Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1273. Punishing (3)

“This matter is...”

Just as Kang Jin-Ho opened his mouth, Bang Jin-Hun suddenly raised his hand and stopped him.

“Mm? What is it?”

“Apologies for the interruption, sir, but may I say something first?”

“Sure. Go ahead.”

When Kang Jin-Ho gave his permission, Bang Jin-Hun sighed under his breath before revealing what was on his mind.

“Sir, you don’t need to try and make us feel better.”

“That’s right, my lord.”

“Mm! He’s correct, master.”

Wiggins and Vator nodded in agreement.

Kang Jin-Ho was flabbergasted by their reactions. “I haven’t said anything yet, though?”

“Sir, we could tell that you were about to make a speech about something obvious. Such as this matter isn’t our fault, the responsibility of managing the members falls on the Assembly Master’s shoulders, so it’s actually my fault, etc, etc... So we should keep doing our best.”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho clamped his mouth shut like a clam. Because he really was thinking of saying all that.

Bang Jin-Hun chuckled after noticing Kang Jin-Ho’s expression. “I’ll be honest, sir. You can be pretty predictable, you know?”

“Yes, he’s right, my lord.”

“I totally agree, master.”

“Even I think so, too, sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho had to fake-cough when Lee Hyeon-Su also chimed in.

“You don’t have to look at us like that, though. Sir, we already know that this situation has shocked you the most out of everyone here.”

Kang Jin-Ho blinked his eyes. “...Mm?”

“Don’t tell me that you never expected for these kinds of things to happen after this many people have come together. This much is actually pretty tame, I’d say. It means we’ve done a good job at managing these idiots so far.”

“...”

Bang Jin-Hun stared at Kang Jin-Ho while chuckling softly.

‘I’m telling you, our Assembly Master can be so naïve about some strange things.’

Humans were fundamentally not nice creatures. More specifically... Statistically speaking, not everyone in a group of humans could be nice or considerate.

Even those considered ‘ordinary’ would end up committing some kind of crime during their lives. However, martial artists were much more prone to violence and rougher around the edges compared to ordinary people. Worse still, they had to suppress so much about themselves, too.

Bang Jin-Hun spoke again. “Problems will inevitably rear their ugly heads wherever people congregate, sir. Incidents like these are part and parcel of any organization.”

“He’s right,” said Vator with a firm nod, his arms crossed in front of his chest.

Even Wiggins chimed in. “Even the Round Table has a separate department responsible for monitoring its members and handing out punishment to those who break rules.”

Kang Jin-Ho sighed quietly, prompting Wiggins to grin softly.

“My lord, do you believe all these problems stem from the fact that we don’t have a set of established rules and regulations? And that the members have not been educated enough?”

“Yeah, a little bit.”

Kang Jin-Ho had no problem admitting to it.

“You are not wrong, my lord. However, please do remember that humans are not machines. We are incapable of sticking to the established rules all the time. We only need to look at you to know this is true.”

Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded while thinking that he was actually worse than that.

As a Korean, Kang Jin-Ho had a duty to uphold the country’s laws. But he had been ignoring all the important laws for his convenience until now.

“This is not a matter of lack of education, my lord. And no, it’s not the fault of poor management from our side, either. This is what humans are like. That is all. If we are indeed capable of sticking to common sense and doing as we were taught, why would humans need laws and threats of punishment to regulate ourselves?”

Kang Jin-Ho sighed deeply. He couldn’t think of a way to argue back.

Bang Jin-Hun chuckled again after noticing Kang Jin-Ho’s reaction. “I’m telling you, our Assembly Master can be so naïve at times.”

“Naive, my foot.” Vator glared sharply while grumbling loudly. “It’s more like my master has no clue about the nature of an organization. No wonder, since he’s dumped all responsibilities on someone else’s shoulders and did as he pleased while everyone else was busy managing and educating their subordinates!”

“...”

Rather unlike his usual self, Vator had somehow accurately pointed out the core of the problem.

“My lord,” Wiggins addressed Kang Jin-Ho, his eyes a little colder than usual. “Although I fear that what I’m about to say might be construed as discourteous, please allow me to be frank with you. You have this tendency to evaluate the Assembly far too favorably like a parent.”

Kang Jin-Ho furrowed his brow. “Like a parent?”

“Yes. The Assembly members are not helpless children.”

“...”

“They are adults. And they must take responsibility for their own actions. In fact, you shouldn’t even be involved in educating them and guiding them down the right path. Imagine if the Assembly was a normal, boring company. Which company is stupid enough to hold itself responsible after one of its employees breaks the law?”

