Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1304

“You must be busy, thank you for coming despite that.”

“It’s nothing, Guild Leader. We are busy.”

“We’re really not busy.”

“We have nothing to do. Thank you for calling us!”

These aren’t things you should be saying with a smile.

The content was quite miserable, but the faces of those answering were full of energy.

Kang Jin-ho, unable to understand this reaction, wore an awkward expression.

‘I guess it makes sense.’

However, Lee Hyun-soo could fully understand this reaction.

‘They must have felt abandoned.’

Even though they left on their own accord, the fact that their ties with the General Assembly, where they had spent their entire lives, were severed must have been a great shock. They all pretended to be calm, but in reality, they must have felt like kites with broken strings.

But it wasn’t the Assembly, it was Kang Jin-ho who directly gathered them, so they must be feeling a bit smug.

It was the most definite proof that even though they left the Assembly, they were still connected to it.

“Of course we would come when the Guild Leader calls.”

“Thank you for calling us.”

“Oh… um, okay.”

Kang Jin-ho scratched his head.

He hadn’t expected such a warm welcome at all.

“Everyone must be thirsty sitting like that, so how about some coffee…”

Kang Jin-ho, who had glanced sideways, looked at Seong Ju-chan.

“G-Guild Leader, if I give them all coffee, I’ll go bankrupt…”

“I’ll pay for it.”

“I’ll make it faster than a machine. Please wait a moment!”

Lee Hyun-soo was amazed as he watched Seong Ju-chan take out the whipped cream.

‘That bastard, he’s planning to use the most expensive stuff.’

That’s how you do business. That’s why he survives.

Kang Jin-ho chuckled and turned his head back to look at everyone.

“The reason I gathered everyone here today is because I thought you all might be going through a hard time.”

Everyone’s faces slightly hardened.

“Living in society isn’t as easy as you think.”

“Are you also having a hard time, Guild Leader?”

Someone asked courageously.

“…I recently started a company, MK.”

“Yes. You’ve incorporated it.”

“It feels like I’m going to die.”

Laughter erupted.

Kang Jin-ho’s expression showed that he wasn’t joking.

“Doing something unfamiliar is more difficult than I thought. It must be the same for everyone.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Honestly, I don’t know what to do.”

“We’re used to doing things a certain way, so we have to do something else…”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled. It wasn’t much different from what he had expected.

The results of Lee Hyun-soo’s investigation into the situation of those who had left the General Assembly were worse than Kang Jin-ho had anticipated. Even excluding those who had their martial arts abilities sealed due to causing trouble, most of them were struggling to live a normal life.

It was obvious that if these people were left as they were, their situation wouldn’t be much different.

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes slightly darkened.

“You are people who have left the General Assembly.”

“Strictly speaking, those who have left once have nothing to do with the General Assembly. It means that we don’t necessarily need to care about such a situation.”

That was true.

Knowing that, no one blamed the General Assembly even when their situation became difficult. Blaming the place they had kicked themselves out of was shameless.

“However…”

Kang Jin-ho shrugged his shoulders with an awkward face.

“We can’t provide support, but we can work together.”

“If you mean work…”

Kang Jin-ho gestured with his chin, and Lee Hyun-soo stood up from his seat. Whatever had happened outside, Lee Hyun-soo was quite docile, unlike before.

“The reason I gathered you here is to make one proposal. Although the Guild Leader says it like that…”

Lee Hyun-soo pouted, clearly dissatisfied.

“The Guild Leader is worried that you dimwits will starve to death because you can’t find a way to make a living, so he plans to establish a franchise company using the Assembly’s funds.

And you will be operating the franchise’s branches.”

“A franchise?”

“What kind?”

“Ask questions later! You… no, you people.”

Lee Hyun-soo waved his hand irritably.

“First, we’ll start with a cafe.”

“Like here?”

“It won’t be as haphazard as this.”

Seong Ju-chan, who was making coffee, turned to Lee Hyun-soo with a wounded face. But Lee Hyun-soo cleanly ignored Seong Ju-chan’s gaze.

“Can we do something like this?”

“Don’t worry. I know better than anyone how incompetent and pathetic you are. Basically, our franchise will be operated with a system that even kindergarteners can handle.”

“…Aren’t kindergarteners a bit too much?”

“At least kindergarteners wouldn’t beat up customers and get arrested by the police.”

No one could deny that they were worse than kindergarteners.

“And…”

Lee Hyun-soo continued.

“It’s not just a cafe. We’ll probably do a few other things. We’ll announce it again as soon as the exact outline is clear. For now, think of the cafe as the first thing to launch.”

Everyone looked around the cafe with fresh eyes.

At first, they had only glanced at it, thinking it was someone else’s store, but now that they thought they might be running a cafe, their gaze changed.

“Then what about the funds?”

“It’s a franchise. You pay a membership fee and share the profits with the headquarters.”

“Ah, a franchise.”

“However, as you know…”

Lee Hyun-soo glanced at Kang Jin-ho and sighed.

“The chairman who has to run the franchise is not very interested in profits, so all the money you pay will be reinvested. For a while, that is.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s strong will that the system would not run that way forever was felt in the words ‘for a while’.

