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"This thing… is this the legendary nine-tailed fox?"
After a moment of silence, Feng Baobao pointed at the fox and said to Sam, "Kinda… cute."
"∑(O_O;)???"
Sam twitched. "C-Cute?"
He stared at the vicious-looking Nine-Tails and felt his face stiffen.
This giant murder-dog… cute?
Yeah, no.
If it were the small version, maybe. But this?
Still, considering her sense of aesthetics…
Well. She was Bao'er-jie. Wild taste was kind of her thing.
"Um… excuse me."
Just as the Nine-Tails was squaring off against Sam and Feng Baobao, a gentle, polite voice spoke up.
"May I ask where this is?"
Sam turned and saw a girl with Eldest Princess of the Kingdom of Arendelle floating above her head.
"Hello!"
Seeing yet another living person, Sam's eyes lit up. He dashed over, grabbed her hands, and shook them enthusiastically again, smiling like he'd just won the lottery.
"This is the Trans-Dimensional Mercenary Guild. I'm the guild master. Welcome."
The moment Sam saw the username and outfit of the girl calling herself the Crown Princess of Arendelle, he recognized her immediately.
Isn't this Elsa, the female lead from Frozen?
He remembered her clearly. In the movie, Elsa, the elegant and aloof crown princess of Arendelle, looked noble and untouchable on the outside, but in truth she lived in constant fear.
She was born with the power to command wind and snow, a miraculous magic that kept growing stronger with time.
When she was young, her magic once went out of control and nearly killed her sister, Anna. From that day on, Elsa shut herself off from the world, locking her heart away.
Later, during her coronation ceremony, an accident caused her powers to spiral out of control again, plunging the entire kingdom into eternal winter.
Terrified that she might lose control once more, she fled into the snowy mountains, built an ice castle with her magic, and then… well, a whole chain of events followed.
"Y-you… hello."Elsa had never been greeted so warmly with a handshake before, and she froze up, completely at a loss.
Handshakes were a common greeting in Sam's past life, but over on Elsa's side, people definitely didn't greet each other like this.
But still…
"So warm…"
"This feeling of warmth…"
"I really haven't felt it in such a long time…"
As she was thinking that, Elsa suddenly snapped back to her senses. Startled by the warmth coming from Sam's hand, she yanked her hand free and hurriedly stepped back.
She remembered it. Her terrifying, uncontrollable ice magic.
"???"
Seeing Elsa retreat, Sam was confused. "What's wrong?"
Did I come on too strong and scare her?
He started quietly reflecting on himself.
Then again, it wasn't entirely his fault. After all, he hadn't seen another person or had a proper conversation in five whole years.
"Eh?"
Elsa, who had lowered her head and backed away, too afraid to look at the Sam she thought she had just frozen solid, heard his voice and suddenly looked up.
"Y-you're… okay?"
Just now, she had been completely thrown off by everything he did and had totally forgotten to restrain her magic.
In the past, whenever she lost control, her power would mercilessly freeze everything around her, leading to consequences too horrifying to imagine.
But this time, the situation was completely different.
How was he fine?!
"…"
Off to the side, the Nine-Tailed Fox watched Sam and Elsa chatting away like nothing was wrong, and it was getting so angry its head felt like it might split.
What the hell, are they ignoring me?
Ignoring me, the strongest of the Nine Great Tailed Beasts, the Nine-Tailed Fox?
Even Senju Hashirama never dared to ignore me. You little brats are seriously bold.
Do you think the title "Natural Disaster" is just for show?
The more it thought about it, the angrier it got. With a sudden burst of speed, the Nine-Tails lunged straight toward Sam from behind, swiping at him with a claw.
There was absolutely no mercy in that attack.
"Watch out!"
Elsa was standing in front of Sam and saw the attack immediately. She shouted a warning and instinctively began gathering ice magic in her hand.
Nearby, Feng Baobao, who had been innocently wandering around the guild hall, poking her head here and there in curiosity, also turned to look when she heard Elsa shout.
Nine-Tails: "???"
Elsa: "???"
Feng Baobao: "???
"Sam: "…"
"What… what is going on?"
The Nine-Tails nearly popped its eyes out. "I clearly hit him!"
"What the hell is happening?!"
Elsa stared blankly at her own hand. "My ice magic… didn't work?"
"This is kinda fun~"
As she spoke, Feng Baobao casually pulled out a knife and started poking and stabbing the Nine-Tails with it.
Everyone: "…"
"Alright, alright. Bao'er-jie, stop playing around," Sam said, pulling Feng Baobao away.
He really had no choice. Just look at the Nine-Tails' expression. It looked like it wanted nothing more than to blast Feng Baobao in the face with a Tailed Beast Bomb.
Still, the situation was so bizarre that, until it figured out what was going on, it didn't dare act rashly.
"This is a magic-restricted domain," Sam said, turning to Elsa. "So here, any kind of magic or supernatural ability is useless."
"You can still feel your power, but in this place, you're basically just an ordinary person."
After explaining why he hadn't been frozen by her ice magic, Sam looked at the Nine-Tailed Fox.
"As for why you can't hurt me…"
"Anyone who joins the Trans-Dimensional Mercenary Guild is immune to damage from other members."
"And that immunity applies to all kinds of harm. It doesn't matter if you get someone outside the guild to do it, set traps, or try to kill indirectly. None of it works."
The "immune to all damage" rule wasn't something Sam came up with himself. It was a built-in rule of the Trans-Dimensional Mercenary Guild.
Something about building a harmonious, friendly, and mutually trusting guild across dimensions… or something like that.
It had been so long that Sam had already forgotten the exact reasoning.
As for what "all damage" really meant, even he wasn't sure how broad that definition actually was.
But based on his guess, the guild itself probably decided where the line was drawn.
"So that means…" Elsa's eyes lit up. "While I'm here, I don't have to worry about my magic going out of control and hurting someone anymore?"
"....."