The journey there had seemed to take forever, but the return trip was over in no time.
Sarah, who had left the guild late at night, returned just as she had departed—riding Enoch's horse.
Although it was still early morning and the sun had barely risen, a long line of people carrying goods stretched out from the guild's entrance.
They appeared to be merchants who had come to sell their wares to the Cygnus Guild.
Their carts were laden with all manner of goods: food, weapons, jewelry, grain, and more.
The procession looked as though it belonged at a festival, except that it was advancing at an agonizing crawl.
Only then did Sarah understand why the merchants had arrived at the guild so early.
At this rate, it would probably take until noon for all of them to get inside.
“…?”
While Sarah was distracted by the crowd gathered outside the guild, Enoch removed his cloak and draped it over her.
She turned to look at him in confusion, but he answered without so much as glancing her way.
“Keep that on for now. Unless you want to get dragged into unnecessary trouble.”
“…”
After making sure her face was completely concealed, Enoch urged the horse forward again.
As they approached, the merchants at the back of the line instinctively glanced over their shoulders.
“Huh? Isn't that…?”
Their eyes widened when they spotted the red-haired man on the black horse.
Hearing the surprise in their voices, the people farther ahead began turning around, one after another.
The merchants who recognized Enoch immediately brightened, their earlier boredom forgotten.
Even beneath the silence that settled over the crowd, Sarah could sense their unmistakable excitement.
“It's really Enoch Soser.”
“To think I'd get to see him in person in my lifetime…”
Just as Snow had proudly told her, Enoch seemed to be an extraordinarily famous figure.
Dozens of people stole glances at the red-haired hero, only to shyly avert their eyes.
Those who had previously known the wielder of the Holy Sword only by reputation blushed like lovestruck girls.
Even the middle-aged men were no exception.
They're really that crazy about him…
Feeling a little overwhelmed, Sarah ducked farther beneath the cloak.
“Not many people here today.”
Meanwhile, Enoch behaved as though he hadn't noticed the excitement surrounding him.
He merely surveyed the long queue with an indifferent expression and guided his horse toward the checkpoint at the entrance.
“Oh, Captain. Just getting back?”
A guard inspecting a merchant's cart noticed Enoch and greeted him casually.
“How are the inspections going?”
“Smoothly, as always.”
It was an entirely ordinary exchange.
Sarah glanced at the goods spread out around the guard, some of them practically dismantled, and understood why the line was moving so slowly.
“Hmm?”
For a moment, her eyes met the guard's.
But that was all.
He showed no sign of recognizing her as an immune and quickly lost interest.
Returning to his work, the guard soon waved the merchant in front of him through.
As one merchant finally entered the guild, the next stepped forward and began unloading their goods, one item at a time.
During a brief lull, the guard turned back to Enoch.
“It's crowded inside. You'd better leave the horse here.”
“All right.”
Enoch nodded, dismounted without complaint, and held out his arms for Sarah.
She thought letting him lift her down was unnecessarily intimate, but since she had no way to dismount by herself, she reluctantly accepted his help.
“Back later than usual, aren't you? Something happen last night?”
By now, Sarah would have expected the guard to ask about her.
Yet despite painstakingly examining every little item brought in by outsiders, he showed no curiosity whatsoever about the unfamiliar woman accompanying Enoch.
“Just some kid causing trouble.”
Since the guard didn't ask, Enoch apparently saw no reason to introduce her.
His vague explanation hardly clarified anything, but the guard chuckled as though he understood perfectly and opened the side gate.
“Take care.”
Enoch handed over the reins and passed through the gate with Sarah.
As they walked away, the guard called after them in a teasing voice.
“Have a good time!”
A good time?
There was something terribly suggestive about that remark.
Sarah couldn't help glancing back.
Perhaps because of the misunderstanding she'd already encountered with Snow, she felt as though mischievous eyes were following her and Enoch even from a distance.
No! Absolutely not! There's no way anything like that would ever happen between us!
She wanted to turn around and shout exactly that, but the fact that she had to swallow her protest only made it more frustrating.
“Oh—”
Her indignation didn't last long.
The moment she stepped through the entrance, still huffing to herself, the sight before her left her genuinely impressed.
Under the moonlight, the place had looked like little more than a slum. In daylight, however, all the vitality hidden by the darkness had come to life.
The once-desolate street was lined with rows of stalls, and the road ahead was packed with people.
There are this many people here?
Packed was hardly an exaggeration. There were so many that Sarah wondered where they could possibly have been hiding.
On this scale, the guild was practically a bustling city in its own right.
For a moment, all she wanted to do was stand still and watch the crowd.
