WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
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Chapter 114: A Restless Night
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* * *
Clink.
Rimon dropped ice into an empty glass.
Then, from among the bottles displayed in the cabinet, he poured himself a generous serving of amber whisky and sat on the sofa.
When he lightly brought the glass to his lips, the rich aroma reached him before the taste.
The whisky's distinctive peat smoke, as though it had smoked the very passage of time, mingled with the amber liquid lingering on his tongue and seeped into him in a thousand fragments.
It was a heavy flavor steeped in years, enough to intoxicate an ordinary person through scent alone.
But Rimon did not get drunk.
Because he was a superhuman Sword Master.
And because he had lived for so long.
The poison of alcohol and the weight of time both melted far too lightly in his mouth.
“What are you doing up instead of sleeping, Princess?”
That was why Rimon's voice was perfectly clear when he asked the black-haired girl who had appeared behind the sofa without him noticing.
“I couldn't sleep.”
“Why? Got insomnia?”
“No. I was simply too curious about why the Sword Duke was awake at this hour to fall asleep.”
“When you get old, you need less sleep.”
“If it were only because of your age, you wouldn't be awake this late only tonight.”
Li Qing-yu smiled.
Rimon gave a brief snort at her sharp observation. After taking a swallow of whisky, he spoke quietly.
“The night is restless.”
It was an abrupt thing to say.
But she was not flustered. Looking at Rimon with eyes like obsidian, she merely asked calmly,
“Is that a Sword Master's intuition?”
“Who knows? If I had to call it something, it would be the instincts of an old man who spent his life on battlefields.”
Rimon shrugged.
Then, turning toward the dark window, he continued in a low voice.
“When you've spent your life on battlefields, there are days when the night feels restless like this.”
There was no particular omen.
Perhaps the insects were unusually quiet.
Perhaps the fierce wind had gone still.
Perhaps the stars were too bright.
Or perhaps there were no stars at all.
Sometimes, ordinary things that happened every day felt strangely unfamiliar for no clear reason.
Soldiers who had lived through battlefields simply accepted that indescribable, indefinable feeling by saying the night was restless.
“The funny thing is, whenever the night feels restless like this, there is always a night raid or a large-scale battle, and people die like ants being crushed.”
“Is it a form of precognition?”
“It isn't anything so grand. It is only the instinct every person possesses coming to the surface.”
Before a storm, the wind died down.
Before an earthquake, animals ran wild.
Just as rats did not board a ship with a hole in it.
Everything in the world had its signs. Human senses simply could not perceive them.
But when their lives were at stake, even the dullest people could not help becoming sensitive. That was a living creature's instinct.
Having explained this calmly, Rimon scratched his cheek.
“People these days call it PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, or something like that.”
“After the Iron Age began, people came to believe in things they could define clearly, like levels and Skills, rather than vague things like intuition.”
“Well, it is better than letting half-con men who called this sort of thing heavenly secrets steer the affairs of the state like in the old days.”
Rimon gave a faint laugh.
In the end, intuition was only intuition.
Even an old person who could predict rain like a ghost from the ache in their limbs could be wrong.
Deciding everything according to a personal feeling that could change with one's condition or mood was no different from gambling by going all in with one's entire fortune every time.
Even if someone was right ninety-nine times in a row, they would lose everything with a single mistake.
“So that is why you are keeping watch without warning either me or that person?”
“If it is something I can stop, I am enough. And if it is something I cannot stop, staying alert will not help.”
“Even so, you need not insist on suffering alone.”
“What suffering is there? I call it keeping watch, but I am only passing the time with a drink.”
“I suppose that makes sense too.”
Li Qing-yu nodded slightly.
Then, smiling, she added,
“In that case, may I join you in passing the time?”
“Nothing may happen.”
“Then I can simply enjoy some private time alone with my husband-to-be.”
No matter what happened, she would lose nothing.
Rimon gave a quiet laugh at Li Qing-yu's untroubled response.
“Do as you like.”
“Yes.”
What could have made her so happy?
Li Qing-yu sat beside him with a beaming smile and filled Rimon's glass with ice and whisky. Watching her, Rimon thought to himself.
What an odd princess.
From the Bronze Age until now.
Even Rimon, who had dealt with the princesses of the Seven Dragons Society several times, had never met one like Li Qing-yu.
It was not merely that a princess born into the noblest bloodline in the world, who had spent her life being waited upon by others, would naturally pour someone else a drink.
There was her insight that saw through him.
The inexplicable goodwill she occasionally showed.
The strangely unwavering trust.
From beginning to end, Li Qing-yu was a girl full of oddities.
Still, what did it matter?
Rimon did not pry into Li Qing-yu's unusual nature.
Their relationship was one of enemies in the same boat.
As long as Li Qing-yu did not betray him, Rimon had no reason to forcibly uncover what she was hiding.
Just as Rimon sorted through his thoughts and raised his glass again, both of their pagers went off.
[Princess, we have a problem.]
[I have something to report.]
The Leviathan general manager Youin, who was rarely unsettled, spoke in a stiff voice at the same time Weiling's urgent voice sounded.
But Rimon did not stir.
He drained the remaining whisky in one gulp.
