Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 42

Kang Jin-ho stared blankly at his exam paper.

It was raining.

Rain was falling on the exam paper.

And not just any rain. This was a downpour.

Anyone looking would think it was monsoon season.

‘What went wrong?’

Kang Jin-ho looked at the exam paper with a stiff expression. It seemed like there were more wrong answers than right ones.

“I studied…”

Jung In-gyu scurried over to Kang Jin-ho.

Peeking at Kang Jin-ho’s exam paper, Jung In-gyu’s eyes widened, and he exclaimed in surprise.

“What? What’s wrong with you? Did you really get all of these wrong?”

“…”

“Wow, Kang Jin-ho’s become a dummy. You were in the top 10 in the school not too long ago. Did you hurt your head in the accident?” It would be nice if he could decide whether he was worried or making fun of him. If he was worried, he could be grateful, and if he was making fun of him, he could just punch him… It was so ambiguous that Kang Jin-ho’s mouth and fist were both twitching.

“Hey, at this rate, I’ll get a higher score than you.”

“Ugh…”

Kang Jin-ho clutched the exam paper with a miserable expression.

“What went wrong?”

At Kang Jin-ho’s words, Jung In-gyu clicked his tongue.

“Shouldn’t you be asking what went right?”

Kang Jin-ho looked at the exam paper again with a crumpled face.

But no matter how much he looked, the wrong answers weren’t going to magically become right.

At that moment, Han Se-yeon’s head popped out from behind Kang Jin-ho’s head.

“Oh my?”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Han Se-yeon with a disgruntled expression. The person he least wanted to see right now was Han Se-yeon, but somehow she had found him like a ghost.

“Is this the skill you were so confident about when you said you’d beat me?”

“It was a mistake.”

“That’s a lot of mistakes, isn’t it? At this point, it’s just your skill level.”

“It was a mistake.”

Kang Jin-ho had nothing more to say.

Han Se-yeon giggled and patted Kang Jin-ho’s shoulder.

“Okay, it must be a mistake. This older sister understands. But a promise is a promise! A bet is a bet!”

“Ugh!”

It was painful!

It was heartbreaking that his grades were bad, but what hit Kang Jin-ho even harder was the fact that he had lost the competition.

‘Why does it feel like I’ve been losing every competition since I came to this world?’

Come to think of it, what was his record so far?

He had lost both games, and he had lost the bet with studying.

That meant he had lost all three times. Kang Jin-ho had!

The Heavenly Demon Lord had lost every single time!

Kang Jin-ho’s shoulders slumped.

“You’re not thinking of changing your mind now, are you? A man’s word is his bond.”

“I understand.”

“Then I have one wish, right?”

“Aren’t you going to tell me now?”

“Now? Why? A wish is something you ask for when you really need it!” Kang Jin-ho nodded.

“Okay.”

“Be prepared. I’m going to ask for something terrifying.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at the exam paper with a forlorn expression.

Why was this happening?

It wasn’t like he hadn’t studied at all. He thought he had studied in his spare time, but his score was so terrible.

‘I need a plan.’

It was impossible for him to solve this alone now.

He had studied a bit in the past, but when he thought about it, that was already decades ago.

It wasn’t a situation where he could change anything by struggling alone.

Kang Jin-ho looked for someone he could trust.

Someone who had already graduated from a top university in Korea with high grades, had been promoted at lightning speed in one of Korea’s leading companies, and was now the right-hand man of Korea’s top businessman! The best elite in Korea!

Bang!

The door opened roughly, and Deputy Director Jo Gyu-min spat out the coffee he had in his mouth.

“M-Mr. Kang Jin-ho!”

Jo Gyu-min said, wiping away the coffee he had spat out.

“Doors are for opening, not breaking.”

“I need help.”

Jo Gyu-min looked at Kang Jin-ho with sharp eyes.

Help?

Kang Jin-ho had finally said the words that he had been waiting for. Finally, he had a chance to shine.

‘I’m not here just to be a deputy director.’

If he assisted Kang Jin-ho, opportunities would naturally come. More importantly, he needed to make Kang Jin-ho recognize that he was a necessary person for Kang Jin-ho, who would one day rise to the top.

Anything was fine!

Jo Gyu-min nodded with a determined heart.

“If I can be of help, I will do anything.”

“Yes!”

Kang Jin-ho took out the exam paper from his bag and handed it over.

“What is this?”

“It’s my mock exam from today.”

Jo Gyu-min looked at the exam paper and smiled.

“Are you worried about whether you’ll be able to go to college?”

Kang Jin-ho froze like a stone.

“The world is a better place these days, so even a high school diploma isn’t so bad…”

“I need to raise my grades.”

“Then you should raise them.”

“How do I do that?”

Jo Gyu-min felt a dark cloud forming over his life plan.

“So…”

Jo Gyu-min listened to Kang Jin-ho’s explanation and nodded.

“You’re saying that you don’t remember things from before the car accident?”

“Yes.”

“Then you’ve forgotten everything you learned before?”

“Yes.”

Jo Gyu-min looked at Kang Jin-ho’s exam paper and nodded.

“Indeed, regardless of the difficulty, you’re getting some right and some wrong at random.”

“Is that a compliment?”

Jo Gyu-min smiled wryly.

“It’s not an insult. Well, in this case, the problem is simple. I’ll take care of it.”

Jo Gyu-min picked up the phone and called someone.

“Yes. Bring it over.”

A little while later, the door opened, and a person came inside.

“Just put it down and go.”

