Ch#18
And so a few days passed once more, to one early afternoon.
Tiye sat by the inn window, swinging her legs dangling back and forth.
The sunlight shining down was warm, and her mood was sky-high.
As she basked in the sun, enjoying it fully.
“Hey, squirt!”
Veil’s voice came from behind.
Turning her head, Veil stood there holding a plate of cookies.
“What’re you staring at? Eat these or whatever.”
Tiye’s eyes widened in an instant.
Tiye quickly picked up one cookie.
Taking a bite of the pale green-tinted cookie from the landlady grandma, a sweet aroma filled her mouth.
Tiye crunched away, feeling her heart go all fluffy.
Veil, watching her eat, asked.
“Necrolord. That good, huh?”
Tiye startled.
Her cheeks, puffed from the cookie, flushed a bit pink.
“Necrolord……?”
“Yeah, Necrolord. The Necrolord here’s…… pfft. Haah…… who else but you?”
Veil was holding back laughter, but Tiye twisted her body giggling.
“Veil oppa too, jeez. What Necrolord~”
“…….”
“Of course Tiye’s the boss of everyone, and it’s true she’s the hidden Necromancer powerhouse~ but when it’s just us, call me Tiye.”
Veil’s mouth twitched.
He poked Tiye’s cheek.
“Squirt, you like the name Necrolord that much?”
Tiye paused mid-bite, eyes going round.
Like the name Necrolord?
Isn’t that obvious?
The strongest top-tier characters always had nicknames.
Like legend Puppetmon or Royal Ttona Pang!
Come to think, her Quail Class friend Hyunwoo’s game characters had them too.
To be precise,
“Tiye’s got a skin on.”
No other way to explain it.
“Tiye’s original character’s just Tiye, but skinned Tiye’s ‘Necrolord Astie’ or something.”
Her butt wiggled on its own.
Tiye wiped under her nose and bent over hehe-ing.
She felt Veil staring at her blankly.
‘Poor Veil oppa.’
He must be jealous of Tiye, who became the top-tier character with a skin.
That was when.
“Astie.”
The inn door opened, and Basto and Nordix appeared, something piled heavily on one shoulder.
“Uncle Basto!”
“Got along well with Veil?”
“Tiye, you’ve got cookie crumbs on your mouth.”
Tiye waited for Nordix to brush the crumbs from her lips, then spotted what they carried on their shoulders and hopped up and down.
“Our capes? Real ones?!”
“Yeah.”
Basto scooped Tiye up and sat her at the large table.
Then set down the few garments they’d carried on the table.
New uniforms for the now-official mercenary group, ordered three days ago.
“So cool……”
Tiye murmured unwittingly, entranced.
Sturdy leather and thick fabric-lined black outerwear.
Design for easy movement, generous cut to block rain and wind.
And above all!
“Real Ttona Pang. Heuk.”
She was so excited she nearly fainted.
Tiye touched the favorite character vividly embroidered on each uniform’s chest.
How much trouble had they gone through three days ago to embroider this.
Honestly, Tiye’s drawing was so messy that she explained it to Grandpa Nordix, who redrew it.
Used about twenty sheets of paper then?
At some point she’d been so sleepy and tired, but it was worth explaining.
“Too pretty……”
Nordix draped a uniform over Tiye.
Hooking it below the neck, soft texture cascaded down her shoulders.
‘Prettier than kindergarten cape!’
Actually, Tiye had wanted the uniform yellow like her kindergarten cape.
But yellow in the forest would catch mana beasts’ eyes too easily.
In the end, Tiye swallowed tears and chose black.
‘Did the right thing!’
She was super proud of that choice now.
The uniform was so cool!
The others seemed to think the same, peering at the uniforms with curious eyes.
“Huh, material’s better than I thought?”
“Veil. Didn’t I say I knew a skilled tailor.”
“But did we have to put this pink bug on it?”
“B-bug?”
As Tiye stammered, Basto furrowed his brow.
“Veil, even if there were circumstances, don’t forget Tiye’s our Unit Leader now. It’s not weird for the Unit Leader to exercise key decision rights within the mercenary group.”
Still, Veil sulked.
Of course, he wasn’t unaware of Basto’s point.
A lot had happened in the past few days, but even before that.
He vividly remembered the day they sieged medium and small Mana Stones with Skeletons.
That day, Basto, Veil, and newly joining Nordix had held an emergency meeting.
They needed a way to enter the Capital with Tiye somehow.
For her safety, and above all, to find out who her parents were.
But to do that, Tiye had to be on the member list too, and
‘A four-year-old mercenary would draw attention for sure.’
‘I agree. She’s so young, can’t avoid the stares.’
‘Then what? The squirt awakened a weird power! Attention means weirdos might approach.’
Plenty to think about.
That’s when Tiye spoke.
‘What if we say Tiye’s current form is transformed?’
Act like not a kid, but not really a kid.
‘And Tiye’s really strong! Can summon Bone Friends! Grandpa said Tiye has amazing power too……!’
The three soon agreed to the plan.
‘Definitely. That way, we can change the kind of attention on the squirt.’
Tiye couldn’t just look like a girl amid dark men.
Her abilities couldn’t show ambiguously either.
Better to exaggerate.
‘If Tiye becomes Necrolord, no one can ignore her!’
That was the answer.
Imagine a Necromancy mage disguised as a four-year-old girl…….
‘Uh, kinda creepy. They’d all avoid her.’
‘……Agree.’
‘Then it’s decided.’
So they made Tiye the Necrolord and put her in the Unit Leader seat.
(Veil hated admitting it) but Tiye actually had the highest combat power among the four.
Things went smoothly after, and they really formed the mercenary group with Tiye as Unit Leader, but…….
“Even so, the bug’s too much, right? Could’ve put something cooler instead of the bug. What’s this? Eyes all creepy huge…… a fly?”
As Veil rubbed the embroidery roughly, Tiye was nearly fainting.
“V-Veil oppa! H-how can you say that!”
But Veil didn’t budge.
He went to the inn counter, grabbed the ink bottle without hesitation, and returned.
“I’m just gonna cover this. Black it out, it’ll be less noticeable.”
“N-nooo!”
Tiye scrambled onto the table, blocking Veil’s path.
Arms spread wide, a solemn look settled on her face.
“That’s an insult to Ttona Pang! I can’t let that happen!”
“Insult my ass. Hey, squirt. Pink bug on my uniform’s the real insult? So move, ah-!”
That instant, Tiye clamped down on Veil’s hand—waaang.
Veil’s eyes went wide.
“What’re you doing?! You a dog?! Ah, real drool!”
“Not a dog! A child! And puppy’s cuter than dog anyway!”
Veil shut his mouth.
That damn child…….
He stared at Tiye, then shrugged.
“Fine, whatever. Child or dog, I’m doing my thing.”
He snatched a uniform from the table.
“Nooo-!”
Ignoring the desperate cry, as he tried to cover the embroidery with black ink—
Ting-
A transparent energy flew from somewhere, grazing Veil’s hand.
The energy soon wrapped the inn round like a bursting soap bubble and vanished.
Veil blinked blankly.
Coming to, the ink bottle was far away,
“……Huh?”
And blood dripped from his fingertip, as if sliced by something.
