Episode 94

As soon as they returned to the Thirteenth Division with Cheolgwi’s corpse, an emergency meeting of the squad leaders was convened.

Originally, the plan had been to hold the meeting the next morning for Seolpung, who had just come back today, but given the gravity of the situation, it simply couldn’t be postponed.

When Seolpung arrived at the meeting, he was taken aback upon seeing one of the squad leaders present.

“…Commander Je?”

The man laughed heartily and extended his hand toward Seolpung.

“Hahaha! We meet again! Didn’t I say we’d cross paths soon? Hahaha!”

It was Je Won-young, the Sword Hero of the Pointed Blade, who had fought alongside them against the Jeonghyeop faction at the Mountain Sword Gate.

He had been the First Squad Leader of the Flying Dragon Twenty-One Division, yet here he was attending the Thirteenth Division’s commanders’ meeting.

Seolpung, still stunned, asked him, “How is this possible?”

“Ha! The moment I got back, I applied for a transfer to the Thirteenth Division. The approval hasn’t come through yet, but why wait when it’s inevitable? So I came straight here. Haha!”

Seolpung’s jaw dropped.

“So that’s why you rushed back like that?”

“Exactly. It was all because of this. From now on, call me the Fourth Squad Leader of the Flying Dragon Thirteenth Division! Hahaha!”

Seolpung couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief.

After repelling the Jeonghyeop invasion, Je Won-young had hurried back to the Eleventh Division while the Thirteenth Division members waited for Sun Woo-jin and Bi Sa-young.

Apparently, that was to apply for the transfer.

But to arrive at the Thirteenth Division even before the Seven Squad members had returned—he truly was a man of bold action.

Je Won-young nudged the Fourth Squad Leader, Jeom Chang Geom-ryong Sa Gun-il, standing beside him.

“I always wanted to work with Gun-il here. I just hadn’t come because of that Ma Yu-gyeom fellow. But now that Ma Yu-gyeom is gone and there’s an important reason I must come, I couldn’t delay even a moment.”

“…An important reason?”

As they spoke, Heon Yeong-bo, the deputy commander of the Thirteenth Division, cleared his throat.

“Alright, let’s begin the meeting. I was going to introduce the new Fourth Squad Leader to the Seven Squad, but that seems unnecessary now.”

He then looked toward Commander Pung-yang and asked, “Before we discuss the new recruits, may I first brief Commander Seolpung on the personnel transfers?”

Pung-yang nodded silently, and Heon Yeong-bo turned back to Seolpung.

“While you were away, thanks to Elder Geomseong, many changes have taken place. We can go over the details later, but first, I must tell you about the personnel reinforcements. There was a large-scale intake recently, allowing every squad to fill their ranks to ten.”

He glanced at Commander Oh Dok-su-gwang before continuing.

“Though, we did suffer a significant loss this time around. Hmm. Anyway, among the new recruits, two insisted on being assigned specifically to the Seven Squad. So we’ve been holding off on assigning them until now.”

Seolpung frowned in confusion.

“They insisted on being assigned to the Seven Squad?”

“Yes.”

“Who are they?”

Heon Yeong-bo called toward the door.

“Send them in!”

Two figures entered: a young man who looked almost like a woman, and a beautiful woman with a languid expression.

Seolpung’s eyes widened as he stared at them.

“Ah, you’re—”

The pretty youth smiled warmly and rushed forward.

“Commander Seolpung! It’s good to see you! How have you been?”

It was Ma Maeng-woon—the son of Ma Jong-hwan, the Life-and-Death Monster whom Seolpung had saved during a previous leave after being persuaded by Sun Woo-jin.

Seolpung smiled brightly, both happy and surprised.

“Maeng-woon! What brings you here? What about your father?”

“I got my father’s permission and applied to join the Flying Dragon Division. He told me to support my benefactors and that I needed to become more manly.”

“Ha, I see. Welcome.”

Seolpung greeted him warmly.

