Chapter 159

Selina continued speaking brightly.

“You know, lately I’ve looked into the empire’s mercenary companies a bit.”

Tie focused on Selina.

“I found out that the Trevaga next door has no less than twenty-three members.”

“Twenty-three……?”

“Tie, do you perhaps know how the Talochium Empire defines a large-scale mercenary company?”

Tie shook her head from side to side.

Straightening her shoulders, Selina continued speaking.

“They say you can register as a large-scale mercenary company only if you carry out medium magic stone besieging activities at least five times per quarter, and if you have at least twenty members excluding the leader.”

Tie hesitantly raised one hand.

“But what’s good about being a large-scale mercenary company?”

“My goodness, Tie.”

Selina answered as though she were revealing a secret.

“The name sounds cooler!”

“The name?”

“Yes! Just like how there’s a difference in rank between just Tanipang and Royal Tanipang, mercenary companies are also divided into just mercenary companies and large-scale mercenary companies.”

“Large-scale mercenary company……”

“So do you think Trevaga would want to merge with Agabert? Agabert is just a mercenary company, but they are a large-scale mercenary company.”

Having gained an awakening, Tie swallowed.

Thinking about it, every word Selina said was right.

Of course, Agabert had Lucarion, Ppuppu, and Marru in addition to the company members.

But they were Tie’s familiars, so they were not registered as official members.

Raul, who had been watching, hesitantly cut in.

“Um, even so, more than sheer numbers, ability is……”

“Yes! Then we have to gather members.”

At that moment Tie cut Raul off.

With her arm wrapped in bandages, Tie began circling around the sofa over and over.

“Let’s quickly gather twenty! We have to become a large-scale mercenary company too!”

Basto pressed a hand to his forehead. Veil let out a hollow sound and stared at Tie.

But with an innocent face, Tie ran to Basto.

“Mister Basto! Where do we get members?”

The child’s green eyes were already sparkling again.

“Should Tie put up a notice on the street saying recruiting members? Yes?”

Basto let out a short sigh and then stood from his seat.

But unexpectedly, he gave a kindly answer.

“There are quite a few methods.”

Basto now knew too.

That Tie was a child who, if there was something she wanted to do, would do it no matter what she had to try.

Even if she insisted they rest a little, Tie would absolutely not listen.

She would probably only go around with her shoulders drooping and wandering into everyone’s line of sight.

“If you promise to skip the academy for only two weeks, then I’ll look into the new members for you.”

A great shock appeared on Tie’s face.

“Th-the academy…… for two weeeeks……!”

But the child’s eyes, after struggling in thought, were suddenly filled with resolve.

“Okay!”

Seeing Tie like that, Basto finally let out a laugh.

Stroking Tie’s soft, fluffy crown, she thought,

‘Yes. Increasing the size of the mercenary company was something we’d planned from before anyway.’

In his head, Basto recalled several mercenary recruitment offices.

* * *

The next day.

Large posters were put up at mercenary recruitment offices all over the empire.

“Did you see that?! I tell you, the Necromancer King is recruiting members!”

The mercenaries loitering around the recruitment offices all exchanged excited words with bright faces.

“Did you see the conditions? They say he’ll bind an oath of strict secrecy because of the Necromancer King’s identity.”

“An oath? Isn’t that really difficult magic?”

“What is there to worry about. Since the Necromancer King is a mage, she’ll probably cast it herself. By the way, are you going to contact them? They say if you borrow the communicator at the recruitment office, you can contact them.”

“What? Agabert already has a communicator too?!”

“It’s a mercenary company with a base in the imperial capital, so how could it not have a communicator. I think I’m going to try submitting myself this chance.”

Throughout the day, there was no end to the footsteps of mercenaries wanting to join Agabert at the recruitment offices.

Meanwhile, at the base, the ones answering the communicator that rang without rest were Raul and Enzo.

“Yes. Please tell us your name, age, and main weapon first.”

When Raul took the calls from the applicants, Enzo neatly copied it all down onto paper.

