Chapter 522 – 522. The Thousand and One Nights (5)
Rumors of Oran that leaked out somewhere were erroneous and spread rapidly to the entire Dwarf village, saying, “We decided to pass on the skill of the Cheonilyajang to humans.”
The Dwarves who heard the rumor reacted immediately.
“Nonsense!”
“That’s right!”
“Teaching humans the skill of Cheonilyajang!”
It’s okay for Dwarves to pass on their skills to other Dwarves.
However, the Dwarves protested fiercely, as if it was absolutely unacceptable for a human to pass down the skill of the Cheonilyajang.
Even Eun-hyeon, who is staying in the village, is an outsider who plans to leave the village someday.
Passing on the skills to him also meant that the Dwarven blacksmithing skills would leak out, so it was only natural that there would be strong resistance from various aspects.
Of course, more than anyone else, they eagerly aspired to be the disciples of Cheonilyajang were kicked out mercilessly, but the biggest problem was their pride that they could not stand that a human being who was no different from a stranger overtook them and took the position.
“Noisy! There is no reason to listen to you guys!”
“Why! Why do I become human… ! Can’t we!”
“Ay! All off!”
Bang!
All the Dwarves who came to the forge of Oran were barred from the door, and after slamming the door, it was locked so that no one could enter.
“… Can I just do that?”
“What?”
“Those Dwarves who came to Oran.”
“Joy. Worry about you To think that you can afford to worry about others at your level, you need to know the subject.”
Even when Oran snorted and told her not to worry, Eunhyeon put on a doubtful expression.
When I first met him, I thought he was just a blacksmith who liked to yell at me and interfere.
He heard of Oran’s true identity, and even more he could not understand his intention to teach himself.
“Why are you trying to teach me? I am… Someday I will have to leave this town. But I can’t give you anything in return for teaching me your skills.”
“Joy. I’m going to rip something off a slender guy like you. Do you see me as a snobbish dwarf who passed on my skills in exchange for something?”
“… Not really.”
Eunhyun honestly shook his head.
A dwarf named Oran is the foremost blacksmith in the village and has the power and influence to get whatever he wants and needs.
Moreover, as much as he is very proud of his profession and skills as a blacksmith, he is not the type to pass on his skills to someone just because he has received something in return.
That’s why Eunhyeon didn’t understand.
What the hell is he expecting from himself?
“It’s just a whim. Thinking of the materials you ate while smelting that mountain-sized pile of trash until now, it’s almost like waking up with vases in your sleep.”
Oran snorted and looked up at Eunhyun.
“I hope you guys. Do you think that just because I’ve taught you all my skills, you can accept them all and use them like mine?”
“… Not really.”
Looking at Oran’s face, staring at her with eyes that said, ‘It’s only for you?’, Eunhyeon denied it with a bitter smile.
Eun-hyeon knows her level of metallurgy very well.
Even if he met a great teacher, it was already ingrained in his body that accepting it and making it his own was a different matter.
The friends, teachers, and partners who taught him martial arts, swordsmanship, and spearmanship were all geniuses who reached the peak in their respective fields, but how hard he had to cut his bones to make even some of their teachings his own.
“Joy. I just need to know.”
Oh-ran continued with his words, feeling that Eun-hyeon’s attitude of accepting his harsh words and actions had leaked steam.
“Smelting metal is a very profound task. It is to capture all the power and energy that can be contained in one hammer stroke and transmit it to the metal.”
Of course, physical requirements are also important, but more important are the sense to possess and use a large amount of mana, and the mental strength to maintain it for a long time.
“Fortunately, you have this condition.”
The stamina and tenacity of beating only a hammer like mad for a few hours for about two weeks was certainly better than that of most dwarves.
Rather, there were more dwarves who responded that they were tired of seeing Eun-hyeon, as strange rumors spread about Eun-hyeon.
Since he had the most important basic elements in teaching, Eun-hyeon thought that many problems would be improved if he gave a little advice.
