The address written on the memo led me to a spot near Hongjecheon in Mapo-gu.
Entering through the back of the buildings lined up in front of the road, I immediately spotted my destination.
Jae’s Forge.
It looked like an ordinary small-to-medium business building.
If it hadn’t had a signboard, I wouldn’t have known it was a forge.
Under the signboard was written, “40 years of tradition.”
“……”
I slid open the door and stepped inside, greeted only by silence.
There was none of the usual greetings one expects when customers enter.
Nor were there any customers who had come to the forge.
Is it because of bad attitude? That’s why no one comes?
“Is anyone here?”
I asked and waited for a moment.
No answer came.
They must have stepped out.
If I wait, they’ll come back eventually.
I sat down, leaning against the counter.
There wasn’t even a single chair for waiting customers.
While feeding mana to the sprout, I glanced around.
“This place is stocked like a kitchenware store.”
Whenever I visit a forge or a weapon shop, I’m usually busy looking around.
Even if I don’t plan to buy anything, it’s fun to glance over the various items.
But Jae’s Forge only had kitchen tools like kitchen knives and tongs.
There was a door behind the counter, but with no owner present, I felt uneasy about going in.
Clack — the forge door opened.
The woman who opened it wore a gray hooded zip-up jacket carelessly thrown on.
Her long hair framed a pair of hands holding a tray of eggs.
“……”
“……”
She closed the door and stepped inside without even glancing at me.
She went straight to the door behind the counter.
“I told you never to come again. So you’re ignoring me?”
Her voice came from inside the room.
She must have mistaken me for someone else because of the mask.
I should tell her she’s mistaken.
I stood up and turned around, but “……!”
She suddenly appeared inside the door, twin swords in hand.
Where did the eggs go? The eggs.
“A single kitchen knife is too precious to waste on people like you.”
Her eyes looked ready to pounce at any moment.
If I don’t clear up this misunderstanding quickly, trouble will break out.
To show I had no intention to fight, I raised both hands.
Taking a step back, I said,
“I don’t know who gave you a hard time, but—”
“What’s wrong with your hands?”
“I’m not one of those guys, okay? Hands?”
She frowned and looked at my hands.
I followed her gaze to my raised hands.
My right hand held a smartphone, and my left palm was soft and smooth.
“Wait, aren’t you one of those ‘Crowd’ guys?”
“No.”
“You’re not?”
“Nope.”
“Then why are you wearing a white mask?”
I shrugged.
I got tired of taking it off.
It also started to be kind of fun.
I only shrugged instead of explaining.
From experience, I knew if I answered honestly, she’d just sigh.
A black-hearted blacksmith probably wouldn’t have a good first impression.
She put down the twin swords and walked over to sit by the counter.
“Are you looking for B-rank equipment—”
“I don’t sell it.”
“I wasn’t finished talking yet.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t sell it. What are you going to do with weapons with hands like those?”
Hands?
I lowered my head and looked carefully at my wide-open hands.
My palms were white and smooth, without a single callus.
Ah, now I see what she meant.
My hands weren’t those of a monster-hunting hunter.
Since retiring, I hadn’t held weapons, so my hands had become those of an ordinary office worker.
“You have a keen eye.”
“See? That’s why I said I won’t sell you anything. If you get it, just go.”
She said that, resting her chin on her hand as she looked at me.
This must be why she realized I wasn’t one of the Crowd.
No choice then.
I nodded in acceptance of her refusal.
She pointed at the glass case filled with kitchen knives.
“If you really want something, buy from there. They’re better than D-rank weapons.”
Better than D-rank weapons?
What do the people in this neighborhood cook?
If what she says is true, maybe buying kitchen knives wouldn’t be so bad.
I put my smartphone back in my pocket and walked over to the glass display filled with kitchen knives.
Various knives of different lengths and designs were lined up inside.
The common point was the initials “J.Y.” engraved between the blade and handle.
“….. Are you really going to buy these?”
“You said they’re better than D-rank weapons?”
“Yeah.”
After a brief exchange, she didn’t say anything more, apparently not wanting to bother me.
Thanks to that, I could slowly take the kitchen knives out, feeling their grips with both hands.
I didn’t think about cutting power or durability.
Since they were all grouped together and had the same initials, I figured there wouldn’t be much difference.
I gripped, swung, and put down the knives repeatedly with both hands.
After trying every knife in the glass case, I was able to pick two.
One was the longest knife on the rack, and the other had a black blade.
“Have you chosen?”
The woman asked as I tightly gripped the two kitchen knives.
When I looked back, she was still resting her chin on her hand.
The only difference was a faint smile on her lips.
I guess watching me carefully choose kitchen knives to buy looked funny to her.
“Yeah, these have the best grip.”
“What are you really?”
“Suddenly?”
I asked in surprise.
Instead of answering, I tapped my mask.
How can you ask someone wearing a mask who they are?
If I planned to tell her, would I even be wearing a mask?
She made a slicing motion with her hand, mimicking holding a knife, then moved slowly.
It was the same motion I had made while choosing knives.
“You don’t swing like an ordinary person.”
“….. It’s just a habit.”
“A habit?”
Even though I quit hunting, those memories remained vivid.
So when my body feels stiff, I sometimes swing something about 30 cm long.
