A Man Of Steel

I first turned my head toward the voice.

“I told you to put down the hammer and piss off. You deaf?”

The thoroughly pissed-off voice rang out once more, and I saw someone poking his head out from behind the old front door.

He looked to be middle-aged, and although he wasn’t particularly large, the man gave off an imposing presence.

Judging by his appearance alone, he looked less like a craftsman who forged weapons and more like a fierce general who had taken those weapons and swept across a battlefield.

The man swept his stubborn-looking gaze over us once before speaking.

“……Where the hell did you lot come from?”

But when it came to stubbornness, I wasn’t one to lose to anyone either, so instead of humbling myself, I answered with all the confidence and insolence I could muster.

“We’re from the Dokgo Sword Gate. I am Dokgo Mu-jin, Sect Master of the Dokgo Sword Gate.”
“Now every worthless nobody is showing up at my door. Hand over the hammer in your hand and piss off.”

So Geum-ho, who had silently listened to the man’s abuse, stepped into the conversation.

“Now, what are you saying…….”
“Wait.”

I held out a hand to stop So Geum-ho, telling him to restrain himself.

Truthfully, I’d met plenty of men this opinionated in my previous life.

Men with shitty tempers were most common on the Black Path, though the Demonic Path and White Path had their share as well.

Of course, most of them had eventually surrendered after failing to endure my relentless nagging and vicious cursing.

Either way, I wasn’t a man who easily lost a physical fight or a verbal one.

The reason I’d stopped So Geum-ho was because a softhearted, upstanding young man like him couldn’t handle an obstinate bastard like this.

In other words, it was time for a foul-tempered bastard like me to step in.

For the first time in a very long while, I equipped the tongue I’d used back in my Sword Demon days and looked at the middle-aged craftsman.

“Give me a sword. Preferably one that won’t break easily.”
“……What?”

Bewilderment crossed the man’s face.

This was my first strategy: get straight to the point without warning.

Unfortunately, the man who appeared to own this mountain forge wasn’t an easy opponent either.

He opened the door a little farther, crossed his arms, and glared at me.

“Are you deaf? I told you to piss off. I don’t have any sword to give a bastard like you, so quit acting tough and disappear before I cripple you.”

I crossed my arms as well and began digging in my heels with the rudest tone imaginable.

“Forge Master. Unfortunately, threats that pathetic won’t work on me. I’m not that weak. I’m not asking you to simply hand one over for nothing. If there’s something you want, I’ll compensate you as much as I reasonably can.”
“You think you can solve this with money? It won’t work, so get lost. I wouldn’t even glance your way if you brought me ten thousand gold pieces.”
“Don’t worry about that. I wasn’t planning to give you that much money in the first place. Charging ten thousand gold pieces for one sword would be crossing the line.”

“…….”

The man stared at me, half speechless, before saying,

“……Do you know why I don’t sell weapons to bastards like you?”
“Go on.”

The Forge Master unleashed everything he had to say like a raging storm.

“Because every last bastard who calls himself a martial artist is the same. They come here spinning some long sob story, and the moment I put a weapon in their hands, they use it to bully the weak and fatten their own bellies. Were you about to tell me you’re different? Don’t even bother. I won’t fall for it.”

“…….”

Only then did I begin to understand why this man was so hostile.

I didn’t know the details, but whatever emotional wounds martial artists had left him with had clearly festered into anger.

Some people had their personalities twisted after taking a severe blow to the mind, and now that I looked at him, this middle-aged man was exactly that type.

I understood the anger he must have been feeling.

There had been a time when I’d suffered one betrayal after another myself.

Now that I understood how he felt, I needed to make him understand how I felt as well…….

The problem was that I had no idea how to explain that I wasn’t some lunatic who went around slaughtering innocent people at random, and the thought left me frustrated.

Breaking through someone’s prejudice was no easy task, so there wasn’t any real trick to use here.

With no other choice, I let out a sigh and tried my second strategy.

“Do you know a place called Yongmyeong County?”

The man glared at me with a look of extreme suspicion.

“……I do.”
“That’s where I came from.”
“And?”

I continued as the faces of the villains I’d beaten down came to mind one by one.

“There are plenty of bad people there. Plenty of those goddamned bastards you were talking about, Forge Master. The Sect Master of the Sword Hero Gate was a conscienceless villain, and the Righteous Sword Gate Master was no different.”

“…….”

I flexed my right hand as I stared ahead, then clenched it tightly into a fist.

“So I beat them down with this hand. The Sword Hero Gate Master extorted money from sects weaker than his own. The Righteous Sword Gate Master sent his men to kill people whenever something displeased him. They were all villains beyond redemption, so I personally sent them to the next world. But wouldn’t you know it?”

I looked straight at the middle-aged Forge Master again.

“Just when I thought I’d gone through all the trouble of killing the bad ones, even worse bastards crawled out afterward. So, as usual, I killed them too. Forge Master, do you understand what I’m trying to say?”
“Say it.”
“That evil men exist everywhere. I learned martial arts and entered the Kangho so I could beat down those villains one by one. Because I want there to be even one fewer powerless person who has something precious taken from them for no reason.”

