Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1088

“What is this?” Lee Hyun-soo stared at the monitor, his face contorted in disbelief. His fingertips trembled, and beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

“No…” Lee Hyun-soo wiped the sweat from his forehead with his sleeve.

“Would you like a cup of coffee?” a voice asked.

“Ah, no, I’m fine,” Lee Hyun-soo replied.

“Don’t you like coffee?”

“It’s not that…”

“Iced?”

“…Please.”

As the secretary smiled and left, Lee Hyun-soo leaned back in his chair until it creaked. ‘This is absurd,’ he thought.

Lee Hyun-soo was currently in an office next to the Master’s. It had been an empty office, but it was newly furnished for Lee Hyun-soo’s arrival. He had never imagined such excessive and overwhelming treatment. He had expected a spare computer and a spot that wasn’t in the hallway, at best.

But that wasn’t the important thing right now. The Master had brought Lee Hyun-soo to this office, dumped a mountain of work for him to finish by tomorrow, and then went off to train with Wiggins.

Loneliness from being left alone in a foreign land like England? There was no way he would feel that. He had expected this kind of treatment from the start. Even if the Master had tried to treat him a little more like a human, Wiggins wouldn’t have allowed it. Wiggins was in a position where he needed to extract as much as possible from the Master, and he would consider even the time spent talking to Lee Hyun-soo a waste.

Of course, Lee Hyun-soo wasn’t expecting any grand treatment either. He had come prepared to work hard. It was Lee Hyun-soo’s style to do things thoroughly rather than half-heartedly. So, he was planning to give it his all, but…

“Huh.” Lee Hyun-soo chuckled and looked at the monitor. “So, you want me to finish this by tomorrow?”

‘This?’ They say that when a person gets really angry, their hands and feet tremble, and he felt like he understood what that meant.

Creak. The secretary came in with a tray holding an iced coffee.

“Ah, thank you.”

“Here you go.” The secretary smiled brightly. “I’ve been instructed to make things as comfortable as possible for you while you work. Please let me know if you need anything.”

“Th-then, can I ask you something?”

“Yes, please go ahead.”

“Is this the usual amount of work the Master handles?”

“Hmm, that’s difficult for me to answer. Wouldn’t it be overstepping my bounds to know exactly what the Master does?”

“Ah, right. I’m sorry. That was a stupid question.”

The secretary smiled brightly. Seeing the blonde beauty smile made Lee Hyun-soo’s face turn red.

“However, I’ve heard that the Master has passed on almost all of his remaining work to you, except for things that can’t be shown.”

“Ah…” Lee Hyun-soo nodded. “Thank you.”

“It seems like there’s more work than you expected.”

“Haha…”

“Then.”

Lee Hyun-soo hurriedly called the secretary back. “Ah, just one more thing.”

“Yes?”

“What time does the Master usually work?”

“He usually starts at nine in the morning and stays here until about eleven in the evening. I believe he does his personal work separately at home.”

“Ah… that long?”

“His hours have increased recently. However, it wasn’t that different before. Anything else you’re curious about?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“Okay. Please call me if you need anything.”

The secretary bowed and left. Lee Hyun-soo stared blankly at her before turning his head to look at the monitor.

“So…” Then this is the amount of work the Master handles in a day.

“This?” A frog in a well doesn’t know the world outside. When it learns about the wider world, it realizes how insignificant it was. But… this was a slightly different case.

“What, do this in a day!” A slave who was worked to death outside the well doesn’t know how comfortably people live in the outside world. Lee Hyun-soo, who was born into work and whose work and life had become the same thing, was furious at the lives of others.

It was over. There was nothing more to do. Just three hours after arriving here, the paperwork he was supposed to finish by tomorrow was completely done, and there was nothing left to do. And this was the amount of work the Master usually did.

The image of the secretary’s face when he first saw her flashed through Lee Hyun-soo’s mind. ‘She looked relieved.’ That was genuine. Anyone could see that she was worried that the Master might collapse from overwork. As soon as she heard that Lee Hyun-soo had come to share the workload, she had welcomed him with a bright face without even asking about his background as an Asian.

No…

“So, this is considered an excessive amount of work in this neighborhood…” The frog who learned how humans live outside the well began to panic. “These lazy Europeans!” They’re struggling with just this much?

This wasn’t even close to the amount of work Lee Hyun-soo handled at the General Assembly. Even when he was enjoying a relatively well-being life under Kim Seok-il during his time in Yeongnam [a region in Korea], he handled twice this amount of work. And they’re whining about this little?

The Master couldn’t be lazy… And he couldn’t be incompetent either. Then, logically speaking…

“…What kind of treatment have I been getting until now?” Tears suddenly began to well up in his eyes. Looking back, Lee Hyun-soo didn’t know how much work he handled. He hadn’t grown up as a company employee. He had risen to prominence as a strategist who devised plans, but he had ended up here because he couldn’t stand watching the way other guys handled things, so he would slap them on the cheek and take over the work. In other words, Lee Hyun-soo was the final evolution of a college group project leader.

