Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 219

Weapon-Devouring Bastard – Episode 219

Everything happened so fast.

On the very day Kim Junseo entrusted the data to Lee Gyeonghwa, she received a visit from the Spirit Sword Unit.

“W-What’s going on?”

“Young miss, we will be searching the residence. Please cooperate.”

“What is going on?!”

“We are investigating the charges of treason and collusion against 5th-rank Political Officer Kim Junseo.”

The Spirit Sword Unit turned her residence upside down.

However, she had already hidden the USB containing the data in an undetectable location.

Naturally, no data was found, and time just passed.

And some time later, the ‘surveillance’ disguised as protection by the Spirit Sword Unit and the Dark Sword Unit, which controlled every move of all personnel, including minor phone calls, exchanged letters, and comings and goings of employees, was lifted.

It was immediately after the news of her husband, Kim Junseo’s, death was delivered.

Kim Junseo died far from home, without receiving any help from the family.

It seemed there was also a copy of the data disguised as the original.

Except for one or two members of the Spirit Sword Unit, everyone watching her disappeared.

Lee Gyeonghwa continued to hide inside the residence, not trying to go outside.

Everything was unfamiliar, and everything was confusing.

It was several days later that she stepped outside.

It was the day the death penalty was decided for the second son of the Sungmu Lee Family, Lee Jangyeong.

* * *

It was early spring weather.

The sky was gloomy as if gray ink had been poured out, and only sticky humidity lingered in the air that should have been filled with the scent of flowers.

Under the cloudy sky of the Central Training Ground, Lee Jangyeong was sitting, kneeling.

He, who was even called the brain of the Sungmu Lee Family, had his entire magical power sealed, and his body even bore traces of torture.

Only a small number of people were present around him.

High-ranking elders of the Council of Elders, direct descendants, and heads of powerful vassal and branch families.

Everyone gathered in the place… held their breath and looked down at the center.

“If you repent of your sins even now and pledge allegiance to the family, I will spare you.”

In front of Lee Jangyeong stood Lee Cheongmu, the head of the Sungmu Lee Family, with cold eyes.

‘Brother…!’

Lee Gyeonghwa couldn’t even speak properly due to the shock.

No, she didn’t know what to say or what she could do here.

“Allegiance to the family… I have always been loyal.”

Sreureung.

Lee Cheongmu stepped forward and placed his sword on Lee Jangyeong’s neck.

“You must be careful with your words. This place is the turning point of your life and death.”

It was the Council of Elders leader.

He stood next to Lee Cheongmu and looked down at Lee Jangyeong.

“You have already destroyed my magical power system, yet you speak of life and death.”

Seogeok.

The sword was pressed against Lee Jangyeong’s Adam’s apple.

Lee Gyeonghwa covered her mouth, seeing the blood vessels flowing down his throat.

“Losing your magical power was the price for your licentiousness. However, your brain will surely be helpful to the family’s future, so if you bow your head now, I will spare your life.”

Lee Jangyeong looked up at his father.

A man who harbored a twisted dream.

A pitiful father who stepped onto the wrong path because he had too outstanding a son, even though he had achieved the dream of the Sungmu Lee Family’s prosperity.

‘If it were you in the past, you wouldn’t have even created such a place.’

If it were the father he knew, he would have killed the opponent on the spot.

This place was… a place to promote to the family members that even promising direct descendants of the family could be punished.

‘Are you using your son as a sacrifice to increase your authority?’

How on earth did you become so blind?

Authority is not created by force.

And that was what… Father taught him.

“…How did you become so broken, Father?”

“What?”

“To start things while the older brother is away, aren’t you ashamed?”

“Just because you have a mouth doesn’t mean you can keep talking.”

Lee Jangyeong looked at his father.

“What did they promise you? Eternal life? Freedom? For such things, you even abandoned your loyalty to the Choi family, who have been your companions for a thousand years…”

“Shut up! Do you think you know everything! You know nothing!”

Lee Jangyeong laughed lowly.

“Father, can you really… handle the older brother?”

Bang!

Lee Jangyeong’s body flew helplessly through the air like a doll with its strings cut and crashed to the ground.

“I can’t stand it any longer.”

Lee Cheongmu raised his sword.

His eyes were filled with a cold murderous intent.

“No!”

At that moment, Lee Gyeonghwa jumped up and shouted.

Everyone’s eyes turned to her.

‘If, if I hand over the data now, my brother will live!’

Lee Gyeonghwa clenched her fists and tried to open her mouth.

