01. A sword for you (10)

“Then… Did you touch….”

Yoon Seo-hee said that and stretched out her arm toward me, holding out the back of her hand so that I could see it.

“What?”

Looking at the back of her white hand, I pondered deeply.

I rechecked my lack of common sense, but I’m not sure if holding hands with friends is a normal thing.

It’s okay to invite them to your house and bring them into your room. I’ve heard that it’s common among close friends.

But what does touching hands between friends mean?

I think of the classroom scene this morning. Among the classmates who chatted in groups, I had never seen friends, male or female, holding hands or touching each other.

This time, I think of the scene of the cafe where I had a conversation with Yoon Seo-hee. Two men and women chatting in a warm atmosphere, as if they were lovers.

They were holding each other’s hands with affectionate expressions.

“… ….”

No, no way.

That went too far.

Yoon Seo-hee would have invited her out of her pure goodwill, but this rude thought is her disrespect for her.

It is the swordsman’s hand holding the sword. As a swordsman, it was not enough to accept it while bowing with gratitude.

After all, it seems that I am a swordsman who can’t help it. At the thought of being able to look closely at Yoon Seo-hee’s hands, my inner curiosity boiled over.

Still, it is right to refuse. I’m grateful, but I don’t even need to touch it.

“Thank you. Then I’ll just watch.”

“Ha?”

I take a step forward and examine her hand closely.

Certainly, the curvature of the curve is different compared to that of a man’s hand. A woman’s hand is much smaller than I thought, so there seems to be a difference of about 1.5 Times compared to my hand.

If I decided on the size of her handle with the sense I always make, I almost got into trouble. It certainly wouldn’t suit Yoon Seo-hee’s hands.

“Hey, this… !”

But Seohee Yoon’s appearance was a bit strange.

Why are you like that? He looks like an elementary school student who was shocked when he reached out his hand to a cat and was ignored.

She huffed and puffed for a while, then opened her eyes and grabbed my hand in an instant. It was a speed invisible to her eyes.

“What is it all of a sudden?”

“That, what do you know just by looking at it like that? What about it though? You don’t have to touch it once to know it properly! How are the muscles in my hands held! Where are the calluses from?!”

I didn’t know what Yoon Seo-hee was suddenly angry about.

“Hey, let’s put this down for now….”

“Why? Do you want to hold hands with me?”

“No, it can’t be, can it?”

She pulled hard to free her hand, but she wouldn’t budge. Wow, isn’t that a gripping joke?

Come to think of it, Yoon Seo-hee’s strength stat is B-. At this level, it was very unlikely that she would lose her sword due to lack of strength or her hand slipping.

She unintentionally outlined how to weight her handle and sword.

Certainly she is right. What she saw with her eyes and what she directly touched were different in detail.

She almost forgot her grandfather’s teaching that to be an artisan, she must touch the ingredients and feel the difference with her fingertips.

“Okay. You’re right. Excuse me then.”

I changed my mind and boldly touched her hand.

“Huh? That… ah….”

Yoon Seo-hee’s hands were soft and firm. She had contradictory sentiments, but she certainly was. Her skin is not rough and looks like a half, but the areas where muscles are supposed to be are densely packed, so it feels solid without any gaps.

“Hey… for a moment….”

“Why? Are you feeling uncomfortable too?”

The next step is to decide how long the blade should be adjusted.

“Oh, no… it’s okay….”

Yoon Seo-hee avoided my gaze and lowered her head.

I don’t know why she did that, but instead of thinking about Yoon Seo-hee, her mind was filled only with the sword.

“I need to measure the arm length as well. Excuse me, can you stretch her arm out to the side?”

“Huh? Uh, that much?”

“Can’t we? Please.”

This is absolutely necessary.

Until a while ago, my head was colored pure white and I hadn’t made any progress, but now, strangely, the inspiration for the sword is welling up.

I don’t want to miss this moment. I wanted to do everything I had to do.

“Oh, okay… ! Can I do this?”

Yoon Seo-hee takes a fixed posture with her eyes tightly closed and her arms stretched out to the side.

You don’t even have to close her eyes? Well, it doesn’t matter.

I took a tape measure from her desk and measured the length from her shoulder to her fingertips.

I don’t know exactly what the average height and arm length are for women, but I’m sure Yoon Seo-hee would still be close to the average.

I asked her what I was curious about while drawing her drawing, measuring her length to her shoulder width.

“Yoon Seo-hee, which one do you usually use, stabbing or cutting?”

“I’ve never really been conscious of it… Do you want to stab me?”

“I see. I will refer to it.”

I got the details about the length of the sword. At this level, it could be seen that all the big frames were captured.

