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I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 285
Pesson cursed at the blacksmiths blocking the entrance to Giggs' house.
"You bastards, move out of the way right now?! Giggs is in danger!"
"The master instructed us not to let anyone in!"
Pesson tried to push past the blacksmiths but was thrown aside.
"Damn it! I'm Giggs's first disciple! I have the right to enter there!"
"Master's orders were to let no one in. No matter who you are, we cannot let you in!"
"Damn it!"
Pesson tried a few more times before collapsing from exhaustion. Caesar, wearing a mask, approached Pesson and said:
"Pesson, stop now. It's already night."
"I must get in there no matter what. Because of me... I can't let Giggs be ruined because of me."
"What do you mean?"
"I was the one who taught Giggs how to purify the Nameless Sword. I told him that if you put a blacksmith's spirit into a weapon imbued with demonic energy using a chisel, it could be purified. That's how I purified the Wilderness."
Pesson grabbed a stone that had fallen on the ground.
"Because I taught him an unproven method, Giggs has turned into a devil. I need to stop him before he gets worse!"
The stone Pesson threw rolled on the ground and fell into a sewer hole. Pesson's eyes lit up when he saw the stone.
"...!"
Pesson got up like someone possessed and headed somewhere.
"Pesson, where are you going?"
"If you want to follow, just follow quietly. Don't draw attention."
The place Pesson led to was a riverbank quite far from Giggs's house. There were drainage pipes at the riverbank, and Pesson went to the largest one.
"After Shalibi was devastated by the Devil of Plague, the first thing the nobles built before buildings were emergency exits. The emergency exits are connected to different places for each building, but all the Hampton family buildings converge to this drainage pipe."
Pesson entered the drainage pipe. Soon, he took out a match and lit it.
"How did you know about the emergency exit that only the Hampton family should know about?"
"When Giggs gets really drunk, he spills everything. That's how I know a few secrets that only he knows."
Not long after, they came to a fork in the path. Pesson gritted his teeth.
"I only know this is an emergency exit, but I don't know exactly which way connects to Giggs's house."
"I think I know that."
Clang! Clang!
The sound of Giggs's hammering, faintly audible only to Caesar's ears, came through the right drainage pipe.
"Let's go this way."
***
The sound of Giggs's hammering grew louder as they walked. It was now loud enough for Pesson to hear too.
Eventually, a rusty iron door appeared at the end of the drainage pipe. Pesson rested his forehead against the door and whispered softly.
"Oh, Goddess Dre... Please..."
Pesson flung the iron door open forcefully. The sound of hammering so powerful it made their knees weak came through.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Pesson followed the hammer sound as if entranced.
The emergency exit seemed to be directly connected to Giggs's workshop storage. After leaving the underground storage, Giggs's workshop came into view.
In the center of the workshop, a man was hammering in the moonlight. Pesson couldn't close his mouth when he saw the man's face.
"...Giggs."
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Giggs didn't hear Pesson's words. Giggs was striking a chisel toward the Nameless Sword. Around Giggs were scattered chisels that had been worn down. And on Giggs's head, a single horn had sprouted.
"Ah..."
Pesson slumped to the ground.
***
When Pesson first started working as a laborer at the Hampton family's forge at age 15, Giggs was already working as a proper blacksmith.
To be honest, Pesson didn't like that very much. While Pesson was struggling to carry coal and steel ingots, that guy was making swords.
While Pesson was working the bellows until he was exhausted, that guy was facing customers and selling his own works.
The other laborers who started with Pesson all acknowledged the difference between themselves and Giggs, saying he was a genius, but Pesson just thought it was possible because he was lucky enough to be born into a good family.
Pesson was certain that if he had been born in a good environment like Giggs and worked hard, he would have been selling items with his own name on them like Giggs.
To make his thoughts a reality, when others had clocked out and dragged their tired bodies to their quarters, he stayed behind alone and practiced making weapons with scrap metal.
No one taught Pesson anything.
He just made weapons with techniques he learned by observation while carrying materials. Pesson mixed weapons he secretly made among other weapons to test his abilities.
He thought that if there were complaints, he must have made the weapon poorly, and if there were no complaints, he must have made the weapon well.
