Chapter 2: Undiscovered Dungeon
Ahn Hyun Do cleaned his sword with a clean cloth.
The famed sword that the craftsman had completed with his soul and by smelting even the purest part of iron. As famous swordsmen used it generation after generation, the sword's value had grown.
“Through the sword, what makes a human capable of rising to the sky… is the sword.”
Ahn Hyun Do possessed many famed swords, but he never carelessly took out the Radiant Sword. Only when a big decision was ahead did he meditate over the resolve of his time of youth while cleaning the Radiant Sword.
“The years when there was nothing scary in the world. The years when I was so bent on just fighting that I didn't have time to look around. I received my undeserved Radiant Sword at that time. This is the sword that let me realize that the days of the sword had no meaning, that in the end people were more important.”
Ahn Hyun Do gazed at the Radiant Sword that he had cleaned to a mirror-like shine.
The azure sky and the clouds drifting away that shone through the office room's window were also reflected on the blade. The sunlight made him squint his eyes.
“Swordsmanship is learning the way to use the sword. If the motive of fencing is merely strong swordsmanship, what worth is there in learning it?”
The sword that nurtured a person.
Like the flourished weed of the rough wilderness, in the end, a human also had to pass through training. There was a need to learn not just in the small dojo, but the vast world.
“True fear, the drive for life… and also one's self can be learned through the sword.”
Ahn Hyun Do slid the sword into its sheath and left the office.
“Yul Min.”
The one who took care of the secretarial jobs in the Dojo was named Yul Min.
“Yes, Uncle.”
“It seems like it is time to teach the youngest disciple the way of the sword.”
“So it has already come to this. Then I will book two tickets. On about what date should I reserve the departure?”
“Since he has to go to school right now… Around summer should be fine.”
“Though it appears he's not ready yet… Might you be rushing it too much?”
“If he's lacking, he should be able to earn something greater from his insufficiencies.”
Anyone can learn swordsmanship.
For a sword faster than anyone else's, repetitive effort and studying are necessary. However, simply possessing such a fast sword doesn't equate to winning matches. A heavier sword or developing muscular strength didn't mean winning in matches either.
The reason for learning the sword was to see one's self clearly.
In Ahn Hyun Do's opinion, young people these days were weak.
“When they go to school and study, prepare for employment… If they spend ten or so years like that they'll end up running into the world without knowing what they like or what they want to do.”
Once they are out in the workforce, there wouldn't be a chance to change one's self. At their workplace, after working in the store and earning money, they would see that the precious times had completely passed and were gone.
Time doesn't ever come back. It would be great if you could cheat time, but that was an impossibility that only happened in movies.
You would discover yourself through the sword.
Here, there was also the reason of victory by the sword. Observation of yourself and your opponent!
As you compared each other's might, you would crave for greater heights. Seeing themselves clearly, swordsmen fought with the appetite for advancement.
“A truly powerful sword. Why you must learn the sword, what a true swordsman is… I should be able to show him what those are through travels.”
As the Korean University's festival approached, with less than one week left, Lee Hyun's school life became really busy.
“Those of you who are preparing for the bar; since we've gotta win the snack contest, you must absolutely not do it carelessly!”
To make the snacks for the bar, they were abruptly thrown into culinary processes!
Though Lee Hyun didn't need to learn because he was quite well-versed in cooking, there was no time to rest because he had to teach the other students.
“Lee Hyun-oppa, how do you break an egg?”
“It's okay to clean the apples with the sponge. Right?”
“When you wash the dishes can't you use facial soap instead of Dawn™?”
Every time a question was asked, Lee Hyun sighed heavily.
These days, instant and delivery foods were set up too well. There were many cases where kids who had been conditioned to only study never even once made their own meal until they enrolled to university.
“But who's gonna make the rice?”
“The Cuckoo makes the rice.”
[T/N: A Cuckoo is a popular brand of rice-cooker in Korea.]
“…”
These kinds of conversation!
Lee Hyun controlled his frustration and endured as he taught the students the basics of cooking.
“When you fry an egg, you have to spread vegetable oil in the pan first. It's probably better if you use olive oil instead of vegetable oil.”
“Peel the skin of the apple first so it's easier to cut. Don't slice pineapple with a fruit knife!”
“You don't cut the bananas, if you just peel it…”
Truthfully, the students were enjoying watching Lee Hyun get upset and explain, so they purposefully asked about even things they knew.
“But can't you make rice with flour?”
“I heard that originally, stew is boiled as ramen soup by putting this and that in…”
Lee Hyun's patience hit rock bottom.
Nevertheless, Seo Yoon was on the side of learning cooking quickly. Although she burnt the vegetable pancake (buchimgae) as black as coal, once he taught her the trick of it, her next attempt was beautifully fried.
With her chopsticks, Seo Yoon held out a bite of the kimchi pancake she had fried to Lee Hyun.
“You want me to try it?”
When Lee Hyun asked anxiously, Seo Yoon nodded with a similarly anxious face. As he stared at the kimchi pancake, Lee Hyun's eyes became as sharp as knives.
'Ingredients, flour, kimchi, kimchi liquid, egg, scallion, octopus, some others. There are no problems based on the ingredients.'
It was a kimchi pancake fried using normal ingredients.
'Seeing as it's been well grilled to a reddish color, there shouldn't be any particular problems with the cooking process…'
After resolving his doubts, he received and ate the kimchi pancake Seo Yoon was giving him.
The kimchi pancake went into his mouth, and the rich aroma of kimchi fully diffused throughout!
'It's fragrant. It's the taste of local kimchi after all. The cabbage grown in neighborhood gardens with the pickled fish and red pepper powder mixed in well… And its fitting rebirth as a pancake, good! It's a well-made kimchi pancake.'
Although his evaluation of the kimchi pancake ended quickly, Lee Hyun's mouth was as hot as a fire.
There was no way it wouldn't be hot since she had given it to him fresh off the pan.
'I'll have to be more suspicious after all.'
Lee Hyun's eyes became more sharp.
Eyes with a look that could kill!
Even as he glared, he raised his thumb for the taste.
“It's tasty. Keep making them like this.”
“…”
Although there was no reply, Seo Yoon's eyes looked like they were laughing, if only a little.
'Did she know how to laugh too?'
It was an expression that flickered past too fleetingly. However, the beauty she had shown for just a short moment's instant was the smile he had imagined when he had made the first Goddess of Freya.