The aftermath of the Guild War Trials was chaos—glorious, sparkling, gut-busting chaos. "Linked Hearts" had pulled off the impossible, and now it was time to celebrate like absolutely no one was watching… which was a lie, because everyone was watching.
Their little guild hall, once just a mismatched cottage with barely enough room for their members and a grumpy boar, was transformed overnight into the hottest party spot in the kingdom. Invitations hadn't even been sent, yet nobles, merchants, bards, adventurers, and every single person who'd ever claimed to "know them from back when" showed up anyway. A rowdy merchant even tried to sell "Harem King" plushies outside the front gate. Kaela burned his cart with her boar's fire breath. No regrets.
MC was overwhelmed. "I thought this would just be, like, cake and board games," he said, ducking as a drunken elf somersaulted over a banquet table and landed in a gravy dish.
"It's not a real celebration without at least one near-death experience," Jax slurred, already halfway through his third keg of "Bard's Brew," which he claimed improved his vocals. (It did not.)
A band played in the corner—badly—and someone had enchanted the ceiling to look like a starry sky, only they overdid it, so every few minutes a fake shooting star crashed onto the buffet. Kaela calmly swatted one aside and continued eating ribs.
Lina had shown up in her "special occasion" battle dress. It was somehow both intimidating and dazzling. She didn't speak much at first, but hovered near MC like a guard with too many feelings. She only reacted when Iris arrived.
Iris, elegant and collected as always, wore a formal gown that sparkled subtly with temporal runes, and she casually floated in three inches off the ground because, in her words, "heels are outdated."
What followed was not open warfare, but something more terrifying: competitive politeness.
"Oh, is that punch you made, Lina? How… rustic."
"Well, your dessert was lovely too, Iris. So sweet. Like a time spell for toddlers."
"Ah, how kind of you to say. By the way, your flame aura nearly singed MC's eyebrows. Again."
"I'll burn you a new wardrobe if you keep floating like a show-off."
MC stood between them with a forced smile, sweating bullets. "I like both your outfits! Please don't kill each other at the cake table!"
Kira, who'd been perched by the window with her arms crossed and a growing pout, watched the interaction unfold like someone slowly losing a bet with reality.
It was happening again.
They were flirting.
With her guild leader.
Who, in her opinion, barely qualified to be in charge of his own socks.
She took a long swig from her juice—because she was too young for Jax's brew, thank you very much—and muttered, "I save the guy once and suddenly I'm chopped liver."
Luna, ever quiet, smiled softly from across the room. "You're more like… spicy stew."
"Don't make this poetic," Kira grumbled, cheeks pink.
Meanwhile, MC wandered around cluelessly accepting compliments and trying to prevent party accidents. At one point he tripped over a dancing squirrel (yes, a real one—charmed from the forest, still a loyal fan), fell face-first into the cake, and was immediately crowned "King of the Party" by a drunk goblin bard.
"I don't deserve this," he mumbled, frosting stuck to his eyelashes.
"You absolutely do," Lina said, helping him up with just a little too much care.
"I second that," Iris added, adjusting his collar like she was staking a claim.
Kira growled. "That's it. I'm baking my own cake. It'll be better. He'll love it."
"You bake?" asked Luna, tilting her head.
"I do now," Kira snapped.
Kaela, who had somehow set up a campfire in the middle of the hall, nodded sagely while roasting something unidentifiable. "This party is weird. I don't hate it."
Even the boar was wearing a party hat.
And as the night wore on, the chaos only grew. There were magical fireworks someone forgot to stabilize, leading to a brief fireball incident in the garden. A dance contest broke out between two rival adventurers, only to end with both of them tangled in enchanted streamers. Jax sang a ballad so off-key it opened a minor rift in space, which Iris casually fixed with a snap of her fingers.
But despite all the insanity—the flirting, the fireworks, the feelings—they were happy. Genuinely happy.
For once, there were no battles, no cult agents in the shadows, no System anomalies buzzing in MC's head. Just laughter, warmth, and the sense of being something bigger than themselves.
A family.
A chaotic, flirtatious, disaster-prone family.
And even though danger still loomed beyond the horizon, even though not everyone in the room was being honest about their past (or their feelings), that night was theirs.
A night of celebration.
A night of cake, fire, jealousy, and unexpected kisses-on-the-cheek.
A night where "Linked Hearts" wasn't just the name of a guild—it was the messy, beautiful truth of what they'd all become.
END OF CHAPTER 50