Please Fix My Sword!
"..."
What is everyone doing? Just standing there blankly.
I slid the dagger I was holding toward the collapsed Jin Muyeong.
"Here. Your dagger."
"...Huh? Oh, right."
Jin Muyeong took his dagger in a daze.
He stared blankly at the blue circuits engraved on the blade, then looked back up at me.
His face was still completely blank.
"H-How on earth did you do this?!"
It was then. Yoo Seon-woo, who had finally snapped out of it, stumbled toward me.
The very man who, just moments ago, had been acting so high and mighty, asking what a mere blacksmith could possibly know.
Now, his face was pale as a sheet as he pressed close to me, demanding answers.
Is he asking because he really doesn't know?
It wasn't even that big of a deal.
Well, not circuits...
But in the first place, wasn't the whole point of summoning a blacksmith to have them look at the spell and fix it?
Well, I guess this guy really doesn't know much.
It was just as Ji-an had said.
She had mentioned that even among those from the 4 Great Families, there were people who talked a big game but actually knew next to nothing about spells.
It seemed she was talking about someone exactly like him.
I replied nonchalantly.
"I simply read the spell."
"W-What?!"
Yoo Seon-woo's eyes widened so much they looked ready to pop out.
He simply read the spell?
Yoo Seon-woo doubted his own ears.
This green, wet-behind-the-ears brat was spouting utter nonsense with a perfectly casual face.
He read the spell in a painting?
With trembling eyes, he looked back at the sunflower painting hanging on the wall.
Of course, it wasn't that he didn't know a spell was woven into that painting.
He was, after all, a Spell Painter of the prestigious Suzaku family.
He knew better than anyone that within a single painting, paths of spiritual power flowed, built layer by layer from the pigments, the shapes, and the artist's residual thoughts.
But.
The problem was that it was impossible to read.
It might be different for standard inscriptions engraved on metal or other cast objects.
However, the spells in paintings were not intentionally drawn in the first place.
Once the brush finished shaping the image, the spell grew and tangled itself naturally like wild vines as a byproduct.
Since every single strand was bound to be twisted and tangled at random, analyzing it logically to read it was considered nearly impossible, even among Spell Painters.
Take himself, for instance.
Just moments ago, even with Master Cheong-ram's genuine work right in front of him, he had merely admired the brushwork and the painting's famous effect of 'attracting wealth' symbolized by the sunflowers.
He hadn't had the slightest clue how the spell inside actually flowed to produce that effect.
Yet.
This young blacksmith.
In the very midst of that raging illusion.
Had read the incredibly complex flow of the spell in a single glance.
He had pinpointed the exact core.
And by throwing a single dagger right into it, he had shattered the entire illusion.
"H-How... How is this..."
A dumbfounded mutter escaped Yoo Seon-woo's lips.
Only then did a foreboding premonition brush past him.
Perhaps the rumors of the Mount Tian Sect blacksmith's overwhelming exploits weren't exaggerated nonsense after all.
No way.
Yoo Seon-woo quickly shook his head.
No, that can't be...
He must have just gotten lucky and struck a weak point.
Yes. It had to be that.
Even he, a Spell Painter of the Suzaku family, couldn't do a thing about Master Cheong-ram's spell.
There was no way a mere blacksmith could have read it instantly.
...It was simply impossible.
I'm telling you, I just read the circuits.
Dohyun glanced over indifferently.
Yoo Seon-woo was staring at the painting with a hollow, foolish expression.
He did say it was his first time being trapped in a painting, so he must have been pretty shocked.
Showing no interest, Dohyun turned his gaze back to the sunflower painting on the wall.
As if nothing had happened, the sunflowers on the canvas were blooming quietly in their places once more.
He channeled his spiritual power and quietly peered into it.
Hmm.
The circuits that had been raging so wildly earlier were now as quiet as any ordinary painting.
Did they call it a Ghost Transfer?
If what the butler said was true, this painting might not be the actual host either.
To begin with, most of the items in this storage room were spiritual tools imbued with spiritual power.
They were objects fundamentally designed to hold and channel energy.
Thus, it was highly likely that a malicious spirit had temporarily possessed it to run wild, only to hide elsewhere once the situation turned unfavorable.
Well, or maybe everything really did start from this painting.
For now, it looked completely ordinary.
Either way, it was too early to be sure.
Anyway, I'm worried about the butler.
Dohyun turned his head to look at the butler.
Leaning against the wall, the man was sweating cold drops with a deeply shocked expression.
Fortunately, he hadn't collapsed like the chef did back then.
Well, that's a relief for now.
The tour of the storage room ended there.
The butler, suggesting everyone must be tired, guided the group to their respective rooms to rest.
"Phew."
As soon as Dohyun returned to his room, he tore open a pouch of herbal medicine and downed it.
"Ugh."
Cold herbal medicine tasted twice as nasty as when it was warm.
Still, I tried to control it, so it seems to have turned out fine.
He was a bit concerned about the spiritual power he had released while breaking the illusion.
The butler was an ordinary person with barely any detectable spiritual power.
