Chapter 99

His questions and his gaze were sharp, edged with a biting defensiveness. It was as if he were throwing the question back at them: What exactly have I done wrong? Of course, if one were to answer his question point-blank, the answer would be “nothing.”

Faced with his sheer audacity, everyone stood as silent as if they had eaten a jar of honey.¹ It wasn’t that they had nothing to say; they were simply speechless.

When no one could offer a rebuttal, Daize grew even more arrogant.

“Whether I have yellow hair, wear black clothes, or shrink my height, isn’t that all my freedom?”

Father’s eyebrows twitched at his sarcastic self-assertion.

“There’s such a thing as basic etiquette.”

“Etiquette is etiquette, but it’s not the law, is it? It’s a moral suggestion, not an obligation. People who try to follow it even when they lose out are the real fools.”

Daize looked toward Theo as he spat the word “fools.” A person who refuses something even when it’s handed to them is a fool. After shooting Theo a mocking glance, Daize looked back at Father.

“If it bothers you so much, tell Theo-nim to change. I don’t care if he switches to iridescent hair, wears bright colors, or makes himself taller.”

“Why should our Sweetie have to change?! You’re the knock-off here!”

Finally, unable to contain her exploding rage, Holanghee lunged at Daize. However, she was caught mid-air by Father, leaving her arms and legs flailing uselessly in the void.

Daize, who had momentarily shrunk back at Holanghee’s terrifying momentum, seemed relieved to see her held back. He jutted out his lower lip and gave a nonchalant shrug.

Common sense wasn’t working. Father shook her head and looked toward a certain someone. There was only one person left to rely on now. Someone who was just as intense as the opposition, if not more: Noquia.

Exchanging a look with Father, Noquia pointed at Daize’s lower body as if she’d been waiting for this moment.

“Hey, your butt is sagging.”²

“…Excuse me?”

“Is that off-the-rack? If you commissioned that, it’s a disaster.”

“What—what do you mean, a disaster?”

“The quality, obviously. It’s absolute trash. It’s at the level of a rag I wouldn’t wear if it were free. Fit is everything for tight outfits. Is the problem the clothes, or is the problem your body…?”

“…….”

As Noquia scrutinized his body like a judge, Daize instinctively felt around his own backside. In the meantime, Noquia approached him, spinning his dazed body this way and that before clicking her tongue.

“If you look closely, the color is blotchy and the dye job is a mess. Truly the worst. Did you actually pay money for this? If it were me, I would’ve ripped it to shreds in front of the creator.”

“Why—why are you just picking on me for no reason? It’s perfectly fine…”

Daize desperately defended his clothes. However, once Noquia pointed out the bunched fabric at the seat and the uneven dye, he began to see it too, making it difficult to hide his embarrassment.

Staring straight into Daize’s wavering eyes, Noquia gave a radiant smile and poked him repeatedly in the shoulder.

“Picking on you? Hey, I’m just giving you a ‘moral’ explanation of how messy these clothes are. If you can’t accept a helpful explanation, doesn’t that make you a complete idiot? Honestly, the fact that you commissioned clothes from such a person in the first place shows you’re beyond help. No sense, no eye for quality, and even when I spoon-feed you the truth, you can’t even grasp your own share… Man, you really are lacking in every way.”

“Wh-why am I lacking?!”

Flustered, Daize shouted with a face turning bright red. Noquia gave him one more head-to-toe sweep.

“I mean, if you’re going to copy someone, at least do it properly. You’re wearing a copy of those clothes with this kind of quality? The sewing, the dyeing, the design—it’s several levels below the original. Is this meant to be a challenge against me?”

“A—a challenge…?”

“I mean, seriously? To copy my masterpiece like this… Ha!”

Noquia let out a hollow laugh, unable to even finish her sentence as if she were completely flabbergasted. But soon, unable to contain her rage, she kicked her shoe into the air, caught it as it fell, and screamed at the top of her lungs—sounding like she’d swallowed a train’s whistle—as she smacked Daize upside the head.

“An apparel merchant in Ratteon would have better quality than this, you bastard!”

Caught by the sudden attack, Daize collapsed with a thud without even being able to scream. Noquia proceeded to give him a thorough thrashing with her shoe, which was reinforced with upper armor, as if she were disciplining him. Then, she began to pour out a relentless critique of his clothes.

Noquia’s scathing review didn’t stop for a single second and lasted for nearly three hours. Having had every nanometer of his outfit torn apart, Daize stood before Father feeling as if he had been stripped naked and thrown out onto the street. He looked like he would burst into tears if anyone so much as touched him.

Finally able to face Daize after three hours, Father looked back and forth between him and Noquia. Daize was on the verge of tears, staring only at the floor, but Noquia had a proud, triumphant look on her face as she gave a thumbs up. It felt as though she was telepathically saying, I did good, right? Father just shook her head with a weary expression.

“I talked to Theo, and he said he’ll overlook the customization.”

