Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 264

The sound was so clear and distinct.

It was so alien that it took a while after the sound for him to realize it was the sound of a sword cutting through the air.

And then…

Thud.

A sound of something falling to the floor was heard. Chun Tae-hoon slumped down on the spot.

Along with the relief of being alive, a strange emotion that he couldn’t put into words filled his body. Tears kept flowing for some reason.

“I guess I don’t need two of you.”

The voice was so low and calm.

Contempt coursed through him.

Not contempt for Kang Jin-ho. It was contempt for himself, feeling relieved when it was clear that his colleague had just died right next to him. He couldn’t bring himself to turn his head. He knew all too well what had happened to the person who was trying to escape the room with him.

But if he turned his head and saw the scene with his own eyes, he felt like his heart would collapse.

“Don’t forget. If he doesn’t come to find me, I’ll come find you.”

His knees trembled.

The hand he stretched out to crawl slipped on the floor, and his head kept hitting the ground.

Chun Tae-hoon forced his trembling body to move.

Outward, further outward.

He only had one thought: to escape this situation somehow.

He had to escape, out of this room.

Chun Tae-hoon desperately crawled out of the room, through the blood that was flowing on the floor.

“…Oh my god.”

Lee Hyun-joo gritted her teeth.

A man was crawling out of the room.

That fact alone wasn’t that surprising. What horrified Lee Hyun-joo was the bizarre expression on the man’s face as he crawled out of the room.

It was as if all of human joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure were revealed in that expression.

She couldn’t imagine how a person could end up like that.

“Huuu, huuuu…”

Even after escaping the room, the man couldn’t get up. He was just crawling, stiff limbs moving as if he was a person who had lost his limbs, fleeing from a monster attacking from behind.

Right next to her.

It was clear that Lee Hyun-joo was not visible in this man’s eyes. How could she describe the feeling of watching a man, tears streaming down his face, crawling past her while groaning?

With a trembling heart and goosebumps, Lee Hyun-joo forced herself to regain control and turned her head towards the room.

Kang Jin-ho was in there.

No…

There was something wearing Kang Jin-ho’s shell in there.

‘I need to pull myself together.’

Her grandfather and Kang Jin-ho were still together. That meant the negotiation wasn’t over yet.

Her grandfather didn’t know Kang Jin-ho. If she wasn’t there, no one knew what would happen.

Lee Hyun-joo bit her lip tightly and took a difficult step into the room.

The scene inside the room wasn’t much different from what she had expected.

Two corpses rolling on the floor, her grandfather tied to a chair, and Kang Jin-ho sitting on a chair in front of him, staring at Lee Joong-gul.

“Who told you to come in?”

If there was anything different, it was Kang Jin-ho’s appearance. His appearance was different from what she had seen in the parking lot in the past.

‘What have I been looking at all this time?’

She thought she knew the true nature of Kang Jin-ho.

She had seen his back enough, and so she thought she could consider things while still being afraid.

But it was different.

The person she was seeing now was different from the Kang Jin-ho she had imagined.

If what she had seen so far was Kang Jin-ho trying to suppress himself, the figure she was seeing now was a beast that had been unleashed.

‘No, I don’t know yet.’

Don’t jump to conclusions.

Maybe even this appearance wasn’t Kang Jin-ho letting go of everything. She had made that conclusion before, and that’s why she was seeing this now.

Lee Hyun-joo clenched her fist.

Be confident, and don’t tremble as much as possible.

Kang Jin-ho wasn’t the kind of person who would listen to someone who was trembling and talking in front of him. If she wanted to convey her opinion to him, she had to grit her teeth, open her eyes wide, and speak with conviction. Only then would there be a slight chance of it working.

“Ah, I thought that since I’m still here, it means you haven’t finished talking with my grandfather.”

“So?”

“Since he doesn’t know you, I thought it would be easier to talk if I, who knows you a little better, was here.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at her without saying anything and then smirked.

“You’re saying whatever you want.”

In an instant, everything went dark in front of her eyes. She had a feeling that her words hadn’t worked.

“…Well, fine. You’re not my subordinate, so you don’t have to listen to me. It’s your freedom to act as you please.”

A sigh escaped her lips.

The fact that there was still room for conversation filled her body with a sense of relief. Her legs gave way, and her body slumped as if she had just finished a marathon. As fatigue washed over her, sweat broke out all over her body.

“And it’s also my freedom to deal with those who approach me as they please, isn’t it?”

Just a few words.

Lee Hyun-joo realized for the first time that a person could be toyed with like this with just a few casual words. How much fear a single word from someone with power could bring to others.

“Come here.”

As Kang Jin-ho gestured, Lee Hyun-joo approached him as if she was possessed. Kang Jin-ho made her come closer, looked into her eyes, and said quietly.

“I was a bit harsh with you once before. Do you remember?”

“…Yes.”

