Chapter 23

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Tesetan?

Veil stared at the man with surprised eyes.

Hair floating up as if he still hadn’t fully woken up, a languid expression, and slow steps.

But his broad shoulders and powerful build gave off a sharp atmosphere, and there was a strange intensity in his cold eyes.

Without realizing it, Veil tensed his body.

‘So a monster really is a monster, is that it?’

The aura pouring off Tesetan was truly overwhelming.

It felt like his aura was crushing not just the surroundings all by itself, but the whole inn if anything.

“Looks like I overslept.”

Tesetan muttered with a yawn.

He leisurely swept his gaze through the first floor, then stopped at one spot.

In front of the counter.

Where Nordix, Veil, and Basto were.

Tesetan narrowed his eyes and muttered,

“What’s this, Rudy. You told me business was bad and charged extra for lodging. Looks like business is doing pretty well after all?”

The innkeeper immediately waved his hands and stepped in.

“Business doing well? Not at all! It’s just peak season for a bit lately. More importantly, may I deduct the charge from what you paid in advance before?”

Tesetan, who had said nothing, nodded indifferently.

He looked like anything was fine.

But as he slowly turned his body, his eyes suddenly stopped in one place.

On Basto’s shoulder.

Where Tie’s head under the black cloth was.

Looking at the cloth that bulged up, Tesetan slightly furrowed his brow.

“That……”

Just then.

“Commander! The ship’s here! Ah, I’m saying the ship’s here now!”

Out of nowhere, a red-haired woman burst into the inn.

The curiosity on Tesetan’s face disappeared.

He groaned like he had a headache, then turned away.

And with slow steps, he passed by Basto’s group and left, slamming the door shut behind him.

Silence continued for a few seconds, and Veil muttered,

“That was him, right? The commander of Trevaga.”

Basto and Nordix nodded.

“Yes.”

Tesetan, commander of the great mercenary company Trevaga.

The demon who calls blood, monster butcher, ghost, destroyer……

There was no one in the Empire who didn’t know those tremendous epithets.

“As expected, what an overwhelming presence.”

“No kidding. I heard he uses some strange style of swordsmanship, didn’t I?”

“Ah, I heard that too. What was it, noble yet vulgar swordsmanship? What the hell is that? That bastard, don’t tell me he was just spouting nonsense to sound impressive?”

Rudy, the innkeeper who had been listening to the three, burst into laughter.

“Hahaha! Are those the kinds of rumors going around about Commander Trevaga?”

Everyone’s gaze turned to Rudy.

“Well, it isn’t completely wrong, I suppose. A saying like that would suit Tesetan well enough.”

Basto furrowed his brow.

“Do you happen to know anything else about him?”

But Rudy only waved his hands.

“Oh my, even if I did, I couldn’t answer. I can’t lose a regular customer, can I?”

Then, as if trying to lighten the mood, he went, Right, and looked around the group.

“More importantly, what to do about the room……”

It was at that moment that Tie, who had just woken up, stuck her head out from under the cloth.

The innkeeper’s eyes went round.

Tie’s pupils widened a little too, but

“Wh, what are you doing, Basto! If we were already here, you should have woken me up!”

The child, having instantly grasped the situation, wore an insolent expression and lightly smacked Basto’s shoulder.

Then as soon as he was set down on the ground, he lifted her chin straight and stared directly at Rudy.

“Ahem! Two nights. On credit.”

At the bold demand, Rudy’s expression went blank.

Tie held out the still-warm mercenary badge to her.

“I, Commander Necromancer King of Agabert, will pay you back three times over later.”

Entirely unaware that there was a straight pressure mark across her forehead.

* * *

After hearing the whole story from Basto, Rudy gave Agabert a room.

She had also clearly looked startled when she heard that Tie had summoned a skeleton at the gate.

“Hm-hm~”

Tie hummed through her nose, thinking of Rudy’s mouth hanging wide open.

The room they entered was clean and spacious.

There were two beds against opposite walls, and the bedspreads were white and glossy.

