Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1698

Lee Hyun-joo, still in her gown, rested her chin on her hand, staring intently at Lee Hyun-soo.

‘He’s definitely not going to die of old age.’ Lee Hyun-soo, with his messy hair, was glued to his phone from the crack of dawn, yelling at the top of his lungs.

“How can you handle it like that, you son of a bitch! I told you that anything coming from overseas, no matter what it is, has to go through MK! If you handle it like that, it’s nothing but smuggling, you bastard!”

Lee Hyun-soo tried to calm his anger while on the phone.

“And! Why do you suddenly have to bring that? I told you not to touch anything until I get back! Why are you making trouble… Huh? Wiggins told you to handle it quickly? Oh… Oh, I guess that’s possible. Okay. Then it’s right to handle it quickly… No, if that’s the case, you should request it from the US military… No, that’s not something you can do. Right.”

‘He’s practically sick at this point.’

Lee Hyun-soo was sick, but so was the Assembly.

It had been exactly 16 hours since she and Lee Hyun-soo had arrived here, but in that time, Lee Hyun-soo had received what felt like 160 phone calls.

“What the hell is going on with the Assembly?”

When she… or rather, when Lee Joong-gul was leading the Assembly and she was assisting him, it wasn’t this bad…

Of course, given the nature of the Assembly, there were so many people with ‘smooth brain wrinkles’ [a Korean slang term for someone who is not very bright] that Lee Hyun-joo and Lee Joong-gul had to step in and handle most of the issues themselves, but it wasn’t to the point where people were calling so much that they couldn’t even sleep.

‘The biggest victim of absolute monarchy is the absolute monarch himself.’

The influence Lee Hyun-soo had on the Assembly now far surpassed the influence Lee Joong-gul had when he was the Head.

Lee Joong-gul was the Head, but there were opposing forces like Bang Jin-hoon, and he had to fill their pockets from time to time to appease his own faction.

How much stress did Lee Joong-gul endure in the past, walking a tightrope between the complex factions of the Assembly?

But now, Lee Hyun-soo wasn’t even the Head, just second-in-command, yet the power he wielded in the Assembly was enough to slap Lee Joong-gul of the past across the face and kick him again for good measure.

Frankly speaking, aside from the board members, was there anyone in the entire Assembly who could refuse Lee Hyun-soo’s orders?

Even the Mayeom, the most specialized and radical group in the Assembly, did not refuse Lee Hyun-soo’s orders. Moreover, they were supposed to be Kang Jin-ho’s personal guards, only following Kang Jin-ho’s orders.

Lee Hyun-soo was wielding that much power over the Assembly, but he was also paying the price for it.

“Agh!”

Lee Hyun-soo hung up the phone violently and burst out in anger.

“Nothing is working properly!”

“…Whose fault is that?”

“Huh?”

“You’re the one who made it that way.”

“Haa…”

Lee Hyun-soo sighed deeply.

What Lee Hyun-joo said wasn’t wrong, but honestly, he had so many excuses to make.

What?

Decentralization? Nurturing?

‘Is it that easy?’

In the long term, he needed to nurture new talent who could share his workload. And even if it was a bit unreliable and inefficient now, it was right to decentralize the work.

Because one person can’t do everything.

But that was easier said than done!

‘When do I have time to look at the distant future!’

In the Assembly, which was in a state of constant war, three hundred and sixty-five days a year, what? The future?

‘Where does such a dreamy idea come from!’

Handling the immediate tasks was the priority!

When Lee Hyun-joo used to share his work, he had a breather for a while, but after Lee Hyun-joo went to MK, his workload started to increase again. Thankfully, now that the office workers were receiving training in finance and starting to establish their own system, he wasn’t being crushed to death by work.

“Just being away for a day and everything turns into a mess.”

When he got back, he really needed to educate them again…

“Oppa.”

“Yeah?”

“That’s your misconception.”

“…What are you talking about?”

Lee Hyun-joo chuckled.

“Did the Assembly collapse because you went to China for a few days?”

“No, it didn’t?”

Lee Hyun-soo’s lips twitched.

Then Lee Hyun-joo chuckled as if to say, ‘See?’

“People addicted to work think someone will die if they don’t handle the immediate tasks.”

“No. I didn’t contact them first. They…”

“Isn’t it because you work like that that they’re so anxious about getting scolded by you that they contact you first?”

“Ugh…”

“This is a mutually destructive act. Here.”

“Huh?”

“Give me your phone.”

“…No, why my phone?”

“Just give it to me.”

“This is privacy… Yes, I will give it to you.”

Lee Hyun-joo took Lee Hyun-soo’s phone and turned it off. Then she threw it into her bag.

Watching her, Lee Hyun-soo clicked his tongue.

“Now, forget about the company.”

“That’s not as easy as it sounds…”

“Don’t worry. You’ll be forced to forget it if you can’t be contacted. Now, let’s go eat breakfast, Oppa.”

Lee Hyun-soo sighed and nodded.

‘Is this really okay?’

He was uneasy, but what could he do? He didn’t have the strength to take the phone out of Lee Hyun-joo’s bag.

“How is it?”

“Huh?”

“It was better than you thought, right?”

“Umm…”

Lee Hyun-soo quietly nodded.

The sight of the sun setting over the western sea came into his view.

