Chapter 1227. Rapid Changes (2)

Chapter 1227. Rapid Changes (2)

“Oh, my liege! This servant will now depart to carry out your order! I shall risk everything of mine to ensure the perfect completion of this mission, so I beg of you not to worry about this lacking servant! I shall teach those unenlightened and dull-witted fools how joyous it is to obey the demon emperor! And I shall definitely turn them into your faithful servants! That is why! I pray that you’ll stay safe! While I’m not here, if your noble personage is inflicted with even the tiniest little wound, I...!”

The smoke from the cigarette grew thicker.

Kang Jin-Ho squeezed his eyes shut while sucking on the cigarette. Blood was about to ooze out of his ears after listening to Chang Min incessantly nagging on and on!

It wasn’t as if he was going somewhere special, no? It was merely Japan, a country he could travel to and from in less than two hours if that was what Chang Min wanted. So why all this incessant nagging?!

“Elder Chang, how about we get going now?”

It had gotten so bad that even Wiggins ended up urging Chang Min on.

“You keep quiet! Can’t you see that I’m sharing special feelings of farewell with my liege?!”

“It seems to be a very one-sided rendition of

Auld Lang Syne

to me.”

In Kang Jin-Ho’s eyes, Chang Min saying utter nonsense and the blue-eyed foreigner Wiggins actually understanding that nonsense were both equally crazy.[1]

Lee Hyeon-Su butted in. “Elder Chang, as we’ve discussed earlier, this is a very sensitive issue. I beg of you, if something happens, please call the Assembly first. Discuss with us what to do and then take action. Please.”

Chang Min narrowed his eyes.

“This is why you paper-pushers are no good! At all! You expect me to take my time and confirm stuff with you lot?! Even when there’s no time? Since time immemorial, the demon cult believers have adhered to the principle of acting first and reporting about it later!”

“I see. Then, what does acting first entail?”

“Isn’t it obvious? We crack all the skulls we see. And then we report on the number of headless corpses afterward!”

Lee Hyeon-Su smiled brightly while stabbing his hand inside his pocket. After finding a bottle of antacids, he popped several pills without water in his mouth before loudly chewing them.

Wasn’t that incredibly bitter? It was fine, since his innards were so much

bitter-er

, anyway!

‘Are we really doing the right thing here?’

No matter how much Lee Hyeon-Su pondered, Chang Min was the perfect candidate for this job. But now that it was time for Chang Min to depart for Japan, it felt increasingly like leaving a careless child by the water’s edge... No, unleashing a pack of dogs with rabies in the middle of a busy street!

Who cared about the dogs in that situation? You’d be more worried about the poor people running into the dogs!

Lee Hyeon-Su only held negative emotions toward Japan, but even he couldn’t help but pity the Japanese martial society right now.

“Are the preparations finished?” Kang Jin-Ho asked.

Lee Hyeon-Su nodded. “Elder Chang Min will head to Japan first, then other Elders will join him later, sir.”

“

Mm

? Every Elder?”

“No, sir,” Lee Hyeon-Su replied with a firm head shake. “Teaching demonic cultivation to the cult believers is important enough to rival our desire to take over Japan. Every Elder going to Japan will cause problems with the teaching process. So, for now, we’ll ask about half of the Elders to travel to Japan. In case they require additional personnel, well...”

Lee Hyeon-Su glanced outside the window.

𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

“We might need the Demon Flames to come in and help us out, sir. If you permit it, of course.”

Kang Jin-Ho coolly nodded. “Use them as you see fit.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Lee Hyeon-Su sighed in relief. The Demon Flames’ assistance should make this job so much easier. However, he couldn’t just pick the Demon Flames at random and put them to work whenever he felt like it. Those people existed as Kang Jin-Ho’s personal troops, after all.

Getting Kang Jin-Ho’s permission first was rather obvious. But now that he had given his go-ahead, the load on Lee Hyeon-Su’s shoulders had gotten lighter by just a little bit now.

That was because the demon cult Elders were... They were nominally members of the Martial Assembly, yes, but at the same time, that wasn’t their true identity.

They had never been all that keen on mingling with other Assembly members. Since that was the case, maybe the Demon Flames mastering demonic cultivation had a better chance of getting along with Chang Min & Co.

Wiggins asked Chang Min again. “Are you ready to go now?”

“N-no, not yet! I still have plenty of things to say!”

Then, when will you finish?!

Wiggins’ expression distorted in misery. Even the old single mother sending her only child to Seoul to study wouldn’t be this talkative and nagging! Besides, Chang Min was the one leaving, not staying, anyway!