After Li Qing-yu refilled his glass, he slowly swirled it in his hand and murmured,
“So it has finally begun.”
* * *
Meanwhile, when Rimon had poured his first drink, he and Li Qing-yu were not the only ones spending the night awake.
Like Youin, who remained at his post simply because his beloved Princess had not gone to sleep, and Weiling, who was working overtime under a mountain of work.
No, there was someone who had spent several nights awake already for a far more serious reason.
“Still nothing?”
“I told you, money is no object.”
“I do not need excuses. Bring me a lead on that strange figure by today. Without fail.”
Click.
The handsome, mustachioed middle-aged figure ended the call irritably.
Wang Gi-neung sank back in their chair.
Then Wang Gi-neung murmured quietly,
“...Perhaps it is already too late.”
From the day the combat units had been defeated by the black-cloaked stranger and Ryu Gang-cheol had been killed until now.
Wang Gi-neung had not slept for even a moment, devoting themself to cleaning up the aftermath.
But Wang Gi-neung had little to show for it.
Wang Gi-neung had publicly announced throughout the clan that Ryu Gang-cheol had been captured alive and was being interrogated for information, thus preserving the family's crumbling position.
Yet Ryu Gang-cheol had been killed before Wang Gi-neung could extract any information.
There was no way matters could go well.
If only I could capture the other culprits...
Wang Gi-neung rejected the sole possible means of recovery as soon as it occurred to them.
For more than a month, the Shanghai Wang Family and even the Seven Dragons Society's information network had hunted the culprits without finding them. There was no way they could be captured now.
Where did it all go wrong?
Forcing that bastard into the torture chamber?
Strong-arming Rimon into handing over Ryu Gang-cheol?
Or trying to capture the culprits personally?
Countless choices came to mind, but Wang Gi-neung could find no answer.
Every one of them had been the best possible choice.
They were the results of coldly weighing gains and losses, then choosing what would benefit the family most.
That those very choices had accumulated and brought the family to a point where its downfall could no longer be prevented was all the more ironic.
Thud!
“...?”
As Wang Gi-neung sighed, they suddenly frowned.
With the keen senses of a grandmaster-level expert, they had detected a strange disturbance beyond the door.
“I am tired enough already. What is this commotion in the middle of the night?”
Muttering with suspicion, confusion, and fatigue, Wang Gi-neung braced one hand on his desk and rose.
After trudging over to the door, Wang Gi-neung struck.
Crash!
Wang Gi-neung's hand shot out like lightning, punching a large hole through the door and seizing the throat of the person waiting in ambush outside.
It was a perfect surprise attack.
For the assailant, who had intended to assassinate Wang Gi-neung the moment the door opened, it was like a bolt from the blue.
“Eek?!”
The assailant reacted swiftly as well.
They quickly leaned back to evade Wang Gi-neung's hand and kicked the door.
Wang Gi-neung faltered to avoid the fragments of the shattered door. Thanks to that, the assailant narrowly escaped Wang Gi-neung's grip, rubbed their bloodied neck, and clicked their tongue.
“Damn, you're the real deal, aren't you? I only came to say hello and nearly got sent straight to hell.”
“Huh?”
At that moment, Wang Gi-neung doubted his eyes.
It was not merely because Wang Gi-neung's two bodyguards had somehow become corpses strewn across the corridor.
The sight of the young man with narrow eyes, someone far too familiar, grinning with a bloodied knife in hand left Wang Gi-neung dumbfounded.
“Mr. Ryu Gang-cheol?”
“Why are you making that face? Is it really so surprising that I'm alive?”
As though savoring that expression, Ryu Gang-cheol grinned.
Then he spun the knife in his hand and said proudly,
“You don't need to be so surprised. When you live long enough, all kinds of things happen in this world.”
“...”
“Well, I get it. You never thought I'd come back in one piece when you had me tied down and tortured me so happily.”
“...”
“So, Comrade, this time it is your turn to be carved up by my hand. That is retribution, isn't it?”
“...”
“...Comrade? Could you answer me?”
He had gone to the trouble of returning from the dead, only to find himself talking alone.
Perhaps that had made it less entertaining. Ryu Gang-cheol pressed for an answer with an unhappy expression.
Wang Gi-neung stared at him for a long moment with an indescribable look on his face.
Then they slowly raised a hand.
They rubbed their eyes.
Pinched their cheek.
After doing everything he could to confirm that this was reality rather than a dream.
“Ha, ahahahahahaha!”
Wang Gi-neung burst into laughter.
Perhaps the sight of Wang Gi-neung suddenly laughing as though their stomach would split looked so bizarre that Ryu Gang-cheol, who had been mocking Wang Gi-neung gleefully until moments ago, asked with a face mixed with bewilderment, discomfort, and even concern.
“...Comrade? Why are you suddenly laughing?”
“No, no. I am simply so relieved.”
“Relieved? What are you talking about?”
Even as Ryu Gang-cheol looked at Wang Gi-neung as if questioning their sanity, Wang Gi-neung did not get angry.
Instead, Wang Gi-neung looked at Ryu Gang-cheol with the greatest delight, as though a treasure had rolled right into their lap.
“The son of a bitch I thought had swallowed a bar of gold and disappeared has walked back in on his own. How could I not be relieved?”
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