The Illegitimate Who Devours Weapons

Weapon-Eating Illegitimate Son

Episode 43

It felt like over an hour had passed since I entered my father’s office, but when I came out and checked the time, only about 30 minutes had passed.

As Lee Seo-hyun walked away from the office, she let out a long breath as if she had been underwater for a long time.

“Whoa… … .”

“You’re overreacting. You speak well despite being so nervous.”

“I didn’t make a mistake, did I? What did I say? Was I being honest? Why did you say it wasn’t bad? Was it bad?!”

I couldn’t help but laugh in vain as I watched Lee Seo-hyun tremble and mumble her own words.

At that moment, Butler Choi approached from behind, his usual neat and tidy posture.

“Did you finish the story well?”

“Oh, Butler Choi. Yes, it was okay.”

I awkwardly answered while watching Lee Seo-hyun, who was locked in her own world and mumbling on the side.

“Your Majesty. May I say something?”

“… … Yes. I will listen.”

Normally, the direct line of the main family does not use honorifics with their employees or family members, but Butler Choi was one of the exceptions.

Although he was called a butler, he had been serving the Sungmu family for a very long time and was essentially like his father’s secretary.

I felt an inexplicable tension and focused on Butler Choi’s words.

“Do you enjoy hiking?”

I shook my head at the sudden words.

“No. I don’t think I’ve ever been on a proper hike before.”

The only time I climbed anything worthy of being called a mountain was during quarterly evaluations.

“I enjoy it quite a bit. When I was a little younger than I am now, I went to all the famous and rugged mountains in the country.”

I listened to Butler Choi, who was talking with a blank smile.

Butler Choi was trying to say something.

There was no way that mountaineering could mean mountaineering at face value.

“Once, I climbed a very steep mountain. There was no path, so I had to make a path. How would you climb a mountain like that?”

I thought for a moment and answered.

“I will climb silently, looking only upward. That way, I will reach the summit quickly and accurately.”

“Haha, then you will surely climb quickly.”

Suddenly, Butler Choi’s voice became low.

“But that’s not true. Sometimes you have to look behind or to the side to see if you’re going straight, and you have to check the terrain to find your way. If you only look forward while walking, you can easily lose your way and have to take a long detour. This is especially true in high mountains.”

Butler Choi stared at me intently.

Mysterious words.

I intuitively realized that the story about mountaineering was a metaphor for something.

‘Are you talking about martial arts?’

Lately, whenever I’ve been thinking about myself, a thought has been popping up every so often.

I’ve found myself repeatedly accepting new things before I’ve even had a chance to digest what I’ve already acquired.

It has been a long time since I looked back and laid the foundation and organized my strengths.

Most of my recent training has been focused on adapting to new forces and getting stronger quickly.

‘But I didn’t think that would be a problem.’

There were still many strengths I had to gain, and what I had accomplished so far was only the beginning of my future plans, so I had no time to look back.

I’ve always thought that as time goes by and I train myself, this problem will be solved.

but.

‘Butler Choi is right. As time goes by, I will only be looking for new things again. Without even properly looking back at what I have now.’

The saying that if you just run forward without looking back comes to mind, you might get lost.

Now, when we haven’t gone far yet, might be the time to look behind and to the side to make sure we’re not taking the wrong path.

I bowed my head deeply.

“Thank you for your kind words, Deacon Choi.”

“Just think of it as an old man’s nagging. I’m just saying this in the hopes that it might be of some help to you, since you’re having a very difficult time.”

I looked at Butler Choi.

Did she really know what she was doing, or was it just something she said out of concern?

In the past, it would have definitely been the latter, but it was not easy to make a decision.

The image I had of the gentle butler Choi that I knew until now was shaken just a little.

“May I ask why you are telling me this?”

“When I look at you, I am reminded of someone I know.”

“Who are you talking about?”

“There was a special person. She was very beautiful and very strong. One day, you will know.”

An attitude that makes it seem like no matter how many times you ask, they won’t answer.

