Danya the blacksmith.

He was a man mad with the desire to create.

The joy he felt when he forged heated iron in the intense heat and created what he wanted was incomparable to anything else.

To be able to create something.

To create a new weapon, and to have its effectiveness proven...

That was enough.

"It was one of those days." 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

"Did you feel disillusioned with the life of an assassin?"

Cheonyeong asked with a serious expression, and Danya, who had stopped talking, stares at him.

"Huh?"

"Huh?"

"...No?"

"No."

"..."

Silence fell.

He said no. It seems he had gone too far.

"Keuk keuk, I've lived as an assassin for twenty years. Do you think I had any moral or ethical thoughts left? In the first place, everything I made was a tool to kill people."

"Ah..."

He understood at once.

Because he had been the same.

Sympathy for someone, compassion for someone. It was a life where there was no room to think of such things.

If you don't kill, you die.

Killing someone was a struggle for them to live.

He wasn't trying to rationalize it.

Because he knew better than anyone that even if he said he couldn't help it, it was something that could not be forgiven with any words.

"I asked a useless question."

Cheonyeong wore a hollow smile.

"Useless... well, not necessarily useless. Even though killing was my job, I always had to live with a sense of guilt in a corner of my heart."

"Did you go into seclusion because of that guilt?"

"It's one of the reasons, but the biggest reason was because I wanted to live."

"You wanted to live?"

"It's funny, isn't it? For a punk who has taken the lives of others."

Cheonyeong didn't answer Danya's self-deprecating smile.

Me too...

I wanted to live.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm a runaway assassin."

Cheonyeong nods his head at those words.

He had been excited and passed over it before, but from his words, he could sufficiently guess that Danya was a runaway assassin.

-At least you don't seem to be an assassin from the Jinkagu.

The Secret Gloom Net, and Danya knew that the assassins of the Jinkagu would be chasing him.

But a question remains.

How did he succeed in escaping?

Although the period they were in was different, Cheonyeong, who was another runaway assassin, knew very well.

The countermeasures that the Jinkagu had set up to prevent assassins from escaping.

The Gu poison.

A type of witchcraft called 'wugu-jutsu', it was a method of cursing others using Gu poison.

The Myeolsin-gu, which digs into the body and gnaws at the heart and blood vessels and melts the internal organs, the Mihon-gu or Misim-gu used to control the soul.

Although there were many types, the one that the Jinkagu used on its assassins was the Yin-Yang Gu.

A vicious technique for controlling the opponent, divided into a child-gu and a mother-gu.

If the practitioner inflicts pain on the mother-gu, the person who has eaten the child-gu feels the same pain.

And what if one of the two dies?

The host, the person who has eaten the gu, feels tremendous pain and, at the end, dies while bleeding from the seven orifices.

Therefore, for the assassins of the Jinkagu, escape and insubordination were almost impossible.

Because leaving and disobeying orders both meant death.

But if Danya had succeeded in escaping, it meant that he, like himself, had succeeded in removing the Gu poison.

"How did you remove it?"

"What?"

"The Gu poison."

"...!"

Danya's eyes widened at Cheonyeong's words.

"H-how do you know that?"

"Isn't what's important now not what I know?"

"Hmm, amazing. You really seem to have a deep grudge with the Jinkagu. Seeing that you even know about the Gu poison."

"Yes."

The Jinkagu had twisted his fate and eventually driven him to his death.

It wouldn't be satisfying even if he tore them to pieces and killed them.

Cheonyeong nodded his head, and Danya said calmly.

"The Gu poison, it's a scary thing. But I'm a blacksmith."

"A blacksmith?"

"For a blacksmith, heat is a very familiar energy."

"Ah! I see."

Cheonyeong could understand Danya's words at once. Because he had been the same.

Poison and heat are incompatible. No matter how scary the Gu poison is, it's enough to burn it with a stronger heat.

Of course, on the assumption that the body can withstand the power of the heat.

"Did you learn a Yang art?"

"No, I didn't learn it."

"Then?"

"Didn't I tell you? Heat is very familiar to a blacksmith. After staying by the fire for a long time, even the attribute of my internal energy changed."

"What? The attribute of your internal energy changed?"

"Yes. It was a quite strange experience."

"Heh!"

It was an amazing thing that even Cheonyeong couldn't help but exclaim.

Didn't it mean that his internal energy had assimilated with the energy of fire?

He had never heard of such a thing...

But Cheonyeong's expression soon became calm.

If it came to strange things, was there anyone who could compare to him?

He had returned to the past by turning back time... what was so great about the attribute of his internal energy changing?

"You're surprisingly calm."

"...I have my reasons."

"Hmm."

Danya tilts his head at the vague words and mutters.

"It was a stroke of luck. Removing the Gu poison."

"I see. But I still don't understand. Never mind the pursuit, you didn't seem to have the skill to escape."

"That's right, my skills are not that great."

"Then how?"

"A weapon."

"A weapon?"

This time, Cheonyeong tilted his head.

A weapon...

While he was puzzled, Danya gets up and heads to a place in the abandoned temple and fumbles with the floor.

Deol-keok!

Had he made an underground space?

Danya puts his hand into the opened door and pulls something out.

What was in his hand was a cylinder the size of a forearm. With a short string attached to the end.

At first glance, it looked like a section of bamboo.

"That's?"

"A weapon."

Danya, who had answered briefly, aims the cylinder towards the forest.

What is he trying to do?

Just as curiosity was growing in Cheonyeong's mind.

Bok!

A light noise was made as Danya pulled the string.

And then.

Bbak! Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pak!

"..."

Cheonyeong's mouth fell open without him realizing it.

What is this?

He couldn't believe it.

