"Pull yourself together, seriously, seriously!"

No matter how hard she repeated it in her head, Tie’s heart kept pounding, thud-thud.

Cold sweat had already been seeping from the palms she had clasped behind her back for a while now.

But—

"Hey, shorty. Can you really pull this off properly?"

The moment she remembered Bale teasing her the entire way here, her resolve flared up again.

Tie sternly tightened her face, straightened her chest, and signaled to her bony friend behind her.

"Bone friend three! Make it scarier, scarier!"

And immediately from behind came: thud-du-duk—

When she glanced back, Tie went pale.

"He turned his head all the way around and pulled a sword out of Bale oppa’s scabbard..."

That was too scary. Way too scary.

But since they had already started, what could she do.

Steeling herself, Tie fixed the holy knight in front of her with the most arrogant expression she could manage.

"Knight."

She said just that one word—and saw the knight flinch.

"Looks like ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ I really am scary."

In truth, Tie had a slightly bad impression of the holy knights from the registration office.

On the first day, they had rudely driven Tie and Basto away.

The holy knights had not been polite at all and had even cursed and mocked kind Uncle Basto behind his back.

"Wait. Then does that mean Tie is getting revenge for that day right now?.."

Her heart began pounding even harder.

For a moment, she felt as if she had truly become someone incredible—her shoulders even lifted on their own.

But maybe that was just from being too nervous—

"Are you really interested in my na—name?"

On the important word, her tongue twisted!

From behind, she heard Bale let out a muffled snort, holding back laughter.

Tie clenched her teeth to focus.

"Seriously! Seriously!"

If she broke now—it was over.

Tie had to prove her presence here.

"Secret hidden Tie! The strongest Tie! Tie as strong as the legendary Puppetmon! Royal Tanifang Tie! And if I undo my transformation, I’m as muscular and hairy as Uncle Basto!"

Repeating that, she calmed down a little.

Tie made her gaze dark and ominous.

It was the look Father wore when drunkards sometimes wandered into the alley in front of their house.

"You can’t handle my real name."

After delivering the line, Tie saw the knight falter.

His eyes darted anxiously between Tie’s face, her clothes, and bone friend three behind her.

Looking at him, Tie added the final line.

"My second name is King of the Dead. Is that enough?"

Inside the registration office.

A tent that could only be reached after passing several posts manned by holy knights.

"...I, I became the strongest."

Tie muttered it as if her soul had slipped out.

Bale, who had been checking what was happening outside the tent, pressed his index finger to his lips.

"Shorty, I told you—don’t relax. Mercenary registration isn’t over yet."

Tie snapped back to her senses.

Bale was right.

They had shown the Magic Stone, demonstrated the skeleton, and passed the first threshold.

But now the four of them were inside the tent to register the mercenaries’ information.

"You did well, Tie."

At that moment, Basto nodded toward the sheet of paper in Tie’s hands.

Tie looked down at it and swallowed.

[Basto Paerix, Bale Theodore, Nordix Omen ... King of the Dead]

"The fact that they didn’t press you about your real name means they don’t see you as easy prey. Just keep going like this."

Tie nodded vigorously.

It was true—right after she summoned bone friend three, things had become very noisy before the registration.

Everyone looked at Tie as she passed as if she were terrifyingly frightening, and whenever their eyes met, they hurriedly looked away.

Of course, there were also a few who looked at Tie the way they would at an idol on television.

In her confusion, Tie thought,

"M-mm, looks like I did the right thing summoning bone friend three."

Originally, Tie had planned to summon bone friend one.

But he said he was tired because Tie carried his head too often.

And he suggested bone friend three—the reason was simple.

"Bone friend three looks scarier, so you’ll look more like a real ‘King of the Dead.’"

When she actually summoned him, bone friend three had been far more ghastly than bone friend one.

One eye had a hollow from an arrow wound, and several ribs were missing.

Because of the rusted and broken armor, even after bone friend three returned underground, people couldn’t take their frightened eyes off the spot where he had stood.

"Tie."

At the call, Tie jerked her head up. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Nordix was sitting beside her, studying her face closely.

"When the holy knight comes, he’ll ask simple information about the mercenary squad. Have you come up with a name?"

Tie’s eyes widened.

A squad name.

She had been so worried about acting well that she had completely forgotten about that.

"U-uh, the name, I mean..."

Just as she rolled her eyes around in confusion—

"Hey, King of the Dead."

The holy knight they had seen at registration pulled open the tent flap and stepped inside.

Tie copied Father’s expression again and crossed one leg over the other.

The holy knight sat down across from her with a tense look.

"H-here, your identification number is ready. In the special notes... I wrote ‘dark attribute mage.’"

Dark attribute mage.

At words that sounded unbelievably powerful, her saliva went down on its own.

According to Grandpa Nordix, Tie was currently the only "dark attribute mage" on the continent.

The holy knight, carefully writing letter by letter on the form, looked at Tie again.

"However... m-may I ask one more question?"

Tie’s heart dropped.

But then she remembered Uncle Basto’s words.

"If they try to pry anything else about you, you don’t have to answer. It’s not an obligation."

"Not an obligation?.."

"Yes. Essentially, the Empire receives help from mercenaries for the suppression of Magic Stones. You could say the Empire’s very existence depends on mercenaries’ hands."

In other words, if there was a ‘who stands above’ between mercenaries and the Empire, it was closer to the mercenaries.

"Of course, the Empire wants to collect as much personal information about mercenaries as possible. But whether to give it or not is up to the mercenaries themselves, so what you don’t need to say, you don’t have to say."

"Wow..."

"On the continent, there are actually many mercenaries who work while hiding their identities."

Tie deliberately narrowed her eyes.

"Knight."

She merely called him—and the holy knight flinched again.

Clear as day, he was surely remembering the crunching sound of bone friend three twisting his skull.

"I already said my second name is King of the Dead."

"Y-yes, I know, but perhaps..."

"Why do you think I look like this?"

The holy knight fell silent.

His gaze slid anxiously over Tie’s face.

Soon, he lowered his head.

"I-it seems I made a mistake. Please understand and forgive me. Then let’s move on to the next item."

Tie watched with satisfaction as the holy knight asked Bale and Nordix questions.

Basto’s voice echoed in her head again.

"They’re already convinced you’re unbelievably strong. In reality, your abilities truly are rare and unusual. If our assumptions are correct, they’ll do everything they can not to offend you."

According to Basto, holy knights tried not to anger mercenaries with outstanding abilities.

That made it easier to ask for support if problems arose within the system.

"That’s right. Better be nice to Tie!"

She was inwardly giggling when—

"Ah, and one more thing. Unfortunately, by order from above, we cannot issue an identification number to Basto Paerix."

The holy knight’s sudden words echoed through the tent.

As everyone froze, the knight looked at Basto and continued:

"A statement has been submitted by Karl Worven, leader of the mercenary squad Des Hound. He claims that Basto Paerix committed illegal acts and, after stealing money and valuables from within the squad, fled."