"Kurt It’s really you!" Sophie cheered with bubbly warmth.
She threw an arm around his shoulder and pulled him into a suffocatingly tight side-hug, practically squeezing the remaining oxygen right out of his lungs as she buried his face directly against her ample chest.
"Where on earth have you been hiding the last few days? The diner has been dead without you! It’s been so boring, you have no idea. And just when our deal was coming to fruition too! You actually had secret admirers coming in and asking for you by na while ordering food!"
"Sophie... wait, can’t... breathe..."
Sophie wasn’t entirely oblivious to his struggle. She leaned in closer as a teasing smirk played her lips and poked his cheek with a manicured finger.
"Tell the truth, you didn’t forget about our little deal now that you and Diana are officially together, did you? Because if you’re trying to skip out on your tab or your promises, I will personally hunt you down~"
"Nnnn... Phaa!" Kurt finally managed to push himself back enough to catch a breath of air.
"It’s nothing like that, Sophie, I swear. I just... hey. What’re you doing? Get back!"
Before Sophie could squeeze him a second ti, the rapid clicking of heels echoed from behind the main counter. The receptionist marched out into the open floor as her face twisted in a look of professional fury.
"Guild Master! You are two hours late! You specifically stated to the staff that you would be back from your "hobby job" by six o’clock sharp! Look at the ti! Look at the hall!"
"Ah... about that. I got completely caught up in the kitchen trying out so experintal new spices for the nu. Ti just sort of... evaporated. Sorry. Let’s get down to business, shall we?"
Then, as if a switch had been flipped inside her mind, Sophie’s posture instantly shifted.
The friendly diner owner vanished, and the cold, terrifying presence of the adventurers Guild Master returned in full force.
She crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her golden eyes to sharp slits as she slowly scanned the absolute ruin of the guild hall.
Broken glass, overturned barrels, shattered banisters, and dozens of bruised n and won groaning in the debris.
"Alright. Give it to straight. What exactly happened here?"
The receptionist began to explain everything that happened. From Kurt arriving in the guild to turn in his request, to Bigi striking first, and finally to the all-out brawl that escalated from the scuffle.
As the receptionist spoke, the entire room seed to hold its collective breath.
The rowdy, battle-hardened adventurers who had been happily punching each other’s teeth out monts ago were now visibly sweating. Their eyes darted toward the exit as a suffocating wave of Sophie’s killing intent began to bleed into the air.
Sophie turned her head slowly to the splintered wreckage of the personal tavern counter.
"Bigi. Get your fat ass over here. Right now."
For a long, agonising three seconds, nothing happened.
Then, with a pathetic, splintering sound, a massive, bald head popped up from behind the shattered bar. Bigi, who stood over six and a half feet tall and possessed muscles like iron boulders, looked completely reduced.
He ekly crawled out from the debris and dragged his trembling-self across the floorboards.
He kept his eyes glued firmly to the wood, completely unable to et Sophie’s golden gaze. Despite his colossal physical advantage, the sheer psychological pressure radiating from the Guild Master made him look like a misbehaving child.
"Look at ," Sophie commanded sternly.
Bigi swallowed hard, slowly lifting his head to look her in her eyes.
BAM!
Sophie’s fist connected squarely with Bigi’s jaw in a blinding blur of brute force. The impact echoed through the hall like a cannon shot.
Bigi’s massive fra was launched entirely off his feet for the second ti that night, sailing backward through the air before crashing violently back over the ruined counter, shattering what few unbroken liquor bottles remained.
Kurt stood a few feet away, staring wide-eyed in surprise at the spot where the giant had just been standing.
Sophie blew a stray strand of hair out of her face and yelled, "Bigi! Get back here! I didn’t tell you that you could lie down!"
From the ruins of the bar, a pathetic groan echoed, followed by the sound of shuffling boots. Bigi crawled back over the counter with a jaw that was already swelling into a grotesque purple bruise.
He limped back over to her and hunched his massive shoulders inward as he stood in front of her desk, trembling violently.
