Descent of the Demon Master-Chapter 1393. Being Hostile (3)

Click!

Kang Jin-Ho lit up his cigarette with a lighter.

The cigarette smoke drifted lazily out the cell’s window. Even though he was told repeatedly that he could smoke as much as he wanted, letting the cigarette smell linger in the cell block was out of the question.

That wouldn’t be considerate to the other inmates, after all.

How many days has it been?

Staying here dulled his sense of passage of time.

Quite a few things happened in the last few days. Kang Jin-Ho’s family and Choi Yeon-Ha had come to visit him, while Lee Hyeon-Su visited him every day. According to his latest report...

“There’s a loophole, sir. Regular people can only visit during specific hours, and inmates can only receive visitors once a day, but lawyers can speak to their client at any time of the day for as long as they want. Which means, if we apply for the so-called attorney visits, you can stay in a visitation room all day long with your lawyers.”

“We’ll have to be meticulous about finding your lawyer, but there’s no law stating that you are limited to having only one lawyer, sir. It should be easy enough to find a lawyer specifically for visitation purposes only. Should we proceed?”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kang Jin-Ho didn’t comprehend what Lee Hyeon-Su was talking about. Besides, why should he waste his day looking at a lawyer’s face? When he had nothing to say? That would be rather awkward, no?

According to Lee Hyeon-Su, wealthy business folks or high-ranking individuals from the political scene serving time usually had these specialized lawyers to hang out with the whole day. Their purpose was supposedly for the inmates to avoid participating in the prison work programs.

He even said that lawyers like that were usually young, attractive females, too. When Kang Jin-Ho heard that, he promptly gave up understanding altogether.

Prison work programs, is it?

It sounded like other inmates were compelled to partake in such things, but not Kang Jin-Ho. He had not been asked to do so yet. To be more specific, he had done basically nothing in this place.

Not even the guards showed up to his cell, unless for specific reasons. Other inmates were subjected to morning wake-up calls and lights-out commands in the evenings, but not Kang Jin-Ho. No guards bothered him with such a thing.

Ordinary inmates might feel claustrophobic and terror at the prospect of staying in solitary confinement, since they wouldn’t be able to interact with other human beings, including prison guards. But Kang Jin-Ho never was the type to stew in his loneliness. All he could feel in this place was boredom and frustration.

Kang Jin-Ho reached out and grabbed the bars blocking the window.

He didn’t even have to exert much pressure. Just a slight twist of his wrist should be enough to snap these bars into pieces.

He chuckled helplessly. These walls and bars weren’t imprisoning him. No, what kept him locked up in here was the world he had created.

Why couldn’t he do this? Why wasn’t he allowed to... just break out of here?

He had the strength to leave whenever he wanted, no? And by doing that, he could cut Kim Myeong-Chan’s head off, too.

What about the things that would happen afterward?

Why should Kang Jin-Ho be worried about the consequences of his actions? After all, no one out there was good enough to stop him even if he went on a rampage. As a matter of fact, wouldn’t the government urgently try to cover up his actions instead?

In that case, why was Kang Jin-Ho willingly staying in here?

Squeeze...

Kang Jin-Ho’s fingers slowly crushed the steel bar and dug into the metal. But he released the bar soon afterward and sighed deeply.

Does this mean I feel cornered?

He thought he’d be fine while staying here.

He honestly believed that being imprisoned wouldn’t be too difficult to handle, although his anger from being driven into a corner like this would still linger on in his heart. But willingly staying in a place where he could walk out at any given moment was beginning to get on his nerves, like grains of sand trapped in his shoe.

Well, at least now I’ve learned my lesson. No more criminal acts, then.

Once was enough. He’d dearly refuse another chance at staying in a prison!

Kang Jin-Ho sighed deeply again. Imprisonment unsurprisingly had this power to stress out a person. He could handle most of the stress, but then...

Geez. I’m beginning to miss cola, of all things.

Kang Jin-Ho realized that cola was still the symbol of the modern era to him. Even though his favored drink in recent times had been coffee, all he could think about while being imprisoned was cola.

He did request the guards for the fizzy drink, but they said it’d only arrive tomorrow. Which meant he’d have to sit on his butt and suck on his fingers until...

“...Mm?”

Wuuuuooong...

Just as Kang Jin-Ho’s thoughts reached that far, the space before him suddenly glowed brightly. Even the one-and-only Kang Jin-Ho flinched a little and stared in alarm at this bright light.

...Wait a minute. Isn’t this that thing?

Wuooong...

