WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 167: You’re Too Late
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* * *
The White Dragon Clan was the clan within the Seven Dragons Society that had fought Rimon the fewest times.
But that did not mean they underestimated him.
If anything, it was the opposite.
They had been the most wary of Rimon within the Seven Dragons Society, to the point that the other clans cursed them for doing nothing but run away.
Of course, that fear had faded considerably with the opening of the Iron Age.
But that was true only for ordinary clan members.
Ainsha, who knew of the World Peace Plan, and Elder-rank members of the White Dragon Clan still retained some sense of caution toward Rimon.
“Hic.”
“Princess, I have heard that holding your breath stops hiccups.”
“If I hold my breath, I will die. Hic. I will not be fooled.”
“Then try being startled. I have heard that works too.”
“Hic. You are trying to give me a heart attack. Tata is a traitor after all. As vicious as the Black Dragon Clan.”
...
Ainsha, the White Dragon Princess, had been so shocked merely to learn Rimon’s identity that she hiccupped for the first time in her life.
It was not as though anyone could blame her.
If the person they had spent the entire day dating had turned out to be Rimon, every princess except one would have been horrified.
Having finally given up on trying to calm Ainsha, Tata looked at Rimon with a stiff expression.
“Are you the Sword Duke?”
“Yes.”
“May I ask just to confirm, but were you also the one who saved the Princess that day...?”
“That was me.”
At that straightforward answer, Tata wore a hollow expression.
The faintly hopeful possibility that the current Rimon was merely a substitute, and that Ainsha might have a different fated partner, vanished without a trace.
“...
So Tata and the Princess had been deceived from the beginning.”
“Not from the beginning. If she had not suddenly proposed to me, I would not have bothered meeting your princess while hiding my identity.”
“I did not mean that you deceived us.”
Tata thought to herself.
She should not have trusted the Black Dragon Princess after all.
Li Qing-yu had even used Ainsha’s fated partner to deceive them.
...
Li Qing-yu had merely intended to make use of Rimon’s performance, so it was an unfair accusation. But if this too was karma, then it was karma.
‘If I had foreseen this... No, nothing would have changed anyway.’
Lamenting her own inadequacy, Tata soon shook her head.
If Ainsha’s fated partner could save her, then even if he had truly been the Sword Emperor rather than the Sword Duke, Tata would have tried to bring them together.
That was why Tata could smile again.
“Then that is enough.”
“What exactly is enough?”
“In the end, Tata’s duty remains the same.”
“Are you really going to carry out terrorism? To bring me and your princess together?”
“They say the deeper the grudges from past lives, the happier the married couple.”
As though she had already made up her mind, Tata looked at him with a calm expression.
Seeing the Divine Dragon Corps, seemingly inspired by her and having settled their agitation as they gave off a stern air, Rimon narrowed his eyes.
“What about you? Are you prepared to kill your nurse even if you have to take me down?”
“...
Of course. I am a Seven Dragons Society Princess. I will not abandon what must be done.”
“Is that so? Then come at me.”
At Ainsha’s reply, after she forcibly suppressed her hiccups with psionics, Rimon gave a faint laugh.
He had known persuasion would not work anyway.
Had he bothered asking because of an old man’s meddlesome nature? Or because he wanted to hear that refusal itself?
Rimon did not bother seeking an answer.
He merely lowered the sword in his hand at an angle and smiled coldly.
“I will show you exactly how foolish a choice you have made.”
* * *
Thud!
“Hm?”
“PD? What is it?”
“Did someone just pass behind us?”
“Was it not a staff member?”
“No, I think I saw something white and fluttery. It did not look like staff.”
“...
We are not even filming a summer ghost special. Why would you say something that creepy?”
“Was I just imagining it...?”
Kim Seung-jun tilted his head, then eventually faced forward again.
He was too busy preparing for the live broadcast of Music Challenge to spare attention even if a real ghost had appeared.
But Kim Seung-jun did not know.
That he had not been mistaken.
That a Divine Dragon Corps member had dropped down behind him like a ghost.
Or that if that Corps member had not been flung back upward like a salmon struck by a bear’s paw, Kim Seung-jun’s head would have been smashed by their hand.