If you know this much, there is no problem in making a sword that you can just hold and wield. The sword was already completed in my head, and I just had to draw it into a blueprint.

… ….

But is this really the end?

Is there any way to make it more perfect?

In fact, there is.

One thing I haven’t tried yet. One final puzzle to create a more complete sword drawing.

However, it was difficult to say. It’s no different than asking me to reveal her fatal weakness.

I gave up my regrets and decided to be satisfied here.

“It’s over now. You worked hard, Yoon Seo-hee.”

“Haa… ! Turn off, it’s over. It’s been longer than I thought.”

Yoon Seo-hee dyed her face red and fanned her hand on her flushed cheek.

Is the room hot? Even if it’s midnight, it’s July soon, and it’s the season when it’s getting hotter. I thought that might be the case.

It’s a bit early, but I turned on her air conditioner for her and immediately sat down in front of her desk. She wanted to finish the drawing right now before she forgot what was in her head.

I boldly tore up all the drawings I’ve drawn so far.

Damn it!

I didn’t hesitate. It wouldn’t have been used any more.

Takes out a new piece of paper and spreads it out on the desk. Holding a worn-out pencil, the lines drawn on the graph paper were more unstoppable than before.

Sweet.

Yoon Seo-hee sat next to me and looked at the blueprints over her shoulder as if in amazement.

“You draw very well. Did you learn to draw?”

“No. I’ve been doing it since I was young, so it just came naturally to this extent.”

When I first dreamed of making a sword, I never thought I would be able to draw.

Not only that. Chop wood and burn fine charcoal for perfect fire control, study math and geometry, work on design, study ergonomics.

Things that I thought had nothing to do with making a sword were all connected. So I couldn’t learn even one clumsily.

“Lee Jin, you… That’s really great.”

“Me? No way. There are a lot of kids who do more than me in the academy.”

As she said, if I was a great guy, I would have gotten an A grade long ago. He wouldn’t have been wriggling in the face of failure.

“No. I sincerely think so. Can I ask why you work so hard?”

What are you working hard for?

That’s right….

“… Because I have a dream.”

The hand that had been moving frantically on the graph paper slowly stopped.

“A dream?”

“Uh, a dream”.

A dream that can never be given up, born from childhood memories.

A goal that keeps me going no matter how many times I fail and get frustrated.

“I want to make a masterpiece with my name on it with my own hands. That is my dream.”

Ten years have passed, but the memories are still vivid.

A warrior’s sword that shines brilliantly amidst the cheers of the people. Excalibur.

How good it would feel if I made it. How proud would that be? How proud are you?

It was a childish dream that a child would have, but I loved it. It’s so good that I’m still working on it.

This is the first time I’ve told anyone about my dream, other than my grandfather. It’s not something to hide, but I’m aware that it’s childish, so I didn’t want to tell others about it.

But why? Standing in front of her, she was able to talk about her dreams very casually. She rubbed the tip of her nose for no reason in her strange itchy feeling.

“… Also, you are great.”

Yoon Seo-hee lifts the corners of her mouth and smiles quietly. I turned her head and looked at her side face.

“I… There is no great reason for that.”

A smile that looks very sad even though it is clearly smiling. I didn’t know what to say in front of that expression.

I put the pencil down for a while.

“Okay. You don’t have to have a great reason to make an effort.”

As she said, I don’t think of my dream as a reason for being cool, and even if there is no such thing, people can steadily work hard if they have a goal.

However, Seohee Yoon slowly shook her head.

“It’s not like that. I….”

As if remembering what to say first, he pursed his lips. Then, slowly, her lips opened.

“… Are you curious about why I entered the academy?”

“… ….”

I wasn’t in the mood to say I wasn’t curious, so I nodded. Of course, regardless of the atmosphere, it was right to actually wonder why.

The academy that all awakened people dream of entering is not compulsory admission. It is difficult to get in and even if you fail midway through, you are expelled. This is because not all Awoken can become Hunters.

I wouldn’t know if it was the first generation when confusion reached its peak, but now that we’ve moved on to the second generation, it’s especially difficult for Awoken to become Hunters.

There is no police or army in the tower. That’s why the inside of the tower is no different from a lawless zone.

The reason why the bill was strengthened is because there have been so many incidents and accidents.

So Seohee Yoon had a choice. She will be watched by the state, but will she reject the life of an Awakener and choose a normal life, or will she go to the academy and follow the path of a hunter even now.

Yoon Seo-hee said she chose to come to the academy. If so, she must have a good reason for it.

“The reason I entered here is….”

Yoon Seo-hee opened her mouth in a voice suppressed by her anger and sadness, as if recalling her old memories.

“… There must be someone who wants revenge.”