The Blacksmith Conceals His Identity
The entire building shook. The Condensing Realm bodyguards immediately tried to rise, but as with all fights, the initiative belonged to the side that struck first. Crash!! Ten Condensing Realm corpse soldiers smashed through the restaurant windows and poured inside. They immediately drew fists and swords. The sword auras wrapped around their blades carried peak-level power. Outnumbered and stripped of the initiative, the bodyguards could not form a proper stance.
“We’ve got them!”
Just as the Wolgeukseong Army three kilometers away cheered in triumph, Llywelyn—who had been wearing a baseball cap while eating pasta—snapped her fingers.
“Elohim essaim.”
The incantation of the Black Hen. A magical chant derived from the Christian Tree of Life prayer. When used on ordinary people it became a vitality-granting healing spell, but when cast upon corpses used as materials for necromancy, it became a baptismal chant that released their souls.
Thud! All ten Condensing Realm corpse soldiers collapsed at once, as though their strings had been cut.
Llywelyn removed her cap and swept back her hair.
“Hmm. No wonder there were so many Condensing Realm soldiers. So there was a war going on.”
The female bodyguards stared at her in stunned silence. A ridiculous expert who had neutralized ten peak Condensing Realm soldiers simultaneously.
“…Did you see that just now? What did she do?”
“No. More importantly, who the hell is she…?”
“Oh! That’s Llywelyn! The alchemist who received the British countess title! Why is she here?”
“…I’m the one who wants to ask questions.”
Llywelyn sat on the edge of a table and folded her arms.
“You people. Just what kind of monster did you make an enemy of? No, more importantly—don’t tell me Hermes is the owner of this place?”
Her disciple, seated across from her, also removed her hat. Only then did the bodyguards, Lee Se-rin, and Han Ye-jin notice the disciple’s long ears. An elf—the magic-specialized race sometimes called the descendants of gods.
Llywelyn let out a deep sigh and tilted her head as though disgusted.
“Hey, Hermes. You’re already watching, aren’t you? How about we postpone our fight for later and cooperate for now?”
I had been knocked to the floor by the shock of the explosion. My clothes were soaked. The kitchen floor was covered in water.
“…What the hell is going on.”
If this was an attack, then the sound of dozens of windows shattering outside the kitchen made sense. Of course, it seemed the situation had already been suppressed.
I pressed a hand to my throbbing head and heard a voice.
“Hey, Hermes. You’re already watching, aren’t you? How about we postpone our fight for later and cooperate for now?”
My breath caught.
‘No way. She already found me out?’
How the hell did she figure it out?
“…This is insane.”
The earlier explosion was probably the Wolgeukseong Army, and the windows that just broke were also their doing. Given how quickly the commotion ended, they must have sent subordinates or familiars.
‘…So Llywelyn got dragged into this and is asking me for help.’
I had two identities: Hermes and Yoo Ji-tae. I had already told the bodyguards, Lee Se-rin, and Han Ye-jin that I was Hermes. No matter which appearance I showed, they would adjust accordingly. The important thing was my decision.
“…For now, we’re being attacked.”
To assess the situation, I checked the CCTV footage of what had just happened. It was astonishing. Neutralizing ten enemies with a single finger snap looked like something out of a hero movie.
“…Even Llywelyn thinks the enemy is that dangerous, so she’s asking for help.”
‘…But if I go out there and can’t actually help, won’t Llywelyn just kill me on the spot?’
Llywelyn was offering a temporary truce because she believed I could resolve this situation. If she realized I was just someone who could cook and craft a little and had no real power, would she let me live? That useless bitch. Die!! She might say something like that.
In reality, I hadn’t done anything to Llywelyn. While I kept thinking, I stared blankly at the Hephaestus skill window as though searching for anything usable. Even one thing would be enough. Anything that would make Llywelyn think, “Oh, this guy’s actually useful.”
My head throbbed. It was the headache and fever that came whenever I used Hephaestus.
“Hey. I know you’re in the kitchen. Come out.”
‘How does she even know that.’
I pressed my throbbing head and looked for the hat. Kynee. The one I had worn during the Magic Cooking exam. I stood in front of the mirror. Dull but clear eyes. Long, messy hair that reached past my shoulders. A slender face. I looked like nothing but a woman.
‘…Alright.’
I took a deep breath and stepped out of the kitchen.
Llywelyn’s eyes flashed. It looked like she was saying she would kill me right now. My legs froze and refused to move.
