A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 152
Chapter 152
Tie’s body trembled without her realizing it.
Cold sweat ran beneath her uniform.
“Honestly, I was curious when I’d get to see you again.”
The voice of Dad, whom she had missed, echoed at her ears.
At this moment, Dad was only a few steps away.
A distance close enough that if she ran, her hand would touch him at once.
A distance close enough that if she set her mind to it, she could throw her arms around him and bury her face in his chest.
“You still have that completely bland face.”
But Dad was not Dad.
She wore a different expression from the one Tie knew, and her clothes were different too.
Tie took a deep breath.
‘You mustn’t cry.’
Steadily controlling her breathing, she pressed down with all her might on the tears trying to rise.
Even so, both her hands trembled beneath the uniform.
“Were you so lacking in propriety from the moment you were born?”
It was a voice as cold as could be.
The gaze that met hers was only as chilly as a complete stranger’s.
Tie’s eyes gradually drooped downward.
It was the moment when the rims of her eyes reddened and, at last, tears gathered that she could no longer hold back.
“Tie.”
Lucarion quietly took her hand.
Swallowing down the breath that had risen to the tip of her chin, Tie turned her head toward Lucarion.
Lucarion said with his eyes.
‘It’s going to be all right. We expected at least this much, didn’t we.’
Tie’s heart pounded.
‘……Blackie is right.’
Meeting Dad again did not mean everything was over.
You could say that Tie’s plan had only been accomplished halfway by now.
In fact, if one really thought about it, what came from now on was more important.
Tie had only now connected again the bond that had been severed with Dad.
So from now on, she absolutely had to tie that precarious string into a firm knot so that it would not unravel.
Tesetan sneered.
“After cutting off someone else’s livelihood completely, you have a rather shameless expression, Necromancer King.”
Tie looked up at Dad.
Dad had his chin lifted slightly and his lips pressed shut tight.
An expression as though he was very angry. But.
‘This is a good thing.’
It was a really good thing because the plan to cut off Dad’s livelihood had succeeded.
That was why Dad had even come to find Tie with her own feet!
Of course……
“Let me make this clear, I have no intention of handing this state request over to you. It was mine from the beginning.”
……it seemed a few side effects remained.
“Excuse me.”
At that moment, the chief administrator of the Frost Association, who had been quietly watching, stepped forward.
She looked at Tesetan as though finding him absurd.
“What exactly is this outrageous act right now? This matter has already been delegated. What you’re doing also constitutes obstruction of state affairs, which is a serious crime.”
But Tesetan did not even blink. Instead, he let out a small laugh and leisurely looked around.
At the end of his gaze came the people of House Luminen standing some distance away.
His eyebrow twitched slightly, but Tesetan erased the expression as though nothing had happened.
“Obstruction of state affairs? Ridiculous. I haven’t done anything yet.”
The chief administrator let out a hollow laugh as though dumbfounded.
Tesetan slowly looked around and organized the situation before his eyes.
‘I didn’t know it was an operation linked with House Luminen.’
Looking now, the state request stolen by Agabert seemed to be a mission done in cooperation with House Luminen.
If he had known this fact beforehand, he would not have chased them all the way here.
Or else he would have contacted the Association and insisted that House Luminen was unnecessary.
But since he had already come,
‘I can’t just leave Agabert alone and go.’
If one really got down to it, it was not only the state request.
These days Agabert was, quite literally, starving Trevaga to death.
Stealing the clients who used to entrust private requests to them.
And by recklessly besieging magic stones throughout the empire, provoking Trevaga right before their eyes.
Tesetan’s gaze turned downward.
‘With that face, as though he knows nothing at all.’
Over the Necromancer King’s face overlapped the pitiful expression of the child she had seen at the Pearl City dock.
Why had he thought back then that expression bothered him?
There was no doubt that the Necromancer King had planned this situation all the way through and was trying to make a fool of her.
“The Association only needs to answer one thing. This mission, was it originally meant to be delegated to me, or not.”
The chief administrator, looking flustered, turned around. There stood Ardiana, her appearance hidden by a blue cloak.
In the end Ardiana stepped forward.
“Why should the Association answer that to you?”
Tesetan pulled up the corners of his lips.