This was the first time since reincarnating that I’d dragged this much of what I truly felt out into the open.

The man was still looking at me with an expression caught between belief and doubt when he spoke.

“……And you expect me to believe that?”

I let out a deep sigh.

“Whether you believe me or not is your choice, Forge Master, but this is what I truly believe, and it’s the truth. There are still plenty of villains in this world who deserve to die. And yet I’m supposed to sit around watching them run rampant just because I don’t have one decent sword? What kind of bullshit situation is that?”
“You’re making it sound as though all these villains running around are somehow my fault.”
“I’m saying we bear some responsibility. If evil deeds are allowed to continue, then I bear responsibility for failing to punish the villains, and you bear responsibility for refusing to give me a sword merely because you doubt me. After all, the two of us are both enemies of people who’ve sold their consciences. Am I wrong?”

I stopped there. There wasn’t much point in saying anything more.

How he interpreted and accepted what I’d said was entirely up to the Forge Master now.

Either way, I had no intention of interfering with another man’s choice, so I quietly waited for the Forge Master’s answer.

Confusion had begun to creep into the Forge Master’s expression, which until now had held nothing but hostility. He spoke to me in a slightly weary voice.

“……You’re saying you and I are on the same side?”

I nodded once.

“I may be a pain in the ass, but I’m not a man who tells lies.”

Only then did the middle-aged Forge Master let out a long, deflated sigh and sharply turn his head away.

“You’ve certainly got a mouth on you.”

Had I failed after all?

“Come in. I suppose I can at least hear what you have to say.”

Apparently not. So Geum-ho looked at me with an excited expression, and after letting out a relieved sigh of my own, I followed the Forge Master through the front door.

Gongson Han’s description had been accurate.

I hadn’t even touched one of his swords yet, but at the very least, the man possessed an upright heart.

What surprised me most was how large the forge actually was.

From the outside, it had looked like a typical abandoned house, but the inside was a completely different sight.

The place had a distinctly old-fashioned atmosphere, with plenty of equipment that looked quite old at a glance. Yet none of it felt neglected or worn out.

I followed the Forge Master inside and sat down on the broad wooden floor of the main hall.

After telling us to wait, the Forge Master disappeared deeper into the forge before returning with a bottle of alcohol and several pieces of dried meat.

The Forge Master set out an unbelievably meager drinking spread and sat across from me.

“So, why do you want a sword?”
“Because I don’t have one. What kind of bullshit question is that?”
“I’m asking why a sword sect doesn’t have a sword. Do you want me to crack this bottle over your head?”

The man’s tongue really was remarkably sharp. It felt less like he made blades and more like he kept one hidden on his tongue.

I tore off a piece of dried meat, handed part of it to So Geum-ho, and shoved the rest into my mouth to chew.

“We have plenty of swords, but none that I can use. You could say they’re not up to my level. That’s why I went to the trouble of tracking you down. If some mediocre sword would’ve been enough, why would I come halfway up a mountain instead of visiting a local forge? I’m not some crazy bear bastard.”

The Forge Master stared at me as though he’d been rendered speechless, then tipped the bottle back and poured down liquor so strong I could tell from the smell alone.

“……You rotten bastard. So what kind of sword do you need?”

I answered casually with my arms crossed.

“Nothing particularly special. Just something reasonably sharp and reasonably hard to break.”

That was what I said, but inwardly, the desire to get my hands on a genuinely good sword was already filling my heart.

I’d always said that whether a sword was a famous blade or a cheap piece of junk didn’t matter as long as the swordsman’s spirit didn’t break, but the situation was a little different now.

A swordsman couldn’t help coveting a good sword. The Forge Master stroked his coarse beard as though lost in thought before speaking.

“Reasonably sharp and reasonably hard to break……what about the weight?”
“I don’t mind if it’s heavy. I’m more accustomed to heavy swords anyway.”
“I do have something that might suit you. Want to take a look?”
“Bring it out.”

The Forge Master stood and disappeared deeper into the forge again. This time, it took him quite a while to return.

While I waited, I remained seated and looked over the many weapons scattered all around me.

There were axes, spears, sickles, and all sorts of other things, but overall, their designs and decorations were remarkably plain.

They were weapons devoted solely to fulfilling their purpose, you could say. Of course, for someone like me who wasn’t accustomed to flashy things, that was actually preferable.

So Geum-ho suddenly spoke.

“Sect Master. About this forge.”
“What about it?”
“There’s something unusual about it. There are plenty of weapons, of course, but for a forge, there are strangely many ordinary tools as well. That’s rather unusual.”

“…….”

I hadn’t noticed at first, but after hearing So Geum-ho say it, I realized there really were far more practical tools, like farming implements and logging axes, than there were weapons.

It felt like a forge meant more for ordinary tradesmen trying to make a living than for martial artists of the Kangho.

It was a fairly unfamiliar sight to me. At that moment, the Forge Master’s earlier words flashed through my mind.

‘Because every last bastard who calls himself a martial artist is the same.’

Was that why? This forge had never been meant for martial artists in the first place. It was for those who simply lived their day-to-day lives while trying to stay out of the way of martial artists…….

I supposed it existed to protect ordinary people.