The Hidden Legacy
Over the past two years, Choi Yeosim and Lee Shin had never met face to face. Yet they had shared quite a few conversations in their own way.
At first, Choi Yeosim had been wary of Lee Shin. Because of that, most of their exchanges had been closer to his one-sided courtship.
But it didn’t take long for their relationship to change.
The very next day after receiving that absurd message, the delivery scandal that began in Busan exploded into a nationwide gate-level issue.
Thanks to that, every delivery company came under full investigation. Lower-tier guilds with raids scheduled for the day after tomorrow suddenly found themselves in a frantic scramble, waving around wads of cash in search of potions.
At the time, Choi Yeosim and the Choi Family Pharmacy had been in dire straits. That was when they signed contracts with the “guilds with bright futures” Lee Shin had promised. It allowed them to resolve their urgent cash flow crisis.
Besides that, Lee Shin had helped Choi Yeosim in many other ways.
He sent expensive gifts for every congratulatory or condolence occasion without fail. He even remembered her birthday when no one else did.
After two years of such sincere effort…
He had finally earned recognition as the successor to her great-great-grandfather.
In Lee Shin’s terms, he had maxed out her “favorability.”
It was time to make his move.
The garden of the hidden residence.
When Choi Yeosim tilted the teapot, the gentle fragrance of mulberry leaf tea spread through the air.
“Please, have some. I didn’t expect you to visit so suddenly.”
“Huh? That was just something I said casually. Did I come without reading the room?!”
“Not at all. I don’t say empty words.”
“We’re complete opposites, then.”
“You’re still as mischievous as ever. Hehe.”
“Haha!”
Lee Shin, who had been laughing brightly, suddenly put on a serious expression.
“It looks like you sent your parents off well. I’m glad. Your face looks much brighter now.”
“Thank you. Thanks to you, I was able to give them a proper farewell. But… isn’t this the first time you’re seeing my face? Back then I was wearing a bamboo hat…”
“I saw your character cutscene. You’re one of the main characters, after all.”
“You really haven’t changed at all.”
“Hey, I’m not joking!”
“Don’t make me laugh. Hehe.”
As he spoke, Lee Shin looked around the garden.
Stone walls and earthenware jars. Instead of decorative flowers, there were medicinal herbs. Instead of ornamental trees, there were mulberry trees that could be used for medicine or food—and even made into such luxurious tea. Not a single thing was wasted.
The practical yet serene atmosphere of the garden perfectly reflected Choi Yeosim’s personality.
“Looking at this hidden residence, I can see how much hardship you’ve endured.”
“It’s hardly worth calling hardship. Polishing and prospering the family is simply the duty of a prestigious family head. On the contrary, I think you’re far more impressive, Representative.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I’ve been watching the Mir Guild’s matches. I was happy to see that Ms. Lee Hye-jung is using the poison I provided properly. The traps you use in raids from time to time aren’t bad either.”
“Goodness, what kind of compliment is that? The poison is one thing, but the praise for our potions has been pouring in too. People are saying they can’t do without the Choi Family Pharmacy anymore.”
“Pfft! That’s quite the strong statement.”
If this hidden residence resembled Choi Yeosim’s calm personality, then the Mir Guild greatly resembled Lee Shin’s own.
It was cheerful and unconventional. Courageous in the face of trials, never complacent in happiness.
A person who could crack a lighthearted joke even when facing any difficulty—the Mir Guild was practically Lee Shin’s mirror image.
“Damn… my soulmate was right here. Record that for me. I need to play it for Dong-ha hyung.”
“Is that really necessary? The vice-captain respects you more than anyone.”
“Heh heh, respect? I’m just doing what I enjoy.”
After catching up over a cup of tea, the small talk was over.
They moved on to the main topic.
“What brings you to see me today?”
“Normally I should say something like, ‘Do I need a reason to visit?’ But… the story I’m about to tell is serious enough that even I have to get a bit grave.”
Lee Shin rinsed his mouth with tea, then wiped all traces of humor from his face and spoke with complete seriousness.
“The reason I came today is because I want you to introduce me to Ak-bong.”
“Ak… bong? What do you…”
At first Choi Yeosim looked utterly confused, not understanding what he meant.
