Descent of the Demon Master

“Now that’s some training, alright,” Lee Hyeon-Su muttered to no one in particular.

The top floor of the Martial Assembly's HQ was taken up by Kang Jin-Ho's office. Of course, one office couldn't take up the entire spacious floor by itself, so other offices also shared the space.

Since Lee Hyeon-Su’s job required him to discuss and consult with Kang Jin-Ho all the time, his office was understandably right next to the Assembly Master’s. A sensible location, considering he had to “assist” Kang Jin-Ho on lots of his whims, anyway!

From this high up, the training grounds carved out on mountain tops were clearly visible. Which meant Lee Hyeon-Su was afforded a great view of the Demon Flames getting their living crap kicked out of them.

“Those punks… They have been a bit too full of themselves lately.”

No one in their right mind would want to become a lazy slob. Indeed, who would want to be remembered as a lazy bum? When presented with a choice between living a fulfilling, hard-working life or a lazy sloth-like life, anyone with common sense would pick the former option. Especially if the person had a goal they wanted to achieve!

However, the problem was that most people would not consciously realize that they were progressively getting lazier and lazier as time went on.

Ideals? Goals? All nice-sounding things, indeed.

Unfortunately, how many people with ideals and goals would keep whipping themselves into shape?

Of course, such a thing was eminently doable. People possessing above-average passion and tenacity would sometimes surprise others with the amount of effort they put in, after all. Even then…

Once people reached a certain level of success after passionately pushing themselves forward or failed to attain their goal no matter how hard they tried… Although not always, those people would come crashing down, and their fall would be as hard as the amount of effort they had put in.

This fate was unavoidable as long as one was a living, breathing human being.

Someone with tenacity and passion didn't necessarily have more fuel than ordinary people. Some people might never get to burn all their fuel and accumulate them over the years. And some others would burn through all their fuel in the blink of an eye. Either way, no one's fuel reserve was infinite.

‘Aaaand that’s why you need someone like our Assembly Master.’

What Lee Hyeon-Su was thinking of here was a person to top up the other's fuel reserve. Kang Jin-Ho was exactly that person.

Simply looking at him made others itch to move and do something. A man who made others want to become someone like him, someone who inspired others to follow in his footsteps!

Also…

‘Well, our Assembly Master is the kind of a guy who’ll personally kick your ass if you slack off too much.’

This was Kang Jin-Ho's greatest selling point as a martial arts instructor.

Usually, someone who had risen to a position similar to Kang Jin-Ho’s didn’t particularly enjoy stepping forward and chewing out subordinates.

The act of stepping up and personally teaching and leading a group of people was a lot more exhausting than most people might think. Especially when the result of such teachings was deemed far too insufficient from the instructor’s point of view; who would want to waste their mental and physical energy in that case?

However, Kang Jin-Ho did not hesitate once in this regard. If he thought it was necessary, Kang Jin-Ho didn’t give two hoots about his lofty position as the Assembly Master and eagerly mucked about in the mud with these lowly underlings.

In a way, it was as if Kang Jin-Ho’s actions didn’t befit his station. In some other way, one could say Kang Jin-Ho didn’t care about saving face and did what needed to be done.

The way Lee Hyeon-Su saw it… This was definitely the latter case.

‘Besides, those punks are pretty impressive in their own right.’

Lee Hyeon-Su got a distinct impression that he was looking at a wasp attacking a beehive.

Even though those bees knew they would never win, they still swarmed all over the wasp without fear of death. They pounced only to be flung back even faster but still refused to stay down. They got back up immediately and pounced again.

Would Lee Hyeon-Su be able to do the same?

After asking himself that, Lee Hyeon-Su slowly shook his head. When he objectively thought about it… He knew he couldn’t.

Of course, Lee Hyeon-Su's drive and dedication to his work would easily rival the Demon Flames. However, working behind a desk and throwing one's body around were two very different things. If Lee Hyeon-Su found himself in that situation, he'd probably have quit already.

But those Demon Flames did not give up. Not a single one threw in the towel. They kept pouncing and charging at Kang Jin-Ho!

‘Geez, what a bunch of driven bastards…’

Then again, that group was a collection of tenacious bastards, to begin with, anyway!

Only the most tenacious and crazy among the Martial Assembly's younger generation had been hand-picked to become the Demon Flames. Since that was the case, that reaction shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Those idiots might have slackened off a little lately, but they would undoubtedly pull their socks up again with just the right amount of chastising.

“Excuse me. You’re in no position to criticize others for slacking off, Chief Lee.”

