The Guild Master cleared his throat with the gravitas of a man who had personally witnessed the unraveling of sanity. "Alright," he began, massaging his temples as if pressing on a migraine made of solid regret. "Let's approach this with calm professionalism. No one explodes anything. No one recruits anyone under duress. And for the love of all that is bureaucratic and insured, no one touches any more guild property."
The knights nodded, their armor clinking in solemn accord.
Aeliana nodded,her expression one of rapt, noble attention.
Sai Ji nodded,the gesture conveying utter surrender to a cosmic joke.
His bodyguards nodded,their同步动作 perfectly conveying 'we are enjoying this spectacle immensely.'
Sal Vera hummed a cheerful, ancient tune in his mind. I am deriving significant amusement from this, my King. Do continue.
Aeliana stepped forward, the picture of aristocratic resolve—an image slightly undercut by the fact she still had a death-grip on Sai Ji's sleeve, as if he were a rare, skittish bird she'd caught. "Sai Ji," she declared, her voice ringing in the hushed hall. "I, Lady Aeliana of House Nightblossom, formally request the honor of forming a temporary adventuring party with you."
Sai Ji freed his sleeve with a yank.
"Why? Why? I am the least special person to ever walk through those doors! I'm a statistical anomaly of incompetence!"
"You reduced a reinforced training dummy to its base molecules."
"That was a freak atmospheric event!"
"You pacified fifty hostile slimes without physical contact."
"They have social anxiety! It's a documented condition!"
"You are accompanied by two individuals the guild's system cannot even categorize."
"They were on clearance! Fire sale! Last season's models!"
From behind him, his sworn guards offered unhelpful commentary.
"We were acquired under dubious circumstances,"Fen stated blandly.
"Please send help,"Lura added, without a trace of irony.
"WILL YOU TWO STOP SABOTAGING MY COVER STORY?!"
Aeliana ignored the chaos. She placed a hand over her heart and executed a bow so precise it could have been used to calibrate surveying equipment. "My request is sincere. I believe you to be a rare blossom, Sai Ji. One that blooms only once a century, its petals touched by destiny."
Sai Ji leaned toward Fen, whispering from the corner of his mouth. "Is she… using floral metaphors to describe me? Am I a potted plant to her?"
"Yes,Master."
"I feel objectified.Botanically."
The Guild Master's next cough was less a sound and more a cry for help. "Order! QUIET in the hall!"
The guild, which had been holding a collective breath, fell into a silence so deep one could hear the dust settling from the earlier dummy-vaporization.
"This," the Guild Master announced, pointing a trembling finger at Sai Ji, "is the new recruit everyone is apparently incapable of ignoring—"
A voice from the back shouted, "THE PRETTY ONE?!"
Another:"THE DUMMY-DUSTER!"
A third:"I HEARD HE'S AN NPC TRIGGER FOR A SECRET RAID!"
And then,clear as a bell from a balcony: "IS HE THE SECRET FINAL BOSS OF THE GUILD SYSTEM?!"
Sai Ji's head whipped around. "WHO SAID THAT LAST ONE? WAS IT YOU? I SEE YOU HIDING BEHIND THE TAPESTRY!"
The Guild Master silenced the rising murmur with a slash of his hand. "His name is Sai Ji. You will not harass him. He is… fragile."
Sai Ji stared, pointing at his own chest. "Me? Fragile? I just atomized solid oak!"
"Yes,"the Guild Master said, his voice flat with exhausted finality. "Emotionally fragile. Systemically fragile. The kind of fragile that requires warning labels and a safety perimeter."
His bodyguards nodded in sage agreement.
"A delicate constitution,"Fen confirmed.
"Prone to fits of catastrophic self-expression,"Lura added.
Sai Ji sputtered,utterly betrayed. "I AM A PILLAR OF RESILIENCE AND NORMALCY!"
Aeliana placed a comforting hand on his arm. "I understand. The weight of hidden power is a terrible burden to bear alone."
Sai Ji's internal scream was a silent,high-frequency thing felt only by Sal Vera, who chuckled in response.
You are surrounded by beautiful, devoted fools, my King. It is your cross to bear.
Aeliana, with the unstoppable momentum of a noble on a mission, dragged him to the party registry desk while the guild watched, a hundred whispered theories weaving through the air like gnats.
"She's recruiting him?"
"He must be a political plant from a rival city-state!"
"Or a lost heir!"
"Or a romance subplot waiting to happen!"
