Dare to Impersonate?
“Y-yo, Mercenary King!!” The receptionist’s voice echoed loudly through the hall. It seemed a bit too loud, because the men who had been lounging around immediately turned to stare.
“Kahaha! Mercenary King, you say? That’s right! The Mercenary King treasures me the most—more than even the great Jerome himself… hic!” The man started to speak, then suddenly hiccupped and fell silent.
I looked straight at him. “Do you know me?”
He had claimed to be a member of the Steel Mercenary Group, yet I had never seen his face before. Someone this pathetic could never have joined the Steel Mercenary Group in the first place.
“W-well… hic.”
“Looks like you do.”
I answered and began walking toward him.
“W-wait just a moment!”
He scrambled to his feet in a panic. The chair scraped loudly against the floor.
“Kyaa!”
“O-oppa!”
“Oppa, my ass! Do you even know what’s going on right now?!”
He shouted at the women for no reason, then glanced at me, eyes darting frantically. It was obvious he was trying to figure out how to run.
“U-um, M-Mercenary King, sir… this is all a misunderstanding.”
“Is it? What kind of misunderstanding? From what I heard, you were impersonating the Steel Mercenary Group…”
I had never let an impersonator live. That story was famous. He probably knew it well.
“A-actually, I’m not from the Steel Mercenary Group… I’m from a small group called the Gold Steel Mercenary Group—damn it!!”
At that moment, he suddenly pulled something from his pocket and threw it to the ground.
Poof—!!
Gray smoke began to spread. He must have bought a smoke bomb from the Alchemist Guild. In an instant, the entire guild hall was filled with smoke.
Cough. Cough.
I could hear the women coughing. Then came the sound of hurried footsteps fleeing.
Tap-tap-tap—!!
But I simply turned my head calmly, showing no urgency at all. Soon, I heard his voice, filled with joy, along with the sound of him grabbing the doorknob.
Grab.
“Haha!! I’m getting away! Even the Mercenary King is too late now—”
At that moment, my hand, which had been still until now, moved. It was just a light motion, like swatting away a fly. But the result was anything but light.
Slash—!
A sound like something being cut rang out.
“Gack!”
And that was the end.
I didn’t even bother to check the result. I simply walked over to a chair near the reception desk and sat down.
Thud.
“W-wait! That guy just ran away!”
“He’s already dead.”
“But you didn’t even check—”
The smoke began to clear. Soon, everyone could see the gruesome sight: a headless corpse sprawled in front of the door.
“Kyaa, kyaaaah!!”
“H-he’s dead!!”
The prostitutes screamed, staring at me with terrified faces.
“P-please don’t kill us! We’ll give you anything you want…!!”
“W-we’ll even give you that hole!! So please!!”
I could only stare in disbelief.
“Why would I kill you? And what hole are you talking about?”
“Th-that… it’s right here…”
“Ahem. No need to show me.”
I turned my head away. I had said something unnecessary and ended up seeing something I never wanted to see.
“Just go. And don’t spread any weird rumors.”
“Y-yes, sir!!”
The women tried to rush outside, but the corpse was blocking the door. They stood there, stamping their feet in frustration.
Come to think of it, there was still that body. I extended my hand in the same posture I had used to kill the man earlier.
“Hiiik…!”
“P-please spare us! We’ll strip right now!”
The frightened prostitutes misunderstood again.
“No, don’t strip. Just stay still.”
At that moment, the corpse suddenly began to float. It drifted toward the stairs nearby. I had used telekinetic magic to move it.
“W-whoa, as expected of a Magic Swordsman!!”
A surprised voice came from the reception desk.
“Wow!”
“That’s magic…!”
The prostitutes were no different, watching my magic with fascinated expressions.
“Not leaving?”
“W-we’re going!!”
“Thank you! If you come to the Red Rose Brothel, we’ll give you extra special service!!”
“M-me too!! I’ll even suck it for you!! I swear!!”
“Wait, suck what… Never mind. Just go.”
The prostitutes hurried out the door. Even while fleeing, they kept trying to drum up business—true professionals.
Just then, I heard someone coming down from the second floor, along with a voice.
“L-Lena. Has that person left?”
It was a thick male voice, but it was filled with fear.
“W-well… Dad. You should come down and see for yourself…”
“M-me? A-all right.”
Soon, a man appeared at the top of the stairs. He was large, with an unkempt, messy beard. He looked like a barbarian from the northern kingdom—except he was far too cowardly.
The proof came immediately.
“Who is that?”
“Ah, that’s our father…”
“W-who are you? I’m the branch manager of the Trier Mercenary Guild—hiiiiiik!! A c-c-corpse!!”
He was utterly terrified by the body at the bottom of the stairs.
Thud!
He fell on his rear and looked completely lost.
“W-what do I do?! I-I’m going to have nightmares!”
I stared at him in disbelief.
