Chapter 158

“Disband?!”

At that moment, Livia burst into the barracks.

Aleric and Victor, who had apparently been pressing their ears to the door, stumbled in after her, having lost their balance.

“Disband? Disband?”

Livia came running in a fluster and pushed herself between Basto and Tesetan.

Her expression was unusually frightened.

“Not disbandment! No matter how much our leader got beaten, disbandment is not it!”

Tesetan grabbed his forehead.

Basto was looking down at Livia without any change in expression.

Livia hurriedly turned around. Then he went over in front of Nordix, who was sitting at the simple desk.

“Old man. You’re the real power on that side, right? Say something, disbandment isn’t it, right! Do you know how Trevaga got all the way here!”

When Nordix gave no answer, Livia ran again toward Basto.

“Wh, what about something like suspension of activity? We won’t do anything at all in the meantime! Your side can do all the missions, and even if you take the very top of the rankings we won’t say a word, okay?!”

“Livia. Stop already.”

“Let me go!”

Aleric stepped in, but Livia shook him off.

Her eyes were already full of tears.

“If it’s not Trevaga, I can’t go anywhere. Aleric, you know, don’t you! What this place is to me!”

“……Livia.”

“I can’t go. Do you know how I lived. Do you know how I……”

Tears began dropping from Livia’s eyes as she sank to the floor.

Tesetan silently shut his eyes.

Basto’s cold voice rang through the barracks.

“If that mercenary company was that desperate to you, then you should have stopped your leader before he committed something this reckless.”

Livia raised her gaze.

Basto’s face, lit by torchlight, was cold beyond measure.

“Because of your leader’s capricious prank, our leader risked his life. On top of that, your side even ignored the principles of a duel of honor. And even so, our leader……”

Basto shot his gaze at Tesetan once more.

“covered you with his injured body. He showed you mercy.”

Nordix too nodded and stood up.

“What he says is right. I too find it regrettable that your mercenary company may collapse, but once a duel of honor is made with conditions, shouldn’t the words spoken be kept?”

“No!”

Livia sprang to her feet.

“Even so, disbandment is impossible. If Trevaga disappears……!”

“I can no longer bear to listen. We’ve conveyed our intention, so solve your own problem among yourselves.”

Basto turned his body. Nordix followed behind him.

As Livia sank back down again, Aleric ran over and helped her up.

At that moment.

The entrance flap of the barracks rustled.

“Not disbandment, but!”

The tent flap, which had floated up, slowly fell and covered the crown of Tie’s head.

“Nng.”

After struggling and moving the tent flap aside, the child looked at Tesetan.

“Mer, merger is……?”

“Kid!”

Behind him, even Veil came in wearing a dumbfounded expression.

Avoiding Veil, Tie came running over and stood in front of Livia and Tesetan.

“If it’s not disbandment but a merger? Then you don’t have to separate, right?”

Livia’s face went blank.

Slowly, she asked back,

“……A merger? You mean an amalgamation?”

Tie nodded hurriedly.

“Yes! A merger! Two of them combine into one!”

For an instant, Livia’s eyes sparkled.

‘Right. If it’s a merger.’

Trevaga would not have to shatter into pieces and scatter.

And even Agabert was not a mercenary company lacking in ability, so it would not be a burden.

To speak honestly, it was almost strange that he was making such a proposal; in many ways it was the best possible choice for Trevaga.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes!”

“Kid, have you gone crazy?”

Veil came running over and carefully scooped Tie up.

Looking at Tie’s arm as though her insides were bursting, Veil said,

“You mean you’ll take as a subordinate the guy who made your arm like this? Do you know what that merger means? It means us and them becoming one family!”

Avoiding Veil’s eyes, Tie mumbled,

“But……”

“……”

“Why can’t one family happen? It can happen too.”

“Wh, what?”

“Even teachers said that if friends play together, they can get hurt……”

“Ridiculous.”

Tesetan cut in.

Tie opened her eyes round and stared at Tesetan.

Tesetan met the Necromancer King while suppressing the agitation of emotion that was rising for no reason.

‘That face again.’

The Necromancer King was still looking at her with a harmless face.

He had been like that before the duel of honor, like that during the duel of honor.

