I didn't intend to return to the Guild that day.
After the dungeon, the only thing I wanted was silence. But Rai'kanna mentioned that we needed to update the record of our latest explorations, and that was mandatory to keep our status active.
I went without hurry.
When I pushed open the Guild's wooden door, I noticed something strange before I even took three steps.
The conversations diminished.
They didn't stop all at once, but they lowered one by one, as if someone were turning down the volume of the place.
Glances.
Many.
Some disguised. Others far too direct.
I walked to the counter as I always did. The attendant who usually spoke to me naturally seemed a little tense.
"Rank S dungeon record," I said.
She nodded too quickly and began writing. Her hands were more restless than usual.
Behind me, I heard a whisper.
"It's him."
Another replied in a low tone, "Alone."
I didn't turn around.
I remained still, waiting.
The attendant finished writing and raised her eyes to me.
"Did you clear the entire dungeon, sir?"
"Yes."
She took a deep breath, as if confirming something she already knew.
"In how much time?"
I thought for a moment.
"I don't know."
She looked at me without understanding.
"I didn't pay attention to the time."
The man standing closest couldn't hold himself back.
"Less than ten minutes," he said. "I was here when he entered and I'm still here."
Another added, "That's impossible."
I took the registration paper and thanked her.
I didn't want that attention.
But it was already there.
When I turned to leave, an older adventurer, someone who had seen many things, looked at me with a different expression.
It wasn't doubt.
It was recognition.
"You're from that group…," he began.
I waited.
"…the ruin group, right?"
The name was still used.
But the tone had changed.
Before, they said it with contempt.
Now, there was something close to respect.
"Yes," I replied.
He let out a low laugh.
"Then the rumor was true. The ruin group has become a legend."
That caught me off guard.
I had never thought of it that way.
I left the Guild without saying anything else.
Outside, some people were still watching me. Not like the curious, but as if they were trying to memorize my face.
On the way back, I kept thinking about how things had changed.
Not long ago, we were seen as a strange group. Problematic. Unstable. People who didn't fit in.
Now, we were a group that cleared Rank S dungeons effortlessly.
When I arrived at the mansion, I found Liriel training in the garden. Precise movements, firm posture.
She stopped when she saw me.
"How was it?"
"Fast."
She frowned.
"How fast?"
"Fast enough that no one believes it."
She smiled slightly.
Elara appeared at the door soon after, followed by Vespera. Rai'kanna came last.
They surrounded me naturally, as they always did, but I noticed something different in their eyes.
Pride.
Unspoken.
Not exaggerated.
Just present.
Rai'kanna was the only one who commented.
"The Guild already knows, doesn't it?"
"Yes."
She nodded, as if that were part of something bigger that was forming.
Later, when I went to the second-floor balcony, I could see part of the city in the distance. The usual movement, people coming and going, routine happening.
And even so, I knew my name was circulating somewhere out there.
Not as a rumor.
As a fact.
It didn't make me euphoric.
It made me alert.
Fame wasn't something I sought. But I understood the weight it carried. People would start expecting things from me. Measuring my actions.
Maybe that was inevitable.
Scarlet appeared beside me in silence.
"They're already talking, aren't they?"
"Yes."
She rested her arms on the balcony and looked at the city.
"Did you notice?"
"What?"
"That it wasn't the strength that caught attention."
I thought for a moment.
"It was the ease."
She smiled.
"Exactly."
We stayed silent for a few seconds.
"You're starting to look like a legendary adventurer," she said.
The word sounded strange.
Legendary.
I had never seen myself that way.
"I just trained."
"And that's what makes it dangerous," she replied.
When she left, I remained there alone.
The wind brushed lightly against my face. The sky was beginning to change color.
I thought about the name they used before. Ruin group.
Maybe it had never been wrong.
It just wasn't the kind of ruin they expected.
We weren't each other's ruin.
We were the ruin of whatever stood in our way.
And now, the city was beginning to realize that.
I stayed there until the sun began to set.
Without hurry.
Without the need to prove anything more that day.
Just observing.
And understanding that, silently, something had changed forever.