The One-Eyed Ghost

Before I could fully gather my thoughts, I heard someone approaching from a distance, and the middle-aged Forge Master appeared carrying a long sword.

Even at a glance, the sword had a strikingly rugged appearance, as though decoration had never even been considered.

The Forge Master placed the sword on the table and said,

“Here. Take a look, but don’t handle it enough to leave your grime all over it.”

I immediately picked up the sword and carefully drew it.

The brilliantly clear silver blade gleamed, and a cool sensation traveled through my fingertips.

“…….”

I’d spent countless years handling, breaking in, and wielding all kinds of swords. Perhaps because of that, simply holding one was enough for me to roughly judge the quality of its craftsmanship.

And by that measure……this crudely simple-looking iron sword was an exceptionally refined masterpiece.

Rather than being made from some extraordinary material or through some special process, it simply looked like a sword into which an extraordinary amount of care had been poured. I asked the Forge Master,

“Forge Master, does the sword have a name?”

The Forge Master answered indifferently.

“Why would a sword like that need a name? If it bothers you that much, name it yourself.”

“It seems like you put an incredible amount of effort into making it.”

“What are you…….”

The Forge Master abruptly took another drink and glanced at me from the corner of his eye.

“So, what exactly does our young Sect Master plan to do?”

“What plan?”

“Didn’t you say you were going to beat down villains? I need to know exactly who you’re planning to fuck up and how before I can say anything.”

My plan, of course, was to kill the Demon Cult Leader. But if I gave him that answer, the Forge Master looked liable to smash my head in with a hammer, so instead I told him about my current situation.

“I declared war on the Black Serpent Gate. I haven’t received a reply yet, but unless they’ve gotten scared, they’ll come attack us sooner or later. If they don’t, I’ll go find them myself.”

“The Black Serpent Gate? The one I’m thinking of?”

“Probably the very same one.”

“Are you insane?”

I chewed another piece of dried meat and answered indifferently.

“I am insane, but I have no intention of losing to the Black Serpent Gate. That’s why I need your help, Forge Master. If I lose, Yongmyeong County will be swept by a bloodbath, and then it’ll all be your fault.”

The middle-aged Forge Master stared at me in disbelief.

“What the hell kind of bullshit is that?”

“Think about it. If you give me a shitty sword, or no sword at all, won’t I lose to the Black Serpent Gate Master nine times out of ten?”

“What does that have to…….”

I neatly cut him off and finished what I had to say.

“If Yongmyeong County goes to hell, then when all is said and done, it’ll be your fault. That’s what I’m saying.”

“…….”

Truthfully, I didn’t think I’d lose to the Black Serpent Gate Master even without a sword, but what mattered right now was putting some pressure on the Forge Master, so I ran my mouth as shamelessly as possible.

When it came to breaking down a stubborn bastard, there was no strategy quite like talking bullshit.

The middle-aged Forge Master let out a long sigh.

“……Somehow I’ve ended up with a lunatic for a guest. Fine, you win. Take the sword or don’t. Do whatever you want.”

Truthfully, I’d only been half-convinced it would work, but my brilliant strategy succeeded anyway. Bullshit had been exchanged, but what mattered was that I had won again.

As expected, I was the strongest.

So Geum-ho tapped my arm and silently mouthed,

‘It worked!’

I nodded once and looked at the Forge Master.

“I won’t forget this favor. How much should I pay you? Surely you aren’t actually going to ask for ten thousand gold pieces.”

“Do you ever listen when people speak? I don’t care about money, so just take it. We can settle the account after you survive the Black Serpent Gate.”

“Oh-ho.”

Now that I thought about it, the Forge Master and I had quite a few things in common.

Neither of us cared much for money, neither of us had much fear, we both hated villains, and above all, our tempers were both fucking awful.

People with similarly shitty tempers naturally understood each other well.

I set the nameless sword back down on the table and looked seriously at the Forge Master.

“Forge Master.”

“What?”

“The fate of Yongmyeong County rests in your hands.”

“…….”

The two of us stared at each other for a long moment before bursting into hearty laughter at the exact same time.

I couldn’t be bothered to head back immediately, so I stayed for a drink with the Forge Master.

As we sipped our drinks with a long sword resting between us……I found myself thinking this was the most swordsman-like, forge-like drinking session in the world, one that perfectly embodied the profound principles of bullshit. Was this what people meant when they said something was stupid but cool?

The Forge Master really could hold his liquor. He looked fairly advanced in age, yet even after emptying two entire bottles, his complexion hadn’t changed at all.

I could hold my liquor pretty well myself, so the two of us silently continued passing drinks back and forth.

Drink a cup, pour another, empty it again……in the end, the only one suffering was So Geum-ho, who couldn’t hold his liquor.

By the time we’d finished around three bottles……So Geum-ho’s face had ripened red as a peach, and he suddenly planted his head on the table and passed out.

As he watched,
the Forge Master suddenly asked a terrifying question as casually as could be.

“……Is he dead?”

“Of course not. He just passed out.”

“That’s a relief.”

With the alcohol starting to hit me, I decided to ask the first thing I’d been wondering about.

“Forge Master. What’s your name?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I need to know your name if I’m ever going to come find you again.”

The Forge Master poured himself another drink and answered calmly.

