Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1927

Bang Jin-hoon, slumped in the black van, couldn’t help but groan.

“Damn it! To move around in this country, I have to drive for ages, then take a plane, and after getting off the plane, I have to drive again for ages!”

“…Isn’t it the same in Korea? Have you never taken a domestic flight?”

“You haven’t, have you?”

Bang Jin-hoon roared at Lee Hyun-soo’s words.

“Why wouldn’t I have! How many times have I been overseas!”

“No, I mean domestic flights, domestic. Like from Gimpo to Gimhae.”

“Why do I need a plane to move around in Korea! I can just take the KTX [Korea Train Express]!”

“No, well, I just thought I’d point out the obvious.” Lee Hyun-soo subtly turned his head, seeing Bang Jin-hoon’s eyes glaring as if he would devour him. As the saying goes, never stand in front of a wild boar that’s been paid in advance.

“And you son of a bitch, the travel distance is different! We drove for four hours. In Korea, that’s enough to get from Seoul to Busan.”

“I told you, it’s not Korea. You keep saying that.”

“Ugh.”

Bang Jin-hoon crossed his arms, clearly displeased, and looked out the window. The pitch-black scenery outside the road made it abundantly clear that this was not Korea.

“If it’s going to be like this, it would have been better to just take a helicopter.”

“Helicopter transport isn’t easy. And… helicopters can’t go all the way at once due to their range. Finding a place to refuel in the middle is no easy task either.”

“Hey, you bastard. Did you get paid off by the Red King’s side or something? Why are you taking their side with everything you say?”

“Do I look like someone who would be swayed by money?”

“No. You look like someone who would sell their soul. Why?”

“You see me correctly.”

Lee Hyun-soo grinned and made a coin shape with his fingers.

Bang Jin-hoon’s face contorted at the sight.

“Seriously, this bastard…”

“If they give me enough money, I’ll gladly join them, but they’re too poor to meet my demands. If they gave me about 5 trillion, I could even tell you the Chairman’s underwear color.”

“How the hell do you know the Chairman’s underwear color, you crazy bastard!”

“Why wouldn’t I know? We train and shower together. He only wears black. Why are you so uninterested?”

“…Is he really crazy?”

Bang Jin-hoon moved to the side with a disgusted look. As if he wanted to keep as much distance from Lee Hyun-soo as possible.

“It’s basic common sense.”

“There’s no such common sense in the world, you moron!” Lee Hyun-soo chuckled.

He knew, and Bang Jin-hoon knew, that even a simple joke was a hundred times better than going in silence.

“I’ve lived long enough to see everything.”

“What do you mean?”

“I never thought I’d be going to protect the Chinese President. To be honest, if I had to choose a side, I’d be on…”

“I understand very well what you’re thinking, but I don’t think it’s something you should say out loud in this situation.”

“Geez.”

Bang Jin-hoon laughed in vain.

Who would have imagined that he would be assigned such a role?

“That’s what makes the world interesting.”

Wiggins, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, smiled.

“What, you suddenly appear and talk as if you’ve mastered the world?”

“…I just wanted to say that things in the world go around.”

“The relationship between countries is like that too. Sometimes it gets rough, but sometimes you have to cooperate.”

“Like the Red King’s faction and us?”

“That’s a perfect analogy.”

Wiggins’ smile deepened.

“So, there’s no need to think too strangely about it. Time covers up a lot of things.”

Lee Hyun-soo looked at Wiggins with a sulky face.

Wiggins tilted his head at the look.

“Why?”

“No. Well, what you’re saying is all correct…”

“It is?”

Lee Hyun-soo coughed softly.

“It’s just that, it’s a bit awkward to hear those words from someone from England, not any other country…”

“Isn’t England the best country in the world when it comes to causing trouble and then running away without fixing it? They’ve made a mess all over the world, and now you’re saying time covers it all… I guess that’s why they get so much hate.”

“Don’t, don’t insult my country!”

“…You wouldn’t get insulted if you didn’t do things that deserve it.”

Lee Hyun-soo clicked his tongue as Wiggins lowered his head with a gloomy face.

“Anyway.”

His gaze turned to the window. Judging by the lights slowly appearing in the distance, it seemed like they didn’t have much further to go.

“It seems we’re not late…”

“If we were late, there would have been a commotion. Judging by the fact that there’s no news yet… No, no. In this country, even if the President was assassinated, they wouldn’t report it right away.”

“Isn’t it interesting?”

“What?”

Lee Hyun-soo glanced at Bang Jin-hoon and said.

“You could say that the history of the Republic of Korea is a history of fighting against press control.”

“The government raiding newspaper companies, arresting journalists like they were stringing up dried fish, sending thugs to newspaper companies to smash the printing presses. People going to jail for reporting the truth, from those days to now.”

“…Why the sudden history lesson?”

“Listen. Anyway, from those days, we’ve reached an era where we get reports about where the President ate yesterday. Of course, there are side effects, but it’s clear that the freedom of the press, which was won through struggle, is one of Korea’s prides.”

