LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 121 - What Kind of Person Was Father
Chapter 121 What Kind of Person Was Father
Something flew at him, and it was none other than the mystical sword, Durandal.
‘That’s the gear you could only obtain by completing the Baekdusan Dungeon 100%! And he actually cleared it?!’
He couldn’t believe it.
And for good reason—the Baekdusan Dungeon, a sub-quest in the later stages of *Hunter’s Blood,* was infamous not for its difficulty but for its tedious grind.
He had wasted 50 hours of playtime trying to farm Durandal there.
Moreover, why was the sword of Roland, the great hero of France, appearing here, of all places, at Baekdusan? The mystical Durandal was both controversial and notoriously difficult to obtain.
And yet, he had acquired it.
“Krurrrk.”
‘You must have gone through a lot of trouble to get this sword…’
“It was nothing.”
“Krurk?!”
‘Huh?!’
The man responded to his awe-filled growl.
Then, he extended a hand toward him.
“Durandal, return to your sheath.”
As he made this declaration,
*Wooong.*
“Krurk?”
A strange force emanated from the holy sword Durandal, which he had been holding, and it began to move on its own.
At first, he thought of holding it tightly to prevent it from leaving.
But then,
*Slide.*
‘I want to talk first.’
In this state, it didn’t seem like they could have any conversation.
So he let go of the sword, allowing it to return to its sheath, and only then did he properly lock eyes with the ‘son’ before him, whose appearance was half white and half black.
“Krurrrk. Krurk?”
‘Can you understand what I’m saying?’
“Yes, Father.”
The son responded well to his growl.
“Krurrrrk?”
‘May I ask your name?’
“I am Han Leon.”
Han Leon…
Was it just his imagination?
It felt like Leon put special emphasis on the *Han* surname.
‘Come to think of it, why didn’t Shin-ah and Yulian have the *Han* surname?’
Had the tradition of passing on the father’s surname disappeared in the future?
But then again, Leon, who was standing right in front of him, had introduced himself as Han Leon.
So what was going on?
Maybe it was that only those who wanted to use the surname included it in their names?
“In the future, only five of Father’s children inherited the *Han* surname.”
“Krurk?”
‘What…?’
“The meaning of the *Han* surname is just that. Among the children you created, only those deemed useful were given the right to inherit the surname, and they can, like me, proudly say it.”
“Krurrrk…”
‘What does that even…’
He fell silent, realizing that the future was much darker than he had imagined.
Only those children who proved their worth were allowed to inherit the surname?
What kind of culture was that?
More importantly, how could a father see his children through such a lens?
“Krurrrrk…?”
‘Is that true? Is the future me really doing such a thing?’
“…Yes, that’s correct.”
“Krurk! Krurk!”
‘What kind of bastard is this!!’
“?!”
*Crack.*
My children weren’t items with different breeds.
Children should be equally loved—how could he create such a parental barrier?
The future me.
The future Han Shin-woo.
The more I dug, the more it was a horror story.
I began to understand why Jae-won had attacked me right from the start.
I would have done the same if my father was such a person.
Right now, I wanted to punch that future self of mine in the face.
But there was someone else just as surprised as me.
“Are you… getting angry right now?”
“Krurk?”
‘Huh?’
“May I ask why you’re angry?”
Han Leon, who had inherited the *Han* surname, looked at my reaction as if he couldn’t believe it.
“Krurk! Krurk!”
‘Of course, I’m angry!’
And I told my son,
“Krurrrrk! Krurk! Krurk!”
‘All my children deserve to be loved equally! It makes me so angry that the future me is discriminating based on a surname!’
“You’re getting angry… over something like that? Not because of Lady Sophia?”
“Krurk! Krurrrrk!”
‘Of course, Sophia is important to me. But that doesn’t mean you’re not important.’
Even though these children had appeared out of nowhere, the fact that they were my children made them all the more precious.
I didn’t want them to be hurt, didn’t want them to suffer, and wished they could always be happier than me.
That’s why I was angry.
The behavior of that future version of me, who thought differently despite being the same Han Shin-woo, made my fists clench.
And after hearing my words, Leon…
“Kraaaaaah—!!”
“?!”
Suddenly let out a roar, releasing black lightning from his body.
“Krurrrk…!”
‘That’s…!’
“Yes, it’s the Monster Transformation I inherited from you, Father.”
148
It was a bit different from my transformation and Jae-won’s.
It was as if his transformation was incomplete, yet he immediately took a stance to fight me.
“To be honest, I’m confused. It’s because the future you is nothing like this.”
“……”
“You always longed for Lady Sophia, whether you were with us, beside another queen you chose, or even… in the moment you were holding my mother.”
“!!”
“Yes, you never truly loved our mother.”