However, I didn’t expect dramatic changes and growth, but Eun-hyeon was in many ways beyond Oran’s expectations.
“Again.”
Of course, it was better than the first time, but it was still far below the level he had assumed, because he had not imagined this situation at all.
“Again.”
Oran continued to have Eunhyeon smelt metal.
“Again!”
If the quality of the metal after smelting was not satisfactory, he mercilessly broke it and threw it back into the furnace.
There was also a time when he locked the door of the blacksmith’s shop and locked Eun-hyeon inside.
“By tomorrow morning, try making iron that will satisfy me.”
Originally, waiting patiently until the result that satisfies him was the type that didn’t fit Oran’s personality at all.
If the result was not good at all, the time and effort and materials that went into it were wasteful, that the wrist was cut off, or worse, that it was abusive and bad.
Blacksmiths who make things that are less than trash are ruthless enough to think that they are trash itself, and Oran still thinks that this is reality.
“… What the hell. Who is that guy?”
However, Oran was perplexed by the appearance of the only exception that shook his thoughts.
“Even if you don’t have talent, you don’t have too much!”
These are the first words Oran, who had left Eunhyeon locked up in the blacksmith’s smithy, came to the bar and spoke to his drinking friend, the Dwarf, whom he hadn’t seen in about two weeks.
“Come on, calm down! Let’s have a drink!”
After hearing the news that he had recently started teaching metallurgy to humans, the drunken friend Dwarf, who was aware of Eunhyeon’s existence, continued to invite Oran to drink with an interesting look on his face.
It was because he was sure that the story of Oran would be a very interesting story, as his hobby is to collect interesting rumors going around the town, and he enjoys expressing them with good humor and drinking.
“Isn’t that human that talented?”
“Doesn’t exist! Even if you don’t have it, it’s not dirty! How could a guy like that exist! I’ve never seen such a foolish guy live and live!”
To the point of being really ridiculous, Eun-hyeon has no talent.
It’s like teaching a young 10-year-old dwarf who is just starting to learn metallurgy, coming out to the smithy and taking on chores as apprentices.
“No. Even the little ones are better than that.”
Only the body is a mature adult, but the technique itself is similar to that of a young dwarf or worse.
“Hmm? But I don’t understand you more when you say that I’m so frustrated.”
“… What?”
“No. That’s right, if you’re not that talented, isn’t it something you should have kicked out a long time ago? I don’t understand why you insist on teaching me so badly?”
“…”
As a drunken Dwarf friend, Oran’s attitude was even more absurd.
He himself knew very well what position Oran, who had the title of “Chief of the Thousand and One Nights,” Belonged to in this Dwarf village.
Considering that many dwarves have asked him for lessons in order to learn the skills under him, but all of them have met the same end, being barred from the doorstep, Oran’s behavior now is a serious contradiction.
Why are the Dwarves who asked for lessons, blaming, threatening, and ignoring their skills as inferior to those of worms, while enduring frustration and teaching skills to humans whose level is much lower than that of the Dwarves?
“Why?”
In response to the drunken dwarf friend’s question, who urged him once more out of curiosity, Oran closed his mouth tightly and did not answer.
“I’ll just go.”
“Oh, Ohran? You!”
Oran, who suddenly got up from his seat as if he had had a change of heart and left the bar, walked down the street, deep in thought, without even hearing his friend’s words, ‘Calculate the price and go!’.
“Why did I keep trying to teach him skills?”
Oran continued to think as he silently went home.
Could it be that he is a reaction against the actions of his own people, who are full of inner thoughts, trying to flatter him and somehow learn their skills?
Or did he feel something special about a human named Eunhyeon?
Oran himself had doubts about his own mind.
As the drunken dwarf friend said, if it were another dwarf, he would have been fed up with his poor skills and kicked him out right away.
The image of Eun-hyeon, who continued to beat the hammer like crazy, kept coming to mind.
“That guy… Different.”
