Changes (1)

When we brought the Iron Fiend’s corpse back to the Thirteenth Unit, an emergency meeting of the squad captains was called immediately.

Originally, they’d planned to hold a meeting the next morning for Captain Seol Pung’s return, but given the gravity of the situation, they simply couldn’t afford to wait.

And as Seol Pung attended the meeting, he caught sight of one of the captains present—and froze in surprise.

“…Captain Je?”

The man burst into a booming laugh and held a hand out toward Seol Pung.

“Hahaha! We meet again! Didn’t I say we’d be seeing each other again soon? Hahahaha!”

It was none other than Rising Spear Swordsman Je Won-yeong, who had fought alongside the Mountain Sword Sect against the Justice Alliance Hall.

As the former First Squad Captain of the Eleventh Flying Dragon Unit, he was now attending the Thirteenth Unit captains’ meeting.

Seol Pung stared at him, dazed, and asked:

“Wait, how…?”

“Hahaha! I put in for a transfer to the Thirteenth Unit as soon as I got back. The request hasn’t been formally approved yet, but it’s only a matter of time, so why sit around waiting? I came straight over. Hahaha!”

At that, Seol Pung’s jaw dropped.

“So that’s why you rushed back so quickly?”

“Exactly. That was the reason. You may now address me as the new Fourth Squad Captain of the Thirteenth Unit. Hahahaha!”

The whole situation was so absurd that Seol Pung could only let out a hollow laugh.

After they’d repelled the Justice Alliance Hall’s invasion, while the Thirteenth Unit members stayed behind to wait for Seonu Jin and Bi Sayoung, Je Won-yeong had hurriedly returned to the Eleventh Unit.

Apparently, that had been so he could file for a transfer to the Thirteenth.

Even so, the fact that he’d made it here before the Seventh Squad had even returned said everything about what kind of man he was—bold to the point of madness.

Je Won-yeong nudged the captain standing beside him with an elbow—Azure Spear Dragon Sa Gun-il.

“I’ve always wanted to serve alongside this fellow Gun-il here,” he said. “The only reason I didn’t come sooner was that scoundrel Ma Yu-gyeom was stationed here. Now that he’s gone, and I’ve been given an important reason to show up, there was no time to waste.”

“…An important reason?”

While they were chatting, Vice-Commander Heon Yeong-bo of the Thirteenth Unit cleared his throat.

“Now, now, let’s begin the meeting,” he said. “We were going to introduce the new Fourth Squad Captain to the Seventh Squad Captain, but it seems there’s no need.”

He turned toward Unit Commander Pung Yang and asked:

“Since the subject has come up—before we discuss this new demonic being, may we first brief Captain Seol Pung on the personnel changes?”

At his question, the taciturn Pung Yang gave a slight nod.

Heon Yeong-bo turned back to Seol Pung.

“Quite a lot has changed while you were away, thanks to the Sword Saint,” he said. “We can go over the details slowly later, but one thing you should hear right away is that there’s been a large-scale recruitment.

“Thanks to that, the other squads have all been brought back up to a full ten members apiece.”

He flicked a glance at Fifth Squad Captain Dok Su-gwang, then continued:

“Well… a major loss of personnel has just occurred again, of course. Ahem.

“In any case, in the middle of all that, we had two new recruits who insisted they had to be assigned to the Seventh Squad. Since they were so adamant, we’ve held off assigning them to any other squad and kept them waiting.”

At that, Seol Pung frowned slightly.

“They insisted on joining our squad?”

“That’s right.”

“Who on earth are they?”

Instead of answering, Heon Yeong-bo turned toward the door and called out:

“Come in!”

The ones who entered were two figures: one a young man so pretty he could be mistaken for a girl, the other a beautiful woman with a languid expression.

Seol Pung stared at them for a moment—

Then his eyes flew wide open.

“Ah, you’re…!”

The pretty youth broke into a bright smile and ran over to him.

“Captain Seol Pung! Have you been well?”

It was Ma Maeng-un.

The son of Ma Jong-hwan, the living corpse from the Demonic Alliance—whom we’d ended up rescuing during our leave thanks to my “persuasion.”

Recognizing him, Seol Pung smiled broadly, still half-shocked, and asked:

“So it is you, Maeng-un! What are you doing here? What about Elder Gwi?”

“I received Father’s permission and applied to serve in the Flying Dragon Corps,” Maeng-un replied. “He told me to be of help to my benefactors—and that I needed to become more manly.”

“I see… Then you’re very welcome here.”