At this rate, he might even tell Kang Jin-Ho to eat his meals three times a day and never forget to chew his food properly, too!

“My liege, please do not worry about the cult believers. I shall ensure that the Elders will...”

Kang Jin-Ho sighed deeply. “Chang Min?”

“Yes, my liege!”

“Please, just leave...”

Chang Min grew indescribably sorrowful as he stared at Kang Jin-Ho. “Please forgive this disloyal servant for failing to serve you until the...”

“Just leave already!”

Chang Min pouted deeply. It was not fun to witness an old monster well over a hundred years-old pouting like a little kid. However, no one here was brave enough to point that out. If they did, Chang Min might start another torrent of nagging right away! Obviously, that was the last thing everyone here wanted.

Kang Jin-Ho groaned and glanced to the side. “Wiggins?”

“My lord?”

“Drag him away.”

“Understood, my lord!”

Wiggins grabbed Chang Min’s arm and began dragging the latter away. Chang Min made a face of a miserable cow being dragged into an abattoir. He must’ve really, genuinely hated the idea of going to Japan.

“It’s only been a few months since I came to South Korea, my liege! How could you send your loyal servant to another country so soon? My liege! My liiiiiege! I don’t like it over there! Their food sucks, and I hate their drinks! My liege! This is elder abuse!”

“Elder abuse, my foot.” Kang Jin-Ho scoffed. Surely, there couldn’t be an ‘elder’ more sprightly than Chang Min in this world.

Besides, Chang Min was still a spring chicken when compared to Kang Jin-Ho, anyway!

“

Kekekeke!

Serves you right,” Vator cackled insidiously.

Kang Jin-Ho stared at Vator weirdly. “You want to join him?”

“Well, now! It’s time to train! Train, I say!”

Vator suddenly pretended to not hear anything while walking away.

Kang Jin-Ho chuckled at that sight as Lee Hyeon-Su resumed his report.

“Sir, getting back on topic... The plan is to deploy the combat force first, then dispatch administrators in the near future to take over the management of the operations.”

Kang Jin-Ho rubbed his chin. “Will that work?”

“Well, it shouldn’t be tricky to pull off, sir. The Japanese certainly had done an excellent job

corporatizing

their operations. The Japanese government will most likely try to hinder us in some way, but they should know that it’ll be better to collect tax from us than trying to stop us, only for us to drain the country’s hard-earned resources via the backdoor.”

“

Hmm

...”

Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded.

That was when Vator briefly paused his getaway and glanced behind him. “But master, you don’t even understand what Lee Hyeon-Su is saying.”

“You, stop right there.”

Vator resumed his quick getaway.

Kang Jin-Ho’s face reddened slightly. Even though the big man used to be more serious in the past, why was he acting this way lately?

He groaned, then glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su. “Got it. Be careful.”

“Of course, sir. And we’ll do so swiftly as well.”

Lee Hyeon-Su slowly licked his lips.

‘Japan, we’re gonna suck you dry.’

As he thought, doing things illegally was much more fun than being all above-board and the like. While handling things legally felt like a chore and often mentally exhausted him, doing things the

other

way felt like he was playing a game. He could stay up throughout the night and not feel tired at all.

Considering that part of his personality, it seemed Lee Hyeon-Su was ill-suited for a life outside the shadows. It was the right call to yield the management of MK to Lee Hyeon-Ju.

“Things shouldn’t be too difficult since our government will assist us to the best of its abilities. No, let me rephrase that, sir. Things will remain challenging, but not impossible. That’s why you have nothing to worry about.”

“I wasn’t worried, though.”

Since Lee Hyeon-Su said it was doable, it must be. At the very least, he had not disappointed Kang Jin-Ho until now.

“Then, we’ll be on our way, my lord!”

“My liegeeee!”

Wiggins grinned wryly while swirling his hand in the air. When he did, bright light enveloped him and Chang Min, and then... The two men vanished from view.

Kang Jin-Ho slowly shook his head.

“It’s not like everyone’s suddenly become a child, so why...”

Why were they complaining and whining so much more these days?

Of course, this was not an unwelcome development. An organization where no one could communicate openly was bound to rot from within, after all. Even if people were exchanging nothing more than trivial banters, that was still better than not saying anything.

Kang Jin-Ho glanced at Lee Hyeon-Su again. “What about the mop-up operation within Korea?”

“Things are still quite noisy, sir. However, they shouldn’t be able to force the issue anymore.”

Lee Hyeon-Su replied while grinning bitterly.

