Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 283

Weapon-Eating Heir Apparent – Episode 283

A distant past.

The primordial beast stirred, traveled the world, and on the shores of Ireland, the last land it reached, lay a one-eyed man.

Around him were scattered black substances, and he himself was enveloped in them.

Twitch!

In an instant, the eyelids of the man, who seemed dead, were lifted heavily.

“…….”

The man, no, Lugh, was certain that his death was not far off.

He had fought fiercely, to the point where his spear was broken in two.

He already had one foot across the boundary of death.

The flame of life remaining in this body was not much.

However.

“……Was that the future?”

Was it because he was straddling the boundary between life and death?

While unconscious, Lugh’s mystic eyes showed him a vision of the distant future that he should not have been able to see.

There, Lugh was facing a young man.

A question arose.

He was about to die now, so how could he be alive so far in the future?

At that moment, he saw a huge citadel approaching from above the sky.

“I see. They were there.”

The man, no, Lugh, the being who would later be praised as a god, chuckled wryly.

Lugh recalled the fragment of the future he had seen and looked at the floating fortress approaching above his head.

-Singularity of the one eye.

A voice was heard, transmitted directly into his mind.

The dwarves of the aerial fortress.

They are the recorders.

-The time has come. As promised, you and your era will be recorded in this castle.

Lugh gave a faint smile.

He felt that his destiny was not yet over.

He recalled the face of the young man he would meet in the distant future.

* * *

And thousands of years passed. The present.

The dwarves were looking inside the crystal ball.

In the end, they couldn’t make a choice, and Icheol finished the test and entered the room for the next test.

“Scary. Me. That thing.”

The second dwarf, who was about to go to give a reward to the one who had finished the test, flinched as if trembling with fear.

Then, one dwarf opened his mouth.

“……Let’s give him a privilege.”

“A privilege?”

“A privilege?”

“It’s giving a gift. If he leaves now. One thing.”

The dwarves’ eyes widened.

The dwarf who suggested the idea seemed hesitant.

“We have to go to meet him. The second one is coming soon. Let’s decide quickly.”

“The one who returned from death. He distorts everything.”

“But he’s only taken the second test. Not yet. Is it okay to give it to him already?”

“It’s not allowed. According to the providence of causality. However, if the one who returned from death chooses it himself, can’t we remove the impurities that disrupt the greater providence?”

They wanted Icheol to leave this castle.

That’s why they decided to break the established rules.

“Approve?”

“Approve.”

“Approve!”

…….

The dwarves nodded their yellow eyes up and down one by one, giving their approval.

And finally.

The dwarves turned their gaze to the first dwarf.

“Approve. Me too.”

“……?”

“Suddenly?”

“Weren’t you, the one who cherished that singularity?”

“No. I just thought there was someone who returned from death. A possibility.”

The first dwarf said so.

Anyway, it was unanimous.

In the end, the result came out, and the second dwarf, who had his hand on the crystal ball, shone his yellow eyes.

“I’m going. Then.”

The hem of the second dwarf’s robe fluttered greatly and began to be sucked into the crystal ball.

But it was at that moment.

A laughing sound flowed from the first dwarf.

“Hehe. The one who returned from death. He won’t leave. No matter what you give him.”

“What?”

“Go quickly. Second.”

Thus, the second dwarf faced Icheol with a strange feeling.

* * *

In a space dyed pure white.

I struggled to suppress the confusion that had not yet been resolved.

‘……Is the test over?’

It’s as if everything that had just happened was a lie.

But the scenes I saw then were still vivid in my mind.

“Answer. The one who returned from death.”

The heat that had risen to the top of my head disappeared as if washed away by the dwarf’s words.

The hem of the robe fluttered.

The dwarf’s yellow eyes were visible.

‘Expression…… I don’t know if I can call that an expression, but I feel like he’s avoiding me.’

I frowned, looking at the dwarf.

Anyway, suddenly saying that they’ll give me a reward if I go outside. What does that mean?

“An explanation is needed.”

“Reward for you. Instead, I’ll give you one thing. What you need. If you receive it, you will not finish the test in the castle. You can leave now.”

“This time, instead of the fixed reward, you’re going to give me something? And if I receive it, I have to leave.”

“……Accurate.”

The dwarf seemed to be retreating a little further from me.

“Why are you suddenly making such an offer?”

“It’s intensifying. The chaos, outside the castle right now. The one who returned from death. You won’t leave this alone. So, I’m saying I’ll let you out.”

It was a tone as if he was doing me a favor.

