Descent of the Demon Master

ined, “Sir.
These are the Class A uniforms for tomorrow's event.”

“…Huh?”

“Uniforms for all nine squad members, fully ironed, sir.”

“Eh? You also ironed them? You even know how to do that?”

“Sir.
I used to iron my father's clothes at home a few times.
I also washed and ironed my own clothes.”

“…And you know how to press the clothes, too?”

“Yes, sir.
I can follow along the already-apparent folds while ironing.”

“…I'll be the judge of that.” Jeon Hyeok-Su picked up one of the folded uniforms and spread it open.
And he promptly broke out in goosebumps after staring at the perfect trilinear folds resembling sharp blades.
Regular ironing would never get folds this sharp, so how the heck…?

“I might cut myself if I'm not careful, you know?” Jeon Hyeok-Su unknowingly nodded to himself.
Judging from the fragrant scent wafting out from the uniforms, they had definitely been properly washed, as well.
He glanced back at Kang Jin-Ho.
“Hey, you brat.
Who told you to do this?”

“Sir.
I had some spare time left after finishing organizing my station, so I thought it'd be better to also finish the other outstanding duties,” Kang Jin-Ho replied in his usual flat tone of voice.

“Hey, how dare you do stuff when nobody told you to?!”

“My apologies, sir.”

“Be careful next time!”

“Yes, sir.”

Jeon Hyeok-Su coughed to clear his throat, then quietly asked Kang Jin-Ho, “By the way, uh… Did you actually iron all nine sets of uniforms?”

“Yes, sir.
After cleaning them in the washing machine, I dried them before ironing them to this state.”

“Huh? How did you dry all nine uniforms that quickly?”

“I shook them around to dry them, sir.”

“…Well, uh, they are nicely ironed, so I guess it's fine?” Jeon Hyeok-Su tried to find a fault to nit-pick with, but everything had been perfectly wrapped up, so he could only clamp his mouth shut.

“Oh? Who ironed this uniform?” Jo Won-Gu picked up one of the uniforms and asked, impressed by the sharpness and perfectness of the folds.

Jeon Hyeok-Su replied to him, “Sir, it's our maknae.”

“Maknae? Jin-Ho did?”

“Yes, sir.
He ironed all nine uniforms, no less.”

“Is that right?” Jo Won-Gu slowly nodded while cocking an eyebrow.
If someone else had ironed this well, he was fully prepared to heap praises on that soldier.
However, he was so numbed by Kang Jin-Ho's antics by now that nothing could faze him.
“Jin-Ho, did you iron mine, too?”

“Yes, sir,” Kang Jin-Ho replied and pointed at one of the uniforms.

“Oh, I see.
Thanks.
Want me to buy you frozen food or something?”

“No, I'm fine, sir.”

“…Sure thing.”

***

…And the final evaluating criterion of being a good soldier in Korea was how 'sensible' one was.

Ironically, having excellent combat capabilities had no bearing on one’s military life, even if one was stuck in a front-line corps.
While soldiers in other countries existed for the purpose of combat, the South Korean soldiers had somehow evolved into people meant to maintain the 'existence' of the military itself.

Military bases filled with aging infrastructure and surrounded by lush mountains demanded near-endless repair and maintenance work.
While their counterparts in other nations were busy polishing their combat skills, South Korean soldiers often found themselves 'deployed' in jobs that kept the creaking military machine chugging forward.

Furthermore, the military was also a gathering of people.
Inevitably, the senior soldiers would appreciate and love juniors who made their lives just a little more bearable.
The thing was, though, these were young men in their early twenties who had never even washed something as simple as their socks before.
Making them do the laundry for everyone, including the senior soldiers, was practically asking for trouble.

In the middle of this situation…

***

Kaahaang! Claaang! Baaang! Kaahaang! Claaang!

“…Uh-whew.” Jo Won-Gu sighed in resignation, his head faltering powerlessly.

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at him.
“Sir, should I do another one?”

“…Yeah, sure.”

Kaahaang! Claaang! Baaang! Kaahaang! Claaang!

Jo Won-Gu shuddered as he watched yet another 45cm-long steel stake being driven deep into the ground after only five hammer blows from Kang Jin-Ho.

A human being should have a conscience! And he should also know how to differentiate what was physically possible and what wasn’t! In that sense, wasn't driving such lengthy steel stakes into the ground with only five hammer blows too damned much?!

“What the hell was that?! Hey, what happened?!” the quartermaster rushed up in a fluster.

In the artillery corps, it was rather common for soldiers to hammer stakes into the ground.
It was so common, in fact, that you would hear the metallic hammering noise while taking a breezy stroll around the base or even during mealtimes! But now, the quartermaster who had spent ten proud years in South Korea's military system was shocked by the sound of hammering and had to rush over here to find out what was going on!

However, it wasn't just the quartermaster either, as other shocked soldiers were also rushing over here to find the source of those explosive noises.

'What a spectacle this has turned out to be…' 

Jo Won-Gu scanned this scene and could only chuckle wryly.

If someone unaware saw this scene, they would probably think a suspicious man had appeared in front of the base.
Even though these soldiers were suffering from the can't-care-less syndrome, they still rushed up here like a group of players chasing after the ball.
And the emergency alarm hadn't even gone off!

When the quartermaster stared with question-filled eyes, Jo Won-Gu had decided that now was a good time to provide an explanation, “Sir.
Our maknae is…
hammering some stakes.”

“…Hammering?” The quartermaster noticed the steel stakes driven to the ground, then looked up with even more questions in his head.
He stared at Kang Jin-Ho, but his next question was still directed at Jo Won-Gu.
“Are you telling me those explosion-like noises…
came from hammering?!”

“Yes, sir.”

“Hey, you think I'm a moron?! I've lived the last ten years listening to those hammering noises every day!”

“Well, in that case, would you like to see for yourself?” Jo Won-Gu signaled to Kang Jin-Ho with a quick glance.

Kang Jin-Ho nodded in understanding, picked up a steel stake, and placed it on the ground…
before striking it with his sledgehammer.

Claaaang!

“Uwaaaah?! S-stop! That's enough!” The quartermaster freaked out and yelled at the top of his voice, even though Kang Jin-Ho had hammered only once.
“Hey, you insane brat! If you let one of your boys hammer away like that, what do you think will happen to the sledgehammer?! Are you trying to break it!? And what about the stakes?! What if they break, too?!”

“…But, sir.
It's not like I can tell him to take it easy now, right?”

“There's a simple solution for that! Don't let that brat come anywhere near the sledgehammer!”

Jo Won-Gu's head faltered deeply.
Moving the artillery guns, turning the jackeys, hammering the stakes, and using pickaxes to dig out the soil…
That was the 'life story' of an artillery soldier.
Yet, this quartermaster was saying one of those duties shouldn't be performed? What was Jo Won-Gu, as the squad commander, supposed to do here?

“…Sir, I'll just tell him to go easy from now on.”

“Bloody hell.
How did we end up with a brat like him?”

The two senior soldiers could only groan deeply while Kang Jin-Ho looked at them, his head tilted to the side in slight confusion.