“That’s right.”

“But… if something like this happened in Korea right now, it would probably lead to the brink of national collapse. The media would be attacking the government every day, and it wouldn’t be strange if the people who learned the truth grabbed steel pipes and ran to the Blue House [the executive office and official residence of the South Korean president].”

“…I guess so.”

Considering the Korean tendency to follow control most of the time, but then explode without a solution when the limit is exceeded, at least the Blue House walls would have been torn down.

“It’s the irony of the world that problems arise because of what we believed to be good.”

“You have to accept those side effects, man.”

“That’s right, side effects. Yes, side effects. But…”

“Yeah?”

Lee Hyun-soo said, looking out the window.

“Side effects are only called side effects when they produce good results. If the result isn’t good, it’s just one more bad point.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“No. I just had that thought. Until now, I’ve never doubted that increasing individual freedom is the direction towards absolute good.”

“But seeing this series of events, I’m starting to wonder if what I believe is really absolute good. Is it really the right direction for people to become infinitely free…”

“What nonsense are you talking about.”

Bang Jin-hoon scoffed.

“So, you’re saying it’s better for people to live without knowing anything and just doing what they’re told?”

“That’s the dilemma.”

“Huh?”

Lee Hyun-soo said in a slightly subdued voice.

“Of course, if you asked Koreans right now to choose between the government controlling them to some extent and turning back the clock, or being given more freedom than they have now, about 90% would choose the latter.”

“Of course.”

“But what about after something like what’s happening in China happens?”

Bang Jin-hoon closed his mouth.

“No, what if it goes even further, and the city is on fire, there are riots, and people are dying everywhere, and everything is completely destroyed? Would they still make the same choice?”

“Well…”

“At least the ratio would change.”

Bang Jin-hoon couldn’t really argue. He could shout that it was wrong if they said the trend would change, but it was hard to say that the ratio wouldn’t change.

“This is the pet dog debate.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The analogy is a bit crude… Please understand that I’m not comparing people to dogs. You get excited about strange things sometimes, Director.”

“Okay, just tell me, you bastard.”

“It’s like this. It’s a common saying on forums, ‘People who raise pet dogs basically control and limit the dog’s freedom. To truly make dogs happy, they should be returned to nature.’”

“It’s the same with cats. They’re not meant to live confined to a house, but to run in the mountains and fields. That’s how dogs and cats were born in the first place.”

“So, keeping cats and dogs at home is abuse?”

“I don’t know if it’s abuse. What I want to say is, if you gave cats and dogs a choice, which would they choose?”

“What are you talking about now?”

“Think about it. Dogs give up some of their rights in exchange for comfortable housing and nutritious food. And they even receive modern medical treatment. Something unimaginable in the wild.”

“Thanks to that, they live twice as long and can live comfortably until they die. But they only have to give up one thing.”

“Freedom?”

“Yes.”

Lee Hyun-soo nodded.

“It’s the same with people. If people could gain peace in exchange for giving up some freedom, what choice would they make?”

Bang Jin-hoon chuckled and looked at Lee Hyun-soo.

“No. Director Lee, that’s all good, but what’s the point of thinking about that now?”

“I just had that thought.”

“What thought?”

Lee Hyun-soo slowly opened his mouth.

“If good isn’t absolute, but can change depending on the situation, what you gain, and by agreement… then maybe what we believe we should strive for, what we believe is absolutely right, could all be wrong.”

Bang Jin-hoon frowned.

But Wiggins, who was listening to the words next to him, stroked his chin with interest.

“That’s the same context as what I heard from the Master.”

“Huh? From the Master?”

“Yes. The nuance is a bit different… but it was a similar statement. And the Master said it would help me solve the problem I was facing.”

It was new. He had to go all the way to Korea to face the Master to find this answer. But Lee Hyun-soo reached the same place in a van speeding down the highway.

‘He’s definitely something else.’

Lee Hyun-soo has a knack for getting to the core of things.

“So…”

“Yes?”

“What’s the conclusion of that thought?”

Lee Hyun-soo chuckled.

“Is there really a conclusion? But…”

“But?”

Lee Hyun-soo looked out the window with a subdued gaze.

It wasn’t a gaze turned to look outside. It was just an action to not show his current eyes to others.

“Can I become a villain for my own sake?”

“That’s the question, just that.”

Wiggins’ eyes sank heavily.

They had the same starting point, but the conclusion he reached and the conclusion Lee Hyun-soo reached were different. Lee Hyun-soo had entered a very personal realm, but perhaps that’s why he reached an undeniable conclusion.

“The time to make a choice will come.”

“Maybe.”

Bang Jin-hoon, who had been listening to the two’s conversation, shook his head.

“What are you talking about?”

Wiggins chuckled.

“Let’s deal with what’s in front of us first. Let’s get rid of the distractions.”

“Yes.”

The van carrying them drove along the outskirts of Beijing and entered deep into the mountains.