“Mm...!”

Now that Kang Jin-Ho heard Wiggins’ argument, he had to concede that the Englishman had a point.

“Not blaming Director Bang might sound nice on the surface, but it’s actually a meaningless gesture in reality, my lord. After all, Director Bang isn’t duty-bound to keep the members in line and prevent them from committing crimes.”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho sneakily turned his head to stare at Bang Jin-Hun. However, Bang Jin-Hun stared right back while making a face of a wrongly accused man.

Naturally, the first person to yield and look away was Kang Jin-Ho.

“It’s fine to teach new cultivation methods and pass down different techniques. And it’s also fine to establish various rules for the Assembly members to adhere to. However...”

Kang Jin-Ho interrupted Wiggins mid-speech. “Okay, I got it.”

Wiggins stared straight at Kang Jin-Ho. “My lord, I think I understand why you’re like this. To you, all of us must look like little children in need of guidance. Unfortunately, such an attitude can end up crushing down on the members instead.”

Kang Jin-Ho deeply groaned.

‘This is why I can’t skip out on meetings.’

Kang Jin-Ho had lived for a long time. As a result, no one held as much insight as him on certain topics. It was just that the scope of those topics happened to be so narrow!

Of course, those topics were martial arts. His knowledge pool was so deep and vast that he had no need to ask for other people’s opinions. However, he lacked so much when it came to dealing with people and leading an organization.

“Also, what Director Bang said earlier is true, my lord,” said Wiggins. “It’s encouraging to see so few problems in an organization this large. Rather than punishing him, you should be rewarding him instead.”

Bang Jin-Hun sat tall in his spot, his nose soaring high into the sky seemingly endlessly.

“Kuh-euh~! As expected of you, Director Wiggins! Assembly Master, I swear to you, I’m doing an excellent job managing all these idiots. It’s just that I don’t often talk about this with anyone.”

“Okay. I hear you.”

“...You don’t have to be so dismissive, though.”

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled helplessly when Bang Jin-Hun pouted away. Still, that exchange helped with alleviating some of the heavy atmosphere in the office.

‘Responsibilities, is it?’

A somewhat wry expression formed on Kang Jin-Ho’s face just then.

Of course he understood what Wiggins was trying to say. He also agreed that Wiggins was right.

For some reason, Kang Jin-Ho felt this inexplicable pressure that compelled him to not just oversee the Assembly members’ activities but even guide them throughout their lives, too.

...Just like how it was with his circle of acquaintances, and also with the demon cult, in other words.

However, these people were not his family. They should take care of their own lives. By viewing them as children, or simpletons who needed constant guidance, Kang Jin-Ho could be curtailing their potential instead.

“No, I get what you’re trying to say.”

Kang Jin-Ho stared at the executives, his gaze unwavering.

“But that’s the story of when we know the fitting price for the crimes committed.”

“Of course, my lord.”

Wiggins readily agreed with Kang Jin-Ho.

“It’s not as if they had unwittingly committed these crimes. No, they knew what they were doing. Which means they cannot avoid punishment!” Vator grunted loudly, his eyes ablaze in determination.

Kang Jin-Ho nodded in agreement, then glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su. “It seems you’ll have to hurry, Chief Lee.”

“Leave it to me, sir.”

“Oh, and one more thing.”

“Yes, sir?”

Kang Jin-Ho firmly put his foot down. “I will not forgive anyone involved in the drug trafficking case.”

“Understood, sir!” Lee Hyeon-Su replied, his eyes flickering dangerously.

He, too, had to get his hands dirty with drugs once upon a time. The deceased former head of the Yeongnam Group, Kim Seok-Il, sought out various avenues to make money, so Lee Hyeon-Su had no choice but to deal with the murky criminal underworld back then.

That was why he knew the danger posed by these drugs. TV shows and movies constantly featured drugs as a part of their storylines, which in turn, had numbed most ordinary people into underestimating the severity of the drug problem.

Kang Jin-Ho and other executives being so sensitive toward the drug problem wasn’t solely because of the dangers posed, however.

Lee Hyeon-Su cautiously asked, “By the way, sir?”

“Mm?”

“There is... something else I must discuss with you, sir.”

Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head. “What is it?”

Lee Hyeon-Su sighed deeply. “Quite a few people are involved in this drug trafficking case, sir.”

“I see. Arrest them all, then.”

Kang Jin-Ho’s reply was simple enough. Unfortunately, the problem at hand couldn’t be resolved that simply.