That way, he sold about 30 weapons over a year, and not once was there a complaint. Only then could Pesson realize that his skills were not much different from other blacksmiths.
Once he realized the truth, Pesson's dissatisfaction grew day by day. Pesson was confident in his skills. But all he did was support the blacksmiths.
Pesson brought weapons he made to other blacksmiths to show them, but the blacksmiths paid no attention.
All they said was ‘It's the tradition of the Hampton forge,’ ‘You call this well-made? It looks like garbage to me,’ ‘If you're going to talk nonsense, get out right now!’.
In this old-fashioned world of steel, Pesson was nothing but a jagged stone.
As Pesson's dissatisfaction grew, his jealousy of Giggs grew ever higher. That guy had his own anvil, hammer, and forge.
He was already selling weapons with his name on them, and was learning techniques for handling Terra, which only veteran blacksmiths had access to. Isn't skill more important than background in a forge?.
While acknowledging that Giggs was quite an outstanding blacksmith, Pesson was not far behind.
Pesson wanted to receive his own anvil and forge like Giggs, and wanted to learn from the master.
So Pesson got his hands on Terra hidden deep in the forge. Terra was a mysterious metal incomparable to other steel he had seen so far.
It was soft yet sturdy, hot yet cool.
Pesson picked up his hammer, recalling how veteran blacksmiths handled Terra.
The dagger he completed this way.
The reason he made a dagger was because the recent item Giggs made with Terra was precisely a dagger.
The dagger was perfect. The balance was not off, the blade was sharpened well, and he confirmed that when the dagger was held up to sunlight, it showed mysterious rainbow colors.
To be honest, the dagger Pesson made was no different from the one Giggs made. Pesson showed the Terra dagger he made to veteran blacksmiths.
And he was beaten almost to death with clubs.
Rather than noticing Pesson's skill in making a dagger with the difficult-to-handle Terra, the blacksmiths were furious that he had broken the tradition of the Hampton family.
Despite the blacksmiths' loud demands that Pesson apologize for his wrongdoing, he absolutely refused to say he had done anything wrong.
Pesson had not done anything wrong. Even if their eyes were knotholes, they would know.
Pesson's dagger was perfect. Perfection and wrongdoing are as far apart as summer and winter. Pesson didn't want to say he had done anything wrong, even if he was beaten to death.
-Pesson, learn under me.
At that time, ironically, it was Giggs who saved Pesson.
Pesson initially wanted to refuse Giggs's offer. He didn't want to beg for his life from him of all people. But what made Pesson change his mind were the words that came later.
-You have talent.
-This dagger is perfect.
Pesson's talent that no one else acknowledged.
The one who recognized him was none other than Giggs, whom he had always found annoying.
Pesson learned under Giggs.
***
Giggs wasn't as noble as Pesson had thought.
He liked potatoes and sweet potatoes covered in soot, preferred sleeping on firewood with just a cloth carelessly spread over it rather than on a soft bed, and had as much responsibility as he had pride in the weapons he made.
His skills were also far superior to Pesson's. What would take Pesson three hammer strikes, Giggs finished with just one, and he made weapons in detail considering the physical conditions and habits of the users.
The skills Pesson learned from Giggs in one month were more valuable and numerous than those he had picked up by observing other blacksmiths for the past five years.
As Pesson genuinely respected Giggs and treated him as an equal, he began to glimpse Giggs's troubles as well.
Giggs, whom Pesson had thought had no worries in the world, lived burdened by his family name and his own too-high reputation. So Giggs cried whenever he got drunk.
-I just want to let it all go and run away, Pesson.
-I don't think my skills have improved since yesterday.
-This isn't right…
-I need to do better...
Giggs couldn't remember what he had said the night before when he cried while drinking. Even when Pesson told Giggs to stop crying when he drank, Giggs grumbled that he never cried and told Pesson to strike the hammer one more time instead of wasting time talking.
That dawn was like that too.
-I'm sorry, Pesson…
-I'm a liar.
-I don't deserve to be a master.
-I'm... Trash.
On the day Giggs took the position of master after his father passed away, Giggs got drunk, knocked on Pesson's door, and confessed while crying.
