Chapter 288: translated
I Killed the Demon King. It Was a Mistake.
Chapter 288
After Luca and Nel visited yesterday morning, no knights showed up in front of Giggs' house.
Instead, curious reporters began secretly climbing over the walls of Giggs' house.
Perhaps they wanted to know exactly what was happening inside Giggs' house.
"That's already ten of them."
Gloria tied up the hands and feet of a reporter who had just climbed over the wall with a camera. The reporter tried to peek inside the workshop by sticking his head out, but Raven blocked his view. The reporter was terrified when he saw Raven.
"Y-you're the Green-eyed Wizard?!"
"Stay quiet until this is over."
"Just one question. Is it true that Giggs... Huuuung."
When Raven cast a sleep spell on the reporter, he immediately passed out. Gloria locked the unconscious reporter in the underground storage room of the workshop.
"It's already been five days."
"What?"
Clang! Clang! Clang!
"I said! It's already been five days!"
"Yes. That's right."
Due to the loudness of Giggs' hammering, communication was impossible without shouting. Gloria looked at Pesson, who was sitting next to Giggs and staring blankly as he continued hammering.
"Pesson seems to have a lot on his mind."
Pesson had not left Giggs' side for 24 hours. He wouldn't eat even when told to, nor would he drink water. He just stared blankly at Giggs' face and hammer, lost in thought about something.
"When will it end?"
"I don't know. Only Giggs would know."
The morning sunlight shone on Pesson's face.
Flinch!
When the warm sunlight tickled Pesson's eyes, he got up from his seat. Then he walked steadily toward Gloria.
"Give me that."
"Pardon? Which one?"
"Blood Moon."
"What? Why?"
"I can't just wait idly until Giggs comes to his senses. I need to do something I can do."
"Will you be alright? You haven't eaten anything since yesterday. And you haven't slept either."
Pesson nodded slightly.
"I actually feel more mentally sharp. Hurry and give it to me."
Raven took out the Blood Moon from her spatial pocket and handed it to Pesson. Pesson stood in front of the anvil placed next to Giggs, holding the broken Blood Moon.
Blood Moon was a very unfamiliar sword to Pesson.
It was a completely new type of Terra alloy, so he had no idea how to fix it. Then, Giggs' teachings suddenly came to mind.
-The important thing when handling Terra is consistent force and consistent mindset.
-You must hammer with the mindset that you're dyeing the Terra with your will.
Pesson became dazed as if sleepwalking.
Was it because he hadn't slept for so long? He couldn't pinpoint the exact reason, but listening to Giggs' constant hammering made him feel like he had gone back to that time. Pesson murmured unconsciously.
"...I know that already."
When Giggs taught Pesson how to handle Terra, Pesson had already made a dagger out of Terra. It meant he already knew something about Terra. At that time, Giggs gave Pesson a piece of broken blade.
-Then how would you repair a weapon made by someone else? This Terra has another blacksmith's soul and spirit embedded in it.
"...I don't know. If my spirit mixes with the Terra that has been penetrated by another blacksmith's spirit, it will become either a pile of scrap metal or possessed by evil spirits."
-The answer is for you to be dyed by the Terra. Listen to and empathize with the story that has seeped into the Terra.
"What nonsense are you talking about? Being dyed by the Terra?"
-That's your homework. You should be able to understand what I'm saying. Try to restore this broken sword to its original state.
Pesson closed his eyes and communed with the Blood Moon.
Pesson's rough fingertips traced over the Blood Moon. He had heard that no one had touched the Blood Moon since the era of the Devil of Plague.
If so, all the marks engraved on this Blood Moon should only belong to three people. 'Red Crescent Wendy' who wielded this sword, the 'Blacksmith' who made this sword, and finally, the wizard who engraved magic into this Terra.
Pesson's fingertips traced the shallow and neat scratches that were carved all over the Blood Moon.
These shallow scratches clearly belonged to 'Wendy.'
These scratches were all made during combat. Since Wendy was the only one who used this sword in battle, these must all be Wendy's traces.
Wendy seemed to have a habit of deflecting heavy attacks with the blade.
Why did Wendy deflect attacks instead of blocking them directly?
Was it due to lack of strength?
No, Wendy appeared to be a knight with a strong forward momentum. To block attacks while quickly approaching enemies, she needed to reduce impact and deflect shocks diagonally to maintain momentum.
