Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 149

The incident at the artillery battery left a significant aftermath. The endless stream of gratitude exhausted the members of the battery, and all the officers were blocked from promotion. However, no one was particularly saddened by this fact. Whatever the reason, the fact that they couldn’t properly care for even the less than 100 enlisted men was inexcusable.

Kim Hak-cheol and Noh Soo-bong ultimately did not return to the battery.

Rumor had it that both were hospitalized in a mental institution.

The fact that three people from one squad had attempted suicide led some to fear it was the work of a ghost, but the prevailing opinion was that, except for Joo Young-gi, the other two had brought it upon themselves.

In the end, the battery operated a little more strictly than before.

The enlisted men complained, but fortunately for them, the Ministry of National Defense’s clock kept ticking.

“Jang Jae-hwan.”

“Yes?”

Jang Jae-hwan cautiously approached Kang Jin-ho.

“The cot is dirty.”

Jang Jae-hwan’s face contorted.

“Oh, seriously!”

Jang Jae-hwan, clearly annoyed as if his liver was swollen, rattled off words like a machine gun.

“Just go home! Go home already! Why is someone who’s getting discharged tomorrow bothering people! You’re going to give me OCD! Seriously! You’ve been tormenting people for a year and a half, isn’t that enough!”

“…The cot is dirty!”

“You bastards!”

Jang Jae-hwan yelled at the squad members who were lounging around.

“The old man says the cot is dirty!”

“Tell him to go home.”

“Old man, this isn’t your room. If it’s dirty, go home and sleep in your bed.”

Kang Jin-ho looked dejected.

His power, which had once turned the entire battery upside down with a single word, had melted away like snow in the sun. Now, he was no more than a passing pebble. A stray cat lurking around the cafeteria would probably receive more attention than him.

But he couldn’t protest. Wasn’t this a trial that all soon-to-be-discharged soldiers had to endure?

At that moment, the door to the barracks burst open, and a man with a pale face rushed inside.

“Ugh, what is this, some old men’s Boy Scout meeting?”

Jang Jae-hwan grumbled, looking at Joo Young-gi who had rushed in. Joo Young-gi, looking pale, spoke to Kang Jin-ho.

“Ji, Jin-ho, please hide me.”

“Why?”

“Those bastards look like they’re going to blanket-wrap me [a form of hazing], and the atmosphere is ominous. I might get beaten to death.”

“……”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head. Joo Young-gi’s condition was, how should he put it, a strange situation that seemed twisted, then untwisted, and then twisted again.

Fortunately, Joo Young-gi wasn’t transferred to another unit and was able to remain in the battery. The problem was that his authority had completely vanished.

With Noh Soo-bong and Kim Hak-cheol in their current state, there was no one senior to him in the squad. Some officers were hesitant to appoint someone who had attempted suicide as squad leader so soon, but with Lee Sang-yeop’s strong support, Joo Young-gi was made squad leader on the condition that he would be monitored for a while.

“You should have known your limits, you bastard.”

The iron-fisted rule of Joo Young-gi, which had been suppressed until now, was resurrected. Joo Young-gi, who had recovered the true nature he had shown in the early days of training camp, quickly took control of the barracks.

His juniors, who couldn’t understand his sudden change, had no choice but to accept it when they learned that the reason Joo Young-gi had been holding back was because of his family in society.

Thanks to that, the one who experienced the greatest hell was…

Bang!

The door was violently opened, and Lee Sang-yeop and Kim Do-hyung rushed inside.

“Hehehe. Old man, you were here?”

“…Hey, hey, you bastards.”

“Guys, let’s escort the old man.”

“Yes, squad leader!”

“No, you bastards! I! No!”

“Stay still, old man. Your back looks bad these days, so we’re just going to give you a little massage. Why are you running away like that? It’s not very manly.”

“No, you bastards! Is that massage the same as that massage! Is a beating a massage!

Jin-ho! Jin-hooooo!”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head, watching Joo Young-gi being carried away with his arms and legs held.

Power is cyclical.

Even a sergeant who had established an absolute monarchy couldn’t stop the flow of time, and sooner or later, they would have to experience the truth of the saying that even the most beautiful flower doesn’t bloom for ten days.

“Shouldn’t we blanket-wrap the old man too?”

Kang Jin-ho cleared his throat and slowly walked outside.

“Old man, where are you going?”

“Going for a smoke.”

As Kang Jin-ho slammed the door shut and left, the squad members smacked their lips as if they were disappointed.

“Wow, I’m seeing that old man like that, now that I’m living.”

“…It’s been a long time.”

“He’s finally leaving.”

The squad members were all filled with joy.

To be honest, how much had they suffered because of Kang Jin-ho?

“What kind of sergeant wakes up earlier than a private and makes us make our beds? Because of him, I have to wake up early too!”

“Sergeants shouldn’t be so strict!”

“That damn FM [Field Manual]! I’m so fed up that I don’t even listen to the radio anymore. I’m never listening to the radio again!”

The complaints were endless.

Jang Jae-hwan snorted at the sight.

“Ha, you guys. You should know that all your complaints are because of Kang Jin-ho, the old man.”

“…Huh?”

“When I first came here, do you think you could have even talked in the barracks? You’d get dragged away for being disrespectful for saying a single word, you bastards.”

“Wow, what kind of military is that, from the 80s?”

