Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 404

Hwang Jung-hoo stared at his eldest son, his face contorted with rage.

“Have you said everything you wanted to say?”

Even knowing his father was furious, Hwang Min-jae didn’t back down, glaring right back at him.

“Have I said everything?”

Hwang Min-jae chuckled.

“I’m far from finished. If I were to express all my grievances, it wouldn’t be enough even if I talked all day. You threw your sons aside, insulted us for years, and now you call us back like this. Did you expect us to come back saying, ‘Yes, thank you,’ and massage your shoulders?”

“You brat!”

Hwang Jung-hoo jumped up from his seat.

“You dare to act like the victims when you tried to seize the company while your father was lying in bed! Do you think you did well?”

While his second son, Hwang Min-soo, was fidgeting anxiously, Hwang Min-jae’s face remained completely unfazed.

“Then, what should we have done?”

“What?”

“Our father, the chairman, collapsed without even leaving a will. Were we supposed to just wait for him to come back? The doctors said there was no hope. Should we have left the chairman’s seat vacant and performed a shamanic ritual?”

“You, you little!”

Hwang Jung-hoo was so enraged that he felt dizzy.

“Did you really do all that for the sake of the company? You didn’t even bother to visit your father in the hospital, and now you’re shamelessly spouting such nonsense?”

Hwang Min-jae smirked.

“We were too busy trying to keep the company from collapsing. Let’s be clear. If we had abandoned the company and stayed by our father’s bedside, would you have praised us for it?”

“You would have called us incompetent for not managing the company properly after raising us our whole lives. Either way, we would have been criticized. In the meantime, we did our best. But what we got in return was having all our assets taken away and being kicked out.”

“If you did wrong, you should be punished!”

“What did we do wrong!”

Hwang Min-jae shouted.

“We did our best to revive the company even when our father suddenly collapsed. You always looked down on us so much that even the board members and staff treated us with disrespect. What could we have done in that situation? We needed our father’s shares to unify the command structure. That was the only way to make the board members, who were acting like they were veterans of some war, listen to us! That’s why the government stepped in to help us without us even lobbying them!”

“Did you do all that out of good intentions? Good intentions? And you were fighting among yourselves?”

“Hahahaha.”

Hwang Min-jae laughed as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Weren’t you the one who told us that competition is natural even among siblings, and that we shouldn’t try to work together but instead think of each other as strangers and step on each other to rise?”

“…You.”

Hwang Min-jae’s face twisted as he spoke.

“What did we do wrong! We tried to save the company, and we followed your words. But what we got in return was being kicked out without even being given a chance to explain! We were the chairman’s sons, but we were treated like parachuters [a derogatory term for someone who gets a job through connections, not merit], receiving less money than even a regular employee. What were we supposed to do after being kicked out like that! If we had worked somewhere else with our abilities, we would be living comfortably by now. But because of the time wasted at Jae-kyung, we have no savings, and we can’t get a job anywhere else because of Jae-kyung’s interference. You should have just killed us! You should have!”

“Get out of here right now! You unfilial brat!”

“Yes! I’m leaving! I don’t want to see your face either.”

“Then why did you crawl back here! You brat!”

“Just once!”

Hwang Min-jae glared as he spoke.

“Just once, I wanted to tell you what I was thinking! Why I ended up like this! And I wanted to say this to you.”

Hate filled Hwang Min-jae’s face.

It was a look that was hard to believe was directed at his own father.

“If I have any fault, it’s that I had a father like you. Take your precious company and live well. I won’t be seeing you again!”

“You damn brat!”

“I’m leaving!”

Hwang Min-jae turned around abruptly and strode towards the door.

Slam!

He then saw Jo Gyu-min and Kang Jin-ho standing in front of him, and his face slightly contorted.

“…Jo Gyu-min.”

“You remember my name.”

Hwang Min-jae sighed and nodded.

“Yeah, how could I forget? I’m sorry. I did something terrible to you. I know that apologizing now won’t change anything…”

Hwang Min-jae smiled bitterly.

“But you’re on a winning streak, so you can at least show some generosity, even if you can’t forgive me. Be satisfied with watching the loser and laughing. Well then.”

Hwang Min-jae slightly bowed his head to Jo Gyu-min, and his eyes met Kang Jin-ho’s as he walked out.

Hwang Min-jae completely ignored Kang Jin-ho and walked out, and Jo Gyu-min sighed as he watched his back.

Looking at Hwang Jung-hoo, who was standing and trying to calm his anger, and Hwang Min-soo, who was fidgeting in front of him, he thought that now was not the right time.

Just as he was about to organize the situation, Hwang Min-soo bowed deeply to Hwang Jung-hoo and said,

“I’ll visit you again, Father.”

“Alright.”

Hwang Jung-hoo reluctantly nodded, and Hwang Min-soo walked out with a bitter expression.

