Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 251

Weapon-Eating Bastard – Chapter 251

The world was becoming more chaotic by the day.

Suddenly, the uncharted territories of Northern Europe began to stabilize, leading to territorial disputes that stirred up the entire continent.

And that wasn’t all.

Strange rumors began to circulate in European and West Asian countries.

The rumor of a giant snake, surrounded by a black, viscous substance, appearing when the sky suddenly turned black.

Those who saw the snake were never the same.

The story was that they were either lucky enough to survive, albeit insane, or they met their death.

Similarly, rumors began to circulate that stabilization was also starting in some parts of the heart of the Asian uncharted territories, the world’s largest.

Naturally, the three Far Eastern countries of Korea, China, and Japan, as well as Russia, Mongolia, and some Southeast Asian countries, jumped into the territorial disputes over the uncharted territories.

Ominous phenomena erupted one after another in various places, and the aerial fortress incident ultimately plunged international affairs into chaos.

-Vatican expresses concern over international affairs…….

-Russian Intelligence Agency claims the aerial fortress first appeared in northern Alaska, asserting their priority in negotiations and issuing strong warnings to neighboring countries.

-The British Royal Family also regarding this aerial fortress…….

-From the Eiffel Magic Tower…….

…….

As the aerial fortress approached the ground, the propaganda and information warfare among countries and organizations intensified.

The Soongmoo Lee Family, for now, adopted a wait-and-see approach, focusing on assessing the power of each organization and the current situation.

The family’s Spirit Sword Division, intelligence department, and even the Black Crow Society, with which I had ties, were mobilized to grasp the situation of rival organizations.

Amidst such chaos, the aerial fortress steadily approached the ground.

Now, it was visible from the main family’s grounds, hanging at the edge of the sky when one looked up.

Naturally, in such a situation, I couldn’t just comfortably research the Mind Sword Style.

“It seems like things will get really busy from today onwards. I’m also very sorry, but I think we should stop the research from today,” my first brother said, expressing his regret.

“Since it’s the last time, let’s have a drink together.”

I sat facing my first brother in the closed training ground behind the main family residence.

This artificially created mountain was not frequently visited by people, making it a good place for the two of us to drink quietly.

“Is this the first time we’re drinking alone together?”

“Um… I think so.”

Clang!

With our glasses clinking, I looked down at the foot of the mountain.

The scenery of the Soongmoo Lee Family spread out widely.

After a few rounds of drinks, my first brother, with a slightly flushed face, quietly began to speak.

“What is your oldest memory?”

“……?”

A sudden question.

I frowned and pondered.

‘……I remember things from before I was even a year old, but…’

But I couldn’t say that directly.

I put it a little differently.

“Around when I was five years old. I remember the fairy tales the nanny used to read to me.”

“Is that so? How ordinary.”

“That’s usually the case. Honestly, how many people can recall their oldest memories just because you ask them to?”

I said, looking at my first brother’s profile.

My first brother, with a somewhat serious face, opened his mouth.

“My oldest memory was when I was three years old.”

‘I’ve regressed, so that’s one thing, but can an ordinary person remember being three years old?’

If it’s extraordinary, it’s extraordinary.

If it’s like my first brother, it’s like my first brother.

“At that time, the Soongmoo Lee Family was rapidly developing. For some reason, I heard that it was shortly after Father killed Grandfather and succeeded as the head of the family.”

It was the family’s history.

It was a rather tragic story of patricide, but it was also something that often happened in the history of the Soongmoo Lee Family.

“At that time, the Soongmoo Lee Family was growing rapidly, so it seems they had quite a few enemies. I was kidnapped by an enemy who infiltrated the main family. No, to be precise, I almost got kidnapped.”

“……Excuse me?”

Kidnapping a direct descendant of the Soongmoo Lee Family?

Do such crazy people exist?

“Do you know Goido Golga?”

“Goido Golga…… Ah, could it be?”

Long ago, when I went down to Bigo to acquire Mujin, one of the daggers I found was Goido Golga’s item.

“They tried to break into the main family’s Bigo [a heavily guarded storage area] and kidnapped me, who was nearby. It seems they did it to survive.”

“How foolish.”

The Soongmoo Lee Family doesn’t play along with hostage situations.

