Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2093

Deep.

A bottomless abyss of darkness was pulling Kang Jin-ho in.

It was a bit of comfort, and a bit of coldness.

In a strange yet familiar sensation, Kang Jin-ho simply floated endlessly.

His consciousness was scattered, seemingly within reach but never quite grasped.

He wondered if this might be the feeling of ‘rest.’ Or perhaps he wasn’t even sure if he was thinking at all. Everything was just vague.

He just wanted to stay like this… yes. He wanted to sink deeper and deeper.

But Kang Jin-ho’s consciousness was soon pulled somewhere else.

In the vagueness.

In a sense of floating where he couldn’t even recognize who he was, Kang Jin-ho saw a man in front of him.

A quiet room.

In that desolate room, where it was hard to find any trace of human life, a man was sitting in an old wheelchair.

He was haggard.

That would be the most fitting word to describe the man. The man in front of him was clearly haggard. But the reason for his haggardness didn’t seem to stem from physical discomfort.

Empty pupils.

Dry, withered lips.

The man seemed alive, yet not alive. His body felt like a shell from which the soul had departed.

Kang Jin-ho simply stared at the man.

How much time had passed?

The man reached out his limp hand and picked up a small frame on the table. Then, he slowly stroked the photo inside the frame with his fingertips.

Family.

Inside were the faces of his family, who once meant something to him, but were no longer with him.

Even in the man’s slow movements as he stroked the photo, there was no life. His empty pupils were just habitually replaying what he had lost, what he could never find again.

Kang Jin-ho silently watched his frail, small shoulders.

The man slowly turned his head.

Kang Jin-ho’s and the man’s gazes met in the air.

And at that moment, the world Kang Jin-ho was looking at disappeared like a bubble. The world broke down piece by piece, and once again, deep darkness covered Kang Jin-ho.

Continued sinking. Deep sinking.

As Kang Jin-ho fell endlessly, a new figure began to appear before him.

A man.

A man stood there. Hair like a lion’s mane.

A jawline and lips that exuded strength just by looking at them.

Two eyes that seemed to burn everything in the world with their intensity.

A man who was like the very embodiment of a tyrant stood tall before thousands of troops.

His expression held no hesitation.

But with every step the man took, something intense emanated, and even the man’s breath seemed to shake the world.

Strong and strong again.

Kang Jin-ho silently stared into the man’s eyes.

It was strange.

His gaze was incredibly intense. The gaze, reminiscent of a tiger’s eyes, would surely make enemies tremble and his followers shout with fervor.

Yet, to Kang Jin-ho’s eyes, the man’s eyes didn’t look much different from the eyes of the person he had seen a moment ago.

Empty.

Something that should have been present in those intense eyes was completely empty.

Therefore, it was futile.

Two completely different lives. Two lives that perfectly fit the word extreme.

But the essence of those lives was not so different. They couldn’t get a single thing they wanted, and they couldn’t find any meaning in what was left to them.

The world shook.

Soon, everything he was looking at collapsed. In that pitch-black world, Kang Jin-ho finally faced the two of them.

The man in the wheelchair.

The Kang Jin-ho of the first life silently looked at him.

The man covered in tyranny.

The Kang Jin-ho of the second life also quietly looked at him.

Their deep, intense gazes seemed to be asking Kang Jin-ho.

Did you find it? Did you find what we lost?

Kang Jin-ho couldn’t readily answer that question.

He just…

Kang Jin-ho opened his mouth. But his voice didn’t come out as he intended. After struggling for a while, a small sound began to leak from Kang Jin-ho’s throat.

He knew.

He knew that these were himself, that they were just his past that he had passed through.

But somehow, he felt like he had to say these words.

“…It wouldn’t have been without meaning.”

A tiny voice slowly echoed in the empty space.

“There… wouldn’t have been no meaning.”

The two men silently looked at him.

As if those words were not enough.

Kang Jin-ho blankly stared at their empty pupils and opened his mouth again.

“Even if not now…”

His voice became clearer and clearer.

“I’ll find it as I live. I’ll learn more. The reason I have to live, and its meaning.”

Kang Jin-ho’s head slowly nodded.

“So, your lives too… my past two lives wouldn’t have been without meaning.”

The moment those words ended, the bodies of the two men who were looking at him began to fade away.

It wasn’t particularly sad or wistful. The past was always something to be let go of, but it was also something that could never be completely let go of. They would now live within him.

The blurred figures gave him a small smile.

Kang Jin-ho quietly nodded back at them.

The figures of the two men finally disappeared completely. Kang Jin-ho, left alone in the black space, raised his head and looked up.

His body slowly began to rise.

His eyelids fluttered.

Kang Jin-ho slowly opened his eyes. The blurry world gradually became clearer.

‘Ceiling…’

What he saw was a pure white ceiling. After staring at the scene silently for a while, Kang Jin-ho slowly turned his head.

A pure white wall, like the ceiling.

