Chapter 169

* * *

89 Rosewobel Street.

Agabert’s base.

“Now, now! Hurry up and flip the cards over, I’m telling you!”

“Ah, damn it, I had it won.”

The new members were deep in card-playing in the kitchen.

“Eat some of this while you play. The volume of conquest has increased lately, so it’s hard, right?”

Marshall approached the table carrying fruit that had been gorgeously prepared.

The members immediately whistled and welcomed her.

Rio, who had been sitting at the end of the table, rose from his seat and took the fruit plate.

“Thank you. Agabert is so systematic that conquest isn’t really that difficult.”

Marshall smiled brightly.

“Then that’s fortunate. When there were few members, our little commander and the executives really suffered a lot. Look. Now that new members have come in, it’s bustling and nice, right? There aren’t even any empty rooms.”

“Rio! Aren’t you joining the next round?”

The members who had started a new round urged him, but after handing over the fruit basket, Rio rose from his seat.

And he moved his steps toward the living room following Marshall.

“Is there anything I can help you with? It’s a rare day off, and because of us you can’t even rest……”

Marshall’s eyes grew round.

She looked proudly at Rio, who was like a son in age, then asked,

“Then could you help me gather up the sheets? I need to do the bedding laundry today, but maybe because the number of people increased, it’s a little hard alone. Of all days, today is also a day the workers aren’t coming.”

Agabert did not keep resident workers.

Because of Tie’s identity, and above all because there were not many people who wanted to be resident workers at a mercenaries’ base.

Rio readily nodded.

“No problem.”

The two people went around from the top floor of the estate and worked their way down, gathering up the dirty sheets.

When they arrived at the first floor again, Rio’s two arms were piled mountain-like with sheets.

“Now, now, this way!”

Marshall called out to him, whose view was blocked by the piled sheets.

Holding the sheets, Rio waddled out the front entrance.

Then he came down the stairs as Marshall guided him and headed toward the back of the garden.

“I’ve already prepared everything for the washing, so you only need to put them in the basin. Here, you can’t see well, so be careful.”

“Y-yes.”

Thinking of the mother he had left in his hometown, Rio smiled without realizing it.

It was when they had almost reached the back garden.

“Huh? How did you come already?”

Marshall’s bewildered voice came from the front.

Having felt no presence at all, Rio, buried in the sheets, tilted his head.

‘Did someone come?’

Today the commander and executives had all left for the Luminen estate.

When leaving, the young commander had definitely said,

‘Tie will go play until evening and come baaack! Misters and big brothers all have a good day, fighting~!’

Rio raised his head and looked at the sky.

For it to be evening, the sun was still shining down.

“Sir Rio said he’d help take off the sheets. Oh my!”

At that moment Marshall let out a short scream.

Then Rio’s body lifted into the air.

“Uh, huh!”

Some of the sheets he had let go of fell to the floor.

When Rio struggled to try to catch his balance, someone threw one of the sheets he had been carrying over his head.

“Oh my, my!”

“Wh-who are you!”

Marshall shouted, and Rio struggled with all his strength.

But the other party did not budge.

Rather, in the brief interval, he wrapped Rio all around in the sheets and was carrying him somewhere.

“Wh-where are you taking him! You mustn’t do this! What are you going to do when the executives find out!”

Marshall’s voice grew distant.

Inside the sheets, Rio drew in a sharp breath and brought his left hand to his waist.

‘What kind of madman kidnaps a mercenary from the base!’

It was something so difficult even to imagine that he had not been able to respond properly.

At last Rio’s hand caught the handle of his dagger.

Thinking he would tear the sheets and escape, he regripped the sword, but.

“We’re here, so stop.”

As if he had predicted everything, the other party grabbed his wrist, then set him down on something soft.

Struggling, Rio escaped from the sheets and drew in a breath.

“Huff, haa!”

Then at the sight spread before his eyes, his mouth fell open.

“……Vi, Vice-Captain?”

A warehouse piled full of hay for feeding horses.

Standing in the doorway with the beating sun at his back was the vice-captain, who until now he had never once exchanged words with.

“Put the knife down.”

