Chapter 720. Choosing (5)

"My lieeeeeeege!"

Kang Jin-Ho fiercely massaged the bridge of his nose.

'So, this is stress, huh.'

After his return, Kang Jin-Ho hadn't really experienced stress-inducing events. That didn't mean he led a trouble-free life until now, of course. It was just that most of the problems he encountered up to now were the types that could be resolved through his will.

However, the current situation could not be solved even if Kang Jin-Ho willed it. And that situation was... a loyal subordinate over 180 years old profusely crying his eyes out while kowtowing deeply on the floor!

"...Chang Min?"

"Yes, my liege!"

"Can't you stop planting your forehead on the ground before saying something to me?"

"I beg your pardon? But my liege! This is the time-honored custom of the demon cult. Raising one's head before the cult leader is seen as a sign of challenge!"

"...Really?"

Was that why not a single idiot back then dared to raise their head in Kang Jin-Ho's presence? Kang Jin-Ho used to think those bastards didn't know the basic etiquette whenever they avoided looking into his eyes while having a chat, but now...

'Now that I think about it... I was also a helpless idiot, wasn't I?'

If something puzzled him, all he had to do was ask. But no, he just accepted things as-is and went with the flow. Maybe because of his mindset of ancient Zhongyuan's ways being indecipherable to a modern-era person like him, Kang Jin-Ho didn't bother changing things and gave up from the get-go.

If the current 'Kang Jin-Ho' got another chance to travel back in time... He'd try things differently from his past self.

"Fine, fine! I get it, so raise your head when talking to me. You know what? Why don't you sit there first?"

"B-b-but! My liege! This is the demon cult's time-honored tradition and history...!"

Kang Jin-Ho loudly tutted. "I am the demon cult's tradition and history."

Chang Min was left speechless, forcing him to raise his head.

Indeed, Kang Jin-Ho was right. If someone else made that declaration, it would be seen as that person going on an over-inflated ego trip. However, when Kang Jin-Ho said it, it was merely a factual statement. After all, not only was he literally a part of the demon cult's history, Kang Jin-Ho was the leader during the cult's most prosperous days.

Arguing about tradition and whatnot with Kang Jin-Ho was no better than a futile waste of time.

"T-then, please excuse my rudeness, my liege," Chang Min cautiously got up. Unsurprisingly, he also found constantly rubbing his face on the ground rather uncomfortable.

Kang Jin-Ho tutted again. "Get rid of any unnecessary formalities from now on. We are not living in the past anymore."

"H-however, my liege! Formality breeds respect, sire. Humans need formalities to establish relationships with others. If we get rid of all formalities, people who cross lines they shouldn't have crossed will appear."

"Then, let's keep it at the level of an average corporation, okay?"

"Oh. Uh... Mm, this is all I know, so..."

"Huh?" Kang Jin-Ho cocked an eyebrow, indicating that he needed more explanation.

Chang Min smiled awkwardly. "My liege, I... have never gotten a job before, so I don't know what you mean."

"..." Kang Jin-Ho grew stupefied, his jaw slightly falling, as he stared at Chang Min.

'Wait. Now that I think about it...'

Chang Min was born in the demon cult and lived his entire life 'working' for it. In other words, he was a 180-year-old hardcore unemployed bum!

'...In some sense, I should respect his achievements, then.'

Kang Jin-Ho suddenly thought that Chang Min's over-the-top politeness wasn't due to his age. If everything Chang Min had witnessed and experienced took place within the demon cult, he'd obviously see nothing wrong or odd about this kind of behavior!

'Do I need to get him an internship somewhere?'

Kang Jin-Ho ended up chuckling at his own thoughts. He couldn't help it after imagining a dandy-type older gent with white hair neatly trimmed in the undercut style commuting to work in the morning as an intern while carrying a briefcase. Didn't Chang Min oddly fit that image to a T?

Kang Jin-Ho briefly shook his head to get rid of that mental image and glanced at Chang Min. "What is the problem this time?"

"My liege..." Chang Min hesitated for a second before continuing with what he wanted to say. "I would not dare question your commands, my liege. And I am absolutely certain that every command you issue is the will of the demon cult itself."

"...Let's cut to the chase, shall we?"

"My liege, I've been watching over the cult for a very long time. I wished for the cult to prosper and continue on for eternity, but my abilities were too lacking to make my dreams come true. But now, you have finally returned to us to lead the cult once more, and this faithful servant will have no regrets even if I die tomorrow. It's just that..." Chang Min's voice suddenly grew sorrowful. "The youngsters of the cult still do not understand your majesty and authority, my liege. They simply cannot comprehend who or what you are. They merely think a new boss has appeared to order them around."

