Chapter 101: Alen blinked around ten times
As night fell, the day turned genuinely cold, given they were floating above a sea of clouds. The wind roared fiercely, delivering a cold sharp enough to cut straight to the bone.
If not for certain devices specifically built to ward off the cold air, every student on that ship would’ve been utterly miserable.
Along with that, this journey apparently wouldn’t take too long. They’d probably arrive by the night of the second day—after all, even from here, they could already spot flickering lights far off in the distance.
Revealing a massive, glowing tower. Below them, the forest still stretched out vast and dark, with the occasional sky monster appearing here and there. But most of them just passed by, not daring to get too close.
Who’d dare approach with so many life-threatening dangers waiting on this ship, anyway?
Those monsters clearly had enough survival instinct to know better.
Meanwhile, inside the villa, in the area where the cafeteria sat, Eiros and the others were enjoying a hot, delicious spread of food.
Another one of those laid-back moments. Not just him and the main characters, but Leiden himself was here too. Maybe because Eiros so often hung out with the main characters while still sticking close to Leiden, the group’s relationship with Leiden had developed naturally.
"Seriously? I genuinely can’t believe it... I mean, he doesn’t look like that at all."
"That’s exactly why I said you’d be shocked," Leiden shrugged, a smirk on his face, looking at the others while Eiros stayed quiet, processing his own expression, though anyone could clearly tell he was under pressure.
"Eiros used to be a genuine bastard! I’m honestly touched watching him change like this."
With exaggerated sorrow, Leiden wiped away a fake tear while Alen looked at Eiros with a complicated expression.
He looked genuinely skeptical. So he mulled it over, trying to figure out what could’ve possibly triggered such a sudden change in Eiros, then his gaze landed on Renessa—a genuinely beautiful girl, but one who kept setting off a terrifying alarm bell in the back of his head.
That made Alen freeze, all the color draining from his face as he looked at Eiros.
Eiros, now the one being stared at, immediately looked back with a flat expression, clearly trying not to let that terrible conversation about him get to him at all.
Then...
Blink—! Blink! Blink!
Alen blinked around ten times.
"....?"
’Is... is it possible your girlfriend’s threatening you?’
Eiros stayed silent, as if possessing some kind of telepathic power, instantly understanding exactly what Alen was trying to say just from his eyes.
’Do I look like that?’
’You wouldn’t just change without a reason.’
’Hmm....’
’Anyway, don’t drag me into this! You’re genuinely playing with fire.’
Watching Alen carry such an intense fear of Renessa was genuinely a hilarious, fascinating sight to witness.
Eiros nearly laughed, but in the end, he just gave a small smile, thoroughly amused.
Right then, their conversation was flowing along smoothly when Godon, someone who barely spoke more than a word at a time, suddenly piped up:
"By the way, where’d the Lizard go?"
That question made everyone go quiet. Valkas had genuinely been almost nowhere to be seen, to the point where even Leiden, who’d only just joined the group, could tell something was off about it.
They’d all clearly been wondering about it too, but no one had brought it up until now. In the end, after a fairly long stretch of silence, someone finally seemed unable to hold back and decided to ask.
"Should we go looking for him?" Lovia raised her hand, lying sprawled across the table with a lazy expression.
"Maybe he’s got something going on and needs some time? Shouldn’t we just wait for him?" Alen voiced his opinion, still the type who preferred not to pry too deeply into someone else’s personal past.
In the end, just as Alen had suggested, they decided to give Valkas some space. After all, maybe he’d come back the next day, grinning like an idiot as usual.
Eiros himself could only hope Valkas wasn’t actually angry. After all, ever since that exchange of information back during Alen and Caeril’s fight, he’d genuinely managed to irritate Valkas quite a bit.
Since that so-called "secret" to getting strong he’d shared had really just been a load of nonsense.
Of course, there was no way Valkas would actually be mad over something like that, right?
***
In the middle of the night, Eiros woke up to use the bathroom. He walked through the villa’s corridor, which kept blowing out warm air to keep his body comfortable and cozy.
At night, that corridor was genuinely dark and quiet, with barely any sound except the whistling wind and the ceaseless roar of the engines.
After using the bathroom and washing his face, on the way back, he happened to run into Alen, yawning while scratching around his chest.
"Oh... morning."
Alen said it with a drowsy, listless tone. Eiros responded with a nod, then asked:
"Where’re you headed?"
"Up top, wanna come?"
Hearing that, Eiros hesitated for a moment. Since "up top" clearly referred to the villa’s upper deck, a spot where someone could relax up at a high vantage point.
Given how these past few days had passed by so calmly, Eiros no longer felt uncomfortable in his surroundings. He was actually in pretty good shape overall, so sleep wasn’t something he desperately needed anymore.
"Alright, I’ll come along."
He followed Alen’s footsteps, climbing a staircase, and soon found themselves stepping outside the villa, onto the main deck of the ship.
Both of their gazes stayed locked on the dark night clouds as they kept walking, climbing a small set of stairs that carried them even higher up.
Above them, since they were floating over a sea of clouds, spotting stars was fairly difficult, but not impossible. The moment a single gap opened up toward the sky, it would reveal an absurd scattering of stars.
Once they reached the peak of the villa, where the space narrowed but was still spacious enough to hold nearly twenty people, Eiros and Alen found themselves at a height that made everything below look genuinely tiny, and right then, they ran into someone they never expected to find here.
His red hair whipping in the wind, Valkas sat there, gazing at the stars and the sea of clouds stretching across the sky.
"Oh."
Noticing the two of them, he looked startled for a moment, blinking a few times before giving an awkward smile.
"What are you two doing up here?"
"Hey buddy, where’ve you been? How come I haven’t seen you all day?"
Valkas chuckled hearing Alen’s question, scratching his head awkwardly. "Because... just had some things on my mind, I guess?"
Meanwhile, Eiros felt genuinely regretful. What he’d assumed would just be a simple, relaxing hangout might actually be part of the original webtoon’s plot, meant to deepen the bond between the protagonist himself and Valkas.
Now, here he was, forced to play third wheel.
Eiros was tempted to make up an excuse and back out, but that would’ve felt genuinely forced after he’d already followed Alen all the way up here.
Besides...
’I wonder if there’s a chance whatever’s on Lizard’s mind right now is actually tied to one of the main plotlines.’
If that were true, Eiros figured he shouldn’t leave at all. He’d already told himself that, for the sake of this world, he was willing to do things he probably shouldn’t be doing.
One of those things being getting involved in the original plot, which might otherwise veer off course somewhere down the line.
Alen was genuinely competent as a protagonist. But he was still just one person, and one person alone wouldn’t be enough to save this world.
Humans needed other humans to genuinely survive; one person alone meant nothing compared to a group standing together.
Because that was just human nature—people needed each other, to push one another forward, to give each other a reason to keep holding on and keep fighting.
After hesitating for a moment, Eiros and Alen walked over, taking a seat across from Valkas, gazing up at the dark sky together.
In the middle of that night—or, more accurately, the early hours of the morning—Valkas looked far calmer than usual, but whatever was on his mind stayed hidden, churning endlessly inside his head.
***