Basto wearily rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"It’s not that we haven’t thought about it. But..."

"And if it only hurts the kid even more, then what?"

At that moment Bale interjected.

His face was darkly furrowed.

Basto fell silent.

There was nothing wrong in Bale’s words.

To be honest, Basto himself had been thinking much the same all this time.

Everyone has something they would rather others did not ask about.

For Basto, that was his family’s past, which was why he had not questioned Tie about her family.

"We ourselves decided it was probably one of the young lords of Luminen, and that’s why we haven’t touched the matter so far. We should at least check first..."

"But if the child’s Father is not in Luminen, then what?"

This time Bale fell silent.

"Tie is a child. As I already said, we don’t know which part of her words is true and which is not."

"..."

"The fact that Tie is smart is undeniable. But we cannot blindly build our goal only on a child’s indirect words. To find her Father, we first need to clearly understand what exactly happened."

Bale lowered his gaze, unable to find words.

From first to last, Nordix was right.

"Her Father’s name. Where they lived. Even that would be enough to find a lead much more easily."

"...And if the kid doesn’t want to talk?"

"We will not interrogate her. But we should ask. When Tie wakes up."

In the end Bale nodded.

It seemed Basto also agreed with Nordix.

The three of them looked at the closed door for a while, then sat down in a row in front of it.

"By the way... I’m just asking in case."

After some time Bale spoke again.

"If the kid finds her Father — what then?"

Basto and Nordix looked at him silently.

"I mean really. If the kid finds her Father, will Agavert fall apart?"

Some unpleasant feeling was visible on Bale’s face.

As if he did not like the thought of the squad disbanding at all.

After thinking a little, Basto answered.

"The probability is high."

"And what will you do then?"

Basto’s gaze darkened.

He remembered the time when he wandered alone like a madman, earning a living as a traveling mercenary.

Only a few weeks had passed, yet it felt like an eternity.

His memories of the time with Tie turned out to be far stronger than he had expected.

If all this ended...

"...I’ll probably return to being a traveling mercenary."

"And you, Nordix?"

"Hm. I never intended to become a mercenary. It just happened that I went along with you."

Indeed, Nordix had not joined Agavert because he wanted to be a mercenary.

He had simply tried to help find Tie’s Father — and thus ended up in the squad.

In any case, he was now the oldest mercenary in Agavert.

"As long as I’m with you, I’ll stay. But if the squad disbands, I think I’ll return to the gate."

"...I won’t accept that."

Bale muttered.

"Searching for Father and the fact that the kid is the squad leader are two different things. If she took on Agavert, she has to bear responsibility to the end. If the leader runs away, what are the rest supposed to do?"

He stared at the closed door.

"Even if the kid decides to leave, I’ll stop her. I need to continue working as a mercenary. To earn from Magic Stone suppressions, we need her power."

"..."

"And if she says she absolutely refuses to part with her Father — then let her Father join Agavert. We’ll appoint him something like a guardian of the leader."

"It’s not that simple..."

"I don’t know. But I won’t let the kid go just like that. I suffered enough turning her into the King of the Dead."

Several times he had to hold back laughter in front of people.

Bale cleared his throat and added.

"And by the way, it’s ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ not because I like the kid. Even if she’s a little fool, her abilities are excellent. A mage with a dark attribute is rare."

"..."

"If we promote the kid properly, Agavert will grow quickly. We might even aim for first place in the ranking. Then sitting on a sack of money will be only a matter of time."

Basto did not answer, only continued staring at the door.

Nordix sighed.

When even Bale, immersed in his own thoughts, fell silent, the corridor once again became quiet.

The three waited quietly.

Until Tie, who had fallen asleep from tears, woke up.

Meanwhile, Tie wandered in a dream.

Her blurred, trembling vision gradually cleared, and something became visible.

A dark space.

Thick smoke swirled everywhere.

Through it one could see the chin and lips of a woman with a deathly pale face.

The woman was holding Tie tightly against herself.

"Livia! Protect Tie!"

Someone shouted to the woman in the distance.

A familiar voice.

Father’s voice.

Tie reflexively tried to turn in that direction, but she could not move.

Her entire body was tightly wrapped in soft fabric.

"Uu... baa..."

She opened her mouth, but a completely different sound than she expected came out of her throat.

"Ba... uu..."

She immediately understood that it was a baby’s cry.

"Tie became a baby?"

She had heard babies cry more than once when she secretly peeked into the room where the Tadpole Class babies were.

Tie desperately rolled her large eyes, trying to understand what was happening.

"Ah! Alleric! No—!"

At that moment the woman holding Tie screamed almost in despair.

Adjusting Tie in her arms, she unintentionally changed the angle of vision slightly.

A horrifying sight appeared before her eyes.

Magical Beast corpses lay everywhere.

And not only them... there were fallen people as well.

"Livia! Don’t come closer, run with milady!"

In the distance a man was fighting a huge magical creature and shouting.

In both hands he held large orbs and furiously released blue beams of light at the creature.

"But you—!"

"Do you want milady to get hurt?!"

The woman hesitated.

But still she turned and ran in the opposite direction.

Something hot drip, drip fell onto Tie’s cheek.

The woman named Livia ran, pressing Tie to her chest, and cried.

"Huu... milady. Don’t worry. Don’t worry at all..."

She held the sobbing Tie tighter.

How much time passed — unknown.

"Ah—"

The running woman suddenly collapsed to the ground.

When Tie looked at her face, it was gradually turning purple.

"Damn... poison..."

Trembling, the woman sat Tie on her lap and took a small vial of medicine from inside her clothes.

She tried to drink it,

"Ha... ah."

but, growing weak, dropped the vial onto the ground.

The woman desperately felt along the floor, flooded with Magical Beast blood and dirt.

Then she slowly fell forward.

"Milady... sniff... you mustn’t..."

Several damp red strands stuck to Tie’s face.

"Uu... baaa...!"

Tie moved and with difficulty pulled one hand out from the fabric.

She touched the woman’s cheek — and flinched.

The cheek was icy.

"The Rift... must get out... get out..."

The woman’s voice was growing weaker.

Tie helplessly watched as life faded from the brown pupils.

"Livia!"

Someone caught the collapsing woman by the shoulders.

Tie’s eyes widened as she saw the face that filled her entire field of vision.

"When did you get poisoned?!"

The person quickly lifted Tie from Livia’s lap into his arms.

It was Father.