Chapter 13. Dream Awakening (13)

Yim Choo let out a groan, overcome by pain and shame.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Shut up. I can see through your little game. I noticed earlier that you started that ruckus only after the two other people in your group left, as if you were walking on eggshells. You want to hide this side of you from them because they don't like these things. Am I wrong?"

Yim Choo's jaw dropped. Woo-Moon was right. Woo-Moon was no longer the fool he was before, and the massive gap in power made Yim Choo afraid of Woo-Moon.

'H-how can a person change this much? Song Woo-Moon has changed!'

Yim Choo felt fear at the thought, his backbone stiffening.

'Ah, that's right. When we were young, Woo-Moon was our merciless and powerful leader.'

Woo-Moon had been much smarter than his peers back in the day, and he was known to be cruel when needed. He was also stronger than anyone else.

Since childhood, Woo-Moon had been a hindrance to the mean and evil Yim Choo and his friends. Yim Choo had countless memories of Woo-Moon beating him up when he bullied other powerless children.

However, Woo-Moon stopped showing up after a while, and they later learned that he had become a fool, much to everyone's shock. Since then, they had taken to harassing him in turn, due to their history with him.

Just as Yim Choo was briefly reminiscing about the past, Woo-Moon threw him away and was about to walk toward the inn when he suddenly remembered something very important.

"Oh, that's right!" Woo-Moon walked toward Yim Choo again.

"What?! What???" Frightened, Yim Choo stood still, unable to speak more than two words.

Woo-Moon turned Yim Choo's pocket inside out. It felt quite heavy, seemingly from the not insignificant amount of money inside. He doubted Yim Choo's salary from the Leebi Guild was this high. Judging from Yim Choo's behavior earlier today, it had to be the money that he had extorted from Dae-Woong, as well as some other people.

"M-my money!" Yim Choo shouted in shock as Woo-Moon took the money out of his pocket.

Woo-Moon looked down at Yim Choo coldly. "

Your

money? This isn't your money. You borrowed money from my dad earlier, didn't you? This is the principal and interest. My house's interest is a little high, that's all."

Woo-Moon simply took his money and left, and Yim Choo couldn't stop him since he was scared. A moment later, Woo-Moon looked back at him. "Go back quietly and tend to your wounds. And fix that shitty personality of yours while you're at it."

* * *

As soon as he returned home, Woo-Moon finished the rest of his work and left the inn right away. Dae-Woong kept asking him if he had fought with Yim Choo, but Woo-Moon simply denied it. Before leaving, he secretly put half of the money taken from Yim Choo in the family safe.

After leaving the inn, he headed to Mr. Choo's blacksmith shop and picked up a hammer with high expectations that he'd do well today. However, the results still weren't satisfactory. Of course, he was doing much better than yesterday, but it was still worse than Choo Min-Sang's output, and that disappointed him.

Nevertheless, he didn't play around. He hammered until it was already dark, though he didn't make any particular progress.

'I can't make the hoe and the sickle well no matter how hard I try,'

Woo-Moon thought as he walked home. '

Before Mr. Choo and Min-Sang come to the blacksmith shop tomorrow, should I try and make a sword by myself? I really want to make one.'

The idea was set by the time he returned to the inn and got to bed.

'Yeah, let's do that.'

The next morning, Woo-Moon skipped his usual training and finished his work at the inn as quickly as possible, then darted toward the blacksmith shop. Fortunately, no one was there when he arrived.

Woo-Moon quickly put the pieces of metal in the forge and started to heat them up. At the thought that he would finally make a sword, his heart pounded. In his mind, he kept thinking of the Divine Frost Sword's outstanding quality. He wanted to make a sword like that.

Clank! Clank!

Woo-Moon started hammering. He was initially at a loss about how to make it, but his hands started moving on their own the moment he hit the iron. As he recalled the image of the beautiful Divine Frost Sword, his hammer moved accordingly to forge a similar sword.

The sound of hammering echoed with a certain rhythm. Whenever the metal cooled down and hardened, he would heat it up again and continue. After a while, the blade was finally complete.

The problem was making the sword's hilt and the guard, which divided the blade and the hilt.

Woo-Moon started hammering again without any hesitation. His brain was working faster than ever.

He stared at the blade before hammering, imagining what the hilt would be like and how it'd connect to the blade. In the case of the hoe and the sickle, he had to make a blade and a handle, then he had to fit the blade into the handle. In the same way, he thought of the hilt as an extension of the blade.

Upon finally completing the blade and hilt, Woo-Moon put them together.

"Whoa, did I actually make it?" Woo-Moon finally opened his mouth after working for hours with gritted teeth.

"It's pretty good."

Mr. Choo's voice came from behind him all of a sudden. However, Woo-Moon wasn't surprised; he had already felt Mr. Choo's presence. The man had approached quietly while he was still working on the blade.

Although he said it was only "pretty good" and pretended to be calm, Mr. Choo was honestly deeply surprised. Min-Sang, who was next to him, felt the same.

It was frankly unbelievable that Woo-Moon had already made a sword even though he had only started his blacksmith apprenticeship three days ago. Another surprising fact was that the hoes and sickles he made were of average quality at best, but his sword, which he had forged without anyone teaching him how, was better than average.

It was definitely harder to make a sword than a sickle or a hoe, making Woo-Moon's case quite unusual.

"There is no need to make sickles and hoes any longer. From now on, you can make as many swords as you want."

"B-but dad!"

Mr. Choo didn't change his mind despite Min-Sang's surprised protest. He brushed his son off, saying he was noisy.

Woo-Moon looked at the sword he made. Compared to the Divine Frost Sword, it was quite a bit inferior, but he felt good about it nevertheless. It felt great wielding a sword made by his own hands. Creating a sword that was better in quality than the hoes and sickles he had made also made him feel proud.

