Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1922

The Great Feast (5)

As the phone’s signal tone repeated, distinct wrinkles began to form on her smooth forehead.

“That bastard…”

Choi Yeon-ha, biting her lip, glared at the phone as if she could devour it. Of course, she wasn’t looking at the phone itself, but at the person who should be answering it, who wasn’t there.

“He’s not answering again! What’s he doing that he leaves his phone behind!”

“…What difference would it make if he took it? He wouldn’t be using roaming anyway.” Lee Hyun-joo sighed deeply.

“Is he a caveman? Doesn’t he know how to use a phone overseas?”

“…It’d be better if he were a caveman.”

It was understandable for Kang Jin-ho.

Kang Jin-ho was a bit out of touch with modern technology. He had improved a lot recently, but he still tended to avoid things if they weren’t absolutely necessary.

But Lee Hyun-soo wasn’t like that.

“…Director, I sometimes think about this.”

“What do you think about?”

“Maybe he hasn’t been beaten enough.”

Lee Hyun-joo stroked her fist with a forlorn expression. Choi Yeon-ha, seeing her unusually angular fist for a woman, closed her mouth as if she were speechless.

“If I started beating him properly, I could make him throw up everything from top to bottom in a minute. I don’t know what he’s so confident about…”

“Grandfather said that things that can be solved with words should be solved with words, but if you use your fists, you can solve them ten times easier… I guess that’s true. I should have just beaten him.”

Choi Yeon-ha tilted her head and asked.

“Hyun-joo, can you beat Hyun-soo?”

“Saying I can beat him is a bit strange. How should I explain it, um…” Lee Hyun-joo scratched her cheek and said,

“Compared to the Chairman, I’m probably like a cat. A kitten that hasn’t even grown its claws properly.”

“That’s an excessively cute self-comparison.”

“But… um, if I’m a cat, then the Chief… uh, a goldfish?”

“More like a goldfish taken out of the water.”

“I understand.”

She understood very clearly.

Hearing that made her realize how amazing Lee Hyun-soo was. It meant that someone who was only at the level of a goldfish by their standards was sticking close to people like tigers and dragons and traveling all over the world.

“He’s quite amazing when you think about it…”

Choi Yeon-ha looked at Lee Hyun-joo’s clenched fist, which she had unconsciously tightened. The fist with its bulging veins was trembling.

‘What’s the point if he dies?’

He’ll be going far soon.

Far away.

Choi Yeon-ha’s gaze returned to the screen.

The TV news showed the wreckage of a collapsed building. The screen switched to an anchor sitting in the studio, discussing the connection between the previous terrorist attacks and the recent building collapse.

“It’s obvious, right?”

“It’s pretty clear.”

Lee Hyun-joo also sighed.

The General Assembly wasn’t exactly a place that controlled information. Information known by the top levels would generally trickle down, allowing ordinary members to get a sense of how things were going.

But the moment that information stopped was exactly like this.

When the top levels, who should be releasing information, suddenly disappeared and couldn’t be reached.

“No!”

Lee Hyun-joo gritted her teeth.

“It’s good that they’re quick to act, but at least they should tell us what to do when they leave! Or at least take their phones with them so we can contact them!”

“Do they just go off and solve everything on their own?”

Choi Yeon-ha quietly closed her mouth.

Lee Hyun-joo, who usually didn’t express her anger, seemed to have reached her breaking point.

“Oh, what a life.”

Lee Hyun-joo sighed deeply.

“No, how badly did they leave without saying anything that the General Assembly people are calling me to ask what’s going on! How would I know! I’m not even part of the General Assembly!”

“…Calm down for now, Chief Lee.”

“Ha…”

Lee Hyun-joo rubbed her face and sighed deeply.

Her gaze flickered to the screen. Then, looking at the collapsed building debris, she sighed again.

‘That weakling.’

She wasn’t worried about Kang Jin-ho or the other directors. Those people would survive even if the sky fell, not just a building.

But Lee Hyun-soo wasn’t like that.

That man wasn’t someone who would survive a collapsing building; he would die just from being hit by a fragment that flew out when the building collapsed. Honestly, he was considered a martial artist, but he wasn’t any better than an ordinary person.

That kind of person was now wandering around the most dangerous places in the world, so how could she not be worried sick?

“Just die already!”

“…Don’t worry too much, Chief Lee. The people around him will take care of him.”

“I think so too, but…”

Lee Hyun-joo shook her head.

‘The enemy is the enemy.’

Even judging by the bits of information she had heard, the Black King’s faction was on a different level from the opponents they had faced so far.

Not just higher, but literally different.

Lee Hyun-soo was someone who specialized in dealing with groups.

He moved the Yeongnam Association to pressure the General Assembly, and he led the General Assembly to fight against Japan. Whether it was the Round Table, the Red King’s faction, or the Blue King’s faction, they could mostly be classified as groups of ordinary martial artists gathered around a few strong individuals.

But the Black King’s faction was different.

They were literally a place where a few absolute beings had gathered.

In other words, each of the people Lee Hyun-soo would face could kill him with just a flick of their pinky finger.

In a moment of carelessness, his head could be chopped off. Lee Hyun-soo knew this fact and still walked into the most dangerous place without any excuses.

“At least contact us!”

“I know, right?”

“It’s okay to worry people, but there’s a limit. There’s no man as heartless as him.”

“He’ll never lose with that kind of thing. I’m serious.”