“Ah…”

Hwang Min-soo bowed deeply when he saw Kang Jin-ho.

“Thank you for your concern.”

“…Yes.”

“Then, see you next time.”

Hwang Min-soo walked out with a bitter smile, and Jo Gyu-min peeked inside and said quietly,

“I’ll come back to see you later, Chairman.”

“Do that.”

“Yes, then.”

Jo Gyu-min carefully closed the door and looked around.

“Let’s clean up and bring the chairman a glass of cold water. No, let’s make it iced coffee instead of cold water. He’ll probably gulp down the cold water in one go.”

“Yes, Director.”

Jo Gyu-min pulled Kang Jin-ho and turned towards his office.

“…What a mess.”

“Indeed.”

Jo Gyu-min took a sip of his coffee with a bitter expression.

“You don’t look too good.”

Kang Jin-ho let out a groan at Jo Gyu-min’s words, noticing his stiff expression.

‘Well, yeah.’

Kang Jin-ho was the one who started this, and the result was like this, so he couldn’t possibly be in a good mood. Probably…

“I don’t think I’m easily swayed by others.”

Huh?

What is he talking about now?

As Kang Jin-ho started saying something completely unexpected, Jo Gyu-min looked at him in confusion.

“Yes.”

“After listening to him, I think what he said wasn’t wrong.”

“…Yes?”

“What that eldest son said earlier.”

Jo Gyu-min nodded quietly.

“After hearing his side of the story… I think it’s understandable… Am I easily swayed by others?”

Jo Gyu-min gave a wry smile.

‘Time has passed, and now I’m thinking about this.’

Back then, Jo Gyu-min was also burning with anger towards Hwang Min-jae, so he didn’t have any particular complaints, but looking back now, he thought it was a bit too much.

What could the sons have done when Hwang Jung-hoo, who wielded absolute power and didn’t even allow advisors, collapsed without even writing a will about the transfer of shares?

Hwang Jung-hoo was a person who was scary to watch even when he was just scolding his sons. If other CEOs made mistakes, he would say, ‘Failure is a part of life,’ and give them another chance, but if his sons made a mistake, he would throw ashtrays at them.

He always called them idiots and said in front of the middle managers that he was afraid to hand over the company to such pathetic people.

So, what kind of authority would he have?

If some time had passed and Hwang Jung-hoo had acknowledged his two sons to some extent and transferred authority to them, the company would have stabilized without any major problems, but Hwang Jung-hoo collapsed before that process could even begin, and that’s how the mess started.

‘He held on for too long.’

Hwang Jung-hoo’s charisma was unmatched in the Korean business world. His absence was not something that could be easily filled.

The board members, who were proud of having stood by Hwang Jung-hoo, a giant of his time, waited for Hwang Jung-hoo to wake up and completely ignored Hwang Min-jae’s words that he needed to consolidate power to stabilize the company.

‘It took a year.’

When Hwang Min-jae, unable to bear it any longer, coordinated with the government to have Hwang Jung-hoo declared incompetent and forcibly inherit his shares, the board members finally started to line up.

In a normal company, this should have happened the moment the chairman collapsed and was said to have no hope, but it took a whole year. That’s how deeply Hwang Jung-hoo’s shadow was cast over Jae-kyung. In the meantime, Hwang Min-jae and Hwang Min-soo did their best to revive the company.

To those who didn’t know the situation, it would have looked like they were fighting each other to seize power…

‘Chairman Hwang Jung-hoo never had his children work together.’

He never taught them about cooperation.

Hwang Jung-hoo didn’t know how to share power, and he wanted one of his sons to inherit all the power after he died. It was impossible for his two sons to share power in an ambiguous way. So, how could they, who had been educated and told that all their lives, work together to lead the company?

“It’s a difficult situation.”

Jo Gyu-min scratched his head.

Back then, he was just focused on Hwang Jung-hoo waking up and the company returning to normal, so he didn’t think deeply about it, but now that he was looking back at the situation…

“I guess I’m easily swayed too.”

“Right?”

“In another sense, I can understand what Kang Jin-ho said.”

“Yes?”

Jo Gyu-min said bitterly.

“They must have been lonely. The chairman, and his two sons as well. Because they were family, but they couldn’t be called a family.”

The atmosphere became a bit heavy.

Knock knock.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door. Jo Gyu-min turned his head, and the door opened slightly, and the secretary peeked inside.

“The chairman is looking for you.”

“Yes. I’ll be right there.”

Jo Gyu-min jumped up from his seat, and Kang Jin-ho quietly followed him.

“He probably isn’t in a good mood, so I would appreciate it if you could be a little careful with your words and actions.”

“I understand.”

“Yes. Let’s go then.”

As he followed Jo Gyu-min towards the chairman’s office, Kang Jin-ho sighed softly.

‘There’s no peace around me.’

That’s how it is around him.