Chapter 21
"Where the hell do you think you're impersonating someone and causing a scene?"
Jin Mu-young growled, shoving his face right up to Dohyeon's.
'...It's that bastard again.'
Why the hell is this bastard here again.
Jin Mu-young glared, his brow deeply furrowed, and looked Dohyeon up and down.
"Hah. A nobody like you trying to impersonate Master Do? At least wear a suppressor talisman if you're going to do it."
Jin Mu-young let out a scoff.
In fact, Dohyeon was wearing a suppressor talisman.
He was just letting out enough spiritual power to maintain this appearance.
A normal suppressor talisman was a simple on/off device.
It either blocked spiritual power or released it.
Just one of the two.
To Jin Mu-young's eyes, that faintly leaking aura simply looked like that of a low-ranking sorcerer who wasn't even wearing a suppressor talisman.
Jin Mu-young had no way of knowing that Dohyeon's suppressor talisman was a cheat item with adjustable output.
On top of that, Dohyeon had taken off his mask in the TK Hotel suite that day.
Mu-young could never in his wildest dreams imagine that this pretty boy standing before him was the same blade artisan from that day.
But Dohyeon had no intention of telling the truth.
Why had he changed his face in the first place?
Wasn't it so he wouldn't get his real identity exposed to those Four Great Houses or whatever?
Thanks to spending the whole night reading through the Dokkaebi Fire Gallery Ji-an had pulled up for him, Dohyeon had learned quite a lot about this world.
The twelve great families that formed the root of this world.
They supposedly each venerated one of the twelve zodiac beasts.
Rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog, pig.
Twelve surnames, twelve families modeled after the twelve zodiac signs.
And among those twelve families, the four who reigned at the very top were the four families that served the Four Divine Beasts.
Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise.
These four, each associated with the dragon, tiger, rooster, and snake, were the so-called 'Four Great Houses' people wouldn't stop talking about every chance they got.
Right. So, in other words.
The name of the guy currently bulging a vein right in front of Dohyeon was.
Jin Mu-young (辰無影).
The Jin clan, marked by the character for dragon,
meant he was blood of the Four Great Houses, from the Azure Dragon line.
'Then what the hell? Why was that bastard at the TK Hotel?'
Curious about that, Dohyeon had contacted Ji-an the moment he closed the gallery.
[Ah... Jin Mu-young? He's from a collateral branch, and apparently he's caused so much trouble that the family has basically half-disowned him. So I guess he's the type who runs wild without caring what the family thinks?]
The details didn't concern Dohyeon.
What mattered was that guy was blood of one of the Four Great Houses.
[As for him... it'd probably be best not to get personally close. Even if he's been cast out, they say blood is thicker than water. As long as he still bears the Jin surname, who knows when he'll get tangled back up with the family? Someone like Mr. Dohyeon, who has to keep his identity completely hidden, doesn't need to go out of his way to stir up trouble by getting involved with blood from the Four Great Houses, right?]
With the Tianshan Sect name as a shield, they wouldn't dare openly touch him either, though.
Still, Dohyeon really didn't like the idea of the family people finding out his true identity.
If he told that guy the truth, this perfect persona he'd carefully laundered his identity into could be ruined overnight.
"Hey. Can't you hear me?!"
He couldn't exactly say his face had changed.
Right.
He decided to ignore him for now.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going!"
As Dohyeon started walking, Jin Mu-young bristled and followed after him.
"I don't know what trick you pulled to get through with that nameplate, but I'll expose your true identity no matter what. Just you wait, huh?"
Nameplate, huh.
According to what he'd read in the gallery yesterday, the authority of a nameplate in the sorcery world was absolute.
Because it verified identity by registering the user's unique spiritual power.
And getting the nameplate checked at an event run by someone of this caliber also meant the host was officially vouching for your identity.
In other words, no matter how convinced that guy was that Dohyeon was an imposter, he couldn't lay a hand on him right now.
Because doing anything here would be the same as openly challenging the host's authority.
He knew that too, so in the end he could only rant wildly with his mouth and not his hands.
'...Have it your way.'
They wouldn't see each other again after this job was over anyway.
Was there any need to explain himself in detail?
If he came to work, he just needed to do the job and leave.
Thinking that, Dohyeon ignored him and quickened his pace toward the inside of the mansion's spacious garden.
"Hey! Where are you going, you bastard! Just wait till this is over, huh? I'll make you regret it!"
Threats spilled from behind him in impotent fury, but that was all.
Whatever. Let him do as he pleased.
***
When they reached the entrance, the waiting staff opened the large doors on both sides.
As they stepped inside, an elderly gentleman in a neat suit greeted the two of them.
“We’ve been expecting you. The others have already arrived, so I’ll escort the two of you to the reception room.”
Following the old gentleman down the hall, they opened the reception room door and went in.
Inside the spacious reception room.
Two people were seated on the leather sofa.
One was a young woman.
And beside her sat a middle-aged man in a traditional robe, legs crossed.
