Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 97

Hwang Jeong-hoo hung up the phone and clicked his tongue. “Tsk.”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Director Baek Young-gi offered Hwang Jeong-hoo a glass of cold water.

“Did I tell them to take him out of the military? I just wanted him to live comfortably.”

“That’s interference.”

“Interference? You should call it consideration!”

“Too much consideration becomes interference.”

Hwang Jeong-hoo silently drank the cold water, as if acknowledging the truth of those words.

“Still, if I’m going to go to such lengths for him, shouldn’t he at least say ‘Thank you for your concern’ before refusing?”

Baek Young-gi smiled faintly. Hwang Jeong-hoo’s tantrum was both unfamiliar and amusing.

It was quite a sight to see this old man, who was now complaining that Kang Jin-ho hadn’t accepted his consideration, display such charisma during board meetings.

“If you knew how much I’m burning up inside, you wouldn’t act like this.”

“It seems like you’re experiencing the feelings of raising a child, Chairman.”

“A child?”

“You’re worried, anxious that something might happen. You’re eagerly waiting for his leave. That’s how parents feel when they send their children to the military.”

“Hmm…” Chairman Hwang Jeong-hoo turned his head with an awkward expression. Baek Young-gi smiled at the sight.

Since rising from his sickbed, Hwang Jeong-hoo had changed slightly. His passion and charisma when dealing with work remained the same, but he seemed to have become a bit softer in his daily life.

Chairman Hwang Jeong-hoo had always taken care of his subordinates, but the way he did it had changed. He used to hide his true feelings, but now he was slowly revealing them.

‘Is it because he went through something big?’ Baek Young-gi couldn’t be sure.

If it weren’t for Kang Jin-ho, he would have thought that the near-death experience had simply made him a bit more lenient. But watching from the sidelines, it was clear that Kang Jin-ho had a significant influence.

“Tsk, tsk, the military is such an inconvenient place. It’s a waste of talent to have someone rot there for two years.”

“Everyone goes there.”

“Who doesn’t know that? Do you think I haven’t been there? I still wake up in a cold sweat just thinking about that Sergeant Choi!” Hwang Jeong-hoo clenched his fist and trembled, then suddenly lifted his head.

“Should I look into it?”

“Look into what?”

“Sergeant Choi, that bastard might still be alive.”

“Please, calm down, Chairman.” Baek Young-gi was horrified and tried to stop Hwang Jeong-hoo, secretly wishing that Sergeant Choi was dead. Given Chairman Hwang Jeong-hoo’s age, there was still a fifty-fifty chance that he was alive, but it would be better for him to have lived out his days and gone to the afterlife than to incur Hwang Jeong-hoo’s wrath now.

“Even someone like me has nothing but bad memories of the military. How can someone like Jin-ho endure it?” Baek Young-gi smiled faintly and replied, “Jin-ho will do even better.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t think of Kang Jin-ho as too difficult. Actually, he hasn’t caused any trouble, has he?”

“Well, that’s true.”

“You overestimate him, but at the same time, you underestimate him. Whatever happens, it’s something that every able-bodied man in Korea goes through. He’ll be able to handle it on his own.”

“…It’s not that I’m worried he can’t handle it.”

“Yes?”

“I’m worried he’ll handle it too well. Most people try to resolve injustices, but Jin-ho tries to solve them by tearing out the root cause.”

“…”

“As you know, the military is full of corruption. In fact, no president has ever dared to attempt reform. Not long ago, a general leaked classified information to North Korea.”

“That’s right.”

“Military procurement fraud is still happening in real-time. It’s just not exposed. It’s no exaggeration to say that it’s the most corrupt place in Korea. The problem is whether Jin-ho can tolerate such things when he witnesses them.”

“Hmm…” Baek Young-gi nodded.

The Kang Jin-ho he knew wasn’t a passionate youth with a strong sense of justice, but he wasn’t someone who would turn a blind eye to problems in front of him.

“I’ll go and ask him to be careful about that.”

“Didn’t he tell you not to show your face?”

“That was to you, Chairman. I’ll be fine.”

“Tsk.” Chairman Hwang Jeong-hoo puffed on his cigarette.

“That ungrateful bastard, after all I’ve done for him.” Baek Young-gi had to struggle to hold back his laughter at Hwang Jeong-hoo’s sulking.

‘It’s a relief that you’re awake.’ Thinking of the hellish moments when Hwang Jeong-hoo was lying in his sickbed, he was so relieved that Hwang Jeong-hoo had woken up.

There was a lot of talk about the recession, but with Hwang Jeong-hoo around, he wasn’t worried at all. This giant would surely find a way out of any situation.

“By the way, the electronics division’s profits have dropped quite a bit since I left it to you?” Baek Young-gi lowered his head with a sour look.

‘This isn’t a relief at all.’ Listening to Hwang Jeong-hoo’s endless nagging, Baek Young-gi seriously considered retirement.

‘What, what is that crazy guy?’ Ha Jin-nam couldn’t see Kang Jin-ho, who was turning away after hanging up the phone, as a human being.

“Were you here?”

“Oh, uh, yeah.” Ha Jin-nam staggered to his feet.