In the morning, he was so worried about what might have happened at the company that he was pacing back and forth, but by the afternoon, he felt somewhat at ease.

‘The phone is a demon.’

They say people live in a world where they are enslaved by machines, and after turning off his phone for a day, he understood what that meant.

“Both you and the Head tend to overwork yourselves.”

“I know.”

“You could take it easy… No, never mind. These words are just meaningless nagging.”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled wryly.

‘That’s why it’s scary.’

Having a girlfriend who knows and understands what he does is mostly a source of strength, but sometimes it’s also scary.

It meant she knew exactly what he was thinking and how he lived.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

Lee Hyun-soo chuckled as he looked at the sunset.

“It’s not like I plan to live like this forever. I don’t want to be a husband who never shows his face at home after getting married.”

“You’d be dead if you did.”

“…That doesn’t sound like a joke?”

“It’s not a joke.”

“…Okay.”

Lee Hyun-soo chuckled.

“Neither the Head nor I plan to be tied to the Assembly forever. Honestly, both of us want to retire early and enjoy our old age, that’s one of our life goals.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“We’re building the perfect pension right now.”

Lee Hyun-soo shrugged.

“But that pension is more about external threats than internal profit generation. If we can resolve the external issues, we can step down anytime. It’s just hard to get there.”

“…It doesn’t seem like just ‘hard’? If there are no external enemies, isn’t that the same as world domination?”

“It’s similar.”

Lee Hyun-soo smiled faintly.

“But there’s someone above me who says that so casually. So, there’s no choice. Even if it’s a ridiculous dream, I have to try it. Isn’t that what a salaryman does? If they tell you to do it, you do it.”

It was… well.

He was saying it like it was nothing, but when you thought about it, it was a huge scale.

If someone didn’t know, they might think Lee Hyun-soo was bluffing to impress her.

But what Lee Hyun-soo was saying was mostly true.

“It won’t be long.”

“Do you really think it won’t be long?”

Lee Hyun-joo unconsciously used formal language.

“Yeah. It won’t be long. This isn’t something I can postpone even if I wanted to. It’ll be decided soon. Whether the path I chose was right, whether I’ve done it properly.”

Lee Hyun-soo’s eyes lowered.

“I have to stay up all night because I’m facing the final exam. Cramming isn’t a good way to study, but it’s the best way when you don’t have time.”

“So you’re going to get your report card?”

“That’s right.”

Lee Hyun-joo laughed lightly.

“Even though you don’t care about grades anyway.”

Lee Hyun-joo knew.

Of the two things Lee Hyun-soo mentioned, the evaluation of whether he had done it properly might vary, but the evaluation of whether he had made the right choice would not depend on the result.

Even if he was about to be beheaded, Lee Hyun-soo would not regret choosing Kang Jin-ho.

‘I get jealous sometimes.’

No matter how hard Lee Hyun-joo tried, she couldn’t wedge herself between these two. Perhaps not only her, but also Director Choi felt the same way.

The realms of men and men and men and women were clearly different, but sometimes the realms they had were so dazzling that they were blinding.

‘I’m so petty.’

Instead of congratulating them, I’m jealous.

Lee Hyun-joo shrugged.

“Yes, yes, I hope you get a good report card.”

“So when that time comes…”

“Huh?”

Lee Hyun-soo turned his head and looked directly at Lee Hyun-joo.

“Let’s get married.”

Lee Hyun-joo froze at the sudden proposal.

But Lee Hyun-soo continued to speak in a tone that showed no hesitation.

“Right now, there are too many things to do and too many things to worry about. You’re also proud of your work, and it’s still a bit early. But there will be a moment when both you and I can find some leisure in our lives. And when I have leisure in my life, it can only be filled by you.”

“I’ll say it again when we get back…”

“No, wait!”

“Huh?”

“Turn on your blinker before you come in, you idiot!”

Lee Hyun-soo became speechless and closed his mouth. But Lee Hyun-joo didn’t meet Lee Hyun-soo’s eyes and desperately turned her head.

It was because she didn’t want to show her face, which was clearly red.

‘He’s really impossible.’

A man who had no sense of romance and only calculations in his head would sometimes make mistakes and do things like this out of the blue.

“Let’s go!”

“Huh? Where to?”

“The… the sun has set! We have to take the car and go eat dinner now!”

“Hey, what about the answer?”

“What answer! You’ll get the answer when the time comes.”

“Is it that hard to answer… Ah, let’s go together!”

Lee Hyun-soo quickly followed behind Lee Hyun-joo. But Lee Hyun-joo’s steps were so fast that Lee Hyun-soo couldn’t catch up.

“I said let’s go together!”

Lee Hyun-joo, like someone who couldn’t hear anything, lowered her head and used her light footwork to dash forward.

‘I really want to hit him.’

Grandfather, what should I do?

It looks like I’m going to marry a really strange son-in-law. Don’t beat him up when you see him in the afterlife. He’s weak.

A smile that she couldn’t help but make bloomed on Lee Hyun-joo’s lips.

Perhaps because of that.

The subtle killing intent that might have been sensed by her usual self was missed by her now.

“Shall we execute?”

“When the sun sets.”

The eyes of those dressed in black suits turned to the west. Seeing the fading sun, they curled up the corners of their mouths.