But.

‘Don’t do it. No. Gyeonghwa.’

She could see Lee Jangyeong’s expression.

Even in a situation where he was covered in blood, he was glaring at her with eyes containing such meaning.

Lee Gyeonghwa couldn’t open her mouth at that look.

“Tsk, you fool.”

Lee Cheongmu clicked his tongue as he looked at Lee Gyeonghwa and turned his head again.

“Do you have any last words?”

Lee Jangyeong looked up at his father, Lee Cheongmu.

“My only sin is that I lacked strength.”

Lee Jangyeong’s eyes were burning like fire.

“사필귀정(事必歸正). [Saphil Guijeong: Everything returns to its rightful place.] All things return to the right path. Someday, someone like me will appear in this family and break the cycle of evil.”

A clear voice.

Was it because he was driven to the edge of life?

Lee Jangyeong’s voice was filled with great power.

“Fear the time when they come…”

Lee Jangyeong’s blazing eyes looked alternately at the Council of Elders leader and Lee Cheongmu.

“You’re still arrogant until the end.”

Lee Cheongmu’s sword was raised.

Lee Jangyeong turned his eyes and looked back at Lee Gyeonghwa.

-Youngest. I’m so sorry to you.

Lee Gyeonghwa heard such a voice for the last time.

He should have lost his magical power, but she didn’t know how she could hear it.

She didn’t know if she actually heard it or not.

Seogeok!

And a bright red flower bloomed.

“Aaaaaaack!”

Lee Gyeonghwa stood up like a seizure and rushed at her father.

* * *

Everything was handled in secret.

As if the person named Lee Jangyeong had never existed, he disappeared without a sound.

Lee Gyeonghwa entered Lee Jangyeong’s study.

There were several books and notebooks placed there.

They were notes on magical power techniques and martial arts.

Whether someone had searched it, they were scattered and torn, rolling haphazardly on the ground.

That was the end of Lee Jangyeong’s belongings.

And… Lee Taeshin returned.

“Will you leave?”

Lee Taeshin came to Lee Gyeonghwa’s residence as soon as he returned and said that.

The scene at that time was blurry and not well remembered.

She only remembers that her appearance was not very good to see.

Lee Gyeonghwa was languishing, neglecting to treat the wounds inflicted by her father, Lee Cheongmu.

“Big brother…?”

Lee Gyeonghwa was lying in a room where her husband’s scent remained, holding only the notes left by Lee Jangyeong.

Lee Taeshin, with the light of the hallway behind him, looked down at her lying down and asked again.

“Will you leave?”

A voice that seemed to have lost emotion, an emotionless voice, continued.

If she didn’t give an answer, Lee Taeshin seemed like he would stand there forever.

Lee Gyeonghwa looked up at her big brother, who was standing against the light.

Lee Taeshin’s expression… she can’t remember.

“I want to leave… from this family…”

A voice that was so hoarse from crying.

Lee Taeshin just nodded quietly as usual and left the spot.

Lee Gyeonghwa was able to escape as if she was being chased out, guided by some unknown woman who followed Lee Taeshin.

After that, she didn’t know what happened to the family.

She deliberately closed her ears.

And time passed.

It was two months later that she found out she was pregnant.

* * *

As if isolated from the world, seasons changed several times and time flowed endlessly.

She made a living alone in a remote rural village in Gangwon Province.

…The child born was weak.

The reason was unknown.

Even though he was born with the strong body of the Sungmu Lee Family, he was often sick.

She tried to find famous doctors and feed him good medicine, but it was never resolved.

However, there were a few peculiarities.

Even if the child’s hair was from the Sungmu Lee Family’s bloodline, it was too black, and his eyes were so dark that they felt almost bright yellow.

The child was named Kim Junyeong, taking one letter each from the names of her second older brother and her husband.

The child continued to grow.

He was able to turn over, walk, and talk.

He spent most of the day lying down… but the child was clearly alive.

“Mom. Read me a book again.”

“Okay, baby. What book should I read?”

“Old stories.”

The child was weak and couldn’t go outside, so he read a lot of books.

What the child liked was the history of the distant past.

Lee Gyeonghwa read history books or legends and folktales to the child every time.

The child tried to learn about the things of the world he didn’t know through books.

“I like Mom’s voice. Mom reads books well.”

“Oh my, you speak so beautifully. My baby.”

“When I grow up, I want to go find these old things.”

