Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 86

Weapon-Devouring Bastard – Episode 86

-What are you doing! What are you doing!

-It’s weird!

-Ugh! Don’t draw your sword! No swords!

In the aftermath of the anticlimactic battle, I replenished my mana and had a quick meal.

The problem was that these fairies were being so noisy and disruptive, chattering away and interfering with everything I did.

As soon as I sat down to replenish my mana, they tried to fly into my nostrils and mouth.

Even when I got angry, they didn’t seem fazed, giggling and flying away only to return again.

It was fortunate that the mana technique I created with my aunt was so stable; otherwise, I would have suffered from mana backlash.

“Why are you guys here?”

-I don’t know!

-I won’t tell you~♪

-Hehehe!

I stared at the fairies for a moment before grabbing Black Night, which I had placed beside me.

-Eek!

-He’s got a sword!

“I suddenly feel like swinging this around, so are you going to tell me nicely?”

The fairies, who had been emitting a white light, trembled.

-Scary human!

-We! Made a contract!

-It was so boring!

-For a thousand years!

-More than a thousand years!

As soon as I heard their story, my brow furrowed slightly.

A contract with the Fairy race, of all races.

Moreover, that contract had kept the Fairy race bound to this place for so long.

‘I thought the mystical races were supposed to live in harmony with nature. Besides, how did they even make a contract with creatures that can barely communicate?’

Born of nature and living in harmony with it, they were an incredibly free race.

That’s why the mystical races don’t make contracts easily.

A contract is a shackle, and it obscures their free nature.

I felt a strange sense of pity for the fairies who had been guarding this tomb for countless years because of that contract.

“It must have been tough. Staying here and guarding it all this time.”

-…….

Suddenly, the fairies stopped chattering.

Then, emitting a soft light, they flew around me.

-Thank you.

-Hehe! You’re nice as long as you don’t hold a sword!

-But is that really a sword?

The fairies began to whisper again.

I waited for their chatter to subside before asking.

“About that contract, who did you make it with?”

For a moment, the fairies paused, then flew away as if to tell a secret, whispering among themselves.

-Should we tell him?

-Shouldn’t we tell him?

-He’s the one with the black sword.

-That’s right, that’s right. And he has black hair and yellow eyes.

Since we were communicating through telepathy, it didn’t matter how far away they were.

And if they were going to move away, they should have gone further. Why did they only go as far as I could reach with my hand?

-You can’t tell anyone else!

One of the fairies gently tugged at my earlobe as she spoke.

I couldn’t understand why she was doing this when we were communicating through telepathy anyway.

-The one who made the contract! It was the person inside there! He promised us that if we protected this place, he would protect us too! We were hurting!

“Hurting? Protect you? From what?”

Suddenly, the fairies began to tremble.

-Scary, scary, scary things…….

-Things that don’t die…….

-If, if you didn’t have that black sword… we would have thought you were those people.

-W, we attacked you because of that.

The fairies moved away from me slightly.

I was puzzled by the fairies’ sudden fear of me.

-You have a strange smell. It’s not the smell of a human.

Why did the words of the Mountain God suddenly come to mind?

“Explain in detail.”

-I don’t know! It’s scary!

-Aaaaaah!

-Waaaaah!

They were filled with fear.

It didn’t seem like a conversation was possible.

It was already a miracle that we had talked this much, so I decided not to push my luck any further.

I turned my head and looked at the tomb.

“……In the end, I have no choice but to go in.”

I slowly got up and headed towards the entrance.

The dark entrance of the tomb was now lit by the light emanating from the fairies.

-Are you going in?

-I don’t think you should go in…….

-Lea.ve.

-No! You still have to go in!

For the first time, there was a conflict of opinion among the fairies.

-If you’re going to go in.

Then the group of fairies who wanted me to enter flew in front of me.

-You have to prove your blood.

-Only those who have been granted permission can enter this place.

-The seal is still strong.

-No one can break the seal.

-Only blood is the key.

I nodded at the fairy’s words.

‘They want me to smear blood on it?’

It was a method often used in the relics related to the ancestors of the Sungmoo Lee family.

I gently placed my hand on the entrance of the tomb.

Thump!

It looked like an ordinary wall, but I felt a strange resistance and my hand was pushed away.

‘There really is a seal.’

It was a seal that even blocked my Magic Eye. It would probably be impossible for me to break through it with force right now.

This makes me even more curious.

What on earth is inside this place?

A contract was made to use fairies as gatekeepers, the entrance is sealed, and there’s a stone tablet that acts as a map and key, and a door that only opens when mana is injected.

I made Mujin into a dagger and slightly cut the tip of my finger.

Then, I slowly smeared my blood on the wall.

I stepped back a little.

Whoosh!

