episode_0027

Shihyuk arrived at his home, the blacksmith shop.

At one point, he forgot whether I had run, taken a car, or taken public transportation.

He was so intent on going back as quickly as possible and striking the hammer that he forgot how to get there. When he came to, he was already lighting a fire in the forge.

He put the magic stone into the furnace and lit the flame with his own power.

With the flicker of the flame, Shihyuk admitted.

I could no longer hold back the passion I had suppressed with strong persistence and patience, the desire to make equipment that came to mind the moment I saw them.

[Even if I am blind, I can feel the flame burning in the nobleman’s heart.]

[You must have made up your mind even though I didn’t tell you to.]

[I hope your wishes come true. And… please take good care of those special children.]

Because he was indecisive, Shihyuk hesitated and couldn’t accurately recognize his own feelings even at the very end.

However, the desperate pleas and earnest words of advice from the dying nameless hero seemed to urge him on. They were the words that gave him a push as he hesitated at the starting line.

[You don’t have the writer in mind.]

[Your efforts have borne fruit, so now all you need to do is look at people and create things for them that will shine.]

Sihyuk was now finally able to understand what the elder of Suraksan had said.

The user comes first, never the equipment. He didn’t know that before.

But now he can see people, understand them, and create equipment for those whose value shines. He was able to meet such a person.

If there’s anyone who can handle his equipment, if there’s anyone who’s fit to make his equipment, it’s probably his sister.

Shihyuk closed his eyes.

universe.

That night, Si-hyuk sat next to her on the bed that smelled like cigarette smoke, listening to all of her painful past stories amidst the cold wind blowing in through the window and the billowing cigarette smoke.

One winter morning, in an orphanage in an unknown mountain village, she met a baby who could not even breathe properly and whose soul was rotting away.

Sensing her fate, she willingly risked her life to reach out to the baby who was abandoned in a convenience store bag, covered in blood, with the umbilical cord not even properly cut.

She considered her baby to be a source of meaning in her life and cherished and treasured her baby and her younger sibling more than herself.

She had no choice but to run away without even thinking of fighting back against those disgusting eyes full of greed and those dirty hands soaked in sexual desire, but those hands never let go of the child they held in their arms.

Even though she could have run away alone, she tried to protect her younger brother, her child, until the end. She gave that precious child a name with a precious meaning, and she shouldered the name with the duty to protect it.

…the universe just wanted to protect the treasure trove he had created with his younger brother.

But the world’s greed withers justice, righteousness is tainted by lies, and despair drives her. Still, she does not back down.

What’s the use of telling lies?

The universe was a man with many shortcomings.

He was mature, but had a short temper, was not careful, and was meticulous, but had a somewhat sloppy side.

Shihyuk just felt that way, she was never his mother.

Growing up without his parents, he never knew his mother’s love, and there was no one to act as a proper mother to him during his childhood.

She was able to grow up straight because she was able to meet a proper adult after her hair grew thicker, but because that proper meeting came late, that unknown adult could not become her family.

Moreover, she had never found a partner and raised a child of her own, so she was inexperienced in all aspects and could not become a mother.

I couldn’t be a noble, self-sacrificing being who always made the best decisions.

But even so,

Even if the universe is not noble and thoughtless, can we deny that even the feelings she holds in her heart are dirty?

The venom she used to protect herself and her younger brother was a misguided self-sacrifice that failed to distinguish between friend and foe, but can we criticize that its meaning has completely faded?

When a snake climbs a tree and breaks its nest to devour everything, can the mournful cries of a bird, no matter how loud, be considered meaningless and meaningless?

Isn’t that too sad to say?

You couldn’t say she was a bad person. She was just put in a bad situation and made a bad decision.

The universe was not good enough to be a hero.

However, he will be enough to support the hero.

Shihyuk opened his eyes.

There was only a slight difference in timing and meeting, so maybe Shihyuk followed her procedures.

If he was a proper Awakener who could open the [Status Window].

