Ch#171
'Actually...... a baby.'
'Didn't disguise at all. Just a baby. Four years old.'
The Necromancer King's voice buzzed relentlessly in his head.
As Tese tan tried to slam his head into the wall again, Libia, who had rushed over, grabbed his arm and urgently looked behind her.
"Aleric! Grab the Leader! He's gonna put a hole in the wall!"
Tese tan was pulled away from the wall by his subordinates.
He staggered for a moment before plopping down on the chair by the entrance.
'Said the Church takes you away if you have too much power.'
'Said people would just use Tie......'
Tese tan blinked with a dazed expression.
'Then......'
Was that the reason too?
The reason Valentis—his father—had embraced the Necromancer King, even deceiving the Church and Imperial Family.
The Necromancer King's situation resembled the tragedy Tese tan had faced as a child.
As a father who had lost his young son to the Church's hands, he couldn't just pass by the Necromancer King.
And not just that.
'Came to tell you that. Agavert just needs one more to be a large mercenary group.'
'From now on, only people holding this doll can talk!'
'Cause I like Uncle......'
That speech pattern that always gave him an odd sense of déjà vu.
'Even if it's an adult mimicking a child.'
The Necromancer King often truly felt like a child who knew nothing.
Deep confusion settled on Tese tan's face.
"Ha, then the damn disguise not releasing right at the end of the duel too......"
"Ah, Aleric. This guy's not sick or something, is he?! Check him quick!"
Libia shook him, but Tese tan didn't shift his gaze fixed on empty air.
No, he couldn't.
'Kid!'
'Tie.'
Agavert members' way of calling their Leader was overly familiar, beyond what subordinates should use.
'No!'
'Lucarion! Stop!'
The Necromancer King who had a chance to fell him but didn't.
'......Ah!'
The Necromancer King flying through the air and slamming into the ground from his thrust.
Even after taking that......
'Tie did wrong......'
'Don't leave Tie alone, please!'
The Necromancer King who threw himself without a second's hesitation to save him when his life hung by a thread.
No, four-year-old Tie.
"......Ha!"
Tese tan squeezed his eyes shut and bowed his head deeply.
'Were you always this improper since birth?'
Countless words he'd hurled at the Necromancer King resurfaced.
'Even if my wrist gets cut off, I have no intention of crawling under you.'
'Did you think I'd be grateful if you proposed a merger?'
Yeah, he had thought something was off.
Any normal person would have distanced themselves after Tese tan went that far.
But the Necromancer King didn't.
'......Now it makes sense.'
Because the Necromancer King wasn't a 'normal person.'
Because he was just a four-year-old child!
"I've been...... up till now......"
Tese tan's face paled.
'Naturally thought he was an adult.'
At least someone who'd rolled around for 30 years or so, an old, sly fox.
Otherwise, an inexperienced young sorcerer couldn't wield that much power!
Plus, rumors had spread across the Empire that the Necromancer King wandered in disguise, taken as fact.
'But no.'
Just four years old?
Tese tan roughly exhaled and bolted up from his seat.
"Leader! What the hell is it already!"
Libia shouted, but Tese tan didn't answer.
Instead, he staggered up the stairs, leaving his subordinates behind.
The moment he opened the door and entered, he sat on the sofa against one wall.
But within seconds, he stood again and began pacing the room.
'If you have too much power, the Church takes you away.'
As the shock faded, the doubts he'd harbored began resolving one by one.
'......The Necromancer King's power was indeed tremendous.'
Tie possessed an enormous amount of mana.
Not enough with that, he could even absorb others' mana.
Tese tan suddenly recalled the day Tie had quelled his rampage.
That day, the Necromancer King had taken in his overflowing, exploding mana without batting an eye.
A four-year-old child had absorbed alone the power even his saintess mother couldn't overcome.
'Suddenly got power......'
'People use Tie......'
Yeah, if a child suddenly awakened that much power one day.
Those around would naturally feel the need to protect the child.
That's why they'd hidden the Necromancer King's real age.
A sorcerer stronger than a child but mad would seem far more unapproachable.
"......"
Tese tan, who had been pacing the room, walked to the window and drew back the curtain.
Beyond the garden, Agavert's brightly lit base came into view right on time.
