Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2063

Kang Jin-ho, who had been silently staring at the ceiling, lowered his head again.

It wasn’t that he had sorted out his emotions in the meantime. His emotions were still in turmoil, but there was no time to sort them out. Because Wiggins didn’t have any time left.

“I….”

Kang Jin-ho closed his mouth slightly, then opened it again.

“Didn’t you say that once I stepped down from the front lines… you would live as you pleased, wielding the Round Table or the General Assembly as you wished?”

“Certainly…”

Wiggins smiled and nodded.

“I believe I did say something like that.”

“That…”

Kang Jin-ho’s gaze drifted towards the fingertips of Wiggins, which were becoming increasingly blurred.

“There was no need to go that far.”

Wiggins smiled faintly.

It was because Kang Jin-ho’s words sounded like a grumble. No, perhaps it wasn’t just sounding like a grumble, but it really was a grumble.

This man was starved for people.

It was common to grieve when someone died. But for someone like Kang Jin-ho to feel sorry for his death, it held a special meaning for Wiggins.

It meant that just as Kang Jin-ho was significant to him, Wiggins was just as significant to Kang Jin-ho.

Just seeing that expression on Kang Jin-ho’s face made him feel like his remaining regrets were fading away.

It was as if that expression was telling him that his life had not been in vain.

“But…”

Wiggins said, as if trying to soothe Kang Jin-ho.

“Well, what can we do? Isn’t life interesting because it doesn’t go as we wish?”

“You always acted like you were so smart.”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Wiggins chuckled as if he found it funny himself.

“Perhaps it was self-loathing. In the end, people can’t act according to reason, and I guess I knew myself that I was just an ordinary person.”

He could have had everything.

His defeat didn’t mean the defeat of the General Assembly, so if he had fought moderately, admitted defeat, and stepped back, Wiggins might have become the ultimate victor.

A world where Kang Jin-ho would no longer be at the forefront.

A world where even the Black King’s faction could no longer exert power, and even the Red King was silent.

In that world, Wiggins might have been the only one with the potential to seize all the power of the General Assembly and the Round Table and rule the world. Of course, the crucial role of coordinating with the outside world would also have been his duty, but Wiggins would have been able to handle that role well too.

If he hadn’t acted so recklessly, Kang Jin-ho wouldn’t have stepped forward again to try and control him.

Perhaps a powerful throne lasting for decades was waiting for him.

Wiggins also knew this fact.

He knew it all too well.

But Wiggins threw all of that away with his own hands. While despising and ridiculing those who risked everything on pointless battles, he himself turned something far more immense than what they had risked into a piece of trash in an instant.

So….

How could he not laugh?

‘That’s why people are so interesting.’ If everyone acted rationally and only did what was best, the world would become a desolate place without a single variable.

It was those foolish impulses that gave color to this world.

How could they not be so lovely?

Facing the inevitable end of death, he realized how beautiful the world he had lived in was. Even the shattered, colorless concrete walls looked beautiful to his eyes.

But… now it was time to leave that beauty behind.

Wiggins looked at his arm. There was nothing left there that could be called an ‘arm.’ The arm had already begun to fade, and his shoulder was starting to crumble.

“Lord.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Wiggins without answering.

The moment he saw his tightly closed lips, a smile involuntarily bloomed on Wiggins’s face.

A face that looked resentful, a face that looked angry.

Having been able to draw such a face from this person, there was no reason to have any regrets.

“It’s not your fault, Lord. This was a fate I was bound to face someday.”

“I have no regrets. For a single moment, I witnessed a place where no one else had ever set foot, and I grasped it with these hands. Perhaps, at that moment, even you, Lord, were no match for me.”

Wiggins chuckled softly.

The fact that Kang Jin-ho didn’t bother to refute him was probably a consideration for him at the very end.

“So, don’t make that face.”

“…Wiggins.”

“It was fun meeting you, Lord. Before I met you, I didn’t know that breathing could be such an interesting thing. Back then, bowing my head to you was the best choice I ever made in my life.”

Kang Jin-ho quietly closed his eyes.

“I seem to have had a lot to say… Well, I don’t think you need my advice, Lord. However, there is one thing I would like to ask of you.”

“…Tell me.”

Wiggins, who had been looking at Kang Jin-ho silently for a long time, opened his mouth.

“You are not suited to be a martial artist.”

Kang Jin-ho narrowed his eyes as if the words were unexpected.

“I realized it clearly here. Martial artists are beings who live thinking about many things, but when they reach their limits, they only value their own impulses. But you, Lord, are the opposite. You seem to live as you please, but at the last moment, you don’t think of yourself.”

Wiggins thought that Kang Jin-ho was the most martial artist-like martial artist. And he had thought that he might be someone who was not suited to be a martial artist.

But….

‘It was completely the opposite.’

