Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1241

“Hey, let’s have another drink!”\n\n”…Let’s go home, Young-gi.”\n\n”No, the sun hasn’t even come up yet, what’s with going home! I’m going to drink until sunrise today!”\n\n”Okay, okay, the sun’s up. Look, the sun’s up over there. See?”\n\n”Huh? Is that the sun?”\n\nPark Yoo-min coaxed Joo Young-gi, tricking him by saying a streetlamp was the sun.\n\n”So, let’s go home. Come on, we need to go quickly.”\n\n”No, I still need to drink more…”\n\nJoo Young-gi, completely out of it, squinted and looked around, then spotted Kang Jin-ho.\n\n”Oh, my friend Jin-ho.”\n\n”Damn, he’s so handsome. Annoyingly so.” Joo Young-gi raised his index finger, his face twisted in annoyance. Kang Jin-ho sighed deeply at the sight.\n\n”Jin-ho, hail a taxi over there.”\n\nKang Jin-ho looked around and then raised his hand towards an approaching taxi.\n\nThe taxi driver, who had slowly pulled over, opened his window.\n\n”Where are you headed?”\n\nKang Jin-ho stared at the taxi driver for a moment before speaking.\n\n”Can I get in?”\n\n”Where are you going?”\n\n”Do I have to say that beforehand?”\n\n”Ah, I’m not going.”\n\nWhirr.\n\nThe car window went up without hesitation. Unfortunately for the taxi driver, he was dealing with Kang Jin-ho.\n\nThud.\n\nWhirr! Whirr!\n\n”Huh? What? Why isn’t it going up?” Kang Jin-ho’s hand gripped the window. The window didn’t budge.\n\n”Can I get in?”\n\n”No…”\n\n”Can. I. Get. In?”\n\nThe driver flinched at Kang Jin-ho’s gaze.\n\n”Yes, of course! Please get in.” People have a survival instinct.\n\n”Yoo-min, he says we can get in.”\n\n”Then take him. He’s too heavy.”\n\n”Okay.”\n\nKang Jin-ho strode over and hoisted Joo Young-gi onto his shoulder.\n\n”No… no, I’m going to drink more. Can’t these guys understand me?”\n\n”You’re the one who can’t understand.”\n\nKang Jin-ho chuckled wryly as he put Joo Young-gi in the back seat of the taxi. Joo Young-gi resisted slightly before getting into the taxi. The taxi driver, seeing Joo Young-gi’s size and demeanor, glanced at him with a flustered expression.\n\n”Please take care of him.”\n\n”Ah, yes. Don’t worry. Sir, where are you headed?”\n\nKang Jin-ho smiled faintly and closed the taxi door.\n\nThere seemed to be a slight scuffle inside, then the taxi smoothly pulled away.\n\n”Will he be okay?”\n\n”Don’t worry about it.”\n\nPark Yoo-min shrugged.\n\nThe taxi driver has eyes; he wouldn’t try to mess with Joo Young-gi.\n\n”What happened to your car?”\n\n”I didn’t drive it.”\n\n”Why?”\n\n”I had a feeling I’d be drinking.”\n\n”Good call.”\n\nWhether the concept of drunk driving existed for Kang Jin-ho was definitely something to consider. If drunk driving is defined as ‘driving after drinking alcohol,’ then it exists, but if it’s defined by the amount of alcohol in the bloodstream while driving, then it doesn’t exist.\n\nAlcohol was too weak a substance to affect Kang Jin-ho’s body. It was expelled from his body almost as soon as it entered, in less than a second.\n\nSo, would drunk driving even mean anything to Kang Jin-ho?\n\nHowever, whether it was a real threat or not, Kang Jin-ho was trying his best to avoid driving after drinking.\n\nIf he tried to avoid rules just because they didn’t make sense to him, then no rule in the world could apply to Kang Jin-ho. There might be unavoidable situations, but there was no reason not to follow the rules that should be followed for convenience.\n\n”So, are you going to take a taxi?”\n\n”I don’t know…”\n\nKang Jin-ho turned his head slightly and looked up at the sky.\n\nThe dark sky was looking down at him.\n\n”It’s not that far… I guess I’ll walk.”\n\n”Okay? Then Jin-ho, I’ll go first.”\n\n”Okay. Be careful.”\n\nEven after saying goodbye, Park Yoo-min stood there blankly and called out to Kang Jin-ho.\n\n”Jin-ho.”\n\nKang Jin-ho quietly looked at Park Yoo-min.\n\n”This year was a bit hectic, wasn’t it?”\n\n”Let’s see each other more often next year. You’re busy, and I’m busy, but they say if you start making excuses about being busy, it never ends.”