He quickly spotted the Necromancer King's window.
He'd learned it while scaling the wall to infiltrate yesterday.
Inside the lit room, the woman managing the mansion was holding the Necromancer King's hand as they entered.
She picked something up from the nightstand, wiped his face, and laid him in bed.
Then carefully tucked the blanket over the fidgeting Necromancer King.
"......Damn it."
Tese tan muttered in a trembling voice.
The woman's actions were certainly not those of someone serving a Leader.
They were the actions of someone caring for a child.
Tese tan turned away.
And slowly slid down the wall by the window, leaning his back against it.
'Tie came to find Daddy......'
The Necromancer King's words, heard in passing, filled his mind.
Another memory surfaced.
'Daddy! Daddy-!!'
The blue, rippling sea.
The blaring ship horn.
The Necromancer King precariously standing on Pearl City's pier, shouting at him.
Back then, he'd thought the Necromancer King was just messing with him.
Rumors of him tormenting others were rampant.
But now he knew.
'Cause I like Uncle......'
That day.
The Necromancer King had truly thought he was his father.
He had mistaken him for his real dad.
Tese tan swept a hand over his stiffened face.
And muttered.
"Because I...... resemble the Necromancer King's lost father?"
Of course, he wasn't the Necromancer King's father.
He hadn't even properly slept with a woman, let alone had a daughter.
"Haaa......"
A sigh he'd already let out dozens of times leaked out again.
"Then the reason he just likes me too."
The reason he kept hanging around him.
The reason he stared holes through his cheek the whole meeting.
'Because I resemble the Necromancer King's real father......?'
Tese tan clenched his fist hard and buried his face between his knees.
That night, the light in his bedroom didn't go out until dawn.
* * *
The next morning.
The front door opened with a familiar greeting.
"Gooood morning-!"
Tese tan, who hadn't slept a wink all night, snapped his bloodshot eyes open.
Leaning his head back on the sofa armrest, he focused on the sounds from downstairs.
"Leader came? What's up so early? I was gonna head over."
Libia welcoming the Necromancer King playfully as usual.
"That is......"
The Necromancer King's hesitant voice.
"Ah, nothing at all......"
Tese tan let out a sigh at the sullen tone.
Not nothing at all.
The Necromancer King had definitely come to check on him.
Having finally spilled the secret he'd hidden so long yesterday, he must be curious what he was up to now.
A four-year-old couldn't hold back curiosity, naturally.
So he'd crossed between the fences at daybreak to come to his house.
"Tie go now......"
"Huh? You just got here, already leaving? Eat something...... Wait, thinking about it, there's nothing to eat here. Can I skip lunch and eat over there?"
"Yeees."
The door opened and closed again after the mundane chat.
Tese tan, rubbing his temples vexedly, finally jumped up.
And quickly went to the window to look down.
As expected.
The Necromancer King's head was visible toddling across the garden on short legs.
But for some reason, he stopped before the fence he always climbed over.
"......What're you doing?"
Unaware Tese tan was watching, the Necromancer King hesitated in place for a while before turning back toward the garden gate.
With the changed angle, his unusual gait finally became clear.
"Why's he limping?"
Tie was noticeably dragging his right leg.
The moment the child disappeared into the building, Tese tan flung open the door and went out.
"Leader! Where to again?"
Ignoring Libia's call, he hurried to the fence where the Necromancer King had stopped moments ago.
"......Ha."
A sigh escaped him upon checking the fence's state.
The iron fence, fine just yesterday, was now tilted and collapsed to one side.
The spot the Necromancer King always passed through was much narrower than usual too.
Tese tan unwittingly scowled.
"That's why go through a place like this......!"
Finally pulling himself together, he exhaled sharply.
He glared murderously at the fence before abruptly turning toward the warehouse.
A few minutes later. Agavert base.
"What the hell's that lunatic doing now?"
Veil, leaning against the kitchen wall biting an apple, furrowed his brow.
"Why?"
Tie immediately ran over and stood on tiptoes.
Veil picked up Tie and held him to look out the window.
"Eh!"
Tie's eyes went wide.
Beyond the kitchen window.
Dad was pulling out the iron fence between his house and Tie's house one by one with his bare hands.
With an extremely angry face for some reason.
