The One-Eyed Bow Demon’s Gamble
“Wait, hold on—”
“I’ll pierce the filthy mouth that dared insult that man.”
Thwip—!
The arrow was already loose from the string before the words had even faded.
Whoooooosh—!
Wrapped in a whirling current, the shaft shot forward and punched clean through So Guman’s mouth in an instant.
It burst out the back of his skull and lodged in the ground, still spinning for a moment as it drilled farther in.
Bang—!
Then, under the aftershock of that vortex, So Guman’s head simply exploded.
Brain matter and bone shards sprayed in every direction.
It was the sort of sight that would make most people recoil in horror, but none of the Black Sword Squad seemed even remotely surprised.
“Captain! What are you doing, blowing his head clean off like that?”
“At least if we piece it back together somehow...”
“You think that’ll work?”
Far from being shaken, they were grumbling as they pointed at the scattered remains.
...
“Captain, quit acting up in the tree and get down here already.”
Tap—
The figure that had been standing in the sniping position floated lightly down in front of the men in black.
“What kind of manners is that, telling your superior to quit acting up?”
“If you’re acting up, I call it acting up. If not that, then do you have a more fitting, more goddamn appropriate way of saying it?”
“Want me to pierce that filthy tongue first?”
Their exchange was vicious, but there was no real hostility in it.
They’d known each other for so long that this sort of thing was ordinary.
The woman with the bow in her hand—no, the woman—was dressed a little differently from the other black-clad members.
The basic uniform was the same, but camouflage leaves and branches were draped over it.
“......”
Once she’d become the focus of everyone’s gaze, the woman called Captain removed her bamboo hat.
A one-eyed woman with a cold, sharp face and a will of iron raised her head.
She was the captain of the Black Sword Squad—Han Su-jin, the One-Eyed Bow Demon.
The number of demonic cultists whose heads she had punched through with her arrows was too many to count… well, not too many to count, exactly, but enough that counting them would be a pain in the ass.
Han Su-jin, a terror to demons everywhere, turned her head slightly.
Her light brown ponytail, reaching down to her waist, swayed with the motion.
“At this rate, we won’t be able to claim the extermination reward.”
Vice Captain Gu Ji-sang, who had been directing the sword formation, let out a sigh.
To get paid, they had to send proof of the kill to the Martial Alliance—namely, the head. But thanks to this mess, that was no longer an option.
If he thought about the four weeks they’d spent working to bring down the Twin Killing Spear Demon, it was enough to make his stomach ache.
“I’m sorry, everyone.”
Captain Han Su-jin, who obviously knew all too well, apologized to her squad.
“But I couldn’t stand hearing someone call that man a barbarian sword-carrying savage.”
In any other place, that explanation would have had people jumping up and down, shouting that it made no sense.
That was how serious the effort of nearly a month had been.
But what happened instead?
“Well, in that case, it can’t be helped.”
“Honestly, that’s fair.”
“You should’ve made him suffer a little longer before killing him, Captain.”
The squad began agreeing with her instead of objecting.
For the Black Sword Squad, getting the job done cleanly was important—but protecting his honor was just as important.
“Everyone...”
Watching them with her one good eye, Han Su-jin nodded with obvious satisfaction.
“Haah...”
By contrast, Vice Captain Gu Ji-sang let out another sigh.
Truthfully, he’d sensed this would happen to some degree.
While they were pushing So Guman back with the sword formation, he’d received a message transmitted by qi.
Come out.
With that curt, simple message, Gu Ji-sang had deliberately loosened the final stage of the formation—Jesa-ra—and let So Guman go.
So Guman himself still believed he’d broken through the formation with his own strength, of course.
But he had insulted that man in front of the Black Sword Squad.
That had reduced his already nonexistent survival odds to zero.
Not just any demon, either—a demon who had insulted that man?
If necessary, they would have crossed the entire continent just to bury an arrow in the bastard’s forehead.
Still, I thought they’d at least leave the body intact...
If his temper had truly gone that far, he’d blown the man apart without a second thought.
Haa...
“Let’s clean this up and eat.”
Gu Ji-sang suppressed another sigh and changed the subject.
Dwelling on what was already done would only give him a headache.
“Right. Burn the corpse.”
At her vice captain’s words, Han Su-jin ordered the remains burned.
For a demon, the word “cremation” was a waste of breath.
