Descent Of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 2123

A man sits alone.

He’s slumped in an old wheelchair, gazing out the window, his shoulders heavy.

His eyes, the color of ash, stare blankly at the world outside—a world he can neither possess nor join.

After a long, vacant stare, he slowly turns his head to look at the person standing before him.

His gaze is devoid of strength, his pupils empty, leaving nothing behind. It’s a look that seems to drag even the observer into despair. With those pitiful eyes, he stares at Kang Jin-ho for a long moment before slowly parting his lips.

“Do you think it’ll work?”

Kang Jin-ho looks at the man without answering.

“You know how cold the world is.” His voice is filled with countless regrets.

Yes, Kang Jin-ho knows. He knows how cold the world is, how it looks at those who are different.

He’s already felt it, thoroughly and miserably.

No matter how much they cry out that they are the same humans, those eyes don’t change. No matter how much they shout that they are no different, prejudice doesn’t disappear. Perhaps humans are beings that cannot endure without distinguishing themselves from others.

“And yet, you think you’ll be accepted? Really?”

“…I don’t know.”

Kang Jin-ho, looking at the man, revealed his feelings without hiding anything.

“Honestly, I don’t know.”

“I’ll try. I’ll struggle. I’ll do everything I can. But…” Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

“Yes, I know. Even so, it might be useless. No, maybe it’s more likely to be useless.”

“Then why do something pointless?”

“You know, if you wanted to, you could live comfortably. If you just turned your back, happiness would already be guaranteed.”

Yes, that might be true.

“But you’re choosing to walk a thorny path? For something that won’t even be achieved?”

“Foolish and stupid.”

“Like you?”

“Yes, like me.”

The man smiled sadly.

“That’s why it’s ridiculous. You’ve been through so much, but you’re no different from me. Still foolish and stupid.”

“Tell me, why did you do it?”

Kang Jin-ho turned his head. His eyes took in the world outside the window that the man had been looking at.

The world seen through that small, square window.

Yes, that world was once hope for Kang Jin-ho, and also despair, a wish, and at the same time, resentment.

“You too…”

Kang Jin-ho said, looking at the man.

“You wanted to go there.”

The man’s face slightly contorted.

“It wasn’t your fault in the first place.”

“Stop it.”

“It was an accident. You didn’t need to blame yourself.”

“It’s absurd. You were also a victim of the accident. Unlucky. But… the fact that your family all died and you were the only one left alive was a sin in itself. Even breathing felt like a sin.”

“I said stop it.”

“That’s why.”

Kang Jin-ho said calmly.

“Someone might be just watching like that. Maybe even I was just watching. Even if my body was uncomfortable, it wouldn’t have been that hard to go out there. I just didn’t have the courage to put in a little effort.”

“So… yes, that’s why I decided to do it.”

The man looks at Kang Jin-ho with sunken eyes.

“Even if you regret it?”

“I’m doing it so I won’t regret it. And… if you’re afraid of regret, you can’t do anything. You know that now, you’ve been watching.”

The man stared at Kang Jin-ho for a moment before chuckling.

“Yeah… I should have known sooner.”

The man wears a small smile.

Slightly sad, slightly bitter. A smile very different from Kang Jin-ho’s now.

“What did I leave you with?”

“That you have to move forward, leaving behind what you’ve lost.”

Kang Jin-ho looked out the window.

“And that if you want something, you have to reach out for it.”

“Yeah… that’s enough. Then my life would have been worth something.”

Kang Jin-ho walked towards the man. Then, he placed his hand on his small, slumped shoulder.

Kang Jin-ho, gripping the man’s shoulder a little harder, walked past him. He walked past the small room, through the long darkness, and faced another man.

A man whose entire body seemed to be made of fighting spirit.

A man in whom suffocating hostility and a strange sense of emptiness coexisted.

The man glared at Kang Jin-ho with seething eyes before opening his mouth.

“You’re complacent.”

A heavy bass voice pierced Kang Jin-ho’s ears.

“If you really want something, there’s only one way to get it. Eliminate all those who stand in your way.”

“Any other way is incomplete. You should know that?”

“Yes, I know.”

Kang Jin-ho didn’t deny it.

What the man was saying was the way Kang Jin-ho had lived.

“And yet, you compromise.”

“Problems that are buried always resurface. If you really want to solve them, you should have fought. There’s nothing in this world that you can get without shedding blood.”

“I know.”

“You know?”

The man’s eyes narrowed.

“Knowing that, you still do such things? What would Cheongma [a legendary warrior or figure] say if he saw you from the underworld?”

