Published: February 1, 2026
From yesterday to today—Stud watched the idiot celebrating in front of him, his usually blank face holding a terrifying degree of coldness.
To Stud, the man was nothing but an idiot.
In truth, even if he poured every bit of his considerable vocabulary into cursing him, it still wouldn’t feel like enough. So he mashed all those insults together, compressed them to the utmost, and with every last drop of malice simply called him “idiot.”
For Stud, who normally felt nothing for other people and was merely cold, this level of disgust was rare.
“Congrats! I joined the party! Me!”
“How about reconsidering this, even now?”
Ignoring the wildly excited Eleven on purpose, Stud asked from the bottom of his heart. Lizel soothed him with a wry smile.
Even with Lizel stroking his hair, the calmly murderous pressure around Stud showed no sign of dispersing.
If anything, the way he grabbed Lizel’s wrist and pushed that hand more firmly onto his own head felt like he was insisting his mood wouldn’t improve unless Lizel did at least that much.
The action was unexpectedly adorable for someone with such a detached demeanor. Keeping the wrist that had been grabbed where it was, Lizel offered his Guild Card with his other hand.
“If you’re going to reconsider, I won’t invite him. Come on, Eleven, your Guild Card.”
“As expected of my leader!”
At those words, Stud’s gaze landed on Eleven for the first time that day.
“Huh?”
In that instant, the temperature in the guild plummeted.
Stud, radiating enough cold it was almost audible, quietly released Lizel’s hand.
Lizel retrieved the Guild Card he had placed on the table for the moment. Reissuing a Guild Card cost money.
Without a sound, Stud pushed his chair back and slowly stood.
Eleven toyed with his Guild Card in his palm, then bared his teeth in a grin at Stud, who was watching him expressionlessly.
“Say that one more time. Who did you say belonged to who?”
“I said this guy is my. Le.a.der. Didn’t I?”
The cracking noise, like ice breaking, was probably just an illusion.
Yet the killing intent that burst from Stud in an instant was so immense it made that illusion feel real.
Any monsters present would have instantly bolted. It flooded through the entire guild, and as if to answer it, another, crawling, skin-scraping murderous intent spread through the room, making everyone shudder.
Far from being afraid, Eleven looked exhilarated. His grin twisted into something feral as he slowly ran his tongue over his lips.
“A stray mutt that doesn’t know its place sure is brazen.”
“Even when a neutered house dog barks, it ain’t scary at all!”
The moment Stud formed an ice blade in his hand and Eleven drew his dagger—
The ice shattered in Stud’s grip, and Eleven’s gleaming dagger was knocked from his hand and sent spinning into the floor.
The two of them immediately glared at the figure who had appeared between them.
“You’re getting carried away.”
Gill was the one who stopped the fight everyone thought was unstoppable in the blink of an eye.
His sword, which he had drawn, was already back in its sheath. For someone to attack so fast that even these two, who far exceeded normal human speed, couldn’t react—there was only one person who could do that.
Lizel, peeking out from behind Gill, who had somehow slipped between them, let out a strained laugh.
“I don’t mind you fighting, but don’t cause trouble for the people around you.”
They’d only come to register the party this time, so they’d deliberately avoided the early-morning rush when adventurers came to take requests, and chosen a time when the place was starting to empty out.
Even so, the guild was never truly deserted. Looking around at the frozen onlookers, Lizel glanced back at the two again.
He’d thought they were going to actually cross blades and had asked Gill for help—and that had clearly been the right call. If they’d been even a fraction of a second slower, the guild wouldn’t have come out of it intact.