-You should have received the master's position.
-I am worse than you.
-I'm sorry... I'm truly sorry for lying.
Pesson wasn't very shocked by Giggs's confession.
Giggs and Pesson had known each other for over 10 years. There was no way Pesson didn't understand the meaning of those anxious eyes and expressions when Giggs first lied in front of him.
If Pesson had been in his teens, he would have called journalists and exposed that Giggs had developed the Terra alloy more slowly than he had, claiming that he had beaten Giggs.
But the current Pesson was different. Pesson met the eyes of Giggs, who was kneeling before him and begging for forgiveness.
-Giggs, you are more than qualified to be a master.
-The position of master isn't something you rise to just because you're good at hammering.
-A blacksmith who saves people like you should rise to the position of master.
The reason Pesson postponed the announcement of his Punishment wasn't because of Giggs's lie. It was because he genuinely believed that he himself was not qualified to be a master.
He believed that a true master wasn't simply one who stood at the pinnacle of blacksmithing, but one who selected skilled blacksmiths and taught them.
Pesson had a talent for hammering, but he didn't have an eye for people.
Indeed, after Giggs took the position of master, talented young blacksmiths were discovered and received guidance from Giggs.
The bad practices of the Hampton forge disappeared, and a foundation was established to sponsor talented young blacksmiths. It was an achievement that could never have been accomplished if Pesson had taken the master's position.
However, since he was completely drunk, Giggs did not remember any of Pesson's words. Even afterwards, Giggs still thought Pesson should have risen to the master's position, while Pesson thought himself unqualified.
After becoming a master, Giggs rarely picked up a hammer to make weapons or armor himself, and didn't frequently visit the forge bearing his name. Despite seeing Giggs waver, Pesson wasn't worried at all.
He thought that with time, Giggs would find his center. Because Giggs was a solid man. Because he was a man of steel who knew how to overcome burdens and adversity.
But... He wasn't.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Giggs hammered without saying a word.
The Nameless Sword was a masterpiece among Giggs's masterpieces. It wouldn't break even when struck by the blades of Moon Knights, and demons wounded by the Nameless Sword didn't heal easily.
That's why engraving a name on the blade was truly a difficult task.
"Giggs, my friend..."
Pesson regretted with tears. The first person Giggs showed the Nameless Sword to after making it was Pesson.
As it contained Giggs's soul and all his knowledge, there was no more perfect sword for purely killing demons.
-There won't be a more perfect sword for killing the Demon King.
-But Yan will ruin it.
-Don't give this sword to Yan.
Instead of just telling him not to give it away, he should have thrown that sword into the furnace and melted it.
If he had seen this future where Giggs became a devil because of that cursed sword, he would never have left that sword alone.
Bang! Bang!
At that moment, there was a commotion outside the door.
"We've searched all of Shalibi. But there's no other place where a devil could be besides here!"
"Absolutely not! You can't go in!"
"It's the Pope's order. He commanded us to go in and check if there's a devil! If you don't move aside, we'll enter by force!"
Pesson's fists trembled. If that door opened now, all of Giggs's reputation and honor would plummet. Pesson absolutely did not want Giggs to experience such dishonor.
"Sir Caesar, may I ask you one difficult favor?"
Pesson pressed his forehead to the floor toward Caesar.
"Just until Giggs completely purifies the Nameless Sword... Just until then, please buy us time. This is an old man's request."
Caesar looked at Pesson and Giggs alternately before speaking.
"Do you think a devil can purify the Nameless Sword?"
Pesson bit his lip until it bled and said:
"Not a devil. It's possible because it's Giggs."
Caesar thought for a moment then lifted lefty.
Pesson couldn't bear to see Giggs's end and squeezed his eyes shut. Caesar passed by Pesson and Giggs and headed for the main door.
"Fine. But you owe me a debt."
"...Thank you, Caesar."
Caesar shouldered lefty and went out the main door.
***
Outside, all the blacksmiths had been bound and pushed aside.
The holy knights were surprised and looked at Caesar.
"L-Lord Caesar...?"
"How did you, Lord Caesar, from inside there...?"
Caesar came out through the main door and closed it.
"From now on, no one can enter here."