It seemed that Wendy mainly faced demons who used magic or throwing weapons from a distance rather than demons with close-combat weapons.
Pesson erased Wendy's traces from the Blood Moon in his mind. Though Wendy used the Blood Moon, she wasn't the one who made it. He needed to read the deeply engraved breath of the blacksmith in this Blood Moon.
'...There were two owners.'
When Pesson's fingertips brushed the edge of the blade rather than the flat surface, he could tell that this sword had two owners.
This owner didn't seem to be a human with refined sword skills like Wendy.
Pesson saw the image of an avenger who crushed, chopped, and destroyed. Just rage. Someone who mercilessly swung this sword in a state of blind fury. This belonged to another human, not Wendy. Who could it be?
'I'll erase this for now.'
Pesson needed to feel the spirit of the blacksmith who made this sword, not the emotions of the knights who wielded it.
Aura wrapped around Pesson's fingertips.
-The process of handling Terra is exactly the same as handling steel.
-You make it by folding and striking the heated Terra, folding and striking it repeatedly.
-It's in that process that the blacksmith's spirit deeply enters it.
Pesson's aura shallowly penetrated the Blood Moon and then reflected back.
Pesson's aura was delicate when he inserted it into the Blood Moon, but the reflected aura was rough and chaotic.
-Of course it's chaotic.
-The longer a Terra weapon is used, the more a knight's spirit dwells in the Terra rather than the blacksmith's spirit.
-Yet Terra weapons don't change much.
-The reason is that the blacksmith's spirit firmly holds the center.
-Can you say a tree has moved just because its branches sway in the wind?
-Even when scattered by the wind, the tree doesn't move because its roots are firmly planted in the ground.
-Find the roots.
When wielding a sword, a swordsman swings it with various feelings. Growth, revenge, impatience, confusion, anger…
All those emotions seep into the Terra, briefly affecting it before evaporating, leaving only shallow traces.
Pesson began removing all these shallow traces. Confusion, impatience, revenge, sadness, anguish... Pesson erased Wendy's turbulent life and sought out the blacksmith's spirit.
The aura flowing through Pesson's fingertips began to change. The calm movement of the aura gradually intensified. Pesson thought this intensifying emotion was euphoria.
It was because after breaking through the tension that made his lips dry, he was filled with a satisfaction so complete it made his legs weak. It felt like an actor receiving applause after finishing a performance in front of many people.
'No, that's not it.'
Pesson felt the loneliness mixed within the euphoria. Was this loneliness Wendy's?
No. This feeling of loneliness was evenly spread throughout the Blood Moon. This loneliness was clearly a spirit engraved when the Blood Moon was created.
Could loneliness and euphoria coexist?
More than anything, Pesson was surprised that such complex emotions were contained in this greatsword.
To maintain such complex emotions while forging for days on end,was this even humanly possible?
'The wizard.'
Yes. Blood Moon was a special weapon where a wizard intervened during the manufacturing process.
Not only the blacksmith's spirit but also the wizard's spirit was mixed in here. It must be that such a special Terra alloy could be created because Blood Moon was born from the proper mixture of two spirits.
Could Pesson repair the Blood Moon alone without a wizard then? Should he ask Raven to take on the role of the wizard?
'No.'
Even if Raven had expertise with artifacts, she wouldn't be familiar with pushing a spirit into Terra.
From the beginning, Pesson didn't understand the process of a wizard pushing a spirit into Terra. If you handle Terra with a method you don't understand, the Terra becomes either a demon sword or a pile of scrap metal.
-What do you do when there are emotions in the Terra that are difficult to understand?
-There's only one way.
-You just keep waiting for the emotions contained in the Terra to infect you.
Pesson spoke to Giggs.
"How exactly do you recognize those emotions?"
-When handling Terra, a blacksmith often envisions a specific image to maintain a consistent mindset.
-Wait until that image appears in your mind.
Pesson thought about what image could encompass this loneliness and euphoria. Could the blacksmith and wizard have experiences that would make them feel such emotions?
How did the blacksmith and wizard even come up with the idea to create Blood Moon together?
Blood Moon was created during the urgent period when Shalibi was occupied and the Holy Maiden had died.
It was a time when obtaining Terra was as difficult as plucking stars from the sky, so how did they think of creating such a challenging piece? It could have easily become a pile of scrap metal.
'No, that's not it.'
This was inevitable. It was a time when they frequently faced devil ambushes, making it difficult to set up proper equipment.