Soon, the light receded to reveal a figure of a familiar person.

“...” Kang Jin-Ho stared wide-eyed at Wiggins now standing in the middle of the cell. “Huh... Eh?”

Wiggins nonchalantly said, “Good day, my lord. I brought you your meal.”

“Eh?”

Wiggins presented the tray of food to Kang Jin-Ho. “Or would you prefer to have it on the outside?”

“...N-no, hang on.”

Even Kang Jin-Ho got flustered by this sudden development.

“Hold on? Is it okay for you to just barge in here like this?”

“Who’s going to stop us? As long as no one notices anything, it’ll be fine, sir. Let us just enjoy this meal.”

“What if someone sees you, then?”

Wiggins put the tray down, then began waving his hands toward the cell door. “There, done. I’ve cast an illusion spell on the doorway. Anyone coming around to check up on you won’t see anything amiss.”

“...Hah.”

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled helplessly. Wow! Maybe I should’ve learned magic, too. Who knew martial arts and cultivation were all useless in situations like this?

The absurdity of this development left Kang Jin-Ho rather bemused.

“I never even dreamed of doing this. Even though it should have been obvious when I thought about it.”

Wiggins chuckled. “Being closed minded and having a fixed mindset tend to limit a person’s creativity, my lord. How about we chat while enjoying this meal?”

Kang Jin-Ho raised his hand. “Oh, hold on. Before that...”

Wiggins tilted his head. “Mm? Is there something else you want?”

“Yeah. Can you go to the nearest convenience store and get me a can of Coke? Thanks.”

“...”

“Hurry.”

“...”

***

Pshoooi~!

Kang Jin-Ho popped the lid off the can and took a large gulp of the refreshing fizzy drink.

“Keuh~!”

When Kang Jin-Ho put the can down while scowling a little, Wiggins stared at him weirdly.

“Is it that good, my lord?”

“Mm, how should I explain this...? It’s like the taste of freedom to me.”

“...You seem to have become a bit more outgoing during your incarceration here.”

“Maybe it’s because I haven’t talked to anyone in a while,” Kang Jin-Ho replied with a casual chuckle.

This must be his first time feeling so happy about seeing Wiggins’ mug. As a matter of fact, he was happier now than when Wiggins showed up to rescue him during the battle against the Crimson King.

Of course, Kang Jin-Ho was unconscious back then, but still!

Kang Jin-Ho cocked an eyebrow. “By the way, why the sudden visit?”

Wiggins glanced at the tray of food. “As I’ve said before, I’m bringing you your meal, my lord. We heard that you hardly touched the prison food.”

“...And where exactly did you hear that from?”

“Please do not underestimate the information network of our... No, your organization, my lord. Bribing one or two prison guards is easy as a child’s play.”

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled helplessly again. Everyone seemed to be lying and deceiving and bribing each other... What a mess this was.

I think I prefer the Demon Cult’s way of doing things back in the Zhongyuan days.

Back then, people swore loyalty to those stronger than them, but anyone weaker got thoroughly trampled on.

Kang Jin-Ho used to scoff at such a straightforward and even primitive philosophy, but now? After being punted around by the modern era’s deviousness for far too long, he began missing those primitive savages instead.

I wonder. If Azure Demon were still around, would he have let this situation reach this stage?

The answer was most likely a no.

Kang Jin-Ho wasn’t trying to belittle Lee Hyeon-Su or Wiggins here. It was just that Azure Demon was a different breed of schemer, so to speak, from those two. That man had this subconscious desire to bring everything he knew under his control, after all.

Although, in the end, that desire got too big for its own good and pushed him into confronting Kang Jin-Ho, resulting in his demise.

If Azure Demon was still around, he would’ve infiltrated the political sphere a long time ago and turned most of the high-ranking politicians as his puppets even before an event like this could unfold.

For instance, like how things were with the imperial court back then!

Which isn’t always a great idea, obviously.

Despite knowing that, Kang Jin-Ho would still choose Wiggins over Azure Demon. For one thing, he couldn’t order Azure Demon to fetch him a can of cola like this.

“Besides, we needed to experiment if this was feasible, as well,” said Wiggins.

Kang Jin-Ho frowned slightly. “Experiment? What for?”

“Well, we were thinking of taking you outside when Elder Chang Min and Sir Vator return to Korea. They might start rampaging around when they learn about this situation, you see? Please beat them up before anything happens.”

“Beat them up? Not stop them?”

“Would they even listen to anyone trying to talk them down? I have a hunch they won’t. One of the proverbs I heard during my stay in Korea is that sometimes, a good beating is the only medicine that works.”

