THTE 52

Chapter 52

Armi Phera spread out a mat on the floor, even though there was a perfectly fine sofa and table.

The children all gathered close around her.

Of course, soft cushions had been prepared beneath their bottoms.

Detter, who had been watching just in case, had hurriedly brought them.

But Nibellia sat boldly right between the Mercenary King’s legs.

“Look at her, huh?”

Using the great Mercenary King as a chair?

Armi Phera let out a helpless laugh at her niece’s unabashed behavior.

Still, since the sight was so cute and funny, she let her be.

She rather liked the warm, squishy little body heat nestled against her.

‘Who does she take after, I wonder?’

Her brother and Sister Seli weren’t like this when they were little.

“…Could it be me?”

“Hm?”

“No, nothing. I just mean you’re really cute, Nini.”

“Nini knows that already.”

“Ahaha!”

Armi Phera burst into laughter that was just like Muniel’s.

Then she began showing them her belongings.

“These are all things made in Latro.”

Latro.

A barren rocky land, known as the only stronghold of the free and ruthless mercenaries.

At the far western edge lies a sheer cliff, dizzyingly high. If you climb it for two days straight and cross over, a massive basin formed by folds of rock reveals itself.

That is Latro—the mercenaries’ main stronghold.

“The cliff face makes round lines like waves crashing. When I look at it, I realize how small a world I’ve been living in.”

Armi Phera took the small, round object Nibellia was holding. With a click, she pressed something with her thumb.

A blue flame sprang forth.

“Wow!”

“It’s fire!”

“Hot!”

Soles, Areph, and Nibellia exclaimed one after another.

“Neat, right? This is a semi-automatic flint made by Latro’s craftsmen. With this, you don’t need matches.”

It did have the drawback of needing oil inside, but the great advantage was that even if it got wet, it could be dried and used again.

“Actually, my mother developed this forty years ago.”

“Grandma did?”

Nibellia, who had been staring blankly at the blue flame, looked up. She noticed the small scar on Armi Phera’s chin.

“Yes, it’s the flame of the Saint.”

Armi Phera’s golden eyes softened warmly as they reflected the flame.

Soles secretly thought she looked very much like a grandfather gazing at his beloved wife.

“Mercenaries who fought in the war forty years ago still live in Latro. All of them received help from the Saint and the Holy Knight.”

Armi Phera had become Mercenary King purely by her own strength.

But for a young woman, newly crowned, to settle in so quickly—the support of old veterans indebted to her parents’ grace had played a big part.

‘In the end, I was helped by my mother and father too.’

She had flailed, determined to live by her own strength.

But when countless dangers rushed her way, what saved her was the blood and sweat her parents had shed forty years ago.

“You should treat your parents well,” Armi Phera suddenly told the children.

“Don’t cause them trouble like I did.”

“Nini already listens well! Nini is a good child.”

Nibellia even pulled out her little salary account book from her pocket, showing she earned her own money.

“Wow, you’re more grown-up than me!”

“Heehee!”

Armi Phera found her niece, smiling so much like her brother, utterly adorable.

The children looked over her belongings again.

They thought there would be nothing but dangerous items, but in fact there weren’t many.

The really dangerous ones had already been confiscated by Kaleo at the door.

“This is a pouch that every mercenary must have.”

Armi Phera held up a round drawstring pouch, black and worn with age.

She opened the mouth wide so they could see inside.

“There’s nothing in it?”

Nibellia pouted, disappointed there were no candies or coins to snatch up.

“Go ahead, put your hand in.”

She returned the pouch to normal, then held it out to Nibellia with a mischievous grin.

Nibellia bravely reached inside.

Her blue eyes went wide.

“Huh?”

Something was in her palm.

She pulled it out—an old, rough gold coin.

“Huh? How? What?”

Startled, Nibellia glanced between the coin and the empty pouch, then looked at Armi Phera with a face demanding an explanation.

Smiling, Armi Phera revealed the answer.

“This is Latro’s and the mercenaries’ pride—the ‘Subspace Pouch’!”

“Sub…space?”

“What’s that?”

Nibellia and Areph had never heard the word.

“Oh! I know what this is!”

Soles’ eyes sparkled knowingly.

“Subspace means another space, separate from the world we live in.”

“What are you talking about?”

Nibellia tilted her head.

Soles thought for a moment, then tried to explain in simpler words.

