The next day.

“Wow! I slept so well!”

At the bright voice right beside his ear, Basto jolted and opened his eyes.

Through the sharp morning light slipping through the crack in the window, he saw—

“Raul oppa, Enzo oppa. Why are you sleeping here?”

Tie, her face clear and bright, was shaking Raul and Enzo, trying to wake them.

Basto pressed a hand to his throbbing head and looked aside.

Nearby, Bale was holding his forehead with a similar expression.

‘It feels like I slept strangely.......’

“Uncle Basto!”

At that moment, Tie jumped off the bed and ran to him.

The child hugged Basto tightly and rubbed her cheek against his arm.

“Uncle, now let’s say goodbye to the Commander in Chief and go home.”

“Home......?”

“Mm! Lady Marshal is waiting. And Tie wants to go home now too.......”

She looked as though nothing had happened. Basto and Nordix exchanged glances.

“Bale oppa, hmm? Let’s go home, okay?”

Meanwhile, Tie began shaking Bale’s knee.

Bale hesitated, then lifted her into his arms and asked,

“......Kid. Are you okay?”

Tie opened her eyes wide.

Then she lowered her gaze slightly and gave an awkward smile.

“I’m fine. I know now that Papa isn’t a Holy Knight.......”

Bale’s mouth fell open in surprise, then he hurriedly nodded.

“Yeah, kid! That’s right. Now it’s clear your Papa isn’t a Holy Knight, so we’ll slowly look elsewhere. I’ll help.”

“Mm! Thank you!”

The child giggled and wrapped her arms around Bale’s neck.

Tickled by the sensation in his nose, Bale patted her back.

“Then Tie will go to the meeting hall and get her backpack!”

Jumping down from Bale’s arms, Tie skipped out of the room.

The squad members stood frozen, staring at the open door.

“Astie said she wants to go out to the Northern Continent herself.”

A voice came from the left side of the bed, where no sound had been ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) heard until now.

Turning, they saw Lucarion standing there with Pupu perched on his head, his expression serious.

“She said that after seeing the number one mercenary squad, something in her awakened — a desire for power — and that she wants to grow Agavert into an equal rival and worthy opponent.”

Bale frowned.

“What?”

But Lucarion continued calmly.

“And it seems that all this time, searching for her father has been a heavy psychological burden. She wants to pause the search for now.”

Even Basto looked stunned.

Yet Lucarion had not finished.

“I believe Astie has finally grasped the nature of people. Is it not natural that any mercenary seeks their own power? By nature, a human being is incomplete and compelled to thirst for self realization.”

“W-what are you talking about? The kid really said something that complicated?”

“Yes. She said that expanding one’s potential and striving to leave a mark on the world is an expression of elevated will.”

Silence settled over the room.

Bale frowned, about to speak, but at that moment Tie returned, carrying her small backpack. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

“Tie is here!”

“Kid. Did you really say that to Kkamani?”

Tie blinked several times as if turned to stone, then answered,

“Mm, I did!”

“That you want to go to the Northern Continent and become influential there?”

“Mmm! Because Tie is the King of the Dead!”

Bale shut his mouth in shock.

Basto stepped forward, doubt on his face.

“Tie, are you really okay? The Northern Continent is still......”

“I don’t want to be sad every day because I don’t have a Papa.”

Tie interrupted him softly.

Then she looked at the squad members with lowered eyes.

“If Tie bravely does mercenary work well, maybe someday she’ll meet Papa by herself.......”

“I think the squad leader’s words make sense.”

Enzo interjected.

He stepped closer to Basto and whispered so Tie would not hear:

“When it’s hard, it helps to have something to hold onto. You can forget reality, even if only a little.......”

In a desperate situation, inaction only deepens despair.

Still, Basto could not shake his unease.

“I understand. But the fact that such thoughts appeared in a child......”

At that moment, yesterday’s Tie rose before his eyes.

Tears clinging like droplets to her lashes, her desperate sobbing.

“I......”

Basto trailed off and sighed.

He stepped toward Tie as if conceding.

“......All right. If that’s how it is, Tie.”

Tie looked at him carefully.

“Really?”

“Really. Just don’t stop looking for Papa completely. We’ll do it gradually......”

“You cannot go to the Northern Continent, Astie.”

At that moment, a tense voice sounded from the corner of the room.

They turned to see Nordix with an unusually severe expression.

Tie’s eyes widened.

Nordix approached her and went down on one knee.

“Under no circumstances must you go to the Northern Continent.”

It was a frightening voice from Nordix, one they had never heard before.

And soon Tie learned

why he had said that.

“Yes. That is correct. But how did you know?”

In the meeting hall, where everyone had gathered, Valentis nodded.

The squad members looked at Nordix in shock.

Nordix answered,

“......I did not know. I merely assumed.”

Only five minutes had passed since the squad members and the Luminel family had assembled in the hall.

As soon as the doors closed, Nordix had asked Valentis a polite yet audacious question.

“I beg your pardon, but may I ask one thing. Has there been any order from the Central Continent to observe Astie?”

The Central Continent.

The place where the Holy State, the Pope, and the cardinals who serve him reside.

An order from such a place to watch Tie?

All the squad members, including Bale, had considered that impossible.

But Valentis answered.

“Yes.”

“What? That was actually true?”

Bale held Tie, who was sitting on his lap, even tighter.

And he looked seriously at Nordix.

“A cardinal really ordered someone to watch the kid?”

Nordix nodded.

“Yes. Strangely enough, it is the Church that shows enormous interest in mages.”

Leonardo nodded as well.

“That is correct. More precisely — mages who have displayed unprecedented power.”

Bale swallowed.

Everyone in Agavert knew Astie’s power was unusual.

That was why they even concealed her true age.

But still.

How long had it been since she became a mercenary?

And already the Church had taken interest in Tie?

And in secret at that — assigning the Commander in Chief to monitor her from behind.

“The Northern Continent that Astie wishes to go to is a place where priests come for training several times a year. It is filled with clergy all year round. And if she ends up there and becomes entangled with them......”

“.......”

“They may claim it is necessary to examine her unusual power and summon Tie to the Central Continent.”

“That cannot happen.”

Basto said immediately.

“Her identity would be exposed. And the Church......”

He instinctively glanced at the Luminel family seated before him.

It felt awkward to speak ill of the Church before the foundation of the Holy Knight Order.

But—

“Continue. As I said, from the moment we handed you the overall organizational chart, Luminel has effectively been in the same boat as you.”

As Edmund said, Luminel’s position was already clear.

Basto hesitated, then continued:

“As far as I know, under the pretext of following the will of god, the Church is capable of anything.”

“.......”

“Absolutely anything.”