A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 149
Chapter 149
“We board a ship for Talochium tomorrow morning. Prepare.”
At Tesetan’s order, every member of Trevaga opened their eyes wide.
But Tesetan was already taking up his own sword, which had been leaning against the sanctuary wall.
Aleric hurried after him from behind.
“Commander. You aren’t thinking of storming the Association headquarters, are you. Please tell me you’re not.”
Tesetan looked back at Aleric and smiled chillingly.
“That wouldn’t be bad either. But later. We still haven’t discovered where the Association headquarters is anyway.”
“No, then why tomorrow right away……”
“I’m going to meet the Necromancer King.”
“Wh-aaat?!”
Livia, who had been following from the opposite side, widened her eyes.
“We’re meeting the Necromancer King? We are?!”
Instead of answering, Tesetan quickened his pace.
“It’s noisy, so just prepare. We’ll have a duel of honor with them.”
At the words duel of honor, Livia stopped in place entirely.
Even Aleric froze with his mouth hanging open.
* * *
Inside the sanctuary.
Only the executives of Trevaga remained in place.
Victor opened his mouth.
“The duel of honor the leader mentioned. Was it really aimed at Agabert?”
Livia irritably lifted her head.
“Do you keep that head of yours for decoration? Then are we going to have a duel of honor with monsters?”
Duel of honor.
It was a word so old that no one used it anymore now.
If there were any who did use it, perhaps only a few children of high nobles who had grown up learning history.
A duel of honor was a contest that knights long ago held with each other’s honor on the line.
Before it began, they swore something in front of the name of the Empire, and after the contest ended, they had to carry out that oath.
Victor shot a displeased look at Livia.
“A duel of honor belongs to knights. I only asked because I had never seen mercenaries do one.”
Livia muttered, “As if,” and held up her middle finger.
Meanwhile Aleric, who had been deep in thought, muttered,
“It won’t be established. Unless it turns into a dogfight.”
Traditionally, a duel of honor only took place if both sides agreed.
That was because the risk burden was great, since it was done with an oath on the line.
If the loser did not keep the oath, he would be sentenced to death under imperial law.
Even now, when duels of honor had nearly disappeared, this imperial law still existed.
“There’s no reason for the Necromancer King to accept a duel of honor. He doesn’t lack anything right now.”
Victor and Livia nodded.
The three of them, together with Aleric, had been Tesetan’s first members.
Though the times they had joined differed a little from person to person, it meant they had watched Tesetan from beside him for quite a long time.
Victor sighed.
“Does the leader truly feel a sense of crisis this time?”
Until now, Trevaga had been the empire’s strongest mercenary company in name and reality.
Because they had endured until now even while receiving the imperial family’s indifference and the Order’s restraint.
Maintaining rank one without even a single state request was also an achievement that everyone in Trevaga was proud of.
However.
‘It seems for the time being we won’t need to entrust civil war matters to you anymore.’
‘As for the escort request inside Talochium, we’d like to put the contract on hold for now.’
‘Ah, you don’t need to come for that! We found another client.’
Recently Trevaga had been losing an abnormally large number of clients.
For Trevaga, which handled comparatively many private requests more than other mercenary companies, it was a direct blow.
But before long, Trevaga learned which door the former clients who had dropped away in droves were knocking on.
‘Well, I heard they submitted a request to Agabert and got rejected.’
‘……Is that really true?’
‘It is! Because of that the Belladin Grand Marshal of the duchy was furious, saying that for something that’s no more than a pack of mercenaries to act so high and mighty. Even so, that place still has clients overflowing. Everyone just tries poking at them, in case.’
The continent where Talochium existed and the North Continent.
Across every island, desert, and stretch of land, people’s eyes were fixed on Agabert.
Because everything related to them aroused curiosity in people: unprecedented dark-attribute magic, the Necromancer King who wielded it as though she were not human, and the strongest mercenary company she led.
“Even so, a dogfight is a bit……”
Livia ran her hand through her hair.
