Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 9

Kang Jin-ho, with a slight smile, turned and slowly walked away, watching Moon Ji-eun’s cheerful, smiling face.

Returning home, Kang Jin-ho looked around his room.

‘Did it always look like this?’

Unfortunately, he had no memory of his room. Because of that, despite returning home after a long time, he felt awkward rather than comfortable.

“I should rest well today.”

“Yes.”

“Because you have to go to school tomorrow.”

“Huh?”

His mother spoke as if wondering why he was so surprised.

“Did you think you wouldn’t go? You can’t keep skipping! If you’re discharged, you have to go to school now.”

“Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho nodded.

“He’s just saying he doesn’t want to go. He might suddenly pretend to be sick.”

“Do you think your brother is like you? How can you say that when your brother is such a model student!”

“Mom only likes my brother!”

“Try doing something to be liked!”

As her mother’s voice sharpened, Kang Eun-young pouted.

‘School, huh…’

It’s a place he has to go, of course. Kang Jin-ho is still a student. Although Kang Jin-ho didn’t particularly feel the need for education, he had no complaints about going to school.

Kang Jin-ho put on his school uniform.

The heavy shoulder line felt like it was pressing down on him.

“You’re late! What are you doing instead of hurrying!”

At his mother’s words, Kang Jin-ho was slightly troubled. It was something he had to talk about, but he was even embarrassed to say it.

However, Kang Jin-ho, determined to resolve it before it escalated into a bigger issue, firmly opened his mouth.

“Um… Mother.”

“It’s Mom!”

“Yes, Mom.”

“What is it?”

“The school…”

Kang Jin-ho said with a stiff face.

“Where is it?”

His mother, who had been staring blankly at Kang Jin-ho, tried to act calm and replied.

“Ah… you don’t know well. Mom will take you.”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. You’ll remember everything soon. Our son, it’s okay.”

It was ambiguous whether she was saying it was okay to Kang Jin-ho or to herself.

His mother started the car and put Kang Jin-ho in it.

“Ugh…”

It was the second time he had been in a car, but it was still stuffy. It might be faster than walking, but for Kang Jin-ho, who used to move faster than a car even on foot, it felt incredibly frustrating.

He realized that he was still not fully adjusted to these things.

However, he couldn’t make his mother walk with him.

In the end, Kang Jin-ho got into the car without saying anything.

After driving for a while, Kang Jin-ho was able to arrive at the school he used to attend.

Dongmyeong High School.

That’s what the name written at the main gate said.

“Can you find your classroom?”

“If I know what grade and class I’m in.”

“You’re in the second grade, class 3.”

“Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho got out of the car and picked up his bag.

There was nothing inside the bag, but it seemed that students had to carry bags. It felt strange, but it was one of the things he had to adapt to.

“Then, I’ll be back.”

“Jin-ho!”

“Yes?”

“Will you be able to find your way home after school?”

“Yes.”

“Or should Mom come pick you up?”

“There’s no need for that.”

“Okay. If you think you can’t, call home.”

“Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho bowed his head and entered the school.

‘Second grade, class 3, second grade, class 3…’

Kang Jin-ho walked inside, repeating it to himself so he wouldn’t forget. He could ask for directions to the classroom or find it by looking around himself.

“Hey, Jin-ho!”

At that moment, he heard a voice calling him from behind.

“Huh?”

It was a face he remembered.

And one of the few people whose name he still remembered.

“Jung In-gyu?”

“You’re discharged? I was going to visit you, but I didn’t know which hospital you were in.”

“I see.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled.

If he had really wanted to come, he could have found out somehow. But in his memory, Jung In-gyu was this kind of person. He always acted like a friend with friendly words, but turned away at crucial moments.

If he had been a true friend, he would have remained a friend even after Kang Jin-ho became disabled.

However, after living with paraplegia for more than three years, he had no friends left around him.

‘That’s what friends are like.’

Even in the Jianghu [a martial arts world], the person he had believed to be a friend had trapped him at the last moment.

He no longer intended to trust shallow relationships that were not connected by blood, but there was no need to show it now.

“I’m discharged.”

“You crazy, why did you come to school today of all days?”

“Huh?”

“If you were hospitalized, you should have just stayed until today.”

“What do you mean?”

“Don’t you know?”

“I asked what you meant.”

“It’s the exam today.”

“Midterm exam.”

Kang Jin-ho’s face twitched slightly.

“Midterm exam?”

“Yeah, don’t you know? Let’s go quickly, we’ll be late.”

“Okay.”

Kang Jin-ho followed Jung In-gyu to the classroom. Anyway, now that he was at school, he couldn’t turn back.

‘The memories remain.’

Learning was not in vain. Although it was old, the knowledge he had learned in the past remained in his memory. Somehow, it would work out.

Such optimism of Kang Jin-ho was shattered in just two hours.

“Don’t roll your eyes!”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyes were darting around.

“Um…”

“Hey, Kang Jin-ho. Aren’t you going to bow your head?”

Kang Jin-ho lowered his head and looked at the exam paper.

‘So…’

Learning was not in vain.

Thanks to that, Kang Jin-ho knew very well that the exam paper he had received was an English exam.

English was the language used by the most countries, including the United States, and he had learned it like crazy for twelve years from elementary school to high school.

‘That’s true, but…’

The problem was… he knew it was English, but he had no idea what the letters written on the exam paper meant.

It had been decades since he had seen English. If people left overseas didn’t visit their home country for decades, they would forget their native language, so how could they remember a foreign language for decades?

