Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1292. Discussing (2)

Lee Hyeon-Su shouted, “Did you finish the documents?”

Mun Tae-Gyeong replied urgently. “Yes, sir!”

“I want us to do a thorough job here, okay! A thorough job! Don’t do a half-assed job, and make sure everything’s perfect! I won’t allow even a single typo!”

“...”

“What about the report for the Assembly Master?”

“Sir! I’ve already finished that some time ago and submitted it to you. It’s right there on your desk, and...”

“And the print-outs? Did you submit the calculations electronically, too?”

“Was I supposed to do both, sir?”

“What? What will you do if this report goes missing?! You think you can handle the fallout?!”

Mun Tae-Gyeong’s face crumpled ever so slightly.

His superior was mercilessly and unfairly picking him apart. That was the only way to describe Lee Hyeon-Su’s criticisms. Even then, Mun Tae-Gyeong couldn’t bring himself to label his superior as a boomer because...

Because Lee Hyeon-Su was dripping cold sweat from every pore on his body like a scared little kid!

“What about that request to procure a large quantity of food? Did you handle that, too?”

“Yes, sir.”

“For how many days? Within this month, we...”

“Sir, even if we don’t keep an eye on it, wouldn’t the contracted company deliver the goods on time?”

Lee Hyeon-Su yelled, “Sure, that’s for the main meals. But we gotta think about the snacks, too, don’t we!”

Mun Tae-Gyeong grumbled unhappily. “But, sir! Don’t we pay those fools wages, too? What kind of organization worries about its members’ snacks?!”

“You know why! These idiots just don’t have the social skills.”

“Uh-whew... Excuse me, Chief Lee?”

“Yeah?” Lee Hyeon-Su looked up slightly from the document in his hand.

Mun Tae-Gyeong sighed deeply. “There’s nothing special about going on a vacation, sir.”

“...”

“The Assembly won’t go belly up just because you’ll be absent for a week, sir. You know what is the biggest delusion a salaryman suffers from? It’s the idea of the company’s operation grinding to a halt because they are not there.”

“...”

“Yes, I get why you’re worried. You handle a ton of stuff, after all. But trust me when I say this, even if you and all the executives go on a vacation for a week, the Assembly will still chug along just fine.”

Lee Hyeon-Su wiped the streams of sweat on his forehead away. “You think so?”

“Please... Get a hold of yourself, sir.”

“Look, I get it, okay. I get it, but...” Lee Hyeon-Su muttered, his thumb hovering near his mouth. Eventually, though, his anxiety got the better of him, and he began chewing on his nails.

Mun Tae-Gyeong grimaced. Yup, that’s bad. Like, seriously bad!

Apparently, lots of workaholics could be found all over the world. However, none of them would have experienced a life quite like Lee Hyeon-Su’s.

After all, he had reached a realm of being “one with his work” where his life almost solely revolved around his work! What a tragic story this was.

To think that such a man was forced to abandon his work and go on a vacation! No wonder he was behaving like a man half out of his mind right now.

“Sir, it’s not like everyone’s going on a vacation at the same time, is it? Aren’t we taking turns? In that case, why are you so worried, sir? Aren’t we much more capable than several months ago?”

Lee Hyeon-Su faltered slightly. “Yes, that’s... true.”

“Of course, things won’t be as smooth as you leading us, but still, we can survive without you for a week. That’s why I beg you, sir. Please get a hold of yourself.”

“Y-yeah, I will. I must.”

Hey, man! Stop biting your nails while saying that! At this rate, you might even start chomping on your fingers, too!

What Lee Hyeon-Su said and his actions didn’t match at all.

What a strange person he was, though. At times, Lee Hyeon-Su exuded the air of the world’s smartest, most cunning man. However, in moments like this, he behaved like a total klutz. Rather than his stats see-sawing depending on the job class, it felt more like his character changed depending on the job class instead.

Mun Tae-Gyeong curiously asked, “What did Chief Lee say, sir?”

Lee Hyeon-Su cocked his head. “I’m Chief Lee, though?”

“...I meant Chief Lee Hyeon-Ju, sir.”

“Oh, her...”

“Sir, won’t you seriously consider changing your name for us? Trying to differentiate the two of you is getting ridiculous now.”

“That’s not my fault, now is it?” Lee Hyeon-Su groaned.

“In any case, sir! We will be fine even without you. Didn’t you send us to that training program and level us up to prepare for a day like this?”

Actually, that wasn’t Lee Hyeon-Su’s original intention. He forced the Assembly’s administrative staff to undergo Jaegyeong’s training program because they were like... like subhumans in his eyes back then! At least now they could pass themselves off as human beings.

“Come on! How can I trust you idiots and go on a vacation?”

“Then, can you think of anyone you have no problem trusting, sir?”

“Uh, well... Eh?”

Lee Hyeon-Su found himself stuck in a mini-dilemma. When he thought about it, Mun Tae-Gyeong was right.

“W-wait. There is one. Maybe.”

Mun Tae-Gyeong tutted. “You mean the Assembly Master, sir?”

“Yeah... Isn’t that so weird?”

