The soldiers ran. Even the officers finally moved their heavy asses. Shovels digging trenches didn't pause for a second, and dozens of cannons mounted on the fortress were aimed squarely at the sky and beyond.

Inside the Count’s castle, gazing out the window, Kaiser stroked his chin.

‘......’

One day until war.

It had already been six days since contact with the outside had been cut off.

How were things progressing out there? Kaiser, with his sharp instincts, could guess without difficulty.

A quarantined wall. A gigantic, unidentified monster. The setup was similar to throwing a live animal into a predator’s cage.

No one would bat an eye at a chicken thrown in front of a tiger. But what if, instead of a chicken, it was tens of thousands of people?

The world would be in chaos. Every news outlet would be screaming about the incident.

And Hiaka Academy, having finally realized the professor's absence—what about them? No doubt in full-blown panic. He could picture Shaman’s jawline wobbling like pudding from fury.

According to the professor, the battle would erupt exactly 24 hours from now.

It was astonishing. Within mere days of assuming control of the Count’s territory, he had transformed the entire army into a war machine.

Kaiser studied the expression of each soldier and officer. The carefree faces that had been downing beer even after the communications tower was destroyed five days ago were nowhere to be seen.

Now, they were tensed up, stomachs heavy with anxiety.

But that wasn’t the only thing about the professor that amazed him.

What he’d done just a few days ago...

“Did you call for me, Commander?”

Just then, one of the covert agents Kaiser had sent returned and bowed.

“Yes. What did you find?”

“I wasn’t able to speak to the three directly, but I learned much from their attendants and close associates.”

This was the story he had been desperate to know.

In this domain, there were three monsters who had refused to participate in the war, their spirits long since broken.

The Count had been rejected.

Kaiser himself had been rejected.

Everyone had been rejected.

Despite promises of vast rewards, money, honor—they all said no.

And yet, Professor Dante had brought all three of them in less than a day.

Kaiser had been tormented by the mystery of how. He had to know. So he sent someone to find out.

“...How did Professor Dante bring back the legendary general, the former department head, and the so-called Hero?”

He was dying of curiosity.

***

Eymon used to be a girl who herded sheep in the countryside. About thirty years ago.

A life spent driving flocks and feeding them grass. She thought she'd grow old and die living like that. Until the day she beat a bear to death with a stick.

The bear hide fetched a decent price. The taxidermied head alone was worth three sheep. Thinking back on it later, she realized she might actually be strong. Maybe it hadn’t been a coincidence when she ripped off the arm of that man who tried to molest her when she was seven?

After that, she visited a swordsmanship school just in case. And right around then, bandits raided her village. She stood among the local militia, swinging her blade. Alone, she killed half the bandits.

She was strong.

But not just strong.

Eymon could read the “flow of battle.”

If there was a bear, she could read its movements.

If it was a person, she could predict them.

If it was a battalion, she could see the trajectory of the whole unit.

That’s what made her the most brilliant strategist and war general in the Lewiyan region. Of course, she was discarded afterwards like a worn-out tool...

It was four days ago when Eymon met Dante Hiakapo.

Up to that point, many people had approached her. Trying to butter her up, begging her to return as a strategist. Offering money, rank. Pathetic.

The reason was obvious. Because of that floating in the sky. But Eymon had long grown sick of the Count’s house and hurled her liquor bottle at their heads.

“What the hell are you supposed to be?”

“I’m Strategist Eymon. Please fight this war with me.”

“Get lost. You're ruining my booze.”

Dante got kicked out too. Though he did intrigue her slightly more. Because he was good-looking. A decade or so younger, but tempting enough to maybe seduce. Sure, he had the killer look befitting an Assassination Professor, but toss him into bed and she figured he’d make a soft face.

She never expected she’d be the one persuaded.

Her life wasn’t precious. She had no one she cared about. All this ass-kissing ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) made her feel sick.

“You have to join this war.”

But Dante didn’t flatter. He treated her with a weird kind of detachment.

“Nope. Not doing it. War? Let them all die.”

She tried to resist, swigging her bottle, but then Dante spoke in a light tone.

“I heard the three recluses of this territory each come from different places.”

“...What?”

Thinking about it, he was right.

One from the capital, one from Guryong, and her from Lewiyan.

Dante smirked.

“...Lewiyan’s just not it, huh.”

And with that, he turned around.

‘......??’

Suddenly, Eymon felt a strange, burning feeling rise inside.

She didn’t care about her life. Had no family. But the one thing she was proud of—was being “the war general who came from a peasant village in Lewiyan.”

And this bastard had poked at that?

Who the fuck did he think he was?

“Hey, Professor! What the hell do you know?!”

She chased after him, ready to chew him out—but the next thing she knew, she was armored, holding a spear, and gripping a battle map.

“...Huh?”

She tried several times to leave the Count’s estate after that. But the longer she stuck around, the more she came to like Dante’s style.

In a matter of days, he had restructured the army. Reconfigured everything to match the threat of a massive monster. Even she found it impressive. She began to wonder—was he really an Assassination Professor?

To someone like Eymon, who had always thought every commander in the world was an idiot, he was a breath of fresh air.

He’d show up to her several times a day, explaining: this is how the battalion should move, that monster behaves like this...

So, well...

Uhh, yeah...

In the end, she couldn’t say no...

I mean, who could?

“When the great general herself bows her head and asks you to take supreme command...”

