Date: Two Days After Escort Mission
Location: Guild Branch, Central Plaza
---
We came back early. Not because we wanted to — the guild moved our report forward after we "escorted" twelve bandits into a net trap. Their words, not ours.
The clerk didn't know what to write in the quest ledger. Lily solved it.
> Lily: "Just mark it as Resolved."
We got our coin and a new nickname from the guild:
"The Babysitters from Hell."
Anna hummed the theme song she invented during the ambush.
Leander kept whispering about launching a cleanup business.
Me? I just wanted to sit down. Maybe read.
That's when the fools walked in.
---
Seven of them.
Polished gear, shiny cloaks, loud voices. Silver plates swinging from their belts like they'd earned them without bribery.
I recognized the leader instantly:
Sunglasses indoors. Muscles like a tree. Sword taller than sense.
He scanned us like he expected fear.
What he got was silence.
> Musclehead: "So you're the bunch that got lucky with those bandits?"
Anna opened her mouth. I stepped forward first.
He grinned wider.
> Musclehead: "How about a proper challenge? Dungeon sim. Team vs. team. Real weapons, no outside healing. First team to collapse loses."
Leander perked up.
> Leander: "Ooooh. Do we get to bet on their screams?"
Alice didn't even turn her head.
> Alice: "Another one. This week's fool just walked in."
Lily sighed like the world had tired her again.
> Lily: "I thought we agreed not to provoke idiots on Mondays."
Anna bounced beside me, eyes already glowing.
> Anna: "But I brought my exploding slime fish illusion! It's even got fins this time."
> Elric: "I'm organizing healing potions. Count me out." Gideon: "Wake me when they're crying."
The Silver Squad didn't seem to care. Or listen.
Musclehead leaned closer, then smirked and turned to Alice.
> Musclehead: "Unless your leader here needs permission from his girls to fight?"
Silence.
Heavy. Thick. Final.
For a moment, Alice's expression didn't change. Then she blinked — slow and cold.
The temperature in the guild dropped. A little.
Even Lena would've shut up.
Riya didn't speak. Just kept smiling politely, like always. But her fingers curled against her dress.
That's when I stepped forward.
No magic. No threat.
Just my voice.
> Nitsuo: "Five rooms, you said?" "Leave one of your men outside."
Musclehead squinted. "What for?"
> Nitsuo: "To carry what's left of the rest of you."
---
The Guild Clerk didn't even argue. She just sighed and wrote:
> Team Duel Registered:
Nitsuo's Squad vs. The Silver Seven (aka Morons)
---
We returned to the dorm like we were walking home from a battlefield.
Not because we were wounded.
Because we knew tomorrow, we'd be asked to hurt idiots in front of an audience.
Lily was the first to speak.
> "Why is it always like this?"
She sat down near the fireplace, untying her boots slowly. "Why is it every time we breathe, someone wants to test us just to feel tall?"
No one answered. Not right away.
Until Anna burst out laughing.
> "Because our existence is a threat to short kings everywhere!"
Leander nearly choked on his snack.
> "You saw their faces, right? That one guy's frown had more lines than a map!"
Anna leaned over the table, exaggerated a bow, and mimicked the leader.
> "'Surrender now, or I shall test your honor through dungeon carnage!'"
> Leander: "Test my patience with those pants, more like."
> Anna: "Who taught them to speak like that? Was their school sponsored by dramatic pigeons?!"
I couldn't stop the corner of my mouth twitching.
Lily shook her head.
> "You're all treating this like a game."
> I looked up. "And you're not wrong."
She looked directly at me. "They don't want a fight, Nitsuo. They want to humiliate us."
> "Yes," I said. "But they asked for the stage."
> "So?"
> "So we show the audience the truth."
I sat at the table, flipping through my notes. "They're not calm," I said. "They just know how it ends."
She looked at me — still fuming. "And what if it doesn't?"
I paused. Closed the book. Then said, "Then we learn."
Lily sighed again, quieter this time. She folded her arms… then pulled over a chair and sat near me. "Still," she murmured, "I wish people stopped thinking you were the easy one."
> I didn't answer.
Because I wasn't.
---
Later That Night
I'd settled back into my desk, reviewing the room simulation draft for tomorrow. Five chambers. Traps, mana fog, golem illusions. Their team would overextend by room three. Elric was right — it would be a comedy show.
Then I heard the door click.
> Not a knock. A lock being turned. Only one person does that.
> "You're awake," Alice said, stepping inside.
She didn't ask for permission.
She never did.
She didn't need to.
> "My reserves are low," she said simply, brushing her silver hair back.
I nodded. Rolled up a sleeve. But she just stepped closer. Shook her head.
> "No. Neck."
I paused. "Why?"
> "It's… steadier. Direct. And…" Her eyes didn't leave mine. "Closer."
I didn't argue.
She stepped beside me. Leaned down. One hand on my shoulder.
Then — her breath, warm for a second — followed by the sharpest whisper of pain.
Teeth. Clean. Precise.
A heartbeat passed. Two. Then warmth.
Her body relaxed slightly. Her fingers didn't tremble this time. The tension she wore like armor — melted, if only slightly.
She drew back after just a moment. Licked the edge of her fang with restrained elegance.
> "Still tastes like guilt," she murmured.
> "Better than fear," I replied.
Alice lingered for a second.
> "That man today. If I'd reacted quicker, I would've cut out his tongue."
> "That's why I moved first," I said.
She lowered her head.
> "...Would you have stopped me?"
> "No," I said. "But I would've made sure you didn't regret it."
That seemed to be enough. She stepped toward the bed. Lay down without a word.
And I followed.
No words. No contact. Just presence.
She closed her eyes.
> "Wake me early. I want the first kill."
I stared at the ceiling. My neck still tingled.
> "Fine. You can have the second too, if they're rude."
Her lips curved just slightly.
> "They will be."
---
That night, sleep didn't come easy.
But silence did.
And when the war comes tomorrow — silence is the last kindness we can afford.