If I hadn’t met Baek Hyun-man while serving in the [Suicide Squad].

So, if I had ended up in an orphanage with a ‘demon hag’.

Shihyuk and Woojoo’s positions could have been reversed. Or, they could have lived completely different lives.

Shihyuk felt a subtle sense of kinship with her.

He overcame it all and achieved his dream, and he looked forward to his next dream, but the universe has not yet achieved his dream.

Sihyuk got up and turned the warehouse upside down to find his first work, a beautiful silver-colored dagger.

Let’s give this to her. That’s what Shihyuk decided.

He decided to give the first completed version of his dream, which he had achieved by overcoming past failures and pain, as a gift to her dream, which was still wounded and wandering.

However, he was not satisfied with just handing it over. He wanted to carve something to bless the future of the universe to shine brightly.

Yeah, just like her name.

Shihyuk placed the dagger on the shelf and fixed it in place. A brilliant five-colored flame rose from his hand.

Shihyuk began to take the flames little by little and raise them until they covered the entire body of the dagger. It was a maddening ordeal to keep the flames alive one by one, and to place dozens and hundreds of pieces of flame on the small dagger.

Shihyuk was satisfied only when he was drenched in sweat. The dagger on the shelf was filled with sparks, almost as if it were a cup full of water that would spill if it were filled with just one more drop.

He raised his hammer. The hammer began to spark and sizzle like lava. Sihyuk took a deep breath and began to swing his dagger with all his might.

The fragments that sparkled and scattered like a magnet reattached to the dagger. The fragments of the five-colored flames shattered into smaller pieces each time he struck, and were engraved onto the dagger again.

It keeps hitting, and hitting again.

The flames had now lost their form and seeped into the dagger, forming stars. Countless constellations were carved into the beautiful white dagger.

Shihyuk held up the dagger and held it up to the light. The dagger, whose heat had not yet cooled, had a translucent body with a milky color, revealing its insides as it absorbed the light that illuminated it. It was shining brightly, making the beautiful stars embedded in its body flow like the Milky Way.

“Good.”

Shihyuk took out the bandage he had prepared in advance and cut my thigh with the dagger.

The dagger with the meaning of stars engraved on its pure white body cut through his flesh without any trouble and drew blood from the body of the Na-han.

The flowing blood stained the dagger, making a sizzling sound as if the contents of a boiling kettle had been spilled.

Shihyuk wrapped the wounded leg with a bandage as if applying pressure to stop the bleeding, and then wrapped the bloody dagger tightly with the remaining bandage several times. It seemed like he was trying to let the dagger cool down and let the blood seep into it.

And then he took the earring out of his pocket.

Shihyuk smiled faintly as he looked at the earrings that sparkled and vibrated as if they had just woken up from sleep when he touched them with his fingers.

Even though he had lost his body, I was glad to see his will to protect his master. It must have been a good weapon. It was clear that a good craftsman had made it with sincerity.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take off the time, polish it, and return it to your master.”

Shihyuk held it tightly and created a white flame in his hand. The mana full of filthy malice contained in the dagger that was originally a dagger was all burned away with that one touch.

When he opened his palm, an earring appeared, shedding its filth and clothed in pure white flames. The metal piece ornament, once made of [Magic Iron], had lost its mana and had become dull and black like old brass, but now it was shining like pure silver.

Shihyuk used his fingernails to tear off a small part of it and filled the empty space with the white flame that still remained in his hand.

And then, tap tap, lightly, as if patting the skin to help the cosmetics it applied to the skin absorb.

Then, a noble white starlight was engraved into the gap of the earring.

Like the brightest star in the night sky, the earrings will dazzle their owner and burn away all evil.

Shihyuk wrapped the earrings neatly in a dry towel and placed them and the dagger in the same place.

And after trimming the earrings, I didn’t throw away the remaining parts, but put them in my pocket. I had ‘some use for them’ later.

He examined the magic stone he had placed inside the furnace.

The work is not over yet.