A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 148

Chapter 148

Tesetan Veronio.

A monster who formed Trevaga and put it at the top of the rankings in only one year.

Every mercenary in Talochium, including Reaper, knew that name.

To be exact, it was only the name that they knew.

Tesetan’s identity was not clear.

There was only his name, and in particular nothing at all had been revealed about his age, hometown, or family relations.

“He’s crazy in every possible way.”

As a habit, Reaper moved the thumb part of his gauntlet and made it click.

Across from him, Basto Faerix, who was rumored to be an executive of Agabert, was watching him with a tense face.

“You’d better prepare. With his personality, it’s obvious he’ll come try to wreck Agabert.”

It had been a very long time since Reaper had visited the imperial capital.

He had planned to see several nobles who had recently given him private requests, and also exchange leftover spare cores at the reward office.

However.

‘W-well, we’re completely out of gold coins right now…… we only have enough for about ten small monster cores.’

There were no rewards left at the reward office.

At first, he had only thought it absurd.

That was understandable, since Reaper had never once in his life seen the reward office run out of gold coins.

But after hearing what Ornel said,

‘Agabert has taken over 40,000 gold in just the past few weeks. In just the past few weeks! The vault didn’t just run dry, it’s completely empty!’

40,000 gold.

That was enough for a large mercenary company to live comfortably for a whole year even if they did nothing but rest.

An amount left over even after paying every member of the mercenary company their individual compensation month after month.

Yet an amount like that……

A mercenary company with only six members had taken it in a matter of weeks?

At that moment, a story he had overheard at the border not long ago came back to him.

‘You’ve met Agabert too, haven’t you?’

Not one of the mercenaries at the border had failed to talk about the Necromancer King and her subordinates.

‘They say Tesetan is furious. It seems he doesn’t like Agabert surging upward.’

Only then had Reaper been able to guess what was happening in the empire.

Tesetan was strong.

The strongest man, who could face a large monster alone and come away with no more than a few minor wounds.

But because of that, there was something that felt even stranger.

“He’s a monomaniac. And one on a fanatical level at that. For a strong man, you could say he lacks composure.”

Tesetan was abnormally obsessed with the rankings.

As though besieging magic stones and cutting down monsters were the only reason for living.

“There’s a lot of talk among mercenaries too. Usually once you rise high enough, you start taking it easy and relaxing, but that bastard never rests and just keeps raging around.”

In some corners, people even said this.

Maybe that kind of personality was exactly why Tesetan could maintain rank one.

But Reaper did not agree with that.

“He looks exactly like a moth flying into fire. If someone appears who threatens his place, he charges at them like a rabid dog. Our Grim Reaper had a hard time of it once too.”

At the time Trevaga was rapidly climbing the rankings.

Every time Tesetan ran into Reaper, not once did he fail to pick a fight.

He told him they should fight with an important request on the line, or that he should prepare to be pushed to rock bottom.

There was not even a trace of ordinary manners or procedure.

Even right then, it had been like that.

He had only held out his hand, saying that since they had gotten acquainted, they should get along.

‘A handshake? Why should I shake hands with you.’

‘Hey. Just what kind of attitude is that the first time we meet……’

‘I didn’t become a mercenary to idly socialize over private matters. If you’re going to cut down monsters, then cut down monsters. To leisurely hold out your hand to a competitor. Seeing the leader like this, I can imagine the state of your mercenary company too.’

It was such an absurd attitude that even Reaper, who had been through all kinds of hardships, could not say a word.

You could say it was so ridiculous that it did not even make him angry.

Afterward, Reaper thought long and hard about what had happened that day.

And he came to a simple conclusion.

That Tesetan had acted that way because he alone looked easy to him.

But that was not it.

If the other party was a mercenary, Tesetan treated everyone with a similar attitude.

He always talked about words like efficiency, objective, and competition, and engaged in absolutely no socializing or private contact.

“In a word, he’s a freak. Anyway.”

Shaking his head from side to side, Reaper stared at Basto.

He placed the gauntleted hand on his waist.

“Since he’s that kind of man, what couldn’t he do to the first mercenary company to threaten his place? What I mean is, stay on guard. The first time you deal with him, you’ll definitely be flustered.”

