WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈

Chapter 18: I Only Made a Kitchen Knife

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The final course went out, and the banquet began drawing to a close.

The response was fervent.

The hall manager kept darting in and out of the kitchen, face flushed as they relayed the guests' reactions.

And that wasn't all.

"That was absolutely incredible. We have to hold next month's executive meeting here too."

"Director Yun certainly knows how to pick people. Easily the best banquet meal I've had in a while."

The departing VIPs called out their praise toward the kitchen as they left.

"Great work, Chef! It was seriously delicious. I'll definitely come back!"

One young chaebol heiress even walked right up to the open kitchen, her eyes sparkling as she greeted Hye-yun.

"......Thank you. Please get home safely."

Hye-yun bowed deeply.

And just like that, the last guest departed.

"Great work, everyone!"

The staff's voices rang through the hall.

"......"

Standing in front of the pass, Hye-yun stared at the emptying hall.

The praise she had just heard still buzzed in her ears.

She had heard every word.

Yet somehow, it still didn't feel real.

"......"

The sensation of cutting with that knife remained in her hands.

She hadn't made a single mistake all day.

Her wrist was perfectly fine, as though everything before had been a lie, and the knife moved exactly as she wished.

That awful trembling, those slips in her movements, had not appeared even once.

Never in her life had a knife felt so perfectly at home in her hand.

"......Is it really over?"

The words slipped from her lips.

The tension still hadn't left her.

Even though it was all over, the strength in her shoulders refused to ease.

The sounds of staff cleaning up one by one. Dishes clinking. Footsteps gradually fading away.

Hye-yun remained where she was.

* * *

"Chef Kim, you still haven't left?"

When she turned, Director Yun was standing there.

It seemed she had only now found a moment to herself after seeing off the guests.

"Ah... yes. I was just going to finish cleaning up first."

"You did wonderfully today."

Director Yun approached with a faint smile.

"Honestly, even I was surprised. Today's food... it was the best you've ever made, wasn't it?"

"......No, you're flattering me."

Hye-yun awkwardly lowered her head.

Then, without realizing it, she spoke.

"......I'm sorry, Director."

"Hm?"

"Recently... I've been making a lot of mistakes. And I even collapsed last time. Right before such an important event, I feel like I've only caused you worry..."

Her voice trailed off.

Hye-yun knew what everyone had been saying.

The young head chef had collapsed right before an important event.

That was what happened when they put someone unproven in that position.

She had finally reached her limit.

She hadn't been hired for her skill. She was just... a symbol.

Those words had been scraping away at her heart the whole time.

"......Don't tell me."

Director Yun let out a small laugh.

"You believed those rumors too?"

"......What?"

"That I brought you in as some sort of display piece, just to put a young girl on show. Those rumors."

Hye-yun's shoulders twitched.

It felt like she had been found out.

"Haha... well..."

"What do you take me for?"

Director Yun lightly shook her head.

"I'm not that bored."

She crossed her arms and looked Hye-yun straight in the eye.

"Le Ciel. Do you remember the first day I ate your food there?"

"......Yes."

"I fell in love with your cooking that day. That's why I brought you here. There was no other reason."

Director Yun shrugged.

"Though honestly, I didn't expect the backlash to be this bad."

She swept her gaze over the empty hall and open kitchen.

"But after seeing today, I'm glad I brought you in."

"......"

"I've got a good eye for people, you know."

Director Yun gave a small grin before turning away.

"You worked hard. Get some proper rest."

Click, click.

The sound of her heels faded away.

Hye-yun blankly watched her leave.

Then.

The hall lights clicked off.

* * *

The kitchen was dark.

She was alone.

"......"

Drip.

Something hot rolled down her cheek.

"......Huh?"

She hurriedly wiped it away with the back of her hand.

But then.

Drip.

"......What?"

Once the dam broke, there was no stopping the tears.

"Hngh..."

She covered her mouth.

She mustn't make a sound. She couldn't let anyone hear her.

Even as she thought that, her shoulders shook on their own.

She had clawed her way this far.

She really had.

"Asian. A woman. And the youngest one."

In that foreign kitchen, those labels were used instead of her name.

On her first day working the line, the chef beside her had scoffed.

What could she do with that wrist?

The chef said they would bet she would be crying as she packed her bags within a week.

They made sure she heard every word.

They wouldn't even return her greetings. Open contempt. Mockery.

So she didn't cry.

Even when her wrist gave out, even when burns blistered her skin.

