Chapter 128

“He’s only a zero-year, but he’s the only one in our unit who shows the potential to rise to the Upper Level. He’s more than qualified to take the position of Division 3 Commander in the upcoming promotion evaluation.”

The promotion evaluation.

Held four times a year, it was the final official event on the Bureau’s calendar for the year.

Generally, it involved various tests—deciding on salary increases for those who had reached higher realms or administering common-sense exams. However, one of the most critical components was personnel reshuffling and position assignments.

In short, it was the time when the leadership for each unit was decided.

For years, the Commanders and Deputy Commanders of the Special Units had remained largely unchanged.

The only exceptional case this year was Moon Ah-rin—and that was partly because the public had been fooled by her ‘false reputation’ as the Saint of Salvation. The primary reason was that Robert, the former Deputy Commander of Division 4, wanted to return to the Magic Tower.

In other words, unless you were recommended for a vacant spot, it was incredibly difficult to jump straight into a Commander or Deputy Commander position.

However, there was an exception.

“This promotion evaluation is the last one of the year, right? Since it’s the exam held just before the year wraps up, a special advancement system is applied.”

“A special advancement system?”

“Yeah. Each unit collects the elements they deem most important and reflects them in the evaluation.”

For the Firepower Support Unit, comprised of mages, moving to a higher position was possible based on the development of new magic or the quality of papers submitted to academic societies.

The Counter-Intelligence Task Force didn’t disclose their criteria to the public, but they seemed to base it on the classified missions performed throughout the year. Some units simply gave bonus points for the number of deployments or for receiving fewer civil complaints.

“What’s the condition for our unit?”

“A face-off.”

“Pardon?”

“I mean, a duel. The one who wins through a fair fight takes everything from the loser.”

“…….”

In a nutshell, they were holding a deathmatch with their careers on the line.

One of the seniors said to me, “Doesn’t that sound pretty tempting from your perspective, Hayan? If you beat Ha-neul, you’d get the position of Education Leader.”

“Is that true?”

“Of course. You’d be in charge of training the new recruits coming in next year.”

“Ohhh…….”

Now that was a truly attractive condition.

Since the zero-year rookies who joined this year didn’t have assigned positions anyway, they had nothing to lose by failing. Though, if you picked the wrong opponent, you’d end up getting a thorough beating.

But was this really okay?

In the Special Unit, where everyone constantly dives into battlefields, having talented individuals rise quickly to the top can guarantee the survival of their comrades. After all, nothing is more dangerous than an incompetent commander.

That was why other zero-year rookies like Kang Nabi or Noh Yeon-hwa weren’t treated like rookies and were immediately deployed to dangerous missions.

However, this kind of radical personnel reshuffling was bound to have side effects—the collapse of the hierarchy, or the promotion of excessive competition and violence.

Especially in Division 3, where discipline between seniors and juniors was paramount, having a rookie climb too high risked disrupting the unit’s atmosphere. Even now, among those gathered at the training ground, I could see a few seniors who looked displeased with the idea of making Alexei the Commander.

To put it kindly, it was flexibility. To put it bluntly, it was an excessively radical appointment.

Who created this kind of advancement system?

One of the seniors answered my question. “It’s been almost ten years. It’s supposedly been around since Commander Yoo Cheol-jin’s time?”

“Deputy Commander Yoo Se-byeol’s father?”

“That’s what I heard.”

He recalled the past state of Division 3 as told to him by his own seniors.

“We have more injuries and fight more violently than other units, right? So, while it’s not the case at all now, in the old days, all sorts of street thugs used to flock here. Not at all like now, though.”

“…….”

“Well? You got something to say?”

“No, please continue.”

“Among them were criminals and people from criminal organizations. Because those guys formed cartels, the swordsmen from ‘The Old Gods’ Wound’ needed to push them out by force.”

So that’s why they made this system. It seemed there was a specific back-story as to why almost all the current members of Division 3 were from The Old Gods’ Wound.

“Anyway, that’s an old story. After Commander Yoo Cheol-jin took his medical leave, it became a unit tradition to have a fair duel once a year.”

The words ‘Is this not just Purge Day?’ reached the tip of my tongue, but I swallowed them back down with superhuman patience. After all, I could have been the first victim.

Either way, it made sense in its own way, but even so, it was a very outdated rule.

It had been nearly four years since the Sword King, Yoo Cheol-jin, went into seclusion. It might not seem like a long time, but in the Special Unit where people are ground down constantly, four years was quite a while.

Especially this year, a massive number of Division 3 personnel retired following the anomalous Gate. Since Kang Ha-neul, who could be considered the most senior right now, was only entering his third year, it was safe to say almost no one remembered those earlier days.

The radical prescription that might have been groundbreaking back then was now starting to rot into absurdity and malpractice.

“Do you really intend to make Alexei the Commander?”

“Why? Is there a problem?”

“We have Deputy Commander Yoo Se-byeol, don’t we?”

The practical Commander of the unit wasn’t Yoo Cheol-jin, but Yoo Se-byeol. She didn’t just manage the operations of Division 3; she was the granddaughter of the Sword Immortal and the link between The Old Gods’ Wound and the Special Unit.

If Yoo Se-byeol weren’t qualified to be Deputy Commander, I wouldn’t have cared whether the seniors challenged her to a duel or not.

However, whatever else she might be, she had never once acted in a way that would lose her the trust of her comrades.

