WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Occult World’s Coveted Blacksmith ◈
Chapter 47: Did I Pick Up a Bow That Catches Ghosts?
──────
“What’s that? Did you buy a new bow?”
“Huh...? Ah... I thought you were the one who sent it, Coach.”
Si-u had been called to the school archery range for the first time in a while at his coach’s request.
He’d thought the mysterious package delivered to his house was a rehabilitation gift from the coach.
“I didn’t send anything.”
“Then why did you tell me to come...!”
Smack!
“Ow...!”
The coach lightly tapped Si-u on the head with the attendance book.
“You little punk. You never answer your phone, but you always contact me when you need something. Hey, are you going to keep skipping school?”
“It’s not like that...”
“You weren’t even hospitalized, you punk.”
The coach kept poking Si-u in the side with the attendance book.
“I know you got a doctor’s note and you’re resting, but there’s a limit to that. You still have to meet the minimum attendance requirement, don’t you? Huh?”
“...I’ll start coming next week.”
“If you don’t, you won’t graduate.”
“Yes...”
The coach let out a deep sigh.
“...Are you going to quit archery now?”
“Haha... W-Well, I don’t really know...”
“Just come to school. Come and do something. How long are you going to stay home?”
The coach’s nagging went on.
How it was a waste of his youth.
How he’d definitely get better if he kept up with rehabilitation.
Si-u had heard it all dozens of times already.
The coach called every day to say the same things.
‘...It’s not like I stopped answering for no reason.’
“...”
Si-u quietly turned his head toward the field.
The younger students were drawing their bowstrings.
Beeep. Beep.
At the signal, arrows struck the targets all at once.
...He used to stand there too.
The coach had been about to scold him for staring off into space, but fell silent instead.
“Ugh...”
There was no anger left in the coach’s expression. Only pity.
“Anyway, since you’re here, shoot a little before you leave.”
“Haha... Not today...”
...Honestly, he didn’t want to stand beside the others.
He didn’t want them coming over pretending to worry about him.
He didn’t want them glancing at him from the corners of their eyes.
More than anything, he hated showing people how much worse he’d become.
“Since you’re here, at least say hello to the others, punk.”
“...I should get going.”
“Wait, wait. Come over here.”
* * *
Vroom.
Si-u got off the bus at an old district office about ten minutes away from the school.
It was an old building at the foot of a mountain.
Ever since a new office building had been constructed, there was rarely any reason to come here.
His school had long been famous for archery, so this old district office also had an aging archery range attached to it.
What the coach had asked him to do was nothing special.
He just had to carry a few things into the sports equipment room.
‘...Why make me do this? It’s heavy as hell.’
As he grumbled and set the things down, his phone chimed.
[You said you got a new bow. Since you’re there, get some practice in. Loosen up while you’re at it.]
[Then let’s talk again on Monday.]
“...”
It seemed the coach had noticed how uncomfortable he was around the others.
‘...They really are quick to notice things.’
So this errand had been an excuse after all.
Ugh.
Creak. Click.
After setting down the rest of the things, Si-u headed to the archery range.
He was familiar with this place.
Whenever he wanted to practice alone and quietly before a competition, he’d sneak in here.
Rustle.
He felt beneath a flowerpot.
‘There it is.’
He took out the key to the archery range that the coach had hidden there.
Creak.
He opened the door and went inside.
* * *
The archery range was empty.
In one corner stood the old practice bow Si-u had used before.
...Since he was already here.
Si-u picked it up.
Hoo.
He hooked his fingers around the string and slowly pulled.
Consistency was the most important thing in archery.
Heartbeat, breathing, the faint tremors of the muscles.
Even the slightest shake of the bow could send an arrow far off target.
Drawing with the same posture, the same force, and releasing at the same moment every time.
Archery was repeating that like a machine.
That was why bows had something called a clicker.
It was a small device that made a clicking sound once the bow had been drawn to a set length.
