Chapter 22
After the introductions, the real tour of the vault began.
“Please take your time looking around from this side. Just refrain from touching anything carelessly.”
I followed the butler.
The space was no less impressive than a national museum.
It took quite a while just to circle the display cases once.
A blade sharpened to a cold blue edge.
A suit of scale armor as tall as a person.
Celadons imbued with a chill spiritual aura.
Every one of them was an extraordinary masterpiece at a glance.
Especially when I passed metal items, my steps slowed without me realizing it.
'......That sword's forging grain is incredible. They must've hammered it tens of thousands of times.'
My curiosity was piqued.
Since I was told not to touch anything, I couldn't feel it directly.
I loosened the suppression seal inside my clothes by the tiniest amount and gathered spiritual energy at my fingertips.
Then I gently brought those fingertips to the corner of my eye.
Swoosh—.
The moment my vision blurred and then cleared.
The deep-blue grain of the circuit, invisible to the naked eye, surfaced clearly through the outer surfaces of the items.
The more I worked in the forge, the more adept I became at handling spiritual energy.
'......Oh?'
The inscribed spellwork differed from item to item.
The graceful curved saber on the display case over there.
It had been laid out so the energy would cascade from the spine to the tip like a waterfall.
A structure specialized for slicing, driving killing intent to the blade's edge.
The dagger beside it had a spiral circuit twisting from the hilt, designed to gather energy into a single point and drive it in.
It was definitely a circuit designed for assassination.
The porcelain pieces lined up on the floor were wrapped in chain-shaped barrier circuits around their surfaces to keep whatever was inside from escaping.
Different circuits had been engraved for each and every use.
'......This is actually pretty worth seeing.'
There was a real pleasure in figuring out what circuit had been engraved for each purpose, and why.
After all, even to achieve one goal, there are many different ways.
It had been the same in the game.
Depending on the continent's regions, climate, and the traits of each race, the styles of mana circuits engraved on weapons varied wildly.
Warriors from the blazing desert preferred structures that quickly released heat and prevented the circuit from melting.
The gear of jungle tribes filled with venomous insects and humidity was built on spiral circuits that prevented corrosion and let toxins vent out.
Small differences could create performance gaps and drastically change how a weapon was used.
'This one...... looks like a structure used in the desert.'
A form designed so the grain flowed in one direction, keeping sand from sticking along the blade's spine.
'......And that one, a jungle machete?'
A thick, tenacious circuit grain suited for slicing through waterlogged stems in one stroke.
Traces of artisans from different eras and different schools struggling fiercely in their own ways.
As I read each one, a pleasant thrill as a craftsman rose from somewhere in my chest.
Now I understood a little why people went around visiting places like art museums and museums so much.
'......That said.'
After looking around for quite a while, one thing suddenly caught my eye.
From porcelain pieces to hanging scrolls, even ordinary inkstones.
Among the countless items in the display cases, not a single one was an ordinary antique.
Every one of them was a casting imbued with spiritual energy or engraved with complex spellwork.
'Could that previous elder...... have been a sorcerer?'
If not, then...
There was no way they'd have collected only castings engraved with circuits like this.
'Well, other people's family affairs aren't my concern.'
I turned my gaze back to the display cases.
There were many superb pieces.
But at the same time......
'Hmm. There are quite a few disappointing points too.'
This was practically an incurable occupational disease of mine.
The habit of seeing a finished object in front of me and unconsciously calculating how I could improve it even further.
My steps stopped in front of a splendid silver dagger.
The decorations were lavish, and the blade's finish was excellent. But the flow of the spellwork engraved inside was awfully sloppy.
“What a pity. If they'd moved the circuit's starting point up by half a notch.”
The words slipped out of my mouth before I knew it.
“Ha!”
Jin Muyeong, who had somehow come up beside me, let out a sneer.
“And here you are, acting like you know something.”
'......But why has this guy been trailing right behind me this whole time?'
Everyone else had scattered to their own display cases, but this guy alone had ignored the castings he was supposed to be looking at and stuck close to me just to pick a fight.