“And dinner... youngest?”
When she called out, the young man standing at the very edge of the group hurried over.
“Yes, ma’am! The youngest, Gai-do! I prepared tonight’s meal from McDaria in the village below for my seniors, and I was hoping it would be all right if I asked whether that’s acceptable!”
If she said no, he’d have to haul himself all the way back down the mountain.
“Yes, that’s fine. Everyone else?”
She was terrifying when someone insulted that man, but most of the time she was a pretty good superior, so she nodded readily.
Not only that, but the other veterans chimed in as well, helping to smooth things over.
“We’re fine with it.”
“Good work, kid.”
If the boss said it was fine, what else could they do?
Even if they didn’t like it, they’d have to go along with it.
And so, after disinfecting So Guman with flames, the Black Sword Squad gathered together.
“Here you go. Right here. Yes, this one.”
The youngest, Gai-do, handed out dinner to his seniors.
Then, in the middle of it all—
“Youngest.”
“Yes. What is it?”
Gu Ji-sang pointed to the food he’d taken over and asked, “If you went to McDaria, then an Shanghai Burger Set would be the classic choice. So what’s this?”
Inside the bag was a tiny burger, a portion of fries, and a small box marked with a question mark.
No matter how you looked at it, it wasn’t nearly enough to soothe the bellies of adults who’d worked their asses off and gone hungry in the process.
“......”
In direct proportion to the burger’s absurdly light weight, Han Su-jin’s expression grew heavier.
Even she found this hard to accept.
“Shanghai Burger...? This was my first time going there, so I just bought the most popular thing they had.”
Gai-do, a country boy who had never even seen a McDaria before, looked at them as if he didn’t understand what the problem was.
“And they said they even throw in a toy with the food, so isn’t that a total win?”
“No, that’s not the problem...”
Gu Ji-sang honestly had no idea how he was supposed to handle this idiot.
“They even said one of the Seven Martial Stars was in there. How could I pass that up!”
That line, impossible to ignore, changed the expressions of the squad members.
Rustle—
Silently, they began opening the box.
“Damn it!”
“Haa... the Namgung Cheon-pa version? What’s the point of living any longer—!”
“Does anyone have the Great Swordmaster version? I’ll buy it.”
As groans of failure over the gacha rained down from all sides—
“It’s here! The captain got one!”
The squad surged forward in a rush.
“Captain! Open it quickly!”
“Grr! I’m getting dizzy waiting!”
“All of you, stop fussing. This is an act that requires reverence.”
Ignoring their demands, Han Su-jin slipped her fingers into the box.
And there it was—that black color, immediately visible.
Of all the Seven Martial Stars, there was no doubt it was that man whose figure best suited such a noble black.
“Ooooh...!”
“Woahhh!”
At last, something brilliant emerged from the box!
Thunk—!
“......”
“......”
The squad and Han Su-jin fell silent as they stared at the figurine striking a bizarre horse-riding pose.
“C-Captain! Please, I’m begging you, can’t you sell it to me!?”
“Nope.”
“If you sell it to me, I’ll lick your feet. I’ll lick between your toes carefully, every single one.”
“Die, seriously.”
For a moment, the squad pleaded with Han Su-jin.
The thing itself looked like it was made by someone they’d love to beat to death, but their reactions were utterly fervent.
“My God! That tiny thing can even do a somersault!?”
“No, this can’t be real!”
The difference came from the gap between their worlds.
The aesthetic sense of someone soaked in the advanced otaku culture of the twenty-first century and the aesthetic sense of people from ancient times could never be the same.
To the Black Sword Squad, the figurine flipping through the air looked like a top-quality figure.
“No. I’m not selling it. Everyone, just finish eating.”
Only after Han Su-jin carefully tucked the figurine into her arms did the squad return to their seats, sulking.
And on her lips, a faint smile bloomed.
For someone who usually wore a cold expression to look like that, it meant she was genuinely happy.
...That’s cute.
By the time the meal, which had made one person especially happy, was nearing its end, Gu Ji-sang spoke up.
“I heard the Red Wind Squad was recently disbanded.”
“What? That Red Wind Squad?”
“Wait, what happened to them?”
The squad members, who had been resting around the campfire, straightened up.
“Did they disband, or were they forced to disband?” Han Su-jin asked, quietly checking the bowstring in her hands.