The moment it clicked, you had to release instinctively.
If you thought about releasing, it was already too late.
...The problem was that moment.
He drew the bow fully.
The instant that taut tension settled on his shoulder.
Click.
The clicker sounded.
He had to release now.
But.
Thunk.
The arrow lodged in the edge of the target.
He’d released too late.
Whenever it was time to let go, his shoulder tensed up on its own.
Was it because he remembered the injury?
“...”
The injury had healed long ago, but it was always like this at the crucial moment.
He tried a few more times, but the result was the same.
“...Let’s just go.”
He put the bow down and was about to grab his bag when he noticed the black leather case propped up to one side.
Who had really sent that thing?
‘It definitely doesn’t look like an archery bow...’
At first, he’d thought the coach had sent him some sort of rehabilitation bow.
‘...Is it a collector’s item?’
Without thinking much of it, Si-u opened the case and picked up the bow.
The moment he did.
‘Wow, this grip feels insane.’
The bow fit snugly into his palm.
As if it had been custom-made for him from the start.
Then.
‘...Huh?’
He’d felt it while carrying it here, but.
Why was it so light?
‘Can something this light really generate enough power?’
Now that he looked at it, it was incredibly luxurious too.
There was even a yellow gem-like stone in the middle of the grip.
...Well, nobody was here anyway.
Si-u nocked an arrow.
Whoosh.
“...”
His shoulder didn’t hurt.
It took almost no effort to draw.
Creak.
As the bowstring stretched, it felt smooth and snug in his hand.
Even when he drew it all the way back, there was barely any weight at his fingertips.
‘...What?’
He released the string without meaning to.
Twng!
Fwoooosh!
The arrow shot out so fast that his eyes could barely follow it.
All the way to the far end of the archery range, into the center of the target.
Thud!
It struck dead center.
“...”
Si-u stood there blankly for a long time.
What was that?
Normally, each person chose a draw weight suited to their shoulder strength.
If it was too heavy, they couldn’t draw it.
If it was too light, the arrow wouldn’t carry enough force to travel far.
But this bow had required almost no effort to draw, yet the arrow had flown faster and harder than any bow he’d ever used.
‘This makes no sense...?’
Unable to believe it, he nocked another arrow.
Twng!
Fwoosh... Thud!
Dead center again.
Again. And again.
Every arrow he shot was sucked right into the center of the target.
“...Wow.”
He laughed.
“Wow, this is fucking awesome...”
It was a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
The feeling of hitting the center every time he shot.
For a moment, it felt as if he’d returned to his prime.
“This is so awesome, seriously... Wow...”
Si-u kept shooting for a long time.
.
.
.
After shooting for quite a while, Si-u suddenly stopped.
Caw. Caw.
“...”
What am I even doing right now?
It wasn’t like he was going to compete with this bow.
The sun was already setting.
For some reason, he felt pathetic for getting so excited earlier.
“...Let’s stop.”
He lowered the bow.
His career as an athlete was already over.
Yet he’d gotten so excited over something like this by himself.
He gathered his things and left the archery range.
“Damn, this is bad.”
It was dark everywhere.
Because the district office was built on the mountain, he could barely see a step ahead.
When he took out his phone.
“...Ah.”
He’d missed the last bus.
He’d forgotten that the village bus that came all the way here stopped running early.
‘Got carried away for no reason.’
“...Damn it. It’ll take at least forty minutes to walk down.”
There was no other choice.
You couldn’t catch a taxi out here.
Relying on his phone’s light, Si-u started down the dark mountain path.
His steps were slow because he couldn’t see where he was going.
‘This is my first time coming down this late.’
He started to get scared for no reason.
...Come to think of it, there had always been stories about ghosts appearing in the woods behind the school.
‘Ugh, why did I have to think of that?’
He quickened his pace.
Crunch.
Somewhere behind him.
Something stepped on leaves.
