The Black Elephant Gang Incident
It was in the afternoon, after lunch, when I had just finished external martial arts training with Bi Sa-yeong and Bae Jong-gwan, as always.
I had taken off my top and was splashing water over myself when a young lady suddenly approached.
She was quite cute, her face flushed red.
"Um…"
Heh, again?
I smirked and asked,
"Do you have some business with me, miss?"
Her face turned even redder as she held out a handkerchief to me.
"Please… use this to wipe your sweat."
It was a pretty handkerchief, embroidered with the name Song Yeong-yeong.
From behind, Bi Sa-yeong muttered loudly enough for all to hear, his eyes clearly displeased.
"Jong-gwan's the one who's really drenched in sweat."
But she either didn't hear or chose not to.
Her trembling hand continued to hold out the handkerchief.
I couldn't bear to ignore her, so I reluctantly accepted it.
"Thank you, Lady Yeong-yeong."
Her face instantly brightened with delight. Then, squealing, "Kyaa! He called my name!", she ran off.
I looked at her retreating back for a moment, then wiped my sweat with the handkerchief, murmuring,
"Truly, I am a sinful man. How regrettable that I cannot return her heart… Hah."
Smack!
Bi Sa-yeong promptly whacked the back of my head.
"Quit grinning and talking nonsense, you bastard!"
Thanks to training my body, it hardly hurt.
I grinned and teased him,
"Jealous again? You should be used to it by now."
"Hmph! I am used to it. What I'm not used to is how fast you got used to it!"
I handed him the handkerchief I'd just been given, still grinning.
"Come on, lighten up. Use this to wipe your sweat."
"You bastard! Keep it to yourself!"
At that moment, Bae Jong-gwan spoke in genuine curiosity.
"It's strange though, isn't it? This is the fourth day in a row. And all different girls too. Jin's been slimmed down and handsome for a while now—so why only now?"
Bi Sa-yeong replied in an annoyed tone,
"Obviously, it's because of the duel with Ju Tae-gyeong. Before, Jin was just some weird guy obsessed with external arts. But after he crushed Ju Tae-gyeong, he suddenly became the perfect young master—looks and skill. No matter how handsome you are, in the frontlines, if your martial arts are weak, you're just a fool."
Bae Jong-gwan looked wounded.
"'Just some weird guy obsessed with external arts'? Sa-yeong, you didn't really think of me that way, did you?"
"No! Not me! I mean the other girls thought that!"
"Ohhh… the other girls."
He nodded as if enlightened, then suddenly asked,
"Then if I become strong, will I be as popular as Jin?"
With a childlike expression, he looked between us. Sa-yeong glanced at me, then back at him, unable to answer. Finally, he barked,
"Jong-gwan! Are you saying you want to be popular with women other than Lady Cheon?! If she hears that, she'll be devastated!"
Flustered, Bae Jong-gwan shook his head furiously.
"No, no! Of course not! I'd never think that! I was just asking!"
"That's what I thought. Good."
Watching the two of them bicker, I smiled faintly.
Popular young master, huh?
It was an unfamiliar term.
In my previous life, I had never once received affection from women, nor had I formed any real relationship.
When Lady Na was alive, I was just a fat fool, barely surviving under her care. After her death, I was consumed with training myself, and the frontlines had become too urgent for romance of any kind.
Yet now… women were approaching me.
A laugh slipped out.
It felt awkward. Embarrassing.
But, strangely… it didn't feel bad.
"Are you all finished with training?!"
A bright, clear voice rang out.
Turning, I saw the three women of our squad walking toward us after their own practice.
Naturally, my gaze drifted toward Lady Na Seo-yu, standing in the middle.
My heart began to pound.
In my last life, as long as she lived, I was nothing but a burden, too weak to even dream of expressing my feelings.
But after her death, I had changed. I became someone entirely different.
Of course, she never saw that.
Yet now, I had gained enough confidence to at least wonder—
"Would it be different, this time?"
Not long ago, I had even given her one of the precious elixirs I'd received from my father, originally meant for myself.
My cultivation was already nearing one gabsja. Just a few more years' worth of inner strength, and I'd reach it.
Taking the elixir right now would've been wasteful.
And besides, it felt wrong to hoard it, especially since Bi Sa-yeong had already shared half of his own with me.
So after much thought, I decided to give one to Lady Na.
Naturally, she had been shocked and tried to refuse.
But I had pressed her, saying:
"Of course, I could give this to Jong-gwan or Lady Cheon to raise our squad's overall level. But after this last mission, I realized our captain cannot be the only peak expert. You heard, didn't you? He was in real danger. So I judged that either Lady Cheong-yeon, you, or I must ascend quickly to support him. That is why I'm offering it to you, Lady Na. Please, don't refuse."