“Yes, it is.”

The way Kang Jin-Ho dealt with things sometimes left Lee Hyeon-Su greatly astonished. Of course, Kang Jin-Ho’s method was to simply crush everything in his way until no one dared to complain about it, but wasn’t that effective in its own twisted way?

But what was more surprising was that Kang Jin-Ho never just blindly charged into a problem.

If delicate problems were resolved with brute force like that, they were bound to create even greater undesirable ripples later on. However, problems Kang Jin-Ho “resolved” remained resolved, more or less.

If Lee Hyeon-Su could be described as an extreme example of a perfectionist, Kang Jin-Ho was an extreme example of a man pursuing only absolute efficiency. He crushed his obstacles and problems appropriately while maximizing speed and minimizing undesirable side effects.

From a business point of view, the difference in how Kang Jin-Ho handled “work” and how Lee Hyeon-Su did his job could be chalked down to personal tastes. The unfortunate downside in this situation was that Lee Hyeon-Su held the “upper” hand in handling a scarcely believable amount of work compared to Kang Jin-Ho. Such was his workload that he was even forced to give up his social life!

“Well, the Assembly Master isn’t going on a vacation, after all,” said Mun Tae-Gyeong.

“Nope, he is going. After I’m done with mine.”

“See? Then, what’s the problem?”

“Listen, Tae-Gyeong.”

“Yes, sir?”

Lee Hyeon-Su tutted. “You think a good subordinate should dump his work on the shoulders of the Assembly Master and run off to a vacation?”

“...”

“Let’s be serious here. That’s just so...”

Mun Tae-Gyeong groaned. “But the Assembly Master has ordered you to go, hasn’t he?”

“Even then, I...”

Mun Tae-Gyeong almost gave up just then. But he still bravely soldiered on. “Chief Lee, sir.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s fine to let it go now, sir. Your vacation has already been decided. There’s no turning back now. Besides, if you cancel your vacation now, Chief Lee Hyeon-Ju won’t spare you.”

“...”

“Well, if you think your odds of survival are acceptable, go ahead, sir. But I guarantee you this. If you fail to dodge even one strike from her, you will spend at least one week in the ICU.”

Lee Hyeon-Su shook his head. “I don’t need your guarantee on that. Because everyone knows that already.”

After all, wasn’t Lee Hyeon-Su the worst and weakest martial artist in this organization, as acknowledged by the Assembly itself?

Technically speaking, Lee Hyeon-Su was someone who strode the border separating martial artists and ordinary people. As a martial artist, he was unbelievably weak, but still too absurdly strong to be labeled as an ordinary person.

Meanwhile, Lee Hyeon-Ju was trained to become an elite under Lee Jung-Geol’s focused training regime. Since that was the case, Lee Hyeon-Su wouldn’t last a single punch from her.

“You know how mysterious this is, don’t you?” Mun Tae-Gyeong asked.

Lee Hyeon-Su cocked an eyebrow. “What is?”

“I mean, the weakest man in the Assembly is dating the strongest woman in the Assembly.”

Lee Hyeon-Su smirked while coolly sleeking back some strands of hair. “Strength isn’t everything to a man, Tae-Gyeong.”

“Sure thing, sir.”

“Oi, you. What’s with your tone?”

“What do you mean, sir? I didn’t say anything,” Mun Tae-Gyeong quickly replied while grinning away.

He didn’t want to say this publicly, but he thought Lee Hyeon-Su was right. After all, it was impossible to explain Lee Hyeon-Su’s charms with the usual yardsticks like strength.

Indeed, he was a special existence in the Assembly where strength acted as the most crucial yardstick for nearly everything.

“What a strange thing to experience, though,” said Lee Hyeon-Su while leaning against his chair, his eyes no longer glued to the computer screen.

Mun Tae-Gyeong tilted his head. “Sir? What are you talking about?”

“I mean, to think I’d get to experience a vacation, of all things...”

“...”

Something about the way he said it sounded so... tragic? Anyone else saying that line would’ve turned it into the start of a joke, but Lee Hyeon-Su muttering it had turned into a scene from a documentary, instead.

“I guess... It means the Assembly has changed a lot, sir.”

“Assembly has changed, you say...?”

Lee Hyeon-Su chuckled softly. Rather than the Assembly, the more correct answer would be: the Korean martial society had changed.

He could feel it. He could feel how much the world around him had changed recently.

“Yeah, lots of things have changed,” Lee Hyeon-Su muttered.

“About half of it is your fault, wouldn’t you say? Sir?”

“Sure, you could say that. When I look back now, though, it’s like... How the hell did I pull through all that?”

That was Lee Hyeon-Su’s earnest feeling on the matter. He hadn’t been planning for a far-off future. Dealing with the workload piled up before his eyes already took everything he had, after all. It was nigh-on impossible to prepare for long-term projects. By surviving through all the crises landing on his lap one after another, however, he had arrived at this point in life.

“Hey, Tae-Gyeong?”

“Yes, Chief?”

“How are things now? Are they better?”

