Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 26

Weapon-Devouring Illegitimate Son – Episode 26

Just as I knew the futures of the other class cadets, I also know the futures of the Class 5 cadets.

‘Just because they’re called the junkyard doesn’t mean they’re really trash.’

These guys weren’t untalented. The very fact that they were able to enter the Cadet Corps meant they weren’t ordinary.

It’s just that they hadn’t received support, or they didn’t have power… They were guys who had been repeatedly frustrated and broken before the wall of reality too early.

‘They’re no different from me.’

Guys who have no choice but to work hard because they have nothing, guys who have to work harder than others.

That’s why they had no choice but to compromise with reality.

What they need now isn’t a warm word or motivation.

It was a whip to make them move instead of wallowing in that ambiguous sense of frustration.

That’s why I’m saying this.

“I will cut you down.”

That word, to cut down.

I said it with sincerity.

Words filled with heart contain power, and the cadets felt it.

‘…He’s serious.’

The cadets felt a sensation as if the air was sharpening and cutting into their lungs.

“You, come up.”

I pointed to the cadet closest to me.

“……Why should I listen to you?”

The cadet said with a rebellious expression.

“Then run away. Like you’ve always done, tuck your tail between your legs.”

“Just because you’re a direct descendant doesn’t mean you can say such insulting things.”

“How elegantly you put your fear into words.”

“Ha, haha…! Yes, fine!”

The guy jumped onto the sparring stage in a single bound.

“Haaap!”

Before the start of the sparring was even announced, the cadet swung his spear in a surprise attack.

An attack that couldn’t be seen as fair and square. Moreover, it was a strike that was hard to call outstanding.

But at that sight, I smiled instead.

“You’re a little useful.”

I didn’t dodge the strike that was swung with all his might and stepped forward.

“……!”

The cadet, who had expected me to at least dodge or block it, was horrified.

Clang!

At the same time as stepping forward, I struck the spearhead with the sword’s blade.

I jumped over the swaying spear shaft and swung my sword at the cadet as is.

“Heok!”

The cadet hurriedly leaned back to avoid the sword.

“Damn it!”

The cadet, with a frustrated expression, properly positioned himself and began to swing his spear.

A rapid series of attacks.

He tried to prevent me from approaching by using the difference in weapon length.

I deflected the spear shaft with the sword’s blade and simultaneously charged into the cadet’s arms.

Crack!

The guy’s jaw twisted from the swung fist.

“Ugh, ugh…!”

With that attack, the cadet’s eyes glazed over and he collapsed. He planted the spear shaft on the ground to stand up again, but he continued to sink to the ground as if slipping.

It seemed like this cadet was done here.

“Next.”

I lowered my sword and looked down at the sparring stage.

The cadets’ expressions were dyed with shock.

* * *

The sparring continued.

Even for me, facing boys older than me in a gauntlet match was extremely exhausting.

If I had used mana [magical energy], it would have been different, but I was facing them with only my still immature body without using a single ounce of mana.

“Keuak!”

Another cadet was defeated.

“Hoo, hoo… Next.”

I swept back my hair, which was drenched with sweat, and looked at Choi Inha.

“……Are you really going to continue? You’ll get injured if you go on any further.”

Choi Inha’s expression was stiff.

The atmosphere among the cadets was quite different from before. Except for a few cadets who were carried to the infirmary, everyone had a tense expression.

“I told you. Next.”

Choi Inha gritted his teeth.

“Then next is……”

Clang!

Once again, the sound of weapons echoed over the sparring grounds.

It was up to the 8th cadet that they were overwhelmed.

The cadets were taking longer and longer to face me as we passed the 10th.

The only time I could catch my breath was in the short moment when the next sparring partner came up.

No matter how thoroughly I trained, there was a limit to the stamina of my still incomplete body, and because of that, I was sometimes hit by attacks.

Thwack!

The attack from a cadet using a blunt weapon struck my jaw cleanly.

Momentarily staggering, my knees buckled.

“D, did it get through?”

The cadet who swung the attack was even more surprised.

He didn’t miss the opportunity and rushed towards me as I fell.

Flash!

But at that moment, I suddenly straightened my bent knee and tackled him.

“Uh, ugh!”

We tumbled awkwardly, but in the end, I got on top of him and pointed my sword at his neck.

“……I, I lost.”

“Hoo, ugh!”

Sway-

My vision spun as I stood up.

I supported myself with the sword as a cane, slowly stood up, and said.

“Next.”

Shivers-

The moment Choi Inha saw the eyes hidden behind the drooping bangs, he felt a chill run down his spine.