"Do you know why I just hit you?"
Bigi wiped the blood from his mouth with a shaking hand. His voice cracked as he tried to find an excuse.
"G-Guild Master... please, he’s a fake! He’s just a disgraced noble pretending he’s an adventurer! I... I was only looking out for him! I was trying to make him change professions before he goes out on a real request and gets himself slaughtered by a real monster! Also, he’s a F-rank fraud!"
"An F-rank fraud!? What the hell are you talking about, you bald idiot? Kurt here could look after himself out in the wilds more than you could ever dream of! You think you’re hot shit because you carry a big weapon and look down at everyone because of your height!?"
"B-But he’s always hiding behind his maid! Look at him! He doesn’t even fight his own battles! He lets a little girl in an apron protect him!"
Sophie shifted her attention to Isabel, who was still standing defensively near the reception desk.
"Wait a minute. I recognise you. You’re one of Diana’s maids, aren’t you?"
She turned her head back to Kurt when a knowing, wicked smirk broke through her serious expression. "Ah, I guess it makes perfect sense that a maid is accompanying you, considering you and Diana Valentine are... intimately acquainted."
"... Holy shit, so it’s true."
"... The rumors about him and the Duke’s Valentine’s daughter weren’t just gossip..."
"SHUT UP!" Sophie roared, demanding silence now that they know what’s up.
Sophie turned her attention back to Bigi. "You are pathetic, Bigi. Standing in my hall, bullying a new recruit, spreading baseless rumors, and violating the sanctuary of the guild because your tiny little ego couldn’t handle an F-rank showing more competence than you. Apologise to him. Right now."
Bigi’s knuckles turned white as he looked at Kurt with a clenched fist.
But under the deadly watch of Sophie, he let out a barely audible mutter through his swollen jaw. "S-Sorry..."
"Bigi..."
The giant flinched violently at Sophie’s threatening tone.
Without a single second of further hesitation, he bent his torso forward, executing three consecutive, frantic ninety-degree bows, his forehead practically slamming into his knees as he scread out a formal apology.
"I am deeply, profoundly sorry, Adventurer Kurt! I acted entirely out of line! Please forgive my severe lack of judgnt!"
"Where’s his compensation?" Sophie asked.
Bigi scrambled frantically into his leather coin pouch, his fingers shaking so hard he dropped several copper pieces onto the floor.
He pulled out five glistening silver coins and thrusted them toward Kurt with both hands, his head still bowed.
Kurt, not one to say no to free money, reached out and gladly scooped up the silver coins. "Apology accepted, big guy. Always a pleasure doing business with you."
Sophie didn’t look at Bigi further. She turned toward the rest of the hall, sweeping her eyes over the dozens of adventurers who were currently trying to blend into the shadows.
"And as for the rest of you!" Sophie yelled with scorn.
"You should all be thoroughly ashad of yourselves! Behaving like an undisciplined pack of rabid dogs in my establishnt! Practically bullying a fellow guild mber with cheap insults when you know absolutely nothing about his capabilities or his accomplishnts! And then, the mont a bottle breaks, you all start tearing my hall apart like mindless ruffians because you lack the basic discipline to control your own bloodlust!"
She took a step forward as her presence towered over the entire room. "I have absolutely no need for adventurers who cannot conduct themselves with basic professional decorum!"
Sophie snapped her fingers, pointing directly at the – now conscious – two bruised n who had stepped forward to assist Bigi earlier. "You two. Get over here. Line up right next to your leader."
The two lackeys scrambled forward, their faces pale as they ford a neat, trembling line beside the giant bald man.
"Compensation." Sophie stretched out her hand, and the lackeys handed five silver coins to her, no questions asked.
She then walked down the line and without a single word, her hand darted out three tis in a brutally decisive blur.
RIP! RIP! RIP!
With three clean, violent jerks, she tore off the iron adventurer tags straight off their necks.
She turned around and hurled the tags across the room, where they landed onto the receptionist’s desk.