‘He just yelled at Chairman Hwang Jeong-hoo.’ Just listening to the call, it sounded like he was practically threatening him.

‘Is there anyone in Korea who can do that to Chairman Hwang Jeong-hoo?’ Even if the president, the most powerful person in Korea, were to talk to Hwang Jeong-hoo, he doubted he would use that tone of voice.

‘Maybe it wasn’t Chairman Hwang Jeong-hoo?’ Ha Jin-nam decided to think that way. The reality was too absurd. It was better for his mental health to think that he had been talking to someone else.

“Charlie Company Commander! The battalion commander wants you in his office!”

“Okay, I got it.” Ha Jin-nam dragged Kang Jin-ho to the battalion commander’s office.

“You wait here. Sit over there. Don’t cause any trouble. Hey, give him a cup of coffee.”

“Yes, sir.” Ha Jin-nam made Kang Jin-ho sit quietly, took a deep breath, and went into the battalion commander’s office.

After a long time, the Charlie Company Commander came out with a very tired face.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, sir.” The car left the guard post with Kang Jin-ho in the back seat.

Back at the unit, the Charlie Company Commander was racking his brain, thinking about what the division commander and battalion commander had told him.

‘What does it mean to watch him closely but not make it obvious?’ He was sad that he had to interpret the order to watch him as if he wasn’t watching him, but looking at the situation, he couldn’t help but agree with why they had to give such an order, so he couldn’t say a word and had to return to the unit.

In fact, even if he didn’t agree, what could he say in the military where rank was everything?

Anyway, after that, Ha Jin-nam couldn’t stop paying attention to Kang Jin-ho. The matter was so serious that he couldn’t just leave it to the other officers and ignore it.

As a company commander with a lot of work to do, every day was like hell.

After a week of monitoring Kang Jin-ho, the company commander realized one thing.

‘That guy is crazy.’ Ha Jin-nam shuddered as he watched Kang Jin-ho’s back as he organized his locker.

Who was he?

A Korea Military Academy cadet. No matter how much the military emphasized order and how severe the internal corruption was, how could it compare to the strictness of the Military Academy? [A highly selective four-year university that trains future officers of the South Korean Army].

The training period at the Military Academy, where everything had to be done by the book, was nothing short of a period of shaping humans. It was a hellish time that instilled perfect wake-up times, perfect behavior, and perfect organizational habits.

The reason why new second lieutenants caused the most trouble when they were assigned to their units was because they tried to apply the FM [Field Manual] they had learned at the Military Academy to reality.

Ha Jin-nam, a captain who had now forgotten the memories of the Military Academy, was now reliving his past hellish life at the Military Academy.

‘That bastard is even making his uniform look sharp on the hanger.’ There should be gravity in the world, but how could the clothes on the hanger be so disciplined?

Seeing the creases starting to form on the bottom of the blanket, he felt like his trauma was coming back.

“K-Kang Jin-ho! Kang Jin-ho, stop it!”

“Jin-ho, I told you not to make it so sharp!”

“Stop it, you bastard!” As Kang Jin-ho began to make everything sharp, the senior soldiers around him rushed over to stop him.

“I’m just organizing things for a moment.”

“I told you not to organize it!”

“I don’t understand. I learned that tidiness is a soldier’s basic duty.”

“I know it’s basic, so just don’t do it! I’ll go to the brig!”

“Where did such a guy come from?”

“Oh, Jin-ho. I’m suffocating. If you don’t want to see me carried out on a stretcher, please stop.” An unprecedented situation was unfolding where the junior was encouraging tidiness and the senior was stopping the junior.

Ha Jin-nam watched the scene secretly and shuddered.

‘That crazy bastard!’ He had been in the military for almost ten years, including his time at the Military Academy, but he had never seen such a character before.

“Just become a non-commissioned officer! Why did you go to the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps [ROTC] instead of the Military Academy and come to torment us!”

‘Even the Military Academy wouldn’t accept a guy like that!’ Ha Jin-nam shook his head.

Fortunately, Kang Jin-ho hadn’t caused any major incidents in the past month.

It wasn’t that Kang Jin-ho was adapting to the unit, but rather that the unit was adapting to Kang Jin-ho, an unprecedented situation… but nothing major had happened.

Of course, there were some minor issues.

“It’s starting!” All the soldiers in the 5th living quarters gathered in front of the TV.

“Aaaah! Goddess!”

“The queen of the military! The queen of the military!”

“I don’t know how I would have survived my military service without Se-ah!” What was playing on TV was a music program.

A female singer in a sexy outfit was singing and dancing.

“Woohoo!”

“Oh, I’m dying, I’m dying.” The door to the living quarters opened, and Kang Jin-ho entered with a mop. Although it was the weekend, Kang Jin-ho, who was bothered by the dusty floor, had come to wash the mop.

“I’ll clean for a moment.”

“…That germaphobe bastard!” When the senior soldiers didn’t move, Kang Jin-ho frowned.

“Wait, you bastard! I’ll move after Se-ah’s performance is over.” Faced with the senior soldiers’ firm attitude, Kang Jin-ho raised his head and looked at the TV screen.