Dohyeon's gaze naturally went to the woman.
More precisely, his eyes went to the object carefully placed on her lap.
Something long, wrapped tightly in fine cloth and bound with string.
'...A Japanese sword?'
Its length and shape left no doubt it was a sword. A long, slender one at that.
The woman cradled the cloth-wrapped bundle carefully with both hands, as if it were a newborn baby.
By contrast, the middle-aged man beside her had all sorts of scroll-like things hanging from his waist.
Even his face gave off an obnoxiously pompous impression.
After Dohyeon and Mu-young sat side by side on the empty sofa, the old gentleman looked over the group and spoke.
“Now that everyone is gathered, I’ll explain the request.”
'Hmm, I heard there was a middle broker on site. Is this gentleman it?'
As if he had read Dohyeon's mind, the old gentleman gave a slight bow.
"I'm late with the introduction. I serve as this household's butler. I handle the overall affairs of the family and the business. In particular... managing matters related to sorcery is my main duty."
The butler smiled faintly.
"So arranging requests like this and receiving all of you is also entirely my responsibility."
Ah.
So he wasn't a sorcerer-family member, but he seemed to personally act as the manager who hired and directed people whenever needed.
In other words, he was both butler and broker.
"So, what did you call us here for?"
The middle-aged man in the robe asked, flicking his chin arrogantly.
"Yes. Since you're all busy people, I'll get straight to the point."
The butler coughed awkwardly and lowered his voice a notch.
"The reason I brought you here is... because misfortunes just won't stop happening in this household."
A deep shadow fell over his expression.
"After our former chairman passed away, his son inherited both the business and this mansion. But around that time... a string of bad things began to happen."
The butler held up one finger after another.
"There kept being traffic accidents outside. The servants working in this house fell ill one by one, and some even met with accidents. And that's not all. Unexplained misfortunes kept befalling the chairman's family as well."
It was the sort of clichéd story he'd heard somewhere before.
"So, we came to the conclusion that... some kind of evil has attached itself to this house."
The woman, who had been listening quietly, opened her mouth while stroking the sword on her lap.
"Then why... didn't you dispose of those collected items long ago?"
Her voice was calm and low.
"Well, you see."
The butler smiled as if he were troubled and slowly rose from his seat.
"It's quicker to show you than explain it in words. Please come this way."
***
The moment they opened the inner door and followed the butler inside.
"...Wow."
The woman gasped in admiration.
Beyond the door was a vast museum.
Display cases stretched on endlessly beneath the high ceiling.
Inside them were porcelain pieces and statues emitting a radiant glow,
And strange ritual implements packed tightly together.
The walls were lined with antique-framed paintings, and glass cases displayed armor and swords as tall as a person.
"This is the vault where the previous head of the family kept the collections he devoted his entire life to gathering."
The butler shrugged.
"As you can see, every one of them is a rare item. He would occasionally invite acquaintances over to have them come by for a look."
"...So how much is all this worth?"
Jin Mu-young asked, swallowing hard.
"Well. If you add up everything in here... I’d say it’s at least over one hundred billion won."
"O-one hundred billion?!"
Jin Mu-young's eyes widened as if they might pop out.
One hundred billion.
So that meant this mansion alone was worth a full one hundred billion.
"Which is why the old master couldn't bring himself to touch it carelessly."
The butler smiled bitterly.
"Since we can't tell which of these is the source, burning everything down would mean incinerating one hundred billion won. But leaving it as is means people keep getting hurt."
'...So they're stuck between a rock and a hard place.'
"But there is something else."
The butler lowered his voice even more.
"What’s most troublesome is... that we can't even determine what the source of the trouble is."
"What do you mean?"
"Because what each person experiences is completely different."
The butler began counting off on his fingers again.
"One person says they saw a statue move in the middle of the night. Another says they had a nightmare, got trapped in a painting, and woke up. Another cut their hand while polishing a dagger and has been wasting away ever since. Every item is different, and every symptom is different."
"...A Vengeful Spirit Transfer, then."
The woman with the sword muttered softly.
The butler nodded heavily.
"Yes. That's right."
Vengeful Spirit Transfer.
He didn't know exactly what it was, but from the general atmosphere, it seemed to mean one thing was leaping from item to item and spreading.
In other words, originally there was one real culprit, but it spread to the surrounding items one after another.
So now they couldn't even tell what the original culprit was.
"Which is why I asked the four of you here."
'...So that's why they called me.'
Dohyeon quietly sorted it out in his head.
He had been puzzled at first.
Why an exorcism request like this had come to him, a blacksmith.
Curious about that, he'd asked Seo Ji-an.
Seo Ji-an's explanation was this.
The people called "artisans" in this world were extremely rare.
Since few people knew how to engrave spellcraft, whenever anything even remotely related to it came up, they would call whoever they could, regardless of major.
In the first place, choosing the perfect specialist for every spellcraft-related job was harder than plucking stars from the sky.
