Genius Blacksmith’s Game - Chapter 307

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Genius Blacksmith’s Game
The Final Masterpiece (2)
Takashi still felt that day like a nightmare.
After that incident…
Takashi had vanished from sight, becoming nothing more than a common drunkard.
Yet this same Takashi now sought to enter the Blacksmith Shop where Hyeon-su resided.
‘I haven’t even had a drink today.’
It was his way of showing respect before meeting him.
Moreover, Takashi felt confident.
‘Since he too is a blacksmith, he will surely see me.’
With such thoughts, Takashi was taken aback as he tried to step into the Blacksmith Shop where Hyeon-su lived.
‘What is all this…?’
Hyeon was currently the most famous person in existence.
The place was packed with people who had come either to meet him or in hopes of witnessing his real-world blacksmithing work.
Moreover, security personnel sent by Tae-ha were controlling the crowd.
Yet Takashi smiled faintly.
‘Still, I should be able to meet him right away.’
Takashi turned on a translator app on his mobile phone and spoke to the security guard.
“I am Takashi, a man who once practiced blacksmithing. I wish to meet Hyeon.”
But what was this?
At Takashi’s words, the security guard let out a long sigh.
“You’re the thirty-ninth, sir.”
“…?”
The guard pointed to a group standing behind him.
Takashi was bewildered.
A young man clutching a household hammer, pretending to be a blacksmith, shouted.
“Hey, I’m a blacksmith too, so show me your crafting work!?”
Some even displayed their hands.
“Don’t you see the calluses here?”
“Those are calluses from the gym!”
“W-well, if you look with the eyes of your heart, you can see them!”
“….”
Takashi spoke.
“No, no… I truly am from Japan, a blacksmith of the twenty-sixth generation….”
“…Our family has been crafting weapons for thirteen generations, a prestigious lineage!”
“I won’t lose—our family is in its eighteenth generation!”
“W-we’re in our twenty-eighth generation!”
A tactless friend of the one who had just shouted spoke up.
“Your parents run a Kalguksu restaurant though….”
“….”
“….”
The bodyguard spoke.
“…Please go home. And sir, it’s dangerous, so please step aside.”
Takashi had no choice but to join the crowd insisting he was a Blacksmith.
‘I never saw this coming….’
Hyeon’s popularity had skyrocketed beyond all expectations!
Just moments ago, the Young Man running the Kalguksu Restaurant had said it.
“Hehe, you must be a huge fan of Hyeon too, sir. Wow, even the elders love Master Craftsman Hyeon!”
Takashi found himself caught up in Hyeon’s Fan Club, unable to hide his bewilderment, desperately hoping no one would talk to him, and utterly exasperated.
How could someone run a Kalguksu Restaurant for twenty-eight generations and still have time for this?
“Since it’s fate, would you like to visit our Kalguksu Restaurant?”
Takashi was on the verge of losing his mind.
*
*
*
The Blacksmith Shop.
‘What on earth is the problem?’
Hyeon-su had been experiencing an inexplicable unease lately.
It was the sensation that his Crafting skill was deteriorating.
‘Something is wrong.’
Hyeon-su’s instinct, honed by years of Blacksmithing, was telling him exactly that.
The problem was that he couldn’t pinpoint the exact reason.
Moreover, the items he had recently crafted within the Blacksmith Shop.
[Rare Grade.]
[Rare Grade.]
[Common Grade.]
[Common…]
A considerable number of them were showing dismal results.
Clearly, something was amiss with Hyeon-su right now.
‘At first, I thought it was the pressure of becoming a king.’
But it wasn’t.
That was why Hyeon-su needed it.
He recalled the article he had seen.
-According to Lee Se-jin’s statement, he consulted with four or more Blacksmiths in the Blacksmithing division…
-Blacksmith Smith contributed the most…
An article that broke shortly after Hyeon-su revealed his true identity as a Blacksmith.
The article stated that he had consulted with four or more Blacksmiths.
Smith.
Takashi.
The rest remained a mystery.
But he thought to himself.
‘I cannot see myself right now.’