There are no exceptions, even for infants.

The Soongmoo Lee Family’s way was to choose to chase the enemy who took the hostage to the ends of hell and eliminate all related beings, rather than being swayed by the hostage’s life or death.

“Yes, even if that wasn’t the case, it was foolish. Because Father was there at that time.”

My first brother downed his glass in one gulp and continued.

“At that time, Father beheaded three enemies with one sword and saved me. That’s my oldest memory.”

If it was such a strong memory, it would have been hard to forget.

But I couldn’t understand why he was suddenly telling me this story.

My first brother continued.

“And that became my ideal.”

“…….”

My first brother unleashed his mana.

That mana soon possessed the power of the Mind Sword.

It seemed that my first brother had reached a point where he didn’t need much effort to draw the Mind Sword.

“In fact, Father at that time was about the same as me. The current Father is much stronger. He’s such a monster. But…….”

Clench!

My first brother clenched his glass tightly and said, looking somewhere far away.

“That one sword I saw at that time. Father’s strike that seemed to cut through the entire world. That remains deep within me. That was my ideal as a martial artist that I’ve been chasing all my life, and it was a moment that seemed to create the concept of ‘strength’ itself in the world.”

“……I see.”

“So, when I unleash the Mind Sword, I think of that one sword. My goal and ideal is Father himself.”

The sword mark engraved in the heart of the three-year-old Lee Myung-jung was reproduced in the world as his Mind Sword, remaining deep in his subconscious.

“But you wouldn’t be.”

Lee Myung-jung said those words in a small voice that was barely audible.

For Lee Myung-jung, the goal, ideal, and pinnacle was Lee Tae-shin himself.

But for Lee Cheol, even his father seemed to be just a stepping stone to overcome.

“Excuse me? What did you say?”

“Nothing. Come on, pour me a drink, kid.”

“Kid…… Are you drunk?”

“No way. You’re always a kid to me.”

My first brother chuckled and received the glass.

“Don’t you have something you want to say? You’ve seemed to have some worries lately.”

At my first brother’s words, I hesitated for a moment.

Opening and closing my mouth several times.

I carefully opened my mouth.

“Recently, I’ve been thinking about my mother a lot.”

Mother, Choi Yu-jung.

That person I’ve never seen.

“……I see.”

Even my first brother had no choice but to close his mouth at those words.

I paused for a moment and continued.

“I…… honestly don’t know Father very well.”

Father.

When I think about Lee Tae-shin, the head of the Soongmoo Lee Family, complexity is added.

‘It was different in this life, but why did you do that in my previous life?’

In this life, he gave me opportunities that he didn’t give to my other brothers, and he also gave me subtle tests and rewards.

And this time, I even received the Mind Sword Style.

“I’m curious about why Father had me, and why he bothered to leave me the Mind Sword Style.”

My first brother paused at my question, fiddling with his glass.

After a long time.

“Actually, there was something I hadn’t told you all this time.”

And slowly, my first brother began to tell the story he had been hiding.

* * *

“There’s a record that as soon as Father became the head of the family, he gave a long-term order to the first unit of the Spirit Sword Division. Maybe even before he became the head of the family…… he might have used the Ten Swords [elite members of the Spirit Sword Division].”

Even with the sudden start of the story, I didn’t interrupt and listened calmly.

“That order was to find a certain woman. That was probably your mother. It was a top-secret mission.”

Top-secret mission.

Come to think of it, in the scene I saw right after regressing, I had heard such content.

“There was a strange part to that mission. It was whether she was dead or alive. The content was to find even her grave or traces if she was dead.”

Something, the story flowed strangely.

“And decades after Father became the head of the family, you were discovered and came to the family. The exact details of what happened during the mission are not known.”

“Aren’t there Spirit Sword Division members involved?”

“The records were incinerated. Probably by the head of the family’s authority.”

My first brother poured alcohol into my empty glass and continued.

“We were all puzzled. Father wasn’t one to be fond of women, and even if he had met another woman, he would never have hidden it. His relationship with Mother, although it was a political marriage, wasn’t bad at all.”

That was also a question for me.

If it was Father, he would have proudly revealed it and brought her in as a concubine, but he wasn’t the type to create a bastard and leave him unattended.