“Officially, it’s called voluntary disbandment because the number of wounded kept rising. But realistically, they were forced out.”
The last correspondence they’d exchanged had mentioned that pressure from the Martial Alliance had grown severe.
“......”
“......”
Silence settled over the squad.
This wasn’t the first time they’d heard news like this.
“That makes three this month alone, doesn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
Lately, they’d been hearing more and more stories of independent armed squads like their own being disbanded.
Independent Armed Squad.
These were units created by the Martial Alliance during the Orthodox-Demonic War.
At the start of the war, the Martial Alliance had organized regular units centered on the Military Affairs Division to respond.
But before long, that system ran into problems.
War between martial factions is nothing like ordinary war.
Most martial artists had learned body-boosting movement techniques, giving them tremendous mobility.
At the level of a peak expert, mountains and ravines were nothing more than obstacles to leap over.
If people like that infiltrated enemy lines in small groups and waged guerrilla warfare, conventional forces were too slow and inefficient to deal with them.
So the Martial Alliance formed small units that could operate independently in order to deal with such demonic cultists.
That was the independent armed squad.
They wiped out demonic units rampaging along the front lines as well as in civilian settlements all over the land.
The regular forces may have been at the center of the war, but the work of the independent squads could not be ignored.
They had made decisive contributions.
After the war, those squads were assigned the task of exterminating the remnants of the demonic cult.
At first, they swept through the remnants with unstoppable momentum, but that drive had eventually broken.
There were many reasons for that, but if one had to be named, it was exhaustion.
One by one, the armed squads worn down by war began to disband.
After all, on this vast land of the Central Plains, finding every last one of those bastards was impossible.
Still, we’ve exterminated a good number of the remnants. Isn’t that enough?
Many squads compromised with themselves like that and disbanded.
But not every squad did.
The ones I just mentioned were people who had somewhere to go back to.
Their sect, their clan, their hometown.
They could compromise because they had bodies and hearts that could finally rest somewhere, but others did not.
Those who had no place to return to—or even any reason to return—kept shouting for the extermination of demons until the very end.
Among them were the Red Wind Squad that had just been disbanded, and the Black Sword Squad.
“So the Martial Alliance finds our existence troublesome now.”
“After the war, we probably just look like a drain on their pockets.”
Since ancient times, groups that existed for military force had always been groups of pure consumption.
Armies were similar... no, in the case of the Martial Alliance, it was even worse.
Armies of this era could support themselves through military farms, but the Martial Alliance couldn’t.
They had promised to spare no effort or resources in purging the evil of the demonic path, so they’d provided support—but the war had ended three years ago.
By now, it was the sort of time when the money poured into independent squads had become hard to justify.
Most of the remnants were already gone, so why waste money on them?
In truth, the Black Sword Squad had also begun to feel pressure from the Martial Alliance.
Extermination rewards were delayed, or the procedures suddenly became more complicated.
“Hah. Even though there are still demons left here.”
Han Su-jin glanced at the bone fragments of the burned Twin Killing Spear Demon.
“That just means they have no intention of cleaning up border regions like Yunnan.”
The central regions—North Hubei and South Hunan, their own backyard—had already been cleaned out.
“Captain, you know this as well as I do, but in this state, we can’t keep it up.”
“Yeah. We’ve been holding on this far thanks to that man’s influence, but that’ll come to an end soon enough too.”
Compared to other squads, the Black Sword Squad had received almost no pressure at all.
That was because the Black Sword Squad had been created and raised by one of the Seven Martial Stars.
Because of that symbolic weight, no one could treat them carelessly—but that wouldn’t last forever.
Clench—
Han Su-jin tightened her grip on the bow.
Now there were only two choices.
Keep hunting down the remnants with no support until they withered away, or disband.
“...Actually, there’s one way to break this situation.”
Gu Ji-sang said in a low voice.
“Don’t tell me...”
Han Su-jin’s brow twitched as she guessed what he was thinking.
Their eyes met across the space between them, and both understood.
They’d had the same thought.
“Wait—”
Han Su-jin tried to shut Gu Ji-sang up, but he didn’t stop.
“That man... we bring the Great Swordmaster back as the Black Sword Squad’s captain.”
That was the only way.
Unconsciously, Han Su-jin reached for the bracelet on her wrist.