She gritted her teeth and came in an hour earlier than everyone else to prepare.

She was the first to turn on the lights and the last to turn them off.

Days passed. Then weeks. Then months.

At some point, the way they referred to her had changed.

That one's a vicious bitch.

Yes. She preferred that.

Being called a vicious bitch was better than being ignored.

That was how she proved herself.

Every label that had followed her instead of her name.

She crushed them one by one with skill alone.

Until she had finally become the youngest sous-chef at that prestigious Michelin restaurant.

Right. Hard work didn't betray people.

She believed that. She had to.

Because it was the only weapon she had.

But.

Nothing changed after she returned to Korea.

Because she was a woman. Because she was young. Because people said she had been hired through connections.

A figurehead the director had set up for show.

A girl who had lucked into her position without any skill.

The hushed whispers followed behind her.

The more they did, the harder she worked.

Just like before.

She came in earlier and stayed later.

That would fix it.

She just had to work harder. More, more.

Then she could prove herself again.

She always had.

Hard work had never betrayed her.

...But this time was different.

The nightmare began.

Every night, she suffered sleep paralysis. Every dawn, she woke drenched in cold sweat.

Unable to sleep, her head felt like it would split apart.

Even as her body screamed at her, she didn't stop.

As always, she came in earlier and stayed later.

She couldn't rest. If she stopped, she would fall behind again.

...The price of grinding herself down like that was brutal.

Her overworked wrist finally began to scream.

Her knife work went awry. Her seasoning was wrong.

She had spent her entire life proving herself with these two hands.

And those hands began to shake.

"......"

That was what scared her most.

More than being ignored. More than being dragged down.

Her hand no longer obeyed her.

The only weapon she had to prove herself. All the hard work she had built up over the years.

...It was devouring her instead.

The hard work that had never betrayed her.

For the first time, it was stabbing her in the back.

She couldn't tell anyone.

The moment she said it aloud, it felt like everything would end.

All she could do was blame herself.

For foolishly overworking her wrist.

For being mentally weak enough to have nightmares.

For failing to grit her teeth and endure even harder.

After spending her whole life enduring like that.

Why now, of all times?

......So, honestly.

She had planned to quit.

After this event, she was going to put down her knife.

She thought she had truly reached her limit.

Her life had been one of proving herself through hard work.

And now, she could no longer work that hard.

"Sniff... hngh..."

But then.

Today.

All those doubtful gazes aimed at her.

Those cold stares that had clung to her like labels.

Today, at her fingertips.

They had turned into admiration. Into awe.

In a place where Korea's wealth and power had gathered in one room.

Her knife, her food, had been acknowledged.

It felt as though all her hard work had finally been recognized.

That it hadn't all been for nothing.

That she had done well. That she had endured well.

"Hngh... sniff..."

Clutching the cold prep counter, Hye-yun cried like that for a long time.

* * *

After changing clothes and gathering her things, she headed out.

Today, she wanted to make sure she thanked that person.

The artisan who had placed that miraculous kitchen knife in her hands.

She held the bag containing the knife against her chest.

Today, its weight felt more precious than ever.

She was walking toward the emergency stairs to leave work when...

"......Fuck! You said all I had to do was stick that Talisman on and it'd be over!"

Someone beyond the stairwell door was speaking furiously on the phone.

Hye-yun stopped cold.

"What the hell happened?! It's all over now! You said that bitch was going to humiliate herself in front of everyone today!"

It was a familiar voice.

The only person in the kitchen she had trusted, someone who had always smiled warmly at her.

Sous-chef Kang Mirae.

"God, this is driving me insane! I told you, I was going to do it! I was trying to bring it in hidden in a hotel pan, but fuck... I suddenly bumped into someone wearing a black mask, and the Talisman just burned up and disappeared!"

"......"

No way.

What had she just heard...?

Hye-yun froze behind the wall, unable to make even the faintest sound.

A Talisman? That bitch? A masked person?

Her thoughts tangled into a mess.

Only after the voice moved away and the emergency exit door closed did Hye-yun force her trembling legs to carry her outside the hotel.

The cold night air brushed her cheeks.

Yet instead of cooling down, her thoughts only grew more feverish and confused.

'It sounded like Mirae was talking about me.'

That bitch was going to embarrass herself. It would all be over if she attached a Talisman.

'...No. That can't be right.'

It made no sense.

She had to have misunderstood something.

Talismans. Curses.

Those weren't words that belonged in the world she had lived in.

She had spent her entire life believing only in what she could see.

