Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 12

Weapon-Eating Bastard – Episode 12

A woman was walking across the floor of the direct line’s training ground.

Her hair was neatly tied up, her skin fair, with a high nose, long eyelashes, and a beauty that defied guessing her age.

However, the emotionless gaze beneath her eyebrows gave a chilling impression.

Her name was Baek Hwa-yeon.

Once, she was a warrior praised with the epithet ‘Ice Sword,’ and now, she was a woman respected as the mistress of the Great Sungmu House.

“Madam. Have you arrived?”

The eighth child’s nanny carefully bowed her head and approached her.

“Leave the room. I have something to discuss with my daughter.”

At Baek Hwa-yeon’s gesture, her attendants and the nanny waited at the entrance of the training ground.

Baek Hwa-yeon strode to the center of the training ground.

“Hoo, hoo.”

There, her youngest daughter was sweating profusely, swinging her sword.

After watching for a while, her daughter seemed to finally notice her and flinched.

“Oh, Mother?”

“What are you doing?”

“I am greeting Mother.”

“I asked what you are doing.”

“Hoo, I was training.”

“What about the swordsmanship instructor?”

“After the lesson, I had something to review on my own…”

Baek Hwa-yeon stared at her daughter silently.

She hadn’t avoided training, but she wasn’t a child who put her heart and soul into it.

But suddenly, today, she was out here swinging her sword until this late hour when dusk was settling.

The only thing she could think was that her daughter was trying to show her that she was doing something so she wouldn’t get scolded.

That sight only made her feel pathetic.

“I heard the story. You were overpowered, I hear?”

“……!”

Hwa’s eyes trembled.

“I told you. If you can’t handle it, break it off.”

It wasn’t an angry or irritated tone, but a flat one.

As if she had no emotions, Baek Hwa-yeon looked at her daughter with cold eyes.

Seeing her so nervous and unable to say anything, her eyes grew even colder.

She knew that her child was tenderhearted.

That might be an advantage in other places, but this was the Sungmu House.

A family built with iron and blood. And her youngest daughter was the direct heir of that family. Such a half-hearted attitude was worse than nothing.

‘It would have been better if she had talked back or resisted.’

Seeing her clenching her fists with her head bowed, she felt like sighing.

“I’m disappointed. If you’re training because you don’t want to be scolded, then stop. I have no intention of scolding you anymore.”

At those words, Hwa, who had been dropping her head, muttered in a suppressed voice.

“……I’ll take care of it myself.”

Pause.

“What did you say?”

Hwa’s body was still full of tension, but her eyes were shining brightly.

“I know what you think when you see me training, but I’m doing it because I want to.”

Baek Hwa-yeon’s brow slowly furrowed.

“I, I’m going to defeat that guy properly. But that’s not because he’s a bastard, or because Mother told me to, but because I want to. So, I’ll take care of it myself.”

Baek Hwa-yeon stared intently at Hwa.

She could feel a kind of stubbornness.

It was still far from enough, but at least it was better than the pathetic look in her eyes until now.

“If you want to prove that you’re not worse than a bastard, you’ll have to work hard. It’s only natural. You’re not doing that natural thing.”

Hwa flinched at Baek Hwa-yeon’s sharp words.

But she didn’t stop opening her mouth.

“That’s not important. I won’t care about the family anymore. The reason I’m trying to get stronger is because of him… no, because I want to.”

Baek Hwa-yeon’s expression turned even colder.

“You’re being stimulated by such a rootless thing?”

“Th, that’s…”

She wished she could say it confidently, but Hwa couldn’t bring herself to tell the truth because of her mother’s expression.

“You are the direct heir of the Sungmu House. You and that guy are different from the start. Compared to the countless things you were born with, that guy is just a lucky bastard with a few talents. It’s only natural to win against him, but you’re being stimulated by him.”

Baek Hwa-yeon’s expression, which had been cold, now showed even anger.

Baek Hwa-yeon looked down at Hwa and took out a small glass bottle from her bosom.

“Take it.”

“Yes? What is this?”

Suddenly, Hwa felt an ominous feeling.

Carefully taking the glass bottle, Hwa looked at Baek Hwa-yeon with trembling eyes.

And slowly, Baek Hwa-yeon revealed the identity of the liquid.