Terra needs to be heated above 1,600 degrees Celsius before it can be forged.
While fleeing from the Devil of Plague and the Disease Eaters, they had to make a sword for Wendy, but would they have had the luxury to build a furnace that could emit heat exceeding 1,600 degrees?
In a period when it was difficult to set up proper equipment, there was only one way to make a sword from Terra.
The wizard lit a fire, and they used that fire to heat and forge the Terra.
In other words, since the Terra was heated with magically created hot fire, it would have been more influenced by the wizard than the blacksmith.
If Pesson had been the blacksmith making this Blood Moon, what would he have asked of this wizard? Wouldn't he have asked to share the same 'image' and 'emotion' so that the Terra wouldn't be affected by magic?
No, more precisely, the wizard would have asked the blacksmith to tell him the images and emotions the wizard was thinking of.
Pesson opened his eyes and looked down at the Blood Moon. Its appearance was as unique as its special abilities.
The handle and guard were made of bone, and the blade was an ominous dark red color. And as if they hadn't even considered the balance of the sword, it was lumpy and ugly, and the blade wasn't even properly set.
'This was made in one go.'
Pesson looked at Raven. Raven was capturing a reporter who had come over in the middle of the night and casting a sleep spell on him.
He thought it had only been a moment, but it was already night, and the sun had set.
"There's something I'm curious about."
"Yes. Please tell me."
"Is there a magic that can share experiences that wizards or others have gone through?"
Raven thought for a moment and then spoke.
"There is magic that can show illusions."
"Illusions?"
"There is magic that shows the situation as remembered by the wizard. But it's impossible to extract and show someone else's memories."
"So an illusion is just like a dream?"
"That's right. It just vaguely shows things."
"Is it impossible to share emotions too?"
"Since this is a type of light magic, sharing emotions is impossible."
Was Pesson's guess wrong? Simply showing illusions is meaningless. One needs to know how to perfectly share the experience of that day.
"But there's something similar among alchemy magic."
"What kind of magic?"
"Magic that analyzes knights' aura patterns. I heard they analyze aura patterns to produce custom potions."
"Isn't that just analyzing aura patterns?"
"Yan told me that high-level knights like Yan or Mitchell handle aura while engraving specific images in their minds. He said those images are projected onto the aura."
"So among alchemy magic, there's a way to extract that image?"
"More precisely, it's the thoughts contained in the aura. It's possible to dissolve those thoughts in a special solution."
“I heard. Of course, I heard that it doesn't last long even if you drink it."
Pesson's eyes lit up as if struck by lightning.
"Who is the wizard who developed the magic to extract those thoughts?"
Raven searched through her memories like looking for a book in a library. After a moment, Raven spoke.
"...Wizard Hades. The wizard who created this Blood Moon."
Pesson could finally understand perfectly how this Blood Moon was made. The emotions contained in this Blood Moon weren't those of the blacksmith or the wizard.
They were Wendy's.
Wizard Hades extracted the 'thoughts' that Wendy envisioned when using aura and made the blacksmith and himself experience them. And they quickly made the Blood Moon before those thoughts diluted and disappeared from their minds.
If the 'spirit' contained in this Blood Moon is entirely Wendy's, then it's a different story. It's not easy for a blacksmith or wizard to experience this euphoria mixed with loneliness.
But it's different for a knight. Pesson delved deeper into the Blood Moon. When he thought about Wendy experiencing this deep loneliness and euphoria, the scent of blood first brushed past his nose.
What he then saw was a battlefield. Wendy standing alone on a red battlefield. In Wendy's sight were the scattered corpses of dead demons.
This battlefield wasn't one of defeat but of victory. But the reason she remained alone was that all the knights who fought alongside Wendy had died behind her. Wendy lacked the courage to look at the corpses of her dead comrades. If she looked back, she couldn't move forward.
Wendy still had too many demons to kill and too many battlefields left. Wendy had a deep loneliness seated within the faint euphoria of victory, and she lived desperately, deliberately ignoring the loneliness.
Wendy walked, trampling on the corpses of devils. She looked like a wolf setting out nobly for the battlefield, like a pale blood-red crescent moon just before being devoured by shadows.
-I knew you could do it.
Giggs' voice penetrated Pesson's ear. Pesson looked at Giggs with a faint smile.
-Well, who am I?
"Well, who did I learn from?"
Pesson took the Blood Moon and headed for the furnace. Now he felt he could fix it.