Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 369

Swaaaaaa.

The sound of the water was very cheerful.

Listening to the sound of the high-pressure water pouring down, Lee Hyun-soo lowered his head.

‘What am I doing?’

Even if he had given up on fighting, Kang Jin-ho was still the enemy. And yet, here he was, standing guard like a house dog while that enemy was taking a shower right in front of him, without even holding a weapon.

He felt somewhat pathetic, somewhat absurd… It was a very complicated feeling.

‘That guy is crazy.’

Of course, anyone would want to wash if they were covered in blood all over their body. That’s a basic human desire.

But isn’t it because humans know how to distinguish desires based on time and place? Even so, how could he calmly take a shower in the Yeongnam Association building, where he had just created a bloodbath?

“Haa…”

Lee Hyun-soo didn’t know how to explain this feeling.

If he had to put it into words…

‘It’s awe, I guess.’

His mind was filled with negative thoughts, but if he had to describe this feeling, that was the only way he could express it.

Power is like that. Wealth, authority, violence.

All of that is collectively called power.

The reason why people pursue power? Kang Jin-ho was showing it right now.

He could deviate from common sense, etiquette, and generally established rules and standards without anyone pointing it out. No one could point it out.

That was the privilege of those who possessed power.

Perhaps all the strongest people in South Korea were gathered here right now. The sheer fact that they were all gathered in one place meant that an enormous amount of power was concentrated here, enough to declare a national disaster.

And even within that collection of abnormal power, Kang Jin-ho was a special existence.

He was the only one who could break the rules here.

‘He’s a king.’

Only then did Lee Hyun-soo understand why the three kings of China were called by such names.

He had thought that names like Hong King and Chang King were anachronistic. He had thought that such old-fashioned names were due to the twisted sense of the Chinese.

But that wasn’t it.

If someone was a human, but didn’t have to abide by what humans should, and no one could stop him, what should he be called?

There was no word more appropriate than ‘king’ to describe someone who was within the constraints but also beyond them.

And that king slowly walked out.

Lee Hyun-soo clenched his teeth. His physique.

Kang Jin-ho’s physique was a little different from what Lee Hyun-soo had imagined.

‘I thought he’d be huge…’

Kang Jin-ho’s actual body wasn’t that big. In fact, he seemed to be half a hand shorter than Lee Hyun-soo.

But until he saw this, Lee Hyun-soo had never realized that Kang Jin-ho was smaller than him.

‘I can’t express it.’

Kang Jin-ho’s body was like a lump of rock.

Not very tall, not overly broad shoulders, and even his muscles weren’t that big.

You could easily see people with bigger muscles than Kang Jin-ho at any neighborhood gym.

But what should he say…

Kang Jin-ho’s body seemed compressed. His tightly packed muscles were taut as if they would burst at any moment, and his severely defined muscles filled his body as if something terrible would happen if even one part of his body was left unfilled.

‘That must be the body of a martial artist.’

Not muscles made to look good, but muscles that were truly there for combat.

“Is there a towel?”

“…Here you go.”

Lee Hyun-soo handed the towel he was holding to Kang Jin-ho.

‘I want to bite my tongue.’

He wanted to cut himself to pieces with a razor blade for searching the shower room and preparing a towel in advance, all while calling Kang Jin-ho an enemy.

Whether he knew Lee Hyun-soo’s feelings or not, Kang Jin-ho took the towel Lee Hyun-soo offered and began to wipe his body.

Then, after shaking his head, he looked at his clothes.

“Hmm…”

It seemed a bit much to put on his blood-soaked clothes again, so Kang Jin-ho started to ponder.

“Perhaps?”

“…I have it prepared.”

“Hmm…”

Kang Jin-ho smiled as if he was satisfied.

‘I took the wrong path.’

If he had become a hotelier, he could have lived off tips alone… Lee Hyun-soo realized for the first time today that he had this talent.

Kang Jin-ho put on the training suit that Lee Hyun-soo had prepared. After looking in the mirror and shaking his head again, Kang Jin-ho put down the towel and looked at Lee Hyun-soo.

“Perhaps?”

“Cigarettes?”

Nod.

Lee Hyun-soo took out a cigarette from his chest and handed it to Kang Jin-ho.

“Don’t you smoke?”

“I don’t.”

“Then why the cigarette?”

“I thought you might need it, so I prepared it.”

Kang Jin-ho chuckled.

“You’re good at it.”

Kang Jin-ho took the cigarette Lee Hyun-soo offered, put it in his mouth, and lit it. As the end of the cigarette burned, acrid smoke billowed out.

Watching Kang Jin-ho quietly smoke, Lee Hyun-soo realized that his work was done.

‘I should have prepared a drink.’

It seemed that he really had the blood of a hotelier flowing through him. That was the only explanation for feeling this regret.

“So…”

Kang Jin-ho, sitting on a chair set up on one side of the shower room, looked up at Lee Hyun-soo.

“Why were you waiting for me?”

“Well…”

Lee Hyun-soo closed his mouth.

