Chapter 20

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: The Power-Hidden Child Searches for Daddy 118

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“Uncle Basto. Do you know who pooped bird crap on my head?”

The Reward Office, magic stone byproduct counter.

Tiye whispered right in Basto's ear as she sat on the waiting bench.

“It was just like that Holy Knight uncle from earlier, saying ‘who pooped bird crap on my head,’ right?”

“What's that?”

“It's a fairy tale about a mole who goes on an adventure to find out who pooped on his head.”

“I see. So who was the culprit?”

“Actually...”

For some reason, Tiye shut her mouth.

Tiye glanced around before asking.

“Uncle, can you handle spoilers?”

“Spoilers?”

“Telling who pooped is a spoiler.”

“Is that bad?”

“Whatever?”

“Then it's fine. I don't need to hear it.”

Tiye nodded like she'd expected as much.

“Yeah.”

The child stared straight ahead obediently once more.

Inside the Reward Office.

They were the only ones waiting to settle their monster cores right now.

'Not many customers, but we still have to wait forever...?'

“No mix coffee or Bacchus, either.”

Tiye smacked her lips to herself.

Places like this were supposed to have vending machines with free sweet milky mix coffee.

That was when Tiye, bored out of her mind, started swinging her legs that didn't quite reach the floor.

“...Agaveert?”

The door inside the counter swung open, and a man she'd never seen before came rushing out.

“Us.”

Basto raised his hand, and the man hurried around the counter to stand before them.

He looked at Tiye and said.

“Then you must be the Division Commander?”

Tiye shot a glance at Basto, then lifted her chin a little.

“Nope.”

The man's eyes went wide in an instant.

He turned his gaze to the mountain of core bags piled up next to the waiting bench...

“F-First, come on inside!”

He guided Basto and Tiye into the room behind the counter.

'It's like a bank!'

Tiye looked around the office interior with a face full of curiosity.

Whenever she went to the bank with Grandma, she'd sometimes see people getting led inside like this.

But now it was her getting the special treatment...!

“Eek.”

Tiye, who'd been grinning, quickly stifled her breath.

No wonder—right before her eyes, the office staff were counting each and every monster core the Agaveert Mercenary Corps had brought, one by one.

“So all these are byproducts from Pearl City's sea magic stones?”

“That's right.”

“Looks like there were quite a few monster types we'd never seen before, huh?”

The man who'd introduced himself as the Central Branch Chief, Ornel, got a nod from the hollow-eyed woman standing beside him.

“Yes. Some of them aren't even registering on the scanner...”

She'd been scanning the cores with the odd-looking magic tool in her hand, beeping away.

“Monsters from a sea magic stone, so that figures. Bring over another bag separately.”

The staff member stepped out.

Tiye wore a proud expression as she mimicked Basto's way of speaking.

“There was a special big octopus one there, too.”

“Octopus?”

“Yeah. Legs this long, covered in a ton of suckers—a huge one!”

She was thinking of the monster that had sliced Karl Warben's ship clean in two back in Pearl City.

But tension immediately filled Ornel's face.

“H-How exactly did you deal with it?”

Tiye tilted her head.

How?

“Hmm, had my subordinates take care of it?”

But it was the truth. All Tiye had done was command the spirits that had awakened from the abyss.

She'd asked them to help save the governor's sons and the knights.

After that, Grimnir—the spirits' mid-level boss—had handled everything himself.

'I wonder how Grimnir's doing?'

Come to think of it, she hadn't seen him once since leaving Pearl City.

Did she need to head somewhere with the sea to meet him again?

As she pondered...

“F-First off. Excluding the ones that didn't register on the scanner, and factoring in everything up to that recent no-weapons zone incident, the reward comes out to roughly...”

Ornel scribbled something on a sheet of paper.

Before long, he slid a document over to Basto and Tiye.

Tiye slowly read the number at the top. How many zeros was that?

One, two, three...

“9,000 gold?”

Ornel awkwardly nodded toward the door where Remi had gone.

“For starters. We could get a bit more once we tally up all the unregistered sea monsters. Another 6,000 gold or so...?”

Tiye shut her mouth.

So that meant a grand total of 15,000 gold?

But one gold was 10,000 won in Korean money?

Units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands...

Ornel fidgeted anxiously as he watched Tiye's dazed face amid her calculations.

“I-It won't take that long. We just need to register the new sea monsters in the system! A week at the latest?”

“...”

“G-Geez! Fine, I'll push it through as fast as I can. We'll pay out the settled 9,000 gold today, of course...”

But nothing was getting through to Tiye's ears at that moment.

'9,000 gold today? That's 90 million won?'

And then another 60 million won in a week.

She recalled the old chicken truck that used to park in front of the house sometimes.

Buying two chickens there with Dad had cost 10,000 won.

But 9,000 times that.

And then 6,000 more after...

Tiye stared blankly at the desk, lost in a daze.

Suddenly, she remembered what Grandpa Nordics had said.

Something about her awakening tremendous magic power and all that.

Honestly, Tiye hadn't thought much of it up until now.

She had zero awareness of having done anything special herself.

For good reason—summoning skeletons and commanding spirits had just been like...

'No different from asking my friends to play together.'

Even manifesting Stasia back in Caldenbine Ridge had been the same.

Stasia had kept giving her those wistful looks.

Like she wanted to talk to Adelin.

So Tiye had just flung wide open the outlet for the magic power gushing out from inside her body.

'Like pouring a cup from the water purifier...'

The magic power emanating from her body varied in amount depending on how she controlled it.

A little at a time, like popping the lid on a yogurt.

Or gushing out if she squeezed hard, like at the kindergarten water cooler.

And because of all that, right now—Tiye—

“Here's the first 9,000 gold.”

Several bags stuffed full of gold coins were placed right in front of her.

'I earned this?'

Tiye stared blankly at the bags.

“We'll send someone over with the 6,000 gold as soon as it's ready. You set up a base at the Rosewbell estate, right?”

Basto nodded.

“That's right.”

“Then that makes two mercenary bases in Rosewbell already.”

Basto's brow furrowed.

“Two? Who else besides us?”

Ornel stared at him like he couldn't believe he didn't know.

“Treva. They plunked down a base right in that street full of nobles' townhouses, caused a huge uproar for a while... Hold on. You said Rosewbell 89 earlier?”

Tiye looked at Basto in bewilderment.

Meanwhile, Ornel added.

“Yeah, 89! Then you're sharing a building with Treva next door! See, Treva's base address is listed here as Rosewbell 90.”

Before long, Basto and Tiye's faces both went blank.

“90 million w... Treva...”

Out of the Reward Office, Tiye muttered to herself while perched on the cart Basto was pushing.

She'd completely forgotten what Ornel had said right before they left—something about the Agaveert Mercenary Corps climbing the ranks again.

'Tiye earned 90 million won.'

And she'd rake in another 60 million in a week!

Of course, Tiye and Agaveert were already loaded thanks to all the jewels the bone friends had brought.

But getting paid something like an official salary felt downright weird.

And the second issue was...

'Our neighbor is the top mercenary group that Tiye based our name on...'

She recalled the window of the neighboring building that had rattled so much.

It was empty now, but what if those Treva people came back?

'How dare you reverse our No. 1 mercenary group's name to make yours? Pay up name rent.'

For some reason, she pictured their unknown leader looking downright villainous.

As Tiye sighed an unwitting ehwoo with a sullen face...

“A warrior casualty in the northwest border region?”

A pretty serious-sounding voice carried from way up ahead.

She looked up to see two men standing in front of an enormous mansion at the end of the street.

At the same moment, the cart let out a clunk and came to a stop.