“Like, apart from our house, there could be another house somewhere, right?”

“Yeah.”

“But do you know who lives there, or what’s inside?”

“Um… no.”

Nibellia slowly shook her head.

Her imagination ran wild.

She hoped it was a wonderful house, like in a fairy tale, where a kind lady baked delicious bread with a smile.

But somehow, she sensed this wasn’t the time to say that.

And she was right.

“Exactly. No one knows. That’s what subspace is.”

A strange realm—its existence certain, but unobservable.

Some said a mad wizard created it through endless research, others that it was a trace left by a great god cutting through with a finger.

Or perhaps a remnant from beyond, left when monsters went extinct.

“This pouch is connected to subspace.”

The pouch was made of monster hide.

“But why is this the pride of mercenaries?” Areph asked.

“Because only mercenaries use monster hide. Ordinary people find it ominous and won’t touch it. The temple even strictly forbade it.”

But mercenaries were too rough and too poor to care.

They sought materials that were tough enough to protect their bodies, yet light and efficient.

Naturally, their eyes turned to monster hide, despite the temple’s ban.

“Most inventions related to monsters were devised by mercenaries in Latro. The subspace pouch is the best example.”

Mercenaries in Latro had first discovered subspace.

They’d casually sewn a pouch out of monster hide—and objects just kept fitting inside.

So mercenaries monopolized monster hide. It wasn’t hard; few others wanted it anyway.

Thus the subspace pouch became a mercenary symbol.

To the point where carrying one was proof you were truly a mercenary.

“Does Latro make a lot of money with these pouches?”

Nibellia’s eyes shone eagerly.

But she didn’t hear the answer she hoped for.

“Monsters are extinct now, so we can’t sell the pouches anymore.”

“Aww…”

The child’s lips drooped sadly.

“What do you mean, ‘aww’? That’s a good thing.”

Monsters killed all living things and turned fertile lands into wastelands.

Humanity had sacrificed much over long ages to eradicate them.

This hard-won peaceful world…

“It’s better they’re gone.”

Armi Phera’s words were sincere.

In truth, mercenaries would soon decline.

What had drawn wanderers together under the name “mercenary” was the common threat of monsters.

But with monsters gone, that anchor was gone too.

As Mercenary King, Armi Phera could see the decline all the more clearly.

“Still, I’ll do my best.”

Armi Phera kneaded Nibellia’s plump little hand.

“When a woman draws a sword, she ought to slice at least one person’s neck!”

Right?

But the children didn’t reply.

They only stared at her in shock.

Soles and Areph even quietly pulled Nibellia out of her arms and hid her behind them.

“…Ah.”

Armi Phera belatedly realized her blunder and asked Detter,

“You won’t tell Mom, will you?”

“I think I’ll have to.”

“Damn…”

In the end, Armi Phera was severely scolded by Muniel.

“It’s your freedom to do whatever you want. But recklessly speaking like that in front of children is not good.”

Kaleo and Celetina also scolded her.

“Watch your words in front of the kids.”

“Especially in front of Nini—be extra careful, please.”

Since she was at fault, Armi Phera accepted without protest.

‘But Nini already speaks unusually well for her age…’

Would it really help if only she was careful?

Of course, she couldn’t say that aloud. She simply nodded and agreed.

“Oh, right.”

Armi Phera remembered something she’d forgotten.

“The present arrived safely, didn’t it?”

At that, Kaleo’s brow shot up noticeably.

“…What?”

Armi Phera looked at her brother with a face that said, ‘Should I not have asked?’

Kaleo had always been a wonderful older brother to her.

A bit too overprotective, perhaps—if another man showed even slight interest in Armi Phera, he’d return home with blood on his hands.

Still, that was how he was.

Now he stared at his little sister with a look of clear displeasure.

But he didn’t glare outright, because she was still his sister.

“Phera.”

“Yes?”

“You do realize that was a real egg of the evil dragon Ater, don’t you?”

“…Huh?”

On the first day of spring—

Wanting to give her niece something truly special for her fourth birthday, she had sent the prize from the Mercenary King’s tournament: the egg of the evil dragon Ater.

She had hoped the dragon would protect her niece.

Though inwardly, she had laughed it off—‘As if it’s really a dragon’s egg.’

So she had simply given it as a charm for her niece’s safety.

“Wasn’t it just an expensive-looking rock?”

Kaleo buried his face in his hands, stricken with despair.