‘Is it because my mother is from the Choi family? Or because of political reasons regarding the political marriage?’

That’s also not convincing.

In the first place, she’s the last successor of the Choi family, so there’s no way they would let her wander around outside.

It’s hard to say that it’s for political reasons regarding the political marriage…… Father wasn’t someone who would be swayed by such things.

“And in terms of timing, it was a time when Father had never left the family. It’s a bit cautious, but even if he had a relationship outside, it wouldn’t fit in terms of timing. That’s why everyone initially suspected you…… as ‘a different bloodline’.”

My first brother glanced at my expression and said.

Everyone suspected, but all the test results indicated that I was Father’s biological child.

‘I even personally investigated it myself.’

Magic, sorcery, science, medicine…… It was the same no matter how I investigated.

I am Father, Lee Tae-shin’s child.

In the first place, even Chief Butler Choi, who knows everything, said that I am Father’s child.

“But couldn’t Father have gone out without informing the family? If Father wanted to do that, who could stop him?”

“Father had already suffered internal injuries from an external trip and was recovering. He rested for about a year or two. The Spirit Sword Division and the Four Gods Squad [Father’s personal guard] provided close protection, and he often appeared at official events during that time. There was no room to go out. Unless Father sneaked over the walls of the Soongmoo Lee Family, unlike himself.”

Something, I felt something strange from this story.

“What are you trying to say?”

“There’s no intention. I’m just telling you the facts that I’ve been hiding.”

I frowned and retraced the story that had just passed.

I felt like a layer of the secret about my birth was being peeled off.

The problem of time.

The relationship between Father and Mother.

The content that Chief Butler Choi said.

‘Something, I feel like I’m missing a piece.’

The moment that piece fits, that secret seemed like it would reveal itself.

I never thought I’d hear such a story here.

Why did Father hide my birth……?

And why couldn’t he accept me, and gradually came to recognize me as his son?

‘If Chief Butler Choi also knew…… that I was Mother’s child, shouldn’t he have been more concerned?’

Then my first brother continued.

“When you first came back to the family, the way Father looked at you was very unique.”

My first brother smiled warmly and clinked glasses with me.

“What do you mean by unique?”

“What should I say…… It wasn’t hostility, nor was it anger or annoyance, and it wasn’t affection or pity either. That ambiguous look was really…… The reason why my mother hated you so much was because of that look.”

Chief Butler Choi’s story came to mind.

The story that Father didn’t accept me at first.

“But you changed Father.”

My first brother poured alcohol into my confused glass and said.

“You may not know, but the way Father treated you changed as the days went by. He had expectations for you, and he subtly gave you conveniences. Chief Butler Choi handled all those things secretly.”

“……I know that. He never restricted or stopped me from achieving what I achieved.”

Equality is not a very important value in the Soongmoo Lee Family.

That’s why Father didn’t care more about me or favor me.

However, he set the stage for me, gave me tests, and gave me rewards that were appropriate for them.

Father may have gradually recognized me that way.

“I don’t know the details. There must be a complicated reason. But the important thing is.”

Clang!

The smooth porcelain glasses clinked.

Transparent drops of alcohol containing moonlight bounced up.

“The fact that you are the one who changed Father. Who else could change the absolute being of the Soongmoo Lee Family, who is called the Sword God?”

Is that a word to encourage me?

I said with a hollow laugh.

“You don’t think I’m now craving Father’s affection or anything like that, do you?”

“Wasn’t that it?”

“No. My obsession is a little different from an obsession with denial.”

I downed the glass and shone my eyes.

“For me, Father is someone I must defeat and a wall I must overcome.”

I may have affection for my father as a child.

But that affection is closer to the feeling of wanting to overcome him as a warrior, rather than ordinary affection between father and son.

“……That’s like you.”

As expected, the youngest sees someone like Father as someone to overcome.

‘If it’s you, it’s possible.’

Lee Myung-jung was secretly happy.

Although it was a slightly different form from ordinary, drinking with his younger brother was extremely enjoyable.

In the distant future, when we get older and regain composure in everything…….

‘I hope we can share a drink like this again.’

Lee Myung-jung thought as he looked at the brightly rising moon.

* * *

Some time after the drinking session.

The aerial fortress finally landed on the ground.