And now he had even come with bandages wrapped all around his shoulder, as though he bore no hostility at all toward Tesetan……

“Do you feel some kind of pity for me?”

At her stiff voice, Tie’s brows drooped slightly.

“Pity……?”

“I mean, do you pity me.”

The child’s white brow furrowed.

Muttering, “Pity……,” Tie suddenly raised her head.

“Th, that’s not it though?”

“Then what is it? Did you think I’d be grateful if you proposed a merger? Did you think I’d bow right down and say yes at once?”

“No. Tie just……”

“Even if my wrist were cut off, I have no intention of crawling under you.”

Saying that coldly, Tesetan untied the bandage from the hand that had been bothering him from a while ago and threw it to the ground.

“I’ll disband on my own, so stop worrying.”

And before anyone could stop him, he walked right out of the barracks.

“Commander, you…… hey! Commander!”

Livia soon followed after him.

Held in Veil’s arms, Tie blankly stared at the exit where Tesetan had disappeared.

Shaking his head, Veil laughed.

“I knew it’d be like that. A bastard who fed his humanity to monsters.”

Tie’s expression slowly darkened.

For quite a while, Tie remained frozen, then let her shoulders droop and buried her head in Veil’s chest.

* * *

“We will reopen the summons again before long.”

Back at the imperial capital’s central plaza, after returning by teleportation circle.

Ardiana said to Tie.

Tie nodded weakly.

“Yees……”

Tie forced a smile at Ardiana.

“Then goodbye, Princess, no, Association President. Let’s meet again later.”

Without a word, Ardiana stared at Tie as she turned away.

At her side, her adjutant came over and whispered.

“While working for the Association, this is the first time something like this has happened again.”

But Ardiana was still unable to take her eyes off Tie.

The voices of Agabert’s company members talking to the Necromancer King who had returned reached her.

“Let’s go, Commander.”

“Yes. Let’s go back and get some proper rest. We only came because of the summons, and look what this turned into.”

“Shall I carry you? Don’t your legs hurt?”

The company members all seemed equally restless over the Necromancer King, who had fought a duel of honor that had not been part of the plan.

But the Necromancer King only shook her head forlornly.

“……It’s okay. The Necromancer King originally walks bravely on her own.”

Ardiana’s gaze sank in a strange way. She muttered to herself.

“Will they really merge.”

“Pardon?”

“Agabert and Trevaga, I mean.”

The adjutant let out an “Uh……” sound.

Then, thinking it over, she answered,

“I don’t know. Judging by the atmosphere, didn’t it seem more like Trevaga would simply disband and that would be the end of it?”

“……”

“It’s a loss from the Association’s point of view, but now that we have Agabert……”

Ardiana let out a small sigh.

The Necromancer King.

Adeline had described him as a sincere and pure person.

She unknowingly sank into deep thought.

‘They said he is disguised…… as a young child.’

Then she quietly watched that figure until Astie’s form disappeared.

* * *

When Tie returned home, she staggered toward the sofa on the first floor.

Veil brought firewood and began lighting the fireplace.

The company members, watching Tie’s expression, approached one by one.

Why had she accepted the duel of honor, and after stopping Tesetan’s rampage, were there really no side effects.

There was much they wanted to ask, but the child’s expression looked so complicated that they could not bring themselves to say anything.

Even Marshall, who was bringing warm milk, only stood awkwardly frozen in the kitchen.

It was then. Breaking through the silence, Tie muttered.

“Why does he not want unification……?”

The company members flinched in surprise and looked at Tie.

With her lips pursed, Tie had fallen into grave contemplation.

“It’s way better to unify with Tie than for Trevaga to disappear though……”

Basto let out a sigh.

She carefully came over and sat down beside Tie.

“Tie. That is……”

“Agabert’s size is much smaller, right? That’s why.”

At that moment, a bright voice sounded from the doorway.

Who knew when she had come, Selina trotted over to Tie.

“Think about it. Tie has two really big cakes, and I have exactly one piece of candy. But then I suddenly say let’s combine our snacks together. Would you like that?”

Tie parted her lips.

Soon the child shook her head from side to side.

With an expression that had attained a very great realization.