“Guyang Chun (歐陽春). Just call me Forge Master Guyang.”

“Works for me.”

Then naturally, this mountain forge would be called the Guyang Forge (歐陽鐵坊).

Most forges put their master’s name on the signboard, after all.

I glanced over the weapons of the Guyang Forge and asked Forge Master Guyang,

“Forge Master Guyang, there certainly are a lot of farming implements and miscellaneous tools here. Even most of the things that could be called weapons look like they’re meant for self-defense.”

After taking another drink, the Forge Master answered in a somewhat bitter voice.

“……Like I told you earlier, I don’t hammer iron for martial artists. I keep this forge running alone because I want powerless people to have even a little more reason to smile.”

“…….”

A thought suddenly occurred to me. If I protected the weak indirectly by beating villains to death, then Guyang Chun had been protecting them in his own way.

The Forge Master’s slightly clouded gaze drifted into the distance.

“……There was a time when I helped martial artists too. And back then, I wasn’t alone. This forge was overflowing with disciples who wanted to follow me.”

The owner of the forge, who had once been a friend to the martial artists of the Kangho, continued.

“But one day……a man came by claiming to be a wanderer and asked us to make him a single sword. We didn’t think much of it and forged him the best sword we could. We truly poured everything we had into it. Do you know what that sword was used for?”

Guyang Chun ran a hand over the nameless sword.

“It was used to massacre innocent people. I was furious at the time. I couldn’t contain my anger, so I went looking for the man and confronted him.”

“…….”

“I screamed at him, asking why he’d done it. Why he’d killed innocent people. And do you know what that bastard told me……? That it was all my responsibility. People had died to a sword I forged, so it was my fault.”

“He was a lunatic.”

The Forge Master gave a bitter smile.

“But the world treated me like the lunatic, not him. Everyone threw stones at me and cursed me. Some even came looking to kill me.”

“You should’ve at least hit them once with your hammer.”

“I couldn’t.”

“Why?”

Guyang Chun let out a long sigh filled with countless emotions.

“Because every one of them was family or a friend of someone who had died to the sword I forged. I had no right to condemn them. After that happened, all those disciples I once had left, and eventually…….”

Guyang Chun and I met each other’s eyes.

“……I closed off my heart, and before I knew it, I was alone. Sitting here drinking with a lunatic like you.”

Guyang Chun was such a foul-tempered man that he probably didn’t even know how to cry. The same was true of me.

But perhaps because I’d heard his story, the strained smile on Guyang Chun’s face looked almost like the face of a man who was crying.

In my own way, I tried to comfort the man who had built a wall between himself and the world and deliberately sunk into loneliness.

“Forge Master, don’t keep yourself alone like this forever.”

“Then what am I supposed to do?”

“Nothing special. If hammering iron all day starts making your head go numb, take a walk. Go look at some flowers. And if fate brings you someone, maybe even get married despite your age.”

“Me? Get married?”

“Why not?”

Guyang Chun rose from his seat with a disbelieving chuckle.

“My dream is to grow old alone, so enough with the useless nonsense. Let’s call it a night. It’s been a while since I’ve had this much to drink, so I’m going to sleep.”

It felt as though I should say something more, but I wasn’t much of a talker to begin with, so I rose without dwelling on it.

I got up after the Forge Master, gathered the nameless sword, gathered the drunken So Geum-ho, and gathered the money pouch I’d brought just in case.

‘I’ve got too much shit to carry. Goddamn it…….’

I watched Guyang Chun’s back for a long while as he disappeared deeper into the forge with his hands clasped behind him.

“Forge Master. See you again. Once I’ve taken the Black Serpent Gate Master’s head, I’ll come back for another drink.”

Guyang Chun’s grumbling voice came from the distance.

“You fool. Just make sure you don’t die.”

After a brief silence, one more line followed.

“……Next time we meet, you’re buying the drinks.”

I smiled in satisfaction, turned without hesitation, and left the forge.

After dropping the thoroughly drunk So Geum-ho off at the Sword Hero Gate, barely able to put one foot in front of the other, I stopped by a nearby inn for some noodles.

A man couldn’t live on dried meat and strong liquor alone. I had plenty of money, so there was no reason not to eat a proper dinner, and I started by gulping down the spicy broth.

“This place is pretty good.”

The waiter, who looked like the most idle man in the world, answered,

“Thank you.”

“Sure.”

Wondering why a man who should have been rushing around serving food was standing around looking so useless, I glanced around and realized there wasn’t anyone else there.

Was it because it was already late at night?

The owner probably wouldn’t agree, but as far as I was concerned, the emptier the place, the better.

Just as I was about to finish the rest of my noodles in complete peace……I noticed a suspicious-looking bastard at the far end of the room.

‘What the hell is that?’

Apparently, I hadn’t actually been the only customer.

That was how little presence the suspicious man had. And it wasn’t just his lack of presence. Every little movement he made was strangely suspicious, and there was a heavy air about him.

No matter how I looked at him, he didn’t seem like someone who had come here just to eat.

When I stared at the man dressed in black, he turned his head and looked back at me.

His roughly shoulder-length hair was grown out in a wild, disheveled mess that made his eyes difficult to see, but even so, the killing intent coming from him was tremendous.

Amid the prolonged silence……I looked at the one-eyed man and broke into a grin.