Father delivered Theo’s message, but she still looked at Daize with disapproval. Truly, you never really know a person until you experience them firsthand, despite how good that first impression had been.

Daize looked at the floor like a mute who had eaten honey.³ It wasn’t that he was ignoring her; he seemed to lack even the energy to respond. Father almost felt a spark of pity seeing how much he had been tormented, but then she remembered he had brought this on himself. She spoke in a cold, commanding voice.

“Change into different clothes, or at the very least, re-dye them. The deadline is tomorrow. If you keep being stubborn, I’ll have no choice but to expel you.”

Daize’s gaze remained fixed on the floor, but he gave a small nod as if he understood.

Father had worried he might be unnecessarily stubborn again, but seeing him comply so easily brought a sense of relief. Once her business was done, Father gestured for him to leave, and Noquia, as if she had been waiting, grabbed Daize by the scruff of the neck and dragged him out. It seemed they were heading to the creator of the outfit.

A few hours later, when Daize returned with Noquia, the color of his clothes had changed. The messy, dull, and blotchy black had been re-dyed into a bright, refreshing color. Judging by the state of things, it seemed the creator of the outfit had also been put through quite a lot.

Even though the color had changed, the disapproving glares toward Daize didn’t stop. After sitting dazed in a corner of the guild under those stinging gazes, Daize eventually picked himself up and began going around to every single guild member, apologizing for causing trouble.

He offered a sincere apology to each person, and at the end, he practically begged Theo for forgiveness.

A few days passed. Although the color of Daize’s clothes had changed, the fact that he was wearing an outfit similar to Theo’s remained the same. Looking only at their backs, they looked like twins who only differed in color, like the “If It’s You Then Me” and “If It’s Not You Then Me” duo. Since their hair color, height, and hairstyle were similar, even the guild members often failed to distinguish between them when they were sitting in high-backed chairs or when only their heads were visible behind others. A few who were annoyed by this hoped Daize would change his clothes entirely, but he absolutely refused to do so.

In the midst of this, Blaine was able to tell Theo apart just by looking at the back of his head as if he were possessed. He never confused the two, and he never initiated a conversation with Daize.

The guild members, finding this fascinating and strange, asked how he could tell them apart, but Blaine simply replied as if it were no big deal. “I just know.” As if it were only natural for him to recognize Theo in any situation or any place.

After a few days of staying quiet and reflecting, Daize began to cling to Blaine again as if nothing had happened. He followed him around persistently in the guild trying to get close, and when they went home, he knocked on the door until he was satisfied.

He had no idea that every time he came by, the two were escaping through the bedroom window and running away to Blaine’s house.

As the game’s state of high alert lasted longer than expected, users began to voice their complaints. It was a natural reaction, as a prolonged alert status affected their livelihoods.

The members of the Father and the Guest Guild also gathered in small groups to talk about it. Theo and Blaine, sitting at a table in the central hall, were no different.

“Are you okay, Hyung?”

At Blaine’s question, which was filled with worry, Theo also wore a quite serious expression.

“No, since I can’t go deep-sea fishing, my income has been lousy. The harbor counts as a coastal area, so I’m only catching small fry. At this rate, I might not even be able to pay next month’s maintenance fees.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I’ll have to try freshwater fishing, I guess.”

“Freshwater?”

“Yeah. There are villages where rivers or valleys run through. It’s not as fun as the ocean, but beggars can’t be choosers right now.”

At Theo’s words, Blaine’s face instantly brightened. He spoke with an excited voice and expression.

“Then let me join you!”

Theo looked a bit surprised by the cheerful request to tag along. He had actually been about to ask Blaine if he wanted to go; at some point, fishing with him had become more enjoyable than fishing alone.

Theo gave a hollow laugh and nodded. He was about to say “Sure,” but another voice abruptly cut in.

“What are you two talking about?”

It was Daize. Usually, he would have snatched the empty seat next to Blaine, but this time he wedged himself right between Theo and Blaine. As a result, Blaine was forced to look at Daize’s face, while Theo was stuck staring at the back of Daize’s head.

Frowning at the unexpected positioning, Blaine pulled back and stood up. Daize straightened his back as well, putting on that disappointed face again.

“Are you openly avoiding me now? I’m seriously hurt.”

Blaine’s lips quivered for a moment. However, he soon clamped his mouth shut and looked Daize straight in the eye with a look of resolve.

“I find this behavior of yours uncomfortable.”

It was the first time Blaine had expressed such a clear rejection. Everyone, including Theo, looked at Blaine with considerable surprise. Daize, seemingly shocked, stammered out a response.

“…U-uncomfortable?”

“Yes.”

“Uh, well…”

Daize looked flustered. He flailed his arms and shifted his eyes around before crossing his arms and sinking into thought with his chin in his hand. After a few minutes, Daize looked up again and spoke cautiously to Blaine.

“In that case, why don’t we drop the formalities? I think the polite speech might be creating a sense of distance. If we speak informally, wouldn’t it become more comfortable than it is now?”