Chapter 161

Tesetan stood frozen on the stairs, then asked back only after a long while.

“Who took my sword?”

“The Necromancer King took it.”

Tesetan ran down the stairs.

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

For the Necromancer King to take her sword.

And on top of that, he had leaned the sword against the bedroom wall.

That meant, if an outsider had come in and tried to take the sword all the way from the bedroom last night,

“There’s no way I wouldn’t notice that bastard’s presence.”

“That’s right. But it wasn’t the Necromancer King who took the greatsword out of the leader’s room, it was me.”

“……What?”

Tesetan’s lips parted.

Aleric continued speaking.

“I sold that greatsword. To the Necromancer King.”

Silence fell over the central courtyard.

Livia lowered her eyes as though she could not bear to watch.

Victor was looking at the far mountain beyond the window, which was caked thick with dirt.

Several seconds later.

Tesetan came over and stood in front of Aleric.

“Aleric, have you…… gone mad?”

Sold it.

He had sold his greatsword.

Did he know what kind of sword that was, and on top of that, to the Necromancer King……!

But Aleric did not blink even once.

“I haven’t gone mad. And, for your information, I sold all the armor and secondary weapons the leader used too. I sold my orb too, and Livia’s crescent blade too. Ah, Victor’s was left. He said absolutely not, even if he died.”

“You……!”

Without realizing it, Tesetan raised his voice in fury.

But before he could continue, Aleric opened his mouth again.

“Commander. Do you know that there are no people left in our mercenary company now? Even Fakun and Chester, who stayed to the end, left as of this morning.”

“……What?”

“At the beginning of Trevaga’s founding, the leader said this. Recruit company members mainly from the strong, and in exchange, pay high weekly dividends.”

“……”

“When we were in the thick of besieging magic stones, that system was fine. Because the reward money could cover all the dividends. But then the leader lost to the Necromancer King.”

“……”

“And once you just shut yourself up in your room, who’s supposed to pay the company members’ dividends? Now we can’t even besiege anymore, so there’s no reward money either.”

Bewilderment appeared in Tesetan’s eyes.

Come to think of it.

He had been so shocked by the result of the duel with the Necromancer King that she had forgotten everything about the mercenary company.

Unable to continue speaking for a moment, he asked in a low voice,

“So you sent them all away.”

“Some left on their own feet, and some we sent away. Once we told them it seemed unlikely we could pay dividends for the time being, they just went on their way.”

“……”

“To be honest, it’s our greed to want them to stay. Why do mercenaries do this work. They do it for money.”

“No, even so, without a single word to me……”

Aleric looked steadily at Tesetan.

“Who was it that threatened everyone and said no one was allowed to come in? The one who warned them to be ready if anyone came in was you, Commander.”

Tesetan was once more left without anything to say and shut his mouth.

That was because he had indeed said, while going into the bedroom, that no one was to disturb him.

Aleric shook his head from side to side.

“Anyway, so they all left.”

Then he added calmly,

“And we paid severance pay too, just as the leader wrote in the contract.”

“Severance pay?”

“What, would we not pay it? It was the leader’s opinion that if they completed one year, it should be paid according to seniority. The company may be collapsing, but promises still ought to be kept. They’re comrades who suffered for years enduring the leader’s personality.”

“……”

Tesetan stared blankly at Aleric.

“So…… you sold the greatsword.”

“Because there was no money we could maneuver right away. It was a blessing the Necromancer King paid generously. Otherwise we would have had to dispose of even this house at a dirt-cheap price.”

“Ha.”

It was so absurd that it did not even make him angry.

Tesetan repeatedly tried to say something and then shut his mouth.

He was irritated, and something about it was ridiculous and infuriating, but……

‘Damn it, Aleric isn’t wrong.’

The one who had set dividends as weekly pay had been himself.

The one who had introduced the severance pay system had also been himself.

In the first place, the one who had insisted on the duel of honor with the Necromancer King had been herself, so there was no room for excuses.

