Basto's eyes turned cold.
"My identification number was perfectly valid until fifteen days ago. There's no way it would suddenly disappear."
"Arguing with me won't solve anything. That won't magically make a non-existent mercenary ID appear."
The holy knight lazily flipped through paperwork while slouching in a folding chair.
The situation was absurd, but Basto didn't want to use foul language in front of a child.
So he quietly stepped forward.
A massive shadow fell over the knight's head, and only then did the man look up.
"Do you know where I've just come from?"
The holy knight flinched at the deep, heavy voice.
Looking directly at him, Basto continued,
"I've returned after conquering one of the three mana stones in Brio Wood—the very mana stones that have been a headache for the Imperial Family. I came here to file my report."
At the mention of Brio Wood's mana stone, the knight narrowed his eyes.
Then he tilted his head in confusion.
"One of Brio Wood's mana stones...? The small one?"
Basto nodded.
The holy knight let out a mocking laugh.
"Well, aren't you a complete fraud."
Before Basto could reply, the knight stood up and glared at both him and Tia.
"Listen. The small mana stone in Brio Wood has already been reported."
Basto's brows furrowed.
That was impossible.
He was the one who had conquered the small mana stone alone.
Then who could have reported it first?
Who was it that had closed the crack six days ago while being drenched in the blood of flying monsters?
"I remember because it was a fairly famous mercenary group. They came two evenings ago, submitted the conquest report to me, collected their reward money, and entered the capital. And now what? You're saying you conquered that mana stone?"
A terrible possibility began creeping into Basto's mind.
"The commander of the Death Hound Mercenary Company even told me about you. Said there was some insignificant brat following behind him trying to steal credit for his achievements. He mentioned you used to work under him. So this is what he meant when he called you a lowlife?"
As if waiting for an excuse, several other holy knights gathered around.
"Basto Paerix. Step back immediately."
"That's right. Unless you want to be thrown out by force, you'd better leave on your own."
Basto fell silent.
Without realizing it, he tightened the arm holding Tia.
Part of him wanted to smash his fist into every one of their faces.
But...
When he glanced at Tia, the child looked terrified.
Taking a deep breath, Basto slowly turned around.
As he forced himself to walk away, he heard the knights muttering behind him.
"He's completely insane. He expects us to believe he conquered a small mana stone by himself?"
"He didn't even have an identification number. Obviously there's something wrong with his head."
"Why did the Death Hound commander ever keep someone like that around?"
His heart pounded with fury.
Death Hound.
Before becoming a wandering mercenary, that was where he had once belonged.
Even now, his teeth ground together at the thought of it.
At the thought of their commander, Kal Worben.
At the thought of the family he had lost because of that man...
"Mister..."
Something cool suddenly touched his burning cheek.
Turning his head, he found a pair of worried green eyes looking at him.
"Are... are you okay, Mister...?"
A tiny hand carefully wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead.
Basto held his breath for a moment before slowly exhaling.
Little by little, his mind cooled.
They've denied me entry into the capital.
If he had been alone, he might have tried sneaking past the gate under cover of darkness.
But now he was responsible for Astyr.
Before anything else, he needed to figure out exactly what had happened.
Adjusting Tia in his arms, he muttered,
"...First, we need to find a place to stay."
Tia's eyes widened.
Then she answered in a bright, energetic voice.
"Yesss!"
"Oh my goodness, just look at all this grime!"
Tia pursed her lips as she was forcibly washed.
"What in the world have you been doing, Basto, letting a child get this filthy?!"
The person scrubbing Tia's face was an old woman she had never met before.
More specifically, the owner of the Gate Inn, where she and Basto had just checked in.
"My dear, if you tense up like that, you'll make things harder for Grandma."
The old woman rubbed Tia's lips with a cloth.
Rolling her large eyes miserably, Tia protested,
"B-But I don't wanna..."
"No complaining!"
Even after seeing Tia's pitiful expression, the old woman paid no attention and started cleaning behind her ears.
Tia instinctively shrank back, but strangely, she didn't dislike it.
It reminded her of Grandma from Apartment 107 back in Korea—the one who used to help bathe her.
Grandmas always called it whining, even when something really hurt.
"Oh my, now your face is finally clean! What a pretty little thing."
And afterward, grandmas always became gentle and affectionate like this, softly patting your cheeks.
Whenever she saw expressions like that, Tia's heart felt warm and ticklish.
"Thank you, Grandma!"
She bowed deeply.
Chuckling, the old woman handed her a steaming cup of hot chocolate.
Tia sat in a chair near the front desk and turned her gaze toward the window.
"So it's true? They really erased your mercenary identification number?"
"......I think it was Kal's doing. He probably bribed the Holy Knights and had me expelled."
Two people were talking at a table by the window.
One was the innkeeper—the old woman's husband.
The other was Mister Basto.
"The day I meet that bastard again, I'll crush every bone in his body into dust."
Tia shrank into herself.
S-Scary.
It was her first time seeing Basto angry.
Combined with being chased away from the gate earlier, it was obvious that something bad was happening.
Tia began thinking seriously.
It looks like you can't enter the capital without a mercenary identification number.
Come to think of it, Daddy had once explained something similar.
According to him, there were lots of monsters—or rather magical beasts—in this world.
But the Imperial Capital was different.
It was the safest city.
Daddy said it's because the king and lots of rich people live there!
The rule was that any mana stone appearing inside the capital had to be conquered immediately.
Important people might get hurt otherwise.
The problem was that the city was so safe because they only allowed certain people inside.
"Honestly, how does it make any sense to seal off the capital and ban ordinary citizens from entering?"
Sure enough, Basto was saying something very similar.
Pretending to sip her hot chocolate, Tia perked up her ears.
"There are countless refugees outside who've lost their homes. Yet those nobles and even His Majesty the Emperor..."
"That's enough, Basto."
The innkeeper, his white beard sticking out sharply, interrupted him with a stern expression.
"You'd been quiet for a while. Why start again? Haven't I told you many times that a man must learn to control his anger if he wants a peaceful life?"
Basto let out a deep sigh.
"It's frustrating. People are dying out there."
"...Thinking about your hometown again, are you? I, too, regret what happened to Ban-Anra Village."
Tia froze.
Then the old man continued.
"Still, that Kal fellow is truly cowardly and deceitful. After what he did to your village... to your family..."
"Grandpa!"
The next moment, Tia set down her hot chocolate and ran over.
Both men looked toward the child.
"Banana! That thing!"
"Banana?"
The old man laughed heartily.
"You mean Ban-Anra Village?"
"Yes! Banana Village!"
For some reason, the child looked incredibly excited.
"That's Mister Basto's hometown?"
Basto unconsciously frowned.
But then he nodded.
"Yeah."
Tia's chocolate-smeared mouth dropped open.
Her green eyes sparkled brightly.
...Now I remember.
Why didn't I realize it before?
The Hammer Uncle from Banana Village.
Tia knew that village.
She knew Basto.
Because he was someone Daddy talked about all the time.