Chapter 09
“Do you have something you want to say?”
Calix asked. Damn it. I must’ve been staring too hard.
“Um.”
If I asked to kiss him just once, I’d probably get kicked out before he even awakened, right?
I needed to say something. Maybe I could use this chance to ask more about Calix. Before my regression, the time we spent together was far too short, and I knew almost nothing about him.
‘He probably wouldn’t want to talk about his origins or identity… so I should start with something easy.’
“Did you personally found the Henes Mercenary Group?”
“Is that what you’re curious about?”
Calix asked, sounding slightly surprised.
“Yes. I’ve admired the Henes Mercenary Group for a long time, so I’m really interested.”
“I see. Well, I didn’t find it myself. I inherited the position from the previous captain.”
“Then did you also apply and join as a mercenary?”
“No. I joined after receiving an offer from the former captain.”
“You must have been very talented.”
“Well… I suppose that’s how he saw me.”
As he said that, Calix smiled faintly. Being acknowledged by the former captain seemed to be something he took pride in.
“The Black Hawk of Henes.”
“Hm?”
“How did that nickname come about? I heard everyone calls you that.”
“Oh, that? People just started calling me that on their own.”
Calix tried to brush it off, looking a bit embarrassed.
“I think I get it. You hunt your prey swiftly like a hawk, right? Black hair flying as you slash—whoosh, strike!”
I mimicked swinging a sword dramatically. Calix shook his head awkwardly.
“That’s absolutely not it. Who would say something like—”
“Sounds right to me.”
Just then, the vice-captain walked by and joined in.
“That nickname was given by the village women.”
“Huh?”
I asked with interest, while Calix closed his eyes completely.
“There was a day when monsters appeared near a village. When the women saw the captain fighting, they said the way he swung his sword looked like a sleek black hawk. Hahaha.”
“Shut up, Damon.”
“Ah, come on. Captain, you heard it yourself.”
“……”
“Ah, yes. Understood. I’ll stop talking now.”
Calix continued glaring at him, so the vice-captain waved and hurried away.
“Wow, I didn’t know it had such an amazing backstory.”
“Enough about that.”
“I’d really like to see it someday. A hawk-like, sleek—no, I mean, a cool sword-swinging 모습.”
“……”
“Haha, sorry.”
I laughed lightly, then looked up—and met Calix’s eyes. They looked strangely relaxed.
Seeing that expression made me want to ask something.
“Captain, are you okay?”
“What do you mean?”
“I just meant… Are you okay right now?”
“That’s a strange question. I’m fine. As you can see.”
“Hmm.”
Calix smiled faintly and looked at me again. His eyes seemed even more unfocused than before.
Now that I looked closely, his face also seemed slightly red.
“Are you… drunk?”
“Me? Impossible.”
He denied it firmly. Which somehow made it more suspicious.
“You look drunk. Your face is red.”
“It’s just hot in here.”
“Let me check.”
I reached my hand toward Calix’s forehead.
‘Come to think of it, didn’t he hate having his forehead touched? In the prison before my regression, he blocked my hand immediately.’
Thinking he might stop me again, I moved slowly—but Calix didn’t react at all. He just looked at me. So I reached out fully.
‘I touched it.’
Surprisingly, he let me. And it was really hot.
I didn’t even need to check his condition—his temperature alone told me something was wrong.
‘…Isn’t this basically dead drunk?’
With that much alcohol in his system, it was impressive he could sit so straight.
“It’s hot.”
I gently purified just enough of the alcohol so he wouldn’t feel sick, then pulled my hand away. He’d probably feel sleepy, but at least he wouldn’t throw up.
Even after I removed my hand, Calix kept staring at me.
“You really must be hot.”
I smiled slightly while meeting his gaze. Suddenly, Calix looked away and stood up.
“Yes. It really is hot. I should get some fresh air.”
“Ah, okay. Are you heading back to your room?”
“Yes. You should stay and enjoy yourself a bit longer.”
