The Heavenly Demon Is Just Stuck In My Head

Early morning.

I went downstairs the moment I woke.

“You’re up?”

Fabio, dozing at a dining table, blinked drowsily at me.

“Well now, kid. Since when were you so diligent?”

“Always have been.”

The innkeeper emerged from the back and asked flatly, “Want breakfast?”

“Anything’s fine. I need to hit the road soon.”

He nodded. “Won’t take long. Sit tight.”

I sat across from Fabio, pulling my mercenary tag from my breast pocket and turning it over in my hand.

I’d gotten it back yesterday after paying off my tab. Just holding it gave me a strange comfort, like touching a piece of home.

I glanced at Fabio.

“Hey, kid.”

“Yes?”

“You wake up early just because I said I’d be leaving today?”

“No. I always wake up early.”

“Your eyes are swimming in sleep.”

He forced his heavy eyelids wide open. “Where are you going?”

I chuckled and chatted idly with him until breakfast arrived.

A hearty spread—warm soup and bread, boiled eggs, bacon, and milk.

I cleared it quickly, then rose from my seat.

“Innkeeper. Thanks for the meal.”

He nodded with his usual gruffness. “Come again.”

With a simple farewell, I left the inn, Fabio trailing after me.

We entered the Mercenary Guild to the sound of loud snoring.

“Ugh. Smells like booze.”

A handful of mercenaries had clearly drunk themselves stupid here overnight. They were sprawled everywhere, snoring in various poses: one with his head on the table, one stretched across a line of chairs, one perched on the table itself, another lying flat on the floor.

A familiar sight.

I passed through them and reached the reception desk—only to find not Collin, but a young woman nodding off.

I sat down and studied her.

Up close, she looked familiar.

Yesterday she’d brought the practice sword for my grading test.

“Zzz…”

“….”

I kept staring.

Her head bobbed, then dropped sharply. She blinked blearily, meeting my eyes.

I smiled. “Good morning.”

“Eeeek!”

Crash!

She shrieked and toppled straight off her chair.

“…Is my face really that shocking? How embarrassing.”

“S-sorry. You startled me.”

“That was more than a little startled.”

As she scrambled up, wiping drool from her lips and fussing with her hair, I asked, “Where’s the branch master? I’m here for my mercenary tag.”

“Ah—please wait, I’ll fetch him.”

A moment later she returned with Collin, hair a bird’s nest, eyes still half shut.

He greeted me with a yawn. “You’re early. What time even is it? Feels like the sun’s not up.”

“The sun’s been up for a while. Try opening your eyes.”

He grumbled. “Why the rush? Someone chasing you?”

I watched our branch master yawning wide enough to swallow a fist. “None of your business. Just give me the tag.”

I set seven silver coins on the counter.

The receptionist took them, and Collin pulled something shiny from his desk drawer and slid it to me.

“Finished at dawn. Had to stay up all night thanks to your nagging.”

“You don’t even make the tags yourself. Why’d you stay up?”

“Had to keep the craftsman from sneaking off. Stood guard and kept him working.”

“How diligent of you.”

I accepted the silver tag, examining it closely.

The intricate engravings proved it genuine, issued by the Mercenary Guild. But the inscription was simple:

Silver Rank

Ashuban

I pulled out my old tag to compare. The Maia-issued one was a long rectangle, while this new one was more of an elongated oval.

As I compared them, Collin rubbed his eyes and squinted at my original tag.

“What’s this? Format I’ve never seen. Mind if I take a look?”

I handed it over without protest.

His eyes went wide.

“…Sherwood Mercenary Corps?”

He stared between me and the tag.

“You really are from Maia…?”

“Told you.”

At the mention of the Sherwood Mercenary Corps, even Fabio and the receptionist, who had been counting coins, froze with wide eyes. The gate guards hadn’t recognized it, but at least Collin had the rank to know.

He looked at me with open awe.

“Well, damn. That woke me right up. The Sherwood Mercenary Corps… no wonder you were strong.”

Their reactions actually left me a little baffled.

“They’re that famous?”

“Of course. That’s the company of Guston the Greatsword.”

“Well, yeah, but…”

I scratched my cheek. Collin handed the tag back.

“I hear every single member of Sherwood is a monster.”

“Well… that’s true.”

Except me.

I swallowed the rest and simply nodded.

Collin asked, “So what brings a Sherwood man out here?”

“Just… business.”

“Whatever it is, I wish you luck. It’s an honor to meet a member of the Sherwood Mercenary Corps.”