He was clearly having a hard time standing because his jaw had been hit, but Lee Cheol’s eyes held a fire like a volcano.

‘This is just the Cadet Corps. It’s just sparring.’

Choi Inha’s eyes trembled greatly.

“Choi Inha. Quickly call the next cadet.”

Even though he was battered and panting, he still didn’t lose his dignity and said that.

Choi Inha drew his sword.

“……This is the last one.”

“Is that so?”

Even though he was pushed to his limit, Lee Cheol smiled.

“Come up. Choi Inha.”

* * *

Choi Inha climbed onto the training field with a stiff expression, lowering his sword.

Before the start of the sparring could be announced, the swords clashed.

Clang!

The cadets held their breath and watched the sparring.

Lee Cheol’s movements were more clumsy and his actions were larger compared to the beginning of the sparring.

It was originally an unpredictable swordsmanship, but it was increasingly relying on trickery and improvisation.

Change, and more change.

He would use his hands and feet while swinging his sword, or stick close and try to take it to the ground with a clinch.

There was only one reason for doing that.

‘He doesn’t even have the leeway to launch a proper attack!’

Choi Inha gritted his teeth.

The sparring time was over an hour and 20 minutes, and the total rest time was less than 5 minutes.

“Why…… Why are you going so far?”

Whoong! Bang!

Lee Cheol didn’t answer the question and rushed in again.

The sparring was one-sided.

Lee Cheol barely blocked, and Choi Inha pushed forward.

However, Choi Inha’s attacks never produced meaningful results, and Lee Cheol succeeded in attacking through faint gaps.

‘Why is he going so far? What is he trying to get? In this trivial sparring match with no reward or anything?’

Lee Cheol is swinging his sword in a state where you can’t find the dignity or grace of a direct descendant, even though he is an illegitimate son.

As if this training field was a bottomless cliff.

As if his life was on the line.

“Keuk!”

Whooong! Whoosh!

No matter how you looked at it, it was right for him to win.

But the one who succeeds in attacking is Lee Cheol.

What is the difference between me and that illegitimate son that makes it like this?

I couldn’t understand.

‘No…… Actually, I know.’

The difference between me and Lee Cheol.

Fighting spirit.

Choi Inha gritted his teeth.

The reason why he felt unpleasant looking at that illegitimate son.

It was because that illegitimate son had something he had tried so hard to forget.

‘I…… was like that too.’

He recalled his two years of being held back.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t surpass the talented children of prestigious families.

He would have hated them if they had bad personalities or dirty behavior, but they, who had been thoroughly educated since childhood, were not inferior in personality, talent, or effort.

Since he had to live in this family in the end, he changed the way he lived.

He didn’t think that living by achieving something was a happy life.

Rather, he thought that doing a moderate amount of work and compromising moderately was another way of life.

He thought that it was rather realizing reality and growing into an adult.

‘I knew it. That it was just running away. That I was just rationalizing it as growing up.’

Swish! Kwang!

Sword and sword collide.

Choi Inha looked at Lee Cheol.

Was he that fierce?

Did he want to win that badly?

Whether it was a surprise attack or a trick, whether it was a dirty or dirty method…… Did he try to win that badly?

Flare-

A flame flickered in the ashes that had been left to burn out on one side of his chest.

‘I don’t know. I don’t know. But…….’

He could tell one thing he wanted to do now.

He wants to beat that impudent illegitimate son to death!

But.

Whoong! Wooddeuk-!

At that moment, Lee Cheol’s sword flew from a blind spot and broke his fingers.

“Kueueueueuk!”

He lost.

The terrible pain resonated throughout his body.

He had no choice but to drop his sword and sit down.

And Lee Cheol’s voice, as if declaring, was heard.

“I won.”

* * *

I looked at Choi Inha, whose two fingers on the hand holding the sword were deformed.

Then, I took a difficult breath and said towards the bottom of the sparring stage.

“Hoo…… Take that guy to the infirmary.”

“It’s not over yet!”

At that moment, an angry shout was heard from behind.

“Ugh!”

Whoong! Kwang!

I barely blocked the sword that Choi Inha, who had suddenly rushed in, swung.

‘A left-handed sword?’

He was holding the sword with his left hand, letting his right hand with the broken fingers hang down.

The eyes that had been clearly lifeless were now burning fiercely.

Choi Inha changed even the hand holding the sword as if he couldn’t accept it and rushed in.

“No, it’s over.”

But a match was a match.

No matter how tired I was, I wasn’t going to be hit by an attack swung with the other hand, not the hand he originally used.

Hwaak! Kwang!