The problem was that group projects had a set amount of work, and it was possible to compare the workload of other leaders, but Lee Hyun-soo had no one to compare his workload with. So, he had always complained about having an absurd amount of work, but he had somehow managed to get it done. But… while others were cutting down groups with sharpened swords, Lee Hyun-soo was cutting down trees with a wooden sword. How could he not feel wronged?

‘It’s unfair.’ The General Assembly was utterly unfair.

At that moment, the door opened. Then, the Master and Wiggins came in with smiling faces. Even with Lee Hyun-soo’s dull senses, he could feel the waves of energy emanating from the two of them. On the surface, there was no particular change, but they had clearly had a good workout and were on their way back.

“How is it, is it manageable?” Lee Hyun-soo made a sulky face at the Master’s question. “…Are you talking about this?”

“Hehe, it won’t be easy. First of all, the language doesn’t match, and you don’t know the situation here very well. I know you can’t take on a lot of work. So, think of it as learning…”

“I’ve finished it?”

“Yes, yes, just that much… What?” The Master’s gently curved eyes instantly widened and fixed on Lee Hyun-soo.

“Y-you finished it?”

“…Yes.”

“That?” The Master’s face became urgent. Usually, this kind of thing happened in one case. When the intention wasn’t properly conveyed, and the work was done poorly. When the proper process wasn’t followed, and the person thought they had done the work, but it had actually gone wrong.

“Wait, let me see. I’ll check it.” Thinking that he might not be able to go home today either, the Master hurriedly took Lee Hyun-soo’s seat. “Bring me a cup of tea, no, two cups.”

However, Wiggins, whether he knew the Master’s feelings or not, sat down calmly and ordered tea from the secretary.

The Master’s eyes quickly scanned the documents. “This is done, this… is also done. Hmm? This? Oh… oh?” His words disappeared. The clicks became faster. The Master, who was clicking furiously as if he was going to be sucked into the monitor, looked at Lee Hyun-soo with a blank expression. “…You did all of this?”

Wiggins chuckled. “You didn’t believe me.”

“Ah, no, it’s not that I didn’t believe you, but I thought you were exaggerating. Isn’t that natural? Who would imagine that a person could handle this much work in this amount of time?”

“In that field, he’s not a human. He’s been constantly worked in an absurd environment, so he seems to have evolved in a strange direction. You could call him an office machine.”

“My goodness…” Lee Hyun-soo looked up at the ceiling with teary eyes. ‘Don’t look at me like that.’ This isn’t a compliment. The more he heard, the more he felt choked up. It was like a child born on a battlefield who thought it was normal to eat tree bark, but was moved to a normal family and ate grilled meat for the first time.

“Ah, no, then what kind of work are you doing at the General Assembly?”

“That’s…” Lee Hyun-soo explained the work he did with a desolate expression.

“Why are you doing that all by yourself?” It would take a long time to explain. It would take a very long time to explain. The bigger problem was that if he started explaining, he felt like he would cry. A man couldn’t cry while working, could he?

“Heh, heh heh heh…” The Master let out a hollow laugh, got up from his seat, and approached Lee Hyun-soo, patting him on the shoulder. “Heh heh, my goodness. I’ve seen geniuses in various fields through all my experiences, but… heh heh heh, I never thought there would be a genius of work. It’s amazing.”

“Do you have any thoughts about moving to the Round Table with this opportunity? I’ll give you a generous salary! I’ll let you drown in your annual income!” Lee Hyun-soo turned to the Master with a delighted expression. However, he drooped his shoulders at the sound that followed.

“You’d have to get the Lord’s permission. It’s probably impossible.”

“That’s a shame. It’s really a shame.” He received recognition from others as a reward for being worked hard, harshly, and unfairly. Was this something to be happy about or sad about?

“Is there anything else I need to do?”

“No, it’s fine. That’s it for today. You don’t have to do any more work, so take it easy until the training is over. You can even play.”

“…Play?”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’d rather you give me more work.”

“I said it’s over for today?” The Master smiled brightly and said. “So, just go play. What do you usually do when you rest?”

“…Rest?”

“Yes. Like on your days off.”

“Days off?” Lee Hyun-soo tilted his head with a subtle expression. It wasn’t that he didn’t know the word ‘day off,’ but he couldn’t remember what he had done on his days off.

“…When was the last time you rested?”

“Earlier this year… no, was it last year?” The Master’s voice became heavier.

“Ah, or do you have any hobbies that you enjoy after work?”

“I sleep.”

“Before going to work…”

“I go to work as soon as I open my eyes.”

“When you take a break or change your mood?”

“…Huh?” The Master didn’t say anything more. He couldn’t say anything more. How much time had passed since slavery had disappeared from the world? And yet, here was a modern-day slave. Moreover, a self-motivated slave who didn’t run away even if he wasn’t tied up, and who looked for work even if he wasn’t forced to.

The Master’s hand on Lee Hyun-soo’s shoulder tightened. “Are you even going to sleep?” Even Wiggins turned his head away as if he couldn’t bear to watch any longer. The saddest sight in the world was unfolding at the Round Table.