Though his martial skills were still lacking, Maeng-woon’s medical knowledge inherited from the Monster Clan would surely be a great asset.

After exchanging brief greetings, Seolpung shifted his gaze to the woman standing nearby with that same languid expression.

She was unfamiliar to him.

In fact, Seolpung rarely had any women in his memories—he could count on one hand the number of women he’d ever spoken to.

Yet she seemed to know him.

With her trademark dreamy eyes and relaxed expression, she said softly,

“So you’ve finally been found, Gwangpung Biryong Seolpung.”

Her words unsettled him.

“Finally found? Me?”

Seolpung asked cautiously, “You know me…?”

Suddenly, a face from his past flashed through his mind—the woman who had wielded a black dragon-like blade with a languid, hazy expression.

Startled, he blurted out,

“Could it be?!”

She smiled faintly and asked,

“Do you remember now?”

Her dreamy, hazy expression became clear in his memory.

She was Ya Unhyang—the Blood Blade Assassin from the Black Dragon faction, known as the pinnacle master called Yeomjak by the Black Path practitioners.

The very one Seolpung had spared after breaking the Black Dragon faction’s prison.

Flustered, Seolpung stammered,

“Ho-how did you come to be here?”

Ya Unhyang smiled languidly.

“I came looking for you, Seolpung.”

Her sultry smile was so captivating that even Heon Yeong-bo beside her swallowed hard.

Seolpung, pale as a ghost just from her presence, had no idea that the surprises awaiting him in this meeting were far from over…

---

We gathered in the Seven Squad’s waiting room, waiting for Commander Seolpung to return from the meeting.

While waiting, I was explaining about Cheolgwi to the squad members.

They spoke up.

“This is worrying. Just the increase in the number of Zhugui is dangerous enough, but now there’s a monster whose skin can’t be pierced by energy. Everyone, be careful. When moving through the forest, try to stay with the commander, Sun Woo-jin, or Cheong-yeon.”

As soon as I mentioned Cheolgwi, I was the first to voice concern.

“Skin that can’t be pierced by energy? Incredible! It’s practically invincible!”

Even though we were talking about our enemies, Bae Jong-gwan got excited just hearing about the tough skin.

Cheon Ju-eun and Bi Sa-young wore worried expressions, clearly uneasy about Cheolgwi’s existence.

I tried to reassure them.

“Still, it’s fortunate we know how to deal with them. If we prepare well, we can stop them without much damage. Don’t worry too much.”

Bi Sa-young sighed.

“Meeting Elder Seok was truly a blessing. If I’d known, I would have shown him more respect.”

I awkwardly smiled and nodded.

“Indeed.”

I had told everyone that learning Cheolgwi’s weakness was thanks to Elder Seok Gyeong-dal.

I couldn’t say it was because of memories from a past life, so that was the official story.

The problem was that the commander, Cheong-yeon, Bi Sa-young, and I had all met Elder Seok together.

I had roughly explained that the commander and Cheong-yeon were fighting enemies, and Bi Sa-young had woken up early during his energy cultivation to hear the information first.

‘Honestly, it’s nonsense.’

Bi Sa-young probably didn’t think much about it, but anyone who thought about it for a moment would realize how absurd it was.

How could we have learned the countermeasures for Cheolgwi in such a desperate situation?

So while Bi Sa-young might not notice, there was no way Cheong-yeon wouldn’t find it strange.

I glanced at Cheong-yeon, who was lost in thought.

The fact that she said nothing despite knowing everything made me think she was choosing to pretend ignorance.

I was grateful for her consideration.

Just then, Commander Seolpung opened the door and entered.

“Commander!”

“How did the meeting go?”

“Any new updates?”

Seolpung nodded with a somewhat complicated expression.

I caught the way his eyes briefly flickered toward me and Cheong-yeon with a hint of bitterness.

It was puzzling.

“Well, there’s a lot to talk about. Some good news, and some disappointing news.”

