Weapon-Eating Bastard [EN]: Chapter 40

Weapon-Eating Bastard – Episode 40

North of Dolsan.

The cadets who had been bribed by Lee Jae-hak of Class 2-2 were running like mad.

“Damn it, damn it! I shouldn’t have agreed to this!”

“Shut up and run! If we hide ahead, that bastard won’t find us!”

Park Yu-cheon, Cadet No. 3 of Class 2-2, gritted his teeth and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

He was the second son of a family that was a subcontractor for the Soongmoo Group.

He was better at martial arts than business, and thanks to that, he was doing well in the Cadet Corps, almost as well as those from the Soongmoo Group’s cadet branch.

‘Damn it! He’s just a bastard! Just from Class 5!’

He resented his father for readily accepting the deal, which promised to double their order quantity from previous years.

No, in fact, Park Yu-cheon had thought it wouldn’t be so bad until this happened.

Just a freshman from Class 5, and a bastard at that.

He was sure that they would be the ones doing the hunting.

But Park Yu-cheon changed his mind as soon as Lee Cheol attacked them just 15 minutes ago.

His swordsmanship sliced through the towering rock cover like it was tofu, and two of his five teammates suffered severe injuries with broken limbs.

‘I’m running away! I begged! Why do you keep chasing me!’

No matter what he did, Lee Cheol relentlessly inflicted severe injuries, and Park Yu-cheon was even more afraid of that fact.

“Huff, huff.”

“We, we’re safe. If we’ve run this far, he won’t chase us.”

Park Yu-cheon and the remaining cadet hid inside the cave, gasping for breath.

They held their breath and stared intently at the cave entrance.

At that moment.

Whoosh! Bang-!

Something flew like a meteor and crashed into the cave entrance.

A steel sword suddenly emerged, stirring up the dry dust that billowed up.

“He, he’s here……!”

Crack!

Before he could even scream, Park Yu-cheon felt his arm twist grotesquely.

“Kkeuaaaaaak!”

“He’s here. It’s Lee Cheol.”

The faces of the cadets with Park Yu-cheon turned pale.

“You hid well. It was hard to find you.”

I checked Park Yu-cheon’s face and chuckled.

“Da, damn it! Is it all because you’re a direct line [referring to someone from the main family branch]?! Why are you oppressing us!”

“Shut up, you bastard! D, Young Master! We were wrong! We’ll forget about the bribe! Please, just forgive us once! If I fail this time……!”

A cadet kneeling and begging, a cadet desperately grabbing his sword, and a cadet blankly staring at me.

No matter what reaction they showed, I had no intention of being lenient.

“If you point a sword at the direct line, you have to pay the price.”

“Euaaaagh!”

Bang!

It didn’t even take a few minutes to subdue the three cadets.

I checked the list and made eye contact with the trembling cadets.

“If you had combined your strength and charged at me instead of running away, you might have had a better outcome. You guys gave up from the start.”

I felt disappointed in the cadets.

The reason why the cadets of Class 5 and I were able to resolve this situation so easily was simple.

‘They have the strength, but they don’t know how to fight.’

They were no different from empty shells.

As soon as they felt like they were losing, or if they were overwhelmed by momentum, the cadets were busy running away.

From a certain point on, it was literally a hunt.

“Just because you were born with everything…… is it so great to act high and mighty? You’re only strong because you were born with strong blood! You just got lucky with good blood!”

The cadet with the grotesquely twisted arm shouted, grinding his teeth.

A strange sense of déjà vu washed over me.

The kind of things I heard from the Class 5 cadets when I first started my life in the Cadet Corps.

“Lee Seok-young, Cadet No. 13 of Class 2-2. A cadet from a cadet branch. Am I right?”

I approached the cadet who had spoken those words.

The cadet flinched.

“Why, why? Are you going to harm someone who is already incapacitated?”

“You’re trembling, but you’re acting tough.”

“……Eek!”

The cadet Lee Seok-young bit his lip.

“If you’re from a cadet branch, you’d know. Does a bastard like me really look like a lucky guy to you?”

“Th, that’s…….”

The cadet’s eyes wavered.

“If you only look at what’s visible, you’re strong enough to beat anyone in Class 5. But I don’t think so. Even if I wasn’t here, you would have lost anyway. Your plan would have failed anyway.”

“That’s nonsense. If it weren’t for you, Young Master…….”

“No, absolutely. Why do you think this happened in the first place? Because our tactics were superior? Because our strength was stronger than you expected? You had almost three times as many cadets as Class 5, and your level was higher, right?”