The families colluded among themselves and only took the jobs that looked easy.
And there were countless cases where the fees were high but the skill was nothing special.
Come to think of it.
Since this place was full of armor, swords, and other metal objects.
It wasn't really unreasonable for a blacksmith like him to be included.
The butler turned back toward the group.
"Two artisans and two sorcerers, correct? Since this is probably your first time meeting, let me give a brief introduction."
The butler first gestured toward the man in the robe.
"This is Yu Seon-woo, a Juhwasa of the Vermilion Bird Family."
'A Juhwasa.'
It was a word he'd seen in passing in the gallery the night before: the character 呪 for sorcery and 畵 for painting. As the name suggested, it meant someone who used paintings to cast sorcery.
The man called Juhwasa lifted his chin arrogantly and gave a slight nod.
"I am Yu Seon-woo."
The butler now pointed to Dohyeon.
"And this one... is Master Do, the blade artisan from the Tianshan Sect."
At that instant.
The atmosphere in the reception room subtly stirred.
Yu Seon-woo's eyebrows twitched.
The woman with the sword stared at Dohyeon with wide eyes.
"T-this person... is that Tianshan Sect blade artisan?"
The woman asked back in disbelief.
Well, that was understandable.
The Tianshan Sect artisan she'd only heard about in rumors turned out to be a ridiculously young pretty boy.
But Dohyeon, the center of everyone's attention, was looking somewhere else entirely.
His mind was entirely on the long cloth bundle the woman had set on her lap.
Because he could sense something alien about it.
Whether someone introduced him or not, that indifferent way of mentally sizing up a weapon's structure looked, in everyone else's eyes, exactly like a greenhorn who couldn't read the room.
On top of that, Dohyeon was only letting out the tiniest sliver of spiritual power, just enough to maintain his disguised face.
Naturally, to them he was nothing more than a rookie who couldn't even manage more than that much aura without a suppressor talisman.
"......"
The gazes of the woman and the others gradually cooled.
In particular, the corners of Yu Seon-woo's mouth curled upward in a mocking sneer.
"Hmm. So, what's your specialty?"
The moment the introduction ended, Yu Seon-woo asked Dohyeon arrogantly.
His tone was as if he were saying, let's hear it if you dare.
"......I'm a blacksmith."
"A blacksmith, huh."
Yu Seon-woo snorted and lifted his chin.
"Seems like they hand out the title of artisan pretty generously where you're from. A youngster as green as you already gets to carry it around. If you were on our side, you'd still be the age to be grinding ink for a master, honestly."
Dohyeon let the words go in one ear and out the other.
He'd already heard plenty that everyone from the Four Great Houses had no manners.
Even that Jin Mu-young had been consistently rude to everyone except himself.
"Well, I hear there are a great many paintings among the collections here."
Yu Seon-woo continued pompously.
"It looks like I'll be of great help after all."
"Now then, all of you."
The butler folded his hands neatly.
"You only need to identify what the source of the trouble is in here, and exorcise it. The sooner you finish, the more generously we'll add to your fee. During your stay, lodging and meals will all be provided, and the servants will take care of meals."
Just as the butler was about to stand, he added,
"Ah, one more thing."
The butler held up one finger.
"The old master also instructed us to set aside additional pay according to contribution. The person who contributes the most will be rewarded accordingly."
Having finished speaking, the butler bowed politely to the group.
The faster it was finished, and the more active one was, the bigger the reward.
Good.
It was a condition he liked very much.
***
Nearby.
Yu Seon-woo shot a sidelong glance at the young pretty boy.
For some green kid to come here claiming to be an artisan and even fail to properly contain his spiritual power, letting it leak so faintly.
'...I thought the Tianshan Sect blade artisan was supposed to be amazing, but he's nothing special.'
It seemed to have been nonsense after all.
Anyway, it was probably just some minor accomplishment blown all out of proportion by someone trying to come over from China and make a name for himself in Korea.
What happened at the TK Hotel that time must have been nothing more than a lucky fluke.
This worked out nicely.
This request was a job where painting was the key.
One fresh-faced brat, one girl who could only swing a sword, and one thug who looked like a street punk.
Since there was extra pay based on contribution.
Standing out among this ragtag bunch and pocketing the entire fee shouldn't be that hard.
Besides.
It was also clear that this so-called Tianshan Sect blade artisan had been at the center of attention lately.
Even the elders of the Four Great Houses had said they disliked seeing some outsider come in and stir up the Korean scene.
If he could just knock that arrogance flat right here.
It would only be a matter of time before word reached the elders and his own reputation rose a notch.
The corner of Yu Seon-woo's mouth curled even more crookedly.
'I'll teach you, painfully, what the difference in rank really means, brat.'"],
notes":"Aligned the chapter title with nearby 'Blade Artisan' usage and cleaned up a few awkward lines for natural English. Kept terminology consistent where needed, including Dokkaebi Fire Gallery, nameplate, Juhwasa, and Tianshan Sect Blade Artisan."}{