“...” Mun Tae-Gyeong couldn’t help but chuckle in dismay. “You are curious about that, sir?”

“Yeah,” Lee Hyeon-Su slowly nodded.

“Well, you are not asking that because you don’t know the answer, right? Sir?”

“What I feel and what you feel might be different, you know?”

“Well, yes. That’s true.”

Instead of answering right away, Mun Tae-Gyeong pondered it for a little while. What should he say so that Lee Hyeon-Su could understand his earnest thoughts?

“It’s... more difficult than I thought, sir.”

Lee Hyeon-Su cocked an eyebrow. “You mean, you can’t think of what’s better now?”

“No, not that, sir. It’s more like there are too many things that are better now, so I don’t know where to even start.”

“...Oh.”

Mun Tae-Gyeong sheepishly scratched his head. “Of course, it’s not like I don’t have anything to complain about. I mean, humans are creatures of complaints, aren’t we? When things improve, some people will complain about that. And some other people will whine because the improvements they wanted to see didn’t happen. Et cetera, et cetera.”

“Sure.”

Lee Hyeon-Su agreed. That was human nature, after all.

“But one thing’s for sure, sir. And that’s... If we hold the general election to vote in a new Assembly Master tomorrow, the percentage of votes our current Master would receive will make even North Korea blush.”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s expression cramped up a little. “Hey, man. Isn’t your analogy a bit...?”

“Sorry, sir. I couldn’t think of another place with as ridiculous a vote percentage as North Korea's.”

“Well, I get your point.”

Lee Hyeon-Su couldn’t help but chuckle helplessly. Although crude, that analogy still hit home.

“What I’m trying to say is that everyone is satisfied with our progress, sir. No, rather than satisfaction, let’s say we’re amazed. Our salaries have gone up a lot, while our welfare benefits have improved exponentially, too. Most importantly, though, this mindset of carrying out orders blindly and unquestioningly is gone now.”

“That last one? That doesn’t sound so good to me?”

“Let me put it this way. We won’t hesitate to risk our lives if there’s a good reason to do so. But if we think it’s wrong? Then it feels like we can disobey the order.”

Lee Hyeon-Su slowly nodded.

If he was being honest, the “old-fashioned” way wasn’t such a bad operational method when trying to order people around. Because that would be less cumbersome and take less effort to accomplish their goals.

However, Lee Hyeon-Su already knew that twisting the direction of the progress just to make things convenient for himself would create many unwanted side effects.

Lee Hyeon-Su suddenly yelled, “Where’s your bloody discipline, man! Back in my day, we at least pretended to lay down our lives if the brass ordered us to!”

“...What are you saying, sir? You sound like a boomer now.”

“Boomer?! I’m trying to give you invaluable advice here, you brat! So you can become an even better person!”

“...Urgh.”

Mun Tae-Gyeong ended up shaking his head.

“In any case, sir...” Mun Tae-Gyeong sucked in a quick breath before finishing his rather lengthy reply. “You don’t have to worry about us. Even a stupid mutt will wag its tail at the human treating it kindly, after all. We all know how much the Assembly Master and you worry about our wellbeing.”

“Nope, you’re wrong. We only want to use you. That’s why we’re giving you all these benefits. Worrying about your wellbeing, my foot...”

“...”

Mun Tae-Gyeong’s lips twitched ever so slightly while he stared at Lee Hyeon-Su’s slightly flushed cheeks.

Who would look at this dude and think, Oh, so that’s the Yeongnam Group’s devil, Lee Hyeon-Su?

Lee Hyeon-Su tried to change the topic. “Regarding the punishment we handed out earlier. How’s the mood within the Assembly?”

“Everyone has accepted it, sir.”

“Oh, really?”

“It’s the rank-and-file that wanted stricter punishments, sir, while the brass wanted to be more lenient. Getting punished appropriately for your crime is common sense, isn’t it?”

Lee Hyeon-Su chuckled wryly. Unfortunately, things weren’t as straightforward as that.

“Some people are saying we should’ve made more noise about the whole situation, but overall, I think the members are more or less satisfied with our decisions.”

“That’s good to hear,” Lee Hyeon-Su sighed softly. “I’m sure the mood will improve even more after everyone has gone off to their vacation and recharges their batteries.”

“I think so, too, sir.”

Lee Hyeon-Su sat straight up in his chair. “Thanks. You can leave now.”

“Understood. Well, then.”

Mun Tae-Gyeong headed to the exit to Lee Hyeon-Su’s office, only to briefly glance back. He could see Lee Hyeon-Su busily typing away on his keyboard. In less than a few seconds, it seemed like he had already forgotten about Mun Tae-Gyeong’s existence, his mind razor-focused on work. He exuded the intensity of a man ready to climb into the monitor if he had to!

What an incredible person he truly was. Although there were quite a few faults with his personality, the more Mun Tae-Gyeong interacted with Lee Hyeon-Su, the more he respected his superior.

A man like that was working so hard for the Martial Assembly.

Yes, things will keep improving.

Mun Tae-Gyeong suddenly grew curious about something. He wondered what the Assembly would be like in a few years.