Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1448

Willie swallowed hard.

He didn’t need to hear the details to know what was going on.

Recently, the unreasonable actions of the police towards people of color had become a social issue. With the change in government, nationalism and [hegemony – dominance of one group over others] were becoming social topics.

Of course, it wasn’t Willie’s place as a soldier to comment on the direction of policy. The problem was that, as a result of these events, those who had been keeping a low profile were now starting to act up.

‘That damn bastard!’

He glared at the police officer with eyes that could devour him.

A typical white police officer.

His teeth were grinding.

He wanted to run over there right now and shove a donut down that guy’s throat.

But with Kang Jin-ho standing there, there was no way he could do that.

‘You just wait, you damn bastard.’

First, he had to resolve this situation somehow.

“Lord, this matter…”

That’s when it happened.

Lee Hyun-soo, who was next to him, poked him in the ribs with his elbow. When he turned his head, he saw urgency on Lee Hyun-soo’s face.

‘Huh?’

It was a face he hadn’t even shown at H27. Even when Kang Jin-ho was facing a thousand opponents, Lee Hyun-soo had remained calm. But now, Lee Hyun-soo’s face was pale.

Seeing that face, a phrase from Kang Jin-ho’s report flashed in Willie’s mind.

Sensitive to problems around him. The type who values those around him excessively.

Willie’s face hardened in an instant.

‘Damn it!’

He had missed it.

If he could trust the information in that report, then Kang Jin-ho was probably angrier now than if he had been ignored or disadvantaged himself. If he said something obvious in front of Kang Jin-ho, the situation could spiral out of control.

The thought that all the effort he had put in so far could be ruined by this one small incident made him feel like he was going blind.

“Uh…”

He started to speak, thinking he had to say something, but he couldn’t think of what to say.

‘Get a grip!’

Willie bit his lip and raised his head. In this situation, clumsy tricks were meaningless. It would be better to go head-on.

Willie bowed his head towards Kang Jin-ho.

“First of all, I apologize, Lord.”

Kang Jin-ho tilted his head slightly to the side.

“I don’t know who you’re apologizing to.”

“Ah…”

Willie realized his mistake. Then, he quickly turned his body.

“I’m sorry, Choi Yeon-ha. I never imagined something like this would happen.”

“Why are you apologizing to me?”

She meant that the person who did it was still acting like that, so why was Willie apologizing instead.

‘Exactly.’

Willie gritted his teeth quietly.

Thinking that he would grind that police officer into sausage if he could just get through this situation, Willie opened his mouth.

“Making the person responsible apologize is certainly one way. But this doesn’t seem like something that can be resolved so easily. If you go up to your room, I will bring all the people in charge to see you soon.”

“People in charge?”

“At the very least, the police chief should come.” Willie let out a low breath.

“I will grind all those involved to dust. So please, calm your anger.”

“Hmm.”

Choi Yeon-ha nodded as if she liked Willie’s response.

“Well, then do that.”

“Thank you.”

Willie turned his head and looked at Kang Jin-ho, checking his reaction. He was asking if it was okay to proceed since Choi Yeon-ha had said it was fine.

Kang Jin-ho took a deep drag of the cigarette in his mouth.

“Hoo…”

Kang Jin-ho, who had exhaled the smoke, looked at Willie with calm eyes.

“I’ll be expecting it.”

“How you’re going to resolve this situation.”

The expression and atmosphere were so different from the Kang Jin-ho he had seen so far that Willie’s spine tingled.

‘This is not something I can handle on my own.’

Willie nodded, deciding that he needed to contact his superiors right away.

“Are you okay?”

“Of course, I’m okay. Do you think I’d lose it over something like this?”

Kang Jin-ho quietly observed Choi Yeon-ha.

She wasn’t pretending to be strong. Right now, Choi Yeon-ha really didn’t seem to be shaken at all. Her energy was more stable than Kang Jin-ho had thought.

“You should have sent them away first. What if they took you to a detention center?”

“Kang Jin-ho would come and get me out.”

Oh, right. That’s true.

“What if he couldn’t get you out?”

“Then he’d break through the wall and take me.”

Uh… that’s true too.

Choi Yeon-ha chuckled at Kang Jin-ho’s bewildered expression.

“I’m just kidding. Do you think I’d expect that much from you? Even if you did, I would have stopped you.”

Kang Jin-ho, who had been staring at Choi Yeon-ha, tilted his head.

“Then what were you going to do?”

“What do you mean, what was I going to do? I was just pissed off, so I lashed out.”

“How can you live thinking about the consequences of every little thing? I can’t live like that.”

She was confident.

She was bold.

But this wasn’t a good thing…

Choi Yeon-ha straightened her shoulders and said,

“I’d rather eat prison food than let something like that slide. And what? They want me to pay them to settle? I’d rather die than see that!”

That was definitely true.

“Anyway, I’m sorry for making a big deal out of it, but I couldn’t help it. Ah, thinking about it makes me even more annoyed. I should have just smashed his head with my heel!”

