Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 244

Weapon-Eating Bastard – Episode 244

Choi Yu-jeong. My mother’s name.

Butler Choi began the story.

“She was beautiful, strong, and truly righteous.”

Butler Choi recalled his first encounter with her.

Born into the world without knowing why, he was merely swept away by the murderous intent echoing in his head, drifting around.

She appeared before Butler Choi and dispelled all the ominous energy filling his head.

She gave him a name and taught him how to live like a person.

“At the time, the young master’s mother was the last successor of the Soongjeong Choi Clan.”

“How… did it come to this? Surely, the Soongjeong Choi Clan was allied with the Soongmu Yi Clan? Did the Soongmu Yi Clan cast out the Soongjeong Choi Clan?”

“As the blood of the Soongmu Yi Clan no longer needed purification…”

Butler Choi paused to catch his breath.

Unlike humans, it didn’t feel like he was gradually dying.

It felt as if the energy he had accumulated was gradually being depleted.

“…The people of the Soongjeong Choi Clan gradually lost their power. And then, the Great War broke out.”

The Soongmu Yi Clan also suffered near annihilation in the Great War.

They probably didn’t have the leeway to protect the weakening Soongjeong Choi Clan.

“In the midst of that, Lord Yi Tae-shin sought out Yu-jeong, the only survivor, to uphold the oath with the Choi Clan.”

Butler Choi continued.

“The young lady and I were called the Ten Swords under the Lord. We accomplished many things and saw many things. The secrets of the Soongmu Yi Clan, the structure of this world, the distant places that no one knows about…”

Cough-!

Butler Choi, who had been staring into the distance with hazy eyes, soon coughed up blood.

“Now… I really don’t have much time left.”

Butler Choi was attacked because of the fragment of the primordial monster hidden in his body.

The Apostle sought to retrieve it, and Yi Gun-seong, who was cooperating with him, infiltrated puppeteers and nameless warriors into the family.

The purified fragment was the source of power that kept Butler Choi alive.

Now that it had been extracted… what was moving Butler Choi was a trace of power left by my mother.

‘What did Butler Choi sacrifice to create this opportunity?’

I felt guilty for arriving at this place so late.

It had already been a long time since Butler Choi disappeared.

His source of life was taken away, and how arduous must the time have been for him to convey these words to me?

“You are kind as always, young master.”

Butler Choi said, as if he had seen through my thoughts.

“My waiting for you was purely my will. I am merely a doll, but nonetheless, it was my duty as a person.”

Mandate of Heaven [a concept in Chinese philosophy referring to the divine right to rule].

The destiny and duty given to each individual.

Butler Choi was saying that conveying these stories to me was his Mandate of Heaven.

“So, please do not concern yourself and make good use of the limited time.”

It was a request to ask questions.

I stared at Butler Choi’s fading eyes for a moment, then clenched my fist and opened my mouth.

“Butler Choi, to me, you were more human than anyone else.”

Compared to the incompetent humans I had seen, Butler Choi was clearly human.

Butler Choi’s eyes widened at my words.

Soon, his eyes curved into a soft smile.

“Since you say to make good use of time, then I will ask. Why… was I born?”

I spoke a question that I had not considered for a very long time.

“Was my existence perhaps to preserve the bloodline of the Choi Clan?”

The relationship between my father and mother.

And me, who was born.

What I spoke was the thought I had been harboring all along.

Butler Choi shook his head firmly.

“Absolutely not.”

“Really?”

If not, then why?

“Really. The two of them would never have had relations for such a reason. And even if that weren’t the case… there’s no way they could have thought of that. Originally, children cannot be conceived between the Choi Clan and the Yi Clan.”

“……Pardon?”

I couldn’t help but be stunned by that answer.

“Because the power of the Soongjeong Choi Clan removes the energy contained in the Yi Clan’s seed. Therefore, in the long history, there has never been a child born between the Choi Clan and the Yi Clan.”

“Then… what am I?”

The more I heard, the more I felt like I was falling into a maze.

Does that mean I have a different bloodline?

But that couldn’t be.

When I entered the family, all magical, occult, and scientific examinations were completed.

Butler Choi replied with a weak smile.

“Originally, you were someone who could not have been born.”

Not someone who shouldn’t have been born, nor someone who shouldn’t have been born.

A being who could not have been born, but was born.

“What does that mean?”

“It could be a miracle, or it could be a curse, which is why the Lord could not accept it… you were such an existence.”

Butler Choi finished speaking and then distorted his eyes as if he was sorry.

“That’s all I can say. I cannot speak about your birth.”

“……”

I recalled the words that the Apostle of Behemoth had said to me during the Gyo-guk incident a few years ago.

The story that my father had hidden things about my mother and me.

What secret is hidden in my birth?

“All I can say is… that Yu-jeong loved you very much… even to the point of sacrificing her own life.”

There is a secret to my birth that I do not know.

But there is no situation where I can find out anything more.