‘……If only there had been some money I’d saved up to maneuver with at times like this.’

But until now Tesetan had deliberately refrained from saving money even though he could have.

Because it had felt as though, if he filled his pockets, his sense of purpose would blur.

“So that’s why I told you to save some mo…… mpf.”

Livia, who had been slyly cutting in, shut her mouth.

That was because Victor had covered her mouth.

Tesetan looked over there, then put one hand to his temple.

A headache came over him as though someone were pressing down on his head.

“Ha……”

He turned away and headed toward the window.

When he drew back the curtain, the cozy and neat view of the neighboring house entered his sight.

A well-kept garden.

Flowers blooming in profusion near the fence.

Agabert, as on any ordinary day, had thrown its windows wide open and was airing out the base.

“The Necromancer King said this, by the way.”

From behind came Aleric’s voice.

“He said if you still had time, and if you were thinking about merger, you should come find him.”

At the same time Livia ran over and made a desperate face.

“Commander! Please just merge! The Necromancer King says if we merge she’ll give the weapons back. I can’t let my crescent blade go out like this. Do you know what kind of weapon that is? Are we really supposed to sell it to pay the severance of a bastard like Chester?! That was money the commander should have covered in the first place!”

Tesetan’s eyes shook.

“Of course, I know the leader will stay stubborn to the end. You’re the sort of person who, once something isn’t right to you, it’s wrong to the very end.”

Aleric’s continuing voice felt as though it were weighing heavily on his heart.

“My crescent blade……”

Following Livia’s voice, memories of the past came surging in.

‘Protect us? Me?’

‘You mean you’re asking us to go with you right now.’

The comrades he first kept beside him when he became a mercenary.

Tesetan had promised them.

That he would become a place where those with nowhere to go could settle.

That he would become a fence that could protect them.

In reality, they had shared moments of victory together with Tesetan.

They had believed in him, unstable as he was, until now, and each time he collapsed they had supported him from beside him.

For Tesetan, who had severed everything from the past, they were in truth no different from family……

“Ha.”

Tesetan opened his eyes.

Turning around, he looked at the company members with a tired face.

“……I can’t promise merger.”

Then he added to the company members staring at him blankly,

“Even so, I’ll get back Aleric’s orb and your crescent blade, so wait.”

* * *

At Agabert’s base.

Tie sat on the sofa, placing her hand over her pounding heart.

On the table in front of him, the weapons he had just received from Livia were lined up side by side.

The greatsword Dad supposedly used.

The orb of the mage named Aleric.

And lastly Livia’s small, round crescent blade too.

“What are you planning to use these for? More than that, why did that woman with monster-guts hair hand these over to you, huh?”

Veil pressed her from beside her, but Tie kept her mouth tightly shut.

In his head, the conversation he had secretly shared with Livia this morning replayed itself.

‘Necromancer King. You’ll only get one chance.’

‘Only one chance……?’

‘Yeah. You know our leader is originally kind of like a stone, right? There isn’t really anything he likes, or anything he treasures. But that greatsword he uses. He really takes horrifyingly good care of that.’

‘……The greatsword!’

‘Yeah. So I’ll say that greatsword, this crescent blade of mine, and the orb used by the mage companion were sold to you. If our leader comes looking for them, then just have a good talk, all right? You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?’

Of course Tie understood.

At last, a place for conversation with Dad had been prepared, so how could he possibly fail to understand!

‘He probably won’t be able to just demand them back from you. Oddly enough, he really doesn’t commit crimes.’

‘……!’

‘So use the weapons as an excuse and have a proper conversation or something. You also really want to merge with our leader, which is why you’ve been coming to see me every day, isn’t that right?’

Tie had been startled.

Livia, astonishingly enough, had seen through all of Tie’s true feelings!

Even though he had been trying hard to make it look like chance so they would not notice how much he wanted to merge all this time!

Looking down at the weapons, Tie swallowed.