Behind the heroes who saved the world, there they were. <Street of Artisans>

Today, I'd like to introduce a fantasy webtoon

currently serialized on Naver Webtoon.

Fantasy webtoons inspired by hero myths usually deal with

the adventures of heroes fighting against evil, and the

friendship, human connections, frustration, and growth...

that bloom within.

The work I am introducing today, <Street of Artisans>,

features a blacksmith who supported and aided those heroes

as the main character.

The story of blacksmiths never told in the heroes' fairy tales.

Let's begin the review.

The blood-stained blacksmith village, 'Vulcania.'

Collapsing under the Demon King's army's invasion,

the village was barely holding on, forsaken even by the Empire.

The condition the Demon King's army gave to those abandoned by their country

was to forge weapons for them.

But even if abandoned by their nation,

one cannot simply cast away their own pride.

They all prepared themselves for death.

Young 'Yuta' clings to her father's sleeve in fear.

Tenderly stroking his young daughter's head, her father

hopes that Yuta will survive and carry on the village's tradition.

"Yuta, hide well in here."

"The smelting techniques passed down for generations are our tradition and our heart.

 Believe in the greatness of our craft. It must never be severed."

"So you, at least, must survive.

 Only then can we step forward without any regrets."

He awakens in Yuta the pride of forging

the claws of adventurers who protect the world.

And he tells her to survive no matter what, even in this despairing,

agonizing reality.

The adults, having instilled pride and the village's will in her,

step outside the gates for their final battle against the Demon King's army.

Blacksmiths, each holding the weapons their hands know best.

The Demon King's army facing them reads

the unwavering resolve in their eyes.

"So you have chosen to die."

Choosing to break rather than bend, the blacksmiths

refuse to surrender and clash against the Demon King's army.

-We are the magicians who covet the realm of iron

 with human hands.

 The eternal companions of the hammer, tongs, and furnace!

 Our name is Blacksmith!-

Standing atop the castle walls, Yuta watches the final moments

of her father and the adults being ruthlessly swept away.

In the middle of the battlefield, turned into ruins with piles of corpses,

Yuta searches for familiar faces.

Among them was her father's head, rolling on the ground.

Then, a Corps Commander of the Demon King's army, who had been hiding

to capture any potential survivors, discovers Yuta.

"Pitiful. All the shields meant to protect you have shattered."

Dragged away by the Corps Commander, who roughly

grabbed her head, Yuta's eye is injured by his sharp fingertips.

"Rejoice. You have survived.

 Even as a child, you are an artisan with the blood of Vulcania.

 Work for the Demon King's army for the rest of your life."

"You are now the Demon King's blacksmith."

10 years later.

'Hogel,' the slave smithy at the coastal pier of the Demon King's territory.

Yuta, dragged here alone after her village was massacred,

has been living as a slave,

forging weapons for the Demon King's legion.

She constantly doubts if she is truly a blacksmith,

mechanically churning out weapons like a factory without any change in her daily life.

Just then, the Corps Commander visits her, emitting an eerie aura,

and drops the corpse of a monster, his loyal servant,

who died in battle against a hero.

The reason she cannot call herself a blacksmith.

It is because the material for the weapons made here is not iron,

but monsters.

Dismembering the corpses of monsters killed in battle

to create the weapons the Demon King's army desires,

she thinks of herself as nothing more than a disposable tool.

A life prolonged by offering weapons to her enemies,

using the techniques of her village.

She questions her own miserable existence time and again.

'Was surviving really the right thing to do...?'

'Should I have just died back then...'

And yet, the thought she cannot shake from her mind every day

is wanting to know what a true blacksmith is, as her father

and the villagers spoke of, and why they chose to resist

instead of surrendering back then.

Just once.

If she could go outside just once,

perhaps she might get a chance to understand

the pride her father taught her.

Suddenly, with a deafening roar, the thick ceiling of the smithy

collapses, and a human falls through.

Appearing before Yuta, who longs for the outside world,

the mysterious girl introduces herself as a 'Hero.'

Meanwhile, complaints from other Corps Commanders

are reported to the commander who visited Yuta.

They harbored strong dissatisfaction about a human slave

making weapons out of their comrades' corpses.

However, there was a truth they did not know.

That Yuta's skill lay not in her smelting ability,

but in her 'bloodline' itself.

An 'eye' that discerns and avoids

the dangers and characteristics of the materials beforehand.

The Corps Commander who brought Yuta knew of this ability,

which only the direct descendants of 'Vulcania' possess.

He dismisses the others' complaints with a single remark.

"Since a precious bloodline is here,

 do not overstep your bounds and just bring the corpses."

At the same time.

Yuta gets excited after discovering a sword made of real iron

worn at the hero's waist.

Examining the hero's weapon from every angle and endlessly

pouring out her curiosities, the hero roughly

answers with what she knows.

And from the hero's answers, Yuta hears about a place

called the 'Street of Artisans.'

The hero finds it strange that Yuta, despite being a blacksmith,

is so fascinated by an iron weapon.

She then learns that Yuta was captured here as a child and has been

crafting weapons using monsters as materials ever since.

Hearing Yuta's words, the hero speaks without hesitation.

"I'll take you out of here, to the Street of Artisans!"

Sensing something amiss, the Corps Commander comes to the smithy,

and Yuta watches the hero's battle against the Demon King's army

from up close.

'Street of Artisans.'

Reflecting on the place the hero promised to take her,

Yuta recalls the forgotten pride of a blacksmith,

and the reason she wanted to survive to the very end.

And at the end of the battle, she breaks the shackles of her confinement herself.

The first step of Yuta, who would later be known as the 'Monster Weapon' maker,

leaving the Demon King's territory, begins now.

Check out <Street of Artisans> on Naver Webtoon!