Sai Ji tripped over a loose floorboard."PLEASE STOP NARRATING MY LIFE! I AM NOT A SUBPLOT!"
At the desk, a timid clerk smiled up at them. "Um… party name, please?"
Sai Ji planted his hands on the counter. "There. Is. No. Party."
Aeliana spoke over him,clear and confident. "The Moonborn Vanguard."
The clerk's quill scratched it onto the parchment before the ink of the words had dried in the air.
Sai Ji stared in horror."That is factually, grammatically, and thematically incorrect!"
Lura leaned in."We are keeping it."
Fen nodded."It has a certain lyrical menace."
"I WILL MAROON YOU BOTH ON A VERY BORING ISLAND!"
My King, Sal Vera cooed, you adore them. They are your sacred clowns.
I do NOT—
Lies. Your soul-light brightens when they cause you pain. It is a bond.
The clerk pushed a small, clear crystal across the desk to Sai Ji. "Just channel a tiny wisp of mana into the registry crystal to finalize the bond, sir."
Sai Ji hesitated. He focused, pulling on the most minuscule, pathetic thread of energy he could conceptualize—the magical equivalent of a faint sigh.
The amulet at his chest flickered.
It stuttered.
Then,with a sound like tearing silk, it glitched.
CRRZZZT—!
A wave of silver-tinged mist erupted from him. The air in the guild hall grew heavy, thick, and oppressively aware. Mana streams in the atmosphere visibly bent toward him, as if he'd become a singularity. Torches guttered, their flames dying to a cold, electric blue. The very stones of the floor hummed in a low, subsonic key.
And every adventurer in the hall—every grizzled veteran, every boastful rookie—dropped. Not in unison, but in a wave, a knee-jerk reaction of something old and deep in the lizard brain screaming a single truth: PREDATOR. KING. BOW.
Sai Ji stood frozen in the eye of the silent storm, the crystal held loosely in his fingers. "Oh, no. No, no, no—the amulet's overloading—STOP IT—EVERYONE GET UP, THIS IS EMBARRASSING—!"
Aeliana, still on one knee, stared up at him, her face pale with a dawning, terrifying awe. "S-Sovereign-level… aura suppression? From a… a human form?"
The Guild Master toppled out of his chair with a soft thud.
His bodyguards moved instantly, placing themselves as living shields between Sai Ji and the prostrate crowd. "Master," Fern murmured, his voice tight. "Your containment is wavering."
"YOU THINK?!"Sai Ji hissed, squeezing his eyes shut and forcing the rebellious tide of power back down, back behind the faltering glamour. "REEL IT IN! REEL IT—IN—"
Such a bold, unconscious display of authority, Sal Vera mused, her mental voice warm with nostalgia. It reminds me of the coronation riots. You quieted a mob of thousands with a glance.
PLEASE DO NOT SOUND AROUSED BY MY SOCIAL MELTDOWN!
With a final, shuddering effort, he clamped down. The silver mist dissolved. The pressure vanished as if it had never been. The torches sputtered back to life.
The damage, however, was absolute.
Two hundred adventurers slowly picked themselves up, staring at Sai Ji not with anger, but with the wide-eyed, fervent gaze of cultists who had just witnessed a sign.
Aeliana rose, her cheeks flushed, her blue eyes blazing with a light that had nothing to do with reason. "You… You truly are…"
Sai Ji slapped his hands over his face. "I am a paperweight. A mildly interesting rock. PLEASE, I BEG YOU, LET ME BE MEDIOCRE."
The Guild Master clambered to his feet, using the desk for support. He pointed a trembling, accusatory finger at Sai Ji. "Effective immediately," he rasped, his voice raw, "Sai Ji is banned from channeling any mana, intent, or 'emotional energy' inside guild premises."
Sai Ji lowered his hands, a flicker of hope daring to spark. "That's… it? No exile? No burning at the stake?"
The Guild Master yanked a pre-written poster from a drawer and slapped it onto the nearest pillar.In bold, red letters, it proclaimed:
BY ORDER OF THE GUILD MASTER:
ABSOLUTELY NO SOVEREIGN-TIER AURA LEAKS PERMITTED ON GUILD PROPERTY.
VIOLATORS WILL BE CHARGED FOR CLEANING AND THERAPY.
"You can't be serious," Sai Ji deadpanned.
"After the glitter incident and the dummy-dust incident?"The Guild Master's eye twitched. "I am drafting a proposal to have you declared a moving environmental hazard. Be grateful it's just a sign."