But there is no time to cling to what is impossible.

“Then the next question. What exactly is Father preparing for?”

Frequent trips and preparations for something.

“The upcoming Great War, once again.”

An era when half of the world’s population was said to have died, and civilization was said to have temporarily declined.

The Great War.

An era of carnage where monsters, humans, other races, and all sorts of ideologies and cults clashed.

Is that going to unfold again?

‘As I thought… that’s what it was.’

I couldn’t help but frown at the realization that my ominous hunch was correct.

The cause and effect and the flow of the era that I felt through the puppeteer’s interrogation.

At the end of the huge gears that have begun to turn, I thought that a great war that would sweep away all cause and effect would be waiting.

And there was no way my father wouldn’t have foreseen what I had foreseen.

“Not much time is left. The current era is a time when human power has reached its peak. Even though everything in the world has its ups and downs, the energy of the land and sky that has reached its extreme is not falling and is still rising.”

Butler Choi continued, as if he were making a prophecy.

“Receiving that energy, countless talents and heroes are appearing and writing legends. But that energy is not only directed at humans, but conversely, things that should not have awakened, sleeping in the darkness, are regaining their power.”

Originally, in the past, there was a story that even one First-Class Warrior in an era was a lot.

But in the current era, there are four known.

What about the next generation?

The peerless genius who has achieved great success in both magic and martial arts, my first older brother, Yi Myeong-jeong.

Ron Russell, called the Avatar of the Dragon.

Serena, who was already chosen as the next Saintess at a young age.

Jang Han, the direct disciple of the previous best assassin and the Nine Dragons Guild Leader.

Even Anastasia, who has the power of spirits.

Each and every one of them is writing a history that would only have appeared in legends.

A gathering of heroes.

After the era of peace that came after the Great War, the era of heroes has arrived.

‘And the stronger the energy becomes, the greater the drop will be.’

The Six Nights, who had been holding their breath and watching for the time, reappeared, and the destructions sleeping in the unexplored territories rose up.

Now all that remains is… a great war that will devour everything.

“What the Lord was preparing for was that war.”

Behind the frequent trips and the driving of his children and family was such a thing.

“Also, it was to undo the curse embedded in the blood of the Soongmu Yi Clan.”

“Curse, you say?”

“The previous Lord was also obsessed with that, and went astray…”

It was the moment Butler Choi was about to continue speaking.

Thud!

The strength began to leave Butler Choi’s body, which had been leaning on me.

“Butler Choi!”

“…I’m sorry. My time is, up.”

Butler Choi smiled weakly.

“Since there is no time, I must now fulfill the last duty given to me.”

I hurriedly poured mana into Butler Choi.

However, the rate at which Butler Choi’s life was fading was far faster than the mana being injected.

“The reason I waited for you here was because I had something to give you. And if I give you this, the time allotted to me will now end.”

Butler Choi raised the hand opposite the one that had fallen off and pushed it straight into his chest.

I tried to stop that hand at the sudden unexpected action, but not a single drop of blood flowed from Butler Choi’s chest.

Rather, a hazy energy was forming in Butler Choi’s hand.

That energy was so gentle, and at the same time, strong, and contained a light so bright that it was blinding.

“Turn your back and sit down.”

There was a strong force in Butler Choi’s voice.

It was not the voice that had been wavering as if it would go out at any moment.

I couldn’t refuse and had no choice but to turn my back and sit down.

“From now on, through the power of Yu-jeong residing in me, I will awaken the power of the Choi Clan residing in your blood.”

I widened my eyes as if they would tear.

That energy was what was maintaining Butler Choi right now.

But if he handed it over to me….

“This is, my Mandate of Heaven.”

Before I could say anything.

A hot energy spread through my back and into my body.

It was a sensation I had felt once before.

This energy that is absorbed through the skin and spreads throughout the body.

Permeating every blood vessel, every magic circuit, every cell, and changing all the structures that make up the body… no, it feels like awakening.

Like the memory of awakening my ability in Jeokcheong Island, I was feeling the power that had been dormant in my body raising its head.

A warm energy like spring sunshine spread through the magic circuit, and within it, I felt the structure of my body changing.

Crack!

The bones began to twist and change their positions.

The position of the blood vessels changed, the muscles became more solid and tougher, and the mana throughout the body permeated the magic circuit, changing the structure of the magic circuit.

‘The body is changing.’

I felt the shape of my body changing.

Vast amounts of mana repeatedly penetrated the body and were consumed.

The body continues to change.

Within it, I felt a sense of fulfillment closer to joy than pain.

‘Ah, ah…….’

A sensation as if I was being held in someone’s arms.

It was the energy of the Choi Clan that had been passed from my mother to Butler Choi, and from Butler Choi to me.

And soon, a new energy began to reside in my heart.

It was a gentle, bright, and powerful energy, just like the energy that had penetrated my body.

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

However, the black energy that was originally in that place began to rebel and fluctuate.