Kang Jin-ho came to a conclusion.

‘I don’t know.’

From question 1 to question 25, Kang Jin-ho didn’t know a single answer.

However, there was something he still remembered.

‘If you don’t know, you have to guess.’

A solution that appeared with the advent of the multiple-choice exam system!

It was a much wiser method than submitting a blank paper.

Kang Jin-ho neatly marked the answers and then laid down on the desk.

Strangely, although Kang Jin-ho had forgotten all the important knowledge, he had not forgotten the virtue of rest that a student should have.

‘Let’s sleep.’

There were three subjects for the exam today: English, Science, and Chinese Characters.

After realizing how meaningless a foreign language was in the English exam, Kang Jin-ho realized in the science exam that he could speak another language even in Korean.

It was clearly Korean, but it wasn’t Korean. Since he couldn’t understand the content by looking at the letters, it was clearly another language.

And Kang Jin-ho smiled with satisfaction after taking the Chinese Characters exam.

‘This isn’t even an exam.’

Kang Jin-ho had lived his whole life in the Central Plains using Chinese characters. [The Central Plains refers to the historical heartland of China.]

Although he hadn’t gained much knowledge of the current era, problems at this basic level were not difficult.

There were some characters that were different from the past, but he could guess them to some extent.

Thanks to that, he was able to finish the Chinese Characters exam at a similar level to guessing.

After finishing all the exams, Kang Jin-ho picked up his bag and went outside.

“Hey!”

“Huh?”

“What’s the rush? The exams are all over today, let’s go to the PC cafe. Tae-ho and Min-jae are going too.”

“PC cafe?”

After rummaging through his memories, it seemed to be a place where people played computer games.

“Next time.”

“Are you crazy? Why aren’t you going?”

“Let’s go next time. I have something to do.”

“Huh?”

Jung In-gyu looked at him with strange eyes.

It was their unwritten rule to go to the PC cafe together after the exams. But Kang Jin-ho had broken that rule.

“That’s strange?”

Jung In-gyu tilted his head.

Kang Jin-ho walked out of the classroom and headed outside.

At that moment, someone called him.

“Kang Jin-ho.”

When he turned his head, a person with an unfamiliar face was standing there.

“Follow me.”

“Yes?”

“Come to the faculty office!”

“Yes.”

‘Who is it?’

Judging by his age and the fact that he was told to come to the faculty office, he seemed to be a teacher…

He vaguely remembered. His homeroom teacher. He didn’t remember his name at all, but he remembered that he was his homeroom teacher in the second grade.

Kang Jin-ho followed him to the faculty office and stood in front of the desk where the homeroom teacher was sitting.

“Sit down.”

The homeroom teacher gave him a small chair with wheels.

Kang Jin-ho sat on the chair without saying anything.

“Did you study?”

“…No.”

“Hey, you. Even if you don’t study, how can you get 30 points in English? If you just solved what you knew, you should have gotten over 80. What are you going to do about your grades?”

What was ‘grades’ again?

Was it referring to school scores?

“You shouldn’t have come if you were sick. If you just didn’t come, we could have used your previous scores, but why did you take the exam and make things difficult? What would have happened if the English teacher hadn’t come and told me?”

It seemed that the teacher who was grading the papers had told the homeroom teacher because his scores had dropped so suddenly.

“It’s okay.”

“I’m not okay, you!”

The homeroom teacher grabbed his head as if he had a headache and sighed.

“Hey, for now, let’s pretend you didn’t come to school today. I’ll mark it as sick leave. Okay?”

“But I did come.”

“Who doesn’t know that? Am I talking to a ghost right now?”

“That’s how we can use your previous scores! Do you know that your English score is the lowest in the entire school right now?”

“Um…”

The lowest in the entire school…

It wasn’t like he had any lingering feelings about studying, but he felt subtly bad.

“You should have at least guessed well, how can your scores be worse than the judo team? You’re really stupid…”

Kang Jin-ho’s eyebrows twitched.

The judo team!

His scores were worse than the athletes who had never even tried to study in the first place.

No, their conditions might be better, but they would have guessed too, and he had guessed as well, so the fact that he had lost even in the guessing game stimulated Kang Jin-ho’s pride.

“…You really shouldn’t do this. Are you going to make your homeroom teacher suffer like this?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh? You got 100 points in Chinese Characters?”

“…”

“Hey, why are you doing this? Is it rebellion?”

“No.”

“Then your Chinese Characters score will go down… Ah, I don’t know. Let’s just treat it as sick leave! That’s better.”

“Yes.”

“You seem confused, I understand because it was an accident. If you get scores like this on the next exam, I won’t let you off. Got it?”

“Yes.”

“Go now.”

“Okay.”

Kang Jin-ho bowed his head and went outside.

“Studying…”

Kang Jin-ho frowned slightly as he came outside.

He didn’t particularly feel the need to study. If it had been the past him, he would never have thought this way, but having experienced the Jianghu and the future, he didn’t think that studying had a big impact on life.

Of course, if you studied well, you could live more comfortably, but even that was powerless against unexpected accidents.

However, he felt the need to study a little today.

“Being too bad is also far from a normal life.”

And his homeroom teacher’s hair might fall out more. It seemed that a minimum score was needed for the homeroom teacher’s normal life as well.

It was definitely not because of the situation that would happen when he went home with the report card that he made this decision.

Kang Jin-ho returned to the classroom with a slightly embarrassed expression.