Seol Pung greeted him with a warm smile.

His martial skill was still a bit lacking, but there was no way the addition of someone who carried Elder Gwi’s medical arts wouldn’t be a boon.

After exchanging brief greetings with Maeng-un, Seol Pung turned his gaze to the languid-looking woman who was standing off to one side, watching him.

She was not someone his memory recognized.

Of course, that didn’t mean much—Seol Pung’s memory for women was practically nonexistent. There were only a handful with whom he’d exchanged more than a few words in his entire life.

But she seemed to know him.

With that characteristic drowsy expression and hazy eyes, she looked at him and said:

“I’ve finally found you, Gale Dragon Seol Pung.”

That single line was enough to throw him.

Finally found him?

Him?

He looked bewildered and asked carefully:

“You… know me…?”

At that moment, a face from his past flashed through his mind.

A woman with that same languid, hazy expression, swinging a torrent of black dragon-like whip-arts….

His eyes went round.

“No way…!”

The woman smiled lazily.

“Now you remember?”

Her drowsy, hazy expression sharpened into a clear memory.

She was indeed Ya Un-hyang, the one who had fought Seol Pung at the Black Market Hall.

The supreme expert of the Black Path called “Blood-Patterned Western Beauty” — Blood-Whip Courtesan Ya Un-hyang.

The one Seol Pung had freed from the Black Market Hall’s dungeon… and hadn’t been able to bring himself to kill.

Flustered, he stammered:

“H-How… how are you here?”

Ya Un-hyang’s lazy smile deepened.

“I came to find you, Seol Pung.”

Her languid smile was so intoxicating that even Vice-Commander Heon Yeong-bo had to swallow hard.

And Seol Pung—who’d gone completely white the instant she appeared—still had no idea.

The things that would shock him in this meeting weren’t over yet.

We were all gathered in the Seventh Squad’s ready room, waiting for Captain Seol Pung to return from the meeting.

While we waited, I was explaining the Iron Fiend to the others.

They spoke up as I finished.

“This is worrying.”

Lady Na said.

“Just the increase in lord-class demons alone was dangerous enough—and now we have a monster that can’t even be pierced by gang-qi.

“Everyone, please be careful. Whenever we move into the forest, try to stay with the captain, Lord Seonu, or Cheong Yeon.”

The moment she heard about the Iron Fiend, the first thing she worried about was other people. That was very much like Lady Na.

“A hide that even gang-qi can’t penetrate? That’s incredible. That’s diamond-body invulnerability for real!”

Despite the fact we were talking about one of our enemies, Baek Jong-gwan’s first reaction to its hard skin was sheer excitement.

Cheon Ju-eun and Bi Sayoung both looked troubled, lost in thought.

It was obvious the existence of the Iron Fiend had unsettled them.

I tried to reassure them.

“At least we know how to deal with it,” I said. “As long as we prepare properly, we should be able to stop it without too much damage. Try not to worry too much.”

Bi Sayoung let out a sigh.

“The more I think about it, the more I realize how lucky we were to meet Old Man Seok. If I’d known it would turn out like this, I’d have spoken more politely to him.”

I could only give an awkward nod and laugh.

“Yeah….”

I’d told everyone that we’d learned the Iron Fiend’s weakness thanks to the old man Seok Gyeongdal.

I couldn’t exactly say “because I remember from my previous life,” so of course that was the story I’d gone with.

The problem was that the captain, Lady Cheong Yeon, and Bi Sayoung had all been there with me when we met Old Man Seok.

I’d glossed over it by claiming the captain and Cheong Yeon had been busy fighting the enemy, and Bi Sayoung had still been circulating his qi—so I was the only one awake in time to hear the explanation.

But…

Even I knew that was absurd.

Bi Sayoung, being simple as he was, didn’t seem inclined to think too deeply about it.

But anyone who thought for even a moment would realize how far-fetched the story was.

In that kind of life-or-death chaos, how could I just happen to hear only the part about dealing with the Iron Fiend?

There was no way someone like Lady Cheong Yeon wouldn’t notice the inconsistency.

So I stole a glance at her.

She was lost in her own thoughts, not joining the conversation.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t notice; she’d simply chosen to pretend she hadn’t.

That quiet consideration made me all the more grateful to her.

Just then, Captain Seol Pung opened the door and walked in.

“Captain!”

“How did the meeting go?”

“Is there any new information?”

His expression was strangely complicated as he nodded.

I could feel the way his eyes brushed over me and Cheong Yeon with a faint bitterness.