“Judging by the way you’re all wrapped up in cloth while trying to hide your appearance, you’re the Association President? All the better. Then let me say it clearly right here and now.”
“……”
“If you don’t answer. Then as of today, Trevaga will withdraw from the Association.”
Ardiana’s pupils grew larger.
Beneath the mask, she swallowed dryly.
It was true that until now she had not assigned a state request to Trevaga.
But that was only because Trevaga had been continuing its activities well enough without the Association.
The reason Ardiana established the Association was to stabilize the ecosystem of the unbalanced mercenary market.
If the mercenary market was stable, more mercenaries would be active, and if that happened, the empire and they too would be safer.
But she had not expected Trevaga to have such strong resentment toward her operating policy.
“……Soon I will connect Trevaga with a decent state request. Today……”
“Anyone can talk. What’s easier than spouting things first and looking later.”
Ardiana was left speechless.
Yes.
She remembered another reason why she had not assigned state requests to Trevaga.
“……How insolent. I am trying to respect you, but you appear to have absolutely no intention of doing the same for me.”
Tesetan burst into laughter.
He took one step toward Ardiana.
“We aren’t in any kind of relationship where we’d respect each other, are we? It’s not like you’re my lover.”
“……Huh?”
Ardiana let out a hollow laugh.
Quietly, she glared at Tesetan.
She did not like him joking around in a situation this serious.
And what was with that sly, flashy smile.
‘He is quite the opposite of Agabert’s Necromancer King.’
Unlike Tesetan, the Necromancer King was dignified and generous.
Even after learning her identity, he had not once engaged in the usual bargaining or blackmail.
Ardiana let out a sigh, then closed and opened her eyes.
“……First of all. As Association President, I will not permit Trevaga’s withdrawal. Since Trevaga still stands at the top of the empire, at least for now.”
When she intentionally placed emphasis on at least for now, Tesetan’s eyebrow twitched.
Before he could answer, Ardiana continued.
“And. It isn’t difficult even to answer your question. Whether this mission had originally been scheduled to be assigned to Trevaga?”
Beneath the mask, she smiled.
“Yes, it had been planned that way. Though in the final meeting it was pushed down to second priority.”
Silence fell between the two of them.
How much time had passed when Tesetan’s crooked smile pierced through the sharp tension.
“I thought as much. But if it was pushed down to second priority…… then that means there’s still a chance, doesn’t it?”
Startled, Ardiana opened her eyes wide.
“A chance? What in the world do you mea……”
“Have a duel of honor with me, Necromancer King.”
But Tesetan had already turned away from her.
Before anyone knew it, he was standing tall right in front of the Necromancer King.
“I’m getting tired of this, so let’s settle it in one go. The loser quits the work and leaves this scene.”
Ardiana hurried over to the two of them.
“Wait, a duel of honor?”
Looking at Tesetan as though dumbfounded, she said to Tie,
“There is no need to accept. And you must not accept!”
A duel of honor was something knights had done in the distant past.
And why on earth would he propose such a thing to a mage?
“This man is provoking the leader. And with the condition that the losing side quits the work and leaves the scene, doesn’t that make no sense at all.”
Ardiana glared fiercely at Tesetan.
“It seems you’re trying to provoke the Necromancer King and make her withdraw from this request. I’m sorry, but something like that absolutely……”
“Hasn’t it been bothering you too all this time?”
But Tesetan lightly ignored Ardiana.
He had already bent forward to the waist and was staring straight at the Necromancer King.
“It’s your chance to get rid of me. If not now, a chance like this will never come again. The victor of a duel of honor can take anything at all from the loser. Doesn’t that tempt you?”
As the situation took a strange turn, Veil, who had been watching, ran over.
“Kid, no, Commander. He’s insane. Don’t deal with him.”
“That is correct!”
The other company members’ complexions too turned pale white.
But then.
“Yeah!”
Tie answered.
Startled, Veil grabbed Tie by the shoulders.
“Hey, C-Commander, what is wrong with you?”
But Tie was staring fixedly at Tesetan as though something had bewitched her.
“Let’s do it, duel of honor. With Tie.”
Then, to Tesetan, who was wearing an interested expression, the child added,
“But.”
“……”
“The loser has to listen to whatever the winner says. ……Like before.”