Was this something a son should have to say?
Absolutely not.
How had the future me managed to make his son say such things?
It felt like my heart was splitting in two.
“When I was little, I was always curious and scared. Why would Mother sneak out of bed while I was asleep, only to return covered in wounds the next day?”
Of course, Mother had powerful healing abilities.
No matter how bandaged she was, by the afternoon, she would be fully healed and act as if nothing had happened.
But even so, Leon, who had been worried, had once pretended to be asleep and secretly followed his mother, only to find a disturbing truth in the Emperor’s room.
*Whack! Whack! Whack! Whack!*
“Sophia! I’m sorry! I’m sorry, Sophia!”
“Guh… Ugh! B-Brother…”
The two were together, completely undressed.
But the way they were together was different from what he had read about in books on love.
Father, on top of Mother, repeatedly called out another woman’s name while pummeling Mother’s body like a punching bag.
Whenever Father stopped punching and cried, Mother would pull his face close and kiss him as if to stop him from crying.
Even though she was being choked, severely abused, and yet was smiling as if she was happy, Leon realized then that his family wasn’t normal.
Especially realizing the twisted nature of Mother’s love.
However, he didn’t dare ask his mother about it.
Because hearing such things from her own child would be too tragic.
That’s why he had to confirm it here.
“Father, please tell me. What kind of person were you in the past?”
“Krurrrrk…!”
“What changed you to become like this? Show me everything about the person known as Han Shin-woo!”
“Krurk! Krurk!”
‘Alright! Come at me, son!’
***
From Yujin’s perspective, who had transformed into a monster, ordinary pro hunters were far too easy to handle.
“Surround him!”
“Then we’ll all stab at the same time!”
*Chaaang.*
“Huh?”
“…Chang?”
“How many times do I have to tell you guys that slashing doesn’t work on me? Seriously.”
Even the specially made equipment in the Hunter Association’s armory couldn’t scratch Yujin’s body.
On the contrary, if they got too close by mistake,
*Swoosh.*
“Gyaaaaah?!”
Like a beautiful rose with thorns, most of the hunters ended up getting impaled by Yujin’s body and falling.
“Is this guy immune to attacks…?”
“And I doubt monster-specific bullets would work on him either…”
“This is driving me crazy.”
Yujin yawned out of boredom as he watched the hunters surround him on their own and then scatter just as easily.
By then, he was already standing in front of the elevator, and as he stepped inside and was about to close the door, he predicted the hunters would rush at him again, but then—
[Just let him go.]
“Huh? This voice…”
“Director?!”
[I’ll handle it, so please stand down, everyone.]
Jin-ah Lee’s voice came through the elevator’s loudspeaker, ordering the surrounding hunters to withdraw.
Yujin felt something off about the hunters reluctantly stepping back due to the command of their superior, but it was a good thing for him anyway.
‘Jin-ah Lee… Now that I think about it, she was someone mentioned in the history books. A person who was once the leader of the early human rebellion.’
Jin-ah Lee.
A woman who once reigned as the strongest in the now almost extinct human ecosystem.
He was excited at the thought of fighting such a strong opponent.
With that in mind, Yujin stepped out of the elevator as soon as it arrived on the rooftop.
“Hello.”
“Are you Jin-ah Lee?”
“Yes, I am.”
“I hope you’ll entertain me.”
As soon as he greeted her, Yujin leaped towards her.
“Silas Spark
!”
His feet transformed into sharp blades, allowing him to approach her as if skating.
Lancelot, who was standing by Jin-ah Lee’s side, admired the skill, impressed by its precision and speed.
“Should I intervene?”
“No, there’s no need. I’ve acquired ‘two bodies’ this time, so I want to test them out.”
“…Understood.”
“Mom, good luck!”
She instructed Lancelot, her bodyguard knight, to stand down and, under Eve’s encouragement, expanded her shadow.
Then, just as Yujin’s arm, transformed into a blade, was about to strike her neck…
*Bang!*
“…A coffin?”
She successfully defended herself with a coffin that emerged from the shadows.
‘Was this woman a Beast Hunter?’
But something felt off.
Typically, Beast Hunters would summon monsters from the shadows, but no matter how he looked at it, that was a coffin, the kind used for storing corpses.
And there were two of them.
“…What is this?”
What kind of technique was this?
While Yujin was momentarily taken aback and distanced himself,
“At a time when humanity is at its most perilous,”
“……”
“……”
“I would appreciate it if you could assist humanity once more, great figures of the past.”
The lids of the coffins opened, and two pale yet mobile corpses, similar to the current Lancelot, stepped out.
They were respectively—
An Eastern general wielding a giant spear with crescent-shaped blades on either side and a resurrected saint holding the banner of freedom and equality.