Chapter 12
"What?"
"The Old Ancestor isn't here either. If we can see him next time, let's see him then."
The man called Sheng Wang looked at Agong, said something incomprehensible, looked around, and left the tavern.
"Phew..."
Although they came together, the three of them didn't seem close.
Miss Mu looked rather relieved when he left, and Sorin snorted.
"Um... what should I get you?"
"Oh, my goodness. Is Master Gongsun inside?"
Seeing as she was looking for Master Gongsun, it seemed that the people from the West who were in contact with Master Gongsun were them.
Agong lowered his guard a little upon hearing Master Gongsun's name.
"The master left the tavern with Old Man Hongjun early in the morning."
"Oh dear, we picked the wrong day."
Unlike the troubled Miss Mu, Sorin seemed to be distracted by something else.
He picked up the fishing rod that Agong had propped up next to the table and was examining it from all angles.
"What's this?"
Hearing Sorin's short question, Agong finally realized that his fishing rod was in his hands.
"It's my fishing rod."
"Fishing?"
"Yes, like this."
Agong, facing the tilting Sorin, held the fishing rod, cast it, and then pretended to reel in a fish.
"Puhahaha!"
Sorin, seeing Agong's imitation, clutched his stomach and burst out laughing.
Agong's face turned red with embarrassment.
It wasn't something to laugh at so much just because his imitation was funny.
He had tried hard to teach him, but he felt like he had become a laughingstock instead.
"He doesn't mean any harm. I'll apologize on his behalf."
Miss Mu, sensing Agong's uncomfortable feelings, offered an apology and glared sharply at Sorin.
Sorin, who had been cackling, stealthily put down the fishing rod at her gaze and cleared his throat.
"I wasn't laughing at your actions. This is not a fishing rod."
"It is a fishing rod."
"I don't know much about fishing, but I know tools well. Look."
Flap!
In an instant, a huge axe the size of Agong's height popped out from behind Sorin's back.
The startled Agong flinched, but he nonchalantly put on thick gloves, grabbed the fishing line on the fishing rod, and brought it down on the sharp axe blade in one go.
"Ah!"
It happened in an instant, before Agong could even stop him.
Kiiing!
Sparks flew between the axe and the fishing line with a metallic sound that filled the tavern.
And the fishing line was too intact for something that had been struck by a sharp axe blade.
Sorin, looking at the dumbfounded Agong, threw off his leather gloves.
They were thick and sturdy-looking leather gloves that would fit his hairy hands, but the finger part of the gloves had been completely torn off by his action just now.
"You can't catch fish with this. This is not a fishing line. The fish's flesh will be cut off just by touching it. It doesn't even have a hook."
"That's not true!"
Agong scrunched up his face.
In fact, he had been thinking about it himself.
In the first place, Tongtian was the strange one.
It was only because he was reeling in fish with that Heavenly Demon Hand or whatever, but it was impossible with just the fishing rod. No, to put it harshly, that wasn't a fishing rod, but just a sharp line tied to a piece of wood.
"Stop it, Sorin. You're going too far with a human child."
When Agong got angry, Miss Mu narrowed her eyes and reprimanded Sorin for the second time.
"What's not true is not true."
"I don't know why you're doing this with such a fine fishing rod."
Miss Mu picked up Agong's fishing rod that Sorin had put down.
But when Miss Mu picked up Agong's fishing rod, surprisingly, a green sprout bloomed from the fishing rod, and a stem began to grow.
"Oh my!"
"Puhahaha!"
The flustered Miss Mu dropped the fishing rod.
But the fishing rod with the sprouted sprout eventually spread its leaves, and branches about a handspan long grew all over it, turning it into something like a hedgehog.
Seeing that scene, Sorin once again burst out laughing and even bent over the table, bursting into laughter.
"My fishing rod!"
Agong, flustered, lifted the branch that was once a fishing rod.
