Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1021

“They’re really getting tossed around.”

The highest floor of the Assembly was being used by Kang Jin-ho as his office. However, since Kang Jin-ho couldn’t use the entire spacious floor alone, there were other offices as well.

It was only natural that Lee Hyun-soo’s office, who had to consult with Kang Jin-ho the most and assist him, was located near the head of the Assembly’s office.

From the window on that top floor, the training grounds on the mountain were clearly visible.

And in that training ground, the Flame Demons were currently getting thoroughly beaten by Kang Jin-ho.

“Those bastards have gotten a bit lax lately.”

No one wants to become lazy.

Who would willingly choose to be idle? If one had to choose between a life of hard work and a life of laziness, anyone would choose the former. Especially if they had a goal.

But the problem is that many people don’t realize when they are becoming lazy.

Ideals? Goals?

They sound good.

But how many people can consistently push themselves just because they have ideals and set goals?

It’s normal for people to want to sit down when they’re standing, and to want to lie down when they’re sitting. To find that desire and do their best?

Of course, it’s possible.

Those with passion and tenacity beyond the ordinary sometimes show surprising effort.

However, when someone who has pushed themselves with passion achieves a certain accomplishment or fails to reach their goal, they almost always experience burnout, if not always, as much as they worked hard.

This is inevitable for humans.

Even if someone has tenacity and passion, their basic fuel isn’t much more than that of ordinary people. There are ordinary people who don’t use all their fuel and store it up, and there are people who burn their fuel to the fullest, but in the end, that fuel can’t last forever.

‘That’s why we need someone like the head of the Assembly.’

A person who refills the fuel.

Kang Jin-ho is that kind of person. Just watching him makes my own butt want to get up and move. A person who makes you want to be like him.

And….

‘He’s the type who directly smacks you when you get lazy.’

That is the biggest advantage Kang Jin-ho has as a teacher. Those who have reached Kang Jin-ho’s position don’t enjoy criticizing their subordinates.

Directly teaching and leading someone consumes more stamina than one might think. If the results of that teaching are insignificant from his perspective, he would be even less inclined to waste his energy.

But Kang Jin-ho never hesitates.

If he thinks it’s necessary, he doesn’t care about his position as the head of the Assembly and doesn’t hesitate to roll around with the youngsters. In a way, it’s not acting befitting his position, and in another way, it’s doing what needs to be done without worrying about appearances.

In Lee Hyun-soo’s view, it was clearly the latter.

‘And those bastards are amazing too.’

It’s like watching hornets attacking a beehive.

Even though they know they are no match, they rush in without fear of death. As soon as they charge, they are flung back even faster, but they don’t lie down; they get up and charge again.

Could Lee Hyun-soo do that?

Lee Hyun-soo shook his head quietly as he asked himself. Thinking about it calmly, Lee Hyun-soo didn’t think he could do that.

Of course, Lee Hyun-soo’s passion and effort for his work were no less than theirs, but there was a clear difference between working at a desk and working with one’s body. If Lee Hyun-soo were in their position, he would have quit, saying he couldn’t do it.

But not a single Flame Demon was giving up and they were all charging at Kang Jin-ho.

‘Tough bastards.’

Well, they were originally selected and gathered because they were like that.

The Flame Demons are the toughest of the young warriors in the Assembly. So, in a way, such a reaction is only natural.

They’ve just gotten a little lax; if they’re tightened up again, they’ll do well.

“Who are you calling lax right now?”

Lee Hyun-soo turned his head with a sullen face. In his eyes, he saw Lee Hyun-joo, holding a pile of documents.

“I have so much work to do.”

My stress is also piling up, you know?

People need some time to rest, right?

His mouth was about to move on its own, but fortunately, Lee Hyun-soo was someone who could distinguish between what to say and what not to say. If he started talking nonsense here, he wouldn’t see a good outcome.

“You should do the approvals on the computer as much as possible. It’s not the 80s; is it even reasonable to work with piles of documents?”

“…I am doing electronic approvals too. This is just the amount that needs to be kept as hard copies.”

“Then you should have done it in advance.”

Lee Hyun-soo looked at the piled-up documents with sad eyes. What he could see was just this much. The amount that needed to be done electronically was more than double that.

“I just had a thought.”

“Yes.”

“Am I going to die from overwork?”

“I’ve never heard of a warrior dying from overwork.”

“Really?”

Then that’s a relief.

“The problem isn’t that, it’s that there’s no time to do proper work.”

Lee Hyun-joo said firmly.

“Honestly, this is a waste of manpower.”

Lee Hyun-joo took out one of the documents and quickly scanned through it.

“Look. This is the plan to expand the training grounds. Where and how to build the new ones, how much the construction will cost, how to handle the permits, it’s ridiculous that the manager is reviewing and confirming all of this. Ugh… There’s even a report on the kids’ meal menus. Did you major in culinary arts?”

Lee Hyun-soo was speechless.

“There’s no end to the work because you’re trying to do all of this yourself. You should delegate this kind of work to lower levels and just receive brief reports.”

