Published: February 1, 2026
“There is indeed one party that matches the conditions you mentioned.”
“As expected of you, Stud-kun. You work fast.”
After delivering the Cores of the White Golem, Lizel was once again talking with Stud.
Since the number of cores was, as expected, far too many, he had selected around ten of the better-quality ones for delivery.
Normally, a single dive into the labyrinth would net only a few cores; they had completely blown past the client’s expected budget.
Lizel accepted the payment of one hundred and fifty silver coins for the ten cores, listened to the result of the request he’d asked Stud for beforehand, and smiled.
Enjoying both the words of thanks and the feeling of his head being patted, Stud let his eyes quietly scan their surroundings.
Lizel felt a small tug at his clothes and, understanding, bent at the waist as if to peer at the request sheet in Stud’s hands.
At the same time, a calm, expressionless face drew near his, and the thin lips opposite his moved slightly.
The voice was so soft that no one else could hear it; only Lizel caught it, and he showed his agreement by narrowing his eyes in a smile.
Watching Lizel’s gently retreating profile, Stud handed back the Guild Card he had been holding.
Once the formalities for completing the request were done, Lizel thanked Stud again and walked toward Gill and the others waiting behind him.
“Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve been talking an awful lot since this morning. What was that about?”
“Just a small favor. Here.”
Eleven blinked at what was placed into his outstretched hand.
Fifty shining silver coins—one third of the reward they had just received. In other words, that was what this meant.
Eleven made a sour face and refused, saying it felt like he was snatching part of the reward and he didn’t like it, but Lizel unceremoniously closed his fingers around the coins.
Gill didn’t bother to hide his exasperated look—since when did a thief dislike snatching things?—but he didn’t complain either. The two of them hadn’t come along for the sake of the reward to begin with, but even if that hadn’t been the case, Lizel would still have properly shared the payment.
Eleven didn’t look like he was hurting for money, but that was a separate matter.
Since Lizel wouldn’t back down, Eleven gave up and tossed the silver coins into his spatial magic.
He fully intended to keep tagging along on his own from here on out, but that probably wouldn’t be a problem.
For all they seemed the complete opposite, both Lizel and Gill were the type who simply didn’t do things they didn’t want to do. If they’d disliked it this time, they would have plainly said so.
Since neither had said anything, there was no need to concern himself with it—Eleven drew that simple conclusion. He was never the type to be considerate, nor the sort to fuss over details.
“By the way, that chocolate was delicious. Where was it from?”
“You could tell, huh! That’s from this place by the West Gate over in the central district—”
It was just as they were chatting and about to leave the guild.
As Lizel stepped toward the open doorway, a group of adventurers happened to be coming in from the other side.
Thanks to Eleven throwing out a hand to block him and Gill’s grip on his arm, Lizel didn’t bump into them.
The adventurers coming from the opposite direction also stumbled to a stop.
“Where the hell are you look—oh.”
It was Ain. He seemed to be out on personal business today; his party was nowhere in sight.
He had started to let out the sort of practiced snarl Lizel wasn’t familiar with, but thinking that this must be how he acted in front of others, Lizel found it somewhat endearing.
Incidentally, they had avoided any obvious contact with Ain and his group until today, thinking it would be better to keep Lizel’s involvement in their labyrinth conquest hidden.
Ain had almost spat out his usual abuse when he suddenly realized this was bad, and his face went stiff as he froze, not sure what to do. Lizel gave a wry smile, thinking he should probably throw him a lifeline—but someone else moved before he could.