Chapter 171

‘Actually…… I’m a baby.’

‘I wasn’t disguised at all. I’m just a baby. Four years old.’

The voice of the Necromancer King rang in her head.

When Tesetan tried to slam his head into the wall again, the rushing Livia grabbed his arm and urgently looked back.

“Aleric! Grab the little commander! It’ll put a hole in the wall!”

Tesetan was pulled away from the wall by his subordinates.

He staggered for a moment, then collapsed into the chair beside the front entrance.

‘Because if someone has lots of power, the Order takes them away.’

‘People would keep using Tie and……’

Tesetan blinked with a blank face.

‘Then……’

Was that the reason for that too?

The reason his father, that is, Valentis, had taken the Necromancer King in even while deceiving the Order and the imperial family.

The situation the Necromancer King was in resembled the tragedy the young Tesetan had experienced.

For a father who had once had his young son taken by the Order’s hand, it would have been hard to simply pass by the Necromancer King.

That was not all.

‘I just came to tell you that. Agabert too only needs one more now to become a large-scale mercenary company.’

‘From now on, only the person holding this doll gets to talk!’

‘Because I like mister……’

That way of speaking that always stirred up a strange sense of familiarity.

‘Though I thought it was the way an adult imitating a child talks.’

The Necromancer King sometimes truly felt like a child who knew nothing at all.

Deep confusion settled over Tesetan’s face.

“Ha, then, the damned disguise not coming undone at the end of the duel too……”

“A-Aleric. Isn’t this person sick or something?! Hurry and check him!”

Livia shook him, but Tesetan did not turn his gaze fixed in empty space.

No, he could not.

‘Brat!’

‘Tie.’

The Agabert members’ way of addressing the commander that was more familiar than necessary for something directed at their commander.

‘No!’

‘Lucarion! Stop!’

The Necromancer King, who had not taken the chance to knock her down even though she had gotten one.

‘……Ah!’

The Necromancer King, who had been sent flying through the air and slammed to the floor by the slash she struck.

And even after being treated like that……

‘Tie was wrong……’

‘Please don’t leave only Tie behind!’

The Necromancer King who, when Tesetan was in danger of losing his life, threw himself in to save him without hesitating even one second.

No, four-year-old Astie.

“……Ha!”

Tesetan squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head low.

‘Were you that lacking in decency from the moment you were born?’

The countless words he had thrown at the Necromancer King came to mind.

‘Even if my wrist were cut off, I have no intention of crawling under you.’

‘Did you think I’d be grateful if you offered merger?’

Yes, he had thought something was strange.

Normally, if it had been another person, once Tesetan had gone that far, they would have kept their distance from him.

But the Necromancer King did not.

‘……Now that I see it, of course.’

Because the Necromancer King was not a ‘normal person.’

Because he was just a child only four years old!

“Until now, I……”

Tesetan’s complexion turned pale.

‘I naturally thought he was an adult.’

And not only that, that he was at minimum some old and cunning old man who had rolled around for about thirty years.

Because otherwise it would be impossible for a young mage without experience to handle that much power!

And on top of that, throughout the empire the rumor that the Necromancer King went around in disguise had spread almost as established fact.

‘But it wasn’t true.’

He was only four years old?

Letting out a rough breath, Tesetan sprang to his feet.

“Commander! Ah, what is it this time!”

Livia shouted, but Tesetan did not answer.

Instead, leaving his subordinates behind, he staggered up the stairs.

As soon as he opened the room door and went inside, he sat on the sofa set against one wall.

But after only a few seconds he rose again and began pacing the room.

‘Because if someone has lots of power, the Order takes them away.’

As the shock faded, the questions he had held began to resolve one by one.

‘……The Necromancer King’s power was tremendous.’

Astie possessed an enormous amount of mana.

On top of that, he could absorb even other people’s mana.

Tesetan suddenly remembered the day Astie calmed her rampage.

That day, the Necromancer King accepted without batting an eye the mana of her that overflowed and exploded.

Even his mother, who had been a saint, could not withstand that power, yet a four-year-old child absorbed it all alone.

‘Then suddenly got powers……’

‘They said people would keep using Tie……’

Yes, if one day a child suddenly awakened to that much power.

The people around him would naturally feel the need to protect the child.

That was why they hid the Necromancer King’s true age, no doubt.

Because a strong and even crazy necromancer would feel far harder to approach than a small child.

“……”

Tesetan, who had been pacing the room, walked to the window and drew back the curtain.

Beyond the garden, just then, Agabert’s base brightly lit up could be seen.

He quickly found the Necromancer King’s window.