“Sir, these people are ordinary people, not martial artists.”

“...”

Kang Jin-Ho furrowed his brow.

When he thought a little more about it, this revelation made some sense. Even if the martial artists could be a resourceful bunch, they couldn’t have done this by themselves. Some people must’ve acted as middlemen.

“We can’t hand them over to the police?”

“That’s the problem, sir. We must hand over our evidence if we want those individuals prosecuted, but that means the cops will learn about our people’s involvement as well. Then they’ll have no choice but to try to arrest all the martial artists involved.”

“Mm...!”

Kang Jin-Ho’s scowl deepened. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

“But that doesn’t mean we can leave them alone, sir. They have already found out how good this slice of the pie tastes, after all. If they had been good people, they wouldn’t have gotten involved in this drug business in the first place. When we capture and punish our people, a void will be created, and these criminals are fully capable of stepping in and taking over the operation.”

What a headache-worthy problem this was.

Two principles governing the Assembly were now in opposition to each other in this situation. And those principles were: ‘the Assembly’s internal problem must be resolved by the Assembly’, and ‘the Assembly does not harm ordinary people’.

The Assembly couldn’t hand over the details of Goh Min-Seong and his collaborators to the police for obvious reasons. However, without the evidence, the police wouldn’t have the justification to arrest the ordinary people involved in this case.

In order to punish those people, Goh Min-Seong must be handed over to the police. And the cops would jump at the chance to make an example out of Goh Min-Seong and Co.

Kang Jin-Ho was not prepared to break either of those principles.

Kang Jin-Ho frowned and asked, “Hmm... Can we make it so that it looks like the other side did everything? And our people had no involvement in it whatsoever?”

“That will be tremendously difficult, sir. Manufacturing convincing evidence alone will be easier said than done, and...”

Kang Jin-Ho groaned deeply. Those people had already made a lot of money by staining their hands with drugs. If left alone, they would inevitably drift back into dealing in drugs before getting caught. South Korea was not an easy place to do business like that, after all.

However, there would inevitably be victims in the meantime. That was not something Kang Jin-Ho or the executives were prepared to overlook.

Weighty silence filled the office once more.

Wiggins was the first to break this silence. “Actually, this problem isn’t that tricky to resolve.”

Everyone’s attention shifted to Wiggins.

“We already know of a way to solve this issue, now don’t we?”

“Mm?” Kang Jin-Ho tilted his head. They knew already? How?

“My lord.”

“Mm?”

“How far does the scope of the Assembly’s influence extend to?”

“Not sure?”

“It’s relatively simple, my lord. The Assembly’s territory extends to all the martial artists affiliated with the organization.”

Kang Jin-Ho nodded. That was a simple and clear criterion.

“Then, let me ask you this, my lord. There are people who aren’t martial artists but still carry out the Assembly’s orders. Are they also members of the Assembly, then?”

“No, they are not.”

“Indeed, my lord. Then, doesn’t that make the situation simpler now? Out of all the people the Assembly can mobilize, we can use the non-martial artists to deal with the criminals. Last time I heard, countless gangs in this country are connected with the Assembly in some way, so why not use them?”

Lee Hyeon-Su nodded in understanding.

Those gangs used to be in charge of managing the Assembly’s business interests before the organization went through the legalization process. The Martial Assembly had been pretty much the undisputed ruler of South Korea’s shadowy underbelly for the longest time.

“Talk to a suitable group about this, and they’ll take care of the situation for us. That will be all. Wasn’t there a useful proverb in Asia about how you should use one poison to counteract another poison?”

“But, Wiggins... That oddly sounds like we’re burying our heads in the sand, no? And letting someone else deal with our problem?”

Wiggins winked playfully. “But that’s how things are handled in the dark underbelly of our society, my lord. Let us use this opportunity to assist gangs with negative attitudes toward drugs. Giving them more resources should help us with cracking down on the drug problem than police.”

Lee Hyeon-Su stared at Wiggins in a clear flabbergast.

Wiggins cocked an eyebrow. “What is it?”

“It’s nothing, master. I just thought that you could’ve been one heck of a... retainer to a king if you were born in medieval times. A snake-like treacherous retainer, that is.”

“You think so? Unfortunately, that is what I have picked up over the years while serving the Round Table. Things such as deceiving my enemies, scheming against them, and plotting their downfall.”

Wiggins guffawed shamelessly.

“It’d be wonderful if I get more opportunities to put to practice what I’ve learned, though!”

Lee Hyeon-Su told himself not to get on Wiggins’ bad side just then.