“Is he that unpredictable a person?”

Reaper nodded without even the slightest hesitation.

“He’s beyond unpredictable, he’s dangerous. If you were some ordinary mercenary company, I wouldn’t even say something like this. But you……”

Reaper swept his gaze across the interior of the mercenary company’s base, which resembled a noble mansion.

An exceedingly wide interior.

Luxurious ornaments and even expensive treasures hanging on the walls.

Though it had not been long since it was formed, Agabert had already achieved a great deal.

According to what Olek said, it was faster even than Trevaga at the height of its prime.

“You really do seem like people who might push Tesetan aside.”

Instead of answering, Basto only slightly tipped his head.

“Thank you for the advice.”

Reaper waved his hand as though it were nothing.

Then, as he was about to turn his body, he spotted something and opened his eyes wide.

“Necromancer King. You were inside?”

The Necromancer King, who had seemed absent, was walking down from the second-floor stairs.

Feeling pleased, Reaper walked toward him.

“Is this the first time since we met in the weapon district? As for the aftereffects of being trapped in the subspace……”

But for some reason, the Necromancer King glared fixedly at Reaper and puffed out her cheeks.

Then,

“……The Necromancer King doesn’t talk to bad people. Doesn’t even say hello.”

“What?”

Tie let out a hmph and strode right past Reaper.

“Talking behind people’s backs is bad! Calling other people freaks, and crazy, that person is more, more bad!”

Tie stomped loudly into the kitchen and disappeared inside.

A bewildered breath burst out of Reaper’s mouth.

“I came to warn you to be careful, and yet……”

Wearing a confused face, Reaper stared at the kitchen where Tie had disappeared for quite a while.

* * *

Meanwhile, at the Oracadia Sanctuary in the North Continent.

“……What do you mean by that. The state request that came in after two years got canceled?”

Tesetan, who had been sitting on the altar of the empty sanctuary, stood up.

Aleric let out a sigh.

Victor behind him, Livia, and the other company members as well, all wore dark expressions.

“Commander. It’s all because of that Necromancer King, I’m telling you! Everything was going well……!”

Livia cried out as though feeling wronged.

Tesetan came down from the altar without a word.

Looking at Aleric, he asked in a lowered voice,

“I asked whether the state request was taken from us by Agabert.”

Aleric answered unwillingly.

“……That is correct. The Association side does not acknowledge it, but that possibility is probably the greatest.”

“Why?”

“Because over the past few weeks, Agabert has been besieging magic stones at a fearsome speed on the outskirts of the imperial capital, no, throughout the whole empire. They’re already rank four, and so attention has turned that way……”

“Hahaha.”

At that moment Tesetan burst into laughter.

After rubbing the corners of his eyes for a moment, cold fury was already blazing on his face.

“This is ridiculous, isn’t it?”

The day after meeting Valentis in the weapon district, Tesetan had left Talochium immediately.

There were several reasons.

The first was that on seeing Valentis, that absolutely impermissible inner agitation arose once again.

The second was,

“I came all the way here just to get some attention from the Emperor. A few of the company members even got injured……”

that due to the nature of the North Continent, this was precisely where there were many regions with clustered magic stones.

“Commander. Even so, that doesn’t mean the achievements our mercenary company built just disappear. They may have been overshadowed because of Agabert, but……”

“If they’re overshadowed, then they have no meaning.”

Tesetan hated clustered magic stones.

Because in the wasteland of Talochium, he had once lost his mother with three clustered magic stones behind him.

But even so, the reason he had come all the way to the North Continent was to shorten the time.

The only road for a mercenary to receive attention was to increase the amount of conquest.

To do that, one had to shorten the conquest time, and the best way to shorten the conquest time was to find clustered magic stones.

Until recently, it had seemed that everything was going well.

Two days ago, a message had even come from the Association side after a very long time.

It said that there seemed to be a state request they would entrust to Trevaga, so he should prepare to return home.

But.

“It gets canceled? Because of Agabert? Because of that freak, the Necromancer King?”

Tesetan’s eyes sank darkly and coldly.