So it was nonsense. It had to be.

...But then.

She remembered the strange people who had been coming in and out of the kitchen.

The mysterious Daoists Director Yun had brought in.

The acrid scent of incense. The grotesque scraps of paper stuck all over the place.

And then.

[Right! The thing we put on that air vent worked perfectly in the beginning!]

"......The air vent."

Hye-yun repeated the words without realizing it.

The air vent. An air vent.

That casually repeated phrase would not leave her mind.

Something just beyond her grasp kept tugging at her attention.

...Come to think of it.

On the day she had collapsed.

That teacher might have done something toward the ceiling.

"......"

She was so close to remembering, yet she couldn't.

The hazy memory kept slipping through her fingertips.

Hooooonk!

"......Ah!"

Just as she was about to cross the street, a horn blared right in front of her. Hye-yun flinched and stepped back.

Thud.

Her shoulder bag tipped over, and the bag containing the kitchen knife slid across the asphalt.

Shff.

The leather case opened slightly, and the blade inside glinted beneath the streetlight.

"......"

The person who had given her this knife.

The artisan who had hidden his face behind a mask.

...A black mask.

Mirae had definitely said that earlier on the phone.

She had bumped into someone wearing a black mask, and the Talisman had burned away.

That black mask.

The hazy memory from that day sharpened as if by magic.

Right. It was him.

The masked teacher who had come to make her knife.

He had taken a blank sheet of paper from his pocket, quickly drawn something on it...

Then thrown it toward the ceiling air vent.

After that, she had lost consciousness.

...No way. Was it real?

It had been after that.

After the day the artisan had thrown the Talisman and she had collapsed.

When she woke up, the horrible nightmares that had plagued her were gone.

The aching pain in her wrist, which had felt as though it might snap, had vanished as if washed away.

Then everything started falling into place as if it had all been a lie.

"......"

Could something like that really exist?

Could things as absurd as Talismans and curses really be real?

Then...

I hadn't fallen apart because I was mentally weak or overworked...?

Her thinning face, the terrible nightmares, the pain in her wrist that would not stop.

They hadn't been her limit. They were the result of someone's malice?

"Urgh..."

Her stomach churned.

A vicious wave of nausea, as though bile were rising up her throat.

The person she had believed was the only one on her side in that kitchen.

Kang Mirae, who had always smiled more kindly than anyone else, worried over her, and rubbed her tense shoulders.

She had been eating away at Hye-yun from behind the scenes.

The horrible sense of betrayal made it hard to breathe.

She felt as though she might collapse onto the street and vomit at any moment.

But.

At the end of that agonizing betrayal and nausea, Hye-yun's gaze fell on the kitchen knife on the ground.

As if possessed, she bent down and picked up the knife bag.

The cold sensation beneath her fingertips barely dragged her back to reality from the frenzy raging inside her.

'Then the reason I got better...'

Was it really all because of him?

Had that black-masked artisan removed the curse that had been crushing her?

And had he even stopped the horrible thing Mirae had tried to do a second time today...?

She still couldn't believe in curses or Talismans.

But this knife left no room for doubt.

She had felt it directly in her own hands today.

The ecstatic sensation, as though the knife were alive and breathing, supporting her wrist for her.

This unreal knife was proof of what that person had left behind.

'...No way.'

The blue stone embedded in the end of the handle glimmered brilliantly.

'...Was it really him?'

The person who had saved her while she stood at the edge of a cliff.

Who had placed a miraculous knife in her hand and raised her beyond even her prime.

A savior who had appeared in her gray world in an instant.

An unfamiliar flush rose to her pale cheeks.

Her heart, which had been racing with betrayal, started pounding madly for an entirely different reason.

Her grip tightened around the handle.

As though she would never let it go.

'I have to... see him again tomorrow.'

No, not just tomorrow.

Having tasted that miraculous sensation, she felt like she would never be able to cook again with a knife that person hadn't made.

"......"

Standing alone beneath the streetlight, Hye-yun's eyes burned with an intensity unlike anything before.

* * *

Vroooom.

With the smooth purr of its engine, Ji-an's bright red sports car slipped free of Gangnam's congested roads.

Sinking back into the premium leather seat, I glanced down at the thick document envelope on the seat beside me.

It held the bundle of checks Director Yun had given me.

At a glance, it looked like more than ten times the amount I had been promised.

Well... I had performed an Exorcism.

I'd expected to get a little more than the five million won for the knife, but this was almost excessive.

...Come to think of it.

The money wasn't the only excessive thing today.