"Unaffiliate all three of them imdiately." Sophie commanded. "Wipe their nas from the regional logs and place a permanent, lifeti ban on their ability to ever apply for an adventurer’s license within the borders of the kingdom. They want to be adventurers? Go to another continent and beco their problem."
"Guild Master! Please! No!" Bigi begged. "This is our entire livelihood! We have nowhere else to go! We’re sorry! We’ll pay for the damage, we’ll clean the whole city, just please don’t ban us!"
"Shut your mouths! The decision is final. You broke the primary covenant of this hall. You are no longer welco here. Get out of my sight, take a hike, and go find work shoveling horse shit sowhere else. Move!"
The three n hesitated as their spirits broke, but Sophie let out a sudden bark of an angry growl, and they practically scrambled over each other in their haste to reach the front doors.
Once the doors slamd shut behind them, Sophie turned her gaze back to the remaining crowd.
"Does anyone else in this hall have a problem with my decisions? If so, please step forward now so we can resolve it effective imdiately."
"""....""""
"Good. Now, every single one of you who participated in this little riot is going to grab a broom, a bucket, and a hamr. You are going to clean this entire hall until it sparkles, and you are going to repair every single piece of broken furniture before sunrise. If I see a single drop of spilled ale on these floorboards by morning, you will personally answer to ."
The effect was instantaneous.
All the adventurers scrambled across the hall like frantic housemaids. Grabbing brooms, picking up broken glass, and lifting overturned tables with an orderly, terrified efficiency that they had never displayed during an actual request.
Sophie let out a weary sigh as the tension finally left her shoulders. She turned back to Kurt with a softened expression.
"Kurt... I am so incredibly sorry you had to deal with this trash treatnt. Sothing like this wouldn’t have ever happened if the core of my well-known, high-ranking adventurers were actually present in the city today."
"Your core adventurers?"
"Yes. Alas, an S-rank dinsional rift opened up near the northern border this morning, and Duke Valentine drafted every A-rank and above party to assist with the containnt. It left the hall completely empty of actual professionals, leaving nothing but these undisciplined ruffians to cause trouble."
"Hm. Don’t worry about it, Sophie. Thanks for the apology, and thanks for the assist. It was actually kind of therapeutic. So... do I have to stay and help them scrub the floorboards, or am I free to go?"
"Oh, heavens no! Absolutely not! It wasn’t you who caused this ss. You clearly were the victim here."
"Cool. Because honestly, I just really want to go ho. It’s been an exceptionally long day, and my bed is calling my na."
"That so? You’re dismissed then," Sophie said, waving her hand toward the exit.
"It was nice seeing you, Sophie. Take care of yourself," Kurt said as he turned on his heel. He gestured to Isabel, and together, they began walking toward the front doors.
"Oh, and Kurt!"
Kurt stopped with his hand on the handle; he turned his head around over his shoulder. "Yeah?"
"You better show up at the diner for a al, you hear ? Otherwise, I will personally march up the hills and drag your lazy butt there myself. Don’t think you can hide from ... I happen to know exactly where you live now~"
"Haha, sure. I’ll see you soon, Sophie."
Isabel offered a polite bow. "Have a pleasant evening, Guild Master."
Together, Kurt and Isabel stepped out into the cool, refreshing night air.
They climbed back onto the seats of the red carriage, the leather reins snapping as Isabel guided the tired horses down the cobblestone street, leaving the chaotic lights of the guild precinct behind them.
As the carriage rolled away into the quiet shadows of the capital’s alleys, three figures stepped out from the darkness.
Bigi stood in the center, his hand clutching his swollen, broken jaw and his breath coming in venomous hisses.
Beside him, his two lackeys watched the retreating silhouette of the vehicle, their faces twisted into masks of pure, unbridled scorn and burning malice.
They had lost their status, their livelihood, and their honor – and in their twisted, small minds, every single drop of bla belonged to the one-eyed noble who had just ridden away with their silver.
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