My gaze shifted to the Process Overseers.
“What am I supposed to do with these?”
“P-please spare us! W-we’ll never do anything this bad again.”
“How am I supposed to believe that?”
“P-please believe us.”
“No. If you want to, go ahead and do it.”
“...What?”
“We can just meet again.”
“HIC—!”
I laughed as I told them we could just meet again, and that was what terrified them.
They absolutely never wanted to see me again.
“Oh, and... get me registered as an apprentice at Heavenly Fire Road.”
“What?”
“I want it on the books by tomorrow. Got it?”
“Y-yes...”
“Then get lost.”
“C-can we really leave?”
“Of course. Why? You want to start over from the beginning?”
“N-no! W-we’re going!”
The three of them hurried out, like they were afraid I’d grab them again.
Watching them go with a worried look, Yeomhwa asked quietly:
“Do you think they’re just going to sit still like this? I feel like they’ll definitely try to get revenge.”
“Let them.”
“...Sir?”
“If they come for revenge, that gives me justification. If they come to kill me, even better. If they’ve made up their minds to kill me, that means they’ve accepted whatever comes with it.”
A chill ran down Yeomhwa’s spine as he watched the way I smiled.
Just how strong is my lord?
From what he’d seen today, I used some strange sorcery, and even though those Process Overseers were technically Heavenly Martial Castle men with some martial training, they hadn’t been able to lift a finger against me.
So I was pretty strong.
Even so, he worried that today’s events might bring trouble down on my head.
He didn’t think he could protect me with his own strength.
He would protect me anyway.
Even if it cost his life.
I could see that some kind of grim resolve was taking shape in him.
I had a rough idea of what it was.
“Why? Worried something might happen to me?”
“...Sir?”
“Surprised I caught your inner thoughts?”
“Th-that’s... right.”
“So you decided you’d risk your life to protect me?”
“H-how did you...?”
“It’s all over your face.”
At my words, Yeomhwa’s face flushed red.
“It’s fine. Everyone around me ends up making that face. After a while, you just know.”
If everyone around him had the same expression as his, that meant they’d all had the same thought he was having, right?
“And I’m a lot stronger than you think.”
“This is Heavenly Martial Castle. There are a lot of monsters here who are stronger than you might imagine. There’s a limit to beating those monsters with sorcery alone.”
“Sorcery? Don’t tell me you think sorcery is my main specialty.”
“Isn’t it?”
“No. Sorcery is just what I use because it’s convenient. This is my real specialty.”
I held out my fist.
“I’ll show you later.”
I winked and rose from my seat.
“Where are you going?”
“Where else? I’ve got a sword to make. I can’t slap something together when it’s for my grandfather.”
“I’ll help.”
“No. Go train. That’s how you help me.”
“Understood.”
“Oh, and I’m sending someone to be your martial arts teacher. Learn everything he teaches you.”
“...What?”
“I can’t stand it when my subordinates are weak. So train hard in martial arts too.”
“You want me to train martial arts? I’ve never practiced martial arts in my life.”
“It’s fine. If you learn, you’ll pick it up.”
The way I said it with a little smile sent another chill through Yeomhwa.
*****
“Are you Yeomhwa?”
He was just about to go home after finishing his smithing practice when a man came looking for him.
“May I ask who you are?”
“Didn’t your lord tell you? He said he was sending you a martial arts teacher.”
“Oh! He did.”
“From now on, I’m your martial arts teacher. Name’s Chu Sowon. You can call me Master Chu.”
“Master Chu, I don’t think I have any talent for martial arts. Are you sure this is all right?”
“Why are you the one deciding that? If my lord told me to teach you martial arts, he had a reason.”
“Ah...”
Absolute faith in his lord.
That was what he’d been lacking.
“I still have a lot to learn.”
Noticing why he’d said that, Chu Sowon chuckled.
“You’re not completely hopeless. Come on, follow me. I’ve picked a suitable spot. From now on, after work, you come there.”
“Yes, sir.”
When he followed Chu Sowon, there really was a secluded place.
He hadn’t known there was somewhere like this around Heavenly Martial Castle.
“You can sightsee later. Get over here.”
As soon as he went over, Chu Sowon started feeling him up.
“W-what are you doing?”
“Hold still. I need to check your bones and muscles to know what kind of martial art suits you.”
Ignoring his horrified reaction, Chu Sowon ran his hands all over his body.
“Hm. Must be from your smithing work; your body’s in great shape. No need for basic physical conditioning. That saves us a lot of time.”
With a satisfied smile, he grabbed Yeomhwa’s wrist.
For an instant, it felt like hot energy was flooding through his whole body.
“Oh-ho. Your meridians are usable too. Have you been doing breathing exercises?”
“Yes? Yes. They said you have to be able to feel energy if you want to handle fire properly, so I’ve been doing them steadily.”
“Well, damn. Then we can skip the basics. We can go straight in.”
“Go straight into what?”
“What do you think, martial arts training. According to my lord, you can see the fracture points in objects, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then there’s one martial art that’s perfect for you. You can read, can’t you?”
“Yes. I’ve finished the Thousand-Character Classic.”
“Then read this. The content isn’t complicated, so you shouldn’t have any trouble.”
Yeomhwa accepted the book Chu Sowon handed him.
It was the Form-Break Severing Sword Art.
“It was created by someone who, like you, was a smith. It’s a martial art made from a blacksmith’s perspective, so it should be a perfect fit for you.”
