WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈

Chapter 14: A True Artisan

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'Now I just need to make the knife.'

I was planning to ask the chef one last thing. Whether there was anything she wanted engraved on the knife.

Her initials, maybe. Or a personal motto.

Engraving something like that was practically an unspoken rule in the customization industry.

Of course, I'd only ever done it in games.

I was about to casually turn toward the chef when...

'...Huh?'

Something felt off.

It wasn't just the punk sorcerer who'd been glaring at me a moment ago.

Seo Ji-an, the executive assistant, even the other attendants farther inside.

Everyone stood frozen with their mouths hanging open.

Their eyes shifted between the ventilation fan and me.

'...What now?'

Didn't they ask me to perform an Exorcism?

"Uh, w-wait! Chef?!"

Ji-an's urgent voice broke the silence.

When I looked over, Chef Kim Hye-yun was slowly collapsing to the side.

Fortunately, Ji-an quickly reached out and caught her.

"C-Chef! Please wake up!"

"Call an ambulance, now!"

* * *

The finest suite.

"Haah..."

I sank deep into a sofa so soft it felt like my body was melting into it.

A five-star hotel, and a suite at that.

Was I really allowed to enjoy this kind of luxury?

Ah, I'm melting. I really am.

For all I knew, this room probably cost several million won a night.

As I blankly watched the chef get loaded into the ambulance, the executive assistant led me to this room with an unusually serious expression.

All they said was, "Please rest well and wait for now."

I couldn't tell whether I'd been thrown out or treated as an honored guest.

Still, once I lay down on this soft sofa, none of that seemed to matter.

Swish.

Beyond the automatically opening curtains, the night view of central Gangnam stretched out like a panorama.

The densely packed buildings each spilled their own lights into the darkness.

How should I put it? It felt like one massive living creature.

"...Huh."

Not long ago, I'd spent every day doing nothing but playing games in my cramped studio apartment.

They said people died when they themselves changed too suddenly.

I wondered if this was going to shave years off my life for no reason.

Slurp! Smack, smack!

"Ahh, this seafood jjamppong broth is incredible. Is this what five-star hotels are like? Want a bite too, hyung?"

At the round table in one corner of the suite, Jin Mu-yeong, the punk sorcerer, was greedily devouring the seafood jjamppong he'd ordered through room service.

I stared at him in disbelief.

'...Why is he eating jjamppong in here when his room is supposedly next door?'

It looked like he'd been assigned a room while handling this request too.

But after seeming like he was going to rest in his own room, he somehow changed into a casual hoodie and quietly knocked on my door.

The prickly attitude he'd shown at the restaurant earlier had vanished without a trace.

He'd asked my age, then suddenly started calling me hyung because I was older.

"If you'd come sooner, hyung, I wouldn't have suffered through three days of that bullshit."

"..."

"But you said you're from the Tianshan Sect, right? Your Korean was so good earlier..."

'...Hmm.'

Ji-an had coached me on what to say beforehand.

"...My mother is Korean."

"Oh! That explains it!"

Mu-yeong slapped his knee dramatically. Thankfully, he didn't pry any further.

Just then, Seo Ji-an came in after finishing a call outside the room.

"Is the chef all right?"

"Ah, yes. I just got word that she woke up a little while ago."

Only then did Ji-an look relieved.

"The hospital says there doesn't seem to be anything seriously wrong. They think she'd been tense for too long, and it all hit her at once when she finally relaxed. Just in case, though, she'll stay in the hospital overnight and be discharged tomorrow morning."

"That's a relief."

At least it didn't seem like I'd messed with something I shouldn't have.

Relieved, I lightly tapped the Suppression Talisman hanging beneath my clothes.

When I used the Talisman earlier, I'd loosened the Suppression Talisman's control just a little so I could channel Spiritual Power into it.

I tightened it again immediately afterward in case any Spiritual Power leaked out.

'Its effect really is incredible.'

What I'd inscribed onto the Yellow Talisman Paper on the spot hadn't been a circuit inspired by the Karmafire Sword I'd made before.

