Ever since a few days ago, Hajin had noticed something was wrong with his base stats.
Not wrong in a bad way either, which was exactly why it was a problem, because he was faster, stronger and lighter on his feet even when he was not actively using the ring.
'In Shard terms, where do I even place now?' he thought, keeping one hand locked on the choking man while his eyes shifted toward the entrance. 'One shard? Two? More? I don't even know, and if people start seeing that while I have no shard at all, they might think I am using forbidden magic or some other insane bullshit.'
That thought brought him right back to the person who had just walked in.
He knew her on sight even though they had never spoken before, because everyone in the capital knew the top names in the guild whether they wanted to or not.
Yenna, one of the guild's top five, the Frost Fang.
She wasn't tall enough to dominate a room by size and she didn't need to be, because the moment she stepped further inside, the entire guild hall shifted around her like everyone had the same bad instinct at once.
Her boots clicked against the floor in a steady rhythm while the people near the entrance moved aside without being told, and by the time she stopped a few steps away, Hajin felt the skin on the back of his neck crawl.
'Fuck, might have landed myself in a bad position,' he thought, trying not to show how much her presence bothered him. 'I should have expected one of the top adventurers to be around.'
Yenna's eyes moved once across the room, taking in the cracked pillar, the man on the floor under Hajin's hand, Juna with the blanket still wrapped around her, and the crowd pretending they had not been enjoying the show a second ago.
"What is the meaning of this whole scene in the guild?" she asked, her voice calm but it carried an undeniable pressue.
The man Hajin had forced to apologize reacted first, because panic made stupid people even stupider.
"Y-Yenna, this bastard attacked me for no reason," he said, still half on the ground and rubbing his throat. "I was just talking and he-"
She looked at him with cold eyes, making him top talking.
'Haaah, okay,' Hajin thought, watching that happen. 'I have to diffuse this whole mess before things get messier.'
Yenna did not take her eyes off the guy for another second before finally speaking again, "did I ask for your version first?" she said.
"N-no."
"Then keep your mouth shut until you are asked to speak." She turned her attention to Hajin next, her bright blue eyes staying on him for a little bit before speaking, "you, let him go."
Hajin let go of the man right away and took a small step back while the guy dropped to the floor and started coughing.
'Yeah, no,' he thought, watching the man hold his throat, 'fighting an idiot is one thing, but fighting a ranked adventurer is just insanity.'
He rubbed the back of his neck and kept his face calm, even though her presence was still making him feel uncomfortable.
'I should just go along with whatever she demands for now,' he thought, keeping his eyes on Yenna. 'That is the easiest fix.'
She kept looking at him for a moment before asking, "well? What happened here?"
He was about to answer when he felt something lightly grab the back of his shirt. He glanced down a little and noticed that Juna had somehow moved behind him without him noticing, using his back as cover while one hand lightly held onto his clothes.
'Wait, what?' he thought, trying not to show it on his face. 'She is hiding behind me? Woah, I didn't expect that, maybe she is opening up a little?'
That was unexpected, throwing him off for a second, 'nice, that whole scene might have not been a bad thing after all,' he thought, forcing his attention back to Yenna before the pause got awkward.
"That piece of trash over there," he said, nodding toward the man still on the floor, "was harassing my friend, acting like she is just a play thing he can buy whenever he feels like it. So I got a little physical with him and told him to apologize, and that's when you walked in."
Her eyes shifted to the cracked pillar behind them, then back to the man on the floor, who was still rubbing his throat and glaring at nothing.
"I see," she said, her tone not changing at all. "There are always trash like that, acting out of line and forgetting where they are. I have dealt with worse in this hall."
'Oh, so she gets it,' he thought, feeling some of the tension in his shoulders loosen.
"But," she continued, and that single word made him brace, "you damaged guild property in the process." She gestured toward the pillar with a small tilt of her head, the crack running deep enough that chunks of stone had fallen to the floor around it. "How are you going to compensate for that?"
'Right, the pillar,' he thought, looking at the damage he had completely forgotten about in the middle of everything else. 'Of course that comes with a price tag.'
He didn't hesitate.
"I'll pay for the damages," he said, meeting her eyes without flinching. "And I apologize if I caused too much of a scene."
The answer seemed to catch her off guard, because her expression shifted just slightly, like she had expected him to argue or make excuses.
"You will pay?" she asked, looking at him in suspicion, "really?"
"Yeah," he said, "I threw him into it. That's on me."
She studied him for another second, then let out a slow breath through her nose.
"Repair costs for structural damage run at fifty silver," she said, rubbing her forehead. "As an apology for what happened today, we will give you a week to settle your payment."
'A week is more than enough,' he thought, nodding once. 'I just need to get an adventurer card, take a few quests and that should cover it.'
"Understood," he said, giving her a small nod. "I'll settle it within the week. Thanks for not making this worse than it already was."
She didn't respond to the thanks, just gave him a short look that said she wasn't doing it for him, then turned toward the counter without another word.
He took that as his cue to leave before anyone else decided to start asking questions, reaching back and grabbing Juna by the hand before she could even react, then started walking toward the exit while the crowd was still watching.
Juna stumbled a step behind him, caught off guard by how suddenly he moved, but she didn't pull away. Her fingers stayed wrapped around his as he pushed through the guild doors and out into the noisy street.
He let out a slow breath once they were far enough from the entrance and finally loosened his grip on her hand, though she didn't let go right away.
'Phew,' he thought, glancing back at the guild building one last time, 'thankfully that went smoothly and fifty silver should be doable in a week.'
Back inside the hall, Yenna stood near the counter with her eyes still fixed on the door, her mind replaying the moment she told him to let go and the ring of light that had appeared around his wrist before fading.
It had been brief, barely a second, but she was certain she had seen it, a golden ring orbiting his wrist where a Shard should have been.
'No, that can't be right,' she thought, frowning a little while the background noise of the guild returned to normal around her. 'Shards are the only manifestation of power. Everyone knows that. So then what was that?'
She turned away from the door and started walking toward the request board, letting the thought sit without pushing it, because whatever it was, she would figure it out eventually.
'It seems someone interesting has appeared in the capital.'