Thud! Crash!!
Something was climbing the stairs from the first floor. When I stood in front of the door, dozens of pale zombie-like creatures were walking toward me.
Llywelyn stared at me.
“Hey, Hermes. This is your workshop, right?”
She pointed at the restaurant door.
“I don’t know how to operate this barrier. You do it.”
A window appeared before my eyes.
Hephaestus’s Temple Barrier (S)
What? So it really existed. I knew it would. Without even reading the description, I pressed the window. My body moved naturally.
Beyond the glass door, the zombies suddenly began charging toward me.
Bang bang bang bang bang bang!
Every time they took a step, the marble floor cracked. Dozens of such monsters tangled together in the corridor and sprinted at full speed.
Was this Hephaestus’s influence? I felt strangely calm. My mind was filled with fear and confusion, yet my body possessed overwhelming composure.
I grabbed the [OPEN] sign hanging on the glass entrance door.
“Uooooooo!!!”
“Kaaaaaaa!!!”
“Kraaaaaaaa!!!”
“Kiiiiiiiiii!!!”
“Gyaaaaaaa!!!”
The zombies charged with their mouths wide open. Then my hand flipped over.
“I did not permit you to move.”
[CLOSED]
At that moment, the bodies of every zombie in front of me burst into flames. In a single instant the fire completely incinerated their bodies, reducing them to salt and ash.
Crash! The grains of salt collapsed and scattered across the corridor. Even the zombies inside the store began to thrash as smoke rose from their bodies. In less than a second they too turned to salt and ash.
Even after becoming piles of salt and ash, the clothes they had been wearing remained. The sight of skirts, underwear, bras, and shirts mixed together was somehow grotesque.
“…Yoo— I mean, Hermes-nim. What did you do?”
‘Sorry. I don’t actually know either.’
After all, I hadn’t done it by acquiring knowledge—I had simply followed the recipe.
“As expected, you’re a woman worth fighting.”
Llywelyn’s eyes sparkled as though she had found treasure. I said nothing. I felt like opening my mouth would expose my lack of ability. Still, I couldn’t just stay silent.
“It’s nothing special,” I said.
*****
Llywelyn continued staring at Hermes.
‘I never imagined she would turn the entire building into a temple.’
‘The method for creating a temple is well known, but it’s cumbersome and has a low success rate.’
‘You prepare an altar inside the building where a divine being or god can reside.’ (It’s just that the skill itself is a god.)
‘You burn meat as an offering.’ (There were many orders for well-done steak.)
‘You allow people to come and go, gathering faith.’ (It was simply that the restaurant was always full.)
‘With that, the building becomes a temple imbued with faith.’
Llywelyn understood the meaning behind Hermes’s earlier action.
‘She changed [OPEN]—which signified an open temple, permission for all to enter—into [CLOSED], declaring a prohibition against those she had not permitted. That must be why the zombies whose entry was denied received divine punishment from the temple.’
Llywelyn’s gaze swept across the floor.
‘Fire, salt, and ash.’
Divine punishment varied depending on the type of god worshipped.
‘Fire, huh. This is the East, after all. Then it must be the God of the Hearth. Guya… no, she said Yoo earlier. Yoo… the Han Gaozu Liu Bang from the Chu-Han Contention, and his distant descendant Liu Bei Xuande… Then it would be the War God Chiyou, the great general of the Flame Emperor Shennong.’
Llywelyn stared at Hermes, deep in thought.
‘Even though she’s only in the Refined Realm, she already possesses construction ability and divinity on par with or greater than mine.’
‘In twenty years she’ll overwhelm me.’
Llywelyn opened the Alchemist’s bulletin board. There were haters calling her a water rocket.
‘At this rate, forget being called a water rocket—I won’t even be able to hear the sound of a water gun.’
Llywelyn felt dizzy. Even now she was like this; imagining twenty years later when she would be overwhelmingly defeated made her head spin.
‘It would be best to kill her as quickly as possible.’
Llywelyn slipped her hand into her bag and secretly began crafting combat equipment.
*****
Llywelyn was openly looking at me like she wanted to kill me. The fact that she had put her hand in her bag meant she was making something. I had thought she might spare me if her mood improved, but it felt like I had only irritated her further.
I walked over to the restaurant window. At least fifty women were walking around outside. Their pale complexions suggested they were controlled corpses. Among them, a girl in a school uniform leaped high and clung to the wall of the shopping complex.