Not even once.

And the seniors, who had known her much longer than the year or so I had, should have known that better than anyone.

“That’s true. It’s not like we dislike the Deputy Commander. We just feel that change is necessary.”

“Change?”

“Yes. We can’t leave the position of Division 3 Commander vacant any longer.”

The existence of Star Scars had become public knowledge, and the goals of the Archdukes who descended upon the earth had become clear. Monsters with egos surpassing the Special-Class were beginning to stir across the globe.

Between the Apostle of the Outer God, the black mage Patel, and the Council—the alliance of demons—there was no time to waste while their fangs sank deeper into humanity’s flesh.

“So that’s why you’re making Alexei the Commander.”

“He’s the one among us with the highest chance of beating Deputy Commander Yoo Se-byeol.”

“The Deputy Commander is too soft-hearted; she can’t bring herself to push out Commander Yoo Cheol-jin.”

“It’s questionable if she even has the intention to in the first place.”

The relationship between Yoo Se-byeol and Yoo Cheol-jin was far more complex than these guys knew. However, the seniors of Division 3, unaware of what had transpired at the mansion, intended to use Alexei to end his era.

As the first pawn for their plan, they chose the only agent who was close to the Deputy Commander and yet so eccentric that no matter what bizarre stunt he pulled within the Bureau, it wouldn’t be seen as out of character.

Me.

“You’re going to cooperate, right?”

“We aren’t asking you to do anything too difficult. Just pull some strings behind the scenes so the Deputy Commander loses to Alexei.”

“Didn’t you say it was a ‘fair duel’ earlier?”

“It is fair. It’s not like we’re jumping her as a group, right?”

“Though we will challenge her beforehand to wear her out.”

Spoken like true disciples of the Sword Immortal—the same ones who ditched their master to run off to Japan after promising him internal energy. Every single one of them had a loose screw in the part of the brain responsible for “morality.”

“…Must it be me?”

As the “Light Mage” Sae Hayan, keeper of Division 3’s final shred of conscience, I absolutely did not want to be a part of this cowardly and underhanded scheme. However, the wicked swordsmen, having seen through my righteous heart from the start, kept me bound and began their torture.

“Well, if you don’t want to, there’s no helping it. We’ll just have to smash this Nightmare figurine right in front of your eyes.”

“No…! Not that!”

“Next is this mirror ball. Why on earth do you have 100 heads of kings who climbed the Thirteen Palaces in your dorm anyway?”

“Oh, you can break those.”

I resisted their relentless persuasion and threats with stubborn persistence. But when the seniors hijacked my smartwatch, logged into War of the Monsters, and prepared to feed my precious, painstakingly raised <Special-Class Monster Cat, Gargantua (SSR)> to ‘Francoise’—

I finally broke down in tears and surrendered.

“N-not that child…! Fine! I’ll cooperate! I’ll do it…!”

“Wise choice. Here, take this.”

They handed me a small note. The instructions written on it regarding how to drain Yoo Se-byeol’s strength were so wicked and cruel that they were reminiscent of the terrifying plans Perez had devised in the Tower of Proof.

Only after my smartwatch was taken hostage was I finally set free.

“I’m sorry… I’ll rescue you soon.”

From behind me, I could hear the sad cries of Gargantua calling out desperately to its master, but there was nothing I could do. With staggering steps, I passed through the corridor and headed straight for her office.

“Is he gone?”

“Yeah, I confirmed he’s heading toward the office.”

After Hayan left, the seniors of Division 3 turned off the smartwatch without a hint of regret.

“Hey, you. Come down from there now.”

“Is this really enough?”

“You said you wanted to fight the Deputy Commander, didn’t you? The chance is coming soon, so keep yourself limber.”

As Alexei stepped down from his throne made of stacked scarecrows, they tidied up the training ground as if nothing had happened. Kang Ha-neul, who had been actually training in the adjacent hall, came over after hearing the noise and scolded them.

“You guys are just doing useless things.”

“That’s just what you think, Ha-neul.”

What the unit members truly wanted was for Yoo Se-byeol to finally stop living in Yoo Cheol-jin’s shadow and ascend to the position of Commander. However, she refused to erase the spot her father was supposed to return to.

The method they found after desperate brainstorming was to use the advancement system to hand her a defeat. If Alexei won and, using the Deputy Commander’s authority, immediately claimed the long-vacant Commander’s chair, she would have no choice but to accept reality.

“Do you really think doing this will let you beat the Deputy Commander?”

Kang Ha-neul watched Alexei’s back with a pathetic gaze as he returned to the dorm clutching a Kandu mirror ball, eventually letting out a small sigh.

“It’s true he’s stronger than me, but he’s still just a Middle Level. Even if he reached Upper Level, he wouldn’t beat the Deputy Commander.”

“We know. That’s why we dragged him into this.”

“What?”

“Hayan. He’s the only one.”

“The only one? For what?”

“The person who beat Deputy Commander Yoo Se-byeol in the entrance test.”

The real plan the seniors had prepared wasn’t a duel between Alexei and Yoo Se-byeol.

“That kid might be quick on the uptake, but he’s dim-witted about things like this. By the time he realizes, it’ll be too late.”

“Actually, the Deputy Commander might pounce first.”

“Is that piece of data really that important?”

“Who knows. Let’s finish cleaning up and have that snack party.”

The moment Hayan carried out the instructions on that note, he would never be able to escape the duel.