“He’d say I’m doing well.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at the man and opened his mouth.

“I’m not running away, and I’m not burying it. I’ve just realized that there’s a limit to what you can get by destroying things.”

“It’s because you’re not strong enough.”

“How much stronger do I have to become?”

When the man closed his mouth, Kang Jin-ho said in a steady voice.

“I’ve crushed all my enemies. I’ve removed everyone who stood in my way. But no matter how much I killed and killed… the fight never ended. New enemies always appeared.”

“You should know that too?”

He had no choice but to know.

He had fought and fought again. And now, the moment he thought he didn’t have to fight anymore, an enemy appeared again, and in the end, he was defeated by that enemy.

“I was foolish. I was repeating the same mistake. But…”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

“Not anymore.”

“Are you afraid?”

“It wasn’t me who was afraid. It was you.” Kang Jin-ho said without backing down.

“You couldn’t think of any other way. You were afraid of failing again.”

Kang Jin-ho said, looking straight at the man in front of him.

“When I lived as you, I believed that I had become a better version of myself than in my first life. It felt empty and hollow, but I still believed that I was achieving something with my own hands. But… that wasn’t it.”

The man’s eyebrows twitched. As if he didn’t like it, or perhaps as if he had been stabbed in the chest.

“None of the things you achieved were what you wanted. You only achieved things you didn’t want and comforted yourself by saying you had done something.”

“That’s why I found it. A way to get it, another way I can fight. Because I don’t want to regret it anymore.”

The man let out a faint laugh.

“Are you confident?”

“I don’t have confidence.”

Kang Jin-ho also chuckled.

“I’m doing it because I have to. Even if I’m not confident, I have no choice but to do it.”

“If you turn your back, you won’t have any regrets?”

“Yes. Then I might not regret it. But I won’t be able to get what I want.”

“…What do you want to get?”

Kang Jin-ho parted his lips.

A slightly awkward and shy word. But a word he can now say.

He conveys that word. To his current self, and to his past self.

“Happiness.”

“From the beginning… yes, from my first life until now, there’s only one thing I’ve wanted. Happiness. I wanted to be happy.”

The man closes his eyes.

“I know, it’s not your fault. If you knew that you would be given another chance… yes, you wouldn’t have lived like that. If you knew you could see your family again, you definitely would have.”

“So, rest now. I’ll carry both the first and second lives.”

The smile on the man’s lips deepens slightly.

“You’re strong.”

It was a special word.

Especially since it came from his mouth.

Kang Jin-ho slowly walked towards the man. Then, he grabbed his shoulder firmly.

“Moving forward doesn’t mean forgetting.”

“I won’t forget. I won’t forget for a single moment where my current life came from.”

The man chuckled.

“You’ve even learned to say grand things.”

“Yes, that’s also a battlefield you chose. But don’t forget, Kang Jin-ho. The world has never been kind to us.”

“So, if you’ve really decided to do it… you must get it. If you fail, even we will have failed forever.”

“Yes, I will.”

“Go.”

The man pushed Kang Jin-ho’s back.

“I’ll be watching from here. Remember. It was us who supported your life.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded and took his hand off the man’s shoulder. Then, he took a step forward.

It’s dark.

There’s nothing to see. It’s so thick and dark that it’s not even easy to take a step.

Perhaps the path he has to walk from now on will be like this. The methods that have supported him so far will not work, and nothing can be predicted.

It’s scary.

Yes, honestly, it’s scary. He acted strong, but he’s afraid that the moment he takes a wrong step, he’ll fall into a quagmire he can never escape from. He’s afraid that even the small things he’s barely managed to get his hands on will disappear because of the choice he made, that all of this might just be his greed.

But even so…

Step.

Kang Jin-ho walked forward.

Because he knows.

He learned in his first life that if he just stays there because he’s afraid, the world will leave him behind. He learned in his second life that if he doesn’t overcome his fear and fight, he can’t get anything.

Everything he has now was created by his past two lives.

Kang Jin-ho turned his head. With the last lingering attachment he had.

They’re there.

The two people he had passed were watching him from not too far away.

They were him, but not him. But they were definitely him.

The two of them were looking at him with soft eyes, as if cheering him on.

Kang Jin-ho lightly clenched his fist.

As if for the last time, Kang Jin-ho took in the images of the two people before finally turning his head.

Then, he takes another step.

There was no more hesitation in Kang Jin-ho’s steps as he walked towards the thick darkness.

Because he believes.

That at the end of this darkness, there will be the light he’s looking for, that if he keeps going and going, he will definitely find it someday.