“…You’d get shot.”

“Tsk.”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head as Choi Yeon-ha clicked her tongue.

Anyone else might have considered Kang Jin-ho’s presence before acting, but the Choi Yeon-ha that Kang Jin-ho knew wasn’t someone who calculated things like that.

If she had, she would have at least called Kang Jin-ho.

So she really did just lash out without thinking about the consequences…

That was… well…

‘Impressive, in a way.’

And also hopeless.

Kang Jin-ho chuckled. What could he do? That was just who Choi Yeon-ha was.

“Anyway, I’m sorry for being late.”

“It’s okay. Don’t keep saying that. When you say that, it makes it sound like I caused trouble knowing you were coming. It’s not like, ‘My daddy’s coming.'”

“No, no one would think that.”

“Why?”

“No one would think that someone could even…”

“What?”

“It’s nothing.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled awkwardly.

“So…”

Kang Jin-ho’s head turned to one side. Kang Jin-ho’s face hardened as he saw the three people standing side by side at the entrance of the hotel room.

“What are they going to do?”

Ronnie McCain swallowed hard.

‘Damn it, how am I supposed to interpret this situation!’

He, the chief of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), never thought he would have to come out to explain a simple incident.

The Pentagon?

He would have scoffed if they had requested cooperation. To him, the Pentagon was a place to cooperate with, not a place to take orders from.

But the place that had contacted him wasn’t the Pentagon.

The mayor had called him directly and ordered him to handle this matter.

Ronnie McCain swore he had never seen the mayor so frantic in his life. The man, who was usually so gentle, was cursing into the phone as if he had found a stranger in bed with his wife, ready to break the phone.

And that wasn’t all.

No sooner had the mayor hung up than the governor called.

Only then did Ronnie realize how gentle the mayor was.

Compared to the governor’s barrage of curses, the mayor’s words were textbook material. Ronnie had never heard such a diverse and emotional string of curses in his life.

If this matter was resolved well, he would recommend that the governor debut as a rapper.

Anyway.

Ronnie, who had received the most intense phone calls he had ever received from his superiors, was now half out of his mind.

‘Who the hell are these people…’

Even if the head of a major country had been insulted, his direct superiors wouldn’t have called him one after another to curse him out. In other words, the people here might have more influence than the heads of those countries…

‘And someone sexually harassed that person?’

He should have just died.

Why carry a gun? Isn’t it for putting in your mouth and shooting yourself at times like this! Damn it, why didn’t he die and leave me to take the blame!

Ronnie swallowed hard again as he received the gazes of Willie and Reynolds.

In any case, he was the chief of this police department.

He had to take responsibility for everything that happened below him. If he couldn’t handle the matter at his level and it escalated further, the mayor would do whatever it took to cut off his head and recommend that he start farming corn.

So he could be killed and buried easily.

Ronnie, wiping the sweat from his forehead with his hand, stepped forward with trembling steps.

“First of all…”

Ronnie opened his mouth, praying that his tongue would move smoothly.

“I would like to apologize as the person in charge for this entire situation. It is my fault for not managing my officers properly. To the person who was harmed by this…”

“Are you going to read an apology on TV?”

“It sounds like you’re reading a script someone wrote for you. Don’t spout obvious nonsense, just say what you have to say.”

Ronnie glanced back.

Reynolds and Willie were urgently gesturing with their eyes.

‘Damn it, what the hell am I supposed to do?’

You guys at least know who that person is. How am I supposed to apologize to someone I don’t even know properly?

They tell me I don’t need to know who they are, but they’re pushing all the responsibility onto me and just gesturing with their eyes. It was so frustrating that he felt like he was going to explode.

“W-well, first…”

But what could he do? This was his job.

“The officer in question will be dismissed. We have already received a confession from him that he conducted an unfair investigation.”

“Dismissed?”

“…Of course, we don’t intend to end it with just dismissal. Since he has damaged the reputation of the LAPD and caused harm, we will file lawsuits in all related areas and make sure he pays the price.”

“Hmm.”

Kang Jin-ho rested his chin on his hand.

“And then?”

“The education officer and the officer’s direct superiors will all be dismissed or disciplined. And based on this incident, we plan to implement related training throughout the police department.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at the chief with a displeased expression.

“T-this is the best we can do. If we escalate this issue further, we will have no choice but to disclose why we did this, and if we do that, we will have to mention who was involved in this.”

He was saying that he didn’t want to mention Kang Jin-ho’s name, so he hoped they would be satisfied with this.

As Kang Jin-ho stared at the chief, Choi Yeon-ha opened her mouth.

“What are they saying?”

After Kang Jin-ho explained what he had heard, Choi Yeon-ha frowned.

“Why is it so complicated?”

“…Huh?”

“Forget it, can’t I just punch that bastard once? No, it won’t hurt if I hit him, so can you hit him once for me, Jin-ho? Please?”

He’d die if you did that.