After much hesitation, she finally accepted, thanking me again and again.
Watching her take the elixir, I felt a deep sense of satisfaction—almost as if she had accepted my feelings.
Of course, I wasn't so naïve as to believe it meant that. But still, I held a faint hope.
Maybe, just maybe, a piece of my heart had reached her.
Now, as she approached with her bright smile, she spotted the handkerchief in my hand.
"Another handkerchief? Who was it this time?"
"Ah—th-this…"
I froze. Damn fool, why let her see that?!
Before I could stammer an excuse, Bi Sa-yeong cut in bluntly,
"Today it was Lady Song Yeong-yeong of Squad Three."
Lady Na gasped.
"Lady Song Yeong-yeong? Oh my, I've heard she's quite popular among men!"
For a moment, I felt a spark of anticipation. Would she be jealous?
But she only beamed and congratulated me.
"Wow, Young Master Seonu, you've really become popular! I feel so proud—like a mother watching her son succeed. How admirable!"
…Mother?
Then the elixir I gave her…
Did I just become a dutiful son?
I nearly staggered in despair, until Lady Cheong-yeon lightly patted my shoulder, as if to comfort me.
She probably knew more than she let on, but either way, it helped.
Meanwhile, Lady Na, oblivious, suddenly spoke brightly again.
"Oh, I almost forgot! It's been confirmed that we'll receive our new squad member only after the Blood Alliance Summit. They say it's too troublesome to bring in a recruit before then. So in three weeks, we'll have a new comrade!"
Everyone nodded with cheerful faces.
"Oh, that's good news!"
"Good? Only if it's the right kind of person."
"Come on, what are the chances of getting another Ju Tae-gyeong? I'm sure it'll be someone decent."
Her words made me dig through my memories.
After the summit… ah, that one? He wasn't in our squad in my past life, so I didn't know him well. But I remembered him as a lively, amiable fellow.
At least, he definitely wasn't another Ju Tae-gyeong.
After losing to me in the duel, Ju Tae-gyeong had done exactly what you'd expect of the so-called Jeomchang Snake.
Instead of calling me "senior brother," he went crawling to Captain Ma Yu-gyeom of Squad Four, begging to transfer.
I heard he even shed tears to make it happen.
Thanks to that, we witnessed the rare sight of the proud Ma Yu-gyeom lowering his head to Captain Seol Pung to ask a favor.
After Ma Yu-gyeom had originally asked only for Ju Tae-gyeong to be transferred, we ended up sending along all of his lackeys as well.
It was my insistence—better to have no squadmates at all than ones whose trust was already broken.
And so, our Seventh Squad was now very short-staffed.
While other squads averaged ten members, we had only seven.
But I felt no regret.
"Seven are stronger than we were before!"
There was no need to explain why—seven united were far better than ten divided.
Even more so since, after taking the elixir, Lady Na had advanced another level, leaving us with three warriors at the first-rate upper level or higher, aside from the captain.
In terms of combat power, we were stronger than before, not weaker.
Still, there was one regret.
If only we had more elixirs, we could've raised the level of the remaining members as well.
For the first time, I deeply regretted the death of Elder Seok Gyeong-dal, who had once concocted elixirs with poisons.
"Not just the elixirs—his knowledge of how to fight against the Blood Sect… it's such a waste that he had to die."
After the day we killed Ji Gwang-ok, we never saw Dakam again.
As Elder Seok had warned, Dakam and his siblings completely vanished, and his younger brother Raccoon—who had been Soul-Devoured—was already killed by Ji Gwang-ok.
The cottage was left without a trace. Dakam must have taken all of the old man's notes as well.
At least I had managed to learn something about poisonous and antidote herbs, but in truth, much was still lacking.
Just then, someone landed nearby like a swooping swallow.
It was Captain Seol Pung, returning from the officers' meeting.
"Captain!"
"Did it go well?"
"Any news?"
Seol Pung gave a bitter smile, looking apologetic.
"One good news, one bad. Which do you want first?"
Lady Cheon Ju-eun was the first to raise her hand cutely.
"The bad news! That way the good news will make us twice as happy!"
Seol Pung chuckled and said,
"We've been assigned another cleaning duty by the Vice Commander. He wants us to clear the approach road."
Everyone groaned.
"What?! But we already did that a few days ago!"
"We even trimmed the trees down evenly!"
"I said as much, but the Vice Commander insisted—'Cleaning and clearing must be done daily.'"