'But I'm not satisfied with this.'

Woo-Moon put the sword into the forge without hesitation and tempered it again, deciding not to give up until he had made a sword that met his standards.

From morning through evening, Woo-Moon continued to make swords, and as the hammering continued, his blade-making skill improved. As a result, the sharpness and strength of the blades he made also gradually improved.

Eventually, when evening came, he left the blacksmith's shop and headed back to the inn.

* * *

Woo-Moon was cleaning up the inn in the evening and thinking of training some more afterward. The inn was much quieter than it had been during lunch, but suddenly, the inn's wooden door opened.

Squeak!

"It's so hot. I really don't like the Central Plains."

A woman in her early twenties entered, complaining with an irritated voice.

Woo-Moon looked at her. There was no woman in this small village as pretty as the customer who had just entered. No... Si-Hyeon came to his mind right away, but she was always wearing a veil, so he wasn't exactly sure.

Jeong Gyeong, the woman who entered the inn, snorted to herself.

'Hmph. It seems even a humble waiter in this countryside village can appreciate beauty.'

Woo-Moon's appearance was outstanding for a mere waiter, but that was all. Given his status, she wouldn't even give him a second glance.

Three more women came in behind Jeong Gyeong, all of them covering their fair, white skin with white clothes.

When his eyes landed on the last girl to enter, Woo-Moon was momentarily stunned.

"Ah...."

He was supposed to ask what they were going to eat and if they were going to stay the night, but for a moment, the girl's beauty stunned him into silence.

They were all fair maidens, but none of them so much as the last girl, who seemed to be in her late teens. Her skin was so porcelain-like that the dazzling white suit she was wearing looked dirty in comparison, and her twinkling eyes and straight nose enhanced her beauty to the fullest.

She was by far the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen, and it wouldn't be wrong to say she stood out the most.

As she came from the North Sea, where the freezing wind and cold snow were constantly raging, Jeong Gyeong was naturally quite sensitive to the heat of the Central Plains, which caused her to be irritated. In addition, it annoyed her when Woo-Moon, who had been looking at her a moment before, could no longer take his eyes off her junior sister.

That was inevitable, however. She herself knew that her junior sister was prettier than her, and the knowledge of her inferiority only made her bully the poor girl.

"Isn't this restaurant open? Aren't you a waiter?" Jeong Gyeong spoke coldly and aggressively.

Woo-Moon met all kinds of people while working at the inn. If he got angry with each one of them, it would make his work even harder. Hence, Woo-Moon had gotten accustomed to simply ignoring the customers who spoke down to him and even those who cursed him, to the extent that he didn't even notice it all that much.

However, Jeong Gyeong's attitude still angered Woo-Moon, especially since she looked at him with contempt and irritation.

"Oh, yes, yes. Would you like something to eat? Or do you want me to show you a room?"

He seemed polite but somewhat sloppy. Was it because of his eyes? Or was it because of his slightly tilted head? Regardless, the mood in the room turned for the worse.

Jeong Gyeong turned her nose up, but she didn't say anything anymore, thinking that arguing with a humble waiter wasn't suitable for her, the first disciple of the North Sea Ice Palace.

'Just wait and see, waiter.'

While Jeong Gyeong eagerly thought about taking revenge, Ha Yeo-Seol, the youngest, smiled brightly and spoke on behalf of her companions, who had closed their mouths as if they found it beneath their dignity to talk to a waiter like Woo-Moon.

"We're famished, actually. We've been on the road all day, but we haven't even had lunch yet. We don't know much about the food in the Central Plains, so please bring us some good dishes that are affordable. We also plan to stay here until tomorrow morning, so please prepare two rooms."

Not only was she pretty, but her smile was also beautiful. Moreover, she had an alluring voice and a kind heart.

"Alright, pretty lady," Woo-Moon answered, a smile appearing on his face without him being any the wiser. He had never said something like that, but it sounded so natural that it seemed like he often uttered that line without shame.

That didn't mean Woo-Moon had fallen in love with Yeo-Seol or even liked her, of course. He just told her what he thought of her.

"I-I'm not! Don't make fun of me!"

Her reaction wasn't just due to humility. She truly seemed unaware she was really pretty. After all, when Yeo-Seol was in the North Sea Ice Palace, she never went out, only going back and forth between the living quarters and the training hall. Hence, that was the first time a man had told her she was pretty. However, in complete contrast to her blush, her sisters' expressions were getting worse, especially Jeong Gyeong's.

"Ho-ho-ho, you're only good at saying things like that because you're a waiter. Yeah, you'd get along well with my little sister, Yeo-Seol. She likes simple things by nature, so even a waiter would be enough for her."

Ha Yeo-Seol's blush only deepened, unable to respond to Jeong Gyeong's painfully sarcastic remarks.

Woo-Moon nearly retorted, but in the end, he held himself back.

"Then take a seat here. The food will be served shortly."

After Jeong Gyeong threw money at Woo-Moon, the four girls went to the table he had pointed at and sat down.

"Wait a minute, Yeo-Seol. Sit here."

"What? Oh, alright."

Woo-Moon frowned as he saw the scene on his way to the kitchen. They had sat Yeo-Seol on the oldest and shabbiest of the four chairs. As if that wasn't enough, her sisters left quite the distance between each other, not allowing Yeo-Seol much room at all.

However, the girl was seemingly born with a bright personality, and her face didn't show any discontentment.

'They're evil.'

Just then, Woo-Moon remembered Yeo-Seol's words,

"We don't know much about the food in the Central Plains."

'Wait, if they're not from the Central Plains, then where did they come from?'