My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds the Hero's

This world is shit. I understood that when I was still very young.

Volcano Continent, Ninth Demon Clan Territory — Nox. I was born in such a godforsaken place.

True to its name, Nox (night) mostly exists underground; only the entrance is on the surface. The Demon King's Castle that had been blasted away by the first generation hero wiped out everything on the surface but didn't affect the underground, so they were supposed to build a new castle to replace the vanished one down there. But the construction engineers were also obliterated back then, and nobody could build a castle worthy of housing a demon lord underground. The result was the half-finished, abandoned place called Nox.

There was a convenient barrier with various spells so people could live there, but being the farthest from the sky, the town felt dim, sour, and suffocated. Everyone born here dreamed at least once of leaving Nox and moving to another city. But any other city was only marginally better than the lowest Morte; it was still countryside. And none of the other territories were especially flourishing either. In fact, being above ground alone made Morte preferable. Those who left to see the outside world usually ended up coming back. Nox was that kind of place.

My mother, however, refused to abandon her dream.

"You’re the only one I can rely on. When you grow up, make my life easier."

"Make it easier?"

"Yes. When you grow up, work at the Demon King's Castle and get me to live in Krul."

My mother told me that over and over.

Demon Clan birthrates are lower than other races, so people of the same age are truly scarce. Even siblings are normally a century or more apart. But my mother and her older sister were unusually close in age—only about twenty years apart—and my mother had a deep inferiority complex toward that sister. Her sister’s child—my cousin—recently got a job at the Demon King's Castle and moved the whole family out of Nox to the First Demon Clan Territory, Krul. That stung my mother badly. Her existing longing for the outside grew, and she pinned it on her only son.

It amazes me how someone barely taller than her waist could impose such selfish ambitions on her child. Even I was dumbfounded by my mother's insistence.

Krul must have been the last hope for Nox residents. No family who moved to Krul to work at the castle ever returned to Nox. The townsfolk whispered that Krul must be unbelievably comfortable.

But I was on friendly terms with the cousin who moved to Krul and corresponded with him through magic, so I knew the truth: Krul was nothing more than a large birdcage. To keep castle staff from running away, they confined the entire town and held families hostage. My mother's desire to send me to the castle and move to Krul, born from her inferiority complex, was absurd to me.

Still, I didn’t want to live out my life in Nox either. Our interests aligned, so I set out to get a castle position. I loved the small patch of sky visible through the only hole that let sunlight into Nox. If my mother’s dream was to leave this town, my dream was to die looking at that beautiful, unobstructed sky. If I could die looking at it, I wouldn’t care about making my mother’s wish come true.

There are different ways for commoners to enter castle service.

Some are discovered for talent and become lifelong retainers of the Demon King’s family; some serve as maids or butlers doing chores inside the castle; some join as soldiers, guarding the castle and Krul for unpredictable wars.

Becoming a retainer of the Demon King’s family was out of reach for me—selection is done by the royal family in person, and I had no stage to display any noteworthy ability. Those chosen by that route tend to be aristocrats who have surnames from birth. I didn’t have any outstanding talent.

So my options were butler or soldier. I chose soldier.

"I never thought you’d come to the Royal Castle too."

Having gotten castle jobs as my mother wished, we moved to Krul and stayed with my aunt’s family until we settled in. My mother looked unhappy, but she seemed pleased that my aunt welcomed us so warmly.