On a sofa on one side of the wall, two people were leaning against each other, asleep.

Choi Yeon-ha, and Kang Eun-young.

Kang Jin-ho blankly stared at the two sleeping figures.

His gaze turned downwards again. He saw his own body wrapped in clean white bandages. As if trying to focus his eyes on the world and himself, Kang Jin-ho, with a dazed look, looked around and silently got up.

A slight pain.

But that pain made Kang Jin-ho realize that he was alive.

Tick, tock, tick, tock.

Kang Jin-ho, who was blankly listening to the ticking sound of the second hand coming from the wall clock, was about to get off the bed when it happened.

The hospital room door opened, and Lee Hyun-soo, carrying a bunch of things in both hands, came in, munching on a piece of bread. His face, which seemed to be filled with complaints rather than bread, met Kang Jin-ho’s eyes before he could even take two steps.

Both Kang Jin-ho and Lee Hyun-soo were speechless, staring blankly at each other.

Thud.

The piece of bread that Lee Hyun-soo was holding fell to the floor.

“Uh…”

“Th-that… uh… I mean…”

Lee Hyun-soo seemed to be searching for something to say, staring blankly at Kang Jin-ho. Soon, even the things in his hands fell to the floor.

“You’re awake?”

“Yeah.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded.

“That…”

Lee Hyun-soo, who seemed to be searching for something to say, turned his head and stared at Choi Yeon-ha and Kang Eun-young, then met Kang Jin-ho’s eyes again.

“Should I wake them up?”

It was the first time since meeting Lee Hyun-soo that Kang Jin-ho thought that this guy might actually be a bit of an idiot. Why on earth was he asking him that?

“…Is it evening?”

“It’s exactly 7 AM. You’ve got a good routine. Waking up at seven.”

“That… Guild Leader.”

Lee Hyun-soo, who was staring intently at Kang Jin-ho, slightly turned his head to the side. His eyes were bloodshot.

He coughed softly, as if something was welling up, and said in a slightly watery voice.

“…I’m glad you’re awake.”

“Why are you being so dramatic?”

“It’s been fifteen days.”

“What?”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Lee Hyun-soo with eyes that seemed to ask if he had heard something wrong.

“You’ve been unconscious for fifteen days. The doctor said there was no chance you’d wake up.”

“…A quack.”

“Right. Th-that… since you’re awake, Guild Leader, he must be a quack. He’s a professor at a university hospital, but… well, if it’s like this, he’s a quack.”

Kang Jin-ho let out a hollow laugh. Fifteen days.

The moment he opened his eyes, he had a hunch that at least a few days had passed, but he never imagined that it had been fifteen days.

So, it was understandable that they would react like that.

If someone who had lost consciousness didn’t regain it for fifteen days, they would start to give up around that time.

“They said I wouldn’t wake up, so why did you come here?”

“Well, that’s…”

Lee Hyun-soo scratched the back of his head.

“I thought he might be a quack.”

Kang Jin-ho laughed.

“No. Well… it’s not that I don’t believe in medicine… Anyway, you’re not an ordinary person, Guild Leader. Th-that… of course, the doctor also said that it would be difficult for you to regain consciousness regardless of that… so, I mean, people have faith, that…”

After rambling for a while, Lee Hyun-soo finally let out a deep sigh.

“…I’m really glad you’re awake.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled softly and nodded.

He could feel how worried Lee Hyun-soo had been for him from those words.

‘But fifteen days.’

Then what happened to the world…

It was at that moment.

Choi Yeon-ha, who had been leaning to the side, slowly raised her head.

“…We should get a cot. My bones are aching so much, I can’t live…”

Choi Yeon-ha, who had opened her eyes and was stretching, froze in the same position as she was yawning.

For Kang Jin-ho, it was a very awkward moment, and for Choi Yeon-ha, it was an unbelievable moment.

“Uh…”

Choi Yeon-ha’s mouth opened wider.

“Hahaha…”

“You…”

“Hahaha…”

“You, you jerk!”

Choi Yeon-ha jumped up from her seat and rushed towards Kang Jin-ho. And Kang Eun-young, who heard the noise, also jumped up from her seat in surprise, and upon discovering Kang Jin-ho getting up, she screamed.

“Oppa!”

Choi Yeon-ha jumped into Kang Jin-ho’s chest.

In an instant, Choi Yeon-ha’s body, which had hit Kang Jin-ho’s chest so hard that he was breathless, trembled slightly.

Kang Jin-ho slowly lowered his arms and hugged Choi Yeon-ha’s shoulders.

“It’s okay.”

“Are you really okay…”

Whack!

“Cough!”

“Oh… clean hit.”

Lee Hyun-soo clapped without realizing it.

Choi Yeon-ha, who had turned Kang Jin-ho’s chin with her elbow, grabbed a pillow and began to hit Kang Jin-ho mercilessly.

“Okay? Okay? You jerk! How can you say you’re okay right now? Just close your eyes and lie in bed forever, you idiot!”