Si-u came to an abrupt stop.
‘What was that? Is someone there?’
He turned around.
Nobody was there.
...Did I hear wrong?
He started walking down again.
Crunch, crunch.
There it was again.
This time, the footsteps sounded strange.
He turned around once more.
Something slowly emerged from behind a tree.
‘What is that...?’
“...!”
It wasn’t human.
Two hollow, sunken eyes. A limp, sagging body.
...A ghost, like the kind he’d only heard about?
“Eek...!”
It was real? The stories about ghosts appearing here were real?
His legs trembled.
That thing slowly came closer from the distance.
He needed to run, but his feet wouldn’t move.
It kept getting closer.
His body moved before he could think.
Si-u pulled the bow from the case on his back and nocked an arrow with trembling hands.
“D-Don’t come any closer...!”
Twng!
The arrow pierced straight through its chest.
...No.
That was what he thought.
Thunk.
The arrow passed right through it and embedded itself in a tree behind it.
“...Huh?”
It didn’t stop.
“Eek...!”
Twng! Twng!
Si-u fired arrows wildly.
But no matter how many he shot, the result was the same.
Every arrow simply passed through its body.
They had no effect at all.
Then.
Rustle.
His hand felt empty.
He’d run out of arrows.
“...”
Now all he had was a bow with no arrows.
That thing had already come right up to him.
His mind went blank.
In that moment, Si-u instinctively pulled back the empty string with all his strength.
Drawing an empty bow would damage it.
Anyone who had shot a bow even a little knew that.
If you released the bowstring without an arrow, there was nothing to absorb the force, so the bow would break.
But.
He felt something on the drawn string.
His hand gradually grew warm.
Crackle!
“...Huh?”
Bright blue flames crackled to life.
They gradually gathered into the shape of an arrow.
Flash!
Si-u released the string without meaning to.
Shwaaaak!
A bright blue bolt of lightning split the darkness.
Then.
[Kwaaaaaah!]
It pierced straight through the creature’s body.
The unidentified monster let out a scream and vanished without a trace, as if it had never been there.
Pant.
Pant.
“...”
Si-u stood blankly there, holding the empty bow.
What had just happened?
Had the ghost died?
His fingertips trembled.
‘What the hell was that?’
* * *
Bzzzt. Bzzzt.
Just then, his phone vibrated in his pocket.
[Brother]
“...H-Hello.”
“Hey, Han Si-u. You’re home right now, aren’t you?”
The moment he answered, his brother asked without preamble.
“...Huh? No, well...”
“Did a package get delivered to the house by any chance? A long black box.”
No way.
“...Th-That was yours? Why didn’t you have it sent to your place...?”
“Yeah. I put down the home address by mistake.”
“...”
“Don’t tell me you opened it?! Why did you open it without permission?”
“There was nothing written on the outside, so I thought Coach had sent it!”
“Ah, it’s supposed to be like that. When they send expensive things, they don’t write anything on the package for security reasons. Anyway, send it by express delivery right now.”
“...Where?”
“Jirisan Mountain. It’s urgent, so hurry. I’ll give you a generous allowance.”
Jirisan Mountain?
“Huh? Why are you suddenly at Jirisan Mountain?”
“Forget that. Hey.”
“...You didn’t happen to use that thing, did you?”
Si-u looked at the blackened forest floor.
“...Uh? No. I didn’t. I haven’t used it.”
“...Okay. Anyway, send it right now. I’m hanging up!”
Click.
The call ended.
His brother had also done archery when they were young.
But perhaps he hadn’t had any talent for it, because he’d quit early and started traveling all over the country for work.
His brother never told him exactly what kind of work he did, but when Si-u had casually asked once, he’d definitely said this.
[I travel around the country installing tile. Flooring, bathroom tiles, stuff like that.]
‘...Why would someone who installs tile carry something like this around?’
What on earth was his brother doing out there...?
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