“Its name is Mimaong (迷夢) [a potent poison that slowly causes disabilities].”

Baek Hwa-yeon continued, looking at the colorless and transparent liquid shaking in Hwa’s hand.

“It is a potent poison.”

For a moment, Hwa doubted her ears.

“It is a treasure of the few aerial fortresses in the world, and the conditions for use are strict. It is only effective for children under the age of 15, and it volatilizes if exposed to air for more than 5 minutes.”

“M, Mother.”

Hwa trembled, holding the glass bottle.

No matter how her daughter reacted, Baek Hwa-yeon continued without hesitation.

“And the child who comes into contact with Mimaong will have permanent damage to their mana circuit. It seeps into the body and slowly causes disabilities over a long period of time, leaving no trace.”

“Mother. Wh, why are you giving this to me?”

Baek Hwa-yeon left her last words, unconcerned with Hwa’s state of confusion.

“If you can’t overcome it, trample it. That’s the way of the Sungmu House.”

With those words, Baek Hwa-yeon turned her body.

Hwa stared blankly at her mother’s back with a dazed expression.

* * *

The stages of mana arts are as follows.

The first stage is to harbor mana within the body and use it to strengthen the body, which is called the realm of Strengthening.

The second stage is to change the properties of mana and use it in various ways, which is called the realm of Qi Control.

And the third stage was the stage of exerting various superhuman abilities through mana.

Running on water, enhancing weapons, or concealing oneself.

This was called the realm of Qi Manifestation.

It was generally known that those with talent entered the second stage around the age of fifteen, and those without talent entered the second stage before becoming adults.

“…That’s what I know.”

“Our family has so many weird people that they do it so early. I did it when I was 12. So, there’s nothing special about it. Let’s do it right away!”

I chuckled, watching my aunt say things that ignored social norms as if it were nothing.

“Aunt. I don’t know if you don’t know because my growth is a little fast, but I’m only 10 years old.”

“Do you think I don’t know that? You are strange.”

Rather, I became a strange guy.

“That’s not it, I’m saying I’m only 10 years old. I haven’t even reached the first stage for long, but you’re already talking about the next stage.”

“You’re a genius. Of course, you can do it.”

Genius. I’m just a little more mature than others due to the influence of regression, and I’ve learned mana a little faster.

“And the 2-Star of the mana art I created is not the same as the 2nd stage of the world.”

“Ah, I see. Then the 1st stage…”

“Rather, between the 2nd and 3rd stages? I think it’ll be around that?”

“…….”

“It’s like learning fluid mechanics while learning calculus. There’s not much difference.”

I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Now I’m beyond embarrassment and even worried.

The 3rd stage is not a great stage, but it is still a stage that requires many years of effort.

It was a level that far exceeded the stage.

“From the beginning, the 1-Star you achieved. Does that really seem similar to the usual 1st stage?”

“I know that.”

This new mana art that I’m learning with my aunt, which I haven’t even named properly, starts with controlling mana.

Of course, there is a bit of a problem to call it the same level as other 1st stages.

“What do you think you are best at?”

My aunt suddenly asked me that.

What I’m good at.

Maybe it’s a sword.

In my previous life, I had held many weapons, but the easiest to carry and the longest to handle was the sword.

I confidently answered that it was a sword.

“I don’t think so. I don’t think you have that much talent for swords.”

I was momentarily taken aback by my aunt’s words.

“Aunt, you haven’t seen me training in swordsmanship, have you?”

“I’ve seen it a few times? I watched you train when I was bored…”

My aunt and I were closer to a cooperative relationship than a master-disciple relationship.

My aunt’s purpose was to complete the mana art she had established through me.

Therefore, my aunt didn’t really touch me except for mana arts.

“So, what I mean is, it’s not that you don’t have talent, but you’re great, so I can’t speak well… yeah! Swordsmanship is not as good as other talents.”

“But why did you suddenly ask me that?”

“Your greatest talent is mana arts.”

“……Yes?”

“Your talent for mana arts is amazing. So much so that everything else loses its light.”

My aunt’s eyes seemed to be shining.

“I’ve never seen anyone like you. I’ve had other people try the mana art I created, but no one could do it.”

My aunt stroked my head and said.

I felt dazed.

