A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 58

Chapter 58

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Translated by Sylph

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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[I’ll try contacting Trevaga again. Since we have to persuade that bastard Tesetan first.]

With that final reply, the communicator shut off.

The blue cloak, who had been staring at the dark communicator for several seconds, let out a sigh and turned around.

However, before long an exclamation slipped from his lips.

“Oh no.”

On top of the mahogany bench, and even on the edge of the marble fountain his hand had touched for a moment.

Every place he had wandered around the corridor to inspect was smeared with red blood.

The blue cloak narrowed his brow as if troubled.

When he lowered his gaze, he saw bright red blood dripping, drip, drip, from beneath the cloak.

“…I really should have at least done some first aid before coming.”

He hurriedly turned his body toward the path where the exit was.

“I should have listened when they said moonlighting wasn’t for just anyone.”

When he raised one hand and lifted the barrier at the exit, a dark corridor appeared in midair.

Without hesitation, the blue cloak stepped toward it.

A few seconds after its owner disappeared.

The greenhouse’s barrier began operating again.

The exit that had appeared in empty air also vanished without a trace.

As if the time had come, the magic tool with the complicated structure hanging from the ceiling moved with a whirring sound.

It was a magic tool that watered the flowers planted in the greenhouse twice a day.

As fine droplets of water filled the greenhouse, a faint rainbow formed in the air.

Above the large red pool of blood gathered on the floor.

* * *

Populosa Weapons District.

Velugon’s workshop.

Veil set down the communicator he had been holding in his hand.

When he turned around, he saw the company members staring fixedly at him.

“What did they say? Huh?”

Nordix, whose face was full of tension, asked first.

Enzo also stamped his feet and pressed him.

“Did they say they’re coming? Yes?”

Drawing in a breath, Veil let out a single sentence in a trembling voice.

“…They said they’ll come.”

The company members’ eyes opened wide.

“Really?!”

“Yeah. They said they’ll dispatch people who can help, here.”

“As expected, as expected!!”

Raul punched the air and jumped up from his spot.

“I knew it! I knew the association would come! Didn’t I tell you!”

Instead of answering, Veil rubbed his temple.

“Haaa….”

He had been so tense that the back of his neck was still soaked with sweat.

His heartbeat was also so fierce that his head was almost ringing.

“The mercenary association is really coming to rescue Astie?”

Just then Basto asked from beside him.

Veil nodded and collapsed heavily into a chair.

“Yeah. They are. They said they already issued a summons order to the top three mercenary companies a little while ago, and that once they’re ready they’ll even support a teleportation circle so they can get here quickly.”

Not satisfied with merely sending support personnel, they were even providing a teleportation circle.

Basto’s fists clenched tightly.

‘They really, really can save Tie.’

They could pull the child trapped inside the subspace out.

Relief that they had found a method.

And impatience because they still could not put that method into action made the inside of his mouth dry.

In his mind was the desperate emergency meeting that had been held an hour earlier.

‘Then do we just sit and watch? Until our commander gets eaten by Krazar?!’

Right after Astie and Velugon had been sucked into the subspace.

The Agabert members and the blacksmiths all alike had thrown themselves into devising countermeasures.

It was only natural, since both groups were about to lose their leaders.

However, due to the nature of subspace, which could not be approached from outside, it had seemed there was no way to pull the two of them out.

Until Enzo, who shot his hand up, offered an unexpected idea.

‘How about this. We send a rescue request to the mercenary association.’

The mercenary association.

The exact name of that organization, often also called the Frost Association, was the ‘Frost Mercenary Union.’

‘I heard of it when I was a squire holy knight. They said it’s an organization that guarantees the safety of mercenaries.’

In truth, the Frost Mercenary Union was a new organization that had not even existed for five full years yet.

The number of affiliated mercenary companies was still small, and it was a suspicious organization whose leader’s identity was kept a thorough secret.

Even so, most mercenaries knew of the association’s existence.

The reason was simple.

‘The Frost Association. Isn’t that the place that rescues guys who are about to get annihilated while besieging magic towers?’

‘That’s right. Still, most of the top mercenary companies are affiliated with it.’

‘…How? No, more than that, where in the world does that place keep pulling all its funds from? It doesn’t even have a proper money source, so does it really have the power to stick its nose in everywhere?’

First was the increasingly bizarre organization’s conduct and financial power.

Second was,

‘But it’s also the association that connects mercenary companies to national commissions. It definitely must have backing.’

Because of the monopoly system over national commissions that they had swiftly established.

Basto repeatedly gripped and released the armrest of the chair as he fell into deep thought.

Monopoly system over national commissions.

Even if the words sounded a bit difficult, the principle by which that system worked was simpler than one might think.

‘Was it the association’s first year after it was founded.’

Around that time, the president of the Frost Association, who had been veiled in secrecy, signed a treaty with the imperial family.

How he had managed to reach the Emperor, or what the detailed clauses of the treaty were, did not matter.

Because even now Basto remembered the public notice posted in giant letters at the mercenary registration office and the reward office.

[Public Notice]

The Imperial Cabinet and the Frost Mercenary Union hereby announce the following.

From now on, pursuant to the treaty concluded between the Imperial Family and the Union, the ‘Frost Mercenary Union’ shall exercise the sole delegation rights for all national commissions.

Accordingly, the previously individual method of delegating national commissions will be discontinued immediately,

and from this point onward, all national commissions will be assigned only through the Frost Mercenary Union.

**The Union may grant affiliated mercenary companies priority in receiving the right to undertake commissions.**

It was a national commission of all things.

A grave solicitation in which the imperial family officially requested help from mercenaries and promised high compensation in return.

‘And yet they said they would monopolize the right to undertake such commissions.’

From then on, Basto began to suspect.

That the Frost Association, which he had thought would only shine briefly and vanish, might in fact be a hidden threat concealing tremendous ambition.

‘Damn it! National commissions were already hard enough to win as it was… now we won’t even be able to dream of them!’

Meanwhile, the other mercenaries were no more friendly toward the association’s behavior.

Even Karl of Death Hound had immediately burst out in anger.

‘What? They’ll give affiliated companies priority in the right to undertake commissions?! It’s obvious. They must be going to demand an absurd amount of money, saying if you want to join the association, pay up!’

The mercenaries’ reaction was perhaps natural.

‘How are we supposed to trust the association! Mercenary history already goes back decades, and if something like that could run well, why didn’t it exist until now?’

‘Exactly. They talk about guaranteeing mercenaries’ rights and all that, but later on you’ll see that only the bastards sitting inside the association are growing fat….’

The mercenaries’ aversion toward the association shot to the extreme in a short span of time.

Among some mercenaries, there was even an implicit refusal movement not to join the association.

In fact, Basto too had generally agreed with the public opinion at the time.

‘There was no room to deny that as an organization’s authority grew, individual opportunity shrank.’

Besides, if the Frost Association’s true nature was that of a corrupt group?

The moment they started scattering the right to undertake commissions in exchange for bribes, every mercenary company below rank ten would dry up and die.

Because national commissions were also a dream opportunity for most mercenaries.

High financial compensation.

Even the connections and fame one could build in the course of handling the commission.

For small mercenary companies, that was a chance to grow in size, and for mid-ranking mercenary companies, it was the right time to aim for a leap in the rankings.

But if opportunities like that were monopolized by a few who were close to the association….

‘It looked dangerous.’

It definitely had looked dangerous even to Basto’s eyes.

That tremendous power the Frost Mercenary Union had obtained overnight.