Ch#142
"Mar-Mar!"
Tie ran over and picked up Marbas.
The lion head attached to the statue looked up at Tie in bewilderment.
Tie said, her eyes sparkling.
"Mar-Mar, you said earlier you could evolve stuff, right?"
Marbas stared at Tie with a frightened expression before hesitantly nodding.
[It's not evolution, it's reinforcement. I did it a bit back in the old days...]
"Then can you evolve Teleportation Circles too?!"
Interest flickered across the squad members' faces.
They were curious if the statue, brought to life thanks to Tie, could really do such a thing.
Feeling their gazes upon it, Marbas sensed its shoulders lifting slightly toward the sky.
The thrill of attention was always welcome. Just as it hesitated and was about to reply,
"Think it'll work? You couldn't even copy a single Teleportation Circle."
Veil burst the bubble.
Marbas shouted indignantly.
[I did! I copied one!]
"...Gasp, Mar-Mar, you did?"
Marbas sniffled, wiping away invisible tears in its mind.
[Yes! Even though no one watched!]
It nodded toward the distant window.
There, the one Teleportation Circle Marbas had copied lay half-hidden under a side table.
Tie nodded vigorously.
"Yeah! Mar-Mar is the best! Tie believes in Mar-Mar!"
Marbas slowly lifted its head.
Then it hopped down from Tie's palm.
[In that case, for the evolution... I'll give it a try.]
It hopped up onto the table.
Standing atop the stack of Teleportation Circles, red beams began emitting from Marbas's eyes.
"Ooh. Looks more promising than before?"
"Quiet, Veil. It's a spirit, even if it looks like that. Don't keep mocking it irreverently."
"Come to think of it, it's pretty pathetic. If that's a spirit, I'd be a spirit grandpa."
[...Urgh.]
Ignoring Veil and Basto's voices, Marbas focused its mind.
Before it, the complex formations of the Teleportation Circle began to visualize.
"W-Wow."
As Tie exclaimed in admiration, Marbas reinforced the circuits.
And infused its own abilities into each rune to bolster stability.
[Almost done!]
In the final moment, Marbas shuddered its wooden body with all its might.
And finally,
"Gasp! The Teleportation Circle really changed!"
New formations were engraved along the edges of the two topmost Teleportation Circles.
Tie hurriedly picked up the faintly glowing formations.
"Mar-Mar, this is like it evolved like Puppetmon, right?"
Marbas nodded, staggering.
[Yes! Just input the coordinates, and it can go anywhere! No distance limit, and especially made to not be affected by the waves from Mana Stones, so you can trust it...!]
"Waaah!"
Tie dashed to Basto with the Teleportation Circle in hand.
"Uncle Basto! Mar-Mar did it! Let's use this, okay?"
But Basto didn't reply.
Tie tugged at his sleeve again.
"Let's go siege a Mana Stone together, pleeease? There are two, so let's test if it really works!"
Finally, Basto nodded.
"Fine. But you stay here with Grandpa, Tie."
Tie's eyes widened round.
"Why?!"
"It's still just a test phase. Since we don't know if it's completely safe yet, wait here."
Tie blankly watched the squad members take the two Teleportation Circles from her hand.
The squad members gathered in a circle a short distance from Nordics and Tie.
"I know the coordinates."
At Basto's words, Enzo nodded.
"The small unseiged Mana Stone in Briowood. 383 Eteron east... 12 Lunax south."
Enzo tore the Teleportation Circle in half.
A bright light burst into the air.
By the time Tie squeezed her eyes shut and opened them,
Basto, Veil, Raoul, and Enzo had vanished completely.
* * *
"Waaah!"
"...Don't cry, Tie."
Lucarion quietly comforted her.
But Tie couldn't stop her tears.
‘Did you hear? Mathias's viscount's son got his hand severed.’
The Teleportation Circle accident she'd overheard days ago lingered in her mind.
She trusted Mar-Mar, but what if the evolution hadn't worked properly?
And if an accident happened and the squad members got hurt...!
"It's Tie's fault! Tie said to test it right away today!"
"Why is it your fault? Testing the reinforced Teleportation Circle was something we had to do eventually."
"But...!"
Lucarion patted Tie's back soothingly.
Selina silently gripped Tie's hand tight.
Marbas stepped forward too.
[Master! Don't you trust me? I have full confidence! This body that once dominated the Ebranis dynasty...]
"Kyuu."
Ppuppue tapped the floor with its nose as if to say be quiet.
Marbas hurriedly shut its mouth.
"Tie, still like that?"
Just then, Nordics approached with two cups of steaming warm milk.
Nordics handed the cups to Tie and Selina before speaking.
"Nothing will go wrong. It's a small Mana Stone nearby, and they all carried travel provisions just in case of malfunction."
Tie nodded glumly.
Then she toddled over and hugged Nordics.
Nordics smiled and familiarly lifted her, patting her back.
"Nothing in life is ever easy, right?"
"Yeeah...!"
Tie had never said it aloud, but since coming to this world, she'd learned many things.
That choices come with responsibility.
That to gain benefits, you sometimes have to take risks.
That nothing in the world comes easy.
"Why's making a living so hard...?"
Even Grandma from 107 and Auntie from 203 in Gold Apartment had been the same.
Whenever they met, they'd chat about how tough life was, how bitter it felt.
"But that's life."
Still, Tie said in a resolute voice.
She pulled away from Nordics's embrace and bravely drank her milk.
"Tie believes in Mar-Mar! So everyone will be fine!"
With white milk foam on her upper lip.
And five hours later,
"Uncle Basto...!"
The light of a Teleportation Circle flashed once more on the first floor of the mansion.
"Kiddo! We're back!"
"Captain, the Teleportation Circle works perfectly! No need to worry."
As the light faded, the squad members appeared.
Each held a monster core in hand.
* * *
"So you're saying it really teleported right up to the Mana Stone?"
At Nordics's question, Basto nodded.
"Yes. No explosive clash of mana either."
"...I see. Was sieging the Mana Stone manageable?"
"No issues."
Basto glanced behind him as he replied.
There, Tie was stacking sacks full of monster cores onto a cart.
"Selina, tomorrow morning let's go to the Reward Office together? We can take these and exchange for money!"
"I've never been to the mercenaries' Reward Office. Sounds fun."
"Yeah! Super fun! But Tie's a kid there, so it's a secret."
Basto looked at Nordics.
"Things are about to get busy."
"Seems that way to me too."
Tie seemed unaware, but the reinforced Teleportation Circle was revolutionary.
A technology unprecedented in the world.
The key to drastically shortening siege times.
All thanks to Tie awakening Marbas.
Basto's eyes gleamed.
"Now I'm curious how the top mercenary groups will respond."
Other groups aside, Trebaga had never been threatened for its position before.
But if Agavert maintained this siege speed...
Basto's long-forgotten competitive spirit ignited in his eyes.
The next day,
With the noon chime, a crooked slogan written by Tie hung on the central courtyard wall.
[Not #1 is a disgrace!!!]
And matching the slogan, the squad members set out once more.
This time, toward a medium Mana Stone.
