Reaction and Matchmaking Attempts

Whipper Worries (278-280)

Side A was still partially in a trance when the screen mercilessly continued.

Toonka gawked when his counterpart came into view. His gaping became even more prominent when demure words hit his ears instead of the loud shouting he expected from another version of himself.

"...You're here."

Cale became anxious after hearing Toonka's tone.

"You aren't the only one, buddy," Harol muttered.

As much as he respected and admired the changed Toonka from the other world, it was simply wrong to see a version of his friend acting so hesitant. The normally confident and head-through-the-wall man had a giant frown on his face, making the already fearsome appendage even scarier.

Harol anxiously began to wonder what could have gone wrong on the other side.

Cale had just arrived at the Whipper Kingdom palace where Toonka was located.

The palace alongside its lavish gardens had become an abandoned ruin in their world. Toonka and his men didn't leave a stone untouched after the king demanded reparations for the mage tower as well as outright denied his support when the war against the Empire and the then enemy, the Jungle, started.

Toonka, in a fit of anger, helped the poor king by removing the heavy burden on his shoulders – his words, not theirs, Toonka just took them literally - and the Whipper Kingdom lost its king in one hit. Technically, they gained tow but since both parts were dead, it didn't count.

Seeing the palace still standing with its lavish and unnecessarily luxurious décor, Harol felt his anger boiling over.

Their citizens were starving, hundreds if not thousands dying every other day because of food shortage. Diseases were running rampant because their doctors couldn't buy medical supplies and church members with healing abilities avoided their country like the plague. Houses and whole villages got swept away in natural disasters, yet the nobles still kept demanding taxes at sky-high levels.

Even so, the king always had the time to party. Banquet after banquet, birthday parties, oh-my-daughter-drew-a-picture-time-to-party events, and more, Harol could only watch from a distance as fireworks lit the sky in pretty colors when he sat with an empty stomach, wondering if he would even see the next day alive.

It disgusted him to no end that that foolish, arrogant waste of space was still alive and happily living his best life in the other world.

Cale took off the hood of the robe he was wearing to hide the priest outfit only to see that Toonka had become even more muscular.

"His priorities are on point."

"Well, I can't deny that I wouldn't look at those muscles as well. They are fancy."

"You are talking about Toonka's muscles, you know? Toonka the Tyrant?"

"Tyrant or not, his muscles are hot."

"..."

"Hey, that rhymed."

"..."

However, the expression on Toonka's face was odd.

– Human! Toonka seems to be touched!

'Exactly.'

Cale could not help but become anxious after seeing Toonka standing there with an emotional expression just outside the teleportation magic circle. It was disgusting to see someone who was the size of a house having such an expression.