"If destiny knocks, offer it breakfast. If it refuses, you run." – Guild Motto (probably made up by Kazuki)
Morning came with the smell of sizzling mana-butter and overcooked eggs. The guild's kitchen was in chaos—which, given that Smile was the head chef this morning, was more or less expected.
Kazuki sat at the main table, face-down in a pancake stack, groaning.
"Please tell me these aren't cursed again," he mumbled.
Smile popped into view, wearing an apron that read I SLIME, YOU EAT.
"I only used one cursed egg this time," Smile chirped. "Progress!"
Aurelis—ever the cautious one—was already halfway through her second serving. She'd been unusually quiet since the events in the library the day before.
Regulus sat at the far end of the room, chewing on a bone made from crystallized mana. His eyes were constantly drifting toward Kazuki—watchful, calculating.
The guild's usual chaos buzzed around them. Tika was yelling at her owl-bear to stop stealing sausages. Renga was trying to explain the difference between a "mana-concussive mop" and a "normal mop" to an overwhelmed janitor recruit. And somewhere in the rafters, the guild cat was having a territorial dispute with a minor sky elemental.
Kazuki, meanwhile, was drowning in syrup and suspicion.
"You Okay, Hero?"
Aurelis finally asked the question no one else wanted to voice.
Kazuki glanced at her, his fork slowing.
"Honestly?" He wiped syrup from his cheek. "No idea. That mask… it messed with me. Felt like I was watching someone else's life, but also mine. Or like I was the weird footnote in someone else's story."
Aurelis frowned. "You said it called you the mistake."
Kazuki nodded. "Yeah. Which, honestly, hurts a little. I prefer the term chaotic anomaly with flair, personally."
Smile floated in, setting down a bowl of blue fire-jam. "You are the anomaly. That's the point. It's why you're fun."
Kazuki raised a brow. "Fun?"
"You're not bound by the script," Smile said, spinning mid-air. "You weren't summoned like Aurelis. You didn't awaken like the Sage. You weren't chosen by gods or beasts or bloodlines. You just… arrived."
Kazuki leaned back, letting the thought settle.
"So what happens now?" Aurelis asked.
Smile's cheer dimmed for the first time.
"Now? Now the multiverse starts paying attention."
Elsewhere: The Threads Begin to Twist
In the skies beyond their world, something stirred.
An aurora of shattered mana arced across the heavens, visible only to those attuned to Essentia. Deep within a mountain grove, a massive tortoise beast raised its head from slumber and whispered a name it had never spoken before:
"Kazuki."
In a jungle far away, a trickster spirit saw the same aurora and let out a snort of laughter.
"Well well," it said. "So the Echo's waking."
And beneath the ruins of a temple once thought sealed forever, ancient gears began to turn—reacting not to Kazuki's presence, but to his possibility.
Back at the Guild
The morning meeting was, somehow, even more chaotic than breakfast.
Kazuki stood before the gathered members of Renga Town's weirdest guild, holding a chalkboard that simply read:
"THE MULTIVERSE MIGHT BE BREAKING, SO LET'S FORM A PLAN!"
Below that were several doodles of pancakes, one angry wolf, a slime in a crown, and a stick figure yelling "AHHHH."
Smile nodded solemnly. "Best chalkboard yet."
Renga rubbed her temples. "Kazuki. Please. What's the actual threat?"
"I'm not sure yet!" he said cheerfully. "But if it involves creepy masks, mysterious voices, and weird dreams where I'm fighting myself in a void made of screaming memories, I'd say… it's probably not great?"
Tika raised her hand. "Can we punch the threat?"
Kazuki gave her a thumbs-up. "That's step three."
Aurelis cleared her throat. "And step one?"
Kazuki turned to the group. His grin faded just a little—not gone, just… sharpened.
"Step one is figuring out who I really am. And why someone—or something—keeps calling me the accident."
Later That Day…
Kazuki sat alone in the upper terrace of the guild, gazing out at the skies above Renga Town.
They were too calm.
Too still.
And then… he heard it again.
A bird's call. Faint. Familiar. Too majestic to belong here.
He looked over his shoulder—and saw Aurelis standing beneath the archway, her eyes wide.
"You heard it too," she whispered.
Kazuki nodded.
The stars shimmered.
The threads twisted.
The Architect smiled.
And the ending began to whisper its way closer.