Chapter 01
The Empire of Talochium.
At the entrance of a small magic stone fissure that rose high above the ground.
“Haah, haah…”
Rio, a mercenary from the small island of Modeut, wiped the nape of his neck with trembling hands.
“Damn it, damn it.”
His palm came away soaked with bright red blood.
“Kerururuk—”
Right in front of him, the dragon-type monster ‘Rikellops’ tilted its head and stared at him.
His fallen comrades were already all dead.
Aside from Rio, the forty members of his mercenary band had been annihilated by three Rikellops.
“Keruk—”
Rio gripped his broken sword with his weakening hand.
Suddenly, the image of his mother as he’d last seen her on the day he left home flashed through his mind.
If he’d known it would end like this, he should have at least given her a proper hug.
Before long, the Rikellops bared their fangs.
A signal that they were about to attack Rio.
Swallowing his rising breath, he closed his eyes.
He was ready to give up everything—but just then.
[Snap out of it. If you want to live.]
A stranger’s voice came from the void.
He looked up and saw something black circling through the air, backlit by the moonlight.
“Oh, pardon me.”
Then, out of nowhere, people pushed past Rio and stepped forward.
Rio stared at their fluttering cloaks and froze.
“Agabert…?”
A newly formed mercenary band that had appeared like a comet one day and quickly made a name for itself across the continent—Agabert.
They roamed all over the world, writing new history each time, yet their uniforms bore an oddly shaped pink dwarf emblem that raised questions.
“Young man, are you alright?”
Rio dazedly stared at the old man who approached him.
The old man, wearing Agabert’s uniform, clicked his tongue and began examining the wound on Rio’s neck.
Meanwhile, an argument was breaking out up ahead.
“Veil. Step aside. It’s my turn to show off to Tia this time.”
“What are you talking about! I’ve seen you swing that hammer around hundreds of times already. You’re in the way, so back off. I’ll show you my real skills this time.”
“…Honestly, you’re still terrible.”
“That’s just your opinion, you pig whose brain is made of muscle!”
“Ha! Fine! Will you two stop fighting! If the Master sees this, we’re in big trouble!”
Even as the old man poured disinfectant onto the wound, Rio couldn’t move.
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
‘Is this… even possible?’
Agabert’s members were arguing loudly while casually deflecting the Rikellops’ attacks with one hand.
Every time the monsters’ fangs clashed in midair, Rio’s body flinched.
Rikellops were no pushovers.
Those very creatures had just slaughtered all forty of Rio’s mercenary band.
And yet they were deflecting their attacks as if playing with toys.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
“Stoooop!”
At that instant, something suddenly popped out from the bushes and scurried past in front of Rio.
His mouth fell slightly open at the sight.
A tiny stature.
Fluffy, light-colored blonde hair.
And a pink backpack strapped to their back.
‘…A child?’
A child who looked completely out of place in this space planted their hands on their hips.
“We said we wouldn’t fight, remember! Or else Tia will kick you out of Agabert!”
The arguing members froze mid-motion.
The largest man, gripping one Rikellops by the neck, asked gruffly.
“Kick us out? What are you talking about, Tia?”
“You have to catch monsters, not fight each other! And there’s an injured person here?! The only one getting a ‘Good Job’ sticker among you is Grandpa Nordics!”
At that, the large man’s face turned pale.
The other members also cleared their throats awkwardly, avoiding the child’s gaze.
The child pouted and mumbled.
“Always, always fighting… At this rate, when are we ever going to get twenty members? Twenty minus five is fifteen, so we still need a ton more! We have to gather them quickly so we can go to the registry and register as a large-scale mercenary band…”
But before the child could finish, one of the Rikellops that had been lying down suddenly sprang back up.
The monster bared its fangs, tilted its head, and began charging at the smallest target.
Agabert’s members exchanged startled glances.
Rio reflexively rose from his spot as well.
He quickly reached out toward the child, but he couldn’t stop the Rikellops that had slipped through.
“Run—!”
Rio shouted urgently, and just then—
“Ugh. See? This is what happens when you waste time.”
The child sighed, and a faint glimmer flickered in their eyes.
Then,
Rustle—
Something began rapidly pushing up through the rain-dampened dirt.
Rio stared blankly at the scene that followed.
What emerged from the ground were bones without a single piece of flesh attached—skeletons.
‘One… no, two, three, five, ten…’
Cold sweat trickled down the back of his neck.
Dozens of bones writhed up from the ground, instantly grabbing the Rikellops’ legs and tripping it.
Then they began dragging the monster’s thighs, its torso, pulling it down into the gouged earth.
The clouds that had obscured the moonlight thinned, and the monster’s screams as it was buried alive in the forest echoed loudly all around.
“Oh my.”
By the time the creature had completely disappeared underground, the little one turned toward Rio.
Then, patting their chest, they said,
“If it weren’t for my bone friends, that could’ve been really bad.”
Rio’s eyes widened at the absurd name for the skeletons—but only for a moment.
“Hello there, Mister!”
The child approached Rio, offered a polite greeting, and then with a rather serious face, held up two fingers.
“From now on, Mister has two choices. First, forget everything that happened here and go home. It’s sad that you lost your comrades, but that’s life…”
The old man who had been treating Rio nodded beside them.
“And second is to join Tia’s mercenary band, Agabert!”
Rio’s eyes wavered.
Agabert—so they really were Agabert.
But that little kid.
Did they just call Agabert *their* mercenary band?
‘They say the master of Agabert is definitely the Necromancer King…’
Could the rumors circulating be true after all?
Rio asked, incredulous.
“You’re the Necromancer King?”
A bright smile bloomed on the child’s lips.
“Yep! That’s Tia!”
His heart sank.
The Grand Sorcerer Necromancer King, who had appeared out of nowhere one day.
He was the most powerful necromancer history had never known.
Everyone on the continent—no, in the entire world—was curious about him.
The <Agabert> founded by the Necromancer King had risen to the number one rank across the continent in just two months, achieving a 100% magic stone siege rate.
But until now, no one had known the true identity of the enigmatic Necromancer King.
‘But…’
Rio looked at the child and swallowed hard.
It had been quite some time since magic stones had begun springing up all over the world.
Fissures constantly appeared around the magic stones, and from within them, magical beasts emerged.
When those creatures began invading homes and city centers, the world entered the Great Age of Mercenaries.
Knights and the central army alone couldn’t handle the magic stones that had risen even into the cities.
A world in desperate need of strong mercenaries.
It was only natural that all eyes turned to the monstrous Necromancer King and his mercenary band, but—
“Mister, won’t you join our guild too? Our uniforms are super pretty. I even asked them to put Tanipang on them!”
Rio’s heart pounded harder and harder.
‘So that pink dwarf embroidered on the uniform is named Tanipang?’
This, he hadn’t expected.
But one thing was certain.
The reason no one had ever discovered the Necromancer King’s true identity.
“Of course, it’s okay if you don’t want to! Tia will erase Mister’s memory and take you to a village.”
Freely wielding necromancy, summoning souls, reanimating corpses.
The Grand Mercenary Necromancer King, who swept away magic stones across the world like swatting flies—
“Oh! And if you join our mercenary band, you can sleep in sometimes too! Okay?”
“…Why?”
“Because I have to go to Tia’s Academy from ten in the morning to four in the afternoon… We only work at night. Hehe.”
Was a real child.
A child who looked no older than five years old.
—
And to explain this entire story, we have to go back two months.
Exactly two months ago.
To Jongno-gu, South Korea.