Sometimes people fail to recognize their own flaws.
‘But skilled Blacksmiths would be different.’
What might seem like an easy problem to others.
So I hoped that true Blacksmiths would approach me.
They had no reason to deliberately oppose me.
But I cannot grasp any clue about that someone.
Then, Risel came.
“Hyeon-su, your popularity is quite something. Even more Blacksmith imposters have shown up.”
“Really?”
The biggest problem was that those claiming to be Blacksmiths were multiplying exponentially.
Because of that, it was difficult to distinguish the genuine ones.
And I couldn’t possibly meet with all of them.
“There’s even an elderly Japanese man, I hear? You’re quite the international star.”
“A Japanese old man?”
A spark of interest flickered in Hyeon-su’s eyes.
“Yeah, he wanted to request a Crafting job from you. His name is Ta… Ta….”
The moment I heard the name starting with “Ta,” my heart began to race.
‘Could it be…!?’
“Tanaka?”
“…Tanaka? Isn’t that the Korean guy who used to imitate a Japanese person?”
“…Ah, right.”
Risel snapped his fingers.
“Oh, that’s right. Not Tanaka—it was Takashi!”
“Where is he right now?”
Hyeon-su knew better than anyone what kind of person Takashi was.
After hearing Risel’s words, Hyeon-su immediately Logged out and stepped outside.
Recently, Hyeon-su had moved his residence to a room attached to the Blacksmith Shop.
As Hyeon-su stepped outside, countless fans came into view.
Hyeon-su hurried over to the security guards and asked.
“Did an old man named Takashi happen to leave here? Where did he go?”
“Yes…? An old man? Ah, the one who’s been a Blacksmith for 26 generations….”
Upon hearing the guard’s words, certainty crystallized within me.
“Yes, where did he go!?”
Hyeon-su appeared quite excited, unlike his usual demeanor.
“Ah, that gentleman….”
The guard, who had been thinking for a moment, spoke.
“He went to get some Kalguksu.”
“…Just like that?”
Why kalguksu all of a sudden?
Takashi.
He marveled at the discovery.
‘So they really had been running a kalguksu restaurant for twenty-eight generations!’
Takashi had been practically dragged along by the Young Man’s infectious charm!
He was deeply moved by the taste of the sundae kalguksu from a family that had maintained the restaurant for twenty-eight generations.
That milky broth was so rich and flavorful!
Moreover, the Korean pickled radish was absolutely exquisite.
In recent times—no, among all the dishes he had ever tasted in his life—it was arguably the finest!
He had just finished eating, yet he already craved another bowl.
“See you again, sir.”
“Thank you for the meal.”
Takashi parted ways with the affable Young Man.
The moment he opened the door and stepped out, the person he had been searching for was waiting.
The man bowed respectfully.
“Master Craftsman Takashi of Japan, it is an honor to meet you.”
‘Have we met before?’
Though he may have heard the name, the man acted as if he recognized his face.
But that was not what mattered to Takashi.
“I’ve come because I have a Crafting commission I’d like to request.”
The two moved to a quiet cafe nearby.
Hyeon-su, sitting across from him, was curious.
A Crafting commission from Master Craftsman Takashi?
Soon, two cups of warm tea arrived.
“Why are you looking at me with such sorrowful eyes?”
“…I apologize.”
Hyeon-su realized he had made a mistake.
A Crafting commission from Master Craftsman Takashi.
In truth, it made no sense.
Takashi was a Master Craftsman superior to both his own father and himself.
But after that incident.
“Is my hand unsightly?”
Unable to bear the anguish, he had brought down a blacksmith’s hammer upon his own right hand.
Hyeon-su felt the weight of his sorrow.
The perpetrator at the time was a fairly renowned Samurai who had met the qualifications to purchase blades in Japan.
That Samurai had been exposed as having used drugs and subsequently ruined.
The problem arose afterward.
A chill ran through him.
Hyeon-su felt as though he could not breathe.
That Samurai was the old man sitting before him now.
Takashi’s “greatest Japanese blade,” crafted by his own hands, was used to commit mass murder in Osaka, the city with the largest population, as he went on a rampage with the weapon.