But even after hearing that, the reaction of those gathered was quite favorable.

‘If the Guild Leader is doing it.’

‘There’s no way that guy would do this to make money. It’s not like it’s going to be much.’

‘It’s a sweet deal?’

Those who had been members of the General Assembly knew how much money the Assembly had. And they also knew that the Assembly was practically Kang Jin-ho’s personal property.

Kang Jin-ho doing a franchise to make money?

That was completely absurd.

No matter how endless the desire for money is, and even if you have 100 million in your wallet, you still have to pick up a 10,000 won bill that fell on the ground, this just didn’t make sense no matter how much they thought about it.

He would make more money if he did something else during that time.

And as far as they knew, Kang Jin-ho was a person who had almost no desire for money. It was true that the car he drove was expensive, but that was because Kang Jin-ho couldn’t drive a car with a slow reaction speed, and wasn’t Kang Jin-ho someone who usually wore stretched-out training clothes?

There was no way that Kang Jin-ho would deceive them to make money.

“What about people who don’t have enough for the membership fee?”

“Why wouldn’t you have enough for the membership fee? How much were the salaries and severance pay you took?”

“Kuh, there are people who used it to help the less fortunate. I heard they donated it in Macau?”

“Hey, you bastard. Don’t say it!”

“Macau?”

Lee Hyun-soo’s face trembled.

“Which crazy bastard went to the casino? Come out.”

“I-if I had won just once, I would have multiplied it tenfold, but it was just a bit off…”

“…You go over there and bury your head.”

“Yes.”

Lee Hyun-soo pinched the bridge of his nose.

A headache was coming on.

As Kang Jin-ho said, these guys would soon become homeless if they were left alone. There was also a complaint about whether they really had to do this kind of business, but at this moment, all those complaints had neatly disappeared.

“Anyway… ah, the more I think about it, the more ridiculous that bastard is.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s body trembled. How could they be so thoughtless as to spend their severance pay in the meantime? And it wasn’t a small amount either.

“You damn bastards.”

Lee Hyun-soo glared, and everyone subtly avoided his gaze.

“Are there any more who blew their severance pay?”

There was no answer.

But in the meantime, Lee Hyun-soo didn’t miss the gazes of a few guys who were looking at him.

‘It’s better to die than to suffer like this.’

He had always prided himself on planning for the worst-case scenario, but there was always a basement below the floor. The situation was worse than Lee Hyun-soo had thought.

“…G-Guild Leader?”

This wasn’t something Lee Hyun-soo could solve.

Kang Jin-ho chuckled, a bit embarrassed.

“It can’t be helped. If you don’t have enough for the membership fee, the Assembly will have to give you a loan. We can just charge a little more than other places to pay off the loan, right?”

Lee Hyun-soo gritted his teeth.

“I’ll definitely get the interest, you bastards.”

Seong Ju-chan, who was carrying coffee, glanced up at the two of them.

‘Sometimes I see them, and I can’t tell if they’re ruthless or just pushovers.’

Where in the world would they give loans to such people? They had no jobs, and borrowing money meant they had no assets, and there was little chance they would be able to make money in the future.

It was already amazing that they were giving them branches, but on top of that, they were even giving them loans to open the branches.

These were the biggest pushovers ever.

But unfortunately, those here had almost no knowledge of finance, so they had no idea how great the favor Kang Jin-ho and Lee Hyun-soo were doing for them.

“Then I think it’ll be okay to do it?”

“…They don’t even know how to make coffee.”

“That’s right. That’s the problem…”

Lee Hyun-soo sighed deeply.

“As I said before, we don’t trust you at all.”

“So, those who want to open a branch will have a grueling training process waiting for them. We will definitely make you decent branch managers.”

Lee Hyun-soo said through gritted teeth.

The words sent chills down the spines of those who heard them.

‘They’re going to train us the Assembly way.’

‘It’s a good training method. I learned in the Assembly that if you get hit, you understand.’

But the thought of having to go through that training again made them feel chills and cold sweat.

They had missed the Assembly after coming out into society, but this wasn’t what they had missed.

“Anyway.”

Lee Hyun-soo wrapped up the situation.

“The General Assembly, or more precisely, MK, is planning to start a franchise for you. Those of you who are already preparing for other things don’t have to participate. But…”

Lee Hyun-soo’s gaze pierced through here and there.

“Those who have nothing to do…”

“Those who have no ability…”

“Those of you who are just wasting time in your rooms, waiting for the money in your bank account to run out, don’t do anything else and waste your money, just join us.”

Everyone began to murmur.

“Anyone have any questions?”

“Don’t go back on your word later, if you have any questions, ask them now. I’ll answer them all.”

“I…”

Someone raised their hand.

“What?”

“If we get training… will we be trained by a professional barista?”

“Are you asking if it’s a regular person?”

“Yes. Actually…”

“Don’t worry. A regular person will train you.”

Everyone’s faces brightened. If they were trained by a regular person, then maybe…

“The Guild Leader’s father is an expert in coffee. He will personally train you.”