What Lulls the Demon to Sleep Is Not a Bullet, But a Fluffy Chest
The urgent footsteps outside the room came to a halt.
Jin and the Blackhead mercenaries witnessed the carnage inside through the shattered door.
The scavenger leader’s body, hacked and carved until it barely resembled anything human. And the small white head cradled in Ban’s blood-drenched arms.
“...Anna? Oh… fuck!!!!”
Jin froze the moment he recognized that white hair, as if nailed to the spot.
In this dog-eat-dog world, she was the little kid who had finally let him smell something human again.
The kid who nagged the scary-looking mercenary uncles to stop smoking, who bowed with a smile so bright it looked like she owned the whole world just because they’d put up one rickety scrap-metal barrier.
That small, sunny child now lay cold and limp in Ban’s arms.
The horrific rope marks around her neck and the blood crusted under her fingernails made Jin’s eyes burn crimson.
“Aah… Anna… Ha, fuck, this is really…”
Jin had seen death more times than he could count, but this time he couldn’t hold back the anguished groan ripping out of his throat.
Veins bulged on his thick forearms as they gripped the rifle like they might burst.
The men who followed him either hung their heads in despair or ground their teeth together.
Ban walked out of the room with indifferent steps and carefully placed Anna’s body in Jin’s arms.
“Hold her.”
A single dry sentence. Ban pulled out his terminal with blood-smeared hands and checked the last, fifth coordinate.
From behind his retreating footsteps heading toward the surface, Eve’s voice drifted after him.
It was a watery, almost tearful voice.
At those words, something nameless surged up inside Ban’s chest.
But he didn’t look back. He climbed to the surface, mounted the bike, and kicked the engine to life.
Vroom—!
With a savage roar of exhaust, the bike shot forward toward the final scavenger den.
The fifth camp was no different from the others.
If anything, the slaughter was even faster and more mechanical.
By the time Jin’s group caught up, the only thing left was Ban standing amid the burning ruins, finishing off the last bastard and lighting a cigarette.
Like that, every scavenger camp near the refugee settlement was erased from the map in a single night.
It was still the thick of early dawn.
Ban’s bike and Jin’s Humvee rolled back inside the gas station barricade.
Haze, who had been watching silently from the watchtower, descended the ladder. Yui, who had been combing through the satellite network inside the underground bunker, was already waiting at the entrance.
The forty Blackhead members left behind to guard the station flinched and took a step back.
Ban’s appearance no longer looked human.
Covered head to toe in someone else’s blood, standing there with hollow eyes, he looked exactly like a demon that had just crawled out of hell.
Jin climbed out of the Humvee and barked orders at the frozen men.
“You twenty. Take a truck right now and head to the coastal camp. Collect the bodies and move them all to the empty lot here. We can’t let the wild animals eat them… We’ll cremate them properly later.”
At Jin’s command the men hurriedly boarded the truck and sped out of the station.
Ban, who had been leaning against the bike seat smoking, roughly swept back his blood-soaked hair and stood up.
“You’ve worked hard. Hand over the weapons.”
Haze, who had approached at some point, gazed at him with warm eyes and held out her hand.
Ban’s eyes were still the sharp, ghostly eyes of a killer.
“Why?”
At that, Yui—who had been standing beside her—scrunched her face and stepped forward.
“Why? What do you mean, why! You look like a damn ghost, so obviously Sis is offering to clean your weapons for you! Are you actually a demon? Argh! The smell of blood is disgusting!!”
Yui pinched her nose and grumbled. The same irritated, venomous tone as always.
Yet the moment he heard that shrill voice, the razor-sharp nerves that had stayed taut all night unraveled like magic.
It felt like finally returning to reality from a blood-soaked slaughterhouse.
“What are you staring at blankly! Go wash up right now!! If you walk around looking like that, cleaning will be a nightmare, you know?”
It was obvious she was deliberately being extra prickly.
Even though she tried to hide it clumsily, the worry and relief beneath her words reached Ban clearly.
This little nag must have been worried sick about her leader.
Ban lifted his blood-crusted hand and lightly tapped his stained index finger against Yui’s deeply furrowed forehead.
“I’m back.”
Yui’s nagging stopped dead. At Ban’s indifferent words, her face froze in shock.
Ban wiped the blood off her forehead, walked past the dumbfounded girl, and slowly headed for the bunker entrance.
Yes. He was home.
The hot water pouring from the showerhead turned reddish-brown as it spiraled down the drain.
Someone else’s blood, flesh, bone dust, the stench of gunpowder.
He washed away every last stubborn trace of the massacre, then stood in front of the mirror.
The man reflected there was completely pale, worn down by exhaustion.
The demonic poison that had filled his eyes seemed to have been rinsed away somewhat by the shower.
He roughly toweled his wet hair and quietly stared at himself in the mirror.
Ban knew himself very well.
He had always been this bloodless, tearless demon.
Uselessly lucky, uselessly tough, he was always the only one who survived.
As if that damned luck fed on the misfortune of everyone around him, the people who stayed near Ban always died like flies.
It had been that way since he was a child. Every group or faction he belonged to was annihilated without exception.
Even when the entire continent he was born on turned into a dead zone of rotting corpses and collapsed, the only one who crossed over to this Atlas Continent and survived was Ban himself.
That was why he never wanted anyone beside him again.
He felt like he was devouring their luck, and more than that, whenever his eyes rolled back and he rampaged like a demon, the people around him always looked at him with disgust or trembled in terror.
But now… was it different?
Those guys greeted the blood-soaked demon who had returned as if nothing had changed.
No, they actually scolded and comforted the idiot who had gone on a stupid rampage.