The aftermath of the fierce battle within the Assembly’s grounds was easy enough to handle. First of all, the land surrounding the Assembly was privately held and unauthorized people were not allowed to enter. The only question was disposing of all the bodies without being seen. And what happened in Busan, the ‘negotiation’ with the final wave of the Japanese invasion, wasn’t even a battle, to begin with.

No, the real headache was with Gunsan.

Issuing an evacuation order in the middle of the night was not something that could be swept under the carpet. Handling it without raising a fuss was practically impossible. The best the Korean government could do was announce that some type of hazardous material had leaked to the Yellow Sea.

The method chosen to quell the public outrage was to have the person in charge apologize publicly and firing a few poor people ‘related’ to this case.

Even then, all sorts of conspiracy theories still inundated the Korean social media sites. The theory attracting the most attention right now was a covert North Korean military operation.

The testimonies of the evacuees hearing loud explosions and seeing walls of flames spewing up by the harbor had given enough credence to that particular theory.

‘Should we consider ourselves lucky? Or unlucky?’

From the perspective of the Assembly, this development was obviously great. But the government must be having a torrid time right about now. At least the official opposition couldn’t exactly use this situation to attack the ruling party, which kept things relatively manageable overall.

‘We gotta do something about the social media side, though...’

The world now had too many eyes and ears.

Less than a decade ago, restricting news agencies would’ve been enough to ensure things didn’t balloon out of control, no matter how sloppy the martial artists had been in hiding their trails. But the era had changed too much to rely on that method now.

These days, there were bound to be a pair of eyes or two somewhere, even with the Assembly’s best efforts to conceal the truth. In the past, the voices of one or two people wouldn’t have much power, but now? One or two people could easily rock the status quo.

‘I gotta think of countermeasures.’

Lee Hyeon-Su sighed deeply, then resumed his report.

“In any case, I don’t foresee any other notable issues popping up from this war, sir. Considering the scale of what happened, we should thank our lucky stars.”

“

Hmm

...” Kang Jin-Ho slowly nodded before addressing Lee Hyeon-Su. “Any messages from the Prime Minister’s office that I should know about?”

“Yes, there was one. However, I wasn’t sure what they were trying to say. The message said that they were grateful for your consideration, and that they will definitely repay this debt some day... They also said you’d understand.”

Kang Jin-Ho silently nodded.

“Sir? Do you mind if I ask you about what kind of trade that was?”

Kang Jin-Ho nonchalantly replied, “It’s nothing major. Do you remember the phone call from the Prime Minister?”

“...! You mean the one we received in the car?”

Prime Minister Kim Myeong-Chan called Lee Hyeon-Su’s phone to speak to Kang Jin-Ho. Back then, Kang Jin-Ho said it was nothing to worry about and brushed it aside.

“Yeah, that one. The Prime Minister asked me to let the surviving Japanese go.”

“...”

Lee Hyeon-Su finally realized why Kang Jin-Ho curtly said his side would be the one deciding on that matter back then.

‘For sure...’

The Korean government didn’t have the right to force the Assembly on this matter. Maybe it could ‘gently’ request for cooperation, but that would be it. After all, it was the Assembly’s people that fought with their lives on the line. As such, the right to decide the Japanese’s fate rested with the Assembly.

However, with how things had worked out, it was basically the same as accepting the government’s request.

Lee Hyeon-Su curiously asked, “Then, sir? Did you accept the Japanese’s surrender because of this?”

“No,” Kang Jin-Ho firmly shook his head. “I had always planned to do that. Turning Japan into an ownerless mountain would’ve made it harder to rule over it, after all.”

“Yes, that’s correct. We still need people to manage all the business interests in Japan. Their martial society must survive so that we can benefit from their hard work. Then, why did you speak that way on the phone, sir?”

“If we say yes to all of their requests, they’ll start taking us for granted,” Kang Jin-Ho smirked. “I wanted the Prime Minister to sweat a bit.”

“...”

Lee Hyeon-Su reflexively chuckled loudly. As he thought, Kang Jin-Ho’s personality was just as bad as his!

“Deliver my message to the Prime Minister,” said Kang Jin-Ho.

“Sir?”

“Tell him to honor his promise. Since we went out of our way to humor him and all.”

“...We did?”

“Yes, and that’s the story we’ll go with. Nothing to lose by doing that, right?”

Kang Jin-Ho smirked, then turned around to leave the room. Lee Hyeon-Su helplessly shook his head and whispered to himself.

“Yup, his personality is really bad.”

Of course, that also applied to Lee Hyeon-Su, but still!

1. The Scottish folk song, Auld Lang Syne, is known as “Seokbyeol-ui Jeong” in Korean which translates to the feelings of farewell. ☜