Chapter 521 – 521. The Thousand and One Nights (4)
A guy who won’t let go of a hammer once he’s grabbed it.
Like a golem that has no self, it automatically swings its hammer over and over again.
A guy who just beats a hammer from morning to night without eating or resting.
Just crazy
All of the terms used to describe human guests in the village were bizarre.
The content of the rumor about the human guest who has been visiting and staying for about two weeks is very brief.
In the morning, when he starts his daily routine, he fixes the red-hot metal on the anvil and hits it with a hammer.
A simple and simple process of metal smelting that simply repeats the process of putting the cooled metal into the furnace, heating it, and beating it again.
However, if you repeat this process 10 times from morning to evening, over 20 times, even this simple task cannot be ignored.
As well as physical limitations, being able to repeat it for a long time requires incredible mental strength and concentration.
“They said it was poisonous. Very.”
Oran, who heard the story of his drunken dwarf friend, left the store and walked alone at night.
Even though he drank several barrels of beer, he didn’t get drunk at all, and the story of a human being told by a drunkard dwarf kept coming back to his mind.
“Is this here?”
I don’t know why, but I got interested in the man and moved to the area where he was staying, and from then on, it was very easy to locate the man who was rumored to be circulating.
Kaaang!
In the evening, most of the facilities are turned off, and in the dark, only one lighted place shows off its presence with a clear metallic sound.
Oran immediately stepped towards it and found the back of a stout human male swinging a hammer and hammering metal in a small blacksmith’s shop.
Kaaang!
“…”
The sound of metal hitting the metal on the anvil with all its might hit Oran’s ears.
Oran quietly stood at the entrance of the blacksmith’s shop, carefully examining the back of a human smelting metal.
Judging from the well-trained muscles of his shoulders and arms, which appeared over his sleeveless shirt, which was wet with a lot of sweat, he recognized at once that he was an unusual human being.
However, to Oran, it was not so important what kind of person the person with the back in front of him was.
“… What a mess.”
Oran frowned and murmured.
Humans are just hitting metal with hammers as hard as they can, that’s not metallurgy.
That act, similar to the appearance of beating and taking out anger on metal, instantly irritated Oran.
Hearing Oran’s voice, the human hesitated, stopped swinging the hammer, and looked back.
“… Yes?”
Seeing the figure of Oran, who had a shaggy body compared to his short stature and a shaggy beard, the human who had been sweating profusely and making a stupid expression opened his mouth.
“… Who are you?”
It was the first time Oran had ever visited this place at this time and talked to a human.
“Before you ask who I am, introduce yourself.”
“… My name is Eunhyun.”
“Ohran. You…”
Oh-ran slowly approached Eun-hyeon and looked at his face, staring at him with fierce eyes.
“Are you underestimating metallurgy?”
“Yes?”
At the sharp question that flew in from nowhere, Eun-hyeon widened her eyes and put on a puzzled expression, as if she didn’t know what she was talking about.
He was just banging his hammer without thinking, but the dwarf looking up at Eun-hyeon glared at him as if he had been severely insulted.
It was all the more embarrassing because he felt a strong pressure that, if he made the wrong move with his mouth, he would smash his own head with a hammer.
“Smelting metal is a very delicate business. All you guys are doing is beating iron with a hammer.”
“… Wasn’t it smelting like that?”
“Have you seen such a stupid, ignorant bastard!”
Oran, who did not realize what was wrong and heard the question, jumped up and became angry.
He wants to bring a hammer and hit him on the head right away, but the height difference between Eun-hyeon and herself makes it impossible.
That’s why the heat spread even more.
“Look at the metal you smelted!”
Oran held her tongs in his hand, picked up the iron that was lying on the anvil, and brought it close to Eunhyeon’s face.
“Can you see it!? Only the center of the metal is hollow, the entire surface is uneven, and the rim has not been touched at all!”
That meant that Eun-hyeon’s repeated hammering didn’t hit the metal evenly.
“What the hell are you going to make with such poor skills! This is nothing more than a pile of scrap metal!”
Caang!
As I roughly tossed it into a corner with forceps, a metallic sound echoed throughout the forge, and a roar of aura continued.
“To waste materials and time making trash like this! If you don’t want to quit being a blacksmith, leave this village right now before cutting off that hand!”
Oran continued to press his harsh words against Eunhyeon.
The reason for his anger was, of course, that Eunhyeon’s smelting skills were so poor, but he was also venting his anger at himself for coming here with little expectations.
I wouldn’t have been in such a bad mood if I had enjoyed drinking with the story of my drunk friend and immediately went home and went to sleep, but I was deeply annoyed at the waste of time and effort for having to visit Eun-hyun with a tired body. Felt.
“Shit… Just go home and go to sleep…”
That’s why Oran’s words and actions were nothing more than hysteria to relieve stress.
“… Then let me know.”
“What?”
“How did proper metallurgy come about? Please teach me how to properly smelt metal.”
“…”
Oran twitched his eyebrows as he looked at Eun-hyeon, who proudly demanded to teach him metallurgy.
On the contrary, it was Oran who was flustered and unable to speak.
“… You want me to teach you blacksmith skills?”
“Yes.”
“… Why me?”
“There is no specific reason.”
Eun-hyeon shrugged his shoulders and smiled bitterly. Oh-ran couldn’t open his mouth right away because Eun-hyeon’s attitude was so calm.
Belatedly, I looked up and down Eunhyeon’s body to see where she was.
How many hours he had been in front of the furnace in this forge, his clothes and skin were tanned so that even Oran, who had just arrived here, could say that he was not normal.
