Translator: Nox

Ch#26

Basto rubbed the bridge of his nose as if it pained him.

“It’s not that we haven’t thought of it. But……”

“What if we end up hurting the kid for no reason?”

Veil stepped in then.

Veil’s face was scrunched up in a deep frown.

Basto shut his mouth.

Veil wasn’t wrong, after all.

In truth, Basto had been thinking the same all along.

Everyone had something they didn’t want others prying into.

For Basto, it was his family history—and so he’d never asked Astie about hers.

“We’ve just been leaving it alone, assuming it’s one of the Luminen young masters. Let’s at least confirm……”

“But what if her dad isn’t with the Luminens at all?”

Nordics’ words made Veil clamp his mouth shut this time.

“Astie’s still a child. As I said before, we don’t know which parts of her statements are true and which are false.”

“……”

“Astie’s clever, that much is true. But we can’t set our goals based solely on her indirect accounts. To find her father, we need the full, accurate story first.”

Veil lowered his gaze, at a loss for words.

Nordics was right on every count.

“Her dad’s name. Where they lived together. Just that much would make finding clues far easier.”

“……What if the kid flat-out refuses to say?”

“We can’t force it out of her. But we should at least ask. When Astie wakes up.”

In the end, Veil nodded.

Basto seemed to agree with Nordics too.

The three stared at the closed door, then crouched in a row before it.

“By the way…… just outta curiosity, y’know.”

Soon Veil spoke up again.

“What happens if we actually find her dad?”

Basto and Nordics stared at him.

“I mean, if the kid finds her dad, does that mean Agavert’s done for?”

Veil looked distinctly uneasy.

As if he couldn’t stand the idea of the mercenary group disbanding.

Basto, after some thought, replied.

“Probably.”

“Then what’ll you do after?”

Basto’s gaze sank.

Memories surfaced of wandering alone like a madman, scraping by as a freelance mercenary.

It had only been a few weeks at most, yet it felt ancient now.

His time with Astie must have left a deeper mark than he’d realized.

If—if it all ended……

“……Probably go back to freelancing.”

“What about you, Nordics?”

“Well, I never imagined becoming a mercenary. I just ended up tagging along with you lot.”

True to his words, Nordics hadn’t joined Agavert out of a burning desire to be a mercenary.

He’d tagged along while trying to help find Astie’s dad, and somehow ended up enlisted.

Either way, he was currently Agavert’s eldest member.

“I’m with you all now, but if the group disbands, I suppose I’d return to the checkpoints.”

“……I won’t accept that.”

Veil muttered.

“Finding her dad and her being captain aren’t mutually exclusive, right? We took on Agavert, so we see it through. What about the members if the captain bails?”

He glared at the closed door.

“Even if the kid wants out, I’ll stop her. I need to keep working as a mercenary. We need her skills to siege mana stones and make money.”

“……”

“If she says she can’t bear to part with her dad even if it kills her, then hell, just invite her dad into Agavert too. Give him some title like captain’s guardian or whatever.”

“That’s not so simple……”

“I don’t care. Anyway, I’m not letting the kid go. After all the hell I went through turning her into the Sovereign Commander.”

Like holding back laughter in front of crowds, over and over.

Veil cleared his throat and added,

“For the record, it’s not ‘cause I like the kid. She’s tiny and dumb as a rock, but her skills are top-notch. Dark attribute mages aren’t exactly a dime a dozen.”

“……”

“Advertise the kid right, and Agavert’ll bulk up in no time. Might even aim for rank one. Then we’re all rolling in cash.”

Basto kept his eyes fixed on the door, silent.

Nordics sighed.

Once even brooding Veil shut up, silence settled over the hall again.

The three waited quietly.

Until Astie, exhausted from crying herself to sleep, woke.

* * *

Meanwhile, Astie wandered in her dream.

Her hazy, shaking vision cleared, revealing something.

A dim, dark space.

Thick smoke drifting here and there.

Through it, the pale face of a woman came into view.

The woman clutched Astie tightly to her chest.

“Libia! Protect Astie!”

Then, someone called out to the woman from afar.

A familiar voice.

Daddy’s voice.

Astie reflexively tried to look that way but couldn’t move.

Her whole body was wrapped tight in soft cloth.

“Wah, goooh—”

She tried opening her mouth, but an unexpected sound came from her throat.

“Goo, wahhh……”

She quickly realized it was a baby’s cry.

‘Astie’s a baby?’

She knew baby cries well from peeking into the room with the tadpole-like little siblings.

Astie rolled her big eyes around, trying to grasp the situation.

“Agh! Arellic! No—!”

At that moment, the woman holding her let out a scream.

As the woman adjusted her grip, Astie’s view shifted slightly.

A gruesome scene unfolded before her.

Monsters’ corpses strewn everywhere.

And just as many…… casualties.

“Libia! Don’t come closer—run with the young miss!”

A man far off shouted while battling a massive monster.

He held two large orbs in each hand, blasting blue light at the monster nonstop.

“But you!”

“You gonna let the young miss get hurt?!”

The woman hesitated.

In the end, she turned hesitantly and started running the opposite way.

Something hot plopped onto Astie’s cheek, drop by drop.

Libia, clutching Astie, was crying.

“H-h, young miss. Don’t worry. Don’t worry at all……”

The woman murmured, hugging the fussing Astie tight.

How much time passed like that?

“Ugh—”

The running woman suddenly collapsed to the ground.

Looking up at her face, Astie saw it turning gradually purple.

“Damn it, poison……”

With trembling hands, the woman set Astie on her lap and pulled a vial from her bosom.

She tried to drink it, but

“Ha, ugh.”

Her grip failed, and the vial shattered on the ground.

The woman frantically groped the monster-blood-soaked floor.

Then slowly pitched forward.

“Y-young miss, h-heuk. No, can’t……”

A few sweat-matted red strands stuck to Astie’s face.

“Wah, wahh—byaaa……!”

Astie wriggled and barely pulled one arm free from the cloth.

She touched the woman’s cheek and flinched.

It was freezing cold.

“Rift, gotta get out, out……”

The woman’s voice faded thinner and thinner.

Astie could only watch helplessly as strength drained from her brown eyes.

“Libia!”

Someone grabbed the hunched woman’s shoulder and lifted her.

Astie’s eyes widened at the face filling her vision.

“When did you get poisoned?!”

The one swiftly scooping Astie from the woman’s lap was Daddy.