Trevaga, of course, had had more conflicts with other mercenary companies than one could count.
But what Tesetan was trying to do this time seemed somehow to be a deliberate, genuine melee.
“I don’t think it would be bad for us to be pushed down from rank one. By now, there is no one on the whole continent who doesn’t know our name anyway.”
“Who do you think doesn’t know that, Victor.”
Aleric cut off Victor’s words.
“It doesn’t matter to us. Whether Trevaga gets pushed from rank one or not. The problem is the leader.”
None of them still knew Tesetan’s past.
That was because Tesetan had never once told them about his past, family, or background.
But Aleric, Victor, and Livia could guess.
At least that Tesetan had some kind of dark story.
“For the leader, Trevaga is life itself.”
Tesetan was a person who found the meaning of life in Trevaga.
‘Trevaga will remain at the summit forever. Because I will make it so.’
Also, Tesetan had a strong self-destructive tendency.
He regularly threw himself into dangerous environments.
And only within them did his eyes shine as though he were truly alive.
Tesetan absolutely did not tolerate even the slightest drop in the amount of conquest.
On the days when the rank-two or rank-three mercenary companies rose toward him, he only felt relieved after widening the gap with them like a madman.
“We need to handle this well.”
Victor said.
“We expected that someday someone would appear who could surpass the leader. The leader is not a god.”
As Victor said, the executives had expected it to some degree.
That someday someone would appear who would threaten Tesetan in a real sense.
When that time came, there was only one thing the executives had to do.
To assist Tesetan so that he could safely let go of his obsession with rank one.
And thus, ultimately, to protect both him and Trevaga.
As though to lighten the mood, Livia waved her hand.
“Yeah, well. Let’s think about it later for now. The duel of honor isn’t going to happen anyway.”
“……How can you be sure?”
Livia smiled.
“Is the Necromancer King crazy? Why would he have a duel of honor with our leader when there’s nothing good in it for him even if he does?”
* * *
Two days later.
On the evening when Trevaga arrived at the northern dock.
One letter flew into Agabert’s base.
“Waa, it’s so pretty!”
Tie’s eyes shone as she opened the luxurious pale-blue seal and the letter paper tied with sky-blue thread.
And he slowly read the words written on the paper inside.
“Frooost…… Frost Association?”
Basto came hurrying from the kitchen.
“Tie, what did you say? Where did the letter come from?”
Tie held the letter out to Basto, who looked urgent.
After taking it and reading it, Basto swallowed.
“……It’s a state request.”
“What?!”
This time Veil, who had been on the second floor, ran down the entire staircase.
Nordix, who had entered the house after tending the garden behind the mansion, stopped at the doorway.
“A state request has come in for Agabert.”
A smile spread across Basto’s face.
State request.
A state request, called a great opportunity and even a dream mission for mercenary companies.
“It’s a besieging matter that requires cooperation with the holy knights. Looking now, the holy knights of House Luminen are participating.”
Basto shut his mouth.
Below that.
The bold letters written at the very bottom of the paper came into view.
[……This summons is an important process in carrying out the state request, so we would appreciate it if you would confirm in advance whether you will attend.
The temporary date of summons is tomorrow evening, beneath the clock tower at the imperial palace’s main gate.]
“Clock tower!”
Tie’s face brightened.
The clock tower at the imperial palace’s main gate was something he saw every time he went to the reward office.
The clock tower, located in the middle of the huge central plaza, was enormous in size.
Even from Tie’s house on Rosewobel Street, the top of the clock tower was visible.
“This is exciting! Tie is a walker now!”
And on top of that, collaboration with House Luminen!
From now on, when they met outside, they no longer had to pretend not to know each other!
Tie was so excited that she hurried right up to her room.
Then after spending a long time choosing the clothes he would wear tomorrow, he promptly fell fast asleep.
But because of that, late at night he did not hear the sound of Blackie knocking on the bedroom door.
Nor did he see the light come on in the neighboring house beyond the window.