When the communication ended, Enzo slowly read out the mercenary’s information he had written down on the paper.

“Rus Samuel of the Piconto Mercenary Company. He says he’s thirty-two years old.”

“Mm, just a moment?”

At his side, Selina opened a thick data book.

Marbas gathered his own mana and created a special magnifying glass.

If one used this magnifying glass, even in materials running into several hundred pages, one could quickly find the name one was looking for.

[Here it is!]

This data book containing information on mercenaries was something Tie had received by contacting Baroness Marianne Waveril, governor of Pearl City.

Marianne contacted her mother, the Marquess of Waveril, and the marquess at once sent someone to Tie’s base.

He had handed over all of the personal information on mercenaries that the marquess’s house possessed.

“It says Rus Samuel was in a northern continent knight order before he joined the Piconto Mercenary Company? And that he received a dishonorable discharge there.”

At Selina’s words, Enzo took the materials into his hands.

“It certainly does. Let’s see, the reason is……”

Enzo let out a small laugh.

“Embezzlement. And on top of that, leaking information from within the knight order?”

Raul, Enzo, Selina, and Marbas looked at each other.

Soon the four of them said at the same time.

“Rejected.”

The moment they crumpled up the note with the information on it and threw it away, the communicator rang again as though it had been waiting.

* * *

“Aaaah!”

“Save us! Everyone run!”

Darkness had fallen over all around.

The active battle zone, where the battle between monsters and a mercenary company was in full swing.

“Re-re-retreat! Meet again at the v-village entrance, urk-!”

Flying monsters attacked the mercenaries who were fleeing.

The mercenaries crawled desperately beneath bushes and behind trees.

“We, we shouldn’t have listened to the leader. How were we ever supposed to besiege a medium one!”

The wounded mercenaries were each shedding tears.

“I promised I’d come back alive……”

The faces of family and lovers left back home wavered before their eyes.

At that moment.

From far away, the flapping of monsters’ wings rapidly drew near.

It was just as those people, who had sensed death, squeezed their eyes shut tight.

“This place is a complete mess too, a complete mess.”

Just as a light flashed in the forest, something appeared among the trees.

“Brother Veil, what’s a complete mess. Everyone is fighting hard, so don’t use bad words.”

“If it’s a complete mess, what else am I supposed to call it?”

“Hmph, Tie hates nagging!”

Several of the mercenaries who had squeezed their eyes shut opened them and poked their heads out from behind the trees. Then their mouths fell open.

In the very middle of the monsters rampaging through the forest, four people in black cloaks were talking in loud voices.

The pink ornament of unknown identity embroidered under the cloaks.

There was no doubt, it was Agabert.

“Blackie says he’ll catch the sparrow monsters!”

The mercenaries who noticed the child among them shouting brightly swallowed.

“The Necromancer King……?”

At the same time, a gust blew through the forest.

It seemed the branches all leaned to one side at once, and then dim wraiths began gathering.

“Kieeek-!”

As though they had been waiting, the wraiths pierced through the hearts of the monsters roaming the ground.

When the monsters fell, skeletons rising from the earth dragged them down below.

Watching that scene, Nordix said at leisure,

“There seem to be a lot of wounded around here too. Veil, help me a bit.”

“Old man, seriously! I’m busy too! We have to collect the cores, don’t we!”

“That can be done later at leisure.”

As Nordix entered the forest with emergency medicine, Veil followed behind him while grumbling.

The mercenaries watched in silence as Agabert quickly sorted out the battlefield.

But that was not all.

An hour later. They looked up at the being standing before them with faces even more aghast.

Surrounded by black smoke and floating in the air, Tie said,

“And if you join Agabert, then……!”

While dangling Sanctum of Oblivion in one hand.

* * *

Several weeks later.

“Will blood pass?”

At Trevaga’s base.

Entering Tesetan’s office, which was in a terrible mess, Aleric said.

Tesetan, who had been leaning back in his chair, opened his eyes.

On his wrist was the ring of covenant, now already tightened a great deal.