WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈
Chapter 40: W-Where Are You Looking?!
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Si-yeon hesitated outside her dorm room with Do-hyeon.
Come to think of it.
...She'd rushed out in a panic that morning and hadn't cleaned her room!
"W-Wait a moment!"
Leaving Do-hyeon outside, Si-yeon rushed in first.
She quickly cleared away the clothes scattered over the bed and the papers strewn across her desk.
After tidying up as best she could, Si-yeon smoothed down her messy hair and opened the door.
"...C-Come in."
Do-hyeon stepped into the room.
A grown man and woman alone in such a cramped space.
When she realized this was the first time she'd brought a man into her room, Si-yeon felt strangely wistful.
But there was one thing she hadn't managed to put away.
A pair of light purple lace panties draped over the chair!
"Eek."
Si-yeon snatched them up and shoved them into a drawer behind her.
Her heart pounded.
Do-hyeon discreetly looked away as if he hadn't seen anything.
"Ah, and..."
Si-yeon fidgeted.
"Just a moment, Master Do. I need to change clothes."
"...?"
"Um... I have a better success rate if I wear the same clothes every time."
Did that sound strange again?
But it was true.
Every familiar sensation mattered when returning her soul to her body.
"Do whatever makes you comfortable."
As usual, Do-hyeon answered as though it were no big deal and turned toward the wall.
Si-yeon changed into pajamas in the bathroom.
Loose pajamas.
...The moment she saw herself in the mirror, her face burned.
She had to let that man see her wearing this.
'Ugh... I should've just not changed.'
But it was too late.
Face flushed red, Si-yeon timidly stepped out of the bathroom.
"...Um, then I'll begin."
Do-hyeon turned around.
Fortunately, he didn't seem remotely interested in Si-yeon's thin pajamas.
...Though she wasn't sure whether that was fortunate or not.
With mixed feelings, Si-yeon lay flat on the bed.
Thump, thump.
Her heart beat wildly.
She could feel the young man standing beside her watching, and her face kept growing hotter.
'No. Focus. I need to focus.'
She had to concentrate.
The ceiling came into view.
The familiar ceiling she saw every night.
Taking a deep breath, Si-yeon slowly closed her eyes.
She exhaled deeply, steadied her breathing, and drew her awareness down to the place deep in her chest where Spiritual Power gathered.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
It felt as if a knot that had always been tightly bound there was gradually coming undone.
Just as it did every night.
Her fingertips tingled, and from her toes upward, her body became as light as a feather.
Sliiide.
Her awareness slipped out of her body.
As if she were floating gently on water.
The weight of her body slowly drifted away.
And then.
Whoooom.
Her soul rose from her body.
The sounds of the world grew one layer more distant while her vision became clearer.
Slowly floating upward, Si-yeon looked down at her body lying still on the bed.
It felt strange every time she saw it.
The person lying there was me.
And the one looking at me was also me.
And beside that body stood...
That insanely handsome younger guy... no, no, Master Do.
A strange man was in the same room while I lay there so defenseless.
It made me feel strange all over again.
'Ugh... I feel weird.'
Then.
"...?"
The young man took a step toward my motionless body.
He bent slightly at the waist and began closely examining something.
Where his gaze fell was...
"......"
Si-yeon doubted her own eyes.
"......!"
'W-Where are you looking, you lunatic?!'
That man, could he possibly have some ulterior motive disguised as academic curiosity?
Did he think I was unconscious with my eyes closed, so he was staring at my chest like this...?!
Thump, thump, thump!
Even as a soul, I felt as if my heart were about to burst.
* * *
That was right. Do-hyeon was staring intently!
At Si-yeon's defenseless body!
...But he wasn't admiring it.
Sliiide.
A strand of pale yellow light slowly rose from Si-yeon's body.
It was the very Spell Formula he had seen yesterday.
'...So that's the soul.'
To see it more clearly, he slightly loosened the Suppression Talisman and gathered Spiritual Power around his eyes.
Then.
'...Oh?'
Something thin connected the floating soul and the body lying on the bed.
'...That...'
Near the woman's chest, more precisely just below her collarbone, a thin stream of Spiritual Power connected the two like a cord.
A cord of Spiritual Power connecting body and soul.
It was fascinating.
He leaned in for a closer look.
'...Ah. So that's how it works.'
This was the cord he had read about in Si-yeon's papers.
It seemed a person's soul and body were bound together by this cord.
This woman's cord, though, appeared to have been loosely tied from birth.
That was likely why she'd experienced her soul slipping out on its own since childhood.
'Interesting.'
After much research, she had turned the method of intentionally loosening that cord into a Spell Formula.
Just as he'd expected.
Then, if he applied it beyond simply loosening the cord and cut it entirely...
