Ch#17
“Me, steal and run away?”
Basto’s voice trembled lowly.
His expression was completely twisted.
The Holy Knight answered him.
“I don’t know the details. I’m just following orders from above. According to them, you committed acts unfit for a mercenary……”
“The one unfit to be a mercenary is that bastard Karl!”
Basto slammed the table with a thud, sending dust cascading from the ceiling.
Even Veil looked at Basto in surprise this time, at the blazing rage in his eyes.
Basto continued as if venting his fury.
“Just say it straight! Did Karl Warben bribe your superiors? To make sure I can never work as a mercenary again!”
The Holy Knight flinched.
His shaky pupils and furrowed brow showed he’d been hit right on the mark.
“Just what backer does Karl Warben have to corrupt even the lower ranks? Tell me right now!”
“Basto Paerix. That’s……”
“It’s been how long since I left his mercenary corps! He’s the one tailing me, stealing my credit……”
Basto panted for breath.
He seemed too furious for words to come easily.
Tiye stared at him in shock.
‘Uncle Basto…… his eyes are red.’
Basto’s eyes were bloodshot red.
His clenched fists trembled faintly, and his Adam’s apple bobbed slowly several times.
Tiye’s brows slowly drooped.
‘He’s thinking of his family.’
Uncle Basto’s family had left this world because of that evil Karl.
Tiye looked back at the Holy Knight.
He watched the raging Basto with a somehow regretful expression.
‘Doesn’t seem like a bad person…….’
Tiye knew what bribes were too.
When watching TV together, 107-room Grandmother and 203-room Auntie talked about it every day.
‘Look at that jerk! He obviously took money! You think that happens without cash? Huh?’
‘Unnie, these days they say bribes are given weirdly.’
‘Weirdly? How weird?’
‘Not in apple boxes anymore, but straight-up in luxury bags?’
‘Heavens…….’
Yes, bribes meant giving money to make someone do what you want.
Not in apple boxes, but luxury bags, asking them to bend the rules.
Normally you shouldn’t, but the world was full of scumbags…….
“So how do I get my ID number restored?”
Basto growled lowly at the Holy Knight.
The Holy Knight clamped his mouth shut, then finally spoke in a small voice.
“……I know your situation. And that Karl Warben’s no good either.”
“Then what!”
“Strictly speaking, I shouldn’t say this, but……”
The Holy Knight confirmed the tent flap was closed, then continued.
“The one Karl Warben bought off isn’t a pushover.”
Silence fell.
Veil scowled, and Nordix kept quiet.
Tiye vaguely understood and tilted her head.
The Holy Knight went on.
“Not long ago, the new commander assigned to Gate 1. You’ve probably heard?”
Veil, well-versed in gate rumors, narrowed his brows and stepped forward.
“Yeah. Word’s already spreading around. The one the Emperor personally placed, right?”
The Holy Knight shushed him and glanced at the flap again.
He leaned forward over the table and continued.
“Even the knights are talking about him. You can overlook some excess, but he goes too far. Openly interfering, so there’s talk even within the unit.”
Veil scowled in disbelief.
“Talk? What’ll that do? He won’t get fired even if he drops dead.”
“……Exactly. That’s the problem.”
The Holy Knight looked at Basto with regret.
“I don’t know exactly, but even after you passed the mercenary exam anew, he’s doing this—means the commander got a huge sum from Karl Warben.”
Basto shut his mouth, speechless.
He had more than one grudge, but it boiled down to one way out of this mess.
“So in the end, it needs money?”
A massive amount at that.
The Holy Knight nodded.
Veil let out a hollow laugh, and Nordix clicked his tongue.
Basto felt his mind go blank, freezing in place as he stared at the Holy Knight.
Money.
As if he had any left now.
Even the rewards from sieging Mana Stones had all been stolen by Karl.
A foreboding premonition spread in his mind.
Maybe he could never be a mercenary again.
Hunting mana beasts was the only thread tying his life together.
‘The work I’ve done to avenge you and Lilia, Eve…….’
His nose stung, breathing grew labored.
Basto slowly bowed his head.
But soon he steeled himself and covered his eyes with a thick hand.
“……Veil.”
He felt Veil staring at him.
“Time’s short, so serve as Unit Leader and enter the Capital first. I’ll find a way here and follow later……”
“How much did that Karl dog bribe?”
A cold voice cut in.
Lifting his head in surprise, he saw Astie leaning crookedly in her chair, staring at the Holy Knight.
Astie’s face was rarely angry.
“Ask how much that mutt worse than a dog gave your commander!”
The Holy Knight looked flustered but soon answered hesitantly.
“Th-that, I don’t know exactly, but he got a chest full of bills or something……”
That was when Tiye climbed onto her chair.
The child slung off the pink bag on her back.
She unzipped it silently and upended it onto the table where everyone gathered.
Dozens of items tumbled out, rolling across the surface.
Pure gold bracelets engraved with ancient patterns.
A necklace with fist-sized sapphires, a hair ornament meticulously crafted with unseen gems.
Pearls, diamonds, garnets, emeralds, rubies, spinels, amethysts, topazes…….
Things Bone Friends had dug up from the ground one by one on Mana Stone siege day and given to Tiye.
“Tell them. This great archmage Necrolord will give more.”
Everyone stared at Tiye with eyes round as saucers.
Only Tiye tilted her head slightly.
“Sold your conscience for a box of bills?”
She added,
“I’m different from such petty trash! Tell them I’m giving it openly in a luxury bag.”
Holy Knight Kaut, who had left the tent, returned exactly an hour later.
“……Basto Paerix. Your new ID number.”
Handing over Basto’s new ID approval papers.
Naturally, only the mercenary corps name field remained on the registry.
“Make it Agabert.”
Tiye readily answered the Holy Knight’s question about the corps name.
“Huh, the name’s better than I thought? Really?”
Veil’s eyes widened in surprise,
“Ooh— Agabert, is it. How did you come up with that?”
Basto and Nordix stared at Tiye in surprise too.
Tiye lifted her chin nonchalantly.
“Just made it up.”
But it was a lie.
‘……Mercenary ranking.’
Tiye’s gaze turned to the huge paper on one side of the tent.
While the Holy Knight was away, Tiye had read every letter on the paper meticulously from top to bottom.
‘Small letters too tiny to see, but big ones were visible.’
The big letters were the names of mercenary corps.
Currently on the continent ranking.
And the one that especially caught Tiye’s eye was, of course, the number one corps.
Looking at the boldly written name, Tiye had just thought,
‘Ooh— reverse that and it’ll work!’