Aeliana, meanwhile, had reclaimed Sai Ji's hand, her grip now one of triumphant possession. "Then it's settled! Welcome to the Moonborn Vanguard, Sai Ji. Our destiny awaits!"
In that moment, Sai Ji felt a distinct, spiritual sensation—as if his soul had gently excused itself from his body to go lie down in a quiet, dark room.
Sal Vera's whisper was a study in affectionate mockery. My King… you fit in so perfectly here.
His mental reply was a flat,exhausted whisper. …I hate this city.
{Outside }
Sai Ji stood outside the guild, staring at the quest parchment in his hand as if it were a warrant for his execution.
Aeliana stood beside him, hands clasped behind her back, beaming with the serene confidence of someone whose family name likely had its own contingency fund for accidental town fires.
"It's a straightforward field assignment," she said brightly. "Excellent for team-building."
Sai Ji thrust the paper toward her, his finger jabbing at the officially stamped header. "It says, and I quote, 'CRISIS-LEVEL BIOLOGICAL CONTAGION BREACH AT SILVERPASS FIELD LAB.' This is not 'straightforward.' This is a bio-hazard containment notice!"
Aeliana nodded. "Precisely! A clear, objective goal."
His bodyguards,having magically produced supplies from seemingly nowhere, offered their contributions.
"We have brought neutralizing solvents,"Fen stated, holding up a very large, very ominous sprayer.
"And sustenance for the endeavor,"Lura added, presenting a wicker basket with a checkered cloth.
Sai Ji dragged his hands down his face. "I was anticipating… I don't know… 'find the lost chickens.' 'Count the weird mushrooms.' A singular (1) aggressive duck? Why is our inaugural party quest a scenario that requires HAZMAT protocols?!"
"Because you possess unique aptitudes!" Aeliana declared, as if this explained everything.
"I possess a unique aptitude for causing system errors and making low-level fauna prostrate themselves!That's not a skill set! It's a cry for help!"
My King, Sal Vera interjected, her tone one of gentle teasing, this level of dramatic irony is precisely the correct seasoning for a protagonist's journey.
"You are a terrible advisor and I am revoking your metaphysical speaking privileges."
Then Aeliana pressed a small velvet pouch into his hand. "A final precaution. Wear this. It's a Class-2 Mana Opacity Charm. It will dampen your… signature."
Sai Ji loosened the drawstring and tipped the contents into his palm.
He stared.
Aeliana stared.
His bodyguards leaned in to stare.
It was a small, fuzzy, fake mustache. The kind sold by street vendors for copper pennies.
"Aeliana," Sai Ji said, his voice dangerously calm. "This is a child's novelty mustache. It has a tiny, embroidered smiley face on the adhesive strip."
"It lowers your detectable presence by twenty-eight percent!" she insisted, utterly serious.
He peeled off the backing and slapped it onto his upper lip.
It burst into a brief,sad puff of flame and vanished into ash.
Aeliana gasped, a hand flying to her mouth. "Even mundane disguise magic is incinerated by the purity of your aura…!"
"It was paper and cheap glue!" he roared.
Unfazed, his bodyguards stepped forward with their own offerings.
"Master,we procured alternative camouflage," Fen announced, presenting a wide-brimmed sunhat adorned with a truly tragic silk flower.
Lura produced a pair of smoked quartz spectacles large enough to belong to a stunned owl,and a cloak that seemed to be stitched from a rejected royal tapestry, tiny crescent moons winking from the fabric.
Donning it all, Sai Ji looked less like an incognito sovereign and more like a grandmother who had escaped a particularly flamboyant asylum to go birdwatching during a solar eclipse.
Sal Vera was howling with laughter in the sanctum of his mind. My King… I beg of you… swear to me you will wear this into battle one day…
Dead inside, Sai Ji trudged forward, the floppy hat brim bobbing with each step. The "Moonborn Vanguard" moved toward their doom.
{Silverpass}
The outskirts of Silverpass looked less like a village and more like a painting of the apocalypse done in muted greens and greys. Thick, unnatural smoke coiled from collapsed barricades. The air tasted of ozone and fear. Medics ran between makeshift tents, their faces drawn. The distant sounds were not of industry, but of splintering wood and panicked shouts.
A guard spotted them and sprinted over, his helmet askew. "Thank the gods! Reinforcements! The containment's failed—the mutated specimens are breaching the secondary perimeter! We can't hold—!"
