Chapter 11

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: The Skinny Little Kid is Looking for Dad Chapter 10

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Veil blinked, his face a picture of utter bewilderment.

"That's right, mister! Big Brother Veil is forming a mercenary group~"

The kid's head bobbed up and down right in front of his nose.

"The mercenary exam is just smashing a small magic stone! But it's scary to do it alone, so I need two more people~"

The big burly guy who had just come home looked just as flustered.

The man called Basto had been grabbed by the kid the moment he walked in.

And now he was enduring an endless stream of chatter.

"You're the hammer mister, so you must be super strong!"

Basto glanced at Veil.

Veil met his gaze head-on, brows furrowed.

"Tiye has a legendary puppetmon too, so she's strong! If the two of us join Big Brother Veil's mercenary group, we can smash the small magic stone and get our ID numbers back!"

She spoke so fast that when she finished, the kid was panting for breath.

Basto, who had been staring blankly at her, finally spoke up.

"...So."

He eyed Veil carefully as he pieced together the kid's words.

"This guy named Veil is forming a mercenary group and needs two more people besides himself, right?"

"Yep!"

"And you want me and you to be those two."

"Yep!"

Silence fell over the first floor of the inn.

Unable to take it anymore, Veil shot to his feet.

"Hey, kid. Who said you could join?"

Tiye whipped around toward him in surprise.

"You think a small magic stone is a joke? If I did, I'd have done it myself."

A small magic stone was still a magic stone.

It created rifts and summoned pesky monsters.

Sure, it was easier than large or medium ones, but that didn't make it harmless.

"When I said I need two more people, I meant skilled fighters. Not some hammer guy or... what was it, puppet? Puppemon? What the hell are we supposed to do with that...?"

He swallowed the rest: Like a scruffy brute and a snot-nosed kid are gonna be any help.

The kid might be a pushover, but that hulking muscle pig was genuinely intimidating.

But the response that followed was unexpected.

"I can handle a small magic stone by myself."

Basto scooped Tiye up from the doorway and strode inside.

He draped his outer coat over a chair and plopped down across from Veil.

"Is it true? You're forming a mercenary group."

Veil could feel the kid's sparkling eyes on him from Basto's lap.

Caught off guard but playing it cool, Veil cleared his throat with a gruff ahem.

"Yeah."

"And you're recruiting companions for the mercenary exam?"

"Yeah, yeah!"

Today's mercenary exam involved sieging a small magic stone.

Collect all the monster cores and bring them to the mercenary registry, and you'd get your ID number. With that, you could officially work as a mercenary.

Then you could enter the capital freely and claim rewards for every magic stone you sieged.

If luck was on your side and your group hit the rankings, you'd be rolling in money before long.

Which made this a big deal for Veil.

"Let me say it again: I want skilled people. You just said you can siege one alone. That true?"

Basto nodded heavily.

"Yeah. Did one six days ago. Briowood's small magic stone."

Veil's brows knit together.

He suddenly remembered the commotion near the gate a few days back.

'Look here, everyone! Karl Warben of the Death Hounds is back with a gift for His Imperial Majesty!'

The guy with his long hair tied back messily looked shady as hell at first glance.

'What are you all doing? It's the rank 12 guy! The Immortal Death Hound is back!'

He seemed chummy with the Holy Knights guarding the gate and spent ages boozing it up at the checkpoint.

And he went on and on about how he'd sieged Briowood's small magic stone.

'Some flying monsters popped up out of nowhere and threw me for a loop, but who do you think I am? Took 'em down solo, without my crew...'

As far as Veil knew, that was the only small magic stone in Briowood.

Veil's eyes narrowed.

"If you're lying to me..."

"It's not a lie, you idiot!"

At that moment, the kid sprang up on Basto's lap.

She glared at Veil, brows furrowed as tight as they could go, and started chewing him out.

"Hammer mister did it first! That bad Karl stole the credit with lies! Karl even got hammer mister's ID number wiped! How can you not know?!"

Her relentless barrage made Veil's eyebrow twitch.

He had his suspicions, but the kid's story held water.

It happens all the time among mercenaries. Stealing credit leads to murders sometimes.

Veil had been hanging around the gate for ages, looking for groupmates to form a mercenary corps.

Two months already?

He'd wanted to find partners quick and take the exam, but things hadn't lined up.

Mess up, and you could die.

Pick the wrong teammates, slip up during the exam even once.

No second chances—your life was gone.

Then his little siblings back home, waiting anxiously for news...

Veil ruffled his hair roughly.

It tangled up, but his head was even more of a mess.

This muscle pig got his credit stolen by some other bastard, looks like.

He'd even seen this guy and the kid get denied entry at the gate yesterday.

The Death Hounds probably wiped his ID to avoid backlash.

Once the picture cleared up, deciding was easy.

Veil let out a breath and looked at Basto.

"You sure you can pull more than 1.5 shares? That's the minimum."

He meant ignoring the kid entirely, but she didn't seem to get it.

Basto nodded.

"Obviously. Just don't get in the way."

And so, the next day.

"Chew chew, no picky eating~"

Tiye was humming the picky-eater song she rarely sang.

Hammer mister on her right.

Pretty big brother on her left.

Heading off to become mercenaries, holding their hands—it was thrilling.

Team!

It'd been less than a week in this world, and she already had a team.

Blackie would definitely praise her when he woke up.

Blackie's a legendary puppetmon, so he must be super strong even without magic, right?

He could transform at will, after all.

And Tiye was confident she could help the team too.

I was the fastest in Quail Class!

Hide-and-seek, tag, cops and robbers!

When Tiye was it, the whole Quail Class was doomed.

"Big bro, don't worry so much!"

She just touched his hand because he looked tense, but Veil recoiled with a grimace.

Tiye shrugged and turned to Basto this time.

"Mister! Don't worry. Tiye's super strong."

But for some reason, Basto stopped in his tracks.

And then he crouched down to meet the baffled Tiye's eyes.

"Astie. You're not coming."

"Huh?"

"I hired someone. You'll wait for us at an outpost not far from the magic stone."

The words hit like thunder from a clear sky, her big eyes shaking.

"Why? But why...?"

"Fighting monsters isn't kid's play, Astie."

Her head spun, but Basto asked in a low voice.

"What's the scariest thing to you?"

Tiye clamped her mouth shut, then rolled her eyes.

"T-Rex...?"

"No idea what that is, but imagine monsters are ten times scarier than that."

The stick in Tiye's hand dropped with a thud.