The silence in the dark garden was absolute, broken only by the distant, rhythmic thumping of the mansion's heavy bass.
Kaelen's hands, which were firmly pinning Lucian's left arm to the grass, slowly unclenched. The glowing embers of his fire-attribute mana died out, leaving him in the dim moonlight. Beside him, the frosty blue aura surrounding Sera's hands evaporated into thin air.
They were two of the most respected, feared, and famous Guild Masters on the continent. They had faced down S-Rank dungeon bosses without blinking. And right now, they were sitting on top of a frail, nineteen year old who was just trying to go to sleep.
The sheer, crushing weight of their mistake hit them simultaneously.
"Oh..." Kaelen said, his voice entirely devoid of its earlier heroic boom. It was a very small, very stupid sound.
Sera was the first to move. She scrambled backward off Lucian's shoulder as if she had just touched a live wire.
"By the gods, I... we thought you were..."
She trailed off, her sharp, aristocratic composure completely shattering as she looked at the half-finished hammock swaying gently in the breeze.
Kaelen hastily rolled off Lucian's legs, standing up and aggressively brushing the dirt and grass stains off his expensive, custom-tailored suit. His face, usually flushed with the heat of his powers, was pale with mortification.
Lucian didn't scramble to his feet. He sat up slowly, the movement lacking any sense of urgency. As he pushed himself up from the dirt, a sharp, unpleasant twinge flared in his right wrist.
He looked down at his hand. The joint was already swelling. The physical frame of the "Trash" of the Thorne family was neglected, weak, and still recovering from the drone strike. Having two S-Rank human missiles tackle him to the ground, even with restrained force, had easily sprained his wrist.
Lucian let out a slow, quiet breath. He knew he could fix it. The most of his powers dormant within him could easily knit the torn ligaments back together in a matter of seconds.
But activating his power meant revealing it, and he couldn't do that while two extremely observant Guild Masters were standing right in front of him. He needed them to leave.
Sera saw the way he was cradling his right arm. Her icy blue eyes widened, and a jolt of pure panic shot through her chest.
'I... I just assaulted one of the Marquis's crazy son... Of the press found out about this...'
If the press found out that the Guild Master of the Glacier Guild and the Guild Master of the Inferno Guild had tag-teamed a defenseless, mentally unstable kid while he was weaving a bed... it would be a political and public relations apocalypse. They would be the laughingstock of the Hunter Association.
"Your wrist," Sera said, her voice tight with anxiety. She took a step forward, raising her hands in a placating gesture.
"Mr. Thorne... I deeply apologize. This was a catastrophic misunderstanding. We were told... well, the rumors said you were in a very dark times. We thought we were saving your life."
Lucian just stared at her, his golden eyes completely deadpan.
"Look, kid," Kaelen added, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "We messed up. Bad. If you need a healer, I can have an A-Rank medic here in two minutes. Off the books."
"I can offer you high-tier Guild favors," Sera interjected quickly, eager to shut this down before Lucian started screaming for the estate guards. "Potions, artifacts, a blank check from my Guild's treasury. Whatever you want to keep this... quiet. We don't want to embarrass you, and we certainly don't want to embarrass ourselves."
They waited, bracing themselves. They expected the infamous Thorne temper. They expected him to demand millions, or threaten to ruin their reputations, or at the very least, yell at them for being idiots.
Lucian looked at Kaelen. He looked at Sera.
Then, he raised his uninjured left hand and pointed a single, lazy finger at the heavy rope dangling from the oak branch.
"I can't use my hand now," Lucian said, his voice a flat, gravelly monotone. "Finish tying it."
Sera blinked. "...Excuse me?"
"The knot," Lucian clarified, entirely unbothered by their legendary status. "I need to sleep. Tie it."
The two S rankers of the hunter world stood entirely speechless. They had come to the garden prepared to stop a tragedy. They had prepared to negotiate a multimillion-credit bribe.
Instead, they were being ordered to do yard work.
Kaelen looked at Sera. Sera looked at Kaelen. Neither of them had any idea how to handle a man who possessed absolutely zero ambition or greed.
But the sheer absurdity of the demand, coupled with their crushing guilt, left them without any room to argue.
"Right," Kaelen muttered, walking over to the tree. "Just... tie the rope."
For the next ten minutes, the darkest corner of the Thorne estate witnessed an event that would have broken the internet if it had been recorded.
The Guild Master of the Inferno Guild and the Guild Master of the Glacier Guild stood under an oak tree, awkwardly weaving a heavy rope back and forth to create a makeshift mattress.
"Pass it under, you brute," Sera hissed, swatting Kaelen's hand away. "You're twisting the tension. It's going to be lopsided."
"I fight dungeon bosses, Sera, I don't knit sweaters," Kaelen shot back in a harsh whisper, trying to force the thick cord through a loop. "Pull your side tighter."
Lucian sat on the grass, watching them. He didn't offer to help. When Kaelen tied a knot backward, Lucian just pointed at it and said,
"No." When Sera tried to make the weave too intricate, he just said, "Flatter."
Finally, Kaelen pulled the anchor knot tight against the trunk, testing the weight with a heavy yank. The wide, flat hammock held perfectly.
"Done," Kaelen said, stepping back, sweating slightly in his formal suit. "It's secure."
Lucian didn't say thank you. He stood up, picked up his folded blanket with his good hand, and climbed onto the woven rope. He lay back, the tension holding his light frame perfectly.
Just as he settled in, the DJ inside the mansion dropped a heavy, rhythmic track. The deep bass vibrated through the ground, traveling up the trunk of the oak tree and shaking the ropes of the hammock.
Lucian immediately winced. His jaw clenched in pure annoyance, and he reached up, pressing his heavy, noise-canceling headphones tighter against his ears, trying desperately to block out the physical vibration of the sound. His expression was one of profound, exhausted misery.
Sera, who was just turning to leave, caught the movement. She saw how much the ambient noise physically irritated him. The guilt over tackling him and spraining his wrist flared up again.
She paused, looking at the vibrating leaves of the oak tree.
Without a word, Sera raised her hand. A wave of pristine, biting cold washed through the humid night air. She snapped her fingers.
A localized, semi-translucent dome of thick frost materialized instantly, expanding outward until it completely encapsulated the canopy of the oak tree and the space beneath it. It wasn't an attack spell; it was a high-tier environmental barrier.
The moment the ice-dome clicked shut, the vibration of the bass was completely severed.
The air inside the dome dropped to a crisp, perfectly cool temperature, and the world was plunged into a glorious, absolute silence.
Lucian felt the vibrations stop. He opened one eye, looking up at the thick layer of frost filtering the moonlight above him. He slowly released the pressure on his headphones. It was the quietest environment he had experienced since arriving in this body.
He looked over at Sera, who was standing just outside the edge of the dome, looking slightly embarrassed by her own display of domestic magic.
'Useful,' Lucian thought.
He didn't wave. He didn't smile. He just closed his eyes, pulled the blanket up to his chin, and let his breathing slow.
Outside the dome, Kaelen and Sera stood in the dark garden for a few seconds, watching the most misunderstood man in the capital fall fast asleep.
"Well," Kaelen whispered, still completely bewildered by the entire encounter. "That was... weird."
"Let's just go, it seems he won't tell a soul about this." Sera muttered, turning on her heel and walking quickly toward the mansion. She suddenly stopped and look at Kaelen.
"And Kaelen? We are taking this to our graves."
"Indeed."
Both agreed silently taking this secret and briskly step towards the mansion.