Chapter 111

Theo, huffing with irritation as he glared at the pained Daize, turned his gaze toward Blaine. Blaine had been looking back and forth between Daize and Noquia, appearing flustered by the sudden disaster—but the moment Theo’s fierce eyes locked onto him, he flinched and froze in place.

Perhaps it was because Theo currently looked like Father, but his presence felt exceptionally overbearing even when he was just standing there.

Theo gnashed his teeth while staring at Blaine, then walked over slowly and grabbed him by the shoulders.

“Blaine, I can’t take this anymore.”

“Pardon?”

Blaine asked back in a voice trembling with fear. Theo glanced at the cocooned Noquia once before looking back at Blaine.

“If you don’t want to terminate our Companion status, change your clothes right now.”

“…What?”

“I can’t stand seeing you walking around showing off your back anymore.”

“Uh… wait, what?”

Blaine looked back and forth between Theo and Noquia with a dumbfounded expression. Perceiving that hesitation as doubt, Theo frowned and shook his shoulders as if to snap him out of it.

“Are you going to change? Or are we terminating the Companion status and going our separate ways—”

“I’ll change.”

“…Huh?”

Theo had expected Blaine wouldn’t back down so easily. He had told him to change several times before, but Blaine had always stubbornly stuck to his guns. This time was honestly a gamble. It was a bit childish, but he had even been prepared to ask, ‘Is it me or the clothes?’ if Blaine continued to refuse.

But Blaine had agreed to change as if there were nothing to even think about. He even gave a soft smile at the sight of Theo, who had frozen in shock at the unexpected answer.

While it was a bewildering result for Theo, it was only natural for Blaine. Nothing could compare to Theo, nothing could replace Theo, and nothing in the world was better than Theo.

Barely regaining his composure, Theo praised the shyly smiling Blaine for making a good decision, then approached Noquia. She was still rolling around the floor, tightly bound in the cloak. Standing over the squirming cocoon, Theo looked like he was ready to deliver a legendary “Eul-yong-ta”¹

“You heard all that, right?”

Theo asked meaningfully. Noquia averted her eyes, pretending otherwise, and started whistling casually. She had clearly heard Blaine agree to change his clothes but was playing dumb. It was her way of protesting against the change. Theo narrowed his eyes, then shrugged as if he had no choice, muttering loud enough for her to hear.

“I guess I’ll just have to leave it to someone else…”

“!”

Noquia’s eyes snapped wide as she looked at Theo. Theo gave her a sidelong glance and muttered again.

“I wonder if Father or Holanghee knows any good tailors…”

“Hey! Not until dirt enters my eyes!”

Theo looked down at Noquia without a word. He couldn’t tell if she meant he couldn’t change Blaine’s clothes or that he couldn’t leave the job to someone else, but it seemed his provocation had worked.

Theo crouched down next to Noquia. He picked up a handful of dirt from the ground and slowly sprinkled it over her eyes.

“Ack! What are you…! Hey! Ack!”

“There. Dirt entered your eyes.”

Theo spoke with utter nonchalance. Noquia screamed at the top of her lungs, calling him a cheap bastard, but the dirt was clearly stinging. She squinted her eyes, blinking repeatedly, and kept squeezing them shut and open again.

Noquia flopped around like a fish pulled fresh from the water. However, her movements were still restricted by the tightly wound cloak. Theo smiled wickedly and continued to sprinkle dirt over her eyes.

“Ack! I’ll do it! I said I’ll do it! Stop!”

Unable to either open or close her eyes, Noquia cried tears of surrender. The moment she gave in, Theo stopped his hand. With a refreshed expression, he tossed the remaining dirt aside and brushed off his hands.

“When are you going to make it?”

As Theo unwound the cloak and helped her up, Noquia rubbed her stinging, teary eyes and replied in a sorrowful voice.

“I can’t do it right now… I have to consider the design, and even if you change clothes now, the Shuffle Ring is active, so there won’t be any visible change.”

“Hmm…”

“Let’s think about it once this incident is wrapped up. I’ll brainstorm some designs in the meantime.”

“Fine.”

Since they had reached a conclusion on the change, Theo decided to step back for now. Pressuring her wouldn’t produce a design any faster, and he didn’t want to put Blaine in some half-baked outfit anyway.

Once the commotion settled, boredom returned to claim the remaining time. Noquia, seemingly uninterested in Jurz’s house, sat with her back turned and started drawing in the dirt with a twig. Daize continued to whine, complaining that his poked eyeballs felt like they were slipping down his throat.

They rotated with other teams when it was time, and occasionally went out to personally check reports from the released photos. Two days passed like this.

When night fell in the game world and darkness blanketed the area, a suspicious figure appeared, creeping toward Jurz’s house. Their appearance was ominous—wrapped entirely in a pitch-black robe that hid their face and body, they kept glancing around nervously as they walked. Everyone hidden around the house held their breath and focused. The suspicious figure, walking with extreme caution, seemed to finally feel safe and bolted toward the door, grabbing the handle.

