Chapter 224
Chapter 224
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 224
Chapter Title: Regret (2)
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After leaving Tak Jong-gun's room, we headed to the separate residence where Tak Jang-myeong lived.
As expected of a blacksmith's home, even on that short distance, sharpened blades and whetstones were scattered here and there.
"Um?"
One of them looked like a proper sword.
Curiosity piqued, I said to Tak Jang-myeong,
"Is this a sword you forged, Blacksmith?"
"Ah, yes. That's right."
"May I draw it?"
"It's clumsy work, so you'll only hurt your eyes."
However, when I drew the sword, it was clear his words were just modesty.
Shing—
Not only did the hilt fit perfectly in my hand,
but it even had the cloud patterns characteristic of a well-forged blade.
Jeong Hyeon, who was checking it alongside me, spoke up.
"Huh, they say the finest sword among swords comes from the hands of Makgan Mountain's blacksmiths. There's a reason the fame passed down from Kan Jiang and Mo Ye of the Spring and Autumn period still holds in the martial world."
Tak Jang-myeong scratched his head at Jeong Hyeon's words.
"You're too kind. Didn't you hear my father yelling at me about the sword I forged?"
"That's because the Master Blacksmith has such high standards. Young Master Eon, even though it's the same Baekryeong Jeonggang sword, doesn't this one look much better than the one from the Alliance Leader?"
"It looks that way to me too."
"You're gilding the lily; it's embarrassing."
He didn't seem displeased, but he was clearly embarrassed.
As if to say enough, Tak Jang-myeong pointed to the building and said,
"Please come inside. It's dinnertime, so if you wait, I'll bring some food."
Following his words, we entered the room and waited a moment.
Tak Jang-myeong returned with an embarrassed expression, placing rice and side dishes on the table, and said,
"You honor us with your presence, but the hospitality is meager."
The food on the table was stir-fried greens like bok choy and bamboo shoots, fresh vegetables.
At that moment, Eun Ha-seong smiled amiably and spoke.
"It's plenty! It reminds me of the grasslands; it's great!"
He meant to say not to be embarrassed, but it was too cheeky.
'You have to read the room.'
I put down my chopsticks and flicked Ha-seong's forehead.
Thwack!
"Ow! Big brother! I was just trying to lighten the mood..."
Eun Ha-seong clutched his forehead and tried to make excuses.
But then the door opened, and Tak Jang-myeong's wife, with a belly like Mount Namsan, peeked in.
"Husband, take this too."
Tak Jang-myeong went to his wife.
They whispered as if not wanting others to hear.
"Wife? Where did the mutton come from suddenly?"
"I borrowed it from the neighbors. How can we serve honored guests just stir-fried veggies and tofu soup?"
But with our heightened senses and sharp ears, we heard everything.
I beckoned to Eun Ha-seong to offer his forehead.
Even Ha-seong, who usually talked back habitually, silently offered his forehead.
Flick! Thwack!
Meanwhile, Dang Ok-gi said to Tak Jang-myeong, who returned with a bowl of roasted mutton,
"It looks like your wife is almost due. Have you called a physician?"
"Once early on and once later, so twice, but lately things haven't been great, so we couldn't."
I immediately spoke.
"This guy may not look it, but he's a physician."
"...May not look it?"
"He has skills praised by the Medicine King."
"...Hmph. You should have led with that."
"How about he takes a look at her pulse?"
"Oh my, we'd be so grateful, but it's embarrassing..."
"I'll take that as permission. Dang Ok-gi."
"Got it."
Dang Ok-gi followed the wife out and soon returned after checking the pulse.
"The mother and baby are both healthy. But the baby seems a bit big, so it's better if we eat the meat. Tonics aren't good at this stage."
I cautiously sent a transmission to Dang Ok-gi.
[You're not saying that because you want meat side dishes like Ha-seong, right?]
[What do you take me for?]
[Just kidding.]
Dang Ok-gi glared at me like a wildcat and said to Tak Jang-myeong,
"I told your wife too, but to avoid difficult labor, steer clear of fatty foods and take walks now and then."
"Yes, we'll do that."
"You'll need to rest soon, so it might be good to hire someone to help with chores for a while."
"Thank you. How can we repay you? Stay here; I'll get some chicken from people I know..."
Tak Jang-myeong bowed repeatedly to us and prepared to go out.
I grabbed Tak Jang-myeong's sleeve and said,
"That's enough. Rather, what's the story behind Regret? It seems like the Master Blacksmith forged it... If it's okay, could you tell us that story?"
"Ah, Regret. But I didn't hear it directly from Father; I overheard it from the neighboring blacksmith uncles, so it's not certain."
"We'll take that into account."
"My mother passed away after giving birth to me, and it's said he made it around then."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Master Blacksmith Tak Jong-gun of the Tak Family Iron Forge.
Lately, his vitality had waned, spending far more time lying down than standing.
"...Regret."
Yet, facing the sword in his hand, his mind cleared and energy returned to his body.
Buoyed by that energy, Tak Jong-gun dragged his aged body to the ancestral hall inside the house.
In the hall, after lighting incense, he picked up his wife's spirit tablet from long ago among many.
And asked,
"Why has Regret appeared before me again?"
The tablet couldn't answer, of course.
But Tak Jong-gun began pouring out his ramblings to the tablet.
"...Do you know what kind of sword this is? No, you wouldn't, since you left without knowing. It's the sword I made to gather money for your funeral."
In his youth, Tak Jong-gun considered himself the rightful heir of Makgan Mountain's blacksmiths.
"I was arrogant."