Staring blankly out the window, I remembered what had happened before I left the hotel that morning.

[Teacher...! Sniff, hngh... Thank you. Thank you so much!]

The moment Head Chef Kim Hye-yun found me after coming to work, she had bent at the waist in a full ninety-degree bow and burst into tears.

[How could I ever repay this kindness...? If it hadn't been for you, Teacher, I... sniff!]

I had been a little flustered.

No, pretty damn flustered.

'...I mean, my kitchen knife really is amazing.'

Still, was this worth sobbing over?

It wasn't as if I'd made it for free, either. Director Yun had even paid me a hefty additional fee.

The way she stared at me with those shining eyes was so intense that it felt a little burdensome.

[Um, Teacher! I really want to repay you personally. If it wouldn't be rude, could I have your contact information...!]

The chef hurriedly pulled out her phone and was about to ask for my number when...

[Oh! Please contact us through this number instead~^^]

Seo Ji-an suddenly appeared out of nowhere, stepped between us, and held out her business card.

[I handle our artisan's entire schedule and all external communications! If there is ever a problem with the knife or you need repairs, please make sure to contact me anytime, Chef!]

Ji-an's smiling, ironclad defense made the chef look oddly disappointed, though she had no choice but to accept the business card.

Then, beyond Ji-an, a familiar punkish face approached with a wide grin.

It was Jin Mu-yeong, the Grade-3 sorcerer.

He came over, casually patted my shoulder, and acted as though we were old friends.

Then he glanced at the envelope and smiled meaningfully.

[You see, boss, I told Director Yun every last detail about just how incredible the things you exorcised were. Hehe.]

Ah... so that was it.

Everything finally made sense.

Why the chef had been crying her eyes out since the morning. Why Director Yun had handed me checks worth more than ten times the price of the knife.

Getting rid of the little Cursed spirits in the air vent had really been nothing. I'd finished it with a single Talisman.

This punk had obviously exaggerated the whole thing to save face over failing to resolve it himself.

'...I thought their reactions were a little much. They've really misunderstood something.'

Well, it wasn't a bad thing. I'd gotten a nice payment out of it.

I stood there in a daze, then Ji-an practically pushed me out of the hotel.

Director Yun had also said that the sous-chef had been a spy acting on the orders of some family called House Hyeonmu.

[We've secured evidence that the sous-chef was acting under orders, along with records of the payment she received in return. We handed everything over to the Occult Management Bureau this morning.]

Then that Talisman in the hotel pan had been planted there on purpose.

'Huh... seriously.'

Well, wasn't it only right that people were punished for doing bad things?

* * *

"Seriously. There really isn't a single trustworthy person in this world."

Ji-an sighed as she drove. She was talking about the sous-chef.

"Still, thanks to you, Do-hyeon, we're lucky we were able to stop that woman before she pulled anything. You really worked hard."

"All I did was make a kitchen knife."

"Oh, there you go again. You're too modest."

Ji-an smiled sweetly at me through the rearview mirror.

"Oh, right! I signed you up for what you asked about last time."

"What I asked about?"

"You asked if there was somewhere you could check trends and rumors in the Occult World."

Ah, right.

Since I knew nothing about how things worked in this world, I had casually asked if there was something like an anonymous community.

Ji-an took a black tablet from the passenger-side console and handed it to me.

"I installed the app, so would you like to take a look? Security is strict, so I set it up to only open with biometric authentication."

When I turned on the tablet, a lock screen covered in bizarre patterns appeared.

I placed my finger on the screen and looked into it. The words "Authentication Complete" appeared, and an app with a black background opened.

[Goblin Fire - Anonymous Sorcerer Gallery]

Oh. Something like this really existed.

It looked like the site Ji-an had shown me at the cafe last time.

So this place was called Goblin Fire.

At the top of the screen, I also spotted a tab called [Goblin Fire Marketplace].

Mm-hm. That was probably the place she'd shown me before.

Half curious and half expectant, I scanned the trending posts.

Then.

[HOT] So who ended up resolving the TK Group hotel incident??

└ 128 comments

[HOT] Hey, have they still not caught the Goblin Market bomber?

└ 204 comments

[News] [Exclusive/Gimun Daily] The Tianshan Sect artisan who saved TK Group, who are they?

└ 311 comments

"......Huh?"

My finger stopped as I scrolled.

Blinking, I stared at the screen again.

TK Group? The Goblin Market explosion? Tianshan Sect?

...What was all this?

Footnotes:

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