Chapter 43
A Shy, Breathless Child Seeks Their Father
“Are you sure they said that? That they’re a spirit… and Seradin?”
Tie nodded.
Veil and Basto continued their conversation with serious expressions.
“That’s really something. I thought the church made up that fake deity to manipulate the villagers.”
“I thought the same. And a spirit… I’ve never even heard of such a being before.”
Meanwhile, Nordix had been silent for some reason since a little while ago.
Veil, still pondering, turned to Tie.
“Are you sure? That Seradin, they said you pulled them out when they became a Magic Stone?”
“Yes!”
“And then gave you the relic, saying they’d make a gift with their essence?”
“Yes! The Sanctity of Oblivion!”
Veil glanced at Basto.
The two of them spoke at the same time.
“…Wow, the kid can even see spirits.”
“Tie seems able to communicate with them as well.”
After a brief pause, they spoke in unison again.
“Isn’t that a pretty useful ability?”
“Definitely a power that will come in handy someday.”
Tie watched the two speak as if they were perfectly in sync, mouth agape.
Then Veil turned toward Nordix.
“The real question is what we’re going to do with that relic from now on…”
He continued.
“Inspiration, what do you think?”
According to Tie, there seemed to be more than one spirit.
Moreover, they seemed somehow connected to Magic Stones.
The problem was that all of this was completely unknown until now.
“Is there any mercenary group currently possessing a relic?”
Nordix shook his head at Veil’s question.
“…I don’t think so. Whenever a mercenary group gets a relic, the church usually intervenes and retrieves it.”
Historically, there had been only one mercenary group to actually obtain a relic during a Magic Stone siege: the currently top-ranked Trebaga.
But Trebaga had soon voluntarily returned the relic to the church.
Yet everyone knew it wasn’t truly voluntary.
“Even when the Holy Knights found a relic, the church always took it?”
Nordix nodded.
Veil seemed to think for a moment before continuing.
“If they had taken the relic from Trebaga by force, the church would have been quite aggressive.”
His gaze shifted to the Sanctity of Oblivion that Tie was wearing.
“Now there’s a strong chance they’ll target the kid’s bracelet too.”
Tie instinctively hid their wrist behind their back.
No matter who the church was, Tie didn’t want to hand over the precious bracelet received from Seradin.
Moreover, Tie needed this bracelet.
“I need this to erase the memory of the son of the regent…”
To erase the memories of Raul and Enzo, who had discovered Tie’s true identity.
“Veil-oppa, when are we going to see the regent’s son?”
The thought made Tie anxious again.
They worried that Raul and Enzo might have left the first floor of the Dominion Bureau and gone elsewhere.
At that moment, Veil approached.
“Kid, I’ve been thinking.”
He looked Tie in the eyes and asked,
“How about using that relic to expand the size of the mercenary group?”
Tie tilted their head.
“Expand the mercenary group?”
“Yeah. Think about it. First, we take in Raul and Enzo as members. They came to find us while you were asleep. They wanted to join Agabert.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. So we let them in, and whether they know your identity or not, we leave it be for now.”
“For now…?”
“If they seem likely to leave later, that’s when we erase their memories of you.”
Tie’s mouth opened slightly.
“That way, we can grow the mercenary group, and there’s no need to worry about your identity leaking. Isn’t that great?”
Tie nodded.
But then they asked skeptically,
“What if the regent’s sons don’t leave but secretly run away?”
Couldn’t they escape secretly to spread Tie’s identity?
For some reason, Veil chuckled.
“Kid, I admit that so far, we haven’t done much because of your subordinates or little friends.”
“….”
“But you don’t think we’d fail to notice anyone trying to escape, do you?”
Tie’s mouth fell open.
“If anyone tries to run, we’ll catch them all and bring them right in front of you. Don’t worry about that.”
Tie nodded, relieved, then shouted cheerfully.
“Okay!”
“So….”
Raul and Enzo’s eyes widened in disbelief.
“Astier awakened magic at such a young age and became a dark-element mage…”
“And with a complicated family background, there could have been people who wanted to harm the young lord if unnecessary attention fell on him.”
“Are you saying you disguised yourself as a crazy kid pretending to be four years old?”
Veil nodded.
“Yes. Exactly that.”
Raul and Enzo naturally turned their gaze to Tie.
Sitting opposite them, the child hugged their bag tightly with a shy expression.
“Is that why… our kid suddenly seems so approachable?”
When Veil growled, Raul and Enzo immediately waved their hands in apology.
“Ah, no, it’s not that.”
“Of course not.”
Yet both of them couldn’t stop looking at Tie again.
In fact, they were thinking the same thing:
“I can’t believe it. He really is four years old.”
A small child, cheeks slightly flushed, fidgeting anxiously.
Knowing the truth, the Astier in front of them was really…
“So cute.”
“Really, really cute.”
Fortunately, Raul was the first to regain his composure.
He averted his gaze and cleared his throat.
“I understand what you mean.”
Then he looked at Enzo.
“You understand too, right, Enzo?”
Enzo quickly nodded.
“Of course. We’ll do our best to ensure the lord’s identity doesn’t leak.”
“Words alone aren’t enough to trust.”
Veil stepped forward.
He stood in front of Tie, leaving the twins behind.
“Kid, go ahead.”
Tie hesitated, then got up from the seat.
They nervously stepped down from the sofa and, in front of everyone, approached Raul and Enzo.
“Uh… give me your hands.”
The twins stared at Astier, bewildered.
Then they slowly extended their hands.
Tie first extended the hand wearing the Sanctity of Oblivion toward Raul.
If you touch someone with a hand wearing the Sanctity, you can erase the memories of your choice from that person.
Testing the relic on the twins was Veil’s idea.
Tie was a little worried, but Veil was calm.
“Kid, don’t you get it? We’re in charge here. If you want to join Agabert, you have to endure this much.”
“…Veil-oppa, you sound like a really bad person right now.”
“Bad? What’s bad about it? I’m not asking you to erase some terrible memory. And it’s easier if the person doesn’t know what’s happening.”
Tie agreed with that.
The twins didn’t know about the relic or its effects.
So they wouldn’t notice what Tie was about to do.
Even just seeing their hands extended obediently was proof.
Tie took a deep breath before holding Raul’s hand.
To erase the guilt-inducing memory from the son of the regent.
“I’m really sorry, son of the regent!”
Tie intended to erase Raul’s memory of candy as a test.
Luckily, Raul had candy in his pocket, making it easy to check if the memory was erased.
Of course, thinking about him no longer remembering the sweetness of candy felt wrong, but…
“To know the relic’s effect… there’s no choice!”
Tie squeezed their eyes shut and held Raul’s hand.
Then, the memories started to appear before their eyes.
“W-woah.”
Countless rings and threads of light floated in the air.
Tie instinctively knew:
All of that was Raul’s memory.
Soon, one memory ring shone directly in front of them.
This is it.
The memory of candy in Raul’s mind was definitely this one.
The moment Tie was certain, the memory ring approached their eyes as if it had been waiting.