I quietly looked at Butler Choi, who was smiling calmly.

“Hey, Butler Choi. What on earth are you talking about?”

After mumbling for a while, Lee Seo-hyun approached him from the middle and tilted her head.

Suddenly, he started talking about mountaineering, and Lee Cheol bowed his head and expressed his deep gratitude. He said that this fierce guy resembled a beautiful person.

“That’s just an old man’s nagging, miss. Hehe.”

Butler Choi smiled broadly, finding Lee Seo-hyun’s tomboyish appearance cute.

Before we knew it, we were out of my father’s office building.

I bowed my head slightly in greeting.

“I’ll go now.”

“Yes, please take a look. I won’t go far.”

“Butler Choi! Goodbye!”

I turned around and walked away.

Then suddenly I turned around and looked at Butler Choi.

The last rays of sunlight of the day were setting behind Deacon Choi, who was still looking at us.

Could it be an optical illusion?

The figure of Butler Choi, standing with his back to the sunlight, looked unusually large.

* * *

Lee Tae-shin stood leaning against the window.

The sight of his son and daughter walking down the long street leading to their home soon disappeared into a single dot.

“The eighth one discusses justice.”

Lee Tae-shin turned around and said.

Behind him stood Butler Choi, who had returned to his office.

Butler Choi smiled warmly as he thought of the eighth, Lee Seo-hyun.

“You are a person born with clear energy.”

“What do you think the ninth one would have said?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t expect that.”

“The youngest said it was pathetic.”

Butler Choi sighed.

Because it was easy to guess what the disappointment was about.

And if my guess is correct, that was not something that could be easily said to the Absolute Being standing at that window.

“If I hadn’t felt the same way, I wouldn’t have forgiven him even if he was my child.”

“I don’t think the young master intended to go against his master’s wishes.”

“If not, he must have known that he would have been in big trouble.”

Butler Choi brought out the tea.

The soft scent of tea lingered in the office.

Lee Tae-shin said, holding up his teacup.

“I’ll have the Yongrin Armor delivered to Bigo by today. Just give it to the Eighth.”

“I will handle it as you command.”

“And tell the mountain keeper to prepare. The youngest one wants to enter the mountain.”

“If you’re talking about climbing a mountain… … are you talking about Cheonwi Mountain?”

“okay.”

Butler Choi’s expression became mysterious.

There are quite a few places in the Sungmu clan’s territory that can be called spiritual grounds, but among them, Cheonwisan Mountain is a bit special.

Because Cheonwisan was a closed training ground for the direct descendants of the Sungmu family.

It is not an ordinary closed training center, but a place that is said to have been built by the founder himself.

Because it had value as a training center, it also had value as a symbol and qualification.

“The deadline was one year. It wasn’t a place I could enter originally, so I guess that’s the limit.”

“Even if it was only a year, this was unprecedented. Since it was the lord’s order, there shouldn’t be any problems… … .”

This is a somewhat cumbersome way of handling things.

There may be no complaints against Gaju, but there could be noise about his illegitimate son, Lee Cheol.

“If you’re a second-year cadet, you’ll be assigned to actual combat or field assignments. Treat it as a special mission.”

“All right.”

Butler Choi said that and thought about the content regarding the right to enter Cheonwi Mountain once again.

Lee Chul would have known that this was an unprecedented event and that there might be noise.

Rather than risking that, it would have been okay to ask for something like normal, decent equipment or elixir.

‘But Master Lee Cheol insisted on requesting permission to enter the mountain… … .’

What value is this anyway?

Recognizing that one has lived the life of a cadet without actually living it.

In addition, while you are in the mountains, you will not be involved in any external problems as it is the command of the head of the household.

‘I see. Your Majesty.’

Lee Cheol not only gained the right to enter Cheonwi Mountain, but also gained a time advantage of a full year.

“Heh heh.”

Butler Choi laughed quietly.