“You’ll be able to sleep while rolling around to your heart’s content, Tie.”

Tie nodded excitedly.

“Yees!”

The bed Basto gave to Tie was near the window.

Tie climbed up onto it and looked outside.

Beyond the people busily going back and forth across the square, she could see the sea stretching out endlessly.

“Pearl City……”

To think a dazzling sea would spread out after walking such a long way on sandy roads.

Daddy’s hometown surprised Tie every single moment of every day.

Tie recalled the dream he had while riding on Basto’s back.

‘Tie, looks like business is doing pretty well.’

For some reason, in the dream Daddy had been playing make-believe with Tie.

Daddy had been the guest, and Tie had been some kind of innkeeper?

It also felt like she vaguely saw Daddy’s face.

“Tie, wait here just a little. Veil and I have something to do on the first floor of the inn.”

Just then Basto, having set down the luggage, said so.

They were planning to go down to the inn’s basement dining room and make a simple investigation into Tie’s parents.

Bravely slinging her bag around to the front, Tie answered,

“Yees! Tie will stay quietly in the room!”

Basto smiled and patted Tie’s head two or three times.

After she left the room, Tie checked whether the door had shut properly, then climbed back onto the bed.

Because the bed was against the wall, it wasn’t difficult to sit on the window ledge.

“A man is a ship! A woman is a harbor~”

She had just started humming the song Auntie in 203 often sang, when,

“Huh?”

Her lips suddenly fell closed.

The inn district crowded with countless people coming and going.

Among some crowd heading toward the harbor, the familiar back of someone caught her eye.

“Uh, uhh……?!”

Tie suddenly stood up, gripping the window.

There was no mistake.

Among those people in ash-colored robes.

That man in the very front.

Rolling off the bed, Tie ran to the door.

She hurriedly grabbed the doorknob and turned it, then ran down the nearest stairs in sight.

They were the stairs leading to the back door of the inn, which she had noticed on the way up.

When she came outside, Tie felt her head spin as she desperately searched for the path.

‘Blue roof, blue roof……!’

This way.

This is the way that man went.

When she turned a corner, avoiding pedestrians, two roads appeared.

At the moment Tie’s panicked eyes wavered without knowing where to go.

At the far end of the right-hand road, she saw the man climbing the steps to the dock.

“Daddy!”

Tie shouted without realizing it.

Because even from the back alone, he looked so much like Daddy.

Without even noticing that her hands were trembling, Tie kept running.

But because of the crowd lining the dock, she couldn’t move forward easily.

“Exthcuse me, exthcuse me……!”

Avoiding the big grandfather.

Avoiding the young lady carrying piles of groceries.

She ran as hard as she could, but whenever it felt like she was a little closer, the man got farther away again.

In the end, while making a wide detour around the crowd, the man boarded a huge ship.

“Daddy! Daddy-!!!”

Growing desperate, Tie forgot she was supposed to act like the Necromancer King and shouted loudly.

But the ship’s horn, going Booooo-, swallowed Tie’s voice,

“What’s this now?”

and the child crashed head-on into someone’s bag and tumbled backward.

Her nose tingled, but Tie got back up like a roly-poly toy.

Then, staggering, she somehow made it all the way to the very end of the dock.

However, the ship carrying the man had already left the harbor without any lingering attachment.

“Daddyyy……!”

Tears burst out before she knew it.

Even when she stamped her feet and looked down, there was only the dark sea undulating there.

The wall covered in barnacles, the dead seaweed floating around……

Tie clenched her fists tight and shouted until her throat nearly tore.

“Daddy, Daddy-!!”

At that moment.

Had that desperate cry reached him?

For an instant, she saw the man turn her head toward Tie.

Tie froze in shock, and the man’s eyes met hers.

Before long, Tie knew.

‘……It’s Daddy.’

That person wasn’t just someone who looked like Daddy.

He really was Daddy.

But the Daddy Tie had searched and searched for,

the Daddy she had missed more than anyone,

“……”

only looked at Tie for a moment, then withdrew her gaze as if she had no interest.