The Illegitimate Who Devours Weapons

Weapon-Eating Illegitimate Son

Episode 57

I headed to the main building where my father spent most of his day.

Since not much time has passed, the atmosphere of the main building has not changed much.

“Today it’s not your side, it’s this side, your highness.”

“yes?”

Butler Choi smiled and guided me to the back of the main building.

‘That place is… … .’

It is the side where the training ground for the head of the household is located, next to the main building.

A place where no one dares set foot without the father’s permission.

The training ground was ordinary.

There is no special training equipment, no special weapons, and no special stone steps.

In some ways, it was a place reminiscent of Sungmujang, the first training ground.

My father was standing in the middle of the training ground.

He was lost in thought, looking into the distance as if thinking about something.

‘It’s not surprising anymore.’

Although he had grown a lot in Cheonwisan Mountain, he still could not even guess at his father’s level.

‘What a wonderful family.’

It’s always been this way.

The family doesn’t even give you the luxury of a little time to settle down.

The moment I am satisfied with what I have achieved, it shows me the realm above it.

I feel like running to the training ground right now.

“It’s been a long time, Father. How have you been?”

“……You came.”

My father turned his head and looked at me.

But he just stares at me without saying a word.

‘You’ve changed.’

Lee Tae-shin looked into Lee Cheol’s eyes.

Although only a year has passed, he now has a body and eyes that are no longer suitable for the expression “child.”

From them, Lee Tae-shin could guess the arduous training his youngest son had undergone over the past year.

“That’s a decent accomplishment.”

It’s okay.

Coming from a father who is stingy with praise, there is no praise this high.

But I wasn’t satisfied with that compliment.

“I felt like I was lacking. Just seeing my father made me want to start training right away.”

“Did you learn flattery by going out for a bit? If so, I’m disappointed.”

Although his voice was emotionless and flat, I opened my eyes wide when I saw my father’s expression.

‘Are you… joking?’

He was not originally a person who talked nonsense.

But my father’s expression was too calm for someone who would scold others. Rather, it was closer to an expression of satisfaction.

“The tea is ready, my lord.”

“Thank you. Come this way.”

My father led me to a small table on one side of the training grounds.

The fragrant scent of tea was wafting from a teacup placed on an antique table.

My father took the scabbard off his waist, placed it next to him, and picked up his teacup.

“How have you been?”

A tone of voice that seems to ask about recent events.

And there was even fragrant tea placed in front of me.

If it weren’t for my father who said that, I would have answered with ease, but I couldn’t help but think differently.

‘Do you want to hear about what happened at Cheonwisan?’

I tried to gather my thoughts and open my mouth.

But then my father spoke first, as if he had read my thoughts.

“If you were going to hear the report, you wouldn’t have called me in separately. Tell me what you felt.”

I opened my mouth and closed it again.

My father’s eyebrows twitched.

“It’s taking too long just to listen to a story. Do I have to wait any longer?”

“Oh, no.”

I think I should answer first.

I quickly cleared my throat and began to speak.

Training at Cheonwisan. As expected, it’s a story of training and training.

Lee Tae-shin listened to his son’s story.

‘Is this the first time I’ve heard from my child not only his performance report, but also his thoughts on training?’

In fact, Lee Tae-shin was looking forward to Lee Chul’s return.

What will it show this time and how much will it grow?

Whenever such thoughts would pop up in his head, Itaewon would feel quite refreshed.

So at this moment, Lee Tae-shin was feeling happy for the first time in a long time.

‘… … This feels unfamiliar.’

But it doesn’t feel bad.

It’s not that I’ve never felt curiosity and anticipation for my children, but it was different now.

Soon, the son’s story ended.

“That’s all.”

The story ended up being shorter than I thought, excluding the part I promised the mountain man.

“You didn’t waste your time.”

“I can’t waste the time my father gave me.”

My father put down his teacup and asked in a calm tone.