Hearing it was the work of another smith piqued his interest.
When Yeomhwa cradled the book like something precious, Chu Sowon spoke with a satisfied look.
“Judging by your face, you like it. Go home and read the whole thing tonight.”
“Understood.”
“It’ll help your smithing just as much as your martial arts.”
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. That book is a gift from my lord to you.”
Hearing that it was a book from Jeok Wigang, Yeomhwa’s face turned to awe.
“Work hard. My lord has high expectations of you.”
“Yes! I’ll work hard and live up to his expectations.”
“Good. Keep that attitude when you start training tomorrow. Get a good rest today... no, that’s not right. If you’re going to read that, you won’t be resting much. Get going.”
“What kind of person is my lord?”
At his question, Chu Sowon grinned.
“He’s the greatest man of all ages.”
“...Sir?”
“No, that’s wrong.”
So it had been exaggerated?
“He’s the strongest in the universe, the greatest of all ages.”
He’d taken it a step further.
Was he making fun of him?
“Believe it. There isn’t a single person anywhere in the Central Plains who can beat my lord. You’re lucky. You’ve been chosen by an absolute being—someone who’s never existed before and never will again.”
*****
As soon as he got home, Yeomhwa opened the Form-Break Severing Sword Art manual and started reading.
The more he read, the more it amazed him.
“So you can read the grain of metal like this.”
It wasn’t just martial arts; it was helping his smithing skills enormously.
He was actually more absorbed in the smithing aspects than the martial ones.
“Wow. So you can do this too.”
He lost track of time, completely immersed in the manual.
In fact, the Form-Break Severing Sword Art was a martial art that only someone like Yeomhwa—someone utterly absorbed in smithing—could master.
To truly learn it, you needed smithing technique.
Very refined technique, and the ability to apply it properly.
The more talent you had for smithing, the higher your achievement in this martial art would be.
Yeomhwa didn’t realize it.
Without even knowing it, he was already learning the Form-Break Severing Sword Art properly.
*****
The next day.
The trainee smiths were staring at me with expressions that said they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.
“Hey, isn’t that the guy who was hanging around with Yeomhwa?”
“I heard he was a guest of Heavenly Fire Road.”
“If he’s a guest, why’d he become an apprentice smith? He could’ve just stayed a guest and gone home nice and easy.”
“Who knows. Maybe once he tried it he found it interesting.”
“Rich kids, man.”
“Forget it. Who cares. How long is he even going to last? Once the first competition passes, he’ll probably run away from embarrassment.”
“Let’s help him run away faster.”
“Why?”
“Because I hate seeing him buddy-buddy with that bastard Yeomhwa.”
“Yeah, I feel the same way.”
“So how are we going to screw him over?”
“The way we always do. First thing, we put out the fire in his furnace.”
“Oh, that’s a good idea. It’s his first time. Of course the fire could go out.”
“Sure. But you think the Fire-Master Artisan is going to see it that way?”
“He’ll come down on him like thunder.”
“One round of that and he might pack his things and go home.”
“That’d be fun.”
“We start tonight.”
“Good.”
They whispered among themselves.
Every word came through loud and clear to my ears.
After I’d heard the whole conversation, I smiled.
*****
That night.
The trainee smiths gathered around my furnace.
“Keep a good lookout.”
“Yeah, yeah. You just make sure you put it out.”
“Got it.”
They lifted off the cover that kept the furnace heat steady.
Then they started pouring water inside.
SSSSHH—.
The moment it touched, it turned to steam, filling the area like a fog.
“Huh? What the hell?”
They’d definitely poured water on it, but the furnace heat only got hotter.
“The fire’s stronger.”
“What are you talking about? Pour more.”
SSSSHH—.
They poured again, and with the cloud of steam, even hotter heat blasted out.
“W-what is this? Why is it getting hotter?”
Even though they were pouring water on it, the furnace was roaring like they’d added more fuel.
“Just dump it all!”
They poured every last drop they had into the furnace.
FWOOSH—.
A powerful tongue of flame shot up from the furnace, blasting searing heat in every direction.
“Uwaaah! W-what the hell is this?!”
“Are we dreaming?”
“You sure that’s water? Not oil?”
“It’s water! I scooped it from the stream!”
“Then what the hell is happening right now?”
“How the hell should I know?!”
While the trainee smiths were panicking—
“What are you doing at someone else’s furnace?”
A sudden voice made them all jump and whip their heads around.
There was a familiar face.
“F-Fire-Master Artisan?”
“I asked what you were doing.”
“T-that’s...”
One of them stepped forward.
“After he came back from the Guard Corps, Yeomhwa kept worrying that his furnace fire was weaker. So we gathered to help him. Look.”
The furnace was blazing.
The Fire-Master Artisan frowned.
“You little idiots. I get that you wanted to help, but this is too much. If we leave it alone, it looks like it’ll die ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) down on its own, so all of you clear out.”
“Understood.”
They’d been sure they were about to get torn apart, but unexpectedly, it blew over.
“What are you doing, standing around? Move.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
The trainee smiths hurried away, and the Fire-Master Artisan examined Yeomhwa’s furnace.
Then he took something out and sprinkled it into the flames.
SSSSHH—.
The surging fire shrank down, and the heat weakened.
As he did it, he muttered:
“This time, I’ll make sure he gets kicked out for good.”