The Sword of Karmic Fire
“That sword. May I take a look at it?”
“Y-you, what are you?! I told you to stay back!”
The man’s eyes bulged as he stumbled backward. The bundles of talismans hanging from his robes began to flutter ominously, as if they were about to burst at any second. Everyone in the shop froze in place. The customers, unable to escape because the man was blocking the entrance, were huddled under the display cases, clutching their heads. The staff of Cheonhwadang, who had been waiting for an opening to subdue him, couldn't move rashly either. If they provoked him the wrong way, everyone in this cramped shop would end up roasted alive together.
But to my eyes, the bundle of talismans the man was wearing was far less interesting than the object resting on the glass counter: the Sword of Karmic Fire.
I lightly ignored the man’s threats and walked toward the counter.
“You can’t do that… Dohyun!”
Behind me, Seo Jian was turning pale and stamping her feet, but my footsteps didn't falter. I reached out and firmly gripped the handle of the steel sword resting diagonally on the display case.
Zzzzing—!
The moment the cold metal touched my fingertips, something within me seeped naturally into the interior of the sword, just as it had when I held the jade flute earlier.
Mana Wave
The interior of the sword unfolded in my mind as if it were being X-rayed. ‘...As I thought, that was it.’
I had actually suspected it. A moment ago, when that manager-like fellow opened his mouth, the air in the shop had suddenly grown heavy, and in that split second, the sword on the display case had trembled minutely. For a brief moment, the inside of the sword had appeared faintly. The afterimage that had formed in my mind during that short instant was now clearly visible as I held it in my hand.
‘...Hmm.’
The circuits were intricately engraved inside the sword. The energy entering through the handle stretched straight up along the center of the blade, and from that main stem, smaller branches split off to the left and right in swirling patterns. The circuits grew thinner toward the tips of the branches, and the inner walls were densely packed with tiny protrusions.
As the energy passes through the narrowing passages, the flow becomes more violent. That violent flow hits the protrusions, creating minute vibrations. The vibration becomes friction, and the friction becomes heat. The moment it reaches the ignition point, a flame blooms at the tip of the branch. Once the fire is lit, it uses the energy circulating within the circuits as fuel, spreading across the entire surface of the sword. In other words, the circuit itself was both the fuel line and the ignition device.
‘...The structure itself is incredibly clean.’
An intuitive, no-nonsense design. By intentionally placing narrow, rough sections in the path of the energy, it converts the resistance that hinders the flow into motive power. It was a structural design that reminded me of the jade flute I had held earlier. The main stem of the circuit extended smoothly, and the positions of the branch points were perfectly aligned with the center of gravity of the blade. The problem was what came next.
The introductory circuit leading from the handle to the blade. From there on, something that shouldn't have been there was filling the inside of the circuit. This feeling was... damp, and something moist... energy.
‘Is this... water?’
Inside a circuit designed for the Fire attribute, energy of the exact opposite nature was pooled up. Just like oil and water, they didn't mix. It seemed that energy of a different nature had been trapped inside the circuit, unable to escape anywhere, and had simply submerged everything.
Well, that was just an analysis based on the methods I used in the game. But the principles of reality shouldn't be much different.
“Refund me right now! I won’t move a single step from here until you pay for my medical bills and compensation for mental distress!” the man shouted again, veins popping as he glared at the manager. The staff were hovering behind his back, gauging the distance, unsure whether to close in or not. I lifted my gaze from the internal structure I had been scouring and looked the troublemaker straight in the eye.
“...Hey.”
“...What?”
“Before you swung this sword, you did something else, didn't you?”
“Huh?! What kind of bullshit is that...” The man frowned. He looked as if he had no idea what I was talking about. Then, as if something clicked, his expression changed slightly.
“...!”
“Didn't you do something else before using this sword?”
“...W-well! Since I summon a water ghost, obviously I called out the water ghost before the battle! So what about it...” His voice trailed off.
A water ghost. It seemed there were people in this world who summoned such things. Well, the name alone made it obvious that it was a creature with a gloomy, cold energy. To summon such a spirit, he would naturally have to draw upon his own spiritual power. What if this sword had been in his hand at that time?
The cold, damp spiritual power used for the summoning would have leaked through the handle of the sword and into the circuits without him even realizing it. He had poured the water energy of a water ghost into a fire-attribute sword.
