Chapter 7
“That sword. May I take a look at it?”
“Who the hell are you!! I told you to stay away!!”
The man widened his eyes and staggered backward.
The talismans hanging all over his chest began to flutter ominously, as if they might burst at any moment.
Everyone in the shop froze on the spot.
The customers who hadn't managed to get out because the man was blocking the entrance were lying face-down under the display shelves, covering their heads.
The Cheonhwa-dang employees, who had been waiting for a chance to subdue him, couldn't make a rash move either.
One wrong move and everyone in this cramped shop would be roasted alive together.
But.
What caught my eye was the Hellfire Sword on the glass display case by the counter, far more than the bundle of talismans hanging from the man's chest.
I ignored the man's threat and walked toward the counter.
“This isn't good... Mr. Do-hyeon!”
From behind me, Seo Ji-an went pale and stamped her feet in panic, but my steps didn't stop.
A steel sword lay at an angle on top of the display case.
I grabbed the hilt without hesitation.
Ziiing―!
The moment the cold metal touched my fingertips.
Just as when I'd grabbed the jade flute earlier, something inside me naturally seeped into the sword's interior.
[Mana Wave]
The inside of the sword spread out in my mind as if I were seeing through it.
'...Just as I thought. That was it.'
I'd actually had a hunch already.
Just a moment ago, when that manager-looking fellow opened his mouth.
The instant the air inside the shop sank heavily, a faint tremor had run through the sword on the display case.
For just a moment.
The inside of the sword had come into faint view.
The afterimage drawn in my mind during that brief instant now stood out clearly as soon as I held it in my hand.
'...Hmm.'
A circuit had been engraved inside the sword with exquisite precision.
The energy entering through the hilt ran straight up the center of the blade, and from that main line, small branches spiraled off to both sides.
Toward the ends of the branches, the circuitry grew thinner and thinner, and tiny protrusions were packed densely along the inner walls.
As energy passed through the narrowing channels, the flow became more violent.
That violent flow struck the protrusions and created minute vibrations.
The vibrations became friction, and the friction became heat.
The moment it reached the ignition point, flames burst from the ends of the branches.
Once a flame caught, it spread across the sword's entire surface, using the energy circulating through the circuit as fuel.
In other words, the circuit itself was both the fuel line and the ignition device.
‘...The structure itself is incredibly clean.’
An intuitive, no-frills design.
A method that deliberately inserted narrow, rough sections along the path the energy traveled, turning the resistance that hindered the flow into driving force.
It reminded me of the design structure of the jade flute I'd held earlier.
The main line of the circuitry stretched out smoothly, and the locations of the branches were matched precisely to the blade's center of gravity.
The problem came next.
The input section of the circuit connecting the hilt to the blade.
From there on, something that should never have been there was packed inside the circuit.
‘This feeling is...’
Damp, something wet...
‘Could this be... water?’
Inside a circuit designed for the fire attribute, an opposite kind of energy had pooled up in abundance.
Just like water and oil don't mix.
It seemed that energy of a different nature had been trapped inside the circuit, unable to escape anywhere and sealed in place.
Well, that was only the way I'd analyzed things in a game.
But reality probably wasn't much different.
"Refund it right now! Unless you pay for my medical bills and compensation for emotional distress, I'm not moving a single step from here!"
The man shouted again at the manager, veins bulging in his neck.
The employees were hovering behind him, watching for an opening as if they were about to close in.
I lifted my gaze from the internal structure I'd been scrutinizing and looked straight at that troublemaker.
“...Hey.”
“...What?”
“Before you swung that sword, you did something else first, didn't you?”
"Huh?! What the hell kind of bullshit are you talking about..."
The man frowned.
He looked like he had no idea what I was asking.
Then, as if something had occurred to him, his expression changed slightly.
“......!”
“Before using this sword, didn't you use something else?”
"...W-well! Since the thing I control is a water ghost, of course I summoned one before the fight! So what if I did..."
His words trailed off.
A water ghost.
It seemed there were even people in this world who summoned things like that.
Well, just from the name alone, it was obvious he'd be the sort with a gloomy, chilly aura.
Naturally, summoning such a spirit would require him to draw on his own spiritual power.
What if he'd been holding this sword at that time?
