Chapter 45
“This one... and this one too.”
Wow. They all look delicious.
Me... this is only my second time at a hotel buffet in my life!
The place I came to today was the hotel buffet on the first floor of TK Hotel.
I was here to service the kitchen knife I’d made for Chef Kim Hye-yun.
‘I feel like I only just made it for her not long ago... already?’
Something felt a little odd.
Maybe she dropped the knife and broke the spirit stone.
Or the engraving inside had gone out of alignment.
‘Well, I’ll know once I go up.’
On the way, Chef Kim Hye-yun had sent me a buffet meal voucher, saying I should eat while I was here.
Hmph. Quite the courteous person. Hehe.
‘Before working, you’ve got to eat until you’re full.’
Just looking at it makes my mouth water.
Hehe, delicious.
Butter-grilled abalone? Lobster? No way I can resist that.
I really want to eat this every day.
I’ve got money now, so should I just hire a full-time chef?
...or so I almost said.
It’s so delicious that all sorts of things are coming out of my mouth.
Even after all that money, free food tasted twice as good as food I’d pay for.
Hmph. Anyway.
‘Ji-an doesn’t seem like someone who’s only been here once or twice, as I thought last time.’
Seo Ji-an, sitting opposite me in a designer set, was elegantly cutting into her steak.
Wow... look at that salad pile she brought herself.
That’s downright inhuman.
“Why... why?”
I guess I’d stared too much.
Seo Ji-an stopped cutting her food and asked.
“Nothing.”
“Eh...? Why? What is it? Why were you staring at me?”
She suddenly asked with sparkling eyes.
“Nothing.”
“Tch... how dull. Hehe. Master Craftsman, look at this. Ta-da.”
Seo Ji-an shoved her smartphone screen toward me.
[HOT] Do-hwang did it again... he sealed a divine beast?
└ Wow... Do-hwang is insane.
└I seriously have nothing left to say.
└A ritual implement that seals a divine beast? How the heck did he make that?
└After driving his own value up that much, I wondered what he was doing—and he was saving the country?
└Just Do-hwang.
└That’s Do-hwang for you.
└Wow... Do-hwang is handsome, skilled, and even has character. What’s he missing?
“It hit Best again! Hehe.”
‘...Since when did you get to judge my character?’
“Look, Mr. Do-hyeon. What did I say? I told you this one would blow up properly, didn’t I?”
An excited Seo Ji-an flipped the screen to another tab.
“The sorcerer popularity ranking shot up a lot too.”
The sorcerer popularity ranking... was that the place Yu-ha had supposedly been climbing in?
“Wasn’t it originally rare for craftsmen to appear on there?”
“It’s almost never happened before, but your popularity, Mr. Do-hyeon, can’t exactly be normal! Apparently there were tons of suggestions sent in to the site.”
Ji-an hummed to herself and opened another tab.
“Look at this too. This is too. The requests are absolutely flooding in, flooding in.”
It was true.
Requests to meet unofficially had already been piling up from clan-born people as well.
Seo Ji-an’s behind-the-scenes work had a lot to do with how fast this incident spread.
I was surprised by how quickly she was even typing beside me.
‘If anyone saw her, they’d think she was a total forum addict.’
I also asked her to make sure the fact that she’d gotten help from Si-yeon with that technique got spread around too.
No matter how much I engraved and improved it, it’s only right and proper to make clear whose idea the foundation came from.
Well, it was impressive, after all.
This incident would be a big boost to the next business too.
Exactly!
You can’t stay in the glory of the past forever.
I’d already finished coming up with my next creation.
While making this gourd, I realized one thing after watching sorcery university students carrying spirit beasts around.
I looked through the bulletin board.
It looked really inconvenient to carry spirit beasts around hidden all the time.
Chickens and the like were easy enough.
Because when they hid their spiritual power, they’d still look like ordinary animals.
But just carrying other animals around made them stand out a lot of the time.
The Bureau strictly prohibits spirit beasts from being exposed to ordinary people.
Heh heh.
So I snapped a photo of Ji-an’s contact info and gave it to Si-yeon.
Ji-an had kept stressing about her identity and all that, and besides, I don’t look at my phone while I’m working, so it was better to just give Si-yeon Ji-an’s contact info.
She’d probably have a bunch of things to ask me if she was going to finish the paper.
That much I should help with.
And I’d need contact info if I was going to move ahead with my next business too.
‘Heh heh. This is going to be fun.’
Just thinking about the next thing I’d make already made me happy.
Ding-a-ling, ding—
That was when I’d finished eating and gotten on the elevator to go up to the restaurant floor.
Bzzz—
[Professor Goo: ... Have you eaten?]
Bzzz— Bzzz—
He’s really contacting me a lot.
“Who...?”
Ji-an asked from beside me.