\n\nKang Jin-ho smiled quietly.\n\n”Yeah, we should.”\n\n”Say hi to your mother and father for me.”\n\n”…You’re talking like we won’t see each other again this year? We might see each other at the orphanage tomorrow.”\n\n”I just felt like I should. I’m going!”\n\nPark Yoo-min smiled and waved her hand. Then, she got into a waiting taxi.\n\nKang Jin-ho, who had been quietly watching the taxi drive away with Park Yoo-min, slowly turned around.\n\nWith a light step, Kang Jin-ho headed home.\n\nToday was a little…\n\n‘I feel good.’\n\nMaybe it was because he had a drink with his friends after a long time, but he felt a little warm.\n\nKang Jin-ho, who had left the brightly lit downtown area and entered a quiet alley, quietly quickened his pace.\n\nIt was cold.\n\nThe breath he exhaled scattered into the air like cigarette smoke. Kang Jin-ho, watching the white breath flowing from his lips, recalled a distant memory.\n\nIt was like that back then.\n\nWhen he was living in the Central Plains [a historical region in China] as a child.\n\nThe most frightening thing back then wasn’t loneliness or hunger, but the cold that cut through his fingertips.\n\nWhen he huddled under the cold walls, the white breath coming from his mouth made the world feel completely white.\n\nBack then, winter was too cold and harsh for Kang Jin-ho.\n\nBut the cold surrounding Kang Jin-ho now wasn’t as harsh as it was back then.\n\nWhy was that?\n\nWas it because his martial arts had become stronger?\n\nWas it because the modern era was warmer than that time?\n\nI don’t know.\n\nIt probably wasn’t that.\n\nIt was a slightly unfamiliar feeling. It was probably because what Park Yoo-min had said to him earlier kept lingering in his mind.\n\n”Are you happy?”\n\n‘How embarrassing.’\n\nIt wasn’t an easy question to ask. And it wasn’t an easy question to answer either.\n\nEspecially for Kang Jin-ho, who had never thought about whether he was happy.\n\n‘Happiness, huh…’\n\nKang Jin-ho, who had been walking quietly, stopped in his tracks and looked up at the sky.\n\nA black sky.\n\nA dark sky, with not a single star visible, was looking down at Kang Jin-ho.\n\nOnce.\n\nThere was a time when seeing this sky was his wish. Some people find a sky full of stars beautiful and love it, but for Kang Jin-ho, a sky full of stars was just a symbol of being separated from where he had lived.\n\nThis sky, where even the stars are not visible due to the polluted air, is Kang Jin-ho’s sky.\n\nThe one he had longed for, the one….\n\nAfter overcoming yet another death, Kang Jin-ho had returned to this world.\n\nAnd he was living a life that he could never have imagined before.\n\nA life where there was always a family to welcome him, and a home to return to.\n\nA life where he had friends to talk to and drink with.\n\nA life where he had colleagues who supported him.\n\nAnd also….\n\n‘There’s also someone who nags me.’\n\nThinking of Choi Yeon-ha made him smile. While the other elements were things he had always wanted if he could ever return to this world, Choi Yeon-ha was something he had never imagined.\n\nWhat would the Kang Jin-ho who lived in the Central Plains think if he saw the current Kang Jin-ho?\n\n‘It’s too much.’\n\nThey were all too much for Kang Jin-ho to have.\n\nAm I happy?\n\nThe answer is meaningless.\n\nWhen he was in despair that he could no longer bear, he had wished that if he fell asleep today, he would never wake up. There was a time when just enduring one day was difficult, but the thought of tomorrow coming was even more difficult.\n\nCompared to that time….\n\nNow, every day he lived was like a miracle.\n\nIt’s too much.\n\nIt’s too much.\n\n”Hoo.”\n\nThe white breath slowly scattered into the sky.\n\nKang Jin-ho stood blankly in the middle of the street, where the streetlights were on, and looked at the dark sky.\n\nThe indifferent sky full of stars that he had seen as he lost consciousness, and the black sky without a single star, intersected in his vision.