The D-Rank Guild Master of the No. 1 Guild

After the thorough transformation of the Agasa Guild’s living room by the guild leader and the young boy, the quiet living room started to echo with the soft sounds of indoor slippers approaching from a distance. Soon, a handsome man with tousled blond hair emerged from around the corner. His golden eyes narrowed sharply as he took in the new appearance of the living room.

“Why does our living room look like a tacky third-rate guesthouse after a nap?”

Lilith, who was delicately carrying a flower pot through the living room, overheard his muttering and responded.

“Rudel and Akata decorated it.”

The man’s eyebrow twitched upwards in a spasm.

“…Akata?”

If Lilith had seen Unahar’s expression over the flower pot, she might have been so shocked that she would have dropped it.

“It’s terrible. If Akata had even a tenth of his looks in aesthetic sense, it wouldn’t be like this! Is he planning to infect Rudel with his awful taste? Everything is horrendous, but that side table in the middle of the wall is the worst. It’s completely out of place and just makes everything look messy. I get that Rudel wants to indulge Akata’s wishes, but letting the living room end up like this is too much!”

His unnecessarily harsh words filled the air. Despite the venomous critique, Lilith didn’t notice the usual affable and good-looking guild member’s sharpness. Instead, she widened her eyes and responded in her clear, bright voice.

“Oh, Rudel chose that side table! He wanted to give the living room a focal point.”

When Lilith put down the flower pot and looked back, Unahar had already vanished.

Meanwhile, the two culprits responsible for the living room’s new look were in the subordinates’ quarters. Specifically, Rudel had introduced Akata to Nahean before promptly disappearing, citing some errand.

Left suddenly in front of a stranger, Akata hung his head low. The boy with cat-like pupils approached him and spoke.

“Hi, I’m Nahean. Can I speak informally? Rudel said it’s okay. How about you? Are you alright with that?”

While the Agasa Guild leader didn’t mind such details, Nahean was considerate, not wanting to offend the high-ranking player Akata.

“…”

As expected, getting a word out of the boy was not easy. Nahean hummed in thought and soon came up with a brilliant idea.

“I’ll tell you my story first. Like you, I’m from the 1.5 round. Of course, I was in the first round before I died once! When I first opened my eyes in the 1.5 round, I had no answers. But do you know how I ended up living so well now?”

The boy, who had been tapping the ground with the tip of his foot, not really listening, showed interest for the first time at the next words.

“It’s all thanks to ‘Rudel.'”

Catching on quickly to the only topic the other person was interested in and throwing a tailored conversation topic—that was the skill of the leader of the subordinates group.

* * *

After arranging a meeting between Akata and Nahean, I quietly slipped away at the right moment.

Akata looked back sharply, but I said, “Just wait and talk with Nahean for a bit,” and then took off.

Then I hid around the corner, watching their conversation.

“Rudel is unbelievably amazing. There’s nothing Rudel can’t do! When Rudel was trying to persuade me, we played a shooting game at an arcade, and it was like playing with someone who had 600 hours of experience. But it was Rudel’s first time playing! Isn’t that awesome? You should have seen it.”

Currently, Nahean was excessively praising me.

One thing to note is that Nahean wasn’t just endlessly praising the guild master for no reason.

It’s just that Akata would perk up and listen attentively whenever it was about me. Akata’s foolproof strategy, you could say.

So I hope it’s clear that this was all Nahean’s solo judgment, not something I instructed him to do.

Listening to it all just made me embarrassed…

“Rudel is dazzling. Both body and soul are strong. Unlike me.”

“Akata, you can become stronger too. But becoming as strong as Rudel might be difficult? Rudel is on another level.”

“That’s right. Rudel is perfect.”

“Right, and isn’t Rudel’s face pretty too?”

“Yes.”

If sacrificing my dignity can help win Akata over… I have to endure the embarrassment.

The fact that the previously dazed boy started responding to someone else’s words, even a little, was a huge achievement.

As they talked, they naturally ended up sitting side by side on the sofa.

Seeing the red back of the head and the slightly higher brown back of the head lined up so amiably gave a pretty nice feeling.

I crossed my arms and nodded in satisfaction.