Something, a strange intuition flashed through my mind.

I’m especially good at noticing these things.

“Do other participants hear the same story?”

“…….”

The dwarf closed his mouth.

I let out a snort.

“It seems like you want to kick me out. Why suddenly? The guy who oversaw the first test didn’t seem like that.”

The dwarf was still silent.

Looking at that, I could once again know one thing.

“It seems like you guys aren’t free in this castle either. I don’t know what the reason is, but it seems like there are rules or prices to pay to do something.”

“Ah, no. Why did you, think that way?”

The dwarf stuttered, seemingly a little embarrassed.

“It seems like you want me to leave, but you can’t do it by force. If you could, you would have kicked me out, you wouldn’t have bothered making such an offer.”

The dwarf’s yellow eyes shook from side to side.

As if he wouldn’t answer or show it anymore, the dwarf didn’t make any sound.

“Anyway, in that case, I refuse.”

“We can give you. Almost everything you want.”

The dwarf said so and spread his robe wide.

At that moment, the pure white space rippled as if an earthquake had occurred.

And the dwarf’s voice penetrated my mind exactly.

-If you want wealth, I will give you enough gold to buy the world.

Thud! Thud!

In an instant, the world was dyed gold.

So many gold bars, so blindingly bright, surrounded me and filled the space.

-If you want immortality, I will give you a medicine that cures all diseases.

Tumble!

In an instant, a bottle with a strange aura appeared before my eyes.

-If you want magic power, I will give you elixirs that absorb a hundred years of magic power in one sip.

This time, rare and exotic plants bloomed around me.

The scent of dense magic power was smelled.

-Even that spear you saw in the second test, we created its origin. If you want the power to cut down enemies, I will give it to you.

Clang!

The space was filled with all kinds of weapons and equipment.

Each and every one of them was full of extraordinary equipment.

-Speak. What do you want?

The dwarf looked at me with all those things behind him.

The aerial fortress has, since ancient times, shown many mysterious objects that deviate from common sense to the world.

What the dwarf gives is probably only things that really have such abilities.

But.

“I don’t need it.”

Those things didn’t mean much to me.

“I have no intention of leaving this test, so just give me the fixed reward like the last test. I’m going to see the tests you show to the end.”

From the first test to the second test.

I have seen and felt a lot in the tests I have encountered so far.

It was a precious experience that I couldn’t get even if I combined all those things that the dwarf would give me.

It’s a little 신경 쓰이다 [worrisome] that the outside of the castle has become chaotic, but I trusted my people outside.

What I need to focus on now was the test itself in this castle.

“Everything…… I’ll give you everything. These things…….”

The dwarf’s voice no longer entered my mind, but was heard clearly through my eardrums.

I shook my head.

“I don’t need it.”

“What is it? What do you want instead? Speak.”

What I want is the pinnacle.

Reaching that high position where no one can touch me and my people.

It could be a military aspect, or it could be a social position.

“I can give you that too! To reach that place!”

The dwarf shouted urgently, but I snorted.

“It’s meaningless if I don’t reach it with my own strength.”

I hate the twisted things of the Demonic Heresy.

I want to walk the upright royal road.

Passing through the narrow gate, my goal is to seize what I aim for with my own hands after a struggle.

In an instant, the dwarf’s yellow eyes widened.

“As expected, a dangerous singularity. You are. Can you be born? How can such a person exist.”

The dwarf lowered his robe deeply.

“Dangerous. You are. You make everything in the world mixed up. Only ‘that’ was like that. We want you to leave. Before you break it down further. So get out. I’ll do anything for you.”

The dwarf muttered.

I said firmly.

“I’ll say it again, I have no intention of doing that.”

Soon, the dwarf shrank back as if he had given up and looked at me.

“Ask. According to the established contract, I will answer the question. Only one question within the scope of your causality.”

In many ways, he was a different guy from the first dwarf.

“……Why does the primordial beast even exist? Why is it trying to destroy the world in the first place?”

The dwarf stared at me intently.

“Insufficient. To know that. The karma accumulated in you.”

“…….”

Does this mean it’s not allowed?

Then I can’t help it.

That wasn’t the only thing I wanted to know.

“Then I’ll ask something else. What is this place, the aerial fortress? Why do you guys live here and test people?”

“Is that your question?”

“Yes.”

The dwarf’s voice slowly began to change.

Once again, the voice began to be transmitted into my mind through thoughts.

-In any era, in any place.

-The castle has existed.

-The castle observes and records the world.

