Genius Blacksmith's Game

“If he had not been sealed by User Hyunsoo several years ago, he would have been the only mixed-blood being ever to sit in a Great Archdemon’s seat.”

Team Lead Lee of the Story Team briefed them on Grout.

That line had been at the end of the planning document for the NPC Grout, the one he had received and approved.

Originally, exactly four years from now, Grout was a being who could have become a Great Archdemon.

Grout was mixed-blood.

And that made him special.

“A demon capable of growth......”

When Grout had faced Hyunsoo, it was accurate to say that he had still been in the middle of growing.

According to his later settings, Grout, who had left the Demon Realm and become active in the human world, had an inferiority complex over being called mixed-blood.

Then he would rampage through the Demon Realm, grow even stronger, and challenge the seat of a Great Archdemon.

The fate of someone that extraordinary—

Had been changed by a single human’s hands.

And the Special User Management Team was swept up in shock.

“He’s toying with Grout all by himself......”

Team Lead Lee swallowed dryly.

“Of course, it’s happening because of Demon’s Gauntlet of the Admired One, but it’s still incredible.”

That was a fact.

“Since User Hyunsoo created it, that can also be considered entirely his own power.”

“Right.”

Everyone there acknowledged it.

And if Demon’s Gauntlet of the Admired One had not existed, he would not have held such a one-sided advantage.

Then—

[Admiration occurs in Grout, the Blood Demon!!]

At the notification that appeared, everyone except Lee Jihui let out a sigh.

“Of all beings, it had to apply to Grout.”

“Well, he does have the activation conditions.”

“Mm......”

The three of them made low sounds.

Lee Jihui, meanwhile, was still only guessing at the power of Admiration.

As if she did not understand, she said,

“To be honest, when I first heard about Admiration, it looked no different from Lord’s Grace. Am I wrong?”

The Admiration she imagined was something that made respect and yearning reach their peak, causing something special to happen.

Then was that not the same as Lord’s Grace?

If so, Admiration would not become much of a power for User Hyunsoo.

Because it would overlap with Lord’s Grace.

“Not at all.”

Lee Sejin spoke firmly.

“Lord’s Grace is a power that activates when someone believes they have received grace, is it not?”

Grace.

It was not easy for any living being to believe they had received grace.

“It would be better to show you directly.”

Sejin showed her the compressed description written about that power.

[Guides someone to admire you more easily and more greatly.]

“Lord’s Grace is ultimately a power that requires you to bestow grace. But this power is different. It activates rarely and makes it easier for someone to admire you.”

“......If everyone just starts admiring him that forcefully, wouldn’t that break the balance?”

Sejin shook their head.

“It is not forceful. Even if people who do nothing every day possessed that Admiration, Admiration would not occur. Rather, others would find them pathetic. In other words, when the target possesses something worthy of admiration, that quality is merely maximized more easily and to a greater degree.”

That was the key.

“The problem is that the amplification is greater than expected. Still, there is another way it differs from Lord’s Grace. Just because someone admires him does not necessarily mean they will act for his sake, does it?”

That was true.

In other words, Sejin was saying, “Just because someone admires him, that does not mean something special will necessarily happen.”

Lee Jihui nodded.

Then something occurred to her, and she spoke to Team Lead Lee of the Story Team.

“There’s something I’m curious about.”

“What is it?”

“Can Grout, the Blood Demon, still grow into a Great Archdemon even after becoming connected to the user?”

Until just now, the Special User Management Team had been talking excitedly about what kind of setting Grout had possessed.

But because he was now sealed inside a sword, they had concluded that his episode had disappeared.

Her instincts are incredible......?

To think of that?

The words of Lee Jihui, the youngest employee with a chillingly sharp instinct, rang a new alarm bell for them.

Silence settled over the Special User Management Team for a moment.

The one who broke that silence—

Was Team Lead Lee, who knew the story best.

“Probably?”

The demon Grout had lived a miserable life.

“Get rid of it.”

Those were the words he heard from Belphegor, the Great Archdemon who was his father, the moment he was born.

In truth, Grout was abandoned by Belphegor and chased into the human world with his vampire mother. He ground his teeth.

I will become strong, no matter what.

He had inherited a vampire’s blood, granting him infinite regeneration, and had inherited Great Archdemon Belphegor’s talent, granting him a powerful body.

After being abandoned—

Grout grew stronger while nursing venom in his heart, and his name gradually spread through the Demon Realm.