Everyone focused intently on him, sensing the weight in his tone.

He began.

“First, we’ve urgently relayed information about Cheolgwi to the other Flying Dragon divisions. It seems they haven’t reported any encounters yet. Hopefully, we were the first. We don’t know for sure. For now, our division will secure Hwagal Mountain as quickly as possible and form search teams centered around the squad leaders. Once I finish briefing you all, I’ll join them and depart immediately.”

I silently nodded.

In my previous life, the first appearance of Cheolgwi was also in our Thirteenth Division.

So if nothing else changes, we might be able to stop them with far fewer casualties than before.

Seolpung hesitated briefly, then continued.

“And… there’s some good news as well.”

“Good news?”

“Yes. After a long time since Jin So-jeo, Hae So-jeo, and Cheon So-jeo, we finally have new recruits. Two of them.”

The unexpected announcement sent the squad members into cheers.

“Yay! New recruits?!”

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

“Are they men? Women?”

Seolpung smiled wryly at their enthusiasm and began to answer.

“One man, one woman. And the man among them is someone a few of us have already met.”

“Excuse me?”

“Met before?”

“Who is it?”

But Commander Seolpung didn’t answer.

“We’ll talk about the details when you meet them in person.”

Seeing the commander’s expression fail to brighten despite the good news about the new recruits, I suddenly asked, “But why didn’t you bring the new recruits here right away?”

Back when I joined, it was customary to bring the new recruits as soon as the squad decided on them.

So normally, the commander wouldn’t just announce their arrival—he’d bring them here immediately to introduce them.

His heavy expression from earlier must be connected to this.

The commander sighed softly and nodded.

“Yes, we had some matters to settle among ourselves first, so we decided to bring them later.”

Then, looking at me and Cheongyeon Sojeo, he said, “Our new Thirteenth Generation Sa Squad commander is Jeon Wonyoung, the Je Squad commander.”

His words caught me completely off guard.

“…What?”

“Who did you say came?”

“Jeon Wonyoung? That guy?!”

We were stunned, and the commander gave a bitter smile, nodding.

“Yes, the very Je Squad commander who fought alongside us at Sangeommum. He applied for a transfer as soon as he returned. And…”

The commander’s gaze shifted to the expressionless Cheongyeon Sojeo.

“He requested Sojeo Cheongyeon as his new deputy commander for the Sa Squad.”

“…What?!”

“Say that again?!”

We were even more shocked than when we first heard Jeon Wonyoung’s name.

He requested Cheongyeon Sojeo as his deputy?

That meant Cheongyeon Sojeo was going to the Sa Squad.

But that wasn’t the only surprise.

The commander continued.

“And… Dang Sojeo from the Sam Squad requested Jin as his new deputy commander.”

“…What?!”

I was so stunned I just stood there, mouth agape.

Dang Sojeo requested me as deputy? So I’m supposed to transfer to another squad too?

Then Bisa Young hurriedly asked, “Do we have to accept these requests?”

Seolpung commander let out a deep sigh and replied, “Not necessarily. But it’s also true that we don’t have much ground to refuse. It’s undeniable that our Chil Squad is currently overloaded with talent. Jin and Hae Sojeo have already reached their peak, and both Na Sojeo and Sayoung, you have the skills to lead other squads. Even Jonggwan and Cheon Sojeo are more than capable of serving as deputy commanders elsewhere.”

“Ah…”

We had no argument against his words.

He was right.

“Chances are, even if Jin or Hae Sojeo don’t become deputy commanders this time, they might soon be appointed as commanders of other squads—or even transferred to other Biryong units. Talents who’ve reached the pinnacle are rare, after all.”

The commander’s words left us dazed, exchanging glances.

I looked at Seolpung commander with a complicated expression, then glanced at Na Sojeo.

To be separated from my benefactor and spiritual pillar, Commander Seolpung, and from Na Sojeo, whom I had admired since my past life—

My heart felt unbearably heavy.