Genius Blacksmith's Game

Ban blamed himself.

If, on that day, he had not told his father that he wanted to go to the dungeon where Ifrit slept.

Or if he had not died.

None of this would have happened.

He, who had been called an unprecedented genius, would have safely ascended the throne.

Until his aging father lived out his natural lifespan, Ban would have done his utmost, and until the moment his father closed his eyes, he would have let him go without any worries or anxieties about the nation called Goyad.

However.

From the moment he opened his eyes because of the woman named Vera until now.

The reason Goyad had come to face such a massive turning point must have been him.

Goyad, which had lost its prince, must have sunk into grief, filled with the sound of wailing, and his father, who had lost his only blood relative, must have fallen into sorrow.

That weakened nation’s opening.

The one who had aimed for that opening must have been Hyun.

The prince is crying?

......Our prince?

Goyad’s pillar is crying?

Even those whose entire bodies had been twisted and broken realized that fact.

That was why, at his tear-choked voice, they squeezed out the last of their strength and rose.

It was also why they had answered Sword King Baman’s Assembly.

Sword King Baman was saddened as well.

Our line has been severed.......

Ban’s voice, close to a sob, told him that.

It was as if Sword King Barad’s grief had been transmitted to him as well.

And so the descendants burned the last of their strength.

Only then did Hyunsoo realize it.

Ban......?

The moment Sword King’s swordsmanship, Sword Cry, unfolded, Hyunsoo realized that someone who should not be here was present.

He knew that Sword Cry was not a power Barad had created.

It was a power his son Ban had newly re-created and developed, then passed on to his father.

At present, the only people who could use Sword Cry were Barad, Hyunsoo, and Ban.

The moment he heard that sound.

Hyunsoo’s heart, which had been stained entirely with rage, stirred.

It was not simply because Ban was Barad’s son.

Before his son’s death.

After taking his final revenge, Barad had once tried to burn himself together with Ifrit and end his own life.

And also.

DING!

*****

[Sudden Quest: Reunion.]

Grade: A

Restriction: Barad’s friend.

Reward: Sword Cry increases by 1 level.

Penalty upon failure: The two people cannot meet.

Description: Your friend Barad has lived on while endlessly missing his son Ban. In addition, his son Ban blames himself for Goyad being divided, and Ban will disappear soon. Correct everything and succeed in reuniting the two.

TWITCH, TWITCH—

[Vassal Borne is in danger.]

[Vassal Arte is in danger.]

[Ron of Blackwind is in danger.]

Hyunsoo had been about to activate Divine Step while looking at his allies beginning to collapse, but the notification that appeared made him begin suppressing his rage once again.

[Ban will return to the tomb again after 24 hours.]

It was not for Ban’s sake, nor for the Sword Kings who had run wild claiming they would test them.

It was solely for his friend.

“Firebird.”

Flames blazed.

“Barad.”

As that name spread, the members of the Sword King family, including the roughly seven hundred surviving descendants who had been about to charge at him, stopped.

Ban, in particular, was hit hard.

The power called Firebird.

From what Ban saw, it was a concept that teleported someone.

And Ban could not understand Hyunsoo’s expression. Looking at the blazing flames, Hyunsoo said,

“If I had known you were here from the start, we never would have had this battle.”

Ban looked puzzled, and Hyunsoo remembered the words he had spoken while blaming himself.

“He missed you, cherished you, and loved you. Whenever I went to drink tea with him, your father’s love for his child never stopped pouring out. He told me dozens of times about the moment you first held a sword at five years old, and he said that if he had one lifelong dream, even if it had to be the final thing he did while alive, it was to meet you.”

“......”

Ban began to feel that something was wrong.

He was his father.

And at the age of five, Ban had indeed held a sword for the first time. The man before him knew that moment.

Hyunsoo smiled.

That smile was the smile of someone who truly cherished and loved his friend, and the smile of someone happy that his friend’s final dream might come true.

At last.

