Verification
Verification
"It's about time, Tanhwaju."
"I know."
-Clang...
The steady hammering stopped. In an instant, all the sound in the world seemed to vanish.
My concentration broke along with it.
The hammering of various smiths still echoed from the first floor, but none possessed the crystalline clarity of the old man's strokes.
The old man examined his work with a brusque eye.
Just a sword roughly beaten from an ingot.
The ingot I'd checked with Observation was decent-quality iron, but it had no special effects and wasn't especially precious.
It was the sort of iron a small workshop could acquire with enough effort.
The sword forged from that iron hadn't even been properly finished, yet its blade glinted in the forge light—exceedingly sharp.
My experience is shallow, and I haven't handled a wide variety of weapons, but I could tell it was a perfectly fine sword.
"Heh. Came out unsatisfactory."
But the old man seemed somehow displeased. He gazed at his own creation with dissatisfaction, leaned it carelessly against the wall, and rose to his feet.
Eriel glanced at the sword propped haphazardly against the wall and spoke.
"Your assessment of arms remains harsh as ever."
"It's not harsh. This is the natural assessment."
The old man dusted off his hands and turned. He swept his gaze over Eriel once, then turned it toward me.
Grayish-white eyes fixed on me. They were the old man's characteristically dull eyes, but also strangely vital—an eerie contradiction.
"A peculiar child, you are."
After sizing me up for a while, the old man spoke words that made no sense to me.
"Let's go."
Having tidied his equipment and wiped his hands, the old man moved toward a side door.
He walked without hesitation. I found myself following his confident stride without thinking.
Amid the ringing of hammered metal, we drew farther from the smithy grounds.
I checked behind me with Observation and saw Eriel following the old man in silence, too. We probably weren't being led anywhere strange.
Outside, the sun was still beating down, but when I checked the time, several hours had flown by.
I'd kept track of time even while concentrating... but it had still slipped away.
'A child...? Well, I am young compared to him...'
I wore a strange expression as I trailed behind the old man.
Sure, outwardly I was young compared to him... but being blatantly treated like a little kid stirred a complicated feeling.
Not a bad feeling... just odd and bewildering.
"Did you learn something?"
We had entered the mansion proper before I realized it. The old man crossed the carpet and asked abruptly.
He would have seen that my eyes were closed, but his tone implied he was certain I had observed his movements.
[I learned a little.]
I thought for a moment, then replied.
In truth, I learned a lot. The old man... Tanhwaju Hwa Byeok-un was one of the greatest smiths even in the original story.
I'd closely scrutinized his movements with Observation Authority and gathered information. Extremely valuable information.
Not only that, but I'd also methodically collected data on the movements of almost everyone working in the smithy.
They were all members of the Calamity Flame Family who had mastered high-level metalsmithing.
If I can imitate that now, I should be able to wield a decent level of metalsmithing myself.
"You don't ask about me. Do you know who I am?"
[Yes.]
[You are Tanhwaju Hwa Byeok-un.]
"Remarkable. You even know a backroom old-timer with no outside activities."
A backroom old-timer with no outside activities?
The title of Tanhwaju, the Calamity Flame Family's greatest smith, is far too immense to describe that way...
While I was searching for a response, Eriel, who had been walking behind us, opened her mouth.
"A backroom old-timer with no outside activities, you say. Then am I to understand I'm just some brat who got tossed into the Cradle late?"
"At your age, calling yourself a brat is truly awkward. It's been quite some time since you entered the Calamity Flame Family—"
"The sight of Tanhwaju, who has a physique sturdy enough to bludgeon monsters with a hammer, calling himself a backroom old-timer is far more awkward."
A conversation suddenly sparked between the two. I silently kept walking without interjecting.
I'd been struggling to find an answer, and thanks to Eriel, I could slip out of that neatly.
After walking steadily onward, we arrived at the mansion's underground facility.
At the end of a long subterranean corridor, a thick iron wall confronted us. I observed its interior.
'The material overall is Flammaus metal, which resists heat. The embedded spell formula is 《Flame Resistance》... This must be the verification site.'
Not just the thick iron door, but the entire interior was a facility designed to withstand fire.
The iron door ground open. Three people were already inside.
Hong Yeon-hwa, who seemed lost in deep thought, and Chonggwalju Choi Ji-yeon, looking exactly as she had in the morning.
And...
"Oh, you've come."
Vivid red eyes stared straight at me as I entered through the open door. Then the man let out a hearty laugh and pointed his finger at me.
"Sister-in-law, he's arrived."
"I keep telling you to call me Chonggwalju in official settings."
"Huh? This isn't exactly a conference room—isn't it a bit much to be so stiff even here?"
"Strictly speaking, this is also an official... never mind."
Choi Ji-yeon, who had been speaking, suddenly squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her lips together, kneading the back of her neck.
At her reaction, the man chuckled and strode over, extending a hand the size of a pot lid.
"At last I meet the person of the hour. I am Hong Jin-hyeok."
The way he spoke and smiled as he said this seemed quite easygoing.
Put nicely, he came across as approachable and friendly; put negatively, rather flippant for his status.
Hong Jin-hyeok.
There must be others in the world with his exact name, but one person in particular came to mind: a member of the Calamity Flame Family, someone in the main house who calls Choi Ji-yeon "sister-in-law."
Jeonghwaju Hong Jin-hyeok.
The family head's own younger brother, who holds the position of commander of the Ceasefire Unit, the Calamity Flame Family's combat division.
[I am Lee Ha-yul.]
[It is an honor to meet you.]
