Chapter 17

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“I ran away after stealing…… what?”

Basto’s voice trembled low.

His expression was completely twisted.

The holy knight answered him.

“I don’t know the details either. I’m only following the orders that came from above. According to what I was told, you committed behavior unfit for becoming a mercenary……”

“The one who did behavior unfit for becoming a mercenary was that bastard Karl!”

When Basto slammed his palm down on the table with a bang, dust came showering down from the ceiling.

Even Veil stared at Basto in surprise this time, at the two eyes blazing with vivid anger.

Basto continued as if venting his rage.

“Just tell me honestly! Did that bastard Karl Warben bribe your superiors? To make sure I could never work as a mercenary again!”

The holy knight flinched.

His anxiously wavering eyes and furrowed brow showed that Basto had hit the mark exactly.

“Just what kind of bastard did Karl Warben latch onto, for it to be rotten all the way down below? Tell me right now!”

“Basto Faerix. That is……”

“How long has it been since I left that bastard’s mercenary company! If anything, he’s the one who followed after me and stole my credit……!”

Basto drew in breath sharply.

It looked like he was too upset for the words to come out well.

Tie stared at Basto in surprise.

‘Mister Basto…… his eyes are red.’

Basto’s eyes were bloodshot red.

His two clenched fists were faintly trembling, and his Adam’s apple moved slowly again and again.

Tie’s eyebrows slowly drooped.

‘He’s thinking about his family.’

Mister Basto’s family had left the world because of bad Karl.

Tie looked at the holy knight again.

The holy knight was looking at the raging Basto with a somehow complicated expression.

‘He doesn’t seem like a bad person……’

Tie knew what bribery was too.

Because whenever she watched TV with them, Grandma in 107 and the lady in 203 always talked about similar things every day.

‘See! That bastard obviously took money! There’s no way that happens without taking money! Huh?’

‘Unni, these days they even do the bribing in strange ways.’

‘Strange ways? What kind of strange ways?’

‘They don’t do it in apple boxes anymore, they openly do it in luxury bags.’

‘Good grief……’

Right, bribery meant feeding money to the other side.

Not in an apple box but in a luxury bag, while asking them to move as you want.

Originally you weren’t supposed to do that, but there were lots of rotten people in the world……

“What would make it possible for my identification number to be restored?”

Basto growled low at the holy knight.

The holy knight pressed his lips tightly together, then soon opened his mouth in a small voice.

“……I know your circumstances too. And I also know well enough that Karl Warben is not a good sort.”

“Then what in the world!”

“I shouldn’t say this in principle, but……”

After checking that the tent flap was closed, the holy knight continued.

“The one Karl Warben bought over isn’t an easy man.”

Silence fell.

Veil frowned, and Nordix remained silent.

Tie too vaguely understood and tilted her head.

The holy knight went on.

“The commander newly appointed to Gate 1 not long ago. You must have heard, haven’t you?”

Veil, who was well informed about gate news, stepped forward with a furrowed brow.

“I have. There’ve already been rumors all over the place, haven’t there? Isn’t he the guy the Emperor personally installed?”

The holy knight made a Shh sound and looked toward the flap again.

Then he bent his upper body closer to the table and continued.

“Even among the knights, people talk about him a lot. It should be moderate enough that people can close their eyes to it, but he’s too much. Since he openly interferes, even inside the unit people are talking.”

Veil furrowed his brow as if dumbfounded.

“What good is people talking? It’s not as if he’ll get cut even if he dies.”

“……Yes. That’s the problem.”

The holy knight looked at Basto with something like pity.

“I don’t know the exact details either, but if they’re still doing this to you even now, after you’ve newly passed the mercenary exam, it seems the commander received a fairly large amount from Karl Warben.”

Basto, at a loss for words, closed his mouth.

There was more than enough for him to feel wronged and bitter about, but in the end it meant there was only one way to break through this situation.

“So in the end, what you’re saying is that money is needed?”

And a very large amount of money at that.

The holy knight nodded.

Veil let out a hollow laugh, and Nordix clicked his tongue.

Basto, feeling dazed, stopped moving and only stood there blankly, looking at the holy knight.

Money.

How could any such thing possibly be left now.

Even the reward money he should have received for conquering the magic stone had all been stolen by that bastard Karl.

An ominous premonition spread through his mind.

Maybe he would never be able to become a mercenary again.

Working as a mercenary and hunting monsters had been the only string keeping his life and himself tied together.

‘That work I had done with the resolve to avenge you, Eve, and Lilia……’

His nose tingled and breathing became difficult.

Basto slowly lowered his head.

But soon he pulled himself together and covered his eyes with one thick hand.

“……Veil.”

He could feel Veil looking at him.

“Time is short, so you take the little commander and enter the imperial capital first. I’ll stay here, find a way, and later……”

“How much did he feed that commander?”

At that moment, a cold voice was heard.

When they looked up in surprise, they saw Astie leaning crookedly back in the chair and staring at the holy knight.

Astie wore a face that was unusually angry.

“I asked how much bad Karl, that thing worse than a dog, gave your commander!”

The holy knight looked flustered, but soon answered hesitantly.

“Th-that. I don’t know exactly, but I heard he received some chest full of banknotes……”

Tie climbed up on top of the chair at that moment.

The child pulled off the pink bag on her back with her arms behind her.

Then, without a word, she pulled the zipper open and flipped it upside down onto the table where everyone was gathered.

Dozens of things came rolling out onto the tabletop.

A pure gold bracelet engraved with ancient patterns.

A necklace set with a sapphire the size of a fist, and a hair ornament crafted in detail from gems she had never seen before in her life.

Pearls, diamonds, garnets, emeralds, rubies, spinels, amethysts, topazes……

They were things the Bone Friends had picked up for Tie one by one on the day they conquered the magic stone.

“Tell him that I, the great archmage Necromancer King, will give more.”

Everyone stared at Tie with their eyes wide.

Only Tie tilted her head a little.

“You’re selling your conscience for just one measly box of banknotes?”

Then she added,

“I’m different from a shabby little guy like that! Tell him I’ll do it openly in a luxury bag.”

The holy knight Kaut, who had left the tent, returned exactly one hour later.

“……Basto Faerix. Here is your new identification number.”

Holding in his hand the approval papers for Basto’s new identification number.

Naturally, only the blank to write the mercenary company’s name remained on the registration form.

“We’ll make it Agabert.”

Tie readily answered the holy knight’s question asking for the name of the mercenary company.

“What the, the name is better than I expected? Yo?”

Veil opened his eyes wide in surprise,

“Ohh, Agabert. How did you think of that?”

and Basto and Nordix also stared at Tie as if it was unexpected.

Tie lifted her chin as if it were nothing.

“I just made it up roughly.”

But in truth, that was a lie.

‘……Mercenary ranking.’

Tie’s gaze went to the huge sheet of paper hanging on one side of the tent.

While the holy knight had stepped away, Tie had carefully read every single letter on that sheet.

‘The small letters are too small so I can’t see them, but I could see the big ones.’

The big letters were the names of mercenary companies.

Those currently listed in the continental ranking.

And among them, the one that caught Tie’s eye by far the most was naturally the name of the number one mercenary company.

Looking at the name written there clearly, Tie had only thought this.

‘Oooh, I can just flip that around!’