In reality, superior tactics played a big role, but I didn’t think things would go this easily.

If even half of the cadets who targeted us had the same fighting spirit as the Class 5 cadets, the Class 5 cadets might have suffered significant damage in this incident.

“But you didn’t fight back. That’s why you were hunted.”

I was convinced by this incident.

It was the right choice not to forcibly change my assignment to Class 5.

The cadets of Class 5 were more desperate because they had hit rock bottom, and they could turn into something fierce because they had nothing.

Most of the cadets…… were probably no different from these guys.

“This is Soongmoo. Think carefully about what that means.”

Leaving the dazed cadet behind, I got up from my seat.

Checking the list, I couldn’t help but frown.

‘There’s still a long way to go. I need to move diligently.’

The moment I used Concealment, the signs of my presence noticeably decreased.

The hunt was not over yet.

* * *

Lee Seol-ah came to Lee Jae-hak’s room and was eating snacks.

“Wow, you have a lot of good snacks in your office?”

“……Those are for guests. Eat moderately.”

“I don’t want to~.”

Lee Seol-ah dipped another cookie in her coffee and asked slyly.

“Haven’t you heard from them yet?”

“It hasn’t been long since I received a message from the instructor that everyone up to the second year had entered. How could things have progressed so quickly after it just started?”

“I guess so? Just thinking about that bastard and the trash from the junkyard crawling around already makes me excited. If we handle this well, Mom said she’d give us something, right?”

“…….”

Lee Jae-hak stopped his hands, which had been rapidly typing on the keyboard.

He stared at the cursor blinking on the graph and thought.

‘Will things really go that easily?’

He hadn’t put in a lot of effort to prepare, but he had prepared quite a bit, so the results would definitely be as expected.

But Lee Jae-hak was feeling a strange emotion.

He definitely expected things to go according to plan, but he had a contradictory feeling of wanting the plan to go wrong.

-Brother. The youngest is not your match. Be careful.

That was what his eldest brother had said when he visited recently while he was working on the plan.

At the time, he had laughed it off internally, but those words were like thorns stuck in his throat.

Lee Jae-hak glanced at his phone.

Buzz-!

Just then, his phone vibrated.

-Young Master. I don’t know where to start. I’m sorry. Currently…….

It was Kim Gyu-taek’s report.

Lee Jae-hak’s eyes twitched as he read the lengthy text.

“Why? Is it over?”

Lee Seol-ah poked her face in and checked the message.

Lee Seol-ah’s expression also turned to shock.

The main point of the message was simple.

15 deserters occurred.

“Bull, bullshit. I guess that bastard is fighting a little better than expected. Or maybe the trash from the junkyard are more injured than expected, so their return is delayed.”

“I wonder…….”

Could it be?

Lee Jae-hak couldn’t finish his sentence.

And 1 hour, then 2 hours passed.

The reports came in sporadically.

Lee Jae-hak and Lee Seol-ah’s expressions changed each time they read the messages.

“Th, th! No way! These trashy bastards! How could they not handle just one bastard?”

The cadets involved in this incident were virtually annihilated.

In contrast, all the cadets of Class 5 survived.

Lee Jae-hak let out a hollow laugh without realizing it.

‘I lost.’

Youngest brother, Lee Cheol.

Lee Jae-hak called out that name with only his lips, without making a sound.

He tapped the table and his eyes lit up.

* * *

After a certain point, the cadets who were targeting the Class 5 cadets and me were busy hiding or running away.

“Sniff, heuk-.”

“Da, damn it…… eugh!”

The three cadets who started running away as soon as they saw me were subdued without even putting up a proper resistance.

These three were the last cadets I had to deal with.

I tore up the list.

‘You underestimated me too much, Seol-ah Noona [older sister], Jae-hak Hyung [older brother].’

With this, the two of them would be in quite a difficult situation.

They had carried out the task under Madam Baek’s orders but failed, and they had severely injured the children of the forces that supported them.

In addition, the cadets that Class 5 and I had subdued would not be able to properly participate in the promotion battle, so their failure was almost certain.

I’m sure there would be some kind of protest.

As a result, the two of them would suffer quite a bit of damage.

They had failed to sink me and Class 5, which was their goal, and they had only lost the benefits used to bribe the cadets and their reputations.

Peeeeeeng-!

Around that time, two signal arrows were fired into the air, cutting through the sky.

Two shots meant that the guys on the list were taken care of. It seemed like the other side was finished as well.

‘It’s over.’