Geometric lines stained with blood spread across the entrance of the tomb.

Thump! Rumble!

The wall blocking the entrance of the tomb seemed to melt away as if reacting to the blood.

And a brightly lit path appeared.

I once again reminded myself of the feel of Black Night at my waist and Mujin on my finger as I stepped into the path.

* * *

Valerie had been bored all day since Lee Cheol left in the early morning.

‘Ah~ I have so much to research, why am I like this.’

Lee Cheol had only been here for a few weeks at most, but those few weeks were so enjoyable that suddenly everything felt boring.

From interesting interpretation assignments to research on the Magic Eye and sparring.

It seemed that she had been spending a lot of static time studying magic and completing her unique magic, so these stimulating times had come to her after a long time.

“Ugh, today is a lost cause. I should order some chicken.”

Valerie put a cigarette in her mouth and picked up her phone.

Click.

And in an instant, she blinked at the sound she heard.

“What was that? Did I mishear? I thought it was the detector?”

Valerie had installed a detector in her workshop that detected magical anomalies in the Gyeongju area.

She had discovered Lee Cheol by using this detector to find the unique wavelength of the Magic Eye.

“Hmm…….”

Valerie headed to the detector.

A light of mana that she had never seen before flickered on the Gyeongju map.

‘Red? Is there an error?’

Red was the color that signified a gate [a portal to another dimension].

A gate could not be created in a place like Gyeongju, which had artificially achieved a magical and spiritual balance.

Click!

The moment she thought that, another light appeared.

That wasn’t the end of it.

One, then another.

Tap!

The cigarette in her mouth fell to the ground.

Valerie was shocked.

Five in total.

Five gates had opened in downtown Gyeongju.

‘Could it be because of that kid?’

Valerie urgently injected as much mana as possible into the detector to increase its precision.

No.

Rather, the mana of the mountain was the same as before.

It wasn’t an incident caused by Lee Cheol.

‘That’s a relief. No, it’s not a relief. I have to hurry.’

Valerie quickly grabbed the fallen mouthpiece, equipped herself with combat artifacts and weapons, and ran out of the workshop.

Even though the number of civilians in Gyeongju was small, there was no telling what would happen if five gates opened at the same time.

Noblesse oblige [the inferred responsibility of privileged people to act with generosity and nobility].

Responsibility comes with power, and Valerie intended to fulfill that responsibility.

콰아앙!

No sooner had she left the workshop than an explosion rang out from somewhere.

She bit her lip and flew away with magic without looking back.

Meanwhile.

In the research lab inside the workshop she had left, another strange light flashed on the detector.

Click!

The light suddenly appeared at the entrance of Mount Toham, where Lee Cheol was.

Beep beep beep!

And the light, which was clearly one, multiplied into dozens in an instant as if it were proliferating.

The lights stood still at the entrance of the mountain, simply clustered together.

Then, in an instant, the light began to move.

A speed that no human could possibly achieve.

From the entrance to the middle of the mountain, along the middle to an unknown place.

The direction the group of lights was heading was none other than the entrance to the tomb where Lee Cheol had entered.

* * *

What appeared after passing through the entrance was a wide room.

The light came from processed magic stones embedded in the recessed walls of the room.

I turned my head and looked around the room.

There was a piece of furniture that looked like a bookshelf on one wall.

On top of the furniture was a scroll of bamboo.

Black Night Record.

I found it.

Black Night Record.

The reason I came to find this tomb.

Even though my eldest brother was not chosen by Black Night, he was able to obtain related information thanks to this.

‘According to the memories I saw with Black Ki, the founder tried to hide Black Night. But my eldest brother discovered the records here. There must be secrets written here that I can’t know just by looking at Black Night’s memories.’

It must be an important record, but I put down the scroll and turned around.

‘Even if I read it, I won’t look at it now.’

The place where I am standing now was not a tomb chamber.

It was just a warehouse where the deceased’s desired items were placed, or a passage to the tomb chamber.

The wall opposite the direction I came from.

There was another arched entrance there, just like when I first entered this room.

Woo-oong!

As I approached the entrance, the wind escaped, making a sound like the wail of a ghost.

The light from the room I was standing in did not reach the other room.

Although there was only one entrance between them, I felt that this side and that side were as far apart as the boundary between the living world and the afterlife.

“…….”

I could tell instinctively.

There is something in that space beyond this entrance, shrouded in darkness.

Thump, thump!

My heart was beating fast.

And the meaning of that accelerated heartbeat was by no means due to fear or tension.

Joy, pleasure, happiness.

A feeling as if I had met something I had been waiting for.

‘Black Ki……!’

It was not my emotion, but the emotion of Black Ki sleeping in my heart.

Before I knew it, I was reaching out my foot.

Stepping from the world of light into a space full of darkness.