EP15. Starry Sky Forge (3)
It’s cold.
Even if you try to concentrate, the strong cold wave freezes your head and hinders you.
“····Whew.”
Shaun took a deep breath. The bloody air enters his lungs as if he had put ice on his nose. He inhales through his nose and exhales through his mouth. The white breath that came out of his mouth could not go far and soon disappeared into the air.
He lifts a branch. The hand he was holding didn’t even move even if he tried to force it.
How long can a person survive in this kind of weather?
But these problems are all minor. It has to be treated as a trivial thing.
Let’s close our eyes and forget everything. Cold too. The current environment. Things I’ve heard before.
Now is the time to just close your eyes and focus.
Think of it. Remember that moment again.
The one that split the rocks and gave strength to the sword.
The moment I saw the piece of ‘sword skill’ that Wilhelm was talking about.
It doesn’t matter what you hold in your hand. Didn’t he already realize that?
The important thing is the will, not the substance. Wasn’t that the answer he got while heading here?
Slowly.
I forget everything.
I close my eyes, even if it’s only filled with darkness.
A bright light will guide you where your will extends.
At last Shaun opened his eyes.
***
“You are distracted. How about sitting quietly?”
“…Are you not worried about Elsa?!”
“If you worry, what will change? Right now, the best way is to just trust them.”
Of course, Levy agrees to some extent with what Elsa wants to say.
But just because she thought so didn’t mean she could actually do it.
If Shawn finally freezes to death in that cold snowy mountain…
“Even if I can’t do magic, wouldn’t it be okay to watch from the side…?”
“Maybe the elders won’t allow it. Overcoming loneliness by yourself would be a kind of test.”
After hearing that, Levy felt like taking a test. She would immediately fail the test if she eventually couldn’t stand it and ran to Sean.
“If Elsa had taken the same test, do you think she would have passed?”
At Levy’s question, Elsa thought for a moment, then shook her head obediently.
“It must be impossible. Cutting a rock with a branch isn’t possible simply because you’re strong or skilled.”
“That’s why a tree branch is a rock…”
Levi paused her words for a moment and thought about it. If she were herself, she wondered if she could cut a rock with a branch.
The conclusion she came to after a brief thought was that it was not impossible.
Of course, it would be ambiguous to call it her pure skills. The way Levy came up with was to simply slam her magic into a tree branch to enhance its hardness and sharpness.
Doesn’t that mean she cuts rocks without the aid of magic? Not a sword, but a tree branch?
Even if it was possible, I could easily guess that it would not be an easy task.
“How long do you expect it to take?”
At Elsa’s question, Levi turned her head and realized that at some point her Tae-ho was standing behind her, listening to their conversation.
“Are you dismissing success as a fait accompli?”
“I thought you wouldn’t give me an impossible test.”
“Huh. How do i know that It’s up to him. If you can’t do it, you’re the only one who can do that.”
Levy tried to say something, frowning at the old man’s disrespectful attitude toward Sean.
But she stopped Levi at the sound he heard earlier.
It’s rattled. Kik-.
Taeho furrowed his eyebrows slightly at the sound of the door opening.
Currently, all three of us are gathered here, but if we hear the sound of the door opening outside, there is only one cause.
“I would have told you not to come back until you cut the rock.”
“Yes. It was.”
Shawn brushed the snow off his shoulder and agreed lightly. Taeho, who frowned at the snowballs falling to the floor, spoke in a ferocious voice.
“Then why are you back already?”
“That’s because he cut the rock.”
Levi and Elsa, who watched the conversation from the sidelines, couldn’t help but admire the calm reply. And the emotion that was weakly harbored in such admiration was doubt.
Maybe Sean is lying. It was only natural that he had some doubts even though he knew he wasn’t such a person.
That’s also true, since only a short time has passed since the test started.
After hearing the answer, Taeho did not reveal any reaction and just glared at Sean. Sean, too, didn’t avoid the old man’s gaze and confronted him.
It took a while for the two of them to collide before Taeho finally reacted.
“hahahaha. Ha ha ha!”
He burst into laughter. It wasn’t just a showy smile. Taeho laughed heartily, even wiping the tears from his eyes from laughing so hard.
“Yes. Admit it. You are qualified.”
To the extent that I wondered if Tae-ho was really right, he was so willing to admit that he was completely different from before.
Seeing that, Levy was puzzled, so she asked involuntarily.
“Aren’t you sure you really cut yourself?”