***

There was once a man ranked 215th in the world. A former head professor who had competed for the position of Department Chair of Warrior Studies at Hiaka Academy.

His name was Moong Hyul. He was 131 years old.

When he was passed over for the post by the young and talented Vulkan, Moong realized his time as a warrior had come to an end.

Not just because he lost. Around that time, he began to lose his sight.

It was hereditary. His father and grandfather both went blind with age. Now, a century later, it was happening to him.

All martial artists live by their [Main Force]. A [Swordfighter]-type might be as powerful as a god, but against airborne enemies, they’re helpless.

So was he.

Some warriors fight with [Sixth Sense]. But Moong wasn’t one of them. He had spent a lifetime mastering [Grappling]. Without his vision, he no longer knew what or how to fight.

“Longevity depends on heaven’s favor.”

So Moong accepted his fate. He settled into a small cabin, waiting for the day the heavens stopped breathing.

That’s when the bizarre professor Dante Hiakapo appeared.

“Please fight with us, Senior.”

He called Moong “Senior,” as a fellow graduate of Hiaka Academy.

That title felt nice. Much better than that brat, Baronet Modrio, who had pestered him several times.

“There is a great feat only you can accomplish. No junior could even come close to your level—I know that clearly.”

Such praise—it was touching.

Which made it hard to say—

“It’s not just my bushy white eyebrows, lad. I truly can’t see. Not the enemy, not myself. Even if I go to the battlefield, I wouldn’t know who to fight. I’d only be a burden to you all.”

He believed those from a past era should quietly fade with it.

Besides, there were two others in this land more capable than him.

One was a booze-soaked, macho girl. The other, a strange young man. Either way, both were far better.

He was about to suggest taking them instead.

“That’s not true.”

But Dante firmly objected.

“Those two couldn’t do even half of what you can. Your [Grappling] technique, 『Taiji 太極』, isn’t dependent on an enemy’s position. If triggered at the moment of a projectile’s arrival, it can fully control and reflect it. Additionally...”

He kept explaining this and that. Moong, inwardly, was ecstatic. This oddball professor knew his ancient martial art precisely.

Astonishingly precisely.

“...You’re right, but what’s the point? I can’t see the enemy. I can’t see myself...”

But with such deep understanding came a growing sense of shame. Until Dante presented the solution.

“Introduce yourself.”

“Yes~”

A girl’s voice.

Bright, like cotton candy.

“Hello, Grandpa~”

He couldn’t see her, but he could feel her presence.

She was kind. And unyielding.

A strong child.

“Senior. From now on, you’ll be linked to this child by a wrist cord. She’ll guide you.”

“......”

“She comes from a bloodline with an innate instinct to guide those without sight. You’ll communicate, locate each other, and receive support.”

“......”

“Please fight alongside us.”

Moong was shocked.

He knew who the girl was.

“You... you’re Xikos’s daughter, aren’t you...?”

“Hmm? Yup!”

With a bright laugh, a wrinkled hand was firmly grasped.

And so, the old man and the assassin shook hands.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Elize.”

Moong realized something.

He, who thought he had nothing left—

—still had something to offer.

“I was... let’s see... appointed in year 411, former Head Professor of Grappling in Warrior Studies... though now just an old man in the countryside. Call me Moong.”

No.

He now had something to offer.

That junior professor had brought it to him.

“Let’s do our best.”

“Me too!”

***

“Incredible... So that’s how he brought in the two most uncooperative people...”

“Yes, sir.”

Kaiser stroked his chin. He had thought it was done through negotiation or some skillful maneuvering.

But no.

Professor Dante had moved their hearts.

“...Even I might’ve followed him.”

Because Dante was that kind of man. He always had been. To outsiders, he seemed cold, treating people like tools. But in truth, no one respected people more deeply than he did.

Kaiser knew this. Among professors, such people were rare. Among assassins—rarer still.

Someone who treated people like people.

“...Then how did he recruit the last one?”

The war general. The former department head. Fine.

But the last one was different.

A man who called himself a “Hero.”

Because that’s what he said:

“I am a Hero.”

No one, not even Kaiser, knew what that actually meant.

In short—he was crazy.

But this crazy man was known to be very strong.

“Professor Dante’s interaction with him... it was a bit strange.”

“Strange?”

Of course it was.

Hero Glory.

Kaiser had looked into him beforehand—he was extremely odd.

Devastatingly handsome. But always dressed like a vagrant. Rarely spoke. Had no friends. Drank, smoked, and wandered.

He’d vanish, then return soaked in blood. But none of it his own. All monster blood.

Yet, despite his weirdness, he wasn’t hostile. So the Count left him alone.

Many had tried to use him. He let none of them succeed.

He was famous for this line, said right in front of the Count during a drinking party:

“This is not right.”

Then he flipped the table and walked out.

Such a bizarre, unyielding man—and Professor Dante had recruited him?

Kaiser was dying to know how.

“Um, I don’t really have much to say...”

“Still. Tell me everything you know.”

“Yes, sir. Um, well...”

The covert agent scratched his chin.

***

“That thing floating in the sky is a demon.”

“......”

The quiet Hero stood up on the spot.

And silently followed Dante.

***

A week passed.

A heavy tension blanketed the entire territory.

As the clouds above parted, the form of the one-horned demon Vomittekka was revealed in full clarity.

Then, it began to move.

From the heavens above—

—for the extinction of mankind.

⋮

⧉ “The Battle Against One-Horned Demon Vomittekka” begins