If a fire broke out indoors, it would be like burning down the whole house just to catch a bedbug.

The compensation alone would probably run into tens of billions of won.

So something else came to mind.

[Light of Purification], a holy skill used against undead and ghost-type monsters in the game.

It was the circuit structure that activated that skill.

I usually engraved it into equipment for priest and paladin classes.

I'd tried adapting it on the spot.

'...The effect was way better than I expected.'

Even though it wasn't drawn with a brush but carved as a circuit, pouring earnest intent into it perfectly contained and amplified the Spiritual Power.

Ding-dong.

As I sank into thought, the suite's doorbell rang.

The executive assistant opened the door and showed someone in.

"I'm Yun Se-a, the executive director overseeing TK Group's hotel operations."

She was the executive director?

'...What? Why is she so young?'

She looked to be in her early thirties at most.

A young woman in a refined suit stood before me.

The moment she entered, she bent at the waist in a ninety-degree bow.

"Thank you. Thank you so much. Everyone had been holding back because of pressure from House Hyeonmu, and no one dared touch it... Thanks to you, Master, our group has been saved."

After listening to her explanation, I got the rough picture.

In a few days, the hotel restaurant would host an enormous social gathering attended by prominent figures from politics, business, and even the Occult World.

But TK Group had clashed with a subordinate house of House Hyeonmu, one of the Four Great Houses, over a redevelopment project. To humiliate and intimidate TK Group, they had planted a whole swarm of vicious malevolent spirits in the main chef responsible for the event.

"Once the chef's knife is complete, we will properly repay the debt we owe you, Master. We will make sure you are more than satisfied. You may look forward to it."

Director Yun smiled gently and placed two tickets on the table.

"It's late today, so please rest in this suite for the next few days. These tickets are invitations to the VIP seats at the social gathering. I hope you'll watch the chef cook with the knife you made."

Director Yun spoke with another respectful bow.

A suite, huh.

The bed looked soft enough that I wanted to dive straight onto it.

But...

My fingertips were starting to tremble, and an anxious restlessness began filling my chest.

That's right!

For ten years, I was someone who hammered at a forge every single day without missing one.

After the game service ended, I hadn't been able to hold a hammer for a while. Only recently had I begun to feel that familiar sensation again.

The rebound had made me unable to stand going even one day without hammering.

Right. At that moment, I was overcome with the urge to return to my workshop, light the forge, and hammer away again.

I'd waited quietly because they asked me to stand by for now.

But the chef was healthy.

And the executive director who'd commissioned me was this happy and had already finished thanking me.

Everyone was happy-happy. Didn't that mean the situation was over for now?

It seemed I was the only one who wasn't happy, suffering from severe hammer withdrawal.

Saedori, my recent favorite, was a 1.5-kilogram hammer made from high-density tungsten alloy.

That little guy was probably desperately waiting for me to come back.

Then I thought of the chef's knife from earlier.

Its edge had been ever so slightly too thick, and its center of balance was off.

I couldn't let her keep slicing green onions with a knife that was that badly balanced.

She was getting discharged tomorrow and would be using it again. What if she ruined her tendons?

I'd spent ten years working as a blacksmith. Could I see ways to improve a customer's equipment right in front of me and just lie down to sleep?

My occupational habit wouldn't allow it.

My hands itched to get in front of the forge and make a perfectly customized knife for the chef as soon as possible.

Well, it looked like the situation was over.

Without a shred of regret, I got up from the soft sofa.

"Ji-an, could you call me a taxi?"

"What? W-Why all of a sudden?"

"Ah, is there something inconveniencing you...?"

Director Yun stepped forward, looking flustered as well.

"You said the chef will be discharged tomorrow morning, right?"

Ji-an nodded without thinking at my question.

"Then I should put a new knife in her hands first thing tomorrow morning. You said there's an important event in a few days. It takes time to get used to a new knife."

I needed to get back to the workshop quickly.

It took a while just to bring the forge up to temperature.

And my beloved Saedori was waiting for me!

