A week later.

Central branch of the Rewards Bureau.

Beep—

Beep—

Beep.......

In the office, where silence hung heavy, a red light blinked at steady intervals.

It was the light that appeared each time the Bureau employees—Ornel and Remy—ran the analyzer.

When the inspection of all the cores was complete, Remy, with a dull gaze, began putting them back into the bags.

Ornel set the device aside and lifted his head.

Across from him sat a man with a calm aura—a knight, no, a mercenary—looking straight at him.

Ornel asked:

"Uh, yesterday you brought one bag of cores from a small magic crystal......?"

"Yes, that is correct."

"The day before yesterday, you besieged a medium one."

"Yes."

"And before that—two small ones......."

"Probably."

Ornel fell silent and closed his mouth.

"Ah, here is your reward."

Meanwhile, another member of Agavert was stacking bags of gold into a cart.

Watching this, Ornel forced himself to speak again:

"How are you even doing this......?"

Enzo, who had been counting the gold coin bags, raised his head.

Raul, standing beside him, asked with a faint smile:

"What exactly?"

"The sieges! How are you doing them so fast?!"

Twenty years working at the central branch.

Ornel had seen countless mercenaries.

And most of them were well known in their field.

Those were the ones who came to the capital, joined forces with the Holy Knights, and took part in magic crystal sieges.

But—

‘Even Grimreaper or Tregava never brought cores at this speed!’

With his head spinning, Ornel recalled the past week.

Agavert had come to the Bureau every single day without exception.

Registering sieges, exchanging magic beast cores for money.

"Could it be you are just splitting loot from already cleared crystals?"

Raul laughed.

"The analyzer would show that immediately, Director."

At a glance toward the device, Remy answered dryly:

"......The coordinates are different. Today’s are from Gargonta Suhe, yesterday’s from the Selben Glade plains."

Ornel’s mouth fell open even wider.

"T, then that is even stranger! Gargonta Suhe is in the north of the empire, and Selben Glade is in the south!"

"Right?"

"That is a month of travel one way! And you are saying you were there yesterday and today......?"

Ornel shook his head sharply, as if trying to wake himself up.

Then he swallowed and pressed Enzo further:

"I see! You are using multiple circles in sequence, right? But is that even possible? If you burn dozens of circles for a single siege, that would be a loss. Or... wait. It is not circles......?"

Teleportation circles did not allow one to approach directly next to a magic crystal, even if used in succession.

For safety reasons, they were activated with a buffer distance—anywhere from two hours to a full day of travel on foot.

"Then how are you......."

The more confusion filled Ornel’s eyes, the more easily Enzo spoke:

"What does it matter how we conduct the sieges? What matters is that we are doing them. Because of that, the number of magic crystals threatening the empire’s civilians decreases every day."

He smiled amiably and tossed a bag of gold into the cart.

Then he patted Raul on the shoulder:

"Let’s go, brother."

They stood, bowed to Ornel and Remy, and headed toward the exit.

"See you tomorrow."

The door closed with a dull thud.

Ornel let out a long "ha!" and collapsed into his chair.

"The King of the Dead...... has he gone mad or what?"

Magic crystals were scattered across the entire continent.

Normally, the journey there took weeks—and weeks to return.

And that was not all.

Even Holy Knights and mercenaries were human, and after heavy battles with monsters, they usually took several days of rest.

‘And these people do not even rest and just keep besieging? And how are they crossing such distances this fast.......’

Over the past week, Ornel had met nearly all members of Agavert, except the King of the Dead.

On the third day, even a housemaid from their residence—a middle aged woman—had come.

"Oh my, our people are very busy right now, so I came in their place."

Not even a mercenary, she had come to collect the reward, leading a small boy with her.

Ornel had even worried they might get robbed on the way back.

"Director, here."

At that moment, Remy brought documents about Agavert.

They stated that after registering today’s cores, there had been another change in rankings.

"9th place?"

In just one week, they had overtaken three top ranked squads.

Ornel stamped the papers and muttered as if in a trance:

"This is madness. Yes, pure madness......."

In his mind, the King of the Dead appeared—the one who had carried in a massive amount of cores and stood there smiling carelessly, as if it were a child’s game.

Since that first meeting.

To Ornel, the King of the Dead had become the embodiment of terror.

"A monster worse than Tesetan. It gives me chills."

"And I get chills from this workload."

He was so lost in thoughts about the King of the Dead that he did not even hear what Remy said.

Meanwhile, Remy took the signed documents and walked to the center of the office.

To a wall completely covered by a wooden board.

Information about active mercenary squads was pinned there.

Remy attached Agavert’s documents on the right side, but suddenly noticed something and paused.

In the center of the board, over Tregava’s documents, a new short update had been added.

[Tregava — current status report.

Siege activity on the northern continent remains high.

Thanks to this, substantial income from the Duchy of Escaro has been secured, and His Majesty [N O V E L I G H T] the Emperor views this positively.

P.S.: There was a conflict between several Tregava members and the Church. Everything is currently resolved.......]

Remy stepped back from the board with a tired expression.

"......Not just Agavert. All mercenaries... are simply insane."

Meanwhile.

Tie sat on a chair in the dining hall, waiting for Raul and Enzo.

Swinging her legs, she heard Bale, sitting beside her, ask:

"Kid. Going out again today?"

Tie shook her head.

"Nope! Today is a day off!"

Bale immediately looked surprised.

"You were whining every day about going on sieges. What happened all of a sudden?"

Instead of answering, Tie nodded to the side.

On the table in front of Pupu lay Marbas, whose wooden body had completely dried out over the past days.

[Kh... I cannot anymore......! Today I need to recover my strength!]

Tie shrugged.

"Marrr says enhancing two circles every day is too hard. So Tie told him to rest today and tomorrow. Because Tie is a kind boss!"

A satisfied expression appeared on Bale’s face.

"That is right. Sometimes you need to rest."

For an entire week, the squad had not missed a single siege.

They took small crystals without Tie, and even medium ones posed no real problem.

Now Agavert had enough money to acquire proper equipment.

And that significantly boosted their combat strength.

"Kkamani, you really carried us."

But even better than any equipment was Lucarion’s barrier.

And Pupu’s mist, which obscured the monsters’ vision, also helped greatly.

"Since we started eating properly, moving became much easier. Nutrition really matters."

As Bale said that, Basto smirked.

Ding!

The bell at the entrance rang.

Tie jumped off her chair.

"Raul and Enzo are here!"

Together with the others, she ran to the door.

And flung it open.

"Raul, Enzo......! Huh?"

But the ones standing outside were not the Weivril brothers.

"Excuse us! Because the sea route was blocked, we were delayed......! We came to take our Selina back!"

On the doorstep stood the neighbors across the way.

The Belmor couple—with faces on the verge of tears.