The Empire of Talochium.
At the entrance of a small mana-stone rift towering over the land—
“Huff… huff…”
Rio, a mercenary from the tiny island of Modeut, wiped the back of his neck with trembling hands.
“Damn it… damn it…”
Bright red blood smeared across his palm.
“Kerrrgh—”
Right in front of him, a dragon-type monster called a Rikelops tilted its head while staring at him.
His comrades sprawled across the ground were already dead.
Out of the forty mercenaries in the group, everyone except Rio had been annihilated by three Rikelops.
“Krrk—”
With weakened hands, Rio desperately gripped his broken sword.
Suddenly, the image of his mother on the day he left home flashed through his mind.
If he had known things would end like this, he would’ve at least given her a proper hug before leaving.
Before long, the Rikelops bared their teeth.
It was the signal that they were about to attack.
Rio swallowed hard and closed his eyes.
He was ready to give up everything.
But then—
[Get a hold of yourself. If you want to live.]
A strange voice echoed through the air.
When he looked up, he saw something black floating in midair with the moonlight behind it.
“Oh dear, excuse us.”
Then several people—who seemed to appear from nowhere—pushed Rio aside and stepped forward.
Rio froze as he stared at their fluttering cloaks.
“Agabert…?”
Agabert.
The newly formed mercenary group that had appeared like a comet one day and rapidly made a name for itself across the continent.
A group that traveled the world making history wherever they went—
yet strangely embroidered a bizarre pink dwarf onto their uniforms, leaving everyone baffled.
“Young man, are you alright?”
Rio blankly stared at the old man approaching him.
The elderly man, dressed in Agabert’s uniform, clicked his tongue and began inspecting the wound on Rio’s neck.
Meanwhile, an argument broke out at the front.
“Veil. Move aside. This time it’s my turn to show Tia.”
“What are you talking about?! I’ve already seen you strut around with that hammer over a hundred times. You’re in the way. This time I’m finally showing my real skills.”
“...Honestly, you still suck.”
“That’s just your opinion, you muscle-brained pig!”
“Haah, please stop fighting! If the captain sees this, we’re doomed!”
Even as the old man poured disinfectant onto his wound, Rio couldn’t move.
Because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
‘Is this… even possible?’
The members of Agabert were loudly bickering—
while casually blocking the Rikelops’ attacks with one hand.
Every time the monster’s jaws snapped shut in the air, Rio’s body twitched instinctively.
Rikelops were no weak monsters.
Just moments ago, they had wiped out Rio’s entire forty-man mercenary squad.
And yet these people were treating their attacks like children’s toys.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
“Stoooop!”
At that moment, something suddenly burst out from the bushes and dashed past Rio.
Seeing it, his mouth fell slightly open.
Tiny stature.
Soft light-blond hair.
And even a pink backpack slung over its back.
‘...A child?’
The child, who looked utterly out of place here, planted both hands on her hips.
“Didn’t everyone pwomise not to fight?! If you keep this up, Tia’s gonna kick you outta Agabert!”
The arguing members instantly froze.
The largest man, still gripping a Rikelops by the neck with one hand, asked:
“Kick us out? Tia, what do you mean by that?”
“You’re supposed to catch monsters, not fight each other! And there’s even someone hurt! The only person getting a Good Job sticker is Grandpa Nordix!”
At those words, the big man’s face went pale.
The other members awkwardly coughed and avoided the child’s gaze.
Pouting deeply, the child grumbled:
“You guys fight every single day… At this rate, when are we ever gonna recruit twenty members? Twenty minus the five we have now is still fifteen more people left! We gotta hurry and register as a large-scale mercenary group at the guild office…”
But before she could finish—
one of the fallen Rikelops suddenly sprang back up.
The monster bared its fangs, tilted its head, and charged toward the smallest target there.
The members of Agabert exchanged startled glances.
Rio also shot to his feet instinctively.
He quickly reached toward the child, but he couldn’t stop the Rikelops that slipped through the gap.
“Run—!”
Just as Rio shouted desperately—
“See? This is what happens when you keep wasting time.”
The child sighed.
A strange gleam flashed through her eyes.
And then—
Rustle—
Something suddenly burst upward from the damp earth soaked in night dew.
Rio stared blankly at the scene unfolding before him.
What emerged from the ground were skeletons completely stripped of flesh.
‘One… no, two, three, five, ten…’
Cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck.
Dozens of bones writhing out of the ground instantly grabbed the charging Rikelops by the legs and dragged it down.
Then they pulled at the monster’s thighs and torso—
dragging it into the torn-open earth.
The clouds covering the moon drifted away, and the monster’s screams echoed loudly through the forest as it was buried alive.
“Ahyohyo.”
Only after the creature had completely disappeared underground did the little girl turn toward Rio.
Patting her chest in relief, she said:
“Good thing the bone fwends were there, or that coulda been bad.”
Rio’s eyes widened at the ridiculous name she used for the skeletons.
But only for a moment.
“Mister, hello!”
The little girl politely greeted him first before raising two fingers with a very serious expression.
“Fwom now on, mister gets to choose one of two things. First, you forget everything that happened here and go home. Losing all your teammates is sad, but that’s life…”
The old man treating Rio nodded beside her.
“And second, you join Tia’s mercenary group, Agabert!”
Rio’s eyes shook.
Agabert. So these people really were Agabert.
But that little girl—
didn’t she just call Agabert her mercenary group?
‘The owner of Agabert is supposed to be the Necromancer King…’
Could those rumors really have been true?
Rio asked in disbelief:
“You’re the Necromancer King?”
A bright smile bloomed across the child’s face.
“Yep! That’s Tia!”
Rio’s heart nearly stopped.
The great mage who had suddenly appeared one day—the Necromancer King.
He was the strongest necromancer in recorded history.
Everyone on the continent—
no, the entire world—
wanted to know who he was.
After all, the Necromancer King’s mercenary group, Agabert, had reached rank #1 across the continent in only two months and achieved a 100% mana-stone conquest rate.
And yet no one had ever discovered the true identity hidden behind the mysterious title.
‘But…’
Rio swallowed hard as he looked at the child.
Mana stones had been appearing throughout the world for quite a long time already.
Rifts constantly formed around them, and demonic beasts emerged from within.
When those monsters began invading cities and residential areas, the world entered the Age of Great Mercenaries.
The knights and central armies alone could no longer deal with the mana stones erupting even inside major cities.
It was a world that desperately needed powerful mercenaries.
Naturally, everyone’s attention focused on the monstrous Necromancer King and his mercenary group.
“Mister, do you wanna join our guild too? Our uniforms are super pretty. I asked them to add Tanipang right here!”
Rio’s heart pounded harder and harder.
‘So the pink dwarf embroidered on their uniforms is called Tanipang…?’
He never could have imagined this.
Still, one thing was certain.
Now he understood why nobody had ever figured out the Necromancer King’s identity.
“Of course, it’s okay if you don’t wanna! Tia can erase your memories and take you back to town.”
The great mercenary known as the Necromancer King—
who freely manipulated spirits, summoned the dead, and crushed mana stones around the world like swatting flies—
“Ah! And if you join our mercenary group, sometimes you can sleep in late too! Isn’t that nice?”
“...Why?”
“Because Tia has to go to cram school from ten in the morning till four… so we only work at night. Hehe.”
She really was just a child.
A child who looked no older than five years old.
And to explain all of this—
we have to go back two months earlier.
More precisely—
to Jongno District in South Korea.