“Ha… I don’t get it.”
Ban tossed the towel aside and muttered. He threw on some clothes and dropped his exhausted body onto the bed.
The fatigue threatening to knock him out at any second crashed over him, but sleep refused to come.
Inside his chest, nameless uneasy emotions swirled like sewage being sucked down a drain.
How much time had passed? He wasn’t sure.
Whirr—
With a soft mechanical hum, the door opened.
When Ban turned his head slightly, Eve slipped into the room carefully.
Without saying a word, she approached, climbed onto his bed, lay down beside him, and simply gazed at him.
Then she gently pressed her massive peace-keeping weapons against his head. A soft, warm sensation.
Eve placed her hand on Ban’s chest and began patting him slowly, the way one might soothe a child to sleep.
Her gentle voice resonated against his chest.
Pat. Pat.
The shitty, swirling unease inside his heart began to sink—whether because of the fluffy chest or because of that idiotically blind kindness.
The nerves that had been stretched tight unraveled like a lie.
“Are you an idiot?”
A familiar, lame joke finally slipped from Ban’s lips.
“Trying to upgrade from breast wallet girl to breast pillow girl?”
Hearing Eve’s pleasant, soft laughter, Ban surrendered to the crushing fatigue and sank into deep sleep.
Several hours later, Ban lifted his heavy eyelids.
The digital clock showed early morning.
Beside him, Eve was breathing softly in peaceful slumber.
The admirable kid who had stayed by his side all night patting him, even after seeing that horrific sight.
Ban quietly rose without waking her and pulled the kicked-off blanket back over her.
He threw on a hoodie and left the private quarters, heading for the bunker’s main room.
The large round conference table in the center of the main room. Ban’s steps halted the moment he saw what was on it.
The gear that had been caked in blood the night before was now neatly arranged on the table.
The 12-shot custom revolver and assault rifle, perfectly disassembled and maintained.
Every knife gleaming without a single bloodstain.
Even the hand axe he had used to turn the scavenger leader into meat paste.
Looking at the spotless, perfectly lined-up weapons, Ban let out a small internal smile.
“As expected of the weapon otaku big sis.”
He picked up only the revolver and one combat knife from the table and casually shoved them into his waistband. Then he headed up to the gas station’s main building.
The moment he opened the iron door and stepped outside, the still-chilly early-morning air rushed in.
The Blackhead members were already moving busily.
The tightly closed gas station barrier gate stood wide open. In the empty lot ahead, logs were stacked high to form a massive pyre.
On top of it lay Azet, the old man who had been tortured to death, the other refugees, and the silver-haired pure-white girl, Anna, laid out side by side.
Haze and Yui had woken early and were helping the members with the work.
It was a world where a proper funeral was nothing but a dream, yet in front of the logs a few cans of ham and some beverage cans had been set out like a modest ancestral offering.
Ban pulled a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and walked over to Jin, who was silently giving instructions.
“Did you get any sleep, bear guy?”
At Ban’s voice Jin turned his head.
Seeing Ban back to his usual indifferent, cocky attitude, faint relief crossed Jin’s hardened face.
“What did I do to deserve sleep? You did all the dog work, leader.”
Jin smiled bitterly and rummaged in his pocket.
Ban silently tilted his lit cigarette to light Jin’s.
“……It’s my fault.”
Jin took a deep drag and spoke in a heavy voice.
“It was the refugee camp I was supposed to be protecting. I failed to carry out my responsibility.”
A lament mixed with self-reproach. Ban didn’t offer any cheap comforting words and simply exhaled smoke in silence.
“Our group called Blackhead. We weren’t a mercenary outfit like this from the start. We were just a pathetic little camp formed by survivors who barely made it out of all the destroyed camps scattered around.”
Jin’s gaze drifted to Anna lying on the pyre.
“Everyone lived carrying the pain of loss. So I made a decision. Even if I couldn’t break this fucking law of the jungle, I would survive by any means and make sure the guys under me didn’t die as meaninglessly as before.”
That was how Blackhead had survived in this harsh world—protecting as many as they could, embracing as many as they could.
“Seeing Anna and the old man reminded me of my weak past self trembling in the old refugee camp. That’s why I wanted to protect them even more. But the result turned out this fucked up.”
Jin’s self-mocking voice scattered on the morning breeze. He gave Ban’s shoulder a rough pat with his calloused hand.
“You really are a scary bastard. Yesterday you looked exactly like a demon that crawled straight out of hell.”
Jin met Ban’s eyes.
“But when I saw that crazy muzzle turn outward to protect the fence… I actually felt relieved.”
“……”
“Thank you, leader. Thanks to you, the knot in my heart feels a little looser.”
Ban flicked the finished cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it under his combat boot.
“Why are you being so gross? Doesn’t suit a bear like you. Don’t tell me you’re about to confess again? I already told you I won’t give you my ass.”
“Hearing you talk nonsense proves you’re really back. Go help out too.”
Just then, Haze and Yui, who had finished arranging the pyre, spotted Ban.
“Huh? Ban! You’re awake? Did you actually sleep? Why do you still look so haggard!”
The moment Yui saw him she ran over, grumbling loudly.
Was this the famous running nagging?
Beside her, Haze gave a faint smile.
“Mr. Ban. Did you sleep well?”
“Thanks to all of you, I slept well, you idiots. As expected of a weapon otaku, the maintenance is spotless. You’re the best, sexy sniper Ice Witch Grim Reaper-chan.”
Normally Haze would have cut him off at “sexy snip—” but this time she listened to the entire ridiculous title.
Yui and Haze looked at each other and let out small laughs.
He was back. The stupid, lazy, crazy leader.