“Hey, don’t you know that there are still places like that in other barracks?”

The private looked bewildered, and the seniors nodded.

“My buddy is still getting yelled at. He’s a corporal.”

“My buddy isn’t even human. He’s just a tool.”

Jang Jae-hwan nodded.

“That old man might be annoying, but he never tormented anyone. If the internal corruption that old man got rid of comes back, you guys won’t even be able to breathe, you bastards.”

“He went through everything himself but never made his juniors do any of that.”

Of course, the seniors couldn’t properly harass them either…

The last words Jang Jae-hwan muttered were too small for others to hear.

“Actually, he’s a legend of the battery.”

“Just the leave passes alone… sigh.”

Kang Jin-ho was like a leave pass collector.

Whenever he went to training, he would come back with a leave pass. From combat fitness tests to battery commander training, and more.

“The sports day was truly legendary.”

Soccer, basketball, wrestling.

Kang Jin-ho, who participated in every possible event, literally swept up the leave passes. He swept up leave passes at the battalion sports day, the regiment sports day, and even went to the division sports day to sweep up leave passes.

“They said the Armed Forces Athletic Corps wanted to change his position.”

“Sergeant Kang Jin-ho refused, they said.”

“…He’s amazing, really.”

Kang Jin-ho had distributed all those leave passes within the squad. If he had kept all those leave passes for himself, he would have been on leave for his entire sergeant term.

There wasn’t a single person in the squad who hadn’t gone on leave with a leave pass given by Kang Jin-ho. So, even though they said these things, there wasn’t a single squad member who didn’t like Kang Jin-ho.

“But if Sergeant Kang Jin-ho leaves, aren’t we going to get screwed in the battery?”

“What, you punk?”

“It’s true, isn’t it? The absolute power of the battery is disappearing…”

“I’m here!”

“…You’re a bit weak as a squad leader.”

Jang Jae-hwan’s shoulders slumped.

When the predecessor is too good, the successor suffers.

He was already burdened with the pressure of filling Kang Jin-ho’s void, and now he was groaning from the dagger that had hit him right in the heart.

“We’ll do well. We’ve learned a lot, too.”

“That’s right.”

“There’s no use missing someone who’s gone.”

“Still, it was really nice that the officers couldn’t mess with us.”

Losing the greatest weapon in the struggle against the enemy was a great pity.

“Let’s have a discharge party! Frozen food!”

“I’m so sick of frozen food. Are we having frozen food again after eating it every day?”

“Then let’s order delivery.”

“To order delivery, we have to negotiate with the duty officer, and is that old man someone who would do that?”

“…He wouldn’t.”

Kang Jin-ho hated anything that deviated from the rules. Although it was possible to secretly order delivery food, it was originally forbidden to bring outside food into the battery.

So, there was no way Kang Jin-ho would do such a thing.

“Just grab some Choco Pies [a popular snack].”

“…How touching.”

“Now the PX [Post Exchange, a military store] is all gone.”

Jang Jae-hwan sighed.

It all started one day when he jokingly said, ‘Can you buy me just one frozen food?’

Kang Jin-ho tilted his head at those words and said something absurd and ridiculous, ‘You don’t have money?’

It was a stroke of genius that he didn’t reply, ‘It’s not like I asked you to buy it because I don’t have money.’

His reply, ‘Hey, what soldier has money,’ was now a legend in the squad.

Because after hearing those words, Kang Jin-ho took out his card from his pocket and gave it to Jang Jae-hwan.

His response, ‘You can just buy me one,’ didn’t work.

Kang Jin-ho entrusted his card to Jang Jae-hwan and turned the squad upside down with the words, ‘Use this to buy whatever the guys want to eat.’

It was the epitome of a gold spoon [someone born into wealth], and a model of a gold spoon.

The squad members were initially skeptical.

No matter what, it was hard not to feel uncomfortable about buying something with someone else’s card.

But when Kang Jin-ho realized that the guys weren’t listening to him, he entrusted the card to the supply sergeant and made him pay for everything his squad members bought with his card.

It was literally a free pass to the PX.

That was the beginning of the party.

If it’s free, people will even drink poison, right?

Before long, the squad members began to blow up the PX.

There was even a guy who brought his buddies from other squads to buy them food, so Jang Jae-hwan had to call him aside and warn him. Having a frozen food party every night led to side effects such as refusing to eat the regular meals and obesity.

Jang Jae-hwan sighed, looking at the squad members who had become plump.

Now these guys would become skinny again.

The military life flowing with milk and honey was now coming to an end.

‘They’ll know when he’s gone.’

The corporals might not know, but the privates and lance corporals had only experienced military life after Kang Jin-ho had taken control of the battery, so they didn’t seem to realize how inconvenient it would be without Kang Jin-ho.

If they knew how comfortably they had lived thanks to Kang Jin-ho, they should be shedding tears right now.

Thinking about how big Kang Jin-ho’s absence would be, his head already started to ache.

But wasn’t the military a place where you couldn’t hold onto someone who was leaving?

“Clean up, you bastards. It’s the old man’s last day, so we should at least send him off in a good mood.”

“Yes. We’ll do it now.”

Jang Jae-hwan smiled, watching the squad members voluntarily get up and start cleaning.

Those who have to leave will inevitably leave.

What remains is the responsibility of those who stay.

‘I have to work hard too.’