Chapter 162

“Why is this bastard coming here?!”

Veil froze in place when he saw Tesetan.

From the second floor, Basto, Raul, and Enzo came running down.

The newly joined company members lately were standing at the second-floor railing, looking down below with curious faces.

“I heard from Livia.”

But Tesetan paid no mind to the gazes pouring toward her and strode straight toward Tie.

Raul and Enzo tried to block his way, but Nordix caught hold of them.

Standing before Tie, Tesetan slowly looked over the weapons set on the table.

“I’m not asking for my greatsword back. But my company members’ weapons……”

“Wait!”

But Tie abruptly cut her off.

Then, feeling his heart pounding, he blinked his eyes.

‘We have to talk, talk properly.’

In his head echoed Livia’s voice emphasizing the need to have a conversation with Dad.

After swallowing, Tie pulled out a single sheet of paper folded up tightly from the pocket of her one-piece dress.

Tesetan narrowed his brow.

“What is this?”

Tie unfolded the paper and held it out to Dad.

Dad, having looked at the paper, began reading down the crooked letters written on it.

“Rules for a good and healthy conversation?”

Rules for a good and healthy conversation, and no less than three of them!

It was the list Tie had written herself this morning.

‘Because when this Dad talks with Tie, she only gets angry and loses her temper.’

If they did not set rules in advance and then talk, Dad would obviously just say what he wanted again and leave in a huff.

So Tie had decided to set rules from the start.

‘Auntie Livia said it. That Dad is coming because he wants to get the weapons back.’

In other words. It meant that, in this situation at least, Tie was in a stronger position than Dad.

Tie jumped down from the sofa and searched through her Hanbit Kindergarten bag set in the corner.

Then he took out his favorite Ttonapang doll from inside and brought it back.

“Number oooone! Speaking in turns.”

Tesetan raised her gaze and looked at Tie.

“From now on, only the person holding this doll can talk! The person without the doll has the listening role, so cutting in, talking back, and not listening in the middle are all forbidden!”

Tesetan’s lips parted slightly.

Even so, Tie bravely continued speaking.

“Number two is to look in each other’s eyes when talking, number three is to use pretty words. If you don’t follow the rules……”

After looking back and forth between the weapons and Dad, Tie timidly added,

“Negotiations break down!”

After the silence.

Tesetan let out a long groan.

“……Do whatever you want.”

“Okay!”

Tie held the doll with one hand and raised the other.

Then, just as he had learned at kindergarten, he began diligently stating his own position first.

“These weapons, Tie bought them from Auntie Livia with lots of gold. So they’re Tie’s. I don’t think I can just give them to Mister.”

The child hurriedly held out the doll to Tesetan.

Tesetan looked at Tie, then at the doll again, then closed her eyes tightly.

Then, gritting his teeth, he accepted the Tanipang doll.

“……Ha.”

After controlling his breathing, Tesetan opened his eyes.

That was because among the rules the Necromancer King had just put down was looking each other in the eye while talking.

“I.”

However, he could not easily continue speaking.

That was because green eyes were sparkling right in front of him.

Every time the Necromancer King blinked, her pupils slowly widened and narrowed.

Tesetan let out a dry cough and only barely opened his lips.

“……As for my greatsword, that’s one thing, but I would like you to return the company members’ weapons. I will somehow pay the price.”

The Necromancer King once more reached her hand out onto the table.

Reflexively, Tesetan wrapped his arm around the blade side of the greatsword as though shielding it.

But Tie only took the doll back from her and answered,

“But Tie doesn’t do things on credit?”

“……”

Plop.

Once again, the doll was placed in Tesetan’s arms.

Suppressing his sigh, Tesetan lowered the greatsword all the way to the floor beside the table.

For some reason, it made him uneasy that the Necromancer King kept reaching her hand toward the sharp blade.

Holding the doll by the ear between thumb and index finger, he said,

“Couldn’t you make an exception this one time?”

The Necromancer King shook her head from side to side.

This time, as though it wasn’t even worth answering, he did not even take the doll back.

Tesetan, growing troubled, adjusted how he was sitting.