Like someone who learned golf practicing swings out of habit.
Or a baseball enthusiast swinging for fun when bored.
“From what you said, your swings must be pretty good.”
“Better than most hunters. Are you really an ordinary person?”
“That’s a relief. It’s been a while since I held a knife.”
The only thing I’d held recently was a dissection knife used to dismantle monster corpses.
Besides that, at best, a box cutter for cutting paper in the office.
I suppose a 30 cm ruler counts as something long.
Well, the kitchen knives in my hands now weren’t so different from those.
“So… you were a hunter?”
“Yeah. Until two years ago. I had to quit after encountering an ‘Evolved Monster.’”
An Evolved Monster.
It’s a higher-tier monster evolved from those that appear in gates.
Usually, they grow large black horns on their heads, or if they already had one, they get an additional horn.
The monster that made me retire was the D-rank gate’s boss monster, the Minotaur.
Its rank was C initially, but after evolving with horns, it was measured as B-rank.
Looking back, it was a miracle we didn’t all get wiped out that day.
Though I ended up with a broken heart and a body that could no longer use mana.
“Were you looking for equipment to return to the hunt?”
“Something like that.”
I nodded in response and walked toward the counter.
I placed the two kitchen knives on the counter.
“A conceited idiot.”
“Suddenly insulting me?”
“That’s what I thought. Wearing a mask and with hands without a single callus.”
Hearing that, I realized her misunderstanding was understandable.
In some ways, her assessment wasn’t completely wrong.
According to the honest opinions of Dohee and Taecheon, I am indeed an idiot.
One of the top one or two in the world.
Of course, the one competing for that spot is my friend Taecheon.
“So that’s why you were looking for B-rank equipment. Hmm… fine. Wait over there.”
She said that and disappeared through the door behind the counter.
I wished she’d have said why or told me to wait.
Well, since she told me to wait, I’d wait.
Besides growing the World Tree, I had nothing else to do.
I took out my smartphone and leaned against the counter.
The sprout on the screen spread its leaves wide and shivered its body.
It seemed happy to receive mana.
The sight made me smile.
Is that why people keep pets or plants?
“Is that game fun?”
While tapping on the screen, she came out from behind the door carrying a load.
The load was much larger than her body—it was swords and armor.
There seemed to be hunter equipment inside the room.
“You said you don’t sell.”
“Got a problem? Should I put it back?”
“No, no need to go through that trouble. I apologize. I was wrong.”
I quickly apologized as she tried to go back inside.
Politely, even putting down my smartphone.
Maybe my sincerity worked because she came out carrying the equipment.
Though she kept shaking her head.
“This is a prototype of a new product. Light armor. More suited for hit-and-run than tanking.”
“You saw that exactly right.”
My combat style is to dodge or evade attacks and counterattack.
Blocking or parrying attacks is beyond my physical strength.
Still, when I was active, I played the tank role.
To minimize talent waste among our party members.
Taecheon was a fast and agile swordsman, and Dohee was a mage with magical talent.
Assigning tank duties to them was out of the question.
It wasn’t a style I enjoyed, but I had to be the tank.
After that, Taecheon suddenly switched to tank, and Dohee became a healer around the same time.
The reason…
Well, it was obvious.
Because of me.
“It’s a prototype, so it’s a bit rough and has shortcomings.”
“That’s what I like about it.”
“You’re a right-handed ambidextrous, right? So I picked a longsword of moderate length for you. You can wield it one-handed or two-handed.”
How did she know that?
Only Dohee and Taecheon knew I was ambidextrous.
No one else knew.
And I never talked about it.
“Don’t be surprised. You held kitchen knives with both hands. If you were right-handed, you wouldn’t have tried the other hand.”
“Your eyesight is amazing.”
“I’ll sell these to you. But on one condition.”
“Condition? What is it?”
“You have to buy the kitchen knives too.”
“If that’s the condition, then it’s no condition at all.”
She smiled slyly.
Oh, right. I was wearing a mask.
Then,
“Why sell to him but not deal with us?”
A man’s voice came from behind.
Through the glass of the sliding door, I saw a crowd gathering outside.
The door burst open, and a group of people wearing white masks rushed in.
The man who asked had a pattern on his mask, probably marking him as the leader.
Sure enough, they were all wearing white masks.
Seeing them, I understood why she had mistaken me.
The leader entered last after everyone else and asked another question.
“Are you saying we’re worse than that ponytail guy, Yoo Jae-yi?”
“The Crowd…”
Jae-yi glared fiercely at the white-masked group, just as she had glared at me.
She looked ready to leap at them.
If I weren’t here, she probably would have.
When she mistakenly thought I was one of them, Jae-yi even grabbed a sword, but now she only glared.
I knew why.
She was holding back, worried something bad might happen to me.
Haha. I’m really sensitive to things like that.
“Hey, you guys.”
I walked between Jae-yi and the white-masked group.
All eyes in the forge turned to me.
Surprise, suspicion, and confusion could be felt.
“Let’s come to an agreement.”
“What are you suddenly talking about—!”
The leader’s voice faltered as he glanced at my left shoulder.
The others also looked at my left shoulder.
A small scale floated above it.
I had received it yesterday from Seo Ji-hyeok.
“So, let’s make a deal.”
Of course, I had no intention of balancing the scale.