused the latter to daze at the former.
"But that's true." HwanGi uttered.
"If you're saying that, it has already been done. I'm pretty sure JoonChul will get mad at you for blaming yourself too often."
"..."
"Of course, even Alaine would do that."
"Speaking of Alaine, you haven't told me the reason why you're concerned over Alaine."
Without a doubt, HwanGi changed the subject completely when he remembered it. By then, he had stored back the remnant in his inventory.
After that, Louis became flustered when he was trying to explain his reasons for his anxiety over Alaine.
"Erm.. This is weird. At first, I thought of her as a sister before getting some mixed feelings about thinking that way. It wasn't long when I realized why I couldn't think of her as a sister."
HwanGi raised his eyebrow during Louis's explanation since he was curious of what that feeling was.
So HwanGi asked. "And the reason why is..?"
"I probably have a.. hm.. crush on her."
Louis replied while turning his gaze away from HwanGi to scratch the back of his head.
"Ah.."
And just to be clear, HwanGi had never dated before nor had he felt any affection toward anyone. Even if he counted friendship in it, HwanGi had no friends to begin with.
'Except my childhood friend, Sans…' HwanGi groomily remembered.
The reason was, of course, his deleterious luck toward everyone around him.
"So.. hm.. Ah, what am I saying? This is not the time to talk about love and stuff when our teammates are putting their lives on the line for JoonChul's resurrection."
After saying what he wanted, Louis ruffled up his hair, forcing it to look extremely messy now.
'He's right. I shouldn't be thinking about my bad luck anymore while I'm in this situation.' HwanGi clenched his fists when he thought that.
"To be honest, I think JoonChul's life will not be brought back." Louis spoke, not knowing that it made HwanGi freeze.
Upon hearing every word of Louis clearly, HwanGi felt like he just experienced a bombshell being dropped on him.
Doubtlessly, HwanGi still thought of JoonChul as his childhood friend, Sans. So naturally when he heard Louis's words, HwanGi quickly denied it.
Immediately, HwanGi exclaimed with his clenched fists on his laps. "No, he'll be alive again."
But that wasn't enough to stop Louis from talking, Louis then asked a good question.
"So are you going to forcefully take the hard work Mya did by taking away the chance to revive her mother just to resurrect JoonChul?"
"..! I.."
"If you do that, then Mya will get extremely depressed and our relationship with her will just be ruined."
"..." HwanGi, having no response to Louis, kept quiet.
"Just so you know, I'm on Mya's side. So if you dare harm her or hurt her feelings, I'll not hesitate to take her away from you guys."
Glaring at HwanGi with his daunting eyes, Louis showed his intentions pretty clearly while excluding the menacing scene of Louis's javelins surrounding HwanGi's neck.
In this dilemma, HwanGi swallowed down his saliva before calmly assessing the situation. "I wasn't planning to do that to Mya."
"Whether that's the truth or a lie, we'll find out when this event finishes." Louis spoke, making his javelins disappear quickly.
'How did our conversation turn out like this so fast?' HwanGi pondered while staring at Louis.
———
Meanwhile, what were the three participants doing with their short break?
Currently, the three participants which were Mirai, Alaine and Mya, were staying inside an extravagant waiting room while waiting for the next phase to begin.
With this short period of time, Mirai was using it wisely by tightening the silk arm onto Alaine's body to make it seem like it was a part of Alaine.
"Don't ever do what you did earlier." Mirai said to Alaine.
Alaine giggled as if it was nothing to her. "Hehe. I'm totally fine. I was only doing it to get stronger."
"Baka! How will you get stronger if you died young?"
"Shhh. Why don't we be quiet? The little one needs some rest to get her mind back to normal."
Looking out for Mya, Alaine shifted her gaze at the sleeping child who was resting soundlessly on a couch.
"I apologized for not being able to handle the Ents by myself." Alaine expressed a groom expression as she muttered to Mirai.
Mirai getting slightly surprised by Alaine's apology, couldn't help but let out a long sigh.
'It was my fault for not giving her a helping hand while she was fighting the Ents. I could have done something with my silks while I was harvesting, but I didn't..' Mirai thought as she was almost done with Alaine's treatment.
'Because I was too immersed with my past that I was too indecisive in that dilemma.'
'Really! Rai-Kun would definitely laugh at me when he saw that!'
Nonetheless, Mirai sighed again after telling Alaine. "You always were the cheerful one, but getting an apology was unexpected. Either way, you have no need to apologise."
After finishing up on Alaine's treatment, Mirai went ahead to aid Mya. Moreover, when Mirai sat herself on the couch, she noticed Mya whimpering in her sleep.
"Could it be that 'that scene' was too much for her?" Mirai stroked Mya's forehead, recalling the moment where Mya witnessed Alaine in a dreadful state.
Alaine, who had got up from her seat, walked toward them and asked upon spotting Mya's face. "She's having a nightmare, isn't she?"
"Yes, it seems it was too much for a child like her."
Afterwards, Mirai started to knit a blanket with her silks, laying it on Mya to let her feel more comfort and warmth from the blanket's softness.
"I feel so bad.." Alaine murmured as she looked at Mya with her sorrowful eyes.
Mirai talked to Alaine to at least reassure her. "As my captain has said. Experiences come first."
"Eh? What does that mean?"
"It means.. it's better to experience it firsthand than experience after when one is in a dangerous situation."
"Huh.. Oh, yeaaaah… I got it." Alaine probably didn't understand a thing of what Mirai had spoken.
Even Mirai could tell from Alaine's dumbfounded expression, so she explained it again but much more comprehensible.
"It's best for Mya to experience what she did today, so that it will be less gruesome for her in the near future where everything can turn downhill within a second."
"Ah.. I understand a lot." Alaine muttered before avoiding having eye contact with Mirai's doubtful glance.
"Sigh.." Mirai exhaled.