But then something seemed to click. Her eyes suddenly widened.
“Ak-bong… you don’t mean the Ak-bong I know, do you? The legendary master craftsman Ak-bong who appears in textbooks?!”
“That’s right. That Ak-bong. The one who created the legendary item Seven-Branched Sword. He’s even listed in the Guinness Book of Records.”
There were only ten legendary items in history that had been crafted by human hands rather than dropped from gates.
And among the mere ten legendary items that existed in the entire world, the most recently created one was none other than Ak-bong’s Seven-Branched Sword.
He was a figure so famous that even people outside the industry couldn’t help but know him.
But why ask her?
Choi Yeosim stared at Lee Shin for a long time before saying, “Excuse me for a moment,” and plucking a strand of his hair. She rubbed it between her palms.
Soon, a magical light appeared as it read his biometric data. Her eyes widened in shock.
“Normal…?!”
She had thought he might be on some kind of drug to be spouting such nonsense, but he was completely normal.
This was actually terrifying. It meant he was saying these insane things completely sober and with total seriousness.
“Of course. I am extremely normal. And extremely serious.”
“Representative, I’m sorry, but I’ve never even met that person. How could I possibly introduce you?”
In the past, the Choi Family Pharmacy had been prosperous enough to receive invitations to the ‘National Prestige Association,’ a gathering of only Korea’s most prestigious families. But that was before the Doksalhu incident.
Afterward, they had almost no interaction with other groups, so her personal network was painfully shallow.
The fact that no one had helped them when they collapsed two years ago made that painfully obvious.
Perhaps that was why Choi Yeosim had always emphasized the word “prestige.” If even she didn’t acknowledge it, then it wouldn’t truly be prestigious.
“Besides, this is a pharmacy. Doesn’t it seem absurd to look for a blacksmith here?”
As if he had expected that answer, Lee Shin nodded slowly and continued.
“Did you know? Master Ak-bong and your great-great-grandfather, Elder Doksalhu, were around the same age.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Please, just hear me out for a moment.”
What Lee Shin was about to say was behind-the-scenes sub-story material even within the game. It was the kind of obscure historical anecdote that only a veteran like him could dig up.
When she was young, the Choi Family Pharmacy had been destroyed in an attack by a villain organization. Only Doksalhu had survived. Blinded by revenge, he abandoned the healing arts and chose the path of deadly poison instead.
But there was one problem left—Doksalhu’s missing leg.
He had lost one leg in the attack.
How could he take revenge when he couldn’t even stand properly?
“Crutches wouldn’t do. A regular prosthetic was no good either. He needed to be able to fight, even if only for a short time. Having made that decision, Elder Doksalhu sought out the young man known at the time as Korea’s greatest genius blacksmith.”
“…You don’t mean?”
“Ak-bong. Back then he was a young man of the same age named Ji Jung-chul.”
The young Ak-bong had pitied the young Doksalhu.
Like the Choi family, Ak-bong also came from a prestigious lineage of craftsmen that had continued for generations. The words “fallen prestigious family” had struck a personal chord.
“So he poured everything he had into creating an item. An item that could replace a foot… well, calling it an item doesn’t feel right. It was a weapon. An incredibly overpowered weapon. I’ll skip the rest. It seems you’ve already guessed what happened.”
Choi Yeosim, who had been listening with a grave expression, finally spoke with difficulty.
“I always wondered how my great-great-grandfather managed to accomplish what he did. Setting aside how frightening and satisfying it was, the great-great-grandfather I saw as a child was always walking with crutches.”
“That must have been after he completed his revenge and was atoning.”
“Then that means…”
She let out a soft groan.
After thinking for a long time, Choi Yeosim stood up.
“Follow me. I think I know what this weapon you’re talking about is.”
The place they arrived at was underground. Even through the closed door, an eerie chill could be felt. It was an underground medicine storage.
On each door panel, a single Chinese character was written like a talisman.
“It means ‘Seal’ and ‘Demon.’ We call it Bongmago.”
“Sealing demons… that’s pretty cool.”
When they opened the door to Bongmago and stepped inside, a cold chill and the scent of medicine washed over them.