“Honor, my ass.”

I stood, waving a hand casually as I headed for the door.

“Later, Branch Master Collin. Let’s share a drink sometime.”

“Sure. Take care.”

With my goal accomplished, I left the Mercenary Guild without hesitation.

Outside, Fabio trailed after me. I glanced back.

“How long are you planning to follow?”

He looked up at me, eyes set with determination.

“I want to go with you.”

I rejected him flatly.

“Kid, don’t talk nonsense. I don’t have the luxury to look after you.”

“It’s fine. I’ve learned how to fight from other mercenaries.”

He made a deadly serious face and jabbed tiny fists into the air. “Hup! Hup!”

I snorted and flicked his forehead.

Snap!

“Ow!”

He grabbed his forehead, eyes wet, glaring at me.

“Why’d you hit me?”

“Does it hurt?”

“Of course!”

“And you expect me to drag along a kid who cries over a flick? Out there it won’t be a flick—it’ll be steel, cutting flesh and bone. You wouldn’t last a week before dying on someone’s blade.”

“…”

Fabio lowered his head, staring at the ground, then lifted it again.

“Then… how do I become strong like you?”

“You want to be a mercenary? Don’t.”

“Why not? You are.”

“I didn’t choose this. It was the only way to survive. But you—you’ve got a much brighter future waiting.”

“What future?”

“Your father’s inn.”

I rested my hand on his head.

“You’ll inherit it someday. Run it well, live an honest life. It’s harder than mercenary work—and more meaningful.”

“Running an inn is harder than being a mercenary?”

“I only have to fend for myself. When I meet a bastard I don’t like, I don’t have to hold back. I just cut him down. Either I die, or he does. The victor enforces his justice. But your father can’t live that way. He’s raising you.”

“….”

“Living an ordinary life is the hardest thing of all. Running a fine inn like his isn’t easy. You don’t see food that good every day. In mercenary terms, that inn is Gold Rank. Your father’s a far greater man than any lowly mercenary.”

“…Really?”

“Really. So stop dreaming nonsense and help your father. Be grateful you even have a choice. Got it?”

“….”

The boy just stared at me silently.

For a moment, I envied him.

He had a father worth relying on.

I tapped his forehead twice, smiling, then turned away.

“Time for this mercenary trash to go. Live well, kid.”

I faced the rising sun and walked east.

“Tch.”

Collin stood at the guild entrance, watching man and boy part ways.

The dark-haired mercenary strode off without looking back.

The boy stared after him with eyes full of longing.

It was a common story.

Fabio, watching travelers come and go, had long dreamed of a mercenary’s freedom. But the truth of mercenary life was always hidden. Freedom of the soul meant freedom of life itself—mercenaries lived knowing death could strike any day.

Collin had grown sick of it, which was why he settled here.

Cold nights on the street. Meals uncertain from one day to the next. Mercenaries lived like fools, drinking and laughing as if tomorrow might never come—because often, it didn’t.

That was why Fabio’s father never wanted his boy to take this path. That was why he scolded him whenever he snuck around the guild.

But…

“You shouldn’t have said it like that.”

Collin watched the mercenary’s retreating figure and the boy who gazed until it vanished.

The man had warned him not to become a mercenary, but that only fanned the flames.

“…Friend. Speak so, and a boy’s dream will only burn brighter.”

Collin realized this moment had sealed Fabio’s resolve.

Sighing, he turned back toward the guild—when a soldier ran up, gasping.

“Branch Master Collin! Sir!”

Collin stared at the man rushing in so early.

“What is it?”

The soldier panted.

“The Phantom Thief has escaped!”

“What?”

Collin’s eyes widened.

“She vanished overnight! Gone without a trace!”

The guild’s job was to connect mercenaries and clients. So Collin had handed the thief over to the city guard yesterday, warning them carefully.

“Idiots. You were guarding the Phantom Thief—you should have been relentless.”

“We were! We locked her in solitary, three guards at all times. And yet… she slipped away like smoke. Like a ghost!”

Collin let out a long sigh.

The soldier pressed on. “Please help with the search. An official request will follow, but she can’t have gone far—there’s no time—”

Collin shook his head.

“Forget it.”

“Sir?”

“You won’t catch her. If I could have, I’d have done it long ago.”

“Then we should at least hire the one who brought her in—”

“He’s already gone.”

“Ah…”

Collin looked east, where the sun was rising.

“His road won’t be an easy one.”

(End of Chapter)