At that moment, Choi Yeon-ha and Lee Hyun-joo looked at each other with subtle expressions.

At the same time, their gazes turned to the cell phones they were holding.

‘Am I really going to be the one who gets a call later?’

‘I forgive everything. Just don’t lose to the Chairman.’

They understood that the person who received a call later would be the loser, and they began to bite their lips.

Buzz.

Thud! At that moment.

Choi Yeon-ha, sensing the vibration before the phone screen even lit up, answered the call.

“Yes!”

But her face quickly contorted.

“Why are you calling for no reason! What? A commercial? Is this the time for me to be filming a commercial! Commercials and all that… what? How much?”

Choi Yeon-ha’s eyes wavered slightly.

“That much… uh… a one-year contract? Four TV commercial series? Uh… I’ll do it. Of course, I’ll do it. A telecommunications company?”

Lee Hyun-joo watched Choi Yeon-ha, who had instantly started working, with an admiring expression.

‘A pro.’

That’s right.

Calls and all that, you have to make a living.

‘This isn’t the time for me to be like this either.’

It wasn’t the time to just stare blankly at the TV screen. The work she had to do was to create a place for the warriors who were shedding blood on the battlefield to return to.

“I need to finish up some work here and then go to the General Assembly. Contact them…”

At that moment, Lee Hyun-joo’s cell phone began to ring.

Her hand snatched the phone like lightning. Then, she quickly checked the name that appeared on the screen.

The moment that name was transmitted through her optic nerve to her brain, her hand moved before her head.

“Hey, you bastard! Did you use your phone to boil soup? You should have contacted us, contacted us!”

The phone vibrated as her roar erupted from her mouth.

[Ah, no….]

“No, you bastard! Are you saying ‘no’ from your mouth right now!”

Choi Yeon-ha, terrified, immediately hung up the phone. But that surprise quickly turned into anger.

“Hey! Ask that useless human next to him if he’s still alive! No, no! It doesn’t matter if he’s alive! I’m going to kill him now!”

[Um… the Chairman left his phone behind, so I told him to get a new one. I’m relaying this to the Director…]

“Who did you call? Are you ignoring me?”

[…I’m sorry.]

Lee Hyun-joo scolded Lee Hyun-soo for a long time. After confirming several times that there wasn’t a single scratch on his body, and after confirming several times that he was in a safe place, and after hearing that he hadn’t even approached the collapsed building, Lee Hyun-joo finally began to calm down.

“…So he’s safe?”

[That’s what I’m saying.]

“Safe? What’s safe? Where is safe in China right now?”

She said that, but Lee Hyun-joo didn’t tell him to return to Korea immediately.

She was also a martial artist.

She understood that she shouldn’t interfere with what they were doing. Her head knew it, but her heart couldn’t accept it, but she had to bite her lip and endure it.

“What about the Chairman?”

[He’s next to me.]

“Put him on.”

[Now?]

“Yes. Right now.”

There was a moment of silence, and then Kang Jin-ho’s voice flowed from the phone.

[I got the call.]

“I’ll put the Director on, so try to explain yourself well.”

[Huh?]

Lee Hyun-joo handed the phone to Choi Yeon-ha as if she couldn’t wait any longer. Choi Yeon-ha nodded to Lee Hyun-joo to express her gratitude, then took the phone.

“Hey.”

[Yes, this is Kang Jin-ho.]

Choi Yeon-ha bit her lip tightly.

There were a mountain of things she wanted to say, but when she actually answered the phone, she didn’t know what to say. After a long time of her not saying anything, a puzzled voice came from the other end of the line.

[Choi Yeon-ha?]

“Um…”

Choi Yeon-ha sighed once and finally shook her head.

What she wanted to say and what she had to say.

What she had to do now was too obvious.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

[No. I’m fine.]

“You don’t plan on getting hurt either, right?”

[…I’m trying not to.]

“Okay, then.”

Choi Yeon-ha nodded and said,

“I know you’re not doing this because you want to. You’re there because you have to be. So at least come back with your body intact. Okay?”

[I’ll keep that in mind.]

“And contact us more often. Other people might just worry if they can’t reach you, but we’re really worried if you’re dead or not. Do you understand what I mean?”

[I’ll text you whenever I have time.]

“Okay, Jin-ho.”

Choi Yeon-ha hesitated for a moment, then was about to open her mouth again when Kang Jin-ho’s voice came.

[Things are probably going to start getting bigger from now on.]

“…Bigger?”

[Yes. Like the building collapse we saw this time. Those guys are capable of anything.]

[I want to tell you one thing in advance…]

“Yes.”

[No matter what happens, I won’t die.]

[So you don’t have to worry, that’s what I mean.]

“…You’re still alive and talking.”

Choi Yeon-ha sighed and nodded.

“Okay. You absolutely can’t get hurt.”

[Yes. Ah, I have to go now. I’ll call you again.]

“Okay.”

The call ended.

Choi Yeon-ha stared at the disconnected phone for a long time, then closed her eyes slightly. Choi Yeon-ha, who had opened her eyes again, handed the phone to Lee Hyun-joo.

“Thank you.”

“…Director.”

“Yes?”

Lee Hyun-joo’s face twisted subtly.

“If you act like that, what am I supposed to do…”

“I guess there’s no one to trust in this world.”

It was the moment when a subtle crack appeared in their alliance.