Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1526

“Well, it’s nothing that grand,” Lee Hyun-soo said, walking leisurely beside Jung Myung-chul.

“The important thing is one thing. You have to watch your mouth.”

Lee Hyun-soo put his index finger to his lips and smiled.

“Do you understand what I mean?” Jung Myung-chul nodded vigorously, so much so that it seemed his neck might break.

Watching him, Lee Hyun-soo smiled again.

“I’m glad you understand so quickly.”

Lee Hyun-soo reached out and patted Jung Myung-chul’s shoulder a couple of times as they walked side by side.

“But do you really understand?”

“…Yes?”

Jung Myung-chul’s eyes began to tremble.

He looked at Lee Hyun-soo with a frightened face.

Kang Jin-ho?

Of course, he was scary. But from Jung Myung-chul’s perspective, the fear he felt from this man was much greater than the fear he felt from Kang Jin-ho.

His instincts were distinguishing between those who would harm him and those who wouldn’t.

“Mr. Jung Myung-chul.”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled slightly.

“I really dislike you.”

“You probably have no idea what it means for me to dislike someone.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s voice lowered slightly.

“You may resent the Clan Lord… no, Kang Jin-ho, but you should be grateful to him. If it weren’t for him, you would never have gone home on your own two feet.”

Jung Myung-chul could tell.

This was definitely not a threat.

Lee Hyun-soo kept looking at Jung Myung-chul with regretful eyes, as if he didn’t like sending him back in one piece.

Under that gaze, Jung Myung-chul felt like he had become a goldfish.

A goldfish feeling the gaze of a cat outside the fishbowl.

If the fishbowl called Kang Jin-ho hadn’t existed, he would have already been torn to shreds as a cat’s plaything.

“You can think of this as a simple threat.”

Lee Hyun-soo looked at Jung Myung-chul with strange eyes.

“Then, from that point on, I can really do as I please. Do you understand what I mean?”

Jung Myung-chul nodded with a trembling face.

He couldn’t hear the words.

No, he was hearing them, but he didn’t really know what he was hearing. What he understood was not the words, but the atmosphere and a vague image of what he shouldn’t do.

But that came across even more intensely than understanding with his head.

“I’ll say it again, your mouth is a channel for disaster and the root of all evil. I want you to live like a dead mouse, but the Clan Lord said you don’t have to, so I won’t touch you no matter what you do. The moment you leave this place, I will erase you from my memory. Do you understand?”

“…Yes.”

“But if I hear that you’ve mentioned us again…”

Lee Hyun-soo shrugged.

“Then, we will meet again. And I guarantee you, you won’t be able to come back here then.”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled.

“Please remember my words. Human memory isn’t that great, so it tends to hear what it wants to hear. But you must remember everything you heard today.”

“Well, I hope it was a good experience.” A large sedan waiting outside came into view as Jung Myung-chul reached the front door. Then, those who were waiting approached Jung Myung-chul and put a blindfold over his eyes.

Jung Myung-chul flinched and stepped back as his eyes were covered.

“There’s nothing to worry about. We just want to hide the route a bit. What you’re thinking won’t happen. If that were the case, there would be no need to go through all this trouble, would there?”

Only then did Jung Myung-chul calm down.

“This way.”

Lee Hyun-soo grabbed the blindfolded Jung Myung-chul and pulled him along. Jung Myung-chul was dragged weakly by his hand down the stairs.

Lee Hyun-soo opened the car door and pushed Jung Myung-chul inside.

Then, he closed the car door.

Pushed inside, Jung Myung-chul felt around for the seat and turned to sit down.

The moment his buttocks touched the car seat, all the strength drained from his body. The familiar sensation of modern civilization, which he hadn’t felt in days, was comforting Jung Myung-chul.

“No, no. You can’t relax yet.”

Jung Myung-chul’s body tensed up again at Lee Hyun-soo’s sly voice.

“You can relax. But you shouldn’t relax. Understand these words. It’s okay to think you’ve escaped, but you must know that you haven’t completely escaped. That’s how you can enjoy life again.”

The voice coming from outside the door pierced his ears.

Jung Myung-chul clenched his teeth, and Lee Hyun-soo smiled as if he was satisfied.

“Good. If you can maintain that attitude, there won’t be any problems.”

A low voice was heard.

“Thank you for your hard work. I hope this week’s experience has been helpful to you. And I sincerely warn you… don’t try anything foolish. Ruin starts with greed. Trying to do something to us is greed, not reason. Don’t forget that.”

Lee Hyun-soo knocked on the car door a couple of times, and the car window went up.

“Goodbye, Mr. Jung Myung-chul. Until we meet again.”

The sedan carrying Jung Myung-chul started smoothly. Lee Hyun-soo watched the scene and took out a cigarette.

“I’ve sent him off.”

“Good work.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled faintly as he saw Lee Hyun-soo return to the Clan Lord’s office.

“You look very disappointed?”

“I am a bit disappointed, but…”

Lee Hyun-soo turned his head and looked out the window.

Lee Hyun-soo smiled faintly as he looked at the road where the sedan had gone down.

