Chapter 29

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Basto, Veil, and Nordix all went blank.

“Independent?”

“Mm-hm. If Tie can just find Daddy, then Tie will be okay. I’m not gonna keep whining for Daddy to take care of me like before anymore.”

“……”

“From now on we’ll just live our own lives, each on our own.”

Basto, Veil, and Nordix looked at Tie with bewildered faces.

But they couldn’t ask the child why she’d come to think like that.

“……You can’t stay wrapped up in Daddy’s skirt forever.”

Because Tie looked so complicated.

Before long, Veil shrugged.

“Well, do that then.”

His voice was somehow much lighter, like he really didn’t care.

“Four years old is an age by which you’d already be independent anyway.”

At the absurd remark, Basto and Nordix opened their eyes wide.

But Veil just kept speaking as if it were nothing.

“I grew up without parents from the age of two, brat.”

“Reeally……?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I guess it really is right for Tie to become independent now too……?”

“Of course. Just work hard as a mercenary and make money. If you need adult strength, you’ve got me, Basto, and old man Nordix, so what’s the problem?”

Tie nodded gravely.

“That’s right. Tie isn’t just Hanbit Kindergarten Quail Class anymore.”

“……”

“Now Tie is the Necromancer King.”

The child, who had finished making up her mind by herself, suddenly jumped to her feet.

“Tie is gonna go forward!”

Watching that with satisfaction, Veil slipped a hand into his inner pocket.

Then he pulled out a single crumpled sheet of paper and a pen.

“Then, since we’re on the subject, should we write it now?”

“Write what?”

“A written pledge that says you’re absolutely never leaving Agabert.”

Tie’s eyes went round.

That night.

Basto, who was sharing a room with Tie, tossed and turned all night long.

When she turned her head, she could see Astie fast asleep in the bed beside her.

White moonlight had settled over the child’s face.

Watching the child sometimes furrow her brow as if dreaming, Basto let out a small sigh.

“……It’ll work out somehow.”

On the nightstand between the beds lay a sheet of paper covered in dense handwriting.

[Written Pledge]

I, Kim Astie, as a member and commander of , hereby sincerely pledge the following:

First, recognition of responsibility: I acknowledge the responsibilities of the duties and role entrusted to me within and pledge to fulfill them faithfully.

Second, fulfillment of duty: Accordingly, from now on I will fulfill all duties and responsibilities as the Necromancer King.

Third, restriction on withdrawal: I agree that I may not withdraw from the group without the consent of executive members Veil Theodor, Basto Faerix, and Nordix Omen. (Absolutely, under no circumstances)

This written pledge has been prepared according to the voluntary intent of Kim Astie, and I hereby pledge that I understand the above contents and will faithfully observe them.

Pledger: Kim Astie (signature)

Address: Jongno District Republic of Korea Seoul Talochium Empire

* * *

And so the next day, on another morning with a bright sun.

“Shall we get moving.”

Basto picked up his coat and looked toward the bed.

Tie, who was sitting on top of it, raised her hand high.

“Yes! Let’s go!”

The child was dressed smartly in the Agabert uniform.

Veil, leaning diagonally against the wall, said,

“Brat. You know you can’t act like that once we get there, right?”

The expression of nodding Tie turned solemn.

“Ahem, how rude! To call me brat!”

“……What’s with ‘me’ now?”

“That’s what a king says when calling himself! Tie is a king too because I’m the Necromancer King!”

Veil went blank for a second, then laughed loosely.

“Fine, whatever.”

“Then let’s set off.”

Nordix stepped out of the room first.

After carefully putting on her pink bag, Tie followed behind her.

“But brat. Why aren’t you summoning that black lizard-like familiar again?”

When Veil asked that, Tie answered in a hurry.

“Th-thaaat’s because keeping a familiar summoned takes lots of power!”

The truth was that this morning, while Basto had gone downstairs for a moment to fetch food, Lucarion had woken up.

But Lucarion had looked tired somehow, and after briefly asking Tie what had happened while he was gone, he vanished again once the conversation ended.

Leaving behind the words that Tie needed to eat well and sleep well because she was worried.

