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When Sam heard the answer from the Trans-Dimensional Mercenary Guild, his first thought was of the movie version of Elsa. She had basically never trained at all. If anything, she had been suppressing her power, holding it back every step of the way.
And yet, even like that, she possessed terrifying ice and snow magic. Power strong enough to affect the entire kingdom of Arendelle.
If Elsa ever trained seriously…
Hiss.
Just thinking about it was scary.
Elsa herself was stunned by the evaluation of her ice talent. She looked at Sam, completely at a loss.
"Guild Master… what's going on? Is there some kind of mistake?"
She truly didn't think her ice talent was worth that much.
"No mistake," Sam said, shaking his head with a smile. "Looks like you don't really understand how valuable your talent is."
"…"
Elsa fell silent, then forced out a faint, bitter smile.
"If I had a choice… I wouldn't want this so-called talent at all."
Back then, it was this very "talent" that had nearly caused her to kill her own sister by accident.
Even now, it tormented her constantly. Because of it, she didn't dare show herself in front of others.
She was afraid that, just like when she was a child, she would hurt someone without meaning to.
"Power itself is neither right nor wrong," Sam said, shaking his head. "What matters is the person using it. If you can control it as easily as moving your own arm, then that's when its true value will show."
Elsa stayed quiet.
It sounded reasonable, sure. But doing it was another matter entirely.
"So," Sam asked, "what do you want to sell?"
"I… I want to sell my ice talent."
Elsa clenched her fists, having made up her mind.
"If it's gone, I won't have to endure that loneliness anymore. I won't have to lock myself away. I'll be able to see my sister again."
She had heard her sister calling to her outside that door countless times. And every single time, fear had stopped her from opening it.
"Sell it?" Sam froze for a moment.
He understood her way of thinking. She was still young, after all, and had suffered for years because of this power. Now that she finally had a chance to get rid of it, of course she wouldn't think too carefully.
As guild master, Sam did want members to trade with the Mercenary Guild. More transactions meant his little wallet would slowly grow.
But he wasn't the kind of black-hearted merchant who'd throw away his conscience for a bit of profit. There was no need to sacrifice his principles and strip someone with enormous potential of her talent.
Besides, after staying here for a while, he had already realized that this "mercenary" guild was anything but simple. One more powerful ally meant one more layer of insurance.
And honestly, he didn't even have much use for that many dimensional coins right now.
"To be honest," Sam said, "I'd recommend that you don't sell it completely. Talents like yours can be copied and sold to the guild once."
"Copied and sold?" Elsa asked.
"Exactly," Sam nodded."But you can only do this once, and you'll only get half the original price."
"If you try to sell the same talent again later, you'll only get the other half. And at that point, the talent will be fully sold to the guild."
"That means you'll lose this power entirely."
Elsa didn't say anything. She had wanted to sell her ice talent in the first place, after all.
"But you should understand something," Sam continued with a smile. "This is the Trans-Dimensional Mercenary Guild. A place that transcends worlds and connects countless realities. Something truly unbelievable."
"So solving your problem and helping you gain full control of your power isn't impossible. It's not even that hard."
"Control… my ice power…" Elsa stared at her pale hands, unable to quite believe him.
This power… could it really be controlled?
"Of course it can," Sam said. "There's a lot we can do here. For example, if you can't freely control your ice magic, you can enhance it through the guild until it becomes second nature."
In the end, Elsa followed his advice. She sold a copied version of her ice magic talent to the Trans-Dimensional Mercenary Guild and received five thousand coins.
Then she sold all of her magical energy as well, earning another one thousand.
That left Elsa with six thousand dimensional coins, making her the richest member of the guild aside from Sam himself.
"Take this token," Sam said, handing her a guild badge. "Any future spending will be deducted directly from it."
Elsa nodded. Under Sam's guidance, she spent one thousand dimensional coins to upgrade her ice magic to the point where it truly obeyed her will.
Given her current strength level, the price was more than fair.
When Elsa felt the ice magic inside her body become incredibly gentle and obedient, moving exactly as she wished, she burst into tears of joy.
Finally.Finally, she was free from the torment of her ice magic.
Overwhelmed with excitement, Elsa immediately left the Trans-Dimensional Mercenary Guild without even looking at her future.
She, the eldest princess of Arendelle and future queen, was going home.
She had to see her sister.
Watching Elsa rush off in a hurry, Sam rubbed his chin.
Why did he suddenly feel like Elsa might be a hardcore little sister fanatic?
"My future… is this what it looks like?"
On the other side, Kurama stepped out of the manga as well.
This time, though, he didn't shout or complain. He just sat on the sofa, staring into space, looking like he had entered some kind of sage mode.
Still… a nine-tailed fox in sage mode?
Ugh.
Just thinking about it gave Sam goosebumps.
"....."