This was my own warning.

A warning to the Noona and Hyung I had once feared.

Far away, the sunset was spreading along the demarcation line of Dolsan.

The first day of the promotion battle passed like that.

* * *

After the cadets who were targeting us were wiped out, I parted ways with the Class 5 cadets. From the beginning, we had agreed to act individually once the task was completed.

In this promotion battle, the victory condition was either to eliminate someone and take their nameplate or to find a hidden nameplate.

Taking the cadets’ nameplates was also a method, but I deliberately avoided combat and searched for hidden nameplates.

The reason was simple.

‘Maybe I can find the nameplates with my Evil Eye?’

As soon as that thought occurred to me, I put it into action.

‘My Evil Eye is the power to analyze abilities.’

Some eyes read the future, and some eyes discern truth from lies.

The power to read magic and read strength.

My Evil Eye was an eye that analyzed reality, the phenomenon of this moment.

‘Then I should be able to do it.’

How much this eye could see, how I could develop this power, and how much I could use it depended on me.

‘Let’s focus.’

Throb-

And in an instant.

Along with the feeling that my eyes were stinging, I saw an unfamiliar cluster of lights.

Turning my head along with the cluster of lights, I couldn’t help but smile.

‘I found it.’

On the top of the cliff, between the rocks, I saw a strange object.

It was a nameplate.

‘Okay. Was this how to do it?’

Pressing down on my throbbing eyes, I opened them again.

‘I can increase my control. It’s doable.’

I slowly searched the forest.

After using my eyes to their limit, I hid for a while and gathered my strength, and when I recovered, I searched Dolsan again with my Evil Eye open.

That’s how the second day of the promotion battle passed.

I occasionally met cadets from other classes, but I easily defeated them and continued collecting nameplates.

Both the Evil Eye training and the nameplate collection went smoothly.

“Huh…… this is.”

And on the night of the second day.

I gathered twigs that didn’t produce smoke and lit a bonfire, counted the number of nameplates, and admired them.

128.

It was a number of nameplates that I couldn’t have obtained even if I had knocked down more than half of the Cadet Corps alone.

……There was a reason why the backpack I was carrying the nameplates in was getting heavier.

* * *

Third day of the promotion battle.

As the end of the promotion battle was approaching, I finished my meal with a high-calorie energy block and sat on a high ground, looking around.

‘I can’t do Evil Eye training anymore.’

Dolsan was in chaos.

Explosions and flashes of magic were erupting like crazy everywhere.

As the test reached its final stage, battles seemed to be constant from dawn.

I slowly looked behind me.

‘If I avoid that guy any more, it might get annoying.’

I had finished sorting out the cadets who had been bribed by my sixth Noona and seventh Hyung in this promotion battle, but there was still one more person who would target me.

Whoosh!

In an instant, something leaped into the air with animal-like movements and landed in front of me.

“……Hoo, shit. I finally found you.”

I looked at the guy in front of me with an indifferent expression.

“What? Aren’t you surprised?”

“I knew you were chasing me.”

“Then why didn’t you stop for a bit?”

“I wasn’t really avoiding you.”

“Aha, is that so?”

Eighth Lee Seo-hyun.

This was the one who was left.

She frowned and slammed her steel sword into the ground. Then she tied her hair back with a hair tie and drew her sword again.

“Without saying much. Hey, let’s fight.”

Lee Seo-hyun smiled, revealing her white teeth.

“Let’s decide who’s on top, okay? If I win, call me Noona.”

“Then if I win?”

Lee Seo-hyun scoffed.

“That won’t happen. Well, if you win, I’ll call you Oppa.”

I felt a chill run down my spine.

I never thought hearing a sibling call me Oppa would sound so disgusting.

“……If you were planning to inflict damage with mental attacks, it would have been quite effective.”

“Shut up! Draw your sword quickly!”

I shook my head, looking at Lee Seo-hyun, who was glaring at me fiercely.

“If you wanted to fight so badly, why didn’t you attack on the first day?”

At that time, I was running around Dolsan, bursting with magic.

Thanks to that, I had to face a few more cadets besides the ones I was targeting.

If Lee Seo-hyun had attacked in that situation, it would have unfolded quite differently.

“I told you. Fair and square. If I hit you when you’re all tired, is that really doing it right? That’s so cheap.”

As soon as Lee Seo-hyun finished speaking, she kicked off the ground.

“So let’s have a proper fight!”

I smiled bitterly and drew my sword.

Kwaaaang!

With a rough noise, the last battle of the promotion battle began.