The cold, damp spiritual power used for the summoning would have trickled along the hilt and seeped into the circuit's interior without him knowing it.
It was the same as pouring water energy into a fire-attribute sword.
“You had the sword in your hand then, didn't you?”
“......!”
The man's shoulders jumped.
A look that said I'd hit a nerve flashed across his face, and he immediately bristled in anger.
"Shit! So what if it did! You're just trying to find some excuse to kick me out, aren't you!"
“And you call yourself a swordsman? What are you doing, swinging around a sword without even knowing what kind it is?”
"Cut the bullshit! I had the guys on my team try it too, not just me! But no matter how much spiritual power they poured into it, it still wouldn't light up! If that isn't a defective product, then what is it!!"
There was nothing more to ask.
The inside of the sword was already completely clogged with the damp spiritual power he'd poured in himself.
Even if someone else poured normal, pure energy into it, the circuit entry would be soaked and cooled from the start, so there was no way it could ever reach the ignition point.
In other words, he had wrecked the circuit through his own carelessness, then stormed into an innocent shop with a bomb in hand and thrown a tantrum, claiming the sword was broken.
I let out a short sigh in disbelief.
Then I lightly raised the sword in my hand toward the man. With one hand.
At my action, everyone's gaze in the shop turned to me at once.
"Y-you bastard...! Take one more step and I'll really blow up these talismans and send us all down the road to the afterlife!"
The man took another step backward and clutched the bundle of talismans.
His words were full of malice, but his voice was embarrassingly shaky.
I didn't even step toward him.
I just stood there and let a little more of the energy inside me flow into the sword in my hand.
My energy slowly seeped through the black sediment hardened at the circuit's entrance.
Like ink dispersing in water.
It was work I'd done countless times in the game.
When purifying a contaminated mana circuit, the method was to let energy flow in between the impurities and push them out from the inside.
It wasn't anything especially difficult.
All you had to do was feed in energy stronger than the settled energy, and do it with greater precision.
I fed in carefully refined energy.
The damp energy pooled inside the sword, pushed back by mine, began slowly leaking out toward the far end of the circuit.
***
Everyone in the shop watched the scene in silence.
A young man in a worn tracksuit stood at an angle beside the display case, holding a sword carelessly in one hand.
He wasn't even taking a special stance.
He didn't shout to raise his spiritual power, nor did he recite any sorcerer-specific incantation.
He just held the hilt with a tired air and looked down indifferently.
He didn't even do the simple act of settling his breathing.
And yet.
Wooooong―
The ceiling lights spilling over the young man's shoulders flickered strangely.
A heavy pressure, as if the whole room had sunk for an instant, spread out from around him.
The talismans hanging from the troublemaker's chest trembled as if crushed by an invisible force.
Seo Ji-an stood there with her mouth hanging open.
The customers who had been lying face-down on the floor in fear slowly lifted their heads one by one, as if entranced.
At that very instant, the manager watching the situation narrowed his eyes a fraction.
Fwoosh―!
Blue flames surged up the blade.
From the hilt all the way to the tip.
Flames blossomed across the entire sword in an instant.
A blue light so chilling you could only glimpse it at the deepest heart of a blacksmith's forge.
Heat so overwhelming it warped the surrounding air swept through the shop.
Hellfire Sword.
Only then did the sword, which had been treated like a defective product and left to slumber, prove the weight of its true name to the world.
"No...! H-how could this...!"
The troublemaker's face turned stark white.
The hand clutching the talismans trembled violently, then dropped limply.
The swagger he'd shown just moments ago while taking the shop's customers hostage was nowhere to be found.
Beyond the wavering blue flames, Do-hyeon stared straight at the man with an indifferent gaze.
“...Someone who can't even handle a sword properly storms in here, blames the sword, and threatens people. Aren't you ashamed?”
"T-this can't be..."
Thud.
The man's knees gave way.
Whether he had been completely overwhelmed by the heat of the sword blazing before his eyes, or whether the rage that had driven him had faded when he realized his own foolishness.
He sat down on the floor, dazed.
The talismans hanging from his chest only fluttered weakly now, no longer giving off any threatening aura.
"Subdue him!"
The Cheonhwa-dang employees rushed in without missing the opening.
The man was instantly forced face-down onto the floor and bound hand and foot, unable to put up any real resistance.