Before Aeliana could deliver a rallying speech, Sai Ji processed the information. "So, to be clear, our 'simple field assignment' is a collapsing biosecurity cordon around magically-mutated wildlife."
Aeliana beamed."An exhilarating challenge!"
"IT'S A CATASTROPHE."
Just then, a mutated boar—a hulting monstrosity of twisted flesh, exposed bone, and pulsating violet veins—slammed into a nearby timber wall, reducing it to kindling. The ground shook. Villagers screamed.
And then, as Sai Ji took an involuntary step forward into full view…
Every single corrupted creature within a two-hundred-meter radius—
The raging boar.
The pack of wolves with glowing,sickly eyes.
A stag whose antlers crackled with aberrant energy—
They all stopped.
Heads turned. Glowing eyes fixed on the figure in the ridiculous hat and moon-cloak.
As one, they submitted.
The boar dropped its massive head, snout plowing a furrow in the dirt.
The wolves rolled onto their backs,legs in the air.
The stag bent its forelegs in a motion that could only be described as a curtsy.
Silence, broken only by the crackle of distant fires, blanketed the field.
Sai Ji stood frozen, a scream building in his throat. "WHY?! WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THIS?! I AM A NON-THREAT! I AM WEARING A TABLE CLOTH AS A CAPE! ATTACK THE PEOPLE WITH ACTUAL WEAPONS!"
A passing adventurer, seeing the tableau, skidded to a halt, her jaw slack. "T-The Sovereign… he's come…? The prophecy…"
"NO PROPHECIES!"Sai Ji yelled, shaking his fists at the sky. "I REJECT ALL NARRATIVE CONVENTIONS!"
Aeliana stepped to his side, her voice hushed with revelation. "This… this explains the crystal. The slimes. The dummy. Your very bloodline pacifies the corrupted…"
"MY BLOODLINE IS ANEMIC AND PRONE TO HANGNAILS!THIS IS A MASS HYSTERIA EVENT!"
From the deepening shadows at the edge of the clearing, a patch of darkness detached itself.
It resolved into a figure clad in robes of liquid obsidian, who moved to kneel in the churned mud before Sai Ji without hesitation. The hood fell back, revealing a man with silver hair cut with razor precision and eyes that shone with an intensity that had nothing to do with madness and everything to do with fanatical recognition.
"Your Majesty," the man breathed, his voice trembling with a profound, weary relief. "At last. The scent of your awakening has been a faint star in the void for months. There is no mistaking it. You are—"
Sai Ji threw his hands out in a warding gesture. "No. Full stop. Cease all audio. Do not complete that sentence. I am a local weirdo, at best."
The man—Nyx—continued, his words falling with the weight of carved stone. "—the lost Sovereign, heir to the Astral Throne—"
"Nope."
"—the rightful ruler whose return was foretold in the Codex of Shattered Moons—"
"Fiction!"
"—and the only being capable of mending the rifts tearing this reality asunder."
Sai Ji turned on his heel, the moon-cloak flapping dramatically. "I'm going back. I'm joining a monastery. Asilent, Sovereign-free monastery. They'll let me peel potatoes. Potatoes don't bow."
But his bodyguards were there, gentle hands on his elbows, guiding him back to face the kneeling agent and the field of prostrate monsters.
"Master,destiny has a no-refund policy," Fern said softly.
"And we packed for a longer journey,"Lura added, hefting the picnic basket.
Aeliana stared at Nyx, then at Sai Ji, her earlier awe crystallizing into a terrifying, unwavering certainty. "Sai Ji… you're… royalty?"
Exhaustion, deeper than any physical fatigue, settled into Sai Ji's bones. He looked at the hopeful noblewoman, the kneeling spymaster, the bowing monsters, and his two loyal, absurdist bodyguards. The weight of their collective expectation was a physical yoke.
"I," he stated, his voice flat and final, "am a man who wanted to sign up for a quest to exterminate basement rats for pocket change. That is the zenith of my ambition. Anything beyond that is a collective hallucination."
Nyx bowed his head lower. The beasts let out soft, submissive whines. The adventurers watched from a distance, a new legend solidifying before their eyes.
And Sal Vera's whisper was the softest yet, tinged with an ancient, unwavering love. My King… the throne has been cold for a hundred years. Welcome home.
Sai Ji lifted his face to the smoke-stained sky, the ridiculous owl-glasses slipping down his nose, and issued his plaintive, unanswered cry to the uncaring universe:
"I JUST WANTED TO KILL SOME RATS!"
END OF CHAPTER 11