In an instant, the panorama of the aerial fortress was drawn on the pure white space.

-What the castle records is the history of the era erased from this world.

-All the histories on the land that the primordial beast swallowed and destroyed.

-The recorded things are stored and managed.

-‘We’ exist to manage it.

This time, the 모습 [appearance] of the seven dwarves came to mind.

As expected, they were only managers, not the owners of the castle.

-We have moved the castle in accordance with the established shackles, cut and recorded the era, and sometimes came down to the land at the singularity of the era and made deals with humans.

-And sometimes, we brought in new scribes.

-We have used the technology of the erased era to give them tests or give them rewards.

-Our goal is one.

-To maintain this world.

-To be wary of the primordial beast that grows along with the growing era.

-The castle exists for the world.

-And it exists for the coming end.

-The one complete singularity that will remain at the end will save the scribes from this castle…….

Throb!

The voice was only up to there.

I felt a headache for an unknown reason.

I could tell that it was the end of the allowed extent that the dwarf had said.

-……Is this it? According to the established rules, the reward is over.

The dwarf looked down at me.

‘So you were recording the history erased by the primordial beast?’

I finally understood the basis of their technology and the meaning and purpose of their existence.

And.

“Don’t tell me, have you guys been coming down to the land in every era?”

-That’s right.

Only then could I understand the dwarf’s words that they had created Gyeongcheon.

Lugh, who was a singularity like me, entered this castle and obtained the prototype of the spear through some method.

……But the question still remained.

Why and how was the aerial fortress created?

And why, while conducting tests like that in every era, did they say that they would determine the ‘owner of the castle’ in this test, not just a simple reward?

-I have no intention of answering the questions you are asking now. The one who returned from death, ……the promised price is over.

Not the strangely twisted voice of the dwarf, but a dignified, low-pitched voice.

-We are the managers who record and maintain the era.

-In our view, you are extremely dangerous.

-You are something alien.

The dwarf waved his hand.

-Will you take the next test?

-If you give up, you will have to leave the castle.

“I think I’ve said it once. I said I have no intention of leaving.”

-……I understand.

At that moment, I felt various colors filling the pure white space.

And.

-This place is the land connected to your origin.

-You will face the origin rooted in your bloodline, and you will have to face the erased history.

-What you must see is what makes you…….

Zap! Crackle!

It was the moment when the dwarf’s explanation of the third test continued.

The pure white space distorted, making strange noises as if lightning was striking.

The dwarf flinched and looked at somewhere that was distorting.

Across the distorted space, someone was standing beyond the pure white space that was fragmented and scattered.

“I clearly said that if you try to look directly at me, I will drop the castle.”

It was an existence with a blurry outline and a face that was not clearly visible.

I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I had heard that man’s voice somewhere.

-Oh, ah, uh, why…… died…….

The dwarf stuttered in panic.

I looked at the man.

The man, who was blurred as if covered in fog, felt like he resembled my father or my eldest brother somewhere.

“What I allowed you guys was only that short record.”

-U, uh, uh, wh, yyyyy…….

The hem of the dwarf’s robe fluttered madly, and soon, with a crackling noise, it disappeared as if melting into the pure white space.

And.

“So it’s you.”

The man turned to me and said.

It reached out to me.

The arm, distorting and crackling, slowly reached out to me.

For some reason, I felt like that man was smiling.

The next moment.

Clang!

The pure white world I had entered collapsed, and I fell into the black darkness.

The 모습 [appearance] of the man reaching out to me was visible above.

The man withdrew his outstretched hand as if regretting that he could not reach me.

Even at that moment, the man was still looking down at me.

* * *

My head rang sharply, and I felt my vision spinning around.

I shook my head quickly to shake off the confusion, regained my balance, and got up.

‘Where is this? What was that just now?’

I could tell that I had entered a narrow room.

I swallowed the rising feeling of nausea and turned my head to look around.

And.

“……!”

I faced someone I already knew.

The person sitting on the floor raised his head.

“Who are you.”

The man opened his mouth.

A pleasant, low-pitched voice with a sense of energy.

But it was a tone that was cut off from the bottom of his neck, as if exhausted.

‘Could it be…….’

-This place is the land connected to your origin.

I recalled a part of the explanation that the dwarf could not finish.

Origin.

My bloodline.

I was sure that the man in front of me was the person I knew.

Lee Hyang-seon, the 2nd head of Sungmu and King Mu.

The owner of Eunhan and the one who wrote the Black Night Records for posterity was there.