\n\nIt was strange.\n\nLooking at that black sky made him feel at peace.\n\nKang Jin-ho, who had been quietly looking at the sky, slowly began to walk.\n\nWith each step he took, the lights in the distance slowly approached Kang Jin-ho.\n\nKang Jin-ho’s life would be no different.\n\nSometimes, things that seemed distant and sometimes just like illusions would come to Kang Jin-ho’s side as he walked and walked.\n\nEven the family he thought he would never meet….\n\nEven the warmth he thought he would never feel again….\n\nAnd even the ordinary life of just laughing, chatting, and joking around.\n\nSo….\n\nIt would be no different in the future.\n\nThere would be times when it would be difficult.\n\nThere would be times when he would want to give up.\n\nBut just like now, just like he had lived until now, if he took one step at a time, Kang Jin-ho would be able to grasp what he desired with his own two hands.\n\nHe believed that.\n\nLike that.\n\n‘Am I happy?’\n\nKang Jin-ho, who had arrived in front of his house, quietly looked at his house.\n\nA house with lights shining through.\n\nIt was too natural, but it felt too awkward.\n\nKang Jin-ho quietly approached the gate and opened it. Then, he walked through the small garden and reached the front door.\n\nHe strangely took a deep breath.\n\nHe thought about it sometimes.\n\nWhat if all of this was an illusion?\n\nHe might still be on the summit of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, and his entire body might be pierced with sharp weapons. This long third life might be an illusion created by the Red Sky Demon Lord, who was facing death.\n\nSometimes, Kang Jin-ho was tormented by such fear.\n\nBecause what he had obtained was too much, so sometimes he couldn’t believe it.\n\nEvery time that happened….\n\nKang Jin-ho entered the password for the front door and slowly opened it. Then, he went inside the entrance and took off his shoes.\n\n”I’m home.”\n\n”Oppa! O-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o!”\n\nNo sooner had he finished speaking than Kang Eun-young burst out from inside with a thumping sound and charged into Kang Jin-ho’s chest. Kang Jin-ho, who had caught Kang Eun-young, who was running at him with a slightly pale face, rubbed his chest with one hand.\n\nHe had never taught her how to attack with internal energy, but her attack power was considerable.\n\n”Did you drink?”\n\n”A little.”\n\n”That won’t do. Going around drinking!”\n\nKang Jin-ho smiled without realizing it.\n\nBefore Kang Eun-young could say anything more, his father and mother came out of their room and looked at Kang Jin-ho.\n\n”You’re late.”\n\n”Yes. Why weren’t you asleep?”\n\n”We can’t sleep until our son comes home.”\n\nHis mother smiled gently.\n\n”I’m just kidding. It’s a special day today. So, your dad and I were having a little moment.”\n\n”You can’t say things like that in front of the kids!”\n\nHis father’s face turned red.\n\n”If you’re home, go wash up and go to bed. Are you hungry?”\n\n”I’m okay. I ate before coming.”\n\n”But you always get hungry when you come home after drinking. Honey, is there anything to eat?”\n\n”You worry too much. Even if I don’t take care of your meals, would I let our son go hungry? Jin-ho, go wash up. I’ll prepare a meal for you.”\n\n”…I’m really okay.”\n\n”Go wash up.”\n\nKang Jin-ho walked towards his room with an awkward expression.\n\n”Oppa! What about my present? It’s Christmas, you have to give me a present.”\n\nKang Jin-ho pushed away Kang Eun-young, who was clinging to him, and smiled lightly.\n\nIt might be an illusion.\n\nMaybe all of this was a dream.\n\nHe had committed too many sins to feel this kind of happiness in reality.\n\nBut….\n\nEven if all of this was a dream, there was one thing he could say for sure.\n\nThud.\n\nKang Jin-ho closed the door and closed his eyes for a moment before turning on the light.\n\n—Are you happy?\n\nA smile bloomed on Kang Jin-ho’s lips.\n\n”Of course.”\n\nOf course, I am.\n\nIt was a belated answer.