If she ventured into that human tide without care, she had a feeling she'd be swept off somewhere she had never intended to go.
As Sarah hesitated, unable to take a step forward, a hand slipped beneath her cloak and caught hold of her.
“…?”
Enoch, of course.
“What are you doing? Follow me.”
Unlike Sarah, he seemed entirely untroubled by the crowd, which was dense enough to crush someone.
“Hold on tight from here. It'll be a pain to find you if you get lost.”
Despite his warning, Enoch held her wrist rather loosely as he led the way, forcing a path through the throng.
“Ow!”
“Ah!”
People struck by Enoch's broad shoulders yelped and stumbled aside.
The collisions were so forceful that Sarah could hear bodies thudding against him even over the surrounding noise.
“Ow… Oh! Captain. Good morning.”
At first, people glared at the man pushing against the flow of traffic. But the moment they recognized Enoch, their expressions softened into warm smiles.
“Up early today, Captain?”
“Why didn't you come yesterday? Everyone was waiting for you!”
And it wasn't just one or two people trying to speak to him.
Those who bumped into Enoch didn't simply move along. Everyone seemed eager to exchange at least a few words with the guild's revered captain.
“Just getting back? You must be exhausted.”
“We're having a picnic at lunchtime. Want to come?”
The women, in particular, were remarkably forward.
One after another, slender women pushed through the crowd to gather around him.
“Where's your cloak? Did you lose it again?”
“Your body's so warm. You must be sleepy. How cute.”
“Oh? You've got something out of place here.”
Before Sarah quite realized what was happening, a ring of women had formed around her.
Affectionate greetings flew back and forth as hands reached toward Enoch from every direction. Their uninvited touches were so familiar that personal boundaries might as well not have existed.
Their fingers wandered over his broad shoulders, veined arms, and firm chest. With flushed cheeks and wistful sighs, they swarmed around him like bees around a rose in full bloom.
“Good morning. You're all up early.”
Apparently, this was nothing unusual for Enoch.
He accepted the attention as though it were perfectly natural, even offering them a charming smile—the sort he never seemed to spare his subordinates.
“Where were you last night?”
“Were you up all night again because you couldn't sleep?”
“If you're bored, you should call me…”
His smile had an extraordinary effect.
The women squealed with delight, stamping their feet and clinging to him even more closely.
Some of their touches were embarrassingly bold, but Enoch didn't appear to mind.
If anything, he seemed to be enjoying himself, speaking in an even sweeter voice that only made them melt further.
“I had something to take care of yesterday. Were you worried?”
Ugh.
Sarah gagged reflexively at the sickeningly sweet tone.
It was hard to believe that voice belonged to the same Enoch she knew.
Instinctively recoiling from the unfamiliar spectacle, she took a step backward.
Her hand slipped free of his already loose grip.
“Of course I was worried!”
Another woman immediately filled the space Sarah had vacated.
The women crowded even closer, practically plastering themselves against Enoch.
“So you couldn't sleep because you were worried about me? How cute.”
Enoch delivered the nauseating line without the slightest hesitation and lightly tapped the cheek of the woman who had spoken.
Another chorus of squeals erupted around him.
“This is ridiculous.”
Sarah watched with a look of utter disgust as the women lost themselves in their own little world.
Surrounded by women dripping with affection, Enoch resembled a radiant rose attracting every bee and butterfly in the vicinity.
The ease with which he smiled at each of them and indulged their attention made it painfully obvious that he was well practiced at this.
So this is how much fun he's been having while I was suffering in hell.
I don't want to see any more of this.
Unwilling to discover any further unpleasant truths, Sarah turned away from Enoch and began scrutinizing the passersby with the keen eyes of a hawk.
She might as well use this unexpected opportunity to find another lucky charm capable of reducing her sentence.
…It's not working.
No matter how intently she stared, nothing happened.
From a distance, the guild had looked like a chaotic tangle of the threads of fate. Yet now that she was standing among those very people, the elusive Star's Fragment remained silent, as though it had never reacted at all.
There must be some condition for activating it.
Sarah narrowed her eyes in frustration.
She wanted to get this over with and reincarnate as soon as possible, but first she needed to figure out how to activate the Star's Fragment.
Just as she was considering that and turned her attention back to Enoch—
“Captain! Surrounded by women again, I see!”
“Quit hanging around here! Come on, let's all go drinking!”
A group that had spotted Enoch from afar came rushing toward him, shoving Sarah aside as they joined the women.
“Ah!”
The force of the crowd pushed Sarah farther away.
People trying to get closer to Enoch jostled her from both sides, carrying her helplessly backward.
“Ow!”
After being shoved around repeatedly, she ended up planting her foot squarely on someone else's.