Tesetan shut the warehouse door with a bang.

Then he took down the rope hanging on the wall and strode toward Rio.

“Wh-what are you doing!”

Rio backed away, but soon his back was blocked by the haystack.

“Uaaagh!”

Tesetan twisted his arm behind him and tightly bound it.

Terrified, Rio sank into thought.

What had he done wrong?

Ever since entering Agabert, he had worked hard, and diligently too!

He had even more so made no occasion to get entangled with the vice-captain!

Because any mercenary in Talochium today knew.

The ominous background by which Trevaga came under Agabert.

With Tesetan already striding around the base with a murderous expression, who would speak to him!

“Vi, Vice-Captain. It seems there is some misunderstanding! I did not do anything!”

Tesetan, having tightly bound Rio’s wrists and ankles, stood up from his place.

Then he answered indifferently.

“I know.”

“Yes?! Th-then why me……!”

“Before I went to the garden, I stopped by the kitchen. I asked which of the new members is the worst at lying, and they all said it was you.”

Rio’s face turned white.

Traitors, he did not know what it was, but they had sold out a comrade to this terrifying man!

“From now on, I’m going to ask you something.”

Rio swallowed dryly.

The shadow of the wooden bars made for ventilation lay across Tesetan’s face.

“What is the Necromancer King’s identity?”

Rio’s face went blank.

A few seconds later, he asked back,

“Pardon?”

“I asked what the Necromancer King’s identity is. The atmosphere was like everyone knows except me and the members who came from Trevaga.”

Rio parted his lips.

Naturally, he could not disclose anything at all about the Necromancer King’s identity.

Because he had staked his memory on a vow with the holy relic.

But more than that.

“Vi, Vice-Captain doesn’t know?”

“……”

Tesetan’s brow furrowed slightly.

As if he couldn’t believe it, Rio continued.

“I thought you knew everything! Isn’t it impossible that Vice-Captain doesn’t know a fact even the members know!”

Rio wriggled his body and adjusted his position.

And he tried to make as pitiful an expression as possible.

“Even so, I cannot tell you anything.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I made a vow with the little commander. If I break it, I die!”

Strictly speaking, he wouldn’t die but lose his memory, but Rio exaggerated a little.

No matter that he was the vice-captain, he was a person who had tied him up in a closed room and was threatening him.

If he wanted to get out alive from this place, it couldn’t be helped.

“……Is that so.”

Tesetan fiddled with his own chin.

It was while Rio was watching him like that and swallowing hard.

Sak, the sound of blades rubbing came, and Tesetan drew out his dagger.

“Vi, Vice-Captain.”

Rio called to him in a trembling voice.

But Tesetan, with an emotionless face, took one step, then another closer.

“Go on.”

And in one stroke cut the ropes that had bound his wrists and ankles.

Rio hurriedly got to his feet.

Then, hesitating, he asked,

“Y-you are letting me go this easily? In the first place, why did you tie me up……?”

At this rate, it was just a waste of rope.

Tesetan narrowed his brow.

“This way it’ll create a sense of crisis well.”

Rio slowly edged backward, then hurriedly opened the warehouse door and ran.

The warehouse left with only one person.

“……So it was under a vow.”

Tesetan muttered while quietly watching Rio’s retreating figure.

“Then there is no choice but to find out directly.”

He moved his steps again.

* * *

That evening.

“Hihihi.”

Tie entered the room in high spirits.

Then he took off his cloak and hung it on the chair, then flopped onto the bed.

“Tie has a big family now too!”

Today, he had spent a truly wonderful day together with his family.

As always, Dad was chilly, but Grandpa and the big uncles always treated Tie kindly.

When he was with those four people, it felt as though his hurt feelings settled down too.

Tie rolled around on the bed, going uhehe with laughter.

It was then.

Whiiing.

Just as a chilly wind suddenly blew into the room.

“Necromancer King.”

Someone landed lightly through the wide-open window.

Seeing the face that revealed itself, Tie’s eyes grew round.

“Vi, Viiice-!”

The person who had invaded Tie’s bedroom was none other than Vice-Captain.

Dad.