“…”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s expression cramped up as he glanced to his side. He could see the dissatisfied face of Lee Hyeon-Ju staring right back. She was holding an armful of documents.

“Especially when we still have mountains of work to do.”

Lee Hyeon-Su nearly blurted out, Don’t you know I also have mountains of stress accumulated until now? Don’t you think people should be given a moment to take a breather, at least?!

His lips twitched ever so slightly, but Lee Hyeon-Su was thankfully a smart man capable of differentiating between what should be said out loud and what should be kept to himself. Carelessly opening his piehole now would only put him in a doghouse later!

“And is it too much of an ask to process the payments electronically? We're not living in the 80s anymore, you know? It's very inefficient and time consuming to work with stacks of paper documents like this, Chief Lee.”

“...We do electronic payments and stuff, okay? All these documents are things that couldn’t be processed that way.”

“That is why you should’ve done this way ahead of time.”

Lee Hyeon-Su sorrowfully stared at the stacks of documents in his office. There was so much here, yet the amount of electronically handled transactions was easily twice the volume of what he could see here.

“You know, I suddenly realized something,” said Lee Hyeon-Su.

“Yes?”

“...Won’t I die of overwork at this rate?”

“I’ve never heard of a martial artist dying of too much office work until now,” Lee Hyeon-Ju tutted, clearly unimpressed.

“Is that right?” Lee Hyeon-Su cocked an eyebrow. If true, he should be relieved, no?

“That's not the problem here, Chief Lee. No, the real problem is that handling all this work is keeping you away from what you really need to do.” Lee Hyeon-Ju frowned, her voice firm and harsh. “Let's be honest here, shall we? This is a complete waste of valuable workforce. Namely you.”

“…”

Lee Hyeon-Ju pulled out a document from a nearby stack and casually perused through it. “Look. This is a planning submission for an addition to one of the training grounds. And you're supposed to inspect where and how this addition would be constructed, then approve the construction fees. Not to mention, figure out how to get the licensing approved, too. The fact that you have to do all that is absurd, don't you think?

“Heol…? You also have to look at the reports on cafeteria and catering service menus, too? Wow. I had no idea you graduated from a culinary school, Chief Lee.”

Lee Hyeon-Su was rendered speechless by this unwarranted verbal assault.

“Your work is never-ending because you keep trying to handle all these minor matters. You should be delegating work like this to the people below you and only receive simplified reports afterward.”

“But everything will go to the crapper if I do that.”

“Why would it go to a… crapper like you say?”

“You know why. Everyone working for me used to focus on martial arts but dropped out due to insufficient talent. Which means they don't know much about administrative work. Only people like us would even dare use such useless idiots as office workers, you know? Most companies would never accept their resumes!”

“Then, hire people already! Recruit new workers!”

“Hah? Hiring outsiders means we gotta work doubly harder to keep their mouths shut. You already know this.”

Lee Hyeon-Ju helplessly shook her head, then scanned the reports. A lengthy groan leaked out of her mouth as she did so. Her frustration got the better of her, and she ended up voicing her dissatisfaction, but…

But she was also experiencing the same issues as Lee Hyeon-Su.

Of course, it'd be unfair to say the Assembly's administrative team consisted of idiots. It was largely made up of some of the smartest members of the organization, after all. Even then, their administrative skill level fell well short of ordinary office workers who went to universities and colleges to earn various degrees and qualifications. Heck, in some cases, they were even worse than high school graduates!

“Chief Lee… This situation requires a special countermeasure.”

“A… special countermeasure, you say?”

“Yes,” Lee Hyeon-Ju firmly nodded and stared sharply at Lee Hyeon-Su. “I realized something crucial during the directors’ absence. And that is the simple and unavoidable fact that the Martial Assembly relies on too few people.”

“…”

“Only six people temporarily vacated their posts, yet the whole organization nearly ground to a halt. That indicates a serious structural problem."

Lee Hyeon-Su had no choice but to nod in agreement.

‘Yeah, she’s right. That is abnormal, alright.’

The operations of any “regular” organization or corporation wouldn't grind to a halt just because its top-level management went on an overseas trip en masse. The matters requiring their approval would have been set aside for the time being while the rest would be business as usual. At least, that was how things were supposed to be.

However, the Martial Assembly didn’t operate that way.

The executives, with Kang Jin-Ho at the top, vacating their posts would paralyze the Assembly's operations almost instantly. Of course, members training on their own or simpler administrative work was still done without too much fuss. But the rest had to be put on hold until the directors were back in their posts.

When Lee Hyeon-Su thought about it… Wasn’t this problem far worse than he thought?