“Why do I have to go out in the cold to do such a bother?”
Rather, Levy, who was asked in reverse, realized. The fact that the old man in front of him is not usually a strange person.
“All three of you, follow me.”
Anyway, good is good. Levi tried to take it well. After all, she didn’t worry about anything, and didn’t she achieve her goal simpler than she thought?
“Levy.”
As Sean called to him from the side, Levy smiled and looked away.
“I’m glad though! Much easier than you think…”
Levi couldn’t finish her words. This is because she realized it only after belatedly taking a closer look.
The fact that Shawn was trembling and his skin was pale.
“I, I…. Can you use some magic? But strangely, I haven’t felt the cold at all since earlier…”
“····Shawn! You can’t die!”
Luckily, thanks to Levy’s magic, Shawn’s body temperature returned to normal.
***
Taeho listened to the three of them in the studio and put things together.
“So you want a shield, you want to mend a broken sword, and you… Is there anything you want?”
This was the opinion of Elsa, Sean, and Levy, respectively.
Sean politely showed Luke’s sword he had brought with him.
“Can you fix this?”
“Every time I hear a request like this, I don’t understand. Why do you keep clinging to your broken weapon?”
Stubborn. Are you being stubborn?
Maybe it is. Even though they say that the will is more important than the sword, they may still be stubborn and forceful.
But if there is even a slight possibility, I want to continue to be together. It was more like love than obsession. At least Sean wanted to believe that.
Taeho looked at the sword handed to him by Sean, and then spoke.
“Not even the quality is good. Totally cheap, junk that borders on trash.”
“·······.”
“Don’t ask me again. Do you really want to keep using this?”
If I give up my sword, can I become stronger? Probably.
Because the old man in front of me is a blacksmith who made equipment for even the legendary heroes.
“Yes. I want to keep writing.”
But Sean didn’t give up.
“Ha ha. Let me give you one advice in particular. Don’t be attached to your equipment. Does it seem strange that the blacksmith says this?”
“·······.”
“Rather, I am saying this because I am a blacksmith. You want to be with us on an adventure? Jiraldo oil-based resin. Listen carefully. Excellent equipment is as good as an extra life in itself. Even such a strange belief, when it dies in the end, is to say nothing.”
There was no mistake in any of Taeho’s words. After all, nothing is more important than human life. The sword he has been using is not Luke’s sword. It was just a cheap, mass-produced iron sword that one merchant tried to sell as a tray.
“One last question. Do you want a new sword?”
Sean smiled and answered without hesitation.
“I am stupid. I know you’re right, but I still can’t change my mind.”
“…Surely stupid. I’ll have a hard time later.”
The first words were directed at Sean, but the second words were said while looking at Levy, who was next to him.
It wasn’t hard to understand what he meant.
Levi only wiggled her feet, blushing at her. No matter how much she went through, she couldn’t get used to the jokes that the three of them made about their relationship.
“Oops. What do customers want? Give it to me.”
Shaun handed over both the hilt and the broken blade in each hand. Then he asked cautiously.
“Can you fix it?”
“What do you see me as? Of course, a normal blacksmith wouldn’t be able to do it. You thank me It will make it much better than fixing it.”
Even with Taeho’s boastful words, Sean wasn’t immediately delighted. Because his words were questionable.
Although Sean doesn’t know about this matter, he is well aware of how serious the condition is as a swordsman who has handled it.
You can’t fix a sword like that and make it much better?
If such a thing is possible, isn’t it like a wizard rather than a blacksmith?
From noble mtl dot com.
“Really?”
“Look at this bastard. Why? Am i confused? Or are you perhaps blasphemous?”
“Yes? What is the blasphemous?”
When Shawn asked back at the unfamiliar expression, Elsa, who was next to him, informed him instead.
“Literally blasphemous people. That is, those who do not believe in God.”
“I don’t believe in God.”
“Don’t worry, the blasphemous refers to those who go beyond that level and deny and insult the existence of God.”
Upon learning something new, Shawn nodded and asked a question.
“But why is that out of the blue?”
“Wagi. I wondered if you believed in divine power, so I asked. I’m glad I’m not that crazy.”
“…Divine power?”
At Sean’s question, Taeho looked at him with an absurd expression and said.
“Didn’t you know?”
“The divine power is clear.”
“Oh, I forgot that you might not know.”
Elsa muttered that and belatedly explained.
“The Elder Taihu is an apostle serving the god of steel.”