Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2095

Of course, Kang Jin-ho’s ordeal didn’t end there.

While the General Assembly could be dealt with through force or power, there were those in the world to whom Kang Jin-ho’s strength and authority meant nothing.

“That’s a fine mess you’ve made.”

Kang Jin-ho, half-dazed, stared at Hwang Jung-hoo, who had even brought a chair to sit by his bedside.

“A fine mess, indeed.”

“I told you to just quietly run your business, but you’ve gone and plastered your face all over the world. Just amazing, simply amazing!”

“If you think about it the other way, it’s not a bad thing, Chairman.”

“What’s that?”

Jo Gyu-min chuckled, coming to Kang Jin-ho’s defense.

“What’s more important to a businessman than publicity? You’ve gotten publicity that money can’t buy, so shouldn’t you be praising him instead?”

“You’ve got a mouth on you!”

Jo Gyu-min flinched and turned his head, while Hwang Jung-hoo clicked his tongue again.

“Tsk.”

His face showed clear displeasure, but his eyes were full of affection.

That’s why Kang Jin-ho couldn’t easily voice his complaints.

“You’re going to have a headache for a while.”

“…I suppose so.”

“You’ve just woken up, so you might not know, but the outside world is in a terrible state.”

Kang Jin-ho quietly nodded.

It was bound to be.

Kang Jin-ho had defeated the Evil King and protected the peace of the world. But that only meant he had cleaned up the mess that had happened, not that he had returned the world to the past.

The world would now change uncontrollably.

“Well, it’s not a bad thing for me.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Hwang Jung-hoo with a questioning expression.

“Why are you looking at me like that? For a businessman, change is always an opportunity. The world changing means new businesses that didn’t exist before will emerge. I was already feeling uneasy because the group seemed to be stagnating lately, so I need to seize this opportunity quickly.”

“…Even in this situation, you’re thinking about that?”

“This situation? What’s so great about this situation?”

Hwang Jung-hoo scoffed.

“I don’t know why those martial artists or whatever are making such a fuss about living together. It’s nothing compared to when we had to flee from the North when they came down with tanks.”

Well…

Of course, compared to that, it was indeed nothing… But if you compare everything to war, then nothing in the world would be special.

“So, you don’t need to make a fuss either.”

“Yes?”

Hwang Jung-hoo clicked his tongue and said,

“Knowing your personality, I know what you’re thinking. You’re probably thinking that you’re responsible for everything that’s happening outside right now.”

Kang Jin-ho closed his mouth.

“That’s how the world is. If you think about it seriously, it’s endlessly serious, but if you think about it easily, it’s nothing much.”

Hwang Jung-hoo slowly shook his head.

“Just let it flow.”

“I’ve learned something as I’ve lived. When I was young, I often thought I was changing things. But when I look back, things that were going to change would have changed even if I hadn’t been there.”

Hwang Jung-hoo finished speaking and chuckled.

“It’s funny for someone as old as me to be saying this.”

“No, Chairman.”

“Huh?”

“…It helped.”

Hwang Jung-hoo, who had been staring at Kang Jin-ho, coughed awkwardly.

“Well, that’s good then.”

As Hwang Jung-hoo looked away, Jo Gyu-min said with a smile,

“The Chairman was very worried.”

“Hey, stop talking nonsense!”

“No, why are you so embarrassed?”

“Can’t you be quiet?”

As Hwang Jung-hoo got angry, Jo Gyu-min quietly turned his gaze away.

“Tsk, tsk, that’s why you shouldn’t be nice to people. I was nice to him, and now he’s trying to talk back!”

“It’s not that, it’s just that the Chairman seemed lonely lately, so I was trying my best…”

“Shut up!”

Hwang Jung-hoo shouted and shook his head.

“Anyway, take good care of yourself. No matter how much money and power you have, it’s all over if your body is ruined. You saw what I was like before, didn’t you?”

“…Don’t worry.”

Hwang Jung-hoo glanced at Choi Yeon-ha, who was standing by the head of the bed.

“You take care of him.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“As you know, he’s a bit of a handful. Think of it as raising a child, and take good care of him.”

“Oh my? What are you saying? Our Jin-ho is so dependable.”

“…Ahem!”

Perhaps unable to handle Choi Yeon-ha’s banter, Hwang Jung-hoo sighed, put on his fedora, and got up from his seat.

“Anyway.”

Hwang Jung-hoo said, staring intently at Kang Jin-ho.

“When people still have energy, they tend to try to handle everything themselves.”

“That’s a foolish thing to do. Clear your head and look around. You have quite a few people around you, don’t you? If those people help you a little, no matter how big the problem is, it won’t be that difficult.”

“Yes…”

Jo Gyu-min whispered, pretending to cover his mouth.

“He’s indirectly saying that he’ll actively step up and help if you ask.”

“Hey, you! You chatterbox!”

“Hehe.”

“Tsk, tsk.”

Hwang Jung-hoo pressed down on his fedora and said,

“I can take care of the business side, so tell me anytime if you need help. The political side should be okay too, but Prime Minister Go will be better at that than me.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“I’m sure he’ll do well enough.”

Hwang Jung-hoo left those words and turned to head out of the hospital room. Then, Jo Gyu-min whispered to Kang Jin-ho,

“He called the hospital director ten times a day to ask when Kang Jin-ho would wake up. He says things like that, but he was really worried.”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“I’m, I’m coming, Chairman!”