“And soon, the Martial Assembly will become a legitimate company. Which means we cannot operate like a bunch of amateurs, Chief Lee! Once we try to meet the accounting standards and all the legal requirements… You will probably have to bring a sleeping bag in here.”

“...What a horrifying prospect that is.”

“That is precisely why we need to change our system.”

“Change it, eh…” Lee Hyeon-Su slowly nodded away.

Although he wasn’t sure of how, at least they had the reason to do so now. To ensure the Assembly’s continued growth, the mountain of work piling on top of Lee Hyeon-Su simply had to be delegated to others.

The initial belief was that Lee Hyeon-Ju joining the team should decrease Lee Hyeon-Su's workload. But the Assembly's scale grew in the meantime, and it also began participating in… overseas activities, leading to an exponential increase in workload instead.

If she hadn't joined the team, it wouldn't have been strange to see Lee Hyeon-Su vomiting blood and passing out from overwork by now!

Lee Hyeon-Su shook his head ruefully. “But this is not that easy to resolve, you know?”

“No, it actually is. Knowing the problem is half the solution, after all.”

“The problem?”

“Yes, the problem. This situation is simply the product of you not trusting your subordinates enough, isn’t it?”

“...Eh? Is that how it is?”

Since time immemorial, a monk could never shave his head bald. Lee Hyeon-Su was capable of perfectly diagnosing the issues plaguing the Martial Assembly, but even he found it difficult to objectively analyze the problems he was a part of.

“Isn’t it true? After all, you don’t trust the reports submitted by your subordinates, so you must scrutinize and inspect every little detail.”

“You know, I’d much prefer it if you stop painting me as someone with OCD,” Lee Hyeon-Su groaned while waving his hand dismissively. “Let's be real, okay? Those reports look like a bunch of little kids have written them. Formatting is all over the place, too. The Assembly won't last a month before crumbling down if I give the all-clear to such reports. That's why I thoroughly inspect them, okay? I’m more scared of those guys messing up than the Crimson King's people.”

“Well, I agree with you on that one,” said Lee Hyeon-Ju. “But the problem is real. And we need to fix it. If your roof is leaking rain, you should be fixing the roof, not just swapping out the buckets below.”

“Come on, now. Of course I thought about doing it already,” Lee Hyeon-Su groaned again. “But there is no one here to train those people in administrative work other than me. Think about it. Even now, I don't have enough time to do everything, so what's gonna happen if I vacate my post to train my subordinates? Where will you find my replacement? And what about me? I'm already running short on sleep and rest, but I have to train those idiots, too?”

This was the dilemma of all small-to-medium companies. To grow a company, training its workers was a must. But a company run by only the minimum-necessary number of workers simply didn't have the spare time for such training.

This would mean the company was forced to postpone the training process. Eventually, some kind of compromise would be found, and the company would continue to chug along with the compromises and sacrifices turning into its bedrock.

A new employee might feel doing things this way was highly irregular. But it'd be impossible for a reform at this stage. Even if things made no sense, it wasn't as if the company could suddenly stop working one day to fix all the issues since work would continue to pile on.

So, the company didn't have a choice but to stick to this nonsensical arrangement, but doing so wasted too much time. Time wasted this way would, in turn, eat into the spare time that could have been invested in reforms and training programs. And thus, a vicious cycle was born.

Lee Hyeon-Su found himself stuck in this cycle. He knew something must be done to change this status quo, but the ripples from the potential reform might be too much for him to bear. No wonder he had no choice but to give up.

Lee Hyeon-Ju frowned slightly. “At least we agree that training is a necessity, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, let’s do that. Let’s get the training your subordinates need.”

“What have you been listening to, Miss Lee? I told you I don't have the time to do that."

“And I'm wondering why you would need to personally do that?”

“...Eh?”

Lee Hyeon-Ju crossed her arms. “It's not like your subordinates are working on Assembly-specific matters, now are they? No, you can learn about administrative work in any regular company. Wait, let's be brutally honest about this. A regular company can train your subordinates far better than you can.”

“...Well, that is true.”

“In that case, let’s transfer your subordinates to a regular company.”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s expression crumpled hideously. “What nonsense are you saying now? What company is crazy enough to accept so many people at once? Besides, they aren’t even new recruits, so why would any sane company train them before giving them back to… us… Hmm?”

Lee Hyeon-Su’s head began cocking to the side at a weird angle.

Actually, he could think of one company.

A company that was impressively massive and professional… but was also easy to take advantage of!

“...Looks like I gotta make a phone call.”