The person who came in placed the books on the table and went outside.

Kang Jin-ho looked at the things on the table.

“What is this?”

“They’re books.”

“I know they’re books.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at the books in front of him.

“So…”

“They’re elementary school textbooks.”

“It’s not that I don’t know that…”

Jo Gyu-min smiled.

“If you don’t have the basics, you just need to build them. We’ll start again from the first grade of elementary school.”

“First grade should take about a week, right? Finish all of it. We’ll start second grade next week.”

“I’m in the second year of high school.”

“So?”

At Jo Gyu-min’s firm voice, Kang Jin-ho closed his eyes.

The basics are important.

That was what his master had emphasized the most, and it was a truth that he had never forgotten even while learning martial arts.

‘The basics are important.’

It was something he knew, but for some reason, Kang Jin-ho felt sad.

“Where did you go?”

“The chairman’s office.”

“You went to the chairman’s office again?”

“Yeah…”

Kang Jin-ho answered weakly and rode his bicycle with Park Yu-min on the back.

“Your bag looks extra full today?”

“…”

“What’s in it?”

“Don’t ask.”

“Okay.”

Kang Jin-ho pedaled irritably.

After breaking the specially ordered pedals several times, Jo Gyu-min had spent a fortune to make new ones. Jo Gyu-min, who had been agonizing between performance and durability, had finally given up on lightness and made the pedals out of a sturdy metal material.

Thanks to his hard work, these pedals didn’t break easily even with Kang Jin-ho’s strength and lasted quite a while.

Thanks to that, he could ride his bike without worry for a while.

Whoosh!

The bicycle cut through the wind and sped forward. The bicycle, which had entered an uphill road, climbed the hill without hesitation.

“It’s something I see every time, but it’s still amazing.”

“By the way…”

“Yeah.”

“You can ride a motorcycle, right?”

“Huh?”

Park Yu-min tilted his head as if asking what he was talking about.

“I understand that a bicycle is hard because you have to pedal, but you can ride a motorcycle, right?”

“That’s true, but…”

“Yeah.”

“You want me to ride up here?” Park Yu-min’s body trembled.

This friend had a bad habit of casually making others do what he did.

“If I slip here, I’ll die.”

“That’s true.”

Kang Jin-ho would never slip, and even if he did, he wouldn’t get hurt in a place like this. But Park Yu-min was different.

If he tried to go up the hill clumsily and slipped, he would have to get up from the neighborhood below.

He had to give up before the Seongsim Orphanage moved.

Kang Jin-ho rode his bike to the top of the hill and parked it in front of the orphanage.

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“The deputy director has visited a few times.”

“He said he’d help move the orphanage. He said they’re already building the building?”

“Really? That’s good.”

“Did you do that?”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

“It’s not my money.”

Park Yu-min sighed.

“I don’t know how I’m going to repay you for everything you’ve done for me.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

“No, really.”

“What’s there to repay between friends? I’m going.” Park Yu-min muttered to himself as he watched Kang Jin-ho ride his bike down the hill.

“A friend…”

Park Yu-min.

He had made his first friend today.

Kang Jin-ho returned home.

“I’m telling you, an apartment is better!”

“Honey, it’s because you’ve never lived in a house with a garden. It’s cool in the summer and warm in the winter.”

“There are a lot of bugs.”

“Yeah, there are a lot of bugs. Ah, no! There aren’t that many bugs.”

“I absolutely can’t live in a place like that.”

“You’ll change your mind once you live there.”

“Then live with a woman who wants to live in a house with a garden. I don’t want to.”

“Why are you saying that again?”

Kang Jin-ho sighed.

They say money makes people weird, but this was weird in a completely different way.

“I’m home.”

“Jin-ho, an apartment is better, right?”

“Jin-ho, a detached house with a garden is…”

“Can you just keep living here?”

“That’s a bit…”

“Anywhere is fine, so please decide. At this rate, we’ll just keep worrying and never move.”

“Okay.”

“Ahem.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled and went into the bathroom.

“I’m home.”

Kang Jin-ho frowned as he looked at Kang Eun-young.

“Aren’t you too late?”

“Practice ended late.”

“Still, it’s too late. Tell me next time if you have practice. I’ll pick you up.”

“No way! What kind of backlash would I get for using a high school senior?”

“I’m not a high school senior yet…”

“You’ll be one soon. It’s even more of a problem if you don’t come home.”

“I can go even when I’m a high school senior.”

“Mom will kill me.”

Kang Jin-ho thought that might be true.

Kang Eun-young stared at Kang Jin-ho for a moment before bursting into laughter.

“You seem more like a person now?”

“What are you talking about?”

“For a while after the accident, you seemed like a person who had lost their soul, but now you seem more like a person. Like the old you.”

“Really?”

It was an unexpected remark.

Kang Eun-young had just said it, but the meaning behind her words was not small.

“But for a while, you had a quiet charm, but if you go back to the way you were, that’s a problem, a problem.”

Kang Eun-young muttered and went into her room.

Kang Jin-ho headed to his room.

‘Have I changed?’

If Kang Eun-young said so, then something must have changed.

But Kang Jin-ho couldn’t tell what had changed about himself.

‘Have I adapted?’

That might be it.

These things are usually more accurately known by others than by oneself.

Kang Jin-ho lay on his bed and looked at the ceiling.

“A normal life…”

Maybe it wouldn’t be that difficult after all.

Because all he had to do was live each day as it came.

Kang Jin-ho smiled and closed his eyes.