“Then it’ll be a mess. What do I do?”

“Why would it be a mess?”

“You know it too. They’re all kids who only trained and were eliminated because they didn’t have much talent, so they lack basic knowledge. We’re the only ones who would use them for office work; they wouldn’t even be able to submit documents to most large companies.”

“Hire people! Hire people!”

“If we hire outsiders in the Assembly, it’ll be more work to keep them quiet. You know that.”

Lee Hyun-joo shook her head as if there was no answer and scanned through the reports.

Then she sighed deeply.

Although she had complained out of frustration, the problem Lee Hyun-soo was experiencing was the same problem Lee Hyun-joo was experiencing.

Of course, the office workers in the Assembly weren’t that bad. They were closer to being the smartest ones selected from among them. However, compared to ordinary people who had not only 12 years of elementary, middle, and high school, but also went to university, studied abroad, attended academies, and obtained various certifications, their abilities were clearly inferior.

“It seems like we need a special measure for this too.”

“A measure?”

“Yes.”

Lee Hyun-joo looked at Lee Hyun-soo with determined eyes.

“What I realized when the board members were all away was that the Assembly relies too much on a few people.”

“If the work doesn’t function just because six people are away, then the problem is serious.”

He had no choice but to nod.

‘It’s definitely not a normal situation.’

In a typical company, the work wouldn’t stop just because the board of directors was away. The work that the directors need to approve would be set aside, and other work would proceed normally.

But the Assembly was not like that.

The moment the board members, led by Kang Jin-ho, were away, all the work of the Assembly would stop. Of course, they could do their own training or handle simple tasks, but all other work had to wait for the directors to return.

Looking at it, the problem was more serious than he thought.

“And soon, the Assembly will become a company. We can’t handle things in a haphazard way like we do now. If we have to meet accounting standards and review legal matters, you’ll have to put a cot here, manager.”

“…That sounds terrible.”

“So, we need to change the system.”

“The system…”

Lee Hyun-soo nodded.

He didn’t know how yet, but he understood why. In order for the Assembly to grow further, it was necessary to distribute the work that was excessively concentrated on Lee Hyun-soo.

He thought that Lee Hyun-joo would help reduce his workload, but as the size of the Assembly grew and its external activities increased, the work had actually increased more than in the past. If it weren’t for Lee Hyun-joo, he would have collapsed from exhaustion by now.

“But this isn’t as easy as it sounds.”

“It’s not difficult. If you know the problem, the solution is simple.”

“Problem?”

“Yes, the problem. Right now, all the problems are because you don’t trust your subordinates.”

“…Is that how it is?”

A monk cannot shave his own head [a proverb meaning it’s hard to see your own flaws].

Lee Hyun-soo, who could perfectly diagnose all the problems of the Assembly, couldn’t calmly judge the matters he was involved in.

“Isn’t that right? To put it simply, it means you don’t trust the reports coming from below unless you check and review them with your own eyes.”

“I wish you wouldn’t make it sound like I have an obsession.”

Lee Hyun-soo waved his hand.

“The reports that come up are actually a mess, and the formats don’t match. If I don’t check them and just pass them, the Assembly will be destroyed before a month is up. I’m more afraid of them than the Hongwang Clan [a likely reference to a powerful enemy or organization].”

“I admit that.”

Lee Hyun-joo also agreed on this point.

“But if there’s a problem, we need to fix that problem. If the roof is leaking, we need to repair the roof, not just keep changing the buckets.”

“Do you think I haven’t thought about that?”

Lee Hyun-soo sighed.

“But I’m the only one who can properly teach them the work. Think about it. I can’t even spare time right now, so if I take them out to train them, where will that manpower come from, and what about my time? I don’t even have enough time to sleep now, and you want me to train them too?”

It was the dilemma of a small and medium-sized company run in a haphazard way.

In order to increase the company’s capabilities, training must be accompanied, but companies that operate with minimal manpower do not have time to train their employees.

In the end, they postpone it and find a compromise, and the company operates based on that compromise and sacrifice.

New employees soon feel the injustice, but reform is impossible. No matter how unjust it is, they cannot avoid handling the work that is pouring in, and if they handle the work according to the injustice, it takes an enormous amount of time.

The time consumed eats up the time to invest in reform and training, creating a vicious cycle. Lee Hyun-soo was exactly in that situation. He knew that something had to change, but the repercussions he would have to endure to change it were too great.

So, he had no choice but to let it go.

“You agree that we need to train them, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Then let’s do it.”

“What did you hear? I said I don’t have time for that.”

“Why do you have to do it, manager?”

“Huh?”

“The work they do isn’t unique to the Assembly. It’s something they can learn in any ordinary company. No, to be honest, they’d probably be taught better in a normal company than here.”

“…That’s true.”

“Then we should send them to a company.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s face contorted.

“You need to say something that makes sense. Where are we going to send all those people? And what company would take them in, not as new recruits, but to train them and then send them back to us…

Wait?

Lee Hyun-soo’s head turned to the side.

There is one.

A company that is both incredibly great and incredibly foolish.

I should call them.”