To be honest—

Grout wanted to be acknowledged by his father.

He wanted his story to reach Belphegor.

And rumors began to spread.

Have you heard of a demon named Grout?

They say he inherited the blood of both a vampire and Great Archdemon Belphegor, making him an extraordinary and special warrior.

He may be mixed-blood, but he is incredible.

Grout was certain those voices would reach Belphegor.

And they did.

At last, Belphegor summoned Grout.

So Grout ran to him in a single breath, his heart full of joy.

What waited for him was—

“It disgusts me that my past is being made known because of you.”

Belphegor, along with his legions, who had come to kill Grout.

Grout fled desperately.

He escaped all the way back to the human world and reached the place where his mother was.

That day, he saw despair.

“......”

Because Belphegor had killed his mother, the Vampire Duchess Lela.

From that day onward, Grout’s goal became killing Belphegor.

Time passed that way.

He met the sage.

And then he met Hyun and was killed.

He fell into Hell.

There, he endured with nothing but his rage toward Hyun and his single-minded determination to kill Belphegor.

And in Hell, he gained the name “Lord of Eternity” and met Hyun again at the Tower of Honor.

The result?

Now he had been trapped inside Hyun’s sword.

It was truly a cruel fate.

And Grout now—

Could not believe it.

How......?

The growth Hyunsoo had achieved in only one year.

He could not believe it.

Then he saw the insignia shining on Hyunsoo’s gauntlet.

Hyun.

Grout understood.

He was the Demon of Knowledge, and he was by no means stupid.

It is an artifact.

This was happening because of the abilities Hyunsoo created.

“Krahak, I’ll kill youuu!”

Even as he screamed and charged, Grout acknowledged it.

He also realized that Hyunsoo’s skill had improved since their clash one year ago, when he had been the Lord of Eternity, and that the man’s bloody effort lay behind it.

Yes.

Grout was his enemy, but he acknowledged everything about him.

But that was all.

“You bastaaard!”

His desire to kill him had not changed.

But then—

A small black light suddenly rippled from the gauntlet.

That light was something even Hyunsoo, its creator, had not expected.

What is this?

Grout suddenly felt an emotion he could not identify.

Had his desire to kill vanished?

No.

The feeling of acknowledgment was simply changing into something else.

I want...... to become like that too.

For an instant, he wondered if he respected that man, but no.

Respect meant honoring someone’s character, ideology, and actions.

Then yearning?

Yearning meant envying someone.

That was also correct, but it was not the answer.

It was a far higher and more elevated emotion.

BAAAANG—!

“Kraaaagh!”

As Hyunsoo’s sword, sharper than before, cut deeply across his chest, Grout finally understood the emotion.

Admiration.

Just as all demons admired the Great Archdemon Baal.

It was born from the pure desire and desperate longing to become like him.

Yes.

Admiration was the crystallization of respect, yearning, awe, and everything else like them.

Someone.

There was nothing as great as making someone dream of becoming like you.

I admire this man?

And yet—

“You think you can make me submit?!”

He shouted and slashed at Hyunsoo.

At that moment—

SLAAAAASH—!

Hyunsoo’s sword, as if counterattacking, cut across Grout’s neck.

Then Hyunsoo murmured,

“......Oh, so this is the kind of power it is?”

For some reason, he seemed to have realized the emotion Grout was feeling.

At Hyunsoo’s narrowed eyes and twisted lips, Grout felt even greater rage.

But then—

“I’ll see you again soon.”

See him again?

SHAAAAAA—

Grout’s HP reached 0, and as he scattered into a handful of ash, he was sucked back into Full Bloom.

When we meet again, I will tear him apart without fail!!

That was what Grout thought.

And yet—

He felt something strange.

What is this?

It was a different feeling from before.

I’m looking forward to it......

For reasons he could not understand, Hyunsoo’s words—“I’ll see you again”—kept echoing in his ears.

He became more curious about Hyunsoo’s powers, and because he wanted to become like him, only Hyunsoo filled his thoughts as he remained trapped inside the prison called Full Bloom.

Inside that suffocating prison, only the person named Hyunsoo kept flickering before him.

That was another aspect of Admiration.

It did not occur immediately. It happened later.

The word Admiration could also be used to mean wanting to become like someone.

It was not defined that way in the dictionary, but it was commonly used that way.

And then there was the dictionary definition.

A deep longing for something, thinking only of it.

Grout did not know that.

Hurry.

Quickly.

When?

Grout could not sleep.

