Published: February 1, 2026
Stud did not know where he came from.
By the time he became aware of himself, he was already living in the dark, surviving by doing nothing but killing people with ice mana.
Weapons that melted away without leaving any evidence seemed to be highly valued, and he spent his days killing the people named by a man (it was always the same man) who appeared from somewhere from time to time, earning money for it.
He felt no value at all in the money that was handed over to him, and since he only used it for the bare minimum of food, there was always some left over.
Gold coins were heavy and noisy to carry around, and the young Stud never even reached the idea of depositing them somewhere, so he simply buried them in one place or another in large clumps.
Those days came to an abrupt end.
An adult different from the man who always brought him information about his targets appeared before Stud.
Stud felt no sense of danger. He didn’t consider what he was doing to be wrong, and there was enough of a gap in ability that he was certain he could kill the adult in front of him if any harm was intended.
The adult knelt down so his gaze would be level with Stud, whose head did not even reach his waist, and spoke to him with an expression Stud had never seen before. Thinking back on it now, that must have been what they called a smile.
The adult told Stud not to kill people anymore, but Stud had never done it because he wanted to, nor had he ever thought he didn’t want to.
If anything, he did it to live, so he believed that if he agreed, he would die; with that in mind, he couldn’t bring himself to nod.
“The man who told you to kill people is dead. All of them.”
“……”
“You’ve got nothing left to do, right? How about working for me?”
“……”
“I’ll guarantee food, clothing and shelter, plus three meals and snacks.”
He nodded.
Thinking about it now, saying “Work for me” to a child of an age that could still be called a toddler was rather questionable, but for Stud—who had calmly concluded that life was inconvenient without money—it was apparently an effective line.
You might say he could just steal, but if thefts became too frequent, the military police would start prowling around. As long as he only killed high‑ranking people, the number of military police in the city wouldn’t increase, and Stud’s peace was preserved.
When the adult tried to take Stud’s hand after he nodded, he nearly had his wrist cut off for the trouble. With a twitching face, the man shrugged his shoulders and brought Stud back to the guild.
“That adult is the current guild master. I’m somewhat grateful to him for not broadcasting my origins everywhere. Ever since then I’ve been working as guild staff, so I haven’t done any killing like last night.”
“……Sorry, could you start over from the beginning, one more time?”
The information spoken in that flat tone to a head still foggy from sleep didn’t go in at all.
The moment he confirmed Lizel’s eyelids had slowly opened, Stud had begun talking. It seemed he wanted to say that he had been drunk last night and overreacted because Lizel had been targeted.
As his brain finally began to turn, Lizel concluded that Stud was trying to say, “I hope you don’t hate me,” and lifted a hand to lightly pat Stud’s head in front of him.
Seeing Stud’s shoulders relax just a little, he knew he’d been right and smiled gently.
Just as Lizel intended, Stud had been calmly thinking, from the moment he woke up, about what Lizel might think of him now.
The mornings of guild staff were as early as, if not earlier than, those of adventurers. Waking at his usual time, Stud had too much time on his hands and could only replay his actions from the previous night.
He felt no need to reflect on having gotten drunk. Thanks to being drunk, he’d been able to use that as an excuse to cling to Lizel like this, so the result was all right.
He also felt no need to reflect on killing the assailant. Since the man had aimed at Lizel, that was only natural; if anything, he wanted to praise himself for a job well done.