Perhaps because of the influence of my previous life, or because I had never been taught by anyone else, I had never thought that I was so good at handling mana.

“The mana art I created can basically do more than mana arts of the same stage, and it exerts a little more ability than people who have learned mana arts of the same stage. Because we can do more through the mana circuit. That’s why I deliberately divided it into stages.”

I understood my aunt’s words.

In the case of ordinary mana arts, the only things that can be done in the 1st stage are mana accumulation and body strengthening.

But I was already doing mana control corresponding to the 2nd stage.

As my aunt said, my mana art was 1-Star, not 1st stage.

“What we are learning is an unprecedented new technology. Think differently from the world’s realm or standards. Then I’ll teach you the right technology from now on, so focus!”

“Yes, I understand.”

I nodded.

Short grumbling ends here.

I concentrated so as not to forget a single word my aunt said.

“From 2-Star, you have to learn proper techniques such as Amplification and Concealment. Then shall we start with what we restored?”

“Are you talking about Amplification?”

A fragment of mana art that my aunt couldn’t reproduce.

It was a technique created by my aunt interpreting a part of the mana art that I had read in Mujin.

“You already know how to do that, don’t you.”

“You can’t just do that. Don’t just handle it in your body like you did then, but spew it out. I’m telling you to release mana.”

“Mana release is a skill that is possible from the 3rd stage, is it possible?”

“The reason why it is possible in the 3rd stage is because it is so difficult to control when mana is brought out. We can control it much more precisely because we use the mana circuit. Try it once. That’s the realm of 2-Star.”

“Yes.”

I nodded briefly, closed my eyes, and focused on my body.

The mana is vibrated from the mana source that stores mana.

The mana circuit maintains the vibration and slowly rotates it in the body.

‘Passing through the arms, shoulders, heart, and dantian [energy center in the body].’

The mana circuit has different uses for each specific part.

Every time my mana brushed against the mana circuit, the vibration of the mana began to intensify.

At the same time, mana like gas flowed out of my body.

“It probably won’t work well at first. It took me a month to not let it flow out.”

Cold sweat flowed. I focused a little more.

Then, the mana that had been leaking out of my body suddenly began to gather on my palm with a certain directionality.

And at that moment.

Bang-!

The mana that was being formed burst with a sound like a leather drum tearing.

The gust of wind created by the mana pushing out the atmosphere fluttered my and my aunt’s training clothes.

“Cr, crazy.”

My aunt swore in front of me for the first time.

‘Easier than I thought?’

It was virtually the first release I had ever done because I had never tried to release mana to the outside.

It’s a little difficult because I don’t have the knack yet, but it seems easy if I just get the feel for it.

“You, how can you do that all at once!”

“Is there any problem?”

I was startled.

This is because mana arts can cause internal injuries if you make a mistake.

“No, there’s no problem. The problem is that you did too well!”

My aunt raised her arms and cheered.

“From now on, you have to use mana arts while moving. Mana arts that are handled in a static state are ultimately dead mana arts. Are you ready?”

That’s what I wanted. In fact, the training with my aunt was static, so I was restless.

“Okay, shall we start?”

My aunt said that and then tapped the huge wooden barrel next to her.

“Come to think of it, what is that?”

“Huh? Iron beads.”

I had an ominous feeling.

“Why did you bring that?”

“Huh? Of course, I brought it to throw! Operate mana while avoiding this! I’ll start right away!”

There was no time to prepare.

My aunt started throwing iron beads at a furious speed at me, who couldn’t even get up from my seat.

* * *

Time passed quickly like an arrow.

Training with my aunt, group training, and even personal training.

It was a fulfilling time to the point where I couldn’t even recognize the passage of time.

Still, because I was at an age where I was still growing, I thoroughly kept rest and sleep.

I also deliberately increased the amount of food.

About two months before the naming ceremony, the regular course of all group training ended.

The instructors who participated in the group training began to not participate in the training from that day.

And from that day on, Lee Joong-gwan, who had only been giving minor instructions, stood in front of us.

He, the head of the Bloodhowl Squad, one of the pillars of the Deathgod Squad, the main warrior unit of the Sungmu House, began to guide us directly.

“From now on, I will guide the visions of the Sungmu House.”

Lee Joong-gwan, with a stern expression, said that in front of Hwa and me.