Well, whatever.
He'd been brought along to exorcise spirits anyway, so looking at things wouldn't help much.
I ignored him lightly and kept walking.
“...Tch. I'm talking to you, you know.”
I heard an irritated mutter from behind me, but that was all.
Then, the moment we entered the inner room.
“......Oh!”
Yu Seonwoo, who had been walking ahead, let out an exclamation.
It was a kind of gallery, with paintings packed across every wall.
Yu Seonwoo's gaze was fixed on one of them.
Sunflowers blooming luxuriantly across the entire canvas.
Sunlight shattered across each bright yellow petal, making it a strangely captivating painting.
“Isn't this...... a painting by Master Cheongram!”
Yu Seonwoo pointed at the painting with trembling fingers.
“Good heavens, to think I'd get to see such an authentic piece with my own eyes......!”
“Oh? As expected, you recognized it at a glance, Mr. Yu.”
The butler standing beside him gave a faint smile.
“Of course I know! In the Juhwasa world, not knowing Master Cheongram is practically the same as being a spy! And this one is......!”
Excited, Yu Seonwoo took another step toward the painting.
“One of the seven limited-edition sunflower paintings Master Cheongram made after reaching his peak! The one said to bring wealth rolling in just by keeping it nearby, the piece that wealthy magnates have been desperate to get their hands on!”
Master Cheongram.
They said he was a craftsman with so much name recognition in Juhwasa that not knowing him was basically the same as being a spy.
Keep a sunflower painting nearby, and wealth would gather.
Some paintings brought luck.
Some paintings brought love.
And some were said to ward off misfortune.
From what I heard, the paintings made by Juhwasa were objects infused with sorcery itself, producing specific effects in whoever looked at them.
'......A kind of talisman, then.'
It wasn't hard to understand.
There had been a painter class in the game too.
There, too, paintings drawn by artists would raise the viewer's luck stat or grant buffs like courage or mana for a set time.
'......But what's with this guy's vibe?'
The same man who had been all high and mighty and swaggering just a moment ago.
He was acting like an obsessed fan who'd just met their favorite idol at a concert.
Then he suddenly spun around to face me.
“Hey, blacksmith. What does this painting look like to you?”
'......I don't really know much about paintings.'
When I didn't answer right away,
“Ha! A painting, after all, is...
Yu Seonwoo held his chin high and strutted arrogantly in front of the painting.
“What it symbolizes. What pigment to release where. What intent to carry in each stroke. Only when all of it is woven together is a single piece complete.”
“Well, I suppose men who do nothing but hammer metal wouldn't understand.”
Then he snorted and turned away.
'......What's his problem?'
His shoulders were all puffed up even though it wasn't even his own painting.
I'm seeing all kinds of strange people today.
Without replying, I quietly looked at the sunflower painting he said would call in wealth.
To the naked eye it was just a painting, but when I put spiritual energy into my sight,
tiny engravings were flowing densely along the grain across the canvas.
Even the paper itself was unusual. Like talisman paper, it had been treated so it could hold spiritual energy.
The pigments laid onto it, and
the circuits contained in each and every painted form.
Even the grain created by every brushstroke.
All those elements piled up layer by layer and harmonized,
until the entire canvas formed one enormous circuit.
'......I see. So that's how it works.'
It was quite different from engraving metal, but if you looked closely, there were overlapping principles.
A circuit was still a circuit.
Just as I was fixed on the painting like that,
Ssshhh—.
Suddenly,
the air in the room grew subtly heavier.
'......Huh?'
The moment I sensed something was off,
the sunflowers in the canvas
stirred.
As if blown by the wind.
“...Huh?”
Someone murmured blankly.
And the next instant,
KWAAAAH—!
The yellow field inside the painting suddenly spilled out beyond the frame.
My vision warped, and the ground beneath my feet swayed.
In the blink of an eye,
we were standing in the middle of an endless sunflower field.
“W-what is this......!”
Yu Seonwoo screamed with a face drained of color.
It had definitely been a gallery just moments ago.