Regardless of his mediocre talent, what dwells in his eyes is a spirit of improvement that burns his heart to constantly rise.
Even if he lags behind others in growth, he continues to walk forward, even with slow steps, and is heading upward.
Without knowing the tricks, he engraves the teachings of Oran into his heart again and again and improves them little by little for the sake of improving his skills.
What makes Oran frustrated is that he is swinging a hammer like crazy, burning his body and passion, but he wonders why his growth is so slow.
“I try so hard. Why?”
It is as if a god in the sky took away only the element of talent from Eunhyun.
“… Hmm?”
As he walked, wrapped in his deep thoughts, the place where Oran arrived was not at his house, but in front of his smithy where Eun-hyeon was imprisoned.
Normally, the sound of Eunhyun’s hammer beating should be heard until this time when everyone is asleep, but strangely, there was no sound at all, so it was quiet.
“Why are you so quiet?”
Oran sensed something strange about her and unlocked her lock to enter her smithy.
Soon after, she found Eun-hyeon lying on the floor and she cried out in surprise.
“Hey, hey! Eunhyun!”
As she hurriedly approached him to check his condition, Oran stopped and found a pile of scrap metal piled like a mountain on the floor and a blade that had just been smelted on top of an anvil.
“This…”
How many irons were beaten and smelted, and only one result was made after many failures.
The blade that was completed for the first time was still sloppy and not properly polished, but it reached the passing point that Oran had set in mind.
“… Smile?”
Eun-hyeon, emaciated from his accumulated fatigue, smiled with the corner of his mouth drawn in an arc even in the midst of fainting.
It is the craftsman’s face itself, filled with a sense of accomplishment and pride from solving a given problem.
Eun-hyeon is enjoying this time of learning the blacksmith’s skills, which is like an arduous journey.
Despite the slower growth rate than others, he felt deep gratitude and a sense of accomplishment for himself, who was growing little by little without caring about it at all.
“Haha, look at this guy?”
Oh-ran lost consciousness and collapsed, but laughed at Eun-hyun, who was smiling with satisfaction.
◆ ◆ ◆
“My grandfather always sat me down when he was drinking and told me about the special man with gray hair and red eyes he taught at that time.”
Doran rummaged through the memories in his head and told the story about Eunhyeon that Ohran had told him.
When the time for Eun-hyeon to leave came, Oran did not hold on to Eun-hyeon.
I couldn’t recommend Eun-hyeon, who said with a determined face, ‘I have a job to do and a mission to do,’ to learn her skills and become a Cheonil Nightmaster.
“… I do not know.”
After hearing all of her story, Lily couldn’t erase her puzzled expression.
“Doran’s grandfather… What did Oran-nim expect from his master?”
Hearing Doran’s story only made him interested in the existence of Eunhyeon, but until now, he did not see any connection with his descendants waiting for Eunhyeon through the medium of the Cheonilyajang test.
“My grandfather said he realized it belatedly. That human nature is not a blacksmith, but a swordsman.”
At that time, Eun-hyeon was receiving training in metallurgy from Oran, but she never missed a single day of the training Siete had instilled in her.
He saw through the essence of a swordsman ingrained in Eun-hyeon’s body, who said that she was thirsty for improvement in swordsmanship as hard as metallurgy.
“From then on, it is said that the goal of the grandfather changed to grow to the level where the human can forge a sword suitable for himself.”
“Master… So that you can create a sword that suits you… ?”
Kaaang!
A thought flashed through her mind for a moment, and Lily looked toward the smithy, where the sound of hammers echoed.
“‘I’ve been thinking wrong all this time. The best blacksmith is like a title given to the one who makes the best weapon.'”
A weapon is something that becomes useful when it is held by someone and leads to a fight.
In the end, it is not easy to determine the value of a weapon by itself, and it shines only when it is held in someone’s hand.
“‘Then what is the best weapon?’”
“…”
“These are the words my grandfather left with his will. What do you think the answer was?”