"W-Wait a moment, Master."

Director Yun stood there with her mouth slightly open before belatedly stammering out the words.

"P-Please don't do this. Stay and rest for a few days. We'll provide an even more generous reward as well. If there's an amount you want, whatever it is..."

"I hear this hotel's spa is amazing, hyung! At least try it before you go!"

Even Jin Mu-yeong, who'd been eating jjamppong beside us, put down his chopsticks and eagerly chimed in.

'...Why are these people acting like this all of a sudden?'

Their eyes all had a strangely intense gleam, as if they'd made a pact.

Whatever.

"I'm going back to the workshop. Ji-an, you can use this room if you want."

"What?! Ah, I'll come with you! Wait for me!!"

Bang.

* * *

The suite Do-hyeon and Ji-an had left behind.

Executive Director Yun Se-a, the executive assistant, and Grade-3 sorcerer Jin Mu-yeong.

The three stood frozen in place, each with vacant eyes.

Yun Se-a had unexpectedly inherited her position and found herself leading the group at a very young age.

But difficult management was only the lesser problem. The real problem lay elsewhere.

Having only recently taken over, she hadn't realized just how vicious the people of the Occult World could be.

The entire group was slowly withering away as the price of provoking House Hyeonmu. They had called in countless sorcerers at enormous expense, but all of them tucked their tails and fled, afraid of retaliation from one of the Four Great Houses.

This time, too, they had summoned help with the desperation of someone clutching at a straw.

Yet that absurdly young master from the Tianshan Sect had resolved everything in one stroke.

Before Yun entered the suite, Grade-3 sorcerer Jin Mu-yeong, who had arrived before her, had sought her out privately.

At first, she'd thought he came to claim credit for himself.

[Director! That man is a complete monster! Do you have any idea how vicious and horrifying the malevolent spirits inside that ventilation fan were?!]

Instead, Mu-yeong practically foamed at the mouth as he went on and on about how terrifying the malevolent spirits that master had dealt with were, and how astounding what he'd done was.

Not fully convinced, Yun hurriedly sent people to investigate. It turned out Mu-yeong's words hadn't been an exaggeration at all.

The investigation found that they were vicious entities that would have required at least a top-tier Grade-2 sorcerer or a high priest just to barely perform an Exorcism on.

Director Yun instinctively realized it.

A lifeline capable of saving their group had appeared before her.

'Ah...'

She had planned to hold tightly onto that thread of connection while he stayed here somehow.

Keep him in the suite for several more days, share a glass of the finest wine with him, then naturally invite him to become an advisor to the group, offer a generous retainer, and bind him to a lasting alliance.

Only then did she realize how petty her thoughts until moments ago had been.

The curse of one of the Four Great Houses, the group's crisis, a luxurious suite, and the promise of a reward worth hundreds of millions of won.

To that young man, those grand things meant less than making the one knife he'd promised.

Jin Mu-yeong couldn't understand the situation at all either.

'That man is impossible to figure out.'

A suite for several days, a VIP invitation, and a lavish reward.

He'd even gone out of his way to excitedly tell Director Yun just how incredible Do-hyeon was.

He wanted her to know in advance what an amazing person Do-hyeon was, so she would give Do-hyeon the generous reward he deserved.

Mu-yeong never could have done what Do-hyeon had.

Yet Do-hyeon turned down all of it and strode out, saying he only wanted to make a single knife.

'...Is that what a true artisan, the kind you only hear about, is really like?'

* * *

The hotel corridor.

"D-Do-hyeon! I'm coming too!"

Seo Ji-an hurried after Do-hyeon in her high heels.

'No, I asked them to call a taxi. Why did everyone just stand there staring blankly at me?'

Do-hyeon's heart was already pounding at the thought of lighting the forge.

He needed to get to the workshop quickly and feel his favorite hammer, Saedori, in his hand.

"Ah, this elevator is taking forever."

Do-hyeon impatiently tapped his foot as he drew up the design for the new kitchen knife in his head.

Footnotes:

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