As expected, the social skills of the subordinates group are the best. I knew Nahean would succeed. I believed in you.

And Akata, congratulations on making your first friend.

After spending all his energy socializing with someone other than me, Akata went to bed early after dinner.

* * *

In the dead of night, while everyone slept, I tiptoed across the pitch-black corridor. I quietly, ever so stealthily, opened the door to someone’s private room and slipped inside, closing the door without a sound.

Guilt pricked at my conscience. The guild member didn’t leave the door unlocked to invite someone to sneak in. I had unwittingly become a crazy person sneaking into a boy’s room while he slept. 

But there was something I had to do. I looked down at the bed.

…It was there again tonight.

For the second time, I faced Akata’s appearance six years into the future (as seen in the status window). It felt like encountering a divine work of art, making my demeanor respectful and my heart solemn. 

It seemed Akata transformed like this every night. Fortunately, it appeared that no one else had discovered this yet. Fearing that Akata might wake up from any noise, I didn’t sit by the bed but instead paced in front of it, waiting.

Soon, the reason for my clandestine visit appeared before my eyes. Fluttering like a butterfly, the white phoenix hovered over the boy’s head. 

I had to find a clue about this white phoenix. 

‘It must be Akata’s hidden awakening Easter egg… But why does it only fly around secretly, invisible to Akata himself?’

Was it flying around like that, hoping someone like me would notice and catch it? (This was just my way of thinking.)

I reached out my hand, intending to gently cradle the small bird from below. But the bird, as if mocking me, passed right through my hand. 

I couldn’t give up here.

Anyone who has played games would recognize this phrase:

‘Everything in a game has a purpose for its existence.’

So there had to be something about that white bird too. There must be a condition for activating it. 

I wanted to succeed. If I could, we might gain the strongest guild member for the next generation. 

…Being cautious by nature, I didn’t think I could rely on just Gio to secure the individual top spot.

I watched the white phoenix that floated down to Akata’s forehead, preening its feathers with its beak. Despite its white color, it was originally a bird that glowed with the passionate light of the sun. Akata’s ability was ‘flame.’

An ability akin to mine.

Maybe?

An intuition struck me. I reached out to the white phoenix for the second time. 

Sssss.

Like igniting a lighter, I created a tiny flame at my fingertips, small enough for Akata not to notice. Then I brought it closer to the white phoenix.

At that moment, the small, round eyes of the white phoenix rolled around and it promptly sucked in the flame I offered with its beak.

‘Success!’

I felt the touch of the phoenix’s beak as it pecked at the flame. The white phoenix’s color deepened a shade, and it looked directly at my face, which it hadn’t paid any attention to before. 

Flapping its wings, it flew towards me. Wait a second, it wasn’t actually coming to me, was it? This was Akata’s ability. No matter how much I craved strong power, I didn’t want to steal Akata’s ability!

…Fortunately, the white phoenix merely perched calmly on my outstretched arm like a parrot. I didn’t feel any changes in my body.

Had I successfully tamed the phoenix? 

It was amazing how a similar fire ability could be used in this way. Thanks to this, it became very easy to befriend Akata’s phoenix. 

But now, what should I do with this white phoenix? Is there anything I can gain from it? I wasn’t planning on awakening Akata.

I stroked the round crown of the bird with my fingers, curious about the texture of its feathers. 

“……!”

But I didn’t feel any texture at that moment. As soon as I touched the phoenix, a dizzying array of images unfolded before my eyes.

‘What… are these strange combinations of letters? English? Numbers?’

It wasn’t a complete sentence in English, but words like ‘name’ and ‘age’ mixed with numbers, arranged in a way that made no sense. 

I kept staring at it, trying to find some pattern. Then, after a moment, something clicked in my mind.

From here to here, it indicates methods or properties defined within the block. The expression led by ‘if’ sets a new variable, and the value inside the parentheses…

I took a breath, my face turning pale with realization. A chilling shiver ran down my spine.

Something… seemed to come back to me. Not the memories of Rudel, the game character, but knowledge from the real world that ‘I’ had forgotten…

If I was really a person from reality, could I have worked in this field? 

This was programming language. 

A principle of the world that characters could never comprehend, the fundamental rules that built this world.