The return to the guild was not triumphant. When Suho and the healer entered, bloodied but alive, the hall erupted in laughter.
"Well, look who crawled back," sneered one adventurer. "The rookie and the priest who got dumped."
Another spat on the floor. "Bet they survived because the beast was already dying."
Suho clenched his fists, but the healer touched his arm gently, shaking their head. Fighting with words wasn't worth it.
At the counter, the guild master frowned as Suho placed the Copperfang Alpha's fang on the desk. "You defeated this?"
"Yes, sir," Suho said firmly. "Together."
The guild master studied him, then the healer. Slowly, he nodded. "Very well. The record stands. Copperfang Cavern cleared by… two."
The room quieted. Whispers spread like wildfire. A rookie and an abandoned healer had accomplished what an entire party failed to do.
Later that evening, Suho and the healer sat outside the guild hall, the moonlight washing over them. The healer broke the silence first.
"They always used me as a shield," they whispered. "Said I was useless unless I was taking the blows for them. I thought… maybe that's all I was good for."
Suho turned sharply. "That's a lie. You kept me alive in there. Without you, I'd be dead."
The healer's lips trembled. "Then why did you protect me? Why not leave me behind too?"
Suho looked up at the stars, then back at them. His voice was steady.
"Because I know what it's like to be thrown aside. And I swore to myself—I'll never let anyone beside me feel that again."
For the first time, the healer smiled—not out of courtesy, but from the heart.
That night, their bond was sealed—not yet a party, not yet comrades in name, but something stronger than either had known before.
The guild might mock them. The world might doubt them. But together, Suho and the healer had lit a spark that would one day become a blaze remembered across the lands.