We could only laugh hollowly at that.
Daily cleaning? Now?
Bi Sa-yeong burst out in anger.
"What kind of bullshit is that?! If it's so important, why didn't they do it for over ten years?! And now, when another Blood-Alliance War might break out, we're told to sweep the damn road? Have they gone mad?!"
His words were harsh, but everyone nodded.
Vice Commander Heon Yeong-bo truly seemed to be staking his fate on this summit between the Martial Alliance and the Blood Sect.
But recalling my past life, I could only click my tongue and shake my head.
Even back then, Heon Yeong-bo had desperately prepared for the summit—and had achieved nothing.
Afterward, he remained in the Thirteen Squads as Vice Commander, unchanged.
Pitiful, and almost laughable.
The so-called Blood Alliance Summit—when the Alliance Leader and the Blood Demon met—had been all tension, as if it might ignite the Second Blood-Alliance War… yet it ended in empty talk, utterly meaningless.
"It was so pointless I still don't know why they even met."
In my past life, I had sighed in relief that nothing came of it. But the real problems had begun afterward.
The thought made me swallow hard.
"Back then, it was as if we'd been cursed."
It began when Squad Four's vice-captain, Lady Mae Yeo-gyeong, was found dead—her essence drained by a Blood Ghost.
And this, right near the Thirteen Squads' headquarters.
Horrified, we declared an emergency alert and scoured the area, but found no trace of the fiend.
That was when Ma Yu-gyeom—who had been her lover—began to spiral.
He had always been arrogant, but he was also a capable warrior and leader. After her death, he began to unravel completely.
Even those who disliked him pitied him, saying it was surely because of Lady Mae's death.
Around the same time, there was the incident where Squad Three's vice-captain, Myeong Sa-hyeon—who once spoke with us—was Soul-Devoured by the Blood Sect, forcing Captain Tang Yeo-eun to kill him herself.
One after another, such tragedies drove the morale of the Thirteen Squads to rock bottom.
Looking back, I wondered if all the later disasters had truly begun in that very period.
Tang Yeo-eun suddenly becoming Ma Yu-gyeom's woman.
And eventually, when the frontlines collapsed, Ma Yu-gyeom—once the Jeomchang Sect's chief disciple—turning traitor and joining the Blood Sect, shocking everyone.
"…If that's the case…"
A chill ran down my spine.
I couldn't shake the feeling that there was some hidden connection tying all of these events together—something I had yet to grasp.
But how could I prepare?
In my past life, the Seventh Squad had been on leave during that time. We knew nothing of those events, nor did we have any ties to them. I had no way to anticipate or prepare for them.
As I brooded, Lady Cheon Ju-eun piped up again.
"Captain! Then what's the good news?!"
Seol Pung smiled and replied,
"Our leave has been moved up to next week. Which means we'll be allowed outside soon."
Our eyes widened, then we erupted in cheers.
"Waaaah! Vacation?! Really?!"
"Hahaha! That's wonderful news, Captain!"
But I alone stood frozen, stunned.
Next week? Our leave was brought forward?
That never happened in my past life.
Startled, I asked the captain,
"Wh-what? How did that happen?"
He explained with a smile,
"Captain Ma Yu-gyeom of Squad Four conceded the slot. He said since our Seventh Squad is short-staffed, it would be best to take leave before the new recruits arrive. I suppose he felt some debt of conscience over the Ju Tae-gyeong matter."
"I see…"
So this was an unknown future.
It unsettled me. But after a moment, I realized—this could only be good.
In my past life, our squad had been away on leave during those turbulent days, unable to respond to anything. Not that I'd had the strength or foresight to act back then.
But now was different.
This time, I could be there. I could change something.
I had to.
Then another memory surfaced.
Wait.
Around this time… wasn't there an interesting incident in Guizhou?
In my past life, I only heard about it after it was over, when I returned from leave. But this time… if I played my cards right…
My lips curled upward in anticipation.
I asked quickly,
"Captain! What do you plan to do on leave?"
"Eh? I don't have anywhere in particular. I thought I'd just stay behind and train."
As expected.
I immediately leapt in protest.
"You can't do that, Captain!"
He blinked at my outburst.
"H-huh? Why not?"
"Didn't you yourself say it? Rest is part of training!"
"Well, yes, but I really don't have any—"
"Then let's go to Guizhou!"
"…What?"
"To Guizhou, Captain! Let me show you around properly!"
As Captain Seol Pung stood blinking in surprise, I smiled with satisfaction.
If I could take him there with me, this leave would prove far more rewarding than anyone expected.