“Ah, Professor Goo. He asked for my contact info, and I gave it to him without thinking...”
Ever since then, he’d been contacting me whenever he had a spare moment.
“But it was a bit...”
Weird.
If I paraphrased the messages Professor Goo had been sending me so far.
Please~ sob sob.
I don’t even want the E-rank one from back then.
Just make me something similar, please~
Of course, outwardly he kept a proper tone.
But the contents were all cloying.
Mm-hmm, I guess I was the one who told him to try it once.
That just means your touch was that good~
‘I said I’d make one for him next time.’
He must’ve thought that was just a polite remark.
So he’d been sending me greetings every day.
Now I kind of understood why Ji-an had said to give out her business card.
“Ah, right... and Han Ji-myeong also contacted me today.”
“Oh, the Bureau’s first-rank sealer?”
“He was begging and pleading for me to let him meet the craftsman just once. It was a pain turning him down.”
I guess I really will have to make one later when I have time.
But right now I’m too busy planning a new business venture!
Ding.
[Lavian]
The restaurant door opened.
“Hello!”
Chef Kim Hye-yun greeted us warmly.
“It’s been a while. I hope you’ve been well... huh?”
But something felt off.
‘Her complexion...?’
Just like when I’d first seen her, her complexion looked bad again.
Her dark circles were deep, and she looked tired.
And there was a bandage on one side of her face?
“Did you get hurt somewhere?”
“No... it’s nothing.”
What? No way.
First, I checked the knife itself.
......
I lifted my head and looked at Chef Kim Hye-yun.
“What do you see now?”
She flinched.
“That...!”
She looked like she was stammering, trying to hide something.
There was nothing wrong with the engraving or the spirit stone inside.
Only the spiritual power inside was completely empty.
...Then why?
“Let me check something for a moment.”
I looked over every corner of the kitchen.
I carefully checked whether a spirit was hiding on the ceiling or in a corner like last time.
But there was nothing.
What is it?
“Uh, well... Master Craftsman...”
After I kept looking for a while, Kim Hye-yun finally spoke up.
Just as I thought.
It turned out that strange things had started showing up every night lately.
‘Is it those clan bastards again?’
“But... the Xuanwu side seems to have stopped attacking for the time being? And the Bureau seems to have mediated after that assistant head chef incident too.”
Apparently the Bureau does give the Four Great Families some leeway, but there still seems to be a limit.
“Then what on earth is causing it?”
Yeah.
There had to be some cause.
‘Ah, first...’
I turned the suppressing talisman back on to look for traces of spiritual power.
I couldn’t let the chef collapse again.
...But!
Could it be...!
“Because of the spirit stone?”
“What?!”
No way.
That’s it!
Why else would sorcerers all wear suppressing talismans?
Because things imbued with spiritual power are like elixirs to spirits.
If an ordinary person is just a level-1 goblin to a spirit.
Then a sorcerer with spiritual power is basically a golden goblin!
So if sorcerers walked around with their spiritual power exposed, it was only natural that spirits would cluster around them!
“But I haven’t heard that ghosts swarm you just because you have a spirit stone...”
‘No. Mine’s a little different.’
Normally, a spirit stone is tightly sealed so spiritual power doesn’t leak out, and you break it to use it all at once.
But the one I made was rechargeable.
Because I’d kept using it over and over, the spiritual power inside had been leaking out ever so slightly.
‘...So that was it.’
The spirits had picked up on it and clustered around the chef every night.
‘Damn...’
That was my mistake.
In the game, it was just mana, so nothing this troublesome happened.
‘Then I’d better carve a new control device so the spiritual power-hiding function can be switched on and off.’
But...
‘How did the chef see ghosts?’
Ordinary people without spiritual sight shouldn’t be able to see spirits even if they borrow the power of a spirit stone.
The ones from last time were strong enough, and they had clung to the chef on purpose to torment her, so I could let that slide.
But being able to see even these little fry now made no sense.
I looked over the chef’s body once more.
“M-Master Craftsman?”
‘...?’
There was a little spiritual power in her body.
‘...!’
It seemed that lately she’d been tormented by spirits so often.
And because she used the knife I made every day, her spiritual power seemed to have awakened.
If stimulation from spiritual power keeps building up, cases like this where spiritual sight opens up do happen from time to time.
‘Hmm...’
Well. It wasn’t a big problem.
A single circuit should do the trick.
Swish.
I took out the suppressing talisman I’d had tucked inside my shirt again.
The structure should probably be laid out similarly to the suppressing talisman.
*
Goblin Market workshop.
“It’s already finished?”
“Sorry. Did it take a while?”
This thing... whoever made it.
They’d made it incredibly intricate.
Whether they meant to or not, there were tons of parts unnecessary for the suppression function, so I had quite a bit of trouble sifting them out.