WHOOOOOOSH—

The flames died down, and Hyunsoo’s old friend Barad was reaching the final dream he had waited his entire life to fulfill.

Everyone there remembered Barad as he had grown frail.

However, Barad, who walked forward one step at a time, was not frail at all.

Instead, he walked out looking even stronger and sturdier than Ban remembered him.

“Father......”

At Ban’s trembling voice, Barad’s eyes shook as he looked at him.

“Why are you......?”

He had been puzzled by the sudden summoning.

Barad looked around.

He saw First Sword King Baman and the descendants of the Sword King family.

When Goyad fell into crisis, the members of the Sword King family would awaken.

There was no way Barad would not know the legend that had been passed down for so long.

And Barad began to understand the traces of battle that had occurred everywhere.

He saw Ban, who was calling out to him with tears streaming down his face, his expression filled with longing.

“Father, Father......!”

Then he turned away.

ROOOOOOAR—

He drew up an enormous aura.

The earth convulsed, and the sky gave a cry.

SHAAAAAAA—

That enormous aura swallowed Sword King Baman, who had led the past, and the descendants.

“Ancestors, if you take even one step, I will destroy you.”

“......”

Those who had appeared to save him were bewildered.

“Father?”

Ban, too, was confused because Barad, who seemed as if he should have run to embrace him in joy at any moment, acted completely differently from the expression on his face.

“Hyun is the friend who saved me when I was in despair, the brother to whom I can entrust my back, and the hero who made Goyad what it is today.”

An unwavering aura encroached on the surroundings.

“Anyone who tries to harm my benefactor—I will kill them all.”

Those words made everyone there realize that something had gone wrong.

Even with his eyes reddened, there was an unmistakable sob at the end of Barad’s voice as he aimed at his own son.

Sword King Baman took one step forward and asked,

“Why did Goyad become two?”

Barad began explaining the course of events until now, pointing out the important context.

“Even though he could have taken full possession of a single Goyad, he did not. For my sake, so that I, who would have stepped down from the throne and been forgotten in loneliness, could live, he left Goyad.”

“On the path where he could have become king easily and quickly, he established an independent territory instead, and even when he left that way, he set sail alone on a single ship before hundreds of vessels.”

“He made me who I am today, and I made him who he is today. And the current Goyad is greater and stronger than at any moment in its history.”

Each story that followed revealed the truth.

It could not be a lie.

Because those were the words of the current Sword King, Barad.

When he finished speaking, the first to react was Ban.

CLANG—

Ban dropped his sword and smiled with joy.

“I am glad you were not so terribly sad......”

His father, who had not had a single friend, had gained one.

That friend had given his father the most precious thing called “life” and filled the emptiness Ban had left behind.

CLANG—

Hundreds of swords dropped to the ground.

Sword King Baman sheathed the sword at his waist.

“So that was what happened? We pointed our swords at our benefactor.”

First Sword King Baman acknowledged the truth and spoke.

“I am sorry.”

The meaning of those words.

It was his sincerity that even if Hyunsoo struck them down and sent them back to the tomb, Baman would not ask that they be spared punishment.

Barad looked at Hyunsoo.

If Hyunsoo commanded it, he would join him in cutting off their heads.

Even if that meant his son Ban.

But Hyunsoo turned away.

“Fulfill your dream, Barad.”

Hyunsoo smiled faintly as he turned and walked away.

Only then.

CLANG—

Barad threw away his sword and ran toward his son Ban with all his strength.

“Ban, Ban!!”

“......Father.”

As Hyunsoo watched Barad pull Ban into his arms, it was the first time in his life he had ever seen Barad sob.

“Firebird.”

Hyunsoo decided he would no longer look at his friend’s weak side.

WHOOOOOOSH—

Hyunsoo vanished into fire.

The final sight he saw was Barad crying, yet smiling more happily than anyone.

And because he appeared in the audience chamber, wrapped in that fire, he did not have to see his friend’s weak side any longer.

A notification rang.

[Sudden Quest: Reunion complete.]