The fishing line hanging from the end was the only proof that this was once a fishing rod. Looking at it from up close or from afar, it was now a sight that was hard to call a fishing rod.
"Ugh..."
As his precious fishing rod was ruined, Agong was so filled with anger and resentment that tears welled up in his eyes.
Miss Mu was at a loss for what to do and was flustered, and Sorin, who had been hiccuping and swallowing his laughter, burst out laughing again, looking at Agong and Miss Mu.
And as if Sorin's laughter was the catalyst, tears fell from Agong's eyes.
"Ugh..."
"A-ahem."
"I'm sorry."
When Agong wiped his tears and tried hard to hold back his crying, the laughing Sorin also stopped laughing, and Miss Mu was even more at a loss for what to do.
As his precious fishing rod was ruined, all the emotions he had been suppressing burst out at once.
He had been threatened at a young age and had come to the Hermit's Valley, which was no different from a place of certain death, and had been left here again, which was no different from being abandoned.
Although he had thought it was no big deal on the outside, a considerable amount of mental pain had followed Agong without him realizing it.
On top of that, in the midst of his anxiety about what would happen in the future, the fishing rod, which had been a source of joy and comfort to his heart, was broken, so his emotions exploded like a collapsing dam.
"Ahem, ahem."
Sorin, realizing that he had laughed too loudly, coughed repeatedly, and a strong light shot out from Miss Mu's eyes as she looked at him.
Unable to withstand the pressure, Sorin stealthily approached the crying Agong.
"I'll make it for you. The fishing rod."
"I don't need it!"
"I'll give it to you. A better and real fishing rod."
"Now, now, since we broke your precious fishing rod, will you let us make the fishing rod again to Agong's liking?"
"It's not 'we'. Sirsha broke it."
"Sorin!"
This time, unlike a warning, it seemed she was really angry. Miss Mu's hair shot up, and a gleam of light emanated from her eyes.
Agong, who had come to his senses at the ferocious momentum, wiped his tears and composed his breathing.
"It's okay."
As Agong came to his senses, he felt a sense of shame.
No matter what, to cry his eyes out over a fishing rod as a man. Cook Li must be hearing all this commotion from somewhere, and his face burned at the thought of how much he would be teased later.
On top of that, Agong himself knew well that the fishing rod was shabby.
"No, it's not. That Sorin over there has amazing skills, so you can look forward to it."
"That's right."
The dwarf seemed to be a man without humility.
Showing a proud confidence in his skills, he untied the leather bag at his waist, and various tools spread out and revealed themselves on the table.
When Sorin's preparations were finished, Miss Mu carefully held the fishing rod, whispered to it, and blew air into it with her mouth.
Although he thought it was a delusion, Agong felt the surrounding air shimmer for a moment.
At the same time, it seemed that the leaves that had bloomed on the fishing rod became even fresher, and its branches also seemed to take on a more bluish hue.
"Now, it's Sorin's turn."
"The wood here is hard to process. You've made it more difficult."
"So are you giving up?"
At Miss Mu's small provocation, Sorin snorted and cut off the small branches with his axe in one go.
Swish!
Agong, who had chopped firewood before, knew how amazing that move was.
Even though he had used that heavy axe with one hand, his skill was much cleaner and more excellent than Cook Li's.
In an instant, with just a few swings of the axe, the shape of a fishing rod more excellent than Agong's original one was formed.
But Sorin, in that state, crouched down and took out his carving knife.
A row of tools that looked small and exquisite at a glance were spread out, and with those tools, which were thinner than his own fingers, Sorin began to meticulously work on the fishing rod, one stitch at a time.
"Now, it's going to take quite a while like that. Would you mind getting me a cup of tea?"
Agong, who had been mesmerized by Sorin's skill, nodded and ran to the kitchen.
Miss Mu, who sat elegantly in her chair with a smile, stared blankly at Sorin.
Sorin, without even turning his gaze to Miss Mu, uttered a word.
It was the language of their homeland, not Chinese.