“...Really? Sounds like you’ve learned something good, then.”

Indeed, something very, very good!

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at the tray. He wasn’t sure how Wiggins had found out, but he could only see his favorite dishes. There was even a cup of Iced Americano, too. After seeing all this, he was almost compelled to applaud Wiggins for a job well done.

“Then, shall we dig in, my lord?”

Kang Jin-Ho raised his hand again. “Before we start...”

“Yes?”

“I want to know what’s happening on the outside.”

Wiggins sighed deeply. “Perhaps it’ll be better to hear my report after the meal.”

“No, I want to hear it first.”

Wiggins stared at Kang Jin-Ho gravely. “It’s... not looking good, unfortunately.”

“...”

“The media has started covering your case, my lord. Without a doubt, Kim Myeong-Chan must’ve ordered his underlings to leak this story. Right now, you’re being branded as a spy from North Korea. Worse still, they have even revealed that you’re the chairman of MK.” 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“I see. Then, what about MK?”

“They haven’t started investigating MK yet. In my opinion, they probably don’t want to do that. Doing so might uncover tax-related irregularities, after all. And that will endanger our enemy, too. Even so, this is clearly...”

“They want me to accept their proposal and rot in prison if I want the company to survive?”

“...If you allow me to be direct, then yes. That just about sums it up.”

Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly reclined against the nearby wall.

Wiggins sneaked a look at Kang Jin-Ho’s face. However, it was expressionless. Guessing Kang Jin-Ho’s current thoughts proved frustratingly difficult.

However, one thing was for certain. Kang Jin-Ho couldn’t be feeling happy about the current situation.

“...Wiggins.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Let’s look at this situation objectively.”

“...”

“What are the odds of clearing my name through legal channels?”

Wiggins clamped his mouth shut. He didn’t quite expect this question to come out so soon. As such, he wasn’t sure how to answer...

No, that wasn’t true. He already knew the answer.

“It’ll be very difficult, my lord.”

“...”

Wiggins sighed deeply. “Our enemies have bet their everything this time. They obviously understand what will happen if they fail, which makes them quite desperate. Even if we uncover irrefutable proof of your innocence, the court will not accept it, never mind acknowledge its existence.”

Kang Jin-Ho narrowed his eyes. “Are you suggesting the judiciary is already in the pockets of our enemy?”

“Unfortunately, no judiciary is completely independent of the administration. That’s just an ideal, not reality. Changes in the administration usually also lead to changes in judgments made by judges, since they are also human beings at the end of the day.”

“Then...” Kang Jin-Ho coldly asked, “It means our future actions have already been decided, doesn’t it?”

“My lord...” Wiggins carefully spoke, his expression stiff. “One needs a certain level of determination if they wish to break the balance. If you are determined to cast aside everything you’ve been protecting until now, we will not hesitate to assist you, even at the cost of our lives. That is why... I beg you to be more patient. We will find a way out of this.”

“Be patient? For who?”

“For you, my lord.”

“...”

Wiggins stared straight into Kang Jin-Ho’s eyes. “I won’t beg you to do this for the Assembly’s sake. If I’m being honest, I don’t see the Assembly as valuable enough for you to sacrifice yourself like this.”

“Mm...!”

“What matters to me is your life, my lord. Breaking the balance isn’t difficult. But the cost of breaking it will be solely yours to bear. And I do not wish to see you buckle under that burden.”

“Looks like you’re mistaken about something, Wiggins.”

“My lord?”

“I value the Assembly a lot more than you think I do.”

“...Really?”

“As much as you don’t want me sacrificing myself for the Assembly, I don’t want to sacrifice the Assembly for my sake.”

“I... see.”

“Wiggins.”

“Yes, my lord!”

Kang Jin-Ho’s gaze grew colder, more withdrawn, as he stared at Wiggins. “I’m not a patient man.”

“Yes, I’m aware.”

“If you have a plan... Hurry. Before I run out of patience.”

Kang Jin-Ho spoke like a growling predator.

Wiggins nodded contemplatively. He could now see that Kang Jin-Ho was far more enraged than he thought. And once this rage reached the boiling point...

The world would face an unprecedented catastrophe. Wiggins’ role was to ensure that things would never reach that stage.

Kang Jin-Ho suddenly yelled, “Also!”

“Yes, my lord! I await your command!”

“Go and get me another can of cola!”

“...”

“Hurry.”

“...But of course.”

Wiggins briefly wondered if he shouldn’t have come here in the first place!