“I think we’ll see him again.”

“After all that trouble, again?”

“May I tell you one of the truths I’ve learned in life?”

“People don’t change, Clan Lord.”

Lee Hyun-soo chuckled and continued.

“If people changed that easily, prisons would be busy cleaning up the dust piling up in empty rooms by now. But right now, prisons in South Korea are constantly being built. And most of them are repeat offenders.”

“People don’t change.”

“But some people do change, right?”

“Like me?”

Lee Hyun-soo chuckled and pointed at himself.

“I hope you don’t misunderstand, Clan Lord. This isn’t a change. It’s being suppressed.”

Kang Jin-ho tilted his head.

He didn’t understand what he meant.

“The reason I don’t live like I used to is because you’re here, Clan Lord. If you were to disappear right now and Kim Seok-il were to come back above me, would I really live like I do now?”

“That’s what people are like. Everyone lives under some kind of pressure. For some, that pressure is a person, for others, it’s the law, and for others, it’s morality. It could be money, or it could be affection.”

Lee Hyun-soo shrugged.

“For me, it’s just you, Clan Lord. It’s not that I’ve changed. I’ve just adapted to a new pressure.”

Kang Jin-ho narrowed his brow slightly, and Lee Hyun-soo waved his hand.

“Ah, of course, it’s not like I’m struggling under your pressure, Clan Lord… well, it’s not like that. This is a fundamental story. If you weren’t here, Clan Lord, I would have to endure another pressure. It’s just a change.”

“Hmm.”

“There won’t be any problems right now. The pressure he received from the General Assembly will make him act like a human. But that pressure is over now.”

“Most people who leave prison vow to never commit a crime again and return to society. Because prison life is that terrible.”

“Terrible?”

Kang Jin-ho tilted his head, and Lee Hyun-soo sighed.

“…No, it’s probably nothing to you, Clan Lord, since you can break down walls if you want to. Director Wiggins even made you a cola float.”

“For ordinary people, prison is a terrible place. But even though they know they have to go back to that terrible place if they commit a crime, many people commit crimes again after time passes.”

“Because the pressure has decreased?”

“Yes. There’s a difference between when it’s felt on your skin and when it remains as a vague memory. Jung Myung-chul is the same. There won’t be any problems for a while. But what if the hardship he went through here starts to become glorified?”

Lee Hyun-soo shrugged.

“He’ll do it again.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled and put a cigarette in his mouth.

“It seems like you’re hoping for it?”

“I’m half hoping for it. I really hate guys like that. It’s the irony of the world that even such people can live well if they’re born into a good family. I feel like stabbing them in the gut with a spear, but…”

Oh, really?

“Anyway, we have to wait now, to see how that guy turns out.”

Kang Jin-ho made a subtle face.

He understood that Lee Hyun-soo’s words were somewhat accurate. But if he agreed with those words, it felt like he was denying Kang Jin-ho’s changes so far.

“Still, couldn’t he change?”

“Ah, it’s not that he won’t change. Of course, he’ll change.”

Lee Hyun-soo slightly widened the gap between his thumb and index finger.

“This much.”

“It seems huge to him, but this much to others.”

Man, he’s so cynical.

“Especially someone like that, the range of change is small. If he were someone who could change that easily, he wouldn’t have lived like that until now. I’m willing to bet. That guy will definitely cause trouble again.”

“And then… don’t stop me. I’ll really take care of it myself.”

“Is that a promise?”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled and lit his cigarette.

“You’re talking as if I’m protecting that guy.”

“Aren’t you actually doing that?”

“It’s just because he’s a civilian. But if he comes this far and still acts up, then he won’t be able to get a reduced sentence with those words.”

Lee Hyun-soo grinned.

“I knew you’d say that.”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head, exhaling cigarette smoke.

‘Well, it’s not my problem to worry about anymore.’

Anyway, the Jung Myung-chul matter was settled, and sales had recovered.

Even if Jung Myung-chul caused another accident, it was something to deal with when the time came.

Before that….

‘Look at that… that look in his eyes.’

Seeing Lee Hyun-soo’s eyes, like a viper eyeing its prey, even the little worry that remained vanished.

Lee Hyun-soo would probably put surveillance on Jung Myung-chul and kidnap him and separate his bones and flesh if he showed any signs of trouble.

It felt like setting a trap everywhere and then releasing him.

Kang Jin-ho hoped that Jung Myung-chul wouldn’t get caught in Lee Hyun-soo’s trap. Getting caught by Lee Hyun-soo would be too harsh.

“By the way…”

“Yes.”

“Is there any news from the US?”

“Ah, I was about to report that.”

“Hmm?”

“I received a call from the National Intelligence Service this morning, and it seems that an inspection team is scheduled to visit within two weeks. Shouldn’t we arrange a meeting?”

Kang Jin-ho nodded.

“We have to do what we have to do since we received something. Do that.”

“Understood.”

Kang Jin-ho turned his head slightly and looked out the window.

‘The US, huh….’

How would the Three Kings react if American martial artists came to Korea?

‘It’s getting interesting.’

Kang Jin-ho smiled faintly.