The moment he pulled the string, the end of the cylinder exploded and an enormous amount of hidden weapons were shot forward.

Of course, they didn't shoot very far.

"Hmm... it's a failure after all."

"Huh?"

"If the quality of the iron had been good, and if I had used a good explosive, it would have had a much stronger power."

Cheonyeong's surprise grew even more at Danya's dejected appearance.

I-it's amazing even now.

"That... what's its name?"

"This?"

Instead of answering, Cheonyeong nodded his head vigorously with wide-open eyes.

"Heavenly Thunder."

Danya scratches his head shyly, as if he thought the name was a bit cringey.

"Heavenly Thunder..."

It's a good name.

If there had been many enemies in front, it would have wiped them out at once, just as its name suggests.

"By any chance, are there others?"

"Others?"

"There are, but they're too crude..."

"Can you show me?"

"Well..."

After pondering for a moment, he nodded his head.

Kwa-a-a-ang!

Pyu-shu-shu-shut!

Every time Danya used the weapons he had made one by one, Cheonyeong was amazed without being able to take his eyes off them for a moment.

This is really... a weapon I've never heard of or seen before.

Cheonyeong finally seemed to understand how Danya had been able to escape from the Jinkagu.

What if Danya had taken out those weapons and used them when he had come?

Damn, it would have been more dangerous than the Secret Gloom Net.

Danya, who had returned to his seat, plops down and says.

"Ah, because of your reaction of admiring my things... I got too excited. Without even knowing my situation."

"..."

"You asked why I went into seclusion earlier, right?"

Danya begins to talk calmly again, but that's enough now.

It seems he doesn't need to hear it.

Yes, at first, he had felt curiosity when he saw the farm tools.

He had thought that a blacksmith who makes such things would surely be a help to the future of the Tang Family's estate.

When he faced the snake formation, a question arose about the blacksmith's identity.

And when he found out that he was an assassin from the Jinkagu, he couldn't hold back his soaring anger.

But... that's enough now.

None of that matters.

Isn't this what you call a genius?

Following Gongson Seung, who was bright in mathematics, he was a talent with incredibly outstanding engineering skills.

What if he was an assassin.

What if he had made mistakes in the past.

Well, people make all sorts of mistakes as they live.

What's so important about the past?

The present is important, and the future is important.

He just has to live well from now on. Repenting for his sins, dedicating himself to the Tang Family's estate, and doing many good things.

He is now a person who has no connection with the Jinkagu.

Also, since he was a person who had run away before he himself had become an assassin of the Jinkagu in his previous life, there was no grudge to be repaid.

Heaven, how about it?

Wouldn't it be good to give him a chance just this once?

Please... huh?

Cheonyeong quickly began to rationalize in his mind.

"The reason I left the Jinkagu was..."

"Enough! You! Don't you want to work with me?"

"That death... huh?"

Danya wears a bewildered expression at the sudden proposal.

"How about it?"

"..."

"As the family head of the Tang Family's estate, I formally ask you."

Danya stares blankly at Cheonyeong's face.

"But I was an assassin."

"Not now!"

"I still have many debts of the heart that I haven't repaid."

"Earn money and repay them. Live your whole life atoning. No, I'll repay them for you. With all my might! So that the descendants of the dead can live in luxury for the rest of their lives!"

"No, that's... hah, and above all, I'm being chased by the Jinkagu."

"What does that matter? It's been ten years since you ran away. I'm also an enemy of the Jinkagu! I'll block them all for you!"

Cheonyeong seemed to have no intention of backing down.

Danya, who had been staring at him, smirks and shakes his head.

"You're serious."

"Yeah!"

Very serious.

He was on the verge of forcibly kidnapping him even if he said no.

"Just accept! Then I'll guarantee that you can work as a blacksmith for the rest of your life. I'll search the world and get you the best iron... no, I'll buy a whole mine for you!"

"What?"

"I'll also set up the biggest and best blacksmith shop in the world for you. A blacksmith shop where the fire will never go out until the moment your life ends."

With each word Cheonyeong said, a faint heat bloomed in Danya's eyes.

A blacksmith shop where the fire never goes out. A place where he could make anything he wanted.

It was the life he had dreamed of.

But.

"Am I... a person who deserves to enjoy such a thing?"

"You are!"

"Really?"

"You are! Because you're from the Tang Family's estate."

"The Tang Family's... estate?"

"You're going to be the blacksmith of the Tang Family's estate! A blacksmith who will become the most famous in the world in the future!"

It was a promise no different from an ambition.

Suddenly, it was a connection that had come very suddenly.

He had thought it was okay to die now... but his heart was pounding.

The words of the young man, who seemed to have just passed the age of twenty, the words that seemed to be throwing a tantrum without any rhyme or reason, gave him a sense of expectation that it would really happen.

The past that he had carried like a yoke.

The grudges he had accumulated while living as an assassin and the guilt that had settled deep in his heart.

But Cheonyeong says it doesn't matter.

He says to live and repay it.

Perhaps it was a chance that would not come again.

And if this was the last chance.

If Cheonyeong really gave him such a chance.

Thud.

Danya kneels in front of Cheonyeong.

"Danya the blacksmith. If you call me, I will live with a heart of atonement for the rest of my life and serve the Tang Family's estate and the Family Head with all my heart."

Cheonyeong smiles brightly at the bowing Danya.

Atonement?

Whether it's good or evil, I'll carry that much karma for you.

All your heart?

I don't need that!

You just keep hammering.

Until you die...

"But, why did you run away earlier?"

"..."

"No, forget it. Who doesn't have a story. I'm counting on you. Danya."

The Tang Family's estate got a blacksmith.

The Tang Family's Departure from the World