It also means that I repeated the unproductive act of just hammering iron with a hammer for several hours, and even days.
Then, in Oran’s head, he began to picture what kind of person Eun-hyeon in front of him was.
‘It’s either a guy with no talent or just a crazy guy.’
And one of them is extremely disliked, but the other is also the kind Oran likes.
He is also a dwarf who devoted most of his life to metallurgy as a craftsman, and has a fiery personality to the point of being treated as a madman when discussing his work as a field farmer.
‘Ha, do you want me to teach you a skill?’
Even Eun-hyeon doesn’t bow her head or ask for a favor, which is very bold.
The attitude of saying, ‘If you are dissatisfied with my skills, try developing them yourself’ was very displeased.
As the best Dwarf with the title of Master of the Thousand and One Nights, many Dwarves are waiting in line to learn skills from him, but there is no way he could benefit from teaching humans.
But for some reason, Oran found it strange how he didn’t feel like saying no.
“… Follow me.”
Oran took Eunhyeon and headed to his house.
There was no way to deal with the clothes full of smell from how sweaty she was, so she struggled, but luckily, Eun-hyeon somehow took out a new outfit right out of the air and put it on.
“… Is that like magic?”
“Similar.”
“It’s a strange ability.”
That was Oran’s impression, and he didn’t ask anything special.
It was a known fact that elves used the mysterious means of spiritism or that magic developed among humans, and it was not related to metallurgy, which was his area of interest.
After changing their clothes, Oran and Eunhyeon sat down at the table and finally had a proper conversation.
“Why did you come here? I heard that you are a human being entrusted to you among the elves.”
“… Just came out Because I couldn’t rely on them forever.”
“Why do you want to learn metallurgy?”
“I don’t want to learn because I want to learn.”
“… What?”
Oh-ran frowned at Eun-hyeon’s ambiguous answer.
For the inhabitants of this dwarven village, metallurgy is already a part of their lives, a goal to rise above.
“Oh, I have no intention of ignoring metallurgy or anything like that.”
“Then what?”
“…”
Eunhyun closed her eyes tightly and was lost in her thoughts.
“Recently… Very precious… I lost another friend and sister.”
“…”
It was one of the reasons Eunhyeon left the elven forest.
In addition, when he said the expression ‘again’, Eunhyun’s voice trembled and at the same time, his expression began to distort little by little.
“Sometimes he comes to mind. He’s not the only one… Colleague, master. The faces of my partners keep coming to my mind. Even if I try to force it, I cannot forget those faces.”
The faces of Joo Hyun-seong, Siete, Brunak, Silvia, Elysia, and many others.
The fact that she can’t forget the faces of the many people who were with her but left behind her, which comes to her mind when she sleeps, eats, and trains, is the feeling of longing that she can’t resolve and builds up in Eun-hyeon. It was like hell.
‘… What. Who is this guy?’
The distorted face gradually became empty, as if the mind was on the verge of collapsing, as if the body was intact, but the soul that made up the inside seemed to escape.
Contrary to Eun-hyeon’s appearance, who belongs to the younger side as a human being than himself, the expression he makes resembles that of an old general who is tired after overcoming numerous obstacles and hardships.
Seeing Eun-hyeon for the first time in her life, Oh-Ran, who had been so deranged, tried hard to hide her embarrassing feelings.
“So… I moved my body on purpose. I want to fall into a deep sleep where I can’t even dream because I’m so tired.”
When he got up in the morning he hit the hammer and didn’t stop until evening just before he collapsed.
At least when he was pounding metal, when his body was tired and he couldn’t think of anything, he couldn’t recall the faces of Sylvia or anyone else.
What Eunhyeon was forging was not iron, but smelting himself as hard as iron.
“Open your hand.”
“Yes? Why are your hands…”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
Oran grabbed both of Eunhyun’s hands and pulled them toward him, staring at his palms.
The right hand holding the hammer had been torn apart and blood was seeping out.
Until it reached this point, he clicked his tongue as he looked at his palms, which had been overworked by meaningless hammering for nearly two weeks.
“A foolish bastard.”
And, although not as much as the right hand, the calloused left hand is also unmistakably the swordsman’s hand.
“Let me tell you one thing in advance. Metallurgy is not a refuge designed to run away from your trauma. I don’t know what your story is, but it doesn’t matter to me. No matter what, it doesn’t change that what you did was to ridicule me and the blacksmiths.”
“… Sorry.”
“But if that’s the case, then your bold story to teach me yourself isn’t wrong.”
“… Yes?”
Eunhyeon, who was about to reflect on her actions and obediently bow her head to apologize, stopped at the flow of the conversation making a 180-degree U-turn and looked down at Oran’s face.
“Joy. Did he dare to have other thoughts while smelting metal? Be cheeky. Listen carefully.”
Oh-ran snorted and touched Eun-hyeon’s chest with his fist.
“For blacksmiths, stamina and skills are important, but you must know how to pour all the souls of emotions, including the heart and passion contained in your heart, into weapons. But you were just using it as an escape that you didn’t want to think about. That’s why he’s made out of nothing more than that kind of trashy scrap metal. There really is no such thing as foolishness.”
Oran couldn’t approve of that.
Because Eun-hyeon’s actions were just insulting to the blacksmith and to herself.
“… Oran is right.”
Eun-hyeon didn’t swing the hammer thinking he wanted to make something, but he couldn’t help but laugh bitterly as he didn’t have the heart to refute the dwarf’s argument.
“I’ll fix your bad mental state, so start working at my blacksmith’s shop tomorrow.”