He didn't even take orders for farming tools.
He was selective even with requests for weapons.
He went around spouting childish nonsense that he couldn't give swords to unworthy people.
Thus, the Tak Family Iron Forge was impoverished.
"Then you left this world."
Crushed by that poverty, Tak Jong-gun's wife passed away.
"I needed funeral money. I promised to forge a sword to make up for not being a proper husband in life, accepted payment from the ancestors, and sent you off in a flower sedan. I should have taken better care of you while you were alive..."
After the funeral,
Tak Jong-gun hammered iron frantically.
He didn't even think about the convictions he'd spouted his whole life.
With the mindset that he'd promised so he'd make it, he forcibly forged a single sword, and the inscribed name was Regret.
"Regret is a shameful sword to you and to the owners it passed through."
Thus, to Tak Jong-gun, Regret was a shameful sword.
Both as a craftsman and as a husband.
"...What are you telling me to do?"
Even after that, Tak Jong-gun did not bend his pride.
However, that pride was no longer the childish arrogance of his youth.
Struggling would be a better description.
When he protected the pride of the craftsmen carried under the name Tak Family Iron Forge.
Only then would he have something to say in the afterlife about his past mistakes.
That was the only atonement Tak Jong-gun could offer for the irredeemable regret.
"What am I..."
A long time after Tak Jong-gun poured out his ramblings,
Morning had dawned.
It was time to return Regret to its owner.
"......"
Tak Jong-gun dragged his legs, sore from a lifetime at the bellows, and shuffled out of the ancestral hall.
But outside the hall,
At the door some distance away stood Eon Yong-un, the sword inspector who carried Regret.
Tak Jong-gun spoke.
"How long have you been there?"
"Since after dinner."
"Did Jang-myeong neglect his guests?"
"No, the hospitality was sufficient."
"Then?"
"Just... It's a precious sword to me too, so I was guarding it."
"......"
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ At my words that I'd guarded the ancestral hall all night,
Tak Jong-gun stood frozen as if time had stopped for him alone.
I couldn't know what he was thinking, but since I'd naturally received Regret, I could reunite with Master.
—I thought he was just a stuffy old man grumbling about splashing dirty water and such, but he has his own pitiable side.
Starting like that, Master conveyed the ramblings Tak Jong-gun had poured out while clutching the spirit tablet.
—And that's how this sword I'm in, called Regret, was made.
'...I see.'
After hearing from Tak Jang-myeong and now Master's story,
These words came from my mouth.
"We have a physician in our group, so he checked your daughter-in-law's pulse."
At my voice, Tak Jong-gun's frozen time began to flow again.
"You did that for us."
"Yes. Both your daughter-in-law and the grandchild in her womb are healthy."
"Even after this unseemly old man slighted the one who brought the Silver Grace Token that saved my son's life, you checked on my daughter-in-law and grandchild too. The Tak of Makgan Mountain expresses his gratitude thus."
Tak Jong-gun politely clasped his hands toward me, apologizing for yesterday's rudeness.
But in a firm tone, he spoke.
"I've received much, but I'm sorry—I cannot go to Dangan Valley."
Hm?
Me, not us?
"Is that so?"
"Yes. Even if people point fingers calling me ungrateful, there's no helping it. I have sins that require me to bury my bones in this land. With this old body, even if I followed you, Young Master, there's little I could do."
Tak Jong-gun's words sounded like a refusal of my proposal at first glance.
But thinking calmly, he specified 'me' instead of 'us'—limiting it to himself.
'...He's saying to take Tak Jang-myeong later?'
That 'later' probably meant after his own death.
Pondering what to say to his implied meaning, I simply nodded and replied,
"I understand your situation, Elder."
This house had Tak Jang-myeong's wife, who was full-term anyway.
There were no conditions to take them to Dangan Valley right away.
Better to think I'd planted the seed of connection than say anything more.
Tak Jong-gun clasped his hands once more at my words and spoke.
"Relying on your magnanimity, Young Master, I have one more request."
"A request?"
"If possible, lend me Regret for a few more days."
Perhaps from years near the hot forge, one of Tak Jong-gun's eyes was cloudy.
"I want to reforge it. It's a deficient sword, sharpened haphazardly in a distraught time. I want to correct it. Will you grant this rude old man's plea?"
But in that moment of speaking, his cloudy eyes seemed to burn fiercely.
I chuckled and spoke.
"That's something I wanted to ask of you instead."
"Even in your eyes, Regret's flaws are visible. Shameful."
"Not that. I have a millennium cold iron ingot I obtained from the Martial Alliance's Grand Strategist for certain matters."
"Millennium cold iron?"
"Yes. Could you incorporate it and reforge it?"
"Forging a weapon with millennium cold iron is the greatest fortune for a blacksmith—how could I refuse?"
Just as I accepted Tak Jong-gun's request to lend Regret a few more days,
—True masters don't discriminate against weapons, but famed swords live up to their worth. For you to have a millennium cold iron sword is great for our Heaven-Splitting Sword Sect...
Master, pleased that I'd get a good sword, suddenly stopped mid-sentence, sensing something wrong.
—...Wait.
'?'
And in a flustered tone,
—If you melt Regret... what happens to me?
Nothing would happen.
But opportunities to tease Master didn't come often.
'Thank you for everything, Master.'
—What?! Blinded by millennium cold iron, you're trying to send your master away?
'Yes. Leave the Heaven-Splitting Sword Sect to this disciple and please head to paradise... You hated not going while alive, right? Sniff. Then where should you go?'
—You rascal! You're teasing me!