Kang Jin-ho was someone who shouldn’t be a martial artist.

“It is nothing but misfortune for someone like you, Lord, to remain in this world. So, Lord…”

Wiggins looked at Kang Jin-ho with resolute eyes.

“Find your own life.”

“Living another life is no longer special. Being strong is also no longer special in this world. Look at them, the Black King’s faction. They are living in the present, but they cannot escape the past.”

“The past creates nothing. What you need to grasp is your future. So…”

A warm smile appeared on Wiggins’s lips.

“Now, put down the burden on your shoulders and just be happy.”

Kang Jin-ho’s lips trembled slightly.

Kang Jin-ho raised his head again and looked at the ceiling.

He knew he shouldn’t, but right now, he couldn’t bring himself to look at Wiggins’s face.

Wiggins smiled as he looked at Kang Jin-ho.

He was a truly interesting person.

Perhaps this was what made Kang Jin-ho who he was. Despite suffering countless pains over many years, he still maintained such purity.

That was why so many people were drawn to Kang Jin-ho.

“Director Bang is not an inadequate person to lead the General Assembly. Even if there are shortcomings, Lee Hyun-soo will be able to fill them.”

“However… Lord, there is one thing I would like to ask of you.”

“…Tell me.”

Wiggins hesitated slightly, as if pondering. But then, he spoke in a calm tone, as if he had let it go.

“Please… look upon the Round Table with a warm heart.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded.

The Round Table, having lost both the Master and Wiggins, would have difficulty overcoming external pressures. If left as it was, it was likely to fall apart.

“I thought I had already let go of my regrets… but it seems that’s not the case when I think it’s the end. I won’t ask you to protect them. But…”

“I know.”

Kang Jin-ho said calmly.

“I was the same.”

He had always longed for this place. He had always longed for the place where he had been. Even though those memories weren’t particularly happy or pleasant.

Wiggins would be the same.

So….

“Don’t worry. As long as I’m here, no one will be able to destroy the Round Table. They will remember you, and they will carry on what you left behind.”

Wiggins smiled gently.

Perhaps these were the words he had wanted to hear the most.

‘I am truly a contradictory human being.’ It was none other than Wiggins who had destroyed and broken the Round Table. But at the last moment, the only regret left in Wiggins’s heart was also the Round Table.

He hated the Round Table, and he also loved it. He wanted it to last forever, and he also wanted it to disappear without a trace.

Emotions so complex that he couldn’t even understand them himself.

But….

‘In the end, that’s what people are.’ They live with their own contradictions.

That’s why people are such brilliant beings.

Sizzle.

His chest was gradually scattering. Sensing his end, Wiggins looked at Kang Jin-ho and the others who were watching him.

Wiggins, who had made eye contact with each of them, shrugged his one remaining shoulder.

“Give my regards to my daughter.”

“Any last words?”

“It’s okay. I’ve already conveyed what I needed to through my life.”

“…Okay.”

“It would be nice if there was a little more time, but it’s better for the end to be a little regrettable. After all, a movie with lingering emotions is what truly becomes a masterpiece.”

Wiggins looked at everyone and gave a splendid smile.

“M-Master…”

“A grown man shouldn’t cry.”

Wiggins smiled once at Lee Hyun-soo.

Wiggins’s body became increasingly blurry.

Wiggins, who had looked at his own fading body, closed and opened his eyes for a moment. Then, he looked at everyone with a gentle smile, as always.

“Well then, everyone…”

“Wiggins…”

“It was fun.”

Like sand scattering in a slow breeze….

Wiggins’s body became increasingly blurry.

“It was really… fun.”

Before his figure disappeared for the last time, the smile Wiggins wore was truly magnificent.

Enough to never be forgotten in everyone’s memories.

An annihilation that left no trace.

Everyone stared at the space where Wiggins had been just moments ago, speechless. Lee Hyun-soo, Bang Jin-hoon, Jang Min, Bator, the Blood King, Lee Myung-hwan, and even the Red King.

And….

Click.

Kang Jin-ho took out a cigarette and lit the end.

A familiar sight.

But to those who were watching his back, this sight certainly didn’t look the same as usual.

The cigarette smoke that Kang Jin-ho exhaled gradually scattered into the air.

“Until the end…”

Kang Jin-ho’s voice, which was a little quieter than usual, scattered along with the cigarette smoke.

“Always trying to look cool…”

No matter what kind of life he had lived.

His end was perfect enough that no one could deny it.

A Knight of the Round Table and a Master.

And a director of the General Assembly.

A mentor to one person and a father to another.

And….

A friend to someone.

Kang Jin-ho, who had exhaled the thick cigarette smoke, quietly closed his eyes.

As if trying to engrave his last 모습 [Korean for ‘appearance’ or ‘figure’] forever.

“…May you rest in peace.”

The cigarette smoke he had created scattered far into the air.