I dug into the gap in the attack and struck his jaw, and struck the right side of his abdomen with the flat of the sword.

Choi Inha staggered and collapsed.

“Just lie down.”

It was an attack that landed squarely. An attack on the jaw shakes the brain, and the right side of the abdomen hits the liver.

Writhe-

But Choi Inha kept trying to get up.

When he couldn’t get his balance, he stood up while staggering like a drunkard, using his sword like a cane, just like I did.

“It’s…… not over yet…….”

“Ha.”

I almost laughed without realizing it.

Choi Inha’s eyes, visible through his drooping hair.

That was the light I was so eager to find in Class 5.

“Kuaaaak!”

Choi Inha kicked off the ground and swung his sword.

I didn’t dodge.

Choi Inha, who had already lost his balance, swung his sword at a spot an inch away from me and collapsed.

Choi Inha twitched for a moment and then slumped down.

‘He fainted.’

My legs staggered, but I struggled to regain my balance and looked down at the cadets from the sparring stage.

And I grabbed the sword that was already chipped and bent.

“I lived 1 second like 1 hour, and 1 hour like 1 year.”

Every moment of breathing was a series of fierce struggles.

There were so many people in this world who were better than me, and there were so many things I couldn’t do anything about.

“Who doesn’t know that it’s easier to compromise moderately and live? But if you don’t fight with your life on the line every moment, you’ll end up losing everything and rolling in a field of filth. So I fought even in the moment of breathing. With myself, and with everything around me.”

I know better than anyone else in this world the bitterness of a loser and the miserable end that comes at the end.

That’s why I couldn’t give up.

“Have you ever lived like that?”

I pointed the sword at the cadets.

A training sword that has been dirtied and bent.

“This is what you call struggle.”

And in the end, I won with that battered sword, and I will continue to win in the future.

“You guys who are playing mediocre house [living a comfortable, unambitious life]……”

Thump, thud-!

I threw the sword in front of the standing cadets.

The battered sword fell in front of them with a dull sound.

“You’ll just get eaten up quickly in this monstrous place.”

* * *

In the place where all the cadets had left, I leaned against the sparring stage and caught my breath.

‘I overdid it a bit.’

As soon as the sparring was over, I used mana to recover my body, but my condition didn’t return because I had overworked myself quite a bit.

Even after the cadets dispersed with the fainted Choi Inha, I sat on the sparring stage for a while.

‘They’re better guys than I thought.’

At first, I was angry.

I almost regretted coming to Class 5.

But they weren’t guys who had crossed to a place where they couldn’t come back at all.

“You’ve gone too far.”

Then I heard a voice.

From afar, the instructor, Lee Jeongho, was walking with a stiff expression.

“Were you watching everything?”

“Yes, no matter how much I thought about it, I was worried, so I turned back.”

I’m glad you didn’t stop me.

That’s what I thought. I would have continued anyway, even if you had stopped me.

“There are four with fractures and three with organ damage. Those kids weren’t born with blessed bodies like you, young master.”

“If you want to survive in Soongmoo [a prestigious martial arts academy], you have to be able to laugh off that much injury.”

Lee Jeongho stood still and stared at me intently.

“Those kids all have their own stories. Inha was a tremendous hard worker even though he came from the Seungmu Hope Center [a training facility for aspiring martial artists]. Youngha is from a branch family on the verge of collapse……”

“Instructor Lee Jeongho.”

I cut him off.

“Do I have to explain to someone who has become an instructor the fact that even the cadets have already understood?”

“…….”

Lee Jeongho’s two eyes trembled.

“It’s good that you became an instructor at a young age and that you’re passionate, and it’s good that you’re attached to the kids. People like you are rare in Soongmoo, so you can be said to be a valuable resource. You are a good person.”

But.

If Class 5 was so twisted, Lee Jeongho should have stepped up as the villain to fix it.

“Do your job properly. These kids are cadets of Soongmoo, not cadets from some mediocre place.”

I’ve rested enough already.

I slowly got up from my seat and headed to my room.

Lee Jeongho held his breath and stared at the back of the youngest illegitimate son for a while, recalling what had happened a few days ago.

‘What Jang Wook said was true.’

-Jeongho. If you become an instructor at the Cadet Corps, you’ll probably run into the youngest young master. Be careful of him. I saw the head of the family in him.

Jang Wook of the Bloodhound Unit. He, who briefly served as the instructor for this class’s naming ceremony collective training, warned Lee Jeongho like that.

‘Does he mean to do my job properly…….’

Lee Jeongho looked at his palm with trembling eyes, then clenched his fist tightly.