“But what happened today? I came back later than scheduled.”

“I stopped by Sungmusan Mountain to pay my respects to my ancestors. This year, I was at Cheonwisan Mountain during the holidays, so I couldn’t pay my respects.”

“It is not something to apologize for. Rather, it is something that deserves praise.”

Nowadays, even the elders do not visit the cemetery unless something special comes up.

But that wasn’t what Lee Tae-shin wanted to ask.

“Why did you decide to visit the cemetery?”

“I wanted to pay homage to my ancestors. I also thought it was something I should do as a descendant of the Sungmoo clan.”

“Is that the end?”

I stared at my father.

And answered slowly.

“And I also wanted to show that to the elders.”

My father’s eyebrows furrowed just a little.

“Have you become a little arrogant after achieving such a modest accomplishment? Do you dare to tell me now that you used your visit to the ancestral shrine for the sake of your own image?”

I took a moment to catch my breath.

Now was the moment.

‘I could have just let it go, but I had to reveal it this time. I’ll have to come here often because of the Dark Night, and I can’t do this every time.’

There is clearly a reverence and respect for the ancestors of the Sungmu family.

After all, they are the people I can call my roots.

However, it cannot be denied that visiting the graves of ancestors at the ancestral shrine is largely due to the dark night.

“Rather than just talking about tradition and etiquette, I wanted to show it through action.”

“What?”

“They call me an illegitimate child, but I too am a descendant of the Sungmu clan. I dare to be an example.”

My father stared intently into my eyes for a moment.

“You speak well. I will forgive you now. But you must be careful not to let it become self-indulgent.”

After finishing his short speech, my father silently picked up his teacup again.

I felt like I was going to get over this.

I sighed inwardly and picked up my teacup.

But then, my father opened his mouth again.

“And one more thing. There’s something you didn’t tell me.”

“yes?”

What didn’t you say?

Could you be referring to the seal of the Dark Night? Or the incident with the mountain keeper?

But none of those things were something my father could know.

“I allowed you to climb Cheonwisan Mountain, but I don’t remember allowing you to have bloodless dreams. In the demands you mentioned, you said you would train at Cheonwisan Mountain.”

“…….”

Oops.

I swallowed dry saliva.

Father stood up from his seat.

“You have deceived your father, so you must be punished. Take up your weapon. I will test what you have obtained.”

* * *

My father had called me to the training ground for this.

I stood facing my father in the center of the training ground.

Thump!

My heart was pounding like crazy.

‘This is the first time.’

It was the first time in my entire life, before my regression, that I showed off what I had in front of my father.

I took a deep breath and reached out to my waist.

but.

“Can you show me everything you’ve learned with that?”

Now, I had a black night hanging on my waist.

‘… … So you knew.’

I carefully pulled out the black night and placed it on the weapon rack in the training ground, then took out the Mujin.

Woof-!

The moment magic power is injected, Mujin’s form begins to change.

Even after seeing that, my father didn’t show even the slightest change in his eyes.

I made Mujin into a sword and raised the aura.

“Come.”

My father spoke, his sword hanging loosely.

I slowly opened my eyes.

‘… … !’

It wasn’t visible.

Not a single one.

Ma-an only reflected the image of her father.

‘Is this something I can’t see with my current eyes?’

In that case, there was no need to open the magic eye that was eating up concentration.

The magic wand was lifted.

There is no point in exploring or warming up against my father.

He put all his effort into it from the first blow.

Mujin eclipse, Chuckma.

He even included an aura skill that combines the cold air and the wind, with the intention of putting all his effort into the first attack.

One step forward.

I gritted my teeth.

‘I still can’t reach my father’s toes.’

My father, whom I had only seen from a distance, was standing in front of me with a sword in hand.

An opportunity that may come again and again.

I want to feel it properly.

The distance between me and my father now.

“…….”

My father’s eyes lit up as he watched the sword fight.