Afterward, the interview conducted with that half-mad man as he was being taken into custody shocked the world.
“So he really was a Master Craftsman. Just one swing and you could see how perfectly it cut! Khahaha!”
Following this, Takashi donated all his remaining wealth to society and burned down his Blacksmith Shop with his own hands.
The Blacksmith Shop that had been passed down through twenty-six generations became nothing but ash.
Thump—
And then.
His grandson was killed by the Japanese blade he had created.
But I needed to understand the reason why he required this commission in the first place.
“Please clarify your true intentions.”
Hyeon-su actually felt a stronger inclination to refuse.
Takashi was a dangerous man right now.
He was dangerous precisely because he had lost everything.
And there was something else that made no sense to me.
“I cannot fathom why someone in your current position would need to commission something to be made. If I cannot understand your reasoning, I absolutely cannot fulfill this request.”
An old man who had abandoned everything and disappeared.
An old man who had sworn never to craft again.
It was clear he had sought me out to keep that vow he had made to himself.
‘Why would he go this far…?’
Hyeon-su was curious, and Takashi began to speak.
“I had a son. Unlike me, he despised inheriting the Blacksmithing trade, so I drove him away. Then one day, an invitation to his wedding arrived. I did not attend.”
The old man touched the tea cup with vacant eyes.
“Then one day, my son and his wife both ascended to heaven in a traffic accident, and when I came to my senses, I found myself holding the hand of a small child. Heh.”
“Unlike his father, he loved and cherished the work of Blacksmithing.”
But then.
“One day, I went to Isonokami Shrine with my grandson.”
Hyeon-su’s eyes wavered.
‘Isonokami Shrine…?’
The old man nodded slowly.
“That’s right. The true Seven-Branched Sword of Baekje was displayed there.”
The Seven-Branched Sword currently in the National Museum is merely a replica.
The authentic Seven-Branched Sword resides at Isonokami Shrine in Japan.
“My grandson saw the Seven-Branched Sword and asked with joy why Korea’s Seven-Branched Sword was here—whether it was a gift or whether it was stolen.”
Nothing was ever definitively clarified.
But then the old man smiled.
“I had raised my grandson well. At that moment, he spoke of his dream.”
Hyeon-su listened intently.
To hear what that dream of his grandson was.
“Aoi said that whether it was stolen or given as a gift, we have historically committed many wrongs against Korea. And the fact that Baekje’s Seven-Branched Sword exists in Japan would be some proof of that, he said. A child wiser than any adult.”
Hyeon-su came to understand that Takashi had been a truly admirable man.
Rather than denying the nation’s wrongs, he had acknowledged them and raised the child with that truth.
And the boy, Aoi, had grown so brightly and righteously that it broke his heart.
“Aoi said he’s found a dream.”
“….”
Hyeon-su had heard that dream, and Takashi recalls Aoi’s face as vividly as if it were yesterday.
‘Grandfather! When I grow up, I’ll forge the greatest Sword in the world, just like you!’
Takashi had asked him, or so the story goes.
Why he wanted to craft the greatest Sword in the world.
Soon after, Takashi smiled faintly.
“…That boy wanted to repay me with the greatest Sword he could forge.”
Hyeon-su’s eyes widened in astonishment.
Only then did he grasp the meaning of what Takashi was saying.
Centuries ago, Baekje’s Chilji Blade had crossed over to Japan.
“I’ll return Baekje’s Chilji Blade in the way my grandson Aoi would have—by donating Japan’s finest Sword to Korea.”
The Master Craftsman’s final creation, having lost everything, carried within it the dream of the brightest child he had known.
Hyeon-su’s eyes trembled as he absorbed the full weight of the story.
Essentially Takashi’s last creation to present to the world.
The reason behind it was simply magnificent.
Now came the most crucial question.
“What is it you wish to commission from me?”
“In Korea, they call it ‘sashimi.'”
What the old man wished to donate to Korea.
The most beloved Blade among all Japanese Swords in the present day.
It was the Sakai kitchen knife.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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