“That’s what saved you.”

“I owe you one. And I made you do one thing. From this moment on, all of that is settled. Do you agree?”

“Yes!”

Lee Hyun-joo nodded her head frantically.

If the price of that settlement was Lee Hyun-joo’s life, it was a deal she didn’t even need to think about.

“Okay, then…”

Kang Jin-ho calmly got up from his seat, shook his sword, and shoved it back into its scabbard. Then, he smiled and said.

“Let’s go wash up first. A conversation should be between people.”

Kang Jin-ho, smiling with a face covered in blood, still didn’t look like a human being.

At least, not to Lee Hyun-joo.

She wasn’t fully aware of what she was doing.

When she came to her senses, she had released her grandfather, dragged the corpses on the floor outside, and was wiping the blood that had flowed on the floor.

She didn’t know why she was doing those things.

What she vaguely felt was that she had to make this space look as normal as possible, so that she wouldn’t provoke Kang Jin-ho’s anger again when he came back to calm himself down.

Her grandfather was also in shock, and even though Lee Hyun-joo was frantically wiping the floor, he was sitting on the chair, dazed.

“…Grandfather.”

When Lee Hyun-joo, who had cleaned the floor as if it were new, called out carefully, Lee Joong-gul nodded his head with difficulty.

“Pull yourself together. You know what’s going on right now, right?”

Lee Joong-gul didn’t answer. But Lee Hyun-joo believed that he understood the whole situation. He was just in shock, but Lee Joong-gul was by no means a stupid person.

If the chairman of the Korean Martial Arts Association was so out of it because of something like this, the association wouldn’t have come this far.

“That man is someone whose behavior patterns are impossible to predict. But we must negotiate with him, Grandfather!”

“…Okay.”

Light returned to Lee Joong-gul’s eyes.

It seemed that the confusion was fading as the goal was set. And just in time, Kang Jin-ho opened the door and came inside.

Lee Hyun-joo had to feel a strange emotion as she watched Kang Jin-ho enter the room.

Kang Jin-ho, who had washed off the blood and removed all the blood that had stained his clothes red, looked like a college student going to school leisurely.

Ordinary.

Looking at Kang Jin-ho, who looked like someone you could see a few times on the street, it was impossible to believe that the monstrous human who had just bathed in blood and this person were the same person.

“Did I make you wait?”

Even his tone had changed.

Perhaps she should feel relieved at Kang Jin-ho’s gentle appearance. But Lee Hyun-joo was feeling a sense of dread, not relief, from that appearance.

‘This person…

Lives with this appearance.

Hiding the appearance from just a moment ago.

Kang Jin-ho no longer looked like a human being in Lee Hyun-joo’s eyes, who had realized how terrifying that was.

Today, she learned.

That not all martial artists are the same.

Some martial artists are not much different from ordinary people, while there are also martial artists who have almost no trace of their human form.

Just like the heretic.

“Let’s continue.”

Kang Jin-ho sat down in his chair and took out a cigarette. Lee Joong-gul, who had been watching him quietly, opened his mouth.

“…First of all, thank you for saving me.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“Whatever the reason, I was saved by you. Even if this negotiation doesn’t go well and you end up taking this old man’s life, please know that I am grateful to you.”

“I will.”

Kang Jin-ho lit his cigarette as if he wasn’t interested.

“Would you like one?”

“…I’ll gratefully accept.”

He thought about refusing, but it was ridiculous to be polite in this situation. Lee Joong-gul took the cigarette that Kang Jin-ho offered and lit it.

‘I quit…

It seems like it’s been almost twenty years since I quit smoking, but I’m starting again because of a ridiculous reason.’

Lee Joong-gul, who had taken a deep drag of his cigarette, asked Kang Jin-ho.

“What can I do for you?”

“I told you, I don’t want anything. I just came because I was asked to save you. You’ll have to think about the price now.”

Lee Joong-gul nodded his head.

His mind was spinning.

What should he give this person? And what could possibly satisfy him?

He didn’t know anything about the other person, so he didn’t know what to do.

“Before that, may I ask you one question?”

“As much as you want.”

Lee Joong-gul moistened his parched lips with his tongue.

Depending on the answer to this question, he might have to prepare for death.

“It might be a rude question, but I can’t help but ask.”

“Go ahead.”

Lee Joong-gul clenched his fist tightly.

“Are you perhaps a demon?”

It was an important question.

If the association supported a demon, it would be a good excuse for external forces. If this person was a demon, it might be better to end everything here with his and his granddaughter’s lives.

“No.”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head. A look of relief spread across Lee Joong-gul’s face. But the next words that followed made Lee Joong-gul’s face turn black as if he had died.

“In your terms, I’m a Demon King or a Heavenly Demon. I’m different from a lowly demon. I am the one who has reached the pinnacle of demons and rules over them.”

It was the moment the Demon King descended.