Wow-!

But that blow was deflected by my father’s light sword strike that wasn’t even tinged with magic.

“Huh!”

Pieces of the burst aura scattered everywhere.

Crunch! Crunch!

He changed his form and rotated his sword, then extended it in another direction.

When you ring the bell, do it.

When stabbing, use a sword.

Open the window to the street.

But all those attacks were blocked by his father’s sword.

“stop.”

Kagagagagak!

Several deep ditches had formed in the once quiet training ground stone steps.

“Ugh, ugh…….”

Although I only swung my sword a few times, each blow was so powerful that it left me breathless.

Srrrrung- bang!

My father slipped the sword into its scabbard with a graceful movement.

“Is that the answer you got from seeing the ancestral spirit?”

“Yes. That was the answer I got.”

My father guessed the insight I had gained from that brief confrontation.

‘You’ve had a hard time.’

Lee Tae-shin looked at his youngest son, who was gasping for breath.

‘It’s neither broken nor bent.’

I didn’t think about how.

In Sungmoo-i-ga, the results speak for themselves.

If you did it, then you did it.

Lee Tae-shin saw the light in his youngest son’s eyes.

That blazing light only grew stronger, never fading or weakening.

Once again, his expectations were defied.

“How was it?”

Lee Tae-shin looked at his son.

Lee Cheol, who was trying to catch his breath, opened his mouth.

“Words… can’t explain it well.”

I saw the wall.

And it broke that wall.

You could say it with words like basic or essential, but I also gained and felt something that cannot be explained with those words alone.

“I was like that too. The lord was strong. Maybe even stronger than I was at that age.”

I heard from my father the same thing I had heard before.

If we only look at the outward appearance, I cleared my bloodless dream much earlier than my father, which means I got ahead of him.

but.

“I thought that in the case of Bloodless Dream, things like age difference weren’t important.”

“That’s true. If you really stood face to face with him, you would know that it’s not the place to judge things like that.”

This moment of exchanging opinions with my father gave me a very strange feeling.

For some reason, my father didn’t seem that difficult.

It felt like my relationship with my father was horizontal, rather than hierarchical.

As a companion walking the same path.

I even felt a strong bond as we shared our thoughts on the martial arts we had acquired from each other.

“The fact that you haven’t yet expressed it in words means that it hasn’t become completely yours. In fact, those movements aren’t the best you can do at the moment.”

“Yes, I know.”

As expected, my father saw through it completely.

As my father said, I have not yet fully established my enlightenment.

My father stared at me intently.

“If I had shown an unseemly behavior while entering a bloodless dream on my own, I would have been properly punished.”

I feel a chill down my spine.

Those words were my father’s true feelings.

I bent down urgently.

“sorry.”

Lee Tae-shin looked at his son for a moment.

It was so cute to see the guy, who seemed to have a few snakes inside him, sweating and apologizing.

‘Anyway, it was pretty good.’

And then I thought about what we had just shared.

The magic he created with his youngest sibling, Kyung-hwa Lee, the way he established his own fighting style at that age, and the way he applied the enlightenment he gained from the bloodless dream.

It has already gone far beyond the appropriate level.

“What do you plan to do from now on?”

The level of a cadet is far beyond that of a student.

If you are a third-year cadet, you will likely enter the training institutes of the military academy or the military police academy, but that would be a waste of time.

‘I have already learned the contents of the six gates and am of a much higher level than the mediocre warriors who are entering the Musade.’

With my thorough personality, there was no way I would waste time like that.

“……There was something I wanted to ask of you, Father.”

Please, please.

I can’t even remember the last time my children asked me to do something for them.

But it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.

“Tell me.”

“From now on, I have to go through the third year of the cadet corps. But my father has already said about me…….”

“I don’t like beating around the bush. Just get to the point.”

“I want to experience the world.”

I paused for a moment, then continued speaking.

“I want to start a journey without incident.”