Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1120

“If you were in my position, which would you choose? To be annihilated to protect your pride, or to abandon your pride and become a dog to protect the Round Table?”

“Didn’t I say? We are wasps.

And not just any wasps, but hornets. We may not be a threat to Kang Jin-ho, but we are a threat to those around him. In Kang Jin-ho’s eyes, we’ll look like hornets targeting his precious daughter.”

Night Belinger chuckled at the analogy.

Wasps buzzing around his daughter.

It was absurd that the Round Table could be compared to something so trivial.

“I understand your reluctance to be domesticated. You wouldn’t want to admit it. It would be hard to accept.”

“It’s not that extreme. After all, reality is reality.”

“You say you understand, but you don’t really.”

Night Belinger didn’t respond.

The Master was right. He had no choice but to say he understood. But deep down, he was filled with discontent about the situation.

“Do you know what makes us different from dogs or bees?”

“I’m not sure.”

“You do know.”

“That we are being domesticated.” The Master’s eyes darkened.

From that look, Night Belinger could glimpse a different emotion than before.

The Master of the past was gentle and soft.

But the current Master had a venom and a chilling aura that were nowhere to be found in his past self. Just watching him stare blankly into the air sent shivers down his spine.

‘He’s changed so much.’

If he had to choose between the past and the present, he preferred the Master of the past. But if he were asked who he could trust and follow more in this situation?

It would have to be the current Master. Gentleness shines in times of peace. But in times of chaos, it can become a fatal weakness.

“I don’t refuse domestication. If necessary, I can even lick Kang Jin-ho’s feet. As long as I don’t betray them, and as long as I provide them with adequate benefits, they will give us the power. Even if it’s not now, we will eventually gain the power to surpass them.”

“They are also developing.”

“Yes, they are. But…” The Master smiled faintly.

“Kang Jin-ho isn’t going to live for a thousand years, is he?”

That was true.

No matter how strong he was, he couldn’t escape the limits of his lifespan.

“I don’t want to defeat Kang Jin-ho. I want to make the Round Table the center of the world again. There have been countless times when new powers were temporarily stronger than the Round Table.

But they disappeared, and the Round Table remained. We’re not looking at a hundred years. We need to look at a thousand years. Will the General Assembly still be around in a thousand years?”

Night Belinger nodded.

The Master was right.

“Let’s put aside a moment of humiliation for a thousand years of glory. If we have to, we’ll become loyal dogs. We can always return to being wild dogs someday.”

“The Master is right. However… Kang Jin-ho isn’t the only one in the General Assembly, is he?”

“That’s why we have to work hard. By now, they’re probably fiercely developing themselves and the General Assembly. I need your help a lot.”

“Don’t worry. I will do my best.”

“Thank you.”

Despite the rather gentle conversation, the Master’s inner thoughts were deeply troubled.

‘Fiercely, huh….’

What they asked of the Round Table wasn’t that big of a deal. But everything has a hidden agenda.

‘Start simple. And then move on to more difficult tasks.’

They were probably planning to make them get used to it little by little.

The Master gave a bitter smile.

Wiggins, who he thought would be his successor, was now completely part of the General Assembly and was strangling him. This absurdly rapid change that had occurred in just one year was bewildering, but reality was reality. He had to accept it.

Wiggins would do his best to devour the Round Table.

There were few who knew the Round Table as well as he did, and there were few who understood the Round Table’s weaknesses as well as he did. The fact that Wiggins was coming at them with all his might was definitely a threat.

Perhaps even more so than Kang Jin-ho.

‘Do as you please.’ He would yield. As much as they wanted.

But even if they took everything from the Round Table, they could never take away the Round Table’s history and soul.

‘I can’t lose yet, Wiggins. I still have some passion left in me.’

The Master looked back at the documents, thinking of Wiggins, who was fiercely aiming for the Round Table from afar.

“How many times do I have to tell you that’s not it!”

Should he kill him?

Wiggins couldn’t help but fall into serious contemplation.

Who was he?

Night Wiggins.

He wasn’t a Night anymore, but the fact that he was the most promising Night didn’t change. It was strange to have the modifier ‘promising’ attached to the position of Night, which was usually held by older people, but that was the reality.

Originally, the position of Night was one that was reached by older people. One had to have at least the experience of someone called elderly to handle the important role of Night. If one became a Night in middle age, they were considered a genius of their time.

Among those Nights, Wiggins was called a genius among geniuses.

But….

“No! Why can’t you understand this simple thing! How much easier do I have to explain it! Even the top instructor at Noryangjin [a famous cram school district in Seoul] wouldn’t be able to explain it more easily than I am. If you can’t understand this, then it’s fundamentally….”

“Kkkkk.”

Wiggins’s body trembled.

He wanted to kill him.

Even if he didn’t kill him, he wanted to punch that annoying face.

His composure, which had rarely been shaken in his life, was now being violently shaken as if a magnitude 9.0 earthquake had occurred.