She placed her hand on the child’s head, which was hot with fever, and read stories that ended with ‘lived happily ever after.’

Honestly, the time spent with the child was not always easy.

The child often whined and needed a lot of attention because he was sick.

She got annoyed, angry, and sometimes even cried.

She was also new to life as a mother, so everything was unfamiliar and difficult.

But that’s why… the child’s existence was life itself to her.

When she was with the child, she could forget the memories of that day that came to her like nightmares.

She was able to express emotions and make expressions that she thought she had lost since that day.

She could get away from the sense of powerlessness and frustration that gripped her whole body for a while.

Every moment was life.

She could live.

Lee Gyeonghwa thought she could live.

However, the child was too fragile.

The life that came into her hands left her hands again so easily.

It was a day when snow fell heavily.

There was nothing she could do.

She just sat next to the child, who was breathing heavily, and gave him a wet towel and antipyretics [fever reducers].

“Mom, read me a book…”

“Okay… okay, baby. Once upon a time…”

Lee Gyeonghwa kept reading.

It was a moment of silence where she could hear the sound of snow falling.

And Lee Gyeonghwa felt something going wrong inside her.

She was too weak to accept everything and live.

After crying as if her intestines were being cut off, Lee Gyeonghwa became more cheerful.

That’s how time passed.

Lee Gyeonghwa became uninterested in the things around her.

She lived immersed in ancient and medieval history.

In addition, she became immersed in magical power techniques.

She was able to go in and out of the family she had been so afraid of.

Time continued to flow.

And she met Lee Cheol.

* * *

I climbed a small hill and found a small, quiet house, like a hermitage hidden deep in the mountains.

A tall zelkova tree occupied a corner of the yard as if it would swallow the house.

And there was a small grave behind the house.

It was a small grave enough to guess the physique of the buried person.

“Aunt.”

“Yes, this is Junyeong’s grave.”

Before coming here, I packed snacks and incense.

Alcohol or other foods are a matter of course, but I deliberately didn’t pack them.

Aunt was sitting quietly in front of the grave.

I didn’t use magical power and carefully pulled out the weeds by hand.

“I couldn’t do what you did.”

Aunt spoke to me.

Since she didn’t ask for an answer, I closed my mouth and listened to the story quietly.

“What if I had taken the child to the family? Wouldn’t the family have known about the disease? I just didn’t go back to the family because I was scared. I couldn’t even muster the courage to take revenge. I’m just… swept away as things happen.”

Aunt didn’t cry.

She just had a indifferent expression.

“I’m a cowardly person.”

Aunt pursed her lips tightly.

I threw the weeds in my hand far away and looked at Aunt.

“That’s not true.”

“…What isn’t true.”

“Aunt tried. In the end, she suppressed her desire to run away and carried on Uncle’s will. She continued to live to protect the child.”

It was Aunt’s own struggle.

Even if she had handed over Lee Jangyeong Uncle’s data at that time, he would not have been able to live.

Rather, Aunt might have died.

Even if she had taken the child to the family… if that incident had really happened at the hands of the former family head or the Council of Elders leader, Kim Junyeong would have also died to erase the traces of the traitor Kim Junseo.

“I see. You’re so kind.”

Aunt smiled brightly.

“It’s been decades since I’ve been here. I was afraid to come here.”

Aunt swept the grave.

It was a gentle touch, as if stroking the child’s head.

This place reminded her of all the past she had tried to forget.

It brought back the deaths she wanted to deny into reality again.

‘…Aunt.’

I couldn’t say anything as I looked at Aunt’s expression.

It was the first time I had seen such an expression after spending so much time with Aunt.

I reflected on Aunt’s life.

What must have been in Aunt’s heart when she returned to this place she had tried so hard to forget?

Calling me baby.

Falling into ancient things.

Studying magical power techniques.

What must have been the life of Aunt, who had been hiding her true self?

“It’s so strange. When I think of my brother, my husband, or my baby… all I can think of are very trivial everyday things. Eating snacks, nagging, reading books… things like that.”

Lee Gyeonghwa recalls the memories.

The figures of people she can no longer see flicker before her eyes.

And she looked at her nephew and disciple, Lee Cheol.

Three expressions overlapped on that face.

Lee Cheol did what they couldn’t do.

He proudly proved himself to the family and avenged her enemies.

Through the magical power techniques she created.

“Baby.”

Lee Gyeonghwa stood up and called Lee Cheol.

Nephew and disciple.

And the child who did what she couldn’t do for her.

Her… everything.