“Youngest Master, you have thought about it. I think I spoke out of turn.”

“Words of nonsense?”

“I told you an old adage about climbing mountains.”

Lee Tae-shin nodded after hearing that.

He too had heard that story a long time ago from Butler Choi’s predecessor.

“You even said something like that. Did you like the youngest?”

“I just offered a word of advice as a servant of the Sungmu family.”

Lee Tae-shin made a strange expression.

Butler Choi was not the type of person to easily give advice to anyone.

The person who gave the advice seemed to think it was nothing special, but to Lee Tae-shin, it was a very rare occurrence.

“What kind of child do you think the youngest is?”

“You seem to be a devoted and upright person, as befitting the blood relative of the lord.”

“Instead of using such cliches, tell me what you think.”

Butler Choi hesitated for a moment.

But soon he opened his mouth cautiously.

“It seemed like she resembled Yoojung a lot.”

Lee Tae-shin stopped moving for a moment.

“In what part?”

“You were looking at me.”

Butler Choi smiled broadly.

“You looked at me like I was a goblin, so I was taken aback.”

“It’s a goblin.”

Those words made Lee Tae-shin feel unusually cheerful.

Lee Tae-shin turned back to the window and looked at the path the youngest had walked along.

A child who is exceptionally special despite being his blood descendant.

A child who, if born just 10 years earlier, might have been able to compete well with the firstborn.

‘I trained at Sungmujang, and at the naming ceremony, I proved myself in the first test. This time, it was Cheonwisan.’

The more you look at him, the more you see that he is a unique child who walks an unusual path.

But when I look back at the footsteps I have walked, I get the feeling that the path was made up of symbolic things under some kind of plan.

Lee Cheol has never once strayed from the norm.

A child who does not just do things blindly, but calculates what will follow when doing something.

What on earth are they aiming for this time?

* * *

As soon as I returned to my room, I leaned back deeply into my chair.

‘Whew, it feels like only an hour has passed, but it feels like I’ve been training for half a day.’

I couldn’t help it, since I had spent quite a bit of mental energy talking to my father and had also heard advice from Deacon Choi.

‘Still, I have been granted permission to enter Cheonwisan Mountain. With this, I can bring forward the date when I can perform the military expedition.’

After passing three tests, the children of the Sungmu family are recognized as warriors representing the Lee family and the two characters of Sungmu.

The first is the wire ceremony, and the second is the naming ceremony.

And the last one is Musaheng.

Originally, the direct descendants of the Sungmu family went on a military journey after serving in the cadet unit and gaining sufficient experience in actual combat as semi-military soldiers.

There is no set test for Musaheng like a naming ceremony.

There’s just one thing you need to do, to come back as an adult with remarkable strength.

At this time, before leaving on a military expedition, there was a place where all the direct descendants of the Sungmu family would visit according to tradition, and that was Cheonwisan Mountain.

‘It was said that this was a space created by the founder of the Sungmu clan to test his descendants who were about to throw their hats into the ring.’

This is a tower that you could originally enter only after graduating from the cadet unit and becoming a warrant officer.

But with my father’s permission this time, I was able to complete the second year of the cadet training at the training tower.

‘Besides… … Cheonwisan is a place I absolutely had to visit at least once.’

I turned my head and looked at one side of the room.

There was a weapons cache there.

A single sword that shines with a black luster despite not having been maintained in any particular way.

The black night that I had never taken out since I chose it at the iron wire was stuck there.

dripping-

Just then someone knocked on the door.

“Your Majesty, this is the nanny. She, she contacted me.”

The nanny stepped inside and made a subtle expression.

“Contact? What contact?”

“It’s an invitation, but it’s a bit… … .”

“Invitation? By whom?”

If it was my aunt, I wouldn’t have called it an invitation, and if it was my eldest brother, the nanny wouldn’t have made that kind of expression, right?

“Yes. I, that is… … .”

The nanny continued speaking with difficulty and hesitation.

“The seventh young master… … is here.”