But now, all around us was nothing but a deep blue sky and bright yellow sunflowers.
The smell of earth underfoot, the wind brushing my cheeks—none of it felt fake.
“It's an illusion! We're trapped inside the painting right now!”
The sword-wielding woman hurriedly drew her blade.
But there was nothing to cut. With endless flower fields on every side, swinging it would only slice empty air.
Then everyone's gaze turned to one person all at once.
Yu Seonwoo.
“Hey, you! You said painting was your specialty!”
Jin Muyeong shouted urgently.
“This is your field, isn't it! Hurry up and do something!”
The sword-wielding woman also turned to him in desperation.
After all, he was a Juhwasa. If it was painting sorcery, he should know best here.
Everyone looked at Yu Seonwoo with such hopeful eyes.
But then.
“I, I......!”
The very mouth that had been bragging just moments ago while talking about Master Cheongram.
“How the hell am I supposed to know that!”
It turned deathly pale and screamed.
“...What?”
A dumbfounded sound burst from Jin Muyeong's mouth.
“D-do you think drawing a painting and getting out of one are the same thing! I've never seen anything like this either!”
And just a moment ago he had been making such a fuss.
“Aaaagh!”
Then Yu Seonwoo screamed.
The sunflower stems had turned jet black and were winding around his ankles like living snakes.
Sssshk, sssk—
The blackened vines slowly stretched toward us from every direction.
The flower field that had seemed beautiful just moments ago bared a vicious maw in an instant.
“Let go of me! I said let go!”
Yu Seonwoo hurriedly fumbled in his robes to pull out brushes and scrolls, but it was already too late.
The black vines had already wrapped tightly around his arms and legs, pinning him in place.
The man whose specialty was supposedly painting could only thrash helplessly once he was actually inside a painting.
The sword-wielding woman held on by cutting down the vines, but for every one she severed, two more sprang up in its place.
In an instant, it became a complete mess.
'......?'
But something was strange.
In this urgent situation, trapped inside the painting,
even as everyone panicked and flailed about, I was strangely calm.
Even though this was my first time experiencing something like this, it somehow didn't feel that threatening.
Just like back then at Cheonhwadang, when I'd run into that troublemaker wrapped in a bunch of flame talismans.
'Why is that......? Ah.'
I soon realized why.
Because the circuit behind all of this was clear as day to my eyes.
Just like when I had looked over the collection pieces earlier.
When I let spiritual energy into my sight, even the endless field and the black vines
were all flowing along the dense grain of circuits.
'Right...... In the end, this is just a circuit.'
That guy had said symbols, pigments, and intent were important, but
the real foundation was the circuit laid beneath it all.
It was simply the spellwork extending from the painting and binding our minds.
No matter how convincing it looked, in the end it was nothing more than seeing and feeling the spiritual energy pouring out from a built circuit.
If that was the case, the answer was simple.
I was confident in engraving circuits.
'Let's see......'
Devices like this trap were bound to have an escape structure built in.
And when I'd wandered the continent searching for various secret manuals, I hadn't passed through traps like this just once or twice.
But seeing something and reading it were different matters.
It was a completely different grain from the spellwork engraved on gear.
Where one strand began and where it led. Where a branch tangled with another branch.
The circuit itself was a complete mess, impossible to make sense of.
'......Well, no need to read every last bit.'
After all, a circuit was ultimately a path made to flow somewhere.
I casually grabbed one of the black vines wrapped around my feet.
I loosened the suppression seal inside my clothes by the tiniest amount and fed a pinch of spiritual energy through my fingertips.
Ssshh—.
A thread of blue light slowly spread through the vine.
It traced the tangled branches and then soon drifted toward one side.
'Oh-ho.'
I grabbed another vine and let it flow through once more.
It was the same direction.
Another branch, and the one after that too.
No matter how they twisted and bent, every grain was being drawn toward a single point.
'...So then.'
A structure that drew life force into a single point.
This entire illusion was gathering nourishment there.
Which meant that end was the heart of this painting.
Slowly lifting my gaze, I traced the direction where the spiritual energy was flowing.