He didn’t know why he had waited for Kang Jin-ho instead of running away. There were many reasons, but there was nothing he could say for sure.

“I guess I just wanted to see you.”

“Wanted to see me?”

“You. I wanted to see with my own eyes what kind of person you are when your cruelty is at its peak.”

“I see.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded quietly and flicked the ash onto the floor.

“So, what’s your impression?”

“…It’s just as I thought. Maybe a little more than I thought. No… Actually, I don’t know. I don’t know what I saw, whether what I saw was your true self, and… how much more you’re hiding. I just don’t know.”

“That’s a boring impression.”

Kang Jin-ho quietly took a drag of his cigarette.

There was a languidness in his eyes. Like a hungry lion that had torn the throat of a deer, fully satisfied and lying down on the spot.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. There’s one thing I want to ask…”

“…Yes.”

Lee Hyun-soo bit his lip slightly.

Now it would begin.

“So, who are you?”

“Excuse me?”

“…Who are you?”

Lee Hyun-soo was speechless.

Did he have to explain it himself?

‘I’m Lee Hyun-soo, and most of the operations that the Yeongnam Association used to bother you came from my head. I thought you wouldn’t leave me alone anyway, so instead of running away and being anxious, I decided to come here and die cleanly?’

‘Why is this so pathetic?’

He had wanted a clean ending, but life wasn’t a drama.

Kang Jin-ho was looking at him with eyes that said, ‘Who the hell are you and why are you here?’

“I, well…”

Lee Hyun-soo, thinking that he was looking too pathetic, grabbed his head.

“I, I’m Lee Hyun-soo…”

Lee Hyun-soo began his introduction with a crying heart.

“Is that so?”

“…Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded as if he was intrigued.

“So… you’re the one who trapped me in the tunnel, and you’re the one who targeted Eun-young?”

“Yes.”

At this point, he even felt relieved.

The thought that Kang Jin-ho didn’t know about him made him momentarily consider shifting the blame for everything onto Kim Seok-il, who was probably already dead, and trying to survive.

But that kind of way of avoiding responsibility was not Lee Hyun-soo’s style.

Even if he died, he would be dignified.

Now that he thought he would receive the consequences of his actions, Lee Hyun-soo felt a little more at ease.

“So?”

“Yes?”

“So what do you want me to do?”

“Yes?”

But Kang Jin-ho’s reaction was still different from what Lee Hyun-soo had expected.

Kang Jin-ho still had a face that said, ‘Ah, okay. I understand what you want to say, but why were you here?’

“I thought you would come looking for me…”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Why would I?”

“Yes?”

When Kang Jin-ho seemed completely unable to understand, Lee Hyun-soo opened his mouth with a desperate face.

He had to explain his mistakes and the reason why he had to pay the price himself to convince the other person.

No one in the world would have been in such a bizarre situation.

“So… I’m the one who has been bothering you, Mr. Kang Jin-ho. If Kim Seok-il has to pay the price, then I should pay the price too.”

“Why?”

“Logically!”

Lee Hyun-soo felt speechless.

Where should he even begin to explain?

Just as he was about to feel overwhelmed, Kang Jin-ho opened his mouth.

“You seem to be greatly overestimating yourself…”

“Yes?”

“You may think that you are someone who has created this situation on equal footing with Kim Seok-il, but in my eyes, you are just someone who has been doing what Kim Seok-il told you to do.”

Lee Hyun-soo closed his mouth.

“If someone stabs me with a knife, I should make the one who stabbed me pay the price, not break the knife. You were just Kim Seok-il’s knife, that’s all.”

“But if it wasn’t for me, Mr. Kang Jin-ho wouldn’t have been so troubled.”

“Are you saying I should blame the knife for being sharp?”

Lee Hyun-soo was speechless at the scornful look on Kang Jin-ho’s face.

Kang Jin-ho’s words were not wrong. And admitting that fact would help him survive.

But…

Why did his stomach feel like it was boiling?

He admitted that he was now facing an opponent he could not dare to challenge, but the fact that the attack on Kang Jin-ho, which he had desperately prepared, was nothing to Kang Jin-ho, made him angry again.

“So, you came to me because you wanted to die?”

“It’s not like that, but…”

“Then that’s fine.”

Kang Jin-ho got up from his seat.

Lee Hyun-soo clenched his fist and said, looking at Kang Jin-ho.

“What if I had attacked you on my own, even if Kim Seok-il hadn’t ordered me to? Would you kill me as cruelly as you did Kim Seok-il?”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Lee Hyun-soo quietly and opened his mouth.

“It still wouldn’t change anything.”

“Why?”

“Being at the top is like that. Depending on how I act, the people below me will think about my intentions and act accordingly. If Kim Seok-il hadn’t moved with the intention of eliminating me in the first place, you wouldn’t have attacked me. So, the price has to be paid by Kim Seok-il.”

“These days, people don’t seem to know what it means to be at the top. And…”

A smile bloomed on Kang Jin-ho’s lips.

The smile felt so cruel.

“Who said Kim Seok-il was dead?”

Those words rang in Lee Hyun-soo’s ears like thunder.