They’re quite skilled, I see.
“What?? No, not at all. Have you ever made a suppressing talisman before?”
Ji-an, who’d been listening from the side, carefully chimed in.
“This is my first time.”
“...For the first time?”
Ji-an froze.
“Ahaha. So that’s how it is...”
Then she muttered softly.
Since Chef Kim Hye-yun had the afternoon off, we moved to the workshop.
“Now that you’ve awakened to spiritual power too, Chef, you’re basically a sorcerer now. And here you go.”
I handed her the repaired knife and held out a pouch.
“This is...?”
“It’s a suppressing talisman. It... hides your spiritual power. If you wear it, this won’t happen anymore.”
I bowed my head, filled with sincere apology.
“I’m really sorry. Because of the knife I made, you almost ended up in danger.”
But.
“Huh?”
Kim Hye-yun’s reaction was very strange.
“Honestly... not really?”
“...?”
“...I don’t mind?”
“Yes?”
When I asked back, wondering if I’d heard wrong.
“Actually... it was kind of fun.”
“What???”
*
When it first appeared.
I was flustered and scared.
Because I thought the nightmare I believed had ended was starting all over again.
But...
‘No. Don’t come. Get lost!’
Kim Hye-yun, retreating in fear, swung the knife she was holding without thinking.
But.
Slash―!
[Kyaaaaaaa―]
The face of the approaching spirit was slashed open.
“...!”
The spirit let out a painful scream and toppled backward.
At that moment, a thought flashed through Kim Hye-yun’s mind.
‘Actually... ghosts...!’
‘Are they... really weak?’
!!!!
That one is bare-handed... and I’ve got a knife?
Huh?
‘Then... am I the predator?’
All the memories of being tormented up until then came flooding back.
The spirit, seeing Hye-yun’s expression, backed away.
“Heehee... now then, shall we start cooking?”
.
.
.
Haah... haah...
It was euphoric.
Cooking with this knife had already felt incredible.
But.
The feeling of slicing spirits with it was, quite simply.
“Grrr... the best!”
Swish―
Slash―
[Kyaaaaaaa―]
The terrified spirits started running away.
Heehee.
Heehee, come here!
Good, you’re getting diced...!
[Kweeeeeeeek-!]
It was truly the best feeling.
That texture of cutting through sticky spirits.
That sound.
This overwhelming sense of competence surging from my fingertips.
I don’t have to hide anymore.
“Come here! I’ll cook you up real deliciously!!!”
*
“Yes...?”
I was left speechless after hearing Kim Hye-yun’s bright war story.
Then what about the bandage on her face?
“Hahaha... I got so into it I guess I brushed against a shelf while running?”
She smiled shyly, touching the bandage.
“Honestly... now I almost look forward to nighttime...”
For her, exorcising spirits had become just another kind of cooking.
I shook my head blankly.
‘Th... this is how it turned out?’
“Ah, yes... uh, do whatever you want.”
So that was it.
I figured it probably wasn’t just once or twice.
The amount of spiritual power that had leaked out was considerable.
But this crazy chef had been luring spirits in and cooking them every night!
Well... it probably wasn’t a total waste.
Even so, there were bound to be situations where spirits shouldn’t be showing up.
Since I’d already finished analyzing the suppressing talisman while I was at it.
Then.
“Hey, Ji-an?”
“Yes?”
“That... the three pieces I sold at the auction house—you can contact the people who bought them, right?”
“Ah, yes, of course.”
Gyeongseong Auction was strict about customer security.
But between buyer and seller, for things like item-related services, quality control, and aftercare.
They said they could also provide each other’s contact info with consent.
“I think I need to do some A/S for the others too. Could you contact them for me? They’re sorcerers too, but it’d be better if they came as soon as possible.”
“Yes! I’ll contact them so they can come as soon as possible.”
I suddenly noticed Hye-yun staring straight at me.
‘Ugh...’
She seems like a little strange.
Or not?
There had already been more than a few people who reacted like that while holding weapons I’d made.
“Um... then. May I go now? I still have to work tomorrow.”
“Ah, yes. Of course. Take care on your way home.”
...... She’s really going home to sleep, right?
Well, it’s none of my business.
“Ah! I’ll walk you out! But before that, come this way for a second...”
“What?!”
“How about we go upstairs and have a nice, long chat?!”
“Ah... yes, sure.”
Ji-an took Hye-yun and went upstairs.
Hmph... I really can’t figure out the point at which women become friends.
‘Then, shall I get started?’
Before the customers came by for service, I had to come up with the suppressing circuits to engrave into each ritual implement ahead of time.
So they wouldn’t conflict with the existing circuits, and so the suppressing effect could be switched on and off.
Heh heh... tonight, it’s this!
Today looks like it’ll be another very fun night.