Theo, who had been watching with bated breath, used a movement Action the moment the figure touched the handle. He burst out of the thicket like a bullet and tackled the target.

“Ugh!”

The sharp, high-pitched scream that burst out in the sudden ambush was definitely a voice Theo had heard before. Theo immediately subdued the person, pinning them to the ground and stripping the hood off with a swift motion.

The face was FireflyLamp’s—it was Jurz. Looking at his unmasked face, dark circles had reached all the way down to his philtrum, making it clear he hadn’t slept a wink for two days. Jurz, who had been struggling to resist, froze the moment he realized who had pinned him down. Then, he began to scream at the top of his lungs.

“Wh-what! Let go!”

As if resisting wasn’t enough, he even swung his fists. Theo’s temper flared at the sheer absurdity of his behavior. The two became entangled, rolling around in a messy brawl. However, with Jurz’s stats, there was no way he could overpower Theo.

The number of times he was struck by Theo’s fists increased, forcing him to focus more on defense than counterattacking. Shielding his face with his arms and looking for an opening, Jurz spotted long black hair swaying in his vision.

Jurz bit his lip. It was a cheap move, but he had no choice. He reached out and grabbed a handful of the long hair, yanking it with all his might to slam Theo aside.

In that split second, Theo lost his balance and tumbled to the side. Jurz scrambled on top of him, pinning Theo’s hands to the ground while shouting irritably.

“Who do you think you are, acting out like this? You’re just a nobody who has nothing to do with this!”

Acting out? Nothing to do with this? Theo was flabbergasted by the ridiculous nonsense.

“What kind of bullshit are you spouting? Have you lost your mind?”

As Theo ground out each word fiercely, Jurz’s eyes widened in surprise. He tried to say something, but a swift strike caught him between the neck and shoulder, sending him flying back.

“Well then, I suppose I’ll be the one to take it, you rascal.”

Father’s voice rang out. Looking up, Theo saw Father slowly lowering her leg. It seemed she was the one who had kicked Jurz.

Father reached out to help Theo up. She personally brushed the dirt off his clothes, her face full of distress.

“How dare you touch my avatar… you son of a bitch.”

It seemed Jurz had mistaken Theo for Father based solely on his appearance. He only realized it was Theo after hearing his voice, but it was already too late. From now on, he would have to deal with a “concerned third party.”

Having earned the right to go wild in Theo’s body, Father flipped Jurz over and began a relentless scolding—physically. There was no way Jurz, who couldn’t even beat Theo, could stand against Father. To make matters worse, the guild members who had been watching joined in, lending their hands to the punishment. Jurz was thoroughly beaten and dragged back to the Edom guild house in tatters.

Upon returning to the guild house with Jurz in tow, FireflyLamp was the first to approach. She desperately wanted her customization back before Jurz was officially punished.

Everyone used a Shuffle Ring to swap the appearances of Jurz and FireflyLamp back to normal. Once Jurz was back in his own skin, they tied him up securely and forced him to kneel in the center of the guild house.

Jurz remained motionless, his head bowed low without a single word. Theo stared down at the crown of his head. He couldn’t read the man’s expression, but he didn’t get the impression that the lowered head meant he was reflecting on his actions.

“Why don’t you start talking now?”

At Theo’s voice, Jurz finally raised the head he had kept lowered. He glanced at Theo’s face and then turned his head away with a scoffing “Hmph.”

“There was no condition saying I couldn’t tell anyone else, was there?”

Theo’s brow furrowed automatically at the incredibly blunt voice and the absurd answer.

“What?”

“I thought it was just trivial information since you gave it up so easily. If it was information precious enough to cause a scene like this, you shouldn’t have told me; you should have kept it locked away tight.”

Jurz muttered in a voice so low and slurred that it was hard to tell if he was answering Theo or talking to himself. It wasn’t completely unintelligible, though. The Father and Guest Guild members all scowled at his insolent mumbling, and simultaneously, Carlotta slapped the back of his head with a warning.

“Get a grip on the situation.”

Jurz glared at Carlotta as if he were the one being wronged, then shouted stubbornly.

“I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Everyone was appalled by Jurz’s defiant attitude. There was a limit to being shameless. Theo questioned the man weaving this pathetic logic. No condition saying he couldn’t tell anyone?

“There wasn’t a condition saying you should tell everyone either, was there?”

Jurz stared at Theo, his mouth clamped shut. His face looked considerably aggrieved and pouting.

“……”

Staring back into Jurz’s eyes in silence, Theo swallowed a sigh and asked once more.

“No matter how trivial the information might have been, isn’t it only right to ask me first if you wanted to make it public? Besides, why did you go as far as to pretend you were the original creator?”

The complexion of Jurz, who had seemed defiant until now, changed slightly. He chewed on his lip, lowering his head slightly to avoid Theo’s gaze before answering.

“Pretending to be the creator… I’m sorry about that. I’ll apologize for that part.”

“Just that part?”

“It doesn’t matter anyway… Even if I go public, it’s not like anyone could copy it! You only told me because you knew that without an Eternal item, that growth method is impossible to use!”