‘Kkamangi is such a strange kid. Why would she worry about Tie.’

Except for being a little sad because of Daddy, Tie was doing fine.

“Stern and solemn!”

Anyway, after coming outside the inn, Tie quietly repeated that phrase once, softly enough that only she could hear it.

But right after that, just as he was about to take a brave step following Basto.

“Run! Everyone run!”

Someone shot out from across the alley like a bullet.

She barely brushed past Tie as she ran.

If Basto hadn’t scooped Tie up into his arms, he would’ve slammed into the man and tumbled across the ground.

While Tie’s eyes were still wide, several more people burst out from around the corner of the building.

“Seradin is dead! The holy domain is broken! A magic stone has appeared at the western dock, at the dock-!”

The dock meant the side where the sea was.

‘A monster appeared in the sea……?’

Tie’s mouth fell open.

This was truly another bolt-from-the-blue sort of news.

* * *

Magic stones.

They were mysterious towers that had suddenly risen across the once-peaceful continent 102 years ago.

Monsters poured out from the magic stones and the rifts around them, and when the Empire was placed on the brink of survival, the imperial family made a decision.

To abandon most of the territory except the imperial capital.

To protect only the minimum territory, the imperial capital, with the knights they had secured.

‘Let’s reclaim our land! Smash the monsters to pieces!’

Before long, however, mercenaries who had risen up in various places recovered the territories that had been lost.

After that, civil war began raging in the Empire.

Because the mercenaries and provincial lords who had regained their homes turned against the imperial family.

They believed the imperial family had abandoned them.

As monster attacks grew frequent and the civil war deepened, the imperial family was forced to make another decision.

‘We will expand the domain of the imperial capital!’

That is, they would widen the borders of the imperial capital.

‘I shall guarantee the safety of those who live within the expanded imperial capital.’

And so the number of “imperial capital citizens” increased.

Minor nobles who had lived on the outskirts instantly became “imperial capital nobles.”

At that time many people were won over, but the imperial family did not easily recover its old power.

Because the conflict between holy knights and mercenaries.

And the conflict between the imperial capital and the regions outside it remained.

Even those newly incorporated into the imperial capital did not readily swear loyalty to the imperial family.

The harbor city Pearl City was one of those places.

‘Do they think Pearl City held out for nothing! Even when the holy knight bastards turned away and the Emperor pretended not to know, we struggled to survive with our lives on the line, and now they say we’re imperial capital citizens? Do they take lightly the fact that when the mainland fell, we lived on boats and endured like otters-!!’

People going to the southern continent, people crossing over from the southern continent.

Because Pearl City had a lot of floating population, large numbers of mercenaries always gathered there, and naturally local resentment toward the imperial family and the holy knights was severe.

The imperial family wanted to regain the hearts of Pearl City, which had turned away from them.

Because Pearl City was a political and military strategic point.

The imperial family searched for another plan, and finally found one.

‘We proclaim in the name of the Order. We shall consecrate the seas around Pearl City and designate the entire western sea as a holy domain! The holy domain will now receive the protection of “Seradin”!

The way to unite the residents of Pearl City and win back the hearts that had turned away.

It was, quite simply, to use religion.

And among all options, the Order chose to use the local god Seradin, who had been handed down in Pearl City.

‘Ever since the Order’s consecration, doesn’t it feel like magic stones don’t form as much anymore?’

‘Exactly. Isn’t it because our Pearl City is a town specially protected by Lord Seradin?’

‘I didn’t even know that god called Seradin was a real god. I thought he only showed up in children’s folktales……’

In truth, it was because the holy knights were monitoring the movements of nearby magic stones, but ordinary residents believed it was all because of the Order’s consecration.

That the local god Seradin truly existed, and that he was protecting Pearl City.

So even if on land things were different, there absolutely must never be a case where a magic stone rose from the sea or monsters appeared in it.

And yet.

“What did you say? In the sea, what appeared?”

“A magic stone! Your Excellency! A magic stone has risen in the waters not far from the dock!”

The face of Marianne Waveril, the viscountess newly appointed as governor of Pearl City not long ago, went white.