"I see. And?"

"Telling such people to abandon their homes and follow you to another country is... My liege, many faithful believers are still willing to obey your commands. However, we have just as many foolish people who can't comprehend your nobleness due to their own ignorance and short-sightedness. Regardless of who they are... They are still the demon cult's children. People who have accepted the ‘demonic’ into their lives. If the master of ten thousand demons, the demon emperor, could be a little more merciful..."

"Chang Min...!" Kang Jin-Ho muttered in a withdrawn voice.

Chang Min shuddered grandly before throwing himself to the ground in another round of kowtowing. He planted his forehead on the floor and passionately cried out, "Please forgive this insolent servant, my liege! This lowly servant forgot his place and dared to question you!"

Kang Jin-Ho wordlessly massaged the bridge of his nose again.

'Did you install magnets on the floor or something?'

Why did Chang Min always resort to kissing the floor whenever something happened? What would happen if Kang Jin-Ho took Chang Min to South Korea only for the latter to kowtow in the middle of a busy street?

Kang Jin-Ho would instantly become a national 'celebrity' as Gangnam Station's Inhumane Punk. And the odds of Kang Jin-Ho and Chang Min being labeled as lunatics were uncomfortably high! No matter what, Kang Jin-Ho must fix this habit of Chang Min's!

"First of all, stand up, Chang Min."

"Yes, my liege." Chang Min didn't argue back and stood up right away. It seemed what Kang Jin-Ho said earlier was effective.

Kang Jin-Ho unhappily grunted. "It'd be nice if you could discard the notion that I speak only when I get angry."

"I, I would never dare think that way, my liege."

Despite saying that, Chang Min continued to be on guard, cautiously trying to read Kang Jin-Ho's mood. The old man's expression clearly implied,

'Hey, you bastard! I know how sh*tty your personality is, okay?'

Kang Jin-Ho shook his head, then offhandedly asked another question. "Why do you always assume I'm angry?"

"Well, that is..."

"Mm?" Kang Jin-Ho's brows quivered in suspicion. He didn't expect any solid answer to that question, yet Chang Min's reaction was too suspicious to ignore. There must be something going on here. "Chang Min. Tell me the truth."

"...I am forbidden from lying to my liege, so I shall speak truthfully. In preparation for your eventual advent, a secret memoir containing an 'evaluation' of you has been passed down in the cult."

"Secret... memoir?" Kang Jin-Ho's cheeks twitched ominously. What 'secret memoir' was Chang Min talking about? Kang Jin-Ho had never heard about anything like this. "There's really something like that?"

"To be more precise, it's not exactly a secret memoir but a diary written by the person serving as the cult's chief administrator, and it contains his personal musings."

"The chief administrator's... personal diary?" Kang Jin-Ho's eyes quaked powerfully. The demon cult's chief administrator during Kang Jin-Ho's time was, obviously, Azure Demon. So, Azure Demon's diary containing his thoughts regarding Kang Jin-Ho? How could his curiosity not get piqued by that revelation? "I see. Where is it?"

"Unfortunately, the original diary is long lost now. However, I did create a copy before that happened."

"And where is the copy?"

Chang Min became extra mindful of Kang Jin-Ho's reaction.

Kang Jin-Ho narrowed his eyes. "You still have it, don't you?"

"Y-yes, I do. My liege..."

"Give it to me, then."

Chang Min looked worried about something while hesitating and studying Kang Jin-Ho's moods. Eventually, though, he sighed deeply and reached inside his jacket pocket. Even though he said it was a copy, what Chang Min took out was an old, worn-out memo pad.

"Hmm...?" Kang Jin-Ho slowly opened the front page and began reading its contents.

Even if the fickle weather changes thousands of times, and the brook of water transforms endlessly, they surely cannot compare to the demon emperor's colorfully varying moods.

Only three days after ordering me to pass down the Ghost Asura Saber technique to the Demon Flames, the demon emperor said using sabers is uncool and ordered everyone to discard sabers in favor of swords.

While watching the cultivators breaking their sabers, my heart also broke. It would've been better if the demon emperor's noble spine was broken instead, though!

"...!"

Kang Jin-Ho's brows quivered.

Azure Demon actually wrote this?

My liege can be seriously audacious and manly sometimes. But the way he obsesses over food is beyond my capability to understand.