"Ah, so you're the type who observes proper formalities."
We clasped hands. As expected from his pot-lid-like appearance, the hand I held was exceedingly thick and solid.
Though a superhuman's body resists scarring, distinct calluses were embedded in his grip.
I also observed his inner self at the same time.
The first time I saw Hong Yeon-hwa, I had sensed the dormant fire inside her.
That had been possible even with the spatial perception I'd clumsily blended together—the Authority of Space and Authority of Observation merged before I truly realized it.
Now that I've grown, I could obtain clearer and more detailed information.
"Hmm... peculiar."
Just as I had taken his measure, he seemed to have taken mine.
But he tilted his head as if he hadn't gained a clear impression.
"I don't sense the Calamity Flame. Even if it were deeply suppressed, there's no way it could be hidden like... agh!"
-Smack!
"Stop being rude and come along."
Choi Ji-yeon, who had smacked Hong Jin-hyeok across the back of the head with her palm, shook off her hand and sighed.
.
.
.
After all that, I found myself standing alone in the center of the facility.
The verification procedure was simple.
The purpose of this meeting was, after all, to verify whether I actually used the Calamity Flame.
In other words, there was no need for complications—I just had to manifest the Calamity Flame once and show them.
[Shall we begin?]
"Yes, please."
At my question, Choi Ji-yeon, who had been staring this way from beyond the glass wall, nodded.
Beyond the glass wall, aside from Choi Ji-yeon, were Hong Yeon-hwa, Tanhwaju Hwa Byeok-un, and Jeonghwaju Hong Jin-hyeok.
Hong Jin-hyeok had declared he wanted to feel the Calamity Flame directly from where I stood... but was once again stopped by Choi Ji-yeon and dragged out by the scruff of his neck.
He seemed lacking in formality in many ways. Maybe it was because they were entangled more as family here?
'Enough idle thoughts.'
I cleared away the useless thoughts for now.
While sweeping aside any lingering emotional residue, I steadied my heart until it was immovable.
I must not forget. The Calamity Flame burns anything, but the kindling it devours best is its owner's emotions.
Furthermore, when there aren't enough emotions to consume, it's a boorish unique ability that goads the owner's emotions and forcibly extracts them.
If your mind is disturbed and you use it while sticky emotions are clinging to you, there's a chance you might lose control and be devoured in turn.
-Huu...
I exhaled, emptied my mind to calmness, and roused my mana.
The mana that surged from my Core flowed along my circuits and overflowed, concentrating on my right arm.
I arrayed the mana. I swelled and expanded the Innate Talent.
Not creating something new, but bringing in something that already exists and imitating it.
Mana Affinity Expansion Ability
Homogenization — Calamity Flame
FWOOSH! A fierce blaze erupted from the arm wrapped in the arm sleeve.
* * *
Beyond the glass wall, a wave of crimson flame surged in a single breath.
The wave of flame filled the interior of the facility and, like any wave, broke against the glass wall again and again.
Hwa Byeok-un reached out and touched the glass wall.
It was hot.
He could physically feel the heat borne by the flame—the Calamity Flame.
This barrier was a heat-insulated glass wall personally crafted by Tanhwaju Hwa Byeok-un.
It had been designed and fabricated to withstand even ordinary Calamity Flame for a good while, but exposed to that Calamity Flame, it would likely melt in no time.
"Old man."
"What is it, you big brute?"
"Is this just my imagination?"
Hwa Byeok-un turned his head. Hong Jin-hyeok's face, which ordinarily was lighthearted and entirely devoid of seriousness, was now stained with gravity.
Momentarily surprised by that, Hwa Byeok-un reflexively touched his own face.
He could likewise feel that the muscles of his own face had stiffened.
"......"
Is this my imagination?
Hwa Byeok-un couldn't answer right away.
Because he had felt the very same impression, and he could not draw a clear conclusion about it.
The Calamity Flame Family had continued for two hundred years, and with it, the unique ability known as the Calamity Flame had been passed down.
But not everyone had manifested the Calamity Flame.
And not everyone who manifested it produced a Calamity Flame with identical properties.
The fundamental intensity and ferocity of the manifested Calamity Flame were the same, but there were differences depending on the manifestor.
Thus, sometimes the differences were minor, barely distinguishable.
He sensed a dissonance in the Calamity Flame that boy had manifested.
Hong Jin-hyeok, who had wreathed himself in the Calamity Flame and fought countless battles, and Hwa Byeok-un, who had handled fire and struck iron before the flames for long years—both sensed something off about that Calamity Flame.
It had a certain characteristic.
There was an intensity akin to Hong Yeon-hwa's Calamity Flame, whose output was unprecedented in the family's history.
And furthermore...
'That is...'
Two hundred years.
Though it may be a brief span compared to the history of humankind, it is more than enough time—far more than enough—for a turncoat to appear along the bloodline.
Though rare, this unique ability inherited from the progenitor was sometimes not used for the peace of humanity.
Moreover,
in a relatively recent past, there had been a Calamity Flame manifestor who caused enormous harm to civilians.
An incident that occurred deep within the new city called 'Yeokjin,' right in the heart of its downtown district.
Caught in the flames that spread in all directions, the civilians burned to death on the spot numbered in the thousands.
If indirect damage were factored in, it was a catastrophe that produced casualties easily many times that.
The perpetrator of that atrocity—and the worst criminal on whom the Association imposed an 'immediate execution' order—had manifested a Calamity Flame with a distinct, viscous characteristic.
It seemed that some of that characteristic was mixed into the boy's Calamity Flame.