“This guy is the branch manager of the Mercenary Guild?”
“Haah… Yes. Hard to believe, I know.”
His daughter, Lena, seemed far more suited to the role of branch manager.
“Why were you hiding?”
“Well… that… I was scared of the dead man…”
“Sigh.”
I let out a long breath. No wonder the Mercenary Guild was in such a sorry state with someone like this in charge.
“Come down here for now.”
“Hiiik…! C-could you move the body first…?”
I pressed a hand to my forehead. Coming to the Mercenary Guild had been a mistake.
‘At this rate, I might have to change my plans…’
Fortunately, he crawled down the stairs on all fours. He knew who I was now, and a living Mercenary King was apparently more terrifying than a dead body.
Soon, the two of us sat down to talk. Of course, he was trembling so badly that the conversation wasn’t exactly smooth.
“W-w-w-what brings the Mercenary King to our humble guild…?”
“Why? Am I not allowed to visit? I’m a mercenary too, aren’t I?”
“N-n-n-no!! Haha! O-of course you’re welcome!!”
The Mercenary King wasn’t the owner of the Mercenary Guild. The guild had its own master. “Mercenary King” was merely a title. But that didn’t mean it carried no influence. In a way, it held power second only to the guild master himself. That was why the branch manager was so flustered.
“Still, this is the worst branch I’ve ever seen…”
“W-well… the academy students don’t really use mercenaries much…”
“Even so, this is too much, isn’t it?”
I stared at the branch manager intently, my eyes clearly saying, You’re the culprit, aren’t you?
He lowered his head under my gaze. At least he seemed to know he was at fault.
Just then, his daughter Lena spoke up.
“It’s partly my father’s fault, but the Adventurer Guild is mostly to blame.”
“Hm? The Adventurer Guild?”
“Yes. They suddenly started taking on mercenary work as well.”
“Tch… They’ve crossed the line.”
The Mercenary Guild and the Adventurer Guild had long been rivals, but they had generally respected each other’s domains.
“Does the guild master know?”
“Yes, I told him, but…”
“Right. That old man wouldn’t handle something like this properly anyway.”
I nodded. That lazy old man wouldn’t bother with this kind of problem.
Both of them looked at me with hopeful eyes, clearly expecting me to solve the issue. After all, I was the Mercenary King. But—
“Then there’s nothing to be done. You’ll just have to live with it.”
“A-as expected of the Mercenary King… huh?”
I completely shattered their expectations. Honestly, I was just the most skilled mercenary among mercenaries. This was the Mercenary Guild’s problem to handle, not mine.
“T-that’s…!”
“More importantly, I need to take on a request.”
“Huh? Ah, yes. A request.”
Unlike the disappointed father, the daughter accepted reality quickly. She pulled out a piece of paper from the reception desk and began writing.
“What kind of request would you like to make…?”
“I need someone who knows Trier inside and out—especially the back alleys.”
The back alleys referred to Trier’s underworld—the criminal world.
“Someone who knows the back alleys that well…”
“Yes. Someone who knows the entire underworld. And I’d like them as soon as possible…”
That said, I didn’t have much faith in them. Especially after seeing the state of the branch manager.
‘If I don’t hear back in three days… I’ll have to look elsewhere.’
Of course, they didn’t think that way.
Clench!
“This is our chance! We have to succeed and use it as the signal for the Mercenary Guild’s revival!”
“R-really? A-all right! I’ll give you my full support!”
“Of course! Use all your connections!”
They looked full of enthusiasm.
Then Lena asked cautiously, “But why do you need someone who knows the underworld so well…?”
“You don’t need to know. Just find them.”
“Y-yes…”
As I had mentioned before, Trier was a massive city—and a city overflowing with money. Perhaps because of that, its underworld was enormous, far larger than in any other city. Brothels, gambling dens, thief guilds, assassin guilds, weapon merchants, massive gangs… All kinds of criminal organizations thrived here. Their scale was unprecedented. The underworld’s power was so great that even the kingdom struggled to intervene. It was the dark side of the academy city of Trier.
And I intended to rob that underworld. Not just one or two places, either.
‘I have the Mercenary King’s reputation to uphold.’
Naturally, I needed someone who knew the underworld inside and out.
“Then send them to the academy as soon as you find them.”
“T-the academy?”
“Yeah. Did you forget I’m a student there?”
“Ah…”
They looked at me with slightly surprised expressions. I probably didn’t match the image of an academy student they had in mind.
After saying that, I turned to leave. I now had a curfew I had never had before in my life. I had to be back by midnight, so it was time to move.
‘Haah, I’m not some teenage kid…’
There was no helping it. I walked away with a displeased expression. The Mercenary King worrying about a curfew… It was pretty funny, actually.
Thus, I left the Mercenary Guild and headed toward the academy. But for some reason, my steps didn’t feel light at all.
‘Still… can I really trust them?’