Jo Gyu-min added one last thing.

“There are so many people who are worried about you, Kang Jin-ho. So, please cheer up.”

Jo Gyu-min smiled and bowed his head. Then, he followed Hwang Jung-hoo out.

Kang Jin-ho stared blankly at the door where the two had left, and then he heard Choi Yeon-ha’s soft voice in his ear.

“Jin-ho.”

“…Yes?”

“You’re a lucky person.”

Kang Jin-ho silently stared at the door for a long time before quietly opening his mouth.

“I guess I am.”

Thump, thump, thump.

Thump, thump, thump.

“No…”

“Just stay still!”

Kang Jin-ho gripped the handles of the wheelchair tightly with a worried expression. Every time the wheelchair bumped over a sidewalk block, he felt his heart drop.

“That…”

“Ugh, I can’t believe this! If you’re a patient, you should just stay quietly in your hospital room. Why do you have to smoke so badly?”

Excuse me?

I said I would go alone, but you were the one who ended up putting me in a wheelchair and dragging me out here, weren’t you?

“I hope you get lung cancer!”

“Hey, watch your…”

“What?”

“…Nothing.”

Even so, without a word… no, with plenty of words, Choi Yeon-ha took Kang Jin-ho to the smoking area.

“No, first I need to buy cigarettes…”

“Here.”

Choi Yeon-ha handed Kang Jin-ho a cigarette and a lighter.

Kang Jin-ho stared at it blankly, then asked with a suspicious look.

“Do you smoke?”

“What, you punk?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“Oh, what a life I have. I can’t even nag him to quit, so I have to escort him to smoke comfortably and even prepare his cigarettes in advance. There’s no girlfriend like me in the world.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled.

Well, she wasn’t entirely wrong.

“Take it.”

“Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho took the cigarette, put it in his mouth, and lit it with the lighter.

It had been fifteen days since he had smoked, so the bitter taste was intense. But Kang Jin-ho inhaled the cigarette smoke even more deeply.

The cigarette smoke that entered his lungs swept through his body.

“Hoo.”

Kang Jin-ho exhaled a long stream of smoke and looked up at the dissipating smoke.

“By the way…”

“Yes?”

Kang Jin-ho asked, looking puzzled.

“Have you been here for the past fifteen days?”

“Yes.”

“Is there a problem with that?”

“No, I’m just grateful. You must have had a busy schedule.”

“Ah, schedule? Jin-ho, it seems like you have no idea what’s going on right now…”

“…Yes?”

Choi Yeon-ha’s face contorted.

“Everyone knows that you and I are dating, you know?”

“…Right.”

Somehow, they had ended up in a public relationship. Everyone who needed to know would know. The world wasn’t very interested in Kang Jin-ho, but they were very interested in Choi Yeon-ha.

“And then my boyfriend’s face is being broadcast live on every channel in the world?”

“And while that live broadcast is happening, those guys are shooting lasers from their hands like Superman?”

“And my boyfriend is the leader of those guys?”

Choi Yeon-ha gritted her teeth.

“Schedule? Ah, sche-du-le? I wanted to go. I wanted to go to a shoot, but there were so many reporters at the set that they could fill a stadium twelve times over! You can’t get through that as a human. You’d need a bulldozer.”

“I, I deserve to die…”

“It seems like you don’t know what’s going on because you’re in the hospital, but this is only because the Jae-kyung Group and the government are blocking reporters from entering. If you go outside right now, you won’t be able to take a single step without being surrounded by reporters.”

After hearing that, he realized what kind of situation he was in.

“I’m sorry, I’ve caused you trouble.”

“Is that all you’re going to say?”

“That’s enough, you. Even if I could do a shoot, would I have been in the right state of mind to act? No, I would have been good at acting like a crazy person.”

Kang Jin-ho gave a wry smile.

“And you don’t have to apologize.”

“Yes?”

“Because you kept your promise anyway. You came back.”

Kang Jin-ho stared at Choi Yeon-ha with a blank expression.

“I really… I really thought you might not come back. It was the first time I’d ever seen you with that kind of look on your face.”

Kang Jin-ho, who was about to say something, closed his mouth. Right now, it felt like he should just listen to those words.

“So, that’s enough.”

Kang Jin-ho, who had been quietly looking at Choi Yeon-ha, put the cigarette in his mouth. Then, he slowly inhaled the cigarette smoke. He felt inexplicably embarrassed and inexplicably sorry.

“It’s not that I came back…”

“Yes?”

“…It’s that I had to come back.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled.

The world he would face from now on would be different from the world he had known so far. Perhaps an even more difficult battle than the one he had fought against Cheongma [Evil King] awaited him.

But…

Yes, it was okay.

The world might change, but the people he knew hadn’t changed. The place he had to return to was still here.

“I won’t be going anywhere now. I know that I have to be here.”

“…How embarrassing, saying things like that.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled brightly.

It might have been a somewhat long wandering, but he had finally understood what his life was for.

Kang Jin-ho, with an infinitely warm smile, spoke softly to Choi Yeon-ha.

“But this isn’t the brand of cigarettes I smoke.”

“…I wish you had just died.”

No, slightly. Uh…

Yeah, it seems like she’s changed just a little bit.

Maybe.