“Bongmago is a storage for medicinal ingredients with strong demonic energy. This kind of material can’t be stored together with regular herbs. They would contaminate everything around them.”
“On our side, we call it negative magic power.”
“You seem to know a lot about it.”
“It’s something you always have to be careful about.”
Black magic, curses, demons, and magic swords were all things categorized as demonic energy or negative magic power.
When handling flawed characters, making good use of these things was essential, so it was only natural that Lee Shin was familiar with them.
“That makes sense. A guild has to stay vigilant at all times. If you handle it wrong, you could endanger not only yourself but everyone around you. My great-great-grandfather always warned me a hundred, even a thousand times to be careful when dealing with demonic energy.”
Choi Yeosim picked up a ‘yoseok’ from a shelf and paused for a moment as if reminiscing before continuing.
“Bongmago was also built by my great-great-grandfather for that very reason. He used to sit me on his lap when I was little and say, ‘Even vicious things can be useful if used this way.’ I didn’t really understand what he meant back then.”
Five steps to the right from the center of the storage, then two steps forward.
Choi Yeosim took the key passed down to the family head and pushed it into the dirt floor.
Her hand was sucked into the ground.
At that moment, bizarre characters spread out in a five-directional formation.
‘Sorcery? This is top-tier sorcery.’
It was on a completely different level from the perception-distorting sorcery circle he had seen when infiltrating the Russian gang’s base—the one that had now become his “brothers.”
A moment later.
The light subsided, revealing a chest.
It was a chest embedded in the floor.
She carefully opened the lid. Inside was a prosthetic leg—an old-fashioned one that looked like Captain Hook’s hook.
“This is it, right?”
“It seems so.”
◈ Created by Ji Jung-chul at the desperate request of the one-legged avenger.
◈ Consumes magic power to dramatically increase physical abilities.
◈ Consumes life force to disappear from the target’s field of vision.
Lee Shin was stunned.
‘He was crazy. He made an Epic item in his twenties?’
Even though he already knew the story, it was still awe-inspiring. Lee Shin gazed at the prosthetic leg with eyes full of affection.
“May I touch it?”
“Go ahead.”
Lee Shin stroked the prosthetic leg like the dwarf obsessed with the ring in that old fantasy movie he had once seen.
Watching him, Choi Yeosim finally brought up the question that had been bothering her.
“Representative. I understand the connection between my great-great-grandfather and Master Ak-bong. I understand the story behind the prosthetic leg too.”
But what Lee Shin had begged her for on his knees was an “introduction.”
“Even so, I swear I know nothing about Master Ak-bong.”
She had never met him. She didn’t know his face, his age, or anything else. What kind of introduction could she possibly give?
She wanted to grant his request as much as possible, but she simply couldn’t.
Was there even a single person in the world who could fulfill this request?
He was someone who had supposedly retired and never shown his face again. There were even rampant rumors that he had died.
People, hunters, guilds, and even the nation had searched for him with burning eyes, yet eventually gave up…
Just as Choi Yeosim was about to continue speaking, the name that came out of Lee Shin’s mouth left her speechless.
“Elder Jakbu.”
“…!!”
“You know him, don’t you?”
Choi Yeosim stared at Lee Shin like a broken doll, creaking with shock.
“How do you know that person, Representative?”
Elder Jakbu.
He was the old man who had been giving acupuncture to the Choi Family Pharmacy since she was a child.
Even when they had collapsed two years ago, he had smiled warmly with his face full of liver spots and comforted her, saying, “Don’t worry about the money.” He was a truly grateful person.
Could it be? No way?
When Choi Yeosim looked at him with those questioning eyes, Lee Shin nodded as if to confirm it, then twisted the joint of the prosthetic leg.
At that moment, Choi Yeosim’s eyes widened so much they looked like they would tear.
The shaft that looked like a stick separated from the main body.
And hidden between them was a faded note.
'智重鐵'
Ji Jung-chul
It was the signature of Ak-bong Ji Jung-chul.
“I’ll ask you once more. Please introduce me to Elder Ak-bong.”
A short while later.
Choi Yeosim stood up, putting on an outer robe.
“…Get dressed. I need to see this with my own eyes too.”
The legendary master craftsman, Ak-bong.
With her own two eyes.