Then, after hesitating for a long time, he brought up the question that had been circling in his head.

“Just why are you trying to take me in?”

The Necromancer King’s eyes grew slightly wider.

“I nearly killed you. It’s not as though you don’t know that.”

The entire first floor fell silent.

Even the Agabert company members on the second floor, who had been laughing now and then, held their breath.

At his ears he could hear Veil growling, “That bastard really……”

But then, the Necromancer King held out her hand to Tesetan.

Tesetan hesitated, then placed the doll on his palm.

Taking the doll, the Necromancer King hugged it tightly to her chest.

Then, looking into Tesetan’s eyes, he said in a somewhat dejected voice,

“Because…… Tie likes Mister.”

“Cough!”

From the kitchen side, Basto, who had been drinking cold water, choked and coughed.

Tesetan blankly fixed his gaze on the Necromancer King.

‘He likes me?’

Did that mean the reason he had been favorable to him was just that?

“Tie just likes Mister, so I just want us to be on the same side.”

Forgetting even that he needed to take back the doll, Tesetan asked back,

“Why?”

Could one person like another for no reason.

If they were not family connected by blood.

But the Necromancer King answered with ridiculous ease.

“I don’t know. You can just like someone.”

Then he added,

“If you merge with Tie…… I’ll make Mister vice-captain.”

“Hey, kid!”

Right away a few of Agabert’s company members came running over.

But without even turning toward them, Tie gathered mana around them.

At the same time, a small barrier formed around only Tesetan and Tie.

‘A barrier?’

Tesetan doubted his own eyes.

Until the duel of honor, the Necromancer King had not been able to form a barrier directly herself.

He had put up a barrier by using his familiars, while he himself focused all his attention on directing the skeletons and wraiths.

Yet now.

The Necromancer King spread a barrier around them without any incantation or even a small gesture.

Judging by the way it had gone quiet outside, it seemed to be a sound-blocking barrier.

‘Did he train himself in that short span of time?’

While he was thinking that, the Necromancer King said,

“Tie will protect Mister.”

It was at that moment.

‘Mom will protect you.’

That the green eyes of his mother overlapped over the Necromancer King’s eyes.

Without realizing it, Tesetan clenched his fist tightly.

Still holding the doll, the Necromancer King was staring fixedly at Tesetan.

“Tie will make Mister the number one that you like, and feed you lots of meals too, and I won’t beg for meat side dishes.”

A faint wetness formed over the green eyes that resembled his mother’s.

“I won’t fuss, and I won’t be annoying either. I’ll give you lots and lots of vacation every day so you don’t have to work.”

“……”

“I won’t even ask you to buy me a sticker book. Tie will listen to Mister well.”

Tesetan drew in a short breath.

Suddenly, unexpected tears ran down his cheek.

He wiped under his eyes with a confused expression.

‘Why am I?’

Blankly, he stared at the wetness staining his palm.

It was strange that tears could come for no reason at all.

Watching Tesetan like that, the Necromancer King too spoke with tears glistening in his eyes.

“So…… can’t you stay with Tie?”

Sniffling, he forced a smile.

“……Please……”

Before anyone knew it, the Necromancer King’s hand was touching Tesetan’s wrist where the ring of covenant was fitted.

For a long while Tesetan could not say a single word.

* * *

At noon that day.

Tesetan returned to Trevaga’s base carrying all the weapons he had lost.

It was only a move to the house next door, really, but Livia welcomed him with a bright face.

“Commander, what happened? Huh? Yeah?!”

Without a word, Tesetan held out the crescent blade to Livia.

Then he also held out the orb to Aleric.

“We’re not moving the base right away.”

With the greatsword hanging at his waist, he said as he climbed the stairs,

“But your executive positions might disappear.”

Livia’s face lit up.

He flung her arms around Aleric and Victor at once.

“Waaah! Then that means we don’t have to split up?! It isn’t disbandment, right?! Waa!”

Tesetan let out a small laugh as he turned around the corner of the second floor.

The ring of covenant that had been on his wrist had already disappeared cleanly.