[Sword King’s swordsmanship. Sword Cry levels up by 1.]

Hyunsoo was glad this story had come to a beautiful end.

Thank goodness. Truly, thank goodness.

However, there was one person who did not accept this beautiful end to the story.

That person’s name was Nell.

They were the chancellor of the nation of Hyun.

TREMBLE, TREMBLE—

As Nell looked at the military training grounds that had been reduced to a complete mess, they were dumbfounded.

It ends like this? It can’t.

Because of what had happened in the middle of the nation of Hyun, they had suffered tremendous damage.

[Buildings have collapsed and been destroyed.]

[7,519,193 gold is required for restoration.]

It amounted to a whopping seven billion won.

When Nell checked the damage report, they found that not only the area around the military training grounds, but even the Academy had been completely destroyed and needed to be rebuilt from scratch.

Their head was starting to throb.

No matter how I look at it, I don’t see any opening to get money out of this......?

Whether they knew Nell’s heart or not, Sword King Baman, Bardan, and the descendants approached and asked,

“Is there a way for us to learn more closely about the nation of Hyun and Goyad?”

“......I believe you can go to the Turtle Ship Museum and view it there.”

Nell’s chest ached, but for now, they guided them to the museum.

Bardan, Baman, and the descendants entered together.

By seeing rather than merely hearing, they realized that the current Goyad existed because Hyun had been there.

Before long, Sword King Baman and Bardan came out of the museum filled with emotion.

“Thank you. Thanks to you, we learned how the nation of Hyun was born.”

“I did as well.”

The two of them, as well as the descendants, were glad.

Now that they had clearly learned what had happened, they understood the relationship between Hyun and Barad.

“Now I can close my eyes in peace.”

Baman said it with a gentle smile.

Nell responded to him.

“Close your eyes in peace? Compensate us for the damage.”

At Nell’s words, Baman’s eyebrow twitched.

The descendants, on the other hand, erupted in fury.

To the descendants, Sword King Baman was an extremely great and remarkable person.

“If First Sword King Baman had not existed, the nation of Hyun that exists today would not exist either.”

“How dare a mere chancellor tell Lord Sword King Baman to compensate them for damage?”

“......Pay compensation. I am not letting this end like this.”

Nell did not waver in the slightest.

“There is no reason we should have to suffer the damage. You misunderstood the situation, so correct your mistake.”

And because Nell glared at them with venom in their eyes, Baman raised his hand and stopped the jeers of the descendants.

“First Sword King?”

“Why......?”

Why?

Baman had seen something different from what the descendants saw.

......There was something I could not understand.

No matter how outstanding Master Blacksmith Hyun’s blacksmithing skill was, how had someone so young become a king?

Baman, who had found that strange, realized the reason.

“Shut those mouths. If a nation has suffered damage, it is only natural to demand compensation.”

After silencing the descendants, Baman smiled gently.

“Continue doing that. When you suffer damage like that, charge in like a tiger, secure your own interests, and never back down. I finally understand. This nation was made by small heroes like this gathered together.”

One person’s excellence alone could not establish a nation.

The nation of Hyun could be this solid because there were many people like the treasure called the chancellor before him.

And small heroes passed through Baman’s mind.

The principal of the Academy.

The cavalry captain who had led the cavalry.

The one who seemed like a pirate.

The one who had led the dragon.

And many others.

“Fine hero of this nation, thank you.”

Baman murmured beautifully and turned away with a bright smile.

But then.

“......So stop trying to gloss over it with words and compensate us.”

“Ahem.”

This person was not easy to deal with either.

Nell was gripped by a terrible anxiety.

They might truly receive no compensation at all.

But soon, Baman looked around and said,

“All of these people are heroes who brought glory to the Sword King family.”

“......”

Why was he suddenly saying that?

“Heroes ought to have swords worthy of them.”

Since Baman was someone who would have to leave anyway, he decided to give them the most precious thing.

“All of you, give them your swords.”

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