Whoosh. Her entire body burst into flames and she fell straight down.
‘…At this rate, it should be fine.’
Secretary Yoo Hyun-ah had said she would resolve everything within four hours, so I just needed to hold out.
‘…Then what about Llywelyn?’
‘…If possible, I’d like the Wolgeukseong Army and her to fight and kill each other… but things won’t go that smoothly, will they?’
I heard a voice. When I turned around, Llywelyn was seated at a table, broadcasting while talking.
“Ah, can you see? It’s Llywelyn. I’m currently at a Korean restaurant, and I’m planning to have a life-or-death duel with Hermes shortly. Yes. I’ll personally show you all the sight of that water rocket you’ve been insulting killing Hermes.”
‘…She’s really enjoying this.’
Still, as long as the Wolgeukseong Army kept sending corpse soldiers, it should be fine for now.
Feeling uncomfortable staying in the restaurant, I went down to the first floor. Through the window I could see the corpse soldiers sent by the Wolgeukseong Army charging at the shopping complex only to burn and die.
‘Well done.’
I stopped walking.
‘Hmm.’
Calling the burning of human corpses “well done”…
‘Maybe I become incredibly cruel the moment I’m certain of my own safety.’
I stepped into the first-floor corridor. When one woman saw me, she immediately charged.
“Kieeeek!!!!”
She rolled on the floor and burned away, but as I turned to go back, something staggered among the salt. I instinctively stepped backward and hit my head against the wall.
“Kraaak.”
When I looked again while clutching my head, it was a person.
“Yoo Ji-tae.”
Her entire body was covered in wounds, her clothes reduced to rags that barely covered her underwear. Red hair. Wavy hair that reached her waist. I remembered her.
“Wi Seol-ah.”
“…I’m sorry. There was a sudden explosion, and now I’m in this state… I’m sorry… Are you alright, Yoo Ji-tae…?”
Wi Seol-ah was panting. Looking closely at her chest, I saw something black embedded in her ribs beneath her green bra. Had they put metal fragments in the bomb? It didn’t seem like a grenade. A claymore mine? Even a Condensing Realm cultivator would end up like this if hit by a claymore at close range.
“R-run away…”
Wi Seol-ah trembled violently as she cried. She reached out to me with a gruesome appearance. Having been caught in an explosion at close range, even breathing seemed difficult for her.
“I-I’m sorry. I couldn’t… be of any help… but please, you have to survive… I beg you… Yoo Ji-tae, please live… Please…”
‘The situation is already half-resolved.’
The bigger problem was Llywelyn.
“I’m sorry… I couldn’t help… I’m sorry… Hic, ugh… I tried… to do my best… but… it ended up like this…”
I felt sorry for Wi Seol-ah, but I wasn’t listening to her words at all. I was focused solely on her condition. At this rate, she would die soon. Air kept leaking from her lungs, and blood from her abdomen showed no sign of stopping. Even a Condensing Realm cultivator couldn’t regenerate from damage this severe.
I felt no fear. Perhaps it was because I strongly wanted to help anyone who was in pain or suffering… or maybe it was because I was certain that the current Wi Seol-ah could not harm me.
‘Weak to the strong, strong to the weak, huh.’
I placed my hand on Wi Seol-ah’s head and stroked her blood-matted hair. Her breathing stabilized.
‘Llywelyn was someone who cared quite a bit about her reputation.’
If it were me, even if it was difficult, she might treat an injured person. Besides… if I showed her a comrade in this state crying and grieving, Llywelyn might back down for today at least.
I grabbed Wi Seol-ah’s shoulders. Her skin was peeling off.
“It’s alright. I’ll get you treated upstairs.”
“…Um… Yoo Ji-tae.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“Do you… smell beef patty by any chance?”
“…Not really.”
Wi Seol-ah’s stomach let out a loud growl.
“Ah… this is… I mean… um…”
Wi Seol-ah panicked despite her pain.
“I’ll make you food once this is over.”
“U-um.”
Wi Seol-ah stammered.
“Yeah?”
“I… eat a lot. Is that okay?”
I chuckled.
“Well. I’ve got enough for about two hundred servings in reserve.”
Wi Seol-ah pressed her lips together and lowered her gaze to the floor.
“…I-I’m not really like that… I don’t eat that much…”
Wi Seol-ah began to sob.