Ch#43
“She definitely said that? That she was a spirit, and her name was Seradin?”
Tiye nodded.
Veil and Basto continued their serious conversation.
“Weird that it actually exists. I thought it was a fake god the church made up to manipulate the villagers.”
“I thought so too. And a spirit at that…… Never heard of such a thing before.”
Meanwhile, Nordix had been oddly quiet since earlier.
Then Veil, who’d been pondering, turned to Tiye.
“You sure? That Seradin said she’d been turned into a Mana Stone, and you pulled her out?”
“Yup!”
“And she handed over that relic as a gift made from her own essence?”
“Yup! Oblivion’s Sanctity!”
Veil turned to Basto.
The two spoke in perfect unison.
“……Wow, the kiddo sees spirits too.”
“Looks like Tiye can communicate with spirits as well.”
They paused for a breath, then opened their mouths again at the same time.
“Pretty useful ability, right?”
“Definitely a power that’ll come in handy someday.”
Tiye stared at the two, mouth agape, as they spoke in sync like they’d rehearsed.
Then Veil turned to Nordix.
“So the issue is what to do with that relic from now on……”
He continued.
“Old man. What do you think?”
According to Tiye, spirits weren’t just one or two.
And they seemed somehow connected to Mana Stones.
The problem was that all this was completely unknown information until now.
“Any mercenary groups currently holding onto relics privately?”
Nordix shook his head at Veil’s question.
“……Probably not. If a group gets a relic, the church usually steps in to retrieve it.”
Historically, only one mercenary group had ever obtained a relic from sieging a Mana Stone.
The current number one ranked ‘Trevaga.’
But Trevaga had soon voluntarily returned the relic to the church.
However, everyone knew it hadn’t truly been voluntary.
“Even when the Holy Knight Order finds relics, the church always takes them, right?”
Nordix nodded.
Veil seemed lost in thought for a moment before continuing.
“If they took it from Trevaga, that means the church came down hard.”
His gaze shifted to the Oblivion’s Sanctity on Tiye’s wrist.
“They’ll probably come after the kiddo’s bracelet now too.”
Tiye hurriedly hid her wrist behind her without thinking.
She didn’t know what kind of people the church was, but she didn’t want to give up the precious bracelet from Seradin.
Besides, Tiye needed this bracelet.
“Gotta use this to erase the Governor’s sons’ memories……”
To wipe the memories of Raoul and Enzo, who now knew her true identity.
“Veil oppa, when we goin’ to the Governor’s sons?”
The thought made her heart race again.
She started worrying if Raoul and Enzo might’ve left the first floor of the Governance Hall.
But then Veil approached.
“Kiddo. I’ve been thinking.”
He met Tiye’s eyes and asked.
“How about using that relic to grow our mercenary group a bit?”
Tiye tilted her head.
“Grow the mercenary group?”
“Yeah. Think about it. First, we take in Raoul and Enzo as members. They came looking for us while you were sleeping. Said they wanna join Agabert.”
“Gasp. Really?”
“Yeah. So we accept them, ignore whether they know your identity or not, and then.”
“Then……?”
“When they try to leave, that’s when you erase their memories of you.”
Tiye’s mouth fell open a little.
“That way, we grow the group, and no worries about your identity leaking out. Sounds good, right?”
Tiye nodded.
But soon, with a half-doubting expression, she asked.
“But…… what if the Governor’s sons don’t try to leave and sneak away instead?”
They could secretly desert the group to spread Tiye’s identity everywhere.
But for some reason, Veil burst out laughing.
“Kiddo. Admit it—we haven’t done much so far thanks to your bone friends or whatever.”
“……”
“But you think we wouldn’t notice some guys sneaking out?”
Tiye’s mouth fell wide open.
“If anyone tries to run, we’ll catch every last one and drag ‘em to you, so don’t worry.”
Tiye nodded with a relieved face.
And shouted bravely.
“Yup!”
* * *
“So……”
Raoul and Enzo’s eyes went wide in disbelief.
“Astie awakened mana at a young age and became a dark attribute mage, but.”
“With family circumstances and all, unwanted attention could lead to people trying to harm our young Unit Leader.”
“You’ve been disguising yourself as a four-year-old, when you’re actually a crazy person pretending to be four?”
Veil nodded.
“Yeah. Exactly.”
Raoul and Enzo’s gazes naturally turned to Tiye.
To the child sitting across from them, clutching her bag with an embarrassed expression.
“What, you lookin’ down on her now? Think our kiddo’s easy prey all of a sudden?”
Veil growled immediately, and Raoul and Enzo waved their hands in panic.
“N-no, sir.”
“Of course not.”
But they couldn’t keep their eyes off Tiye again.
In truth, both were thinking the same thing.
‘Hard to believe. She’s really four.’
The child fidgeting with slightly flushed chubby cheeks.
Now that they knew the truth, Astie before their eyes was truly…….
‘So cute.’
‘Yeah, really cute.’
Fortunately, Raoul snapped out of it first.
He barely averted his gaze and cleared his throat with a hem.
“I understand.”
Then he turned to Enzo and asked.
“You get it too, Enzo?”
Enzo nodded quickly.
“Of course. We’ll do our utmost to keep the Unit Leader’s identity from leaking out.”
“Can’t trust words alone.”
Then Veil stepped forward.
He stared at Tiye, leaving the twins behind.
“Kiddo. Go give it a try.”
At his words, Tiye hesitantly stood from her seat.
She climbed down from the sofa, then stood before Raoul and Enzo with everyone watching.
“G-gimme your hands.”
The twins stared at Astie with puzzled faces.
But soon awkwardly extended their hands.
Tiye first reached out the hand wearing Oblivion’s Sanctity toward Raoul.
[Touching a target with the hand wearing the Purity Bracelet should let you erase any memory you desire from them.]
Testing the relic on the twins had been Veil’s idea.
Tiye had been a bit worried, but Veil was firm.
‘Kiddo. Get your head straight. We’re the bosses here anyway. If they wanna join Agabert, they gotta endure that much.’
‘……Veil oppa, you sound like a real bad guy right now.’
‘Bad? What’s bad about it? I didn’t say erase anything big, did I? Nope. People resist less if they don’t know what hit ‘em.’
Tiye agreed with that.
The twins didn’t know about the relic or its effects.
So they probably had no clue what Tiye was about to do.
Just look at how they’d obediently held out their hands.
Still, Tiye took a deep breath before grabbing Raoul’s hand.
To shake off the prickling guilt.
‘Governor’s sons, really sorry!’
What Tiye planned was to test by erasing Raoul’s memory of candy.
Conveniently, she had candy in her pocket to check if it worked properly.
Of course, thinking he’d forget the sweet taste of candy forever felt kinda mean…….
‘To know the relic’s effect…… gotta do it!’
She squeezed her eyes shut and grabbed Raoul’s hand.
And soon gaped at what appeared before her eyes.
“W-wowww.”
Countless rings and threads made of light floated in the air.
Tiye instinctively knew.
They were all Raoul’s memories.
Soon, one of them glowed right before her.
‘This one.’
It was definitely Raoul’s memory related to candy.
The moment she was certain, the memory ring floated right up to her eyes as if waiting.