And he didn't seem to be hiding it with a suppressor like the people he had seen at the party.
Those who concealed their spiritual power with suppressors usually left a faint, haze-like trace.
Well, thank goodness.
Dohyun tapped the suppressor hanging inside his clothes.
He had been told that leaking spiritual power to ordinary people could have negative side effects.
In fact, the chef had actually collapsed back then.
That was why.
Dohyun was suppressing his spiritual power to the absolute limit, leaving only the bare minimum required to maintain his disguised face.
And there was one more reason why he was hiding his spiritual power so thoroughly.
It went back to the car ride on the way to this commission.
"Oh, by the way, Mr. Dohyun. Just in case, please don't take off your suppressor unless it's absolutely necessary."
"Ah, right... You mentioned it has side effects on ordinary people, right? And that it attracts strange spirits."
"Well... that's true too, but..."
Seo Ji-an trailed off cryptically.
"Actually..."
"?"
Dohyun had stared blankly at her next words.
The notorious figure rumored all over the forums—the so-called 'Dokkaebi Market Bomber'—was none other than himself.
According to her, using spells of 2nd Grade or higher, or equivalent spiritual power, required prior authorization.
It was an especially sensitive matter in underground locations like the Dokkaebi Market for safety reasons.
Who could have guessed that simply testing out a talisman would blow up into something this big?
Before Dohyun could even say anything, Seo Ji-an had mumbled excuses like a guilty child.
"I... I really didn't know such a monstrous force would be released..."
She laughed awkwardly and quickly changed the subject.
"No, haha! I should have stopped you sooner."
"Anyway, it seems the Bureau is still searching for the culprit. Fortunately, they seem to be barking up the wrong tree."
Seo Ji-an shrugged.
"Besides, registration isn't mandatory for foreign spiritualists yet. Since you aren't registered in the first place, you don't have to worry too much."
"Then do I have to hide my spiritual power forever?"
"No, no. They rarely track spiritual power anyway, so it won't be a big issue. I'm just saying it's best not to leak your spiritual power until things quiet down."
That was why.
Since everyone else was hiding their spiritual power with suppressors anyway, it didn't hurt to be careful.
...As he stared blankly at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Knock, knock, knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
Dohyun opened it.
Standing outside was Jin Muyeong.
"...?"
"Do-hyeong!"
The kid suddenly bowed at a perfect ninety-degree angle.
"I-I have committed a mortal sin...!"
What is wrong with him now?
Sigh.
As expected, he had figured it out.
"Just come in first."
At Dohyun's words, Jin Muyeong shuffled hesitantly into the room.
The moment the door closed, he bowed his head again.
"Man... You were the one who engraved the spell on my dagger earlier, right? I knew it the moment I saw it!"
I knew it was because of that.
Well, he hadn't had a choice.
If he had been even five minutes later, the group would have ended up as fertilizer in a sunflower field by now.
The prickly attitude he had shown in the storage room earlier was completely gone.
Before Dohyun knew it, the kid had reverted to the tail-wagging puppy he had been back at the hotel.
"Aigoo, I didn't recognize you, Do-hyeong, and kept acting like that... I'm so sorry, Do-hyeong!"
He apologized profusely.
"To be honest... I thought some punk was daring to impersonate you."
Jin Muyeong scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"So I planned to dig up his identity and report everything to you. I couldn't just let someone drag my Do-hyeong's name through the mud, could I?"
So that was why? Why he kept tailing me and picking fights?
It seemed he had his own reasons for sticking close to Dohyun and provoking him ever since they entered the storage room.
Dohyun had just thought of him as an annoying pest.
Huh. He's actually pretty loyal.
"I wanted to see you again so badly. It's truly an honor to meet you like this, Do-hyeong!"
Oh, brother.
And what was with "Do-hyeong"?
"But Do-hyeong, what happened to your face..."
The kid stared intently at Dohyun's face.
When Dohyun just stared back in silence,
"Ahaha... Well, I guess that's nothing for a secret technique of the Mount Tian Sect!"
He jumped to his own conclusion and grinned widely again.
Sure, believe whatever you want.
If this continued, the kid would probably cling to him all day.
Dohyun slowly nudged him toward the door.
"Do-hyeong! I'll see you later at dinner then!"
Jin Muyeong waved through the gap in the door, chanting "Do-hyeong, Do-hyeong" like a broken record.
Is he a puppy or what?
Dohyun finally sent him away and took a breath, but it wasn't long before someone knocked on the door again.
Is it Jin Muyeong again?
Annoyed, he opened the door, but it wasn't Jin Muyeong standing there.
This time, it was the woman who had been holding the katana earlier that day.
She stood hesitantly in front of Dohyun, wearing loose pajamas.
Her face was flushed red, and she couldn't even lift her head, fidgeting restlessly with her fingertips.
"Um, excuse me..."
What is this?
Dohyun stared at her, utterly bewildered.
The woman who had clung to her sword earlier, stubbornly refusing to lend it to him even if it killed her, suddenly thrust the sword forward.
"P-Please...! Please fix my sword, Master!"
What is it with everyone today?