I found that a bit odd.

“Yes,” he said. “There’s quite a lot to talk about. Some good news—and some that you may find hard to hear.”

His subdued expression drew everyone’s attention.

He began.

“First of all, information on the Iron Fiend has been sent to the other Flying Dragon Units as an emergency notice.”

“It seems there haven’t been any reports of Iron Fiends in other units yet. I hope this means we were the first to encounter it—but we can’t be sure.

“For now, our unit has decided to secure as much Hwagolsan as possible and organize search parties centered around the squad captains. As soon as I finish passing on the details of the meeting, I’ll be joining them.”

I nodded silently.

In my previous life as well, the first place an Iron Fiend had appeared was our Thirteenth Unit.

If nothing else had changed, then this time we might be able to stop it with far fewer casualties.

After that, the captain hesitated briefly before continuing.

“And… there’s also one piece of good news.”

“Good news?”

“Yes. For the first time since Jin, Lady Ha, and Lady Cheon joined, we’ve received new recruits—two of them.”

The moment he said it, the squad erupted in cheers.

“Kyaah! New recruits?!”

“Wow! We’re finally increasing our numbers. What are they like?”

“Are they men? Women?”

Seeing how excited everyone was, Captain Seol Pung gave a slightly bitter smile.

“One man, one woman,” he said. “And the man is someone some of you have already met.”

“Huh?”

“We’ve met him?”

“Who is it?”

The captain didn’t answer.

“We’ll talk about that properly when you meet them,” he said.

Despite the supposedly good news, his expression did not brighten.

So I spoke up.

“But you didn’t bring them here with you, Captain?”

Normally, when new recruits were assigned to a squad, they were brought straight to that squad’s ready room.

That had been the case when I joined.

So instead of coming here to announce them, he should’ve brought the new recruits along and introduced them.

The fact that he hadn’t—and that his face had seemed heavy since he walked in—made it hard not to suspect the two things were connected.

He heaved a small sigh and nodded.

“That’s right. There’s something we have to decide among ourselves first, so I told them we’d bring them over a bit later.”

Then he looked at me and Lady Cheong Yeon.

“At present, the Thirteenth Unit’s new Fourth Squad Captain is Rising Spear Swordsman Je Won-yeong—Captain Je.”

What he said next was something none of us had expected.

“…What?”

“Who did you say?”

“Je Won-yeong? That man?!”

We were even more shocked than when we’d heard his name earlier.

“Je Won-yeong from the Mountain Sword Sect?”

“The same one who fought with us?”

Captain Seol Pung nodded with a wry smile.

“Yes. The very same Captain Je we fought beside at the Mountain Sword Sect. I’m told he applied for a transfer the moment he got back. And…”

His gaze now settled on the expressionless face of Lady Hae Cheong-yeon.

“He requested Lady Hae as the new vice-captain of the Fourth Squad.”

“…What?”

“Come again?!”

We were even more stunned than before.

He’d requested Lady Cheong Yeon as his vice-captain.

Which meant she would have to move to the Fourth Squad.

And that wasn’t the only shock waiting for us.

The captain went on.

“And… the Third Squad’s Lady Tang requested Jin as her new vice-captain.”

“…Huh?!”

My mouth fell open.

Lady Tang had requested me as her vice-captain?

So I had to move to another squad as well?

Bi Sayoung quickly cut in:

“Do we have to accept those requests?”

With a heavy sigh, Captain Seol Pung answered:

“No, we don’t have to. But the truth is, we have no real grounds to refuse. It’s undeniable that the Seventh Squad’s combat strength is heavily concentrated right now.”

He continued:

“Even without mentioning Jin and Lady Ha—who’ve already reached the peak realm—Lady Na and you, Sayoung, are both strong enough to serve as squad captains in other units.

“Baek Jong-gwan and Lady Cheon, too, are more than qualified to be vice-captains elsewhere.”

“Ah…”

None of us could argue with that.

He was absolutely right.

“At this rate, even if Jin and Lady Ha don’t move as vice-captains now, they’ll probably be assigned as captains to other squads—or even other Flying Dragon Units—before long. Peak-realm talents are rare, after all.”

We all sat there staring at one another, stunned.

I looked at Captain Seol Pung with a conflicted expression, then turned my eyes toward Lady Na.

The thought of parting ways with Captain Seol Pung, my benefactor and spiritual pillar, and with Lady Na, whom I had loved since my last life…

It made my heart unbearably heavy.