“Master?”

“•…Huh?”

“Are you listening?”

Of course, I’m listening, you idiot!

How could anyone not hear someone nagging right in front of their face!

“Th, then.”

“Hoo.”

Lee Hyun-soo let out a deep sigh. The sigh pierced Wiggins’s heart painfully.

“Is it that difficult to understand?”

“N, no, it’s not that, but….” Wiggins smiled awkwardly.

“It seems that the system is different. Trying to understand something completely different….”

“Master.”

Lee Hyun-soo said firmly.

“That sounds like the excuse I used when I was learning magic.”

“What did you say to me back then!”

Lee Hyun-soo started talking excitedly.

“Even though the systems are different, everything follows one flow. Not being able to understand because the system is different is the same as admitting your own incompetence! Isn’t that right?”

Why did he do that?

Why! Why the hell!

If he could, he wanted to go back to the past. Then, he wanted to grab himself who was nagging at Lee Hyun-soo and talk to him.

‘Karma.’

It’s an Eastern proverb, right?

Hey, everything comes back to you. So, do it in moderation. You’ll pay for it later.

Of course, he didn’t think he would have stopped even if he had heard those words.

Anyway, thanks to that, Wiggins was now being thoroughly tormented by Lee Hyun-soo.

‘You petty bastard.’

He remembered everything. He remembered it so well that he didn’t miss a single word. Every time Lee Hyun-soo brought up his past remarks, the words he had said were vividly replayed in his head.

“Hoo, I don’t think I can do this. You should just learn from someone else….”

“C, calm down, Director Lee.”

Wiggins hurriedly stopped Lee Hyun-soo.

Learning from Lee Hyun-soo was humiliating. But learning from someone other than Lee Hyun-soo would be even more painful.

Who should he learn from if not Lee Hyun-soo?

Bator? Jang Min? Or that Bang Jin-hoon?

Or Kang Jin-ho?

No way.

The person he could learn from most honorably was definitely Kang Jin-ho. But Wiggins knew that Kang Jin-ho might be a good martial artist, but he could never be a good teacher.

–

Why can’t you understand this?

–

If you don’t understand, you have to roll around on the ground.

It was obvious.

Hadn’t he already seen Kang Jin-ho catching the Mana Flames like rats? Of course, he couldn’t deny that the training method of catching rats was effective. Considering how much stronger the Mana Flames had become in a short period, he had to admit that it was the best in history in terms of efficiency.

But whether he wanted to experience it himself was another matter. He couldn’t roll around on the ground at his age!

Then what about Bator?

Surprisingly, Bator was a fairly normal teacher. Unlike his appearance, he was well-versed in both theory and practice, and he clearly recognized the limits of his students.

When a high wall appeared, Kang Jin-ho was the type of teacher who made his students stick to the wall and stick their swords into the ground, saying that there was no wall that they couldn’t overcome with perseverance and effort. But Bator was the type who cultivated the ability to overcome the wall through appropriate training, taking into account the limits of his students.

However, why couldn’t he learn from Bator?

‘Because I’m not a student.’

Bator was only kind to his ‘students.’

What if Wiggins learned martial arts from Bator?

It would be worse than Lee Hyun-soo, not less.

Not to mention Bang Jin-hoon.

If it wasn’t Lee Hyun-soo, he would have to learn martial arts from people who weren’t directors.

The thought alone was terrifying.

“I, I’ll try again.”

“Haa…”

Lee Hyun-soo let out a deep sigh.

Then, he looked at Wiggins with a face that showed he was not satisfied.

“Master.”

What was he going to say again?

“Most things can be done with perseverance! Even if the systems are different, you can do it if you try! If you try!”

This bastard, does he think effort is a panacea?

Anyway, these General Assembly guys were always talking about effort and perseverance.

This wasn’t some kind of shonen manga [a genre of Japanese comics and animation aimed at a young male audience].

“Please do your best.”

“……I will.”

Wiggins gritted his teeth.

‘Once I master this, I’ll see.’

He would grind his bones.

“Ah, and… there’s something you need to do to proceed with the training.”

“Huh?”

Lee Hyun-soo suddenly held out a document.

“Wh, what is this?”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled.

“It’s a written oath that you will never retaliate, no matter what happens during the training process.”

“I need this kind of safety net to be able to teach you to the best of my ability, don’t I?”

“Please sign it.”

Wiggins stared at the oath for a moment, then turned his head to look out the window into the distance.

‘I miss you, Master.’

The Round Table was good.

The Round Table.

“Aren’t you going to do it?”

“I, I’ll do it. I’ll just do it!”

“Why are you yelling! I’m doing my best.”

“Kkkkk.”

It was indeed fierce.

But the fierceness of the General Assembly was a little different from what the Master thought.

If he saw Wiggins’s current state, wouldn’t even the Master feel a little comfort?

It was an unknown thing.