It was something he had learned today while climbing the wall and infiltrating.

Inside, brightly lit, the woman who managed the estate was coming in holding the Necromancer King’s hand.

The woman picked something up from the side table and wiped the Necromancer King’s face, then laid her down on the bed.

And she carefully covered the wriggling Necromancer King with a blanket.

“……Damn it.”

Tesetan muttered in a trembling voice.

The woman’s actions were definitely not the actions of someone serving a commander.

They were the actions of someone taking care of a child.

Tesetan turned away.

And leaning his back against the wall by the window, he slowly sank down.

‘Tie came to find Dad……’

The Necromancer King’s words that she had heard in passing filled her head.

Another memory came to mind.

‘Dad! Daaad-!!’

The blue sea rippling.

The ship’s horn going buuuu.

The Necromancer King standing precariously at Pearl City’s dock and shouting while looking at her.

At the time he had only thought the Necromancer King was making a fool of her.

Because the rumor that he was a nutjob who tormented other people was so widespread.

But now he thought he understood.

‘Because I like mister……’

That day.

The Necromancer King had truly thought she was her father.

He had mistaken him for his own father.

Tesetan ran one hand over his stiff face.

And muttered.

“Because I resemble the father the Necromancer King lost……?”

Of course, he was not the Necromancer King’s father.

He had never even properly slept with a woman, let alone had a daughter.

“Haaa……”

The sigh he had already let out dozens of times leaked out again.

“Then the reason he says he just likes me too.”

The reason he kept hovering around him.

The reason he stared at his cheek all through the meeting.

‘Is it because I resemble the Necromancer King’s real father……?’

Tesetan, clenching his fist tightly, buried his face between his knees.

That night, until dawn broke, the light in his bedroom never went out.

* * *

The next morning.

Along with the sound of the front door opening, a familiar greeting was heard.

“Good morniing-!”

Tesetan, who had not slept even one wink last night, snapped open his bloodshot eyes.

Resting his head against the sofa back, he focused his mind on the sounds coming from downstairs.

“Commander came? What’s going on this early in the morning? I was going to come over.”

Livia greeting the Necromancer King teasingly as on any other day.

“Well……”

The Necromancer King’s voice, hemming and hawing.

“A-ah, it’s nothing……”

At the sullen voice, Tesetan let out a sigh.

Nothing, my ass.

The Necromancer King had surely come to check on her.

He had only confessed the secret he had hidden all along yesterday, so by now he must have been curious what Tesetan was doing.

It was only natural for a four-year-old child not to be able to restrain his curiosity.

So as soon as daylight broke, he must have passed through the fence and come all the way to his house.

“Tie will go……”

“Eh? You just got here and you’re already going? Want to eat something…… no, come to think of it, there’s nothing to eat here at all. Is it okay if I come over and eat lunch?”

“Yeees.”

At the end of the bland conversation, the sound of the door opening and closing was heard again.

Tesetan, rubbing his forehead with mixed feelings, only then abruptly rose from his seat.

And he quickly went to the window and looked down below.

As expected.

The top of the Necromancer King’s head could be seen scampering across the garden with short legs.

But for some reason, the Necromancer King went to the fence she always crossed over, then stopped.

“……What is he doing?”

Without knowing Tesetan was watching, the Necromancer King hesitated in place for a long time, then began walking back toward the main gate on the garden side.

As the angle changed, only then could the Necromancer King’s gait, different from usual, be seen in detail.

“Why is he limping.”

Astie was limping noticeably on her right leg.

No sooner had the child disappeared into the building than Tesetan opened the room door and went outside.

“Commander! Where are you going again?”

Ignoring Livia’s call behind him, he quickly walked to the fence where the Necromancer King had stopped a moment ago.

“……Ha.”

Then a sigh leaked from him after checking the state of the fence.

The metal fence, which had been perfectly fine even yesterday, had collapsed tilted to one side.

Even the place the Necromancer King always passed through had become much narrower than usual.

Tesetan unconsciously twisted his expression.

“Then why in the world come through a place like this……!”

Barely collecting himself, he drew a breath.

He glared at the fence as if he would kill it, then sharply turned his body toward the warehouse.

Several minutes later. Agabert base.

“What is that madman doing right now?”

Leaning against the kitchen wall and taking a bite of an apple, Veil furrowed his brow.

“Whyyy?”

Right away Tie came running and stood on tiptoe.

Veil lifted Tie up so he could look out the window.

“Oh!”

Tie’s eyes grew round.

Beyond the kitchen window.

Dad was pulling out one by one the metal fence that blocked between her house and Tie’s house.

For some reason with a face full of anger.