Calix left through the door with steady steps. I thought again about how strong his mental fortitude was.
Then, suddenly, a thought struck me like lightning.
Wait. Isn’t this the perfect chance?
“That’s it. Now’s the time.”
I was impressed with my own sharp insight. The sooner I acted, the better. I stood up.
“Huh? Riana, where are you going?”
The vice-captain spotted me heading for the door and called out hurriedly. I answered seriously.
“I have something personal I need to take care of.”
For some reason, the vice-captain looked awkward.
“Oh! Uh, right. The bathroom is behind the building.”
“…Thank you.”
“It’s far enough away that no matter what noises you make, we won’t hear them.”
“… Excuse me?”
He clearly misunderstood something, but I didn’t care. I quickly left.
***
After leaving the building and crossing the training grounds, Calix entered not his room, but his office.
Click—
He closed the door and lay down on the sofa by the window.
“Ha…”
He’d drunk too much. Not knowing his own limit—since he rarely drank—had played a part.
He strained himself to hide it despite the world warping around him, and now his whole body felt heavy.
As he closed his eyes to ease the dizziness, his conversation with Riana replayed in his mind.
‘A priesthood that went out on service… I see.’
Calix remembered a day when he was eighteen.
While at a village tavern on a commission, he heard that a neighboring village had been reduced to ruins by a sudden outbreak of monsters.
There were many casualties, and even the survivors were badly injured. Hearing that, Calix immediately ran to the neighboring village.
The scene was horrific. While helping the rescue team evacuate survivors onto wagons, a second monster attack occurred.
Most villagers had already been rescued, but the problem was the dispatched priesthood.
They had stayed behind to perform purification and were caught off guard by the attack, becoming scattered and isolated.
Cutting through waves of monsters in the plaza, Calix saw a small, young priest covered in blood. That priest was standing in front of other young priests, drawing the monsters’ attention alone, and looked moments away from death.
For some reason, that desperate figure reminded Calix of himself.
After that, his memory was hazy. He slaughtered the surrounding monsters and saved the young priests. Carrying the most severely injured small priest, he barely made it to a safe village and handed the child over to the priests there—then collapsed.
When he woke up, the priesthood had already left. He wondered whether the small priest had survived, but there was no way to know.
It was there that he met Ron and, at his suggestion, joined the Henes Mercenary Group.
‘Is that priest still alive?’
Lost in thought, Calix stood and walked to the window. His head felt clearer than before.
Then Riana’s voice echoed in his mind.
‘Captain, are you okay?’
He’d brushed it off as a strange question. He’d lived his life without ever asking himself whether he was okay.
Was this an okay life? He didn’t know.
He learned he was the emperor’s illegitimate child at twelve. To young Calix, who had believed he had no father, it felt like a distant fairy tale.
He wasn’t sad or happy. It seemed like it wouldn’t affect his life at all—until his mother suddenly passed away when he was fourteen.
The first person to visit the newly orphaned Calix was an unexpected one.
Empress Belia.
She handed him a small pouch of gold coins and told him that if he didn’t want to die, he should erase his existence from the world.
He refused at first.
What came back was his nanny’s death.
After that, Calix left his hometown and became a wandering mercenary, taking on any job he could to survive.
Could this really be called an okay life? He didn’t know.
‘Still… it’s not that bad. I’m still alive, at least.’
Standing by the window, staring blankly at the moonlit scenery, Calix’s gaze drifted toward the training grounds.
Then his eyes widened.
Under the moonlight, a woman with beautiful platinum-blonde hair was crossing the training grounds.
“Riana.”
The moment he called her name unconsciously, Riana looked up—straight toward him, as if she could see him at the window.
Startled, Calix stepped back from the window and hid on the sofa, like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t.
But curiosity crept in. Was she still there?
After a moment, he cautiously looked outside again.
‘She’s gone…’
She had vanished, like a mirage.
Calix lay back down on the sofa, thinking it must have been a drunken hallucination.