If he wishes to eat something warm, couldn't he boil it with his Yang energy? If he wanted something cold, I'm sure he could've used Yin Frost energy to freeze whatever his food was. Why did he order me to freeze a perfectly fine bowl of water into ice, then grind it to powder before dressing it with boiled adzuki beans? I just don't get it.

Even the lowly slaves and tramps don't eat this way. Then again, I should be more understanding since my liege originally hails from a dirt-poor family.

"What the hell?!" Kang Jin-Ho's eyes quivered ominously in barely suppressed anger.

While in the light, Azure Demon was busy wagging his tail and swore to sacrifice even his soul to loyally serve Kang Jin-Ho, but in the shadows, he was busy badmouthing his boss! Kang Jin-Ho suddenly regretted not killing Azure Demon more painfully back then!

When a person has a short temper, others would often resort to the description of 'fiery'. However, spend three days next to the demon emperor, and I swear, no one will ever use that word so casually anymore. Because they will learn what true 'fieriness' actually is!

For instance, my liege beheaded a special envoy dispatched by one of the orthodox factions simply because he apparently couldn't understand a word coming out of the envoy's mouth!

Sure, why not? Audaciousness and cruelty are virtues to the leader of the demon cult, after all! However, what am I supposed to think when my liege couldn't even recognize the former emperor's posthumous title and killed the envoy because of it?!

Is he just dumb? Or far too short-tempered and violent? No, wait. I guess it's both? Dumb and short-tempered?

Fearing that unsavory rumors might spread, I had to behead the rest of the envoys, too. With this, I'm sure we won't avoid another war against the orthodox factions. Still, it's better to wage war with the excuse of the demon emperor's personality being sh*tty instead of people thinking of him as a dumbass.

I wonder sometimes if he knows how to read. I'd often catch him 'reading' the reports upside down, so... Maybe not?

"...Huh. Huhuh... Huh...!"

Demonic qi began to leak out ominously from Kang Jin-Ho's figure. More personal musings were written past that section, but reading any further seemed unnecessary at this point.

After his return to the modern era, Kang Jin-Ho grew remorseful toward how he had treated Azure Demon. While he was lording over the demon cult as the one and only Heavenly Crimson Demon Emperor, Azure Demon took on all the thankless jobs behind the scenes. Kang Jin-Ho always grew solemn whenever he thought about all the hardships Azure Demon must've faced while cleaning up Kang Jin-Ho's mess.

'Fine. Fine! I mean, Azure Demon was a human being like me, so...!'

Kang Jin-Ho should be more understanding since everyone was like this, no?! After all, who wouldn't have badmouthed their workplace superiors at least once before? As long as they weren't found out, it was all good, wasn't it?!

"But this punk actually left behind a bloody diary?!"

Wasn't this like Azure Demon wanting to vent his frustration and unhappiness to the future generations? The more Kang Jin-Ho thought about it, the more furious he got.

Chang Min worriedly called out, "M-my liege?"

"Fuu-wooooph! Kang Jin-Ho sucked in several deep breaths, then glared sharply at Chang Min. He didn't mean to glare like this, but his facial muscles were doing that all on their own! Kang Jin-Ho couldn't maintain his usual composure as this matter involved Azure Demon. "How many people have seen this?"

"W-well, that is..." Chang Min hesitated a little again before sighing in resignation. "Only a few have laid their eyes on the original, but... Most of the legends about the demon emperor were based on this secret memoir, my liege. Even if some details had been added or omitted..."

The ends of Kang Jin-Ho's lips quivered and twitched ominously as he listened. "So, the demon emperor everyone is thinking of is... An utter as*hole who is a dumbass and also short-tempered? An unpredictable nutcase? Is that it?"

"W-well, not to that extent..."

Kang Jin-Ho abruptly raised his hand to cut Chang Min's words off. He didn't need to hear the rest to know. "...So, what did you originally want to tell me?"

"My liege. The current generation of cult believers is foolish and uneducated. If you wish to bring them under your wings, demonstrating your majesty and authority is, regretfully, unavoidable."

"Okay, so..." Kang Jin-Ho growled, his expression distorted in irritation. "You want me to put on a circus act in front of everyone? And that's the only way to convince them to follow me to Korea?"

Chang Min hurriedly shook his head. "N-no, I would never hold such a sacrilegious thought, my liege! It's just that..."

"Let's go!"

"I beg your pardon?"

Kang Jin-Ho shot up to his feet. "I’m in a bad mood right now, so this is actually good for me. I will demonstrate properly, then. And they will soon learn what kind of a man I am."

Watching Kang Jin-Ho's determined walk set off alarm bells in Chang Min's head.