Chapter 16

===================

Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

===================

‘Stern and solemn, stern and solemn!’

Unlike the head busily repeating those words, Tie’s heart was pounding away.

Cold sweat had been slowly seeping out of the palms of the hands clasped behind her back for a while now.

But,

‘Brat, you. You’re sure you can act properly, right?’

When he remembered Veil pestering her the whole way here, her determination flared up again.

Tie hardened her expression fiercely and puffed out her chest to the fullest.

Then she gave a signal to Bone Friend 3 behind her.

‘Bone Friend 3! Be scary, be scary!’

The moment she did, a cracking sound came from behind.

The moment Tie caught a glimpse of it, her face turned pale.

‘To think he spun his head all the way around and even pulled the sword out of Oppa Veil’s scabbard……’

This was too scary even for scary.

But what could she do now that it had already happened.

Steeling herself, Tie stared at the holy knight in front of her with the most insolent face she could manage.

“Knight.”

The knight visibly flinched even though she had said only one word.

‘I must really be scary.’

Tie actually had a somewhat bad impression of the holy knights at the registration office.

Because they had harshly driven Tie and Basto away when they first came here.

The holy knights had not been kind at all, and had even cursed nice Mister Basto behind his back and made fun of him.

‘Wait a second. Then right now Tie is getting revenge for that day……?’

Her heart pounded even harder.

She felt like she had really become an amazing person, and even her shoulders rose a little higher.

But maybe because she got too excited.

“Do you really wonder about my naaaame?”

Her tongue got twisted on the important word!

She could hear Veil behind her going, “Kuhp……” as he tried not to laugh.

Tie grit her teeth to focus.

‘Stern and solemn! Steeern and sooolemn!’

If she collapsed here, it was over.

Tie absolutely had to prove her presence in this place.

‘Secretly hidden Tie! Strongest Tie! Tie who’s as strong as a legendary Puppetmon! Royal Tanipang Tie! If I undo the transformation, I’m as burly and hairy as Mister Basto!’

As she repeated it to herself over and over, her heart calmed down a little.

Tie made her eyes as frightening and eerie as she could.

It was the expression Daddy used to make in Jongno District sometimes when drunks came as far as the alley in front of their house.

“You cannot bear my truuue naame.”

When she recited the line, she could see the knight become flustered.

Her eyes were anxiously sweeping over Tie’s face, her clothes, and Bone Friend 3 behind her.

Watching her, Tie added one final remark.

“My naaame is the Necromancer King. Isn’t that enough?”

* * *

Inside the registration office.

A tent you could only reach after passing several holy knights standing guard.

“……I, I became the strongest.”

Tie muttered blankly.

Veil, who had been checking outside the tent, put an index finger over his lips and said,

“Brat, I told you not to let your guard down. The mercenary registration process isn’t over yet.”

Tie snapped back to herself.

Veil was right.

They had shown the magic stones and bragged about the skeleton, so they had passed the first gate, but

right now, the four of them had come to the inner tent to register basic mercenary company information.

“You did well, Tie.”

At that moment, Basto nodded toward the paper in Tie’s hand and spoke.

Tie looked at the paper and swallowed.

[Basto Faerix, Veil Theodor, Nordix Omen …… Necromancer King.]

“The fact they didn’t press you about your true name already means they don’t see you as someone to be taken lightly. From now on, just keep doing it like that.”

Tie nodded hard.

In truth, the moment Tie summoned Bone Friend 3, it had gotten extremely noisy in front of the registration office.

Everyone had looked at passing Tie as if she were terribly frightening, and whenever their eyes met hers, they hurriedly looked away.

Of course, there were also people who sometimes looked at Tie the way they looked at idols on TV.

Feeling dazed, Tie thought,

‘Mm-hm, I think it was a good idea to summon Bone Friend 3.’

Originally, Tie had been planning to summon Bone Friend 1.

But Bone Friend 1 said she was tired because Tie kept carrying her head around so much.

Then he recommended Bone Friend 3, and the reason was simple.

‘Bone Friend 3 said he looks scarier, so Tie would really look like the “Necromancer King.”‘

And when she actually summoned him, Bone Friend 3 really did look far eerier than Bone Friend 1.

One eye had a dent from an old arrow wound, and several ribs were missing too.

Maybe because he even wore rusted, broken armor, people could not tear their frightened eyes away from the place even after Bone Friend 3 went back into the ground.

“Tie.”

At that moment, Tie suddenly raised her head at the voice calling her.

Nordix was sitting beside her, peering at her face.

“When the holy knight comes soon, he’ll ask for some simple mercenary company information. Have you perhaps thought of a name?”

Both her eyes went round.

The name of the mercenary company.

She had been so worried about acting well that she had completely forgotten that.

“Um, a name, so……”

The moment she was rolling her eyes with a troubled face.

“Hey, Necromancer King.”

The holy knight they had seen at the registration office a little while ago opened the tent flap and came inside.

Tie crossed her legs again, imitating Daddy’s expression.

The holy knight sat across from Tie with a tense face.

“Y-your identification number has come out. In the special notes section, here. I wrote dark-attribute mage.”

Dark-attribute mage.

At the words, which sounded incredibly strong, she swallowed.

In fact, according to Grandpa Nordix, Tie was right now the continent’s only “dark-attribute mage.”

The holy knight, who had been writing one letter at a time on the registration form, looked at Tie again.

“But…… if perhaps…… may I ask for other information too?”

Tie felt her heart drop.

But then he remembered what Mister Basto had told her.

‘If they try to pry out your other information, you don’t need to answer. It’s not an obligation.’

‘It’s not an obligation……?’

‘That’s right. In effect, the Empire receives help from mercenaries to conquer magic stones. It wouldn’t be too much to say the Empire’s rise or fall depends on the mercenaries’ hands.’

In other words, if there were a superior and subordinate between mercenaries and the Empire, it meant the mercenaries were closer to the superior side.

‘Of course, the Empire wants to collect as much personal information about mercenaries as possible. Even so, whether to give information or not is up to the mercenaries, so don’t say things you don’t need to say.’

‘Gasp……’

‘In fact, there are plenty of mercenaries on the continent who work while hiding their identities.’

Tie deliberately narrowed her eyes.

“Knight.”

The holy knight flinched just because she called him.

He was obviously imagining Bone Friend 3 rotating his skull with a grinding sound.

“I already told you my naaame is the Necromancer King.”

“I-I know that, but just in case……”

“Why do you think I’m in thiiis form?”

The holy knight closed his mouth.

Her eyes anxiously traced over Tie’s face.

Soon, he lowered his head.

“I-I think I made a mistake. I hope you’ll understand. Then I’ll move on to the next part.”

Tie watched with satisfaction as the holy knight asked Veil and Nordix for information.

In her mind, Basto’s voice continued again.

‘They are already convinced that you are an amazing powerhouse. In truth, your ability really is that rare and unusual. If our guess is right, they will probably do their best not to offend you.’

According to Basto, the holy knights tried to stay on the good side of very capable mercenaries.

Apparently so they could comfortably request support when problems arose in the imperial capital.

‘Right, right. It’d better be good for them to treat Tie nicely!’

It was just then, while she was going Uhehe inside her head.

“Ah, and. Regrettably, there were orders from above that we cannot issue an identification number to Basto Faerix.”

The holy knight’s abrupt words rang through the tent.

As everyone froze, the knight looked at Basto and continued.

“I heard there was a report from Karl Warben, commander of Death Hound, that Basto Faerix committed illegal acts and stole valuables from the mercenary company before running away.”