'...Yes. That'll work.'
It felt as though something blocked in his mind had finally come loose.
A way to completely separate something with a Spiritual Body from its physical form and seal it inside a gourd bottle.
If he applied this Spell Formula, it should be possible.
Still.
'...This won't be easy.'
It would require tremendous skill to draw the soul from the body while ensuring the cord did not break completely.
If he lost hold of it even once, the soul could scatter.
Or it might not be able to return to its body.
No wonder her dark circles had been so bad.
'...She must have been practicing this every night.'
Do-hyeon gave the pale yellow soul floating in the air one last look.
Yes. He had seen enough.
"...All right."
He straightened up.
"Thank you. I think I've seen enough."
* * *
By then, Si-yeon's concentration and Spiritual Power were nearly depleted as well.
Swoooosh.
Si-yeon's awareness was pulled back into her body.
Something tingled from her heart through every corner of her body as her mind slowly returned.
"...Hah."
Si-yeon quietly opened her eyes.
Then she slowly sat up.
But.
"......"
That insanely handsome man had somehow moved closer.
'Too close. And what... he said he'd seen enough? Seen what?!'
When I'd looked down earlier, he had been staring intently at that terribly embarrassing spot.
"Gasp...!"
Startled, Si-yeon wrapped both arms around her chest.
"W-What did you mean, you'd seen enough...?!"
Si-yeon stammered, her face red enough to burst. Do-hyeon tilted his head slightly as though he had no idea what she meant.
Only then did Si-yeon realize what she'd just said and hurriedly lowered her head.
Thump.
Thump, thump.
Her heart began pounding again. She was too embarrassed to lift her head.
She finally worked up the courage to look up.
"......!"
That man was staring directly at her face.
'What is this, seriously? Is this... actually a signal?'
Thump, thump, thump.
Looking at me this closely and so directly... there had to be something behind it.
Could he really be interested in me...?
'Should I close my eyes?'
Si-yeon unconsciously began lowering her eyelids when Do-hyeon spoke.
"...Are you all right? Your face looks a little red."
"......!"
Do-hyeon stared intently at Si-yeon's face.
'...Hmm.'
Her face was bright red.
Even her ears were crimson.
...Of course, it wasn't because Do-hyeon felt his heart race at being alone in a room with an unfamiliar woman or anything like that.
'Is that a side effect of the Soul Separation Technique?'
'What's the mechanism behind it?'
It was a genuine question.
Since it was a Spell Formula that forcibly pulled the soul out of the body and put it back in, perhaps the strain on her body was causing her to flush like that.
His curiosity as a craftsman was piqued.
"Is that normally a side effect..."
Puff!
It was as if steam were billowing from the top of Si-yeon's head.
"N-No..."
Her voice had grown barely audible.
"It's not normally... like this. It's nothing..."
Si-yeon hurriedly lowered her head.
'Aaaah...'
What had she been thinking all by herself?
He had only been looking because he found it fascinating, yet she'd gotten ahead of herself.
She was so embarrassed that she wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.
"Ah... I just suddenly got a little hot."
Si-yeon fanned herself repeatedly for no reason.
"Haha..."
She sharply turned her head to the side.
"The Spell Formula... was so brief, so I don't know if it was much help."
"No. It was a huge help."
"...What?"
Si-yeon whipped her head back up.
Up close, the man's eyes were shining.
"Everything in the papers Si-yeon wrote was correct."
"...!"
"That... cord connecting the body and soul. It really exists."
"!!!"
The Soul Thread Theory.
It was the most important theory in Si-yeon's research.
She had never been able to prove it to anyone. She had only believed it existed based on sensations she had felt in her own body since childhood.
He had seen it with his own eyes? How?
"There's something I'm making right now. I think Si-yeon's Spell Formula will be essential to completing it."
Do-hyeon looked up from the papers and met Si-yeon's eyes.
"Si-yeon."
"Y-Yes?!"
"Would you help me?"
"......"
"I need Si-yeon's help to properly understand this Spell Formula."
Thump.
'...He wants my help?'
'He says he needs me?'
Si-yeon sat there in a daze for a long time.
A piece of research that was useless and dangerous.
The Spell Formula she'd spent her whole life being told to abandon had value?
"Does it... really have value?"
Do-hyeon smiled.
"Of course."
At that moment, something surged up in Si-yeon's chest.
Her nose stung.
Her heart began beating harder.
Si-yeon sat there blankly, filled with an emotion she couldn't tell was excitement or something else, when Do-hyeon closed the papers and suddenly spoke.
Tap.
"It may be a little awkward to call it repayment, but."
"...?"
"I'll complete that Spell Formula for you."
"...What?"
Do-hyeon added as if it were nothing.
"I don't think it'll take that long, either."
Footnotes:
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