Among the countless raging sunflowers,
there was one sunflower at the center that was facing a different direction.
All the other flowers had their heads turned toward us, but that one alone had its back turned and was looking the other way.
'...That's it.'
The problem was the distance.
Even if I tried to get close, the blackened vines burst up wildly from every direction and blocked the way.
'Hmm... Then engraving it by hand seems impossible.'
Let's see... something to engrave onto.
It would be nice if it were something I could throw.
Just then.
The sword that woman was holding caught my eye.
“Excuse me.”
I pushed through the vines and walked over to the woman with the sword.
“Let me borrow that sword for a moment.”
“...What?”
The woman flinched and hurriedly hugged the drawn sword to her chest.
“N-no! Absolutely not!”
It was almost a reflex.
Even while her whole body was being seized by vines, it was as if she'd rather die than hand over the sword.
Clutching the sword tightly in both arms, she glared at me warily.
'...What. Is it that precious?'
It must be something she treasured a lot.
I didn't know the circumstances, but if she wouldn't lend it, I couldn't exactly snatch it by force.
Just as I was turning my gaze to look for another piece of metal,
a dagger caught my eye at Jin Muyeong's waist, where he sat slumped down.
I strode over and yanked the dagger out.
“H-hey?! What are you doing......!”
Jin Muyeong recoiled and reached out in alarm, but.
“I'll use it for a moment.”
I'd already turned away with the dagger in hand.
Swish.
I laid the dagger on my palm and quietly inspected the blade.
This looked sufficient for throwing in.
While studying the sunflower's circuit,
I gathered spiritual energy into my index finger and began engraving a circuit onto the blade.
Zzzzt—! Crack!
Blue sparks flew over the blade, and the smell of burning metal hit me.
Everywhere my fingertip passed, deep-blue spellwork was engraved with perfect precision.
At last.
It was complete.
That sunflower over there, the one spewing out all this illusion.
The single densest point from which this illusion spread.
Toward that spot, which was essentially no different from a keyhole.
“Get lost.”
I threw the dagger.
Whoosh—!
It struck true.
At that moment, I sent mana along the thread of spiritual energy.
Crackle!
The circuit engraved on the blade meshed with the illusion's spellwork and spat sparks in every direction.
Crack, crack—.
Cracks split the deep blue sky.
The endless sunflower field split apart like a pane of glass.
And then.
Crash—!
The illusion shattered and collapsed.
“Huff!”
“Hah, hah......!”
When I came to my senses,
we were standing once again in the middle of that gallery.
The vines wrapped around our ankles, the endless flower field—all of it had vanished as if it had been a lie.
Only the dagger I had stabbed in was still trembling, lodged in the gallery's marble floor.
The sunflower painting on the wall was just there in its place, sitting quietly as if nothing had happened.
“......”
I yanked the dagger out of the floor and tapped the blade clean.
'...Is this enough?'
It was less of a big deal than I expected.
I should give it back to the sword's owner.
Just as I lifted my head with the dagger in hand.
“?”
I froze, startled.
Everyone was staring at me with their mouths hanging open.
The woman hugging the sword had frozen in place exactly as she was.
Yu Seonwoo had his eyes wide as if they would split open, and his jaw was trembling.
“H-how did you......?”
And Jin Muyeong, who had lent me the dagger,
still sitting in that same position, looked up at me with a face as if he'd seen a ghost.
“J-just now, that was...... Surely...”
“You...... just broke the illusion......?”
'...What are those expressions?'
For some reason, it was a face I'd seen somewhere before.
Come to think of it.
Ah.
At the hotel.
It was exactly the same dumbstruck face Jin Muyeong had made when he first saw me.
The only difference was that now.
It wasn't just Jin Muyeong.
“......”
Everyone here was making the exact same face as Jin Muyeong.
notes":"Approved with title aligned to the nearby Korean title structure. I normalized a few lines for natural English while preserving the scene's tone and meaning. The chapter title is rendered as a natural equivalent of 전공이 그림이라더니: ‘So Your Major Was Painting After All’."}]}끝