“You were holding the sword in your hand at that time, weren't you?”
“...!”
The man’s shoulders shuddered. The look of being hit right in the bullseye appeared on his face, but he soon flared up, veins popping again.
“Fuck! So what?! You’re just trying to find an excuse to kick me out, aren't you!”
“...You claim to be a sword user, yet you swing a weapon without even knowing what kind of object you’re holding? What do you expect to happen?”
“Cut the crap! I had my teammates try it too, and they couldn't get it to light no matter how much spiritual power they poured into it! If that’s not a defective product, what is!!”
There was nothing left to ask. The inside of the sword was already completely clogged with the damp spiritual power he had poured in himself. No matter how much normal, pure energy someone else tried to pour in on top of that, it would just get wet and cooled down from the very entrance of the circuit; how could it ever reach the ignition point?
In short, he had ruined the circuit through his own carelessness, then brought a bomb into a perfectly fine shop, causing a scene and claiming the sword was broken. I let out a short sigh, feeling dumbfounded. Then, I lifted the sword I was holding toward the man. With one hand.
At my action, the eyes of everyone in the shop turned toward me in unison.
“T-this bastard...! Just try coming closer! I’ll really blow up these talismans and take everyone to the afterlife with me!” The man took another step back, clutching the bundle of talismans. He was shouting with malice, but his voice was trembling pathetically.
I didn't even approach him. I just stood there, and with the sword in my hand, I let a tiny bit more of my own energy flow into it. My energy slowly seeped into the black sediment hardened at the entrance of the circuit. Like ink dissolving in water.
It was a task I had done countless times in the game. When purifying contaminated mana circuits, you let energy flow between the foreign substances to push them out from the inside. It wasn't particularly difficult. You just need to flow a stronger energy than the sedimented energy with more precision.
I blew my refined, pure energy into it. The damp energy that had been pooled inside the sword began to be pushed by my energy and slowly drained out toward the edge of the circuit.
Every gaze in the shop was watching that scene with bated breath. A young man in an old tracksuit, standing diagonally next to the display case, holding a sword nonchalantly in his hand. He hadn't taken any special stance. He hadn't shouted to raise his spiritual power, nor had he chanted any shamanistic spells. He was just looking down indifferently, holding the handle as if he were tired. He hadn't even taken a single breath to steady himself.
And yet.
Wooooong—!
The ceiling lights pouring over the young man’s shoulders flickered strangely. A heavy pressure, as if the entire space around him were sinking, spread out. The talismans hanging from the troublemaker’s robes trembled violently, as if crushed by an invisible force.
Seo Jian opened her mouth in a daze. The customers who had been huddled on the floor in terror also lifted their heads one by one, as if bewitched. At the very moment the manager, who had been watching the situation, narrowed his eyes—
Whoosh—!
A brilliant blue flame surged over the blade. From the handle to the tip. A flower of fire bloomed across the entire sword in an instant. It was a chillingly blue light that could only be glimpsed in the deepest center of a blacksmith’s furnace. An overwhelming heat, enough to distort the surrounding air, engulfed the shop.
The Sword of Karmic Fire. The sword, which had been sleeping while treated as a defective product, was finally proving the weight of its true name to the world.
“No way... H-how is this...”
The troublemaker’s face turned deathly pale. His hand, which had been clutching the talismans, trembled and then dropped limply to his side. The momentum he had shown just moments ago, holding the people in the shop hostage, was nowhere to be found; not even a trace remained.
Beyond the flickering blue flames, Dohyun stared straight at the man with an indifferent gaze.
“...To be unable to handle a single sword properly, and then to come here and threaten us while blaming the weapon. Aren't you ashamed?”
“T-this can't be...”
Thump.
The man’s knees buckled powerlessly. Whether he was completely overwhelmed by the heat of the sword blazing before his eyes, or whether he had realized his own foolishness and his malice had faded, he sat on the floor, dazed. The talismans hanging from his robes just fluttered helplessly, no longer emitting any threatening energy.
“Subdue him!”
Not missing the opening, the Cheonhwadang staff rushed in. The man couldn't even put up a decent fight; in an instant, he was pinned to the floor, his limbs bound.