"Thanks to you, it's become troublesome."
"Oh my, are you grumbling while working so hard on something that could have been done roughly?"
"Hmph, instead of reviving a dead tree, you should have saved the child."
Although Agong didn't know, the fishing rod, which was made of the already strange wood of the Hermit's Valley and was as sturdy as steel, was now emitting a strange power after her breath touched it.
Sorin had seen through Agong's condition at a glance.
He was an excellent craftsman in times of peace, but he was also a veteran warrior who had once led hundreds of battles from the position of a king.
"Is there a reason I should? To me, a tree and a human are all the same life."
Nature has no emotions.
That is why nature can be both frightening and wondrous.
Seeing her like that, the queen of the forest and an incarnation of nature, the dwarf realized that point once again.
"If the child dies, I will take this back."
It was unlikely that he would go fishing, but even excluding that, it had taken too much effort unexpectedly.
The dwarf was usually insensitive to wealth, but he had a great desire for mysterious weapons or masterpieces with the touch of a master craftsman.
Looking at Agong's current state, he couldn't tell if he didn't know that he was going to die soon or if he was calm even though he knew.
It didn't make sense that there was someone staying here who didn't know Agong's condition.
If so, it meant that they either hadn't told him or that he was living with a death sentence. But Sorin and Miss Mu had no intention of getting deeply involved in Agong's situation.
In the first place, Agong's presence here was Hongjun's intention.
It was not at all desirable for them to get involved in Hongjun's intentions.
Sorin was more interested in the fishing line than the fishing rod.
It was truly an unbelievable strength and elasticity.
His axe was made of a material that could be called the metal of the gods, and it was a supreme weapon that had even been blessed. The existence of a thread that could not be cut by such an axe was a fresh shock to him.
But to take the line from a child's fishing rod was not something that his pride would allow.
"Since Hongjun is not here and the master is not here, let's go back after the work is done."
Miss Mu stopped talking as she saw Agong cautiously approaching with the tea.
Agong served tea and refreshments to both Sorin and Miss Mu and then hovered around, fidgeting.
The fishing rod was already about half finished, and the places where Sorin's hands had touched were filled with incomprehensible patterns and pictures, giving it a geometric beauty.
He didn't know the meaning or significance, but even to Agong, he could tell that it was now turning into a work of art beyond a fishing rod.
"It's amazing, isn't it?"
Agong nodded silently.
Sorin was completing the fishing rod with a high degree of concentration.
Agong held his breath and watched the scene until the end.
In the hands of the craftsman, the fishing rod was gaining a new life.
Thwack!
With the last engraving, beads of sweat flowed down Sorin's forehead as he finished his work.
"Hmm?"
Sorin took the cloth handed to him and wiped his sweat.
In front of Sorin, Agong was looking at him with eyes of respect.
"Here, your fishing rod. It's finished."
Although it was still clumsy and might seem funny, Agong, who had seen Sorin's work, didn't mind. He carefully picked up his changed fishing rod.
"Wow!"
He didn't know what kind of magic he had performed, but he could feel as soon as he held it that it was on a different level from the previous fishing rod.
It was so light that he felt he could feel the weight of the fishing line, and just by holding it, he could feel the delicate swaying movement of the fishing rod, as if it were swaying in the wind.
He even felt a warm energy in the palm of his hand holding the fishing rod, which made his tired heart feel cozy.
"Do you like it?"
"I can't not like it. I made it."
To be precise, it meant that since he had made the fishing rod, there was no way he wouldn't like it. But in any case, it was just as he said.
If he said he didn't like it after receiving such a fishing rod, it would be nothing but a lie.
At this point, he felt even more ashamed of himself for having thrown a fit because his fishing rod was broken.
Agong, with a red face, bowed his head and thanked Miss Mu and Sorin.
"Thank you. I'll use it really well. I don't know if I'm worthy of using such a great thing, but..."
(End of Chapter)