More, more, and more—he wanted to confirm Hyunsoo, to meet him.

He hoped the “I’ll see you again” Hyunsoo had spoken would come true quickly.

And then—

“Summon, Grout.”

Grout, trapped inside the sword, thrilled.

At last!

Hyunsoo had summoned him again.

Of course, he hid the fact that he had been waiting.

Then he felt confused.

Why am I longing for this bastard?!

Grout, who had been confused, soon understood.

The reason he had been longing for Hyunsoo.

It stemmed from the question of whether Hyunsoo could show him that he possessed the power to oppose Great Archdemon Belphegor.

And from the expectation that if someone could grow this much in such a short time, perhaps he could cut down Great Archdemon Belphegor.

The moment Grout realized that, he appeared and burst into mad laughter.

“Krahak, krahahahahak! This time, I will kill you without fail!”

That laugh showed hostility toward Hyunsoo, but it was also mad laughter directed at himself.

There is no way a lowly human can reach a Great Archdemon! Did he not show me all the power he possessed last time?!

Yes.

That mad laughter came from his denial of his own thoughts.

What could Hyunsoo possibly do with only that much?

He had already shown everything he possessed.

Grout finished that thought and was about to charge at him.

Then—

“Annihilate Evil.”

[It annihilates all evil!]

[It deletes 80% of HP.]

A single black-light sword split him in half.

Grout, who had suffered a massive critical wound with a timing gap he could not respond to, coughed blood from his mouth.

“Cough!”

When he looked around to escape, the earth twisted and enormous lava surged up.

“Krgh!”

The lava swallowed him as he staggered, and he saw the bastard watching him, his entire body wreathed in black flame.

He hadn’t shown me everything?

Immediately—

“Cut Them in Two.”

SLAAAAAAAASH—!

Grout, who was trapped in his prison again only four seconds after descending, was bewildered.

What...... is this?

It was shocking.

And because of that, the emotions he had felt before being resummoned—

Longing.

Desperation.

Those things grew even greater.

More, more, show me mooooore!

Like someone intoxicated by something, he craved the sight of what Hyunsoo would show him.

But even on the second time, he denied it.

What more could there be to show?

It was a pointless thought.

“Summon, Grout.”

The third time.

There can’t be anything left now, can there?

Grout, who had thought that, was even more shocked than when he had seen the power called Annihilate Evil.

A sword with a blade made purely of white, and white cloth wrapped around its grip in a mesmerizing way.

The aura he felt from the sword belonged to a tiger.

“Roar, White Tiger.”

GRAAAAAAAWR—!

[Even a god cannot resist!!]

[Continuously deals damage equal to 10% of the user’s physical attack power!]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Deathly Terror.]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Extreme Shock.]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Stun!]

[You are afflicted with the status ailment Instant Death!!!]

“......?”

Because Grout had high status ailment resistance, he avoided instant death.

But as he was stunned and became defenseless, dozens of damage instances struck him one after another.

BABABABABABABANG—!

“See you again.”

And the fourth time.

Grout was surrounded by a giant wolf called the king of divine beasts.

The brightest moon.

A ten-thousand-li bird.

A small mini golem.

Surrounded by those beings, he was beaten like a dog.

“Cough, ugh, guh, hah, urgh!”

The ending, as expected, was Cut Them in Two.

And the fifth time.

“Your Majesty, should we beat him to death?”

Seeing the many knights who appeared, Grout nearly stopped breathing.

In the past, Hyun had used “Friend, please” to kill him.

But now—

He became a king?!

He had become a king.

What was even more shocking—

Was that the woman named Bella, who had cut him down in the past, had now grown strong enough to reach the level of a Sword King.

And the pirate-like bastard holding a scythe connected to chains was a Legendary being.

Another was not Legendary, but the leader of these people was the strongest.

He tore off Grout’s arm.

FWAAASH—!

“Kraaaagh!”

His name was Luxiu.

In the past, the person named Hyunsoo had borrowed the power of legends to kill Grout.

And now, he was the master of legends.

Then came the sixth time.

“Saintess Aria, Pope Karsel. Isn’t this a good opportunity to confirm how much damage healing deals against a demon?”

At this point, he even summoned a pope and a saintess and said that.

Then the seventh time.

And the eighth.

“See you again.”

“I’ll see you again.”

“See you.”

In sequence, he began repeating what he had already done.

How many times had he died like that?

At last, Grout spat out the words that had been tickling the inside of his mouth.

“Master......?”

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