The person who had saved Kim Seung-jun’s life, Rimon, did not particularly try to make that fact known either.
He merely flicked a screw lying nearby with his sword.
Piiing!
A Divine Dragon Corps member had been about to charge into the audience, but dodged the screw flying at their face.
Before they could even regain their stance, Rimon rose behind them like a ghost, struck them on the head to knock them unconscious, then seated them among the audience in a pose that made them look asleep.
That Divine Dragon Corps member was not the first one forcibly turned into an audience member.
There were already three lined up beside them.
And five more Divine Dragon Corps members hung limply from the ceiling like blankets draped over a clothesline.
‘...What a monster.’
Tata, who glimpsed the sight, clicked her tongue.
It was not that she was surprised by Rimon defeating more than ten Divine Dragon Corps members in only a few minutes.
She had expected at least this much from the moment they were forced to fight the Sword Duke.
What was terrifying was that Rimon was handling every one of those battles cleanly, without causing any commotion.
Those who tried to rush onto the stage.
Those who tried to attack staff members.
Those who tried to smash the cameras.
They all met the same fate.
Before anyone at the filming site could notice, Rimon appeared like a ghost and subdued them without allowing so much as a sound.
It could not be helped.
The true strength of combat units emerged when they moved together.
The Divine Dragon Corps, scattered everywhere to carry out the attack, were perfect targets to be picked off one by one.
Their mistake had been failing to foresee that Rimon would be the one to appear and stop them.
Yet even knowing that, Tata could not command the Divine Dragon Corps to form up or have them restrain Rimon.
She had something more urgent to deal with.
For example, swatting away a hazy ball of light flying toward her in the shape of a dragonfly with the hem of her clothes.
Bang!
Iron Robe Long Garment Style
The dragonfly struck clothing hardened like iron by the psionics of the Iron Robe Long Garment Style, shattered apart, and returned to its original form as thread.
But that was not the end.
Nearly a hundred dragonflies still flew around her.
Nor were their movements slow or simple.
Each dragonfly moved erratically as though it were alive, while carrying power that could not be ignored.
“Urk!”
The Divine Dragon Corps member whose shoulder had just been pierced by a dragonfly made that clear enough.
Even they, each a division-head rank master, could not escape unscathed after being struck by dragonflies imbued with such powerful psionics.
And at the center of the swarm of dragonflies.
Upon a narrow beam less than a handspan wide, the white-haired girl moved her hands without expression.
Sometimes curling her fingers.
Sometimes turning over her palm.
Sometimes clenching her fist.
She precisely controlled hundreds of threads to guide the dragonflies, pressing them back without taking a single step. It was a truly miraculous technique.
It was a feat possible only because she could perfectly foresee every detailed future, including what result would follow from each movement of every thread, and act accordingly.
As a result, the Divine Dragon Corps members before her, aside from Tata, were being wounded one by one and driven into a corner.
In a way, it was only natural.
Whether it was their beloved Princess.
Or Rimon, the Sword Master.
Tata, a mere grandmaster-level master, and the Divine Dragon Corps, unable even to form a battle formation, could not handle either of them.
The fact that they had not already been wiped out while facing both at once was close to a miracle.
There was only one reason it was possible.
Ainsha and Rimon were not on the same side.
Tang!
Rimon shattered a dragonfly that had been about to pierce a Divine Dragon Corps member’s neck with a fragment of stone flicked from his sword.
That alone made the matter clear.
Rimon ignored minor injuries, intervening only when someone appeared about to suffer a fatal wound.
Without his help, not only the Divine Dragon Corps members but Tata herself would already have been a corpse.
But Tata could not feel grateful at all.
More than helping them, Rimon was fiercely interfering with them.
Even as he helped one Corps member, he struck another and hung them from the ceiling.
“...You really are in the way.”
Of course, Ainsha too glared at Rimon with an expressionless face.
If not for Rimon, she could have wiped out Tata and the Divine Dragon Corps long ago. Every time she tried to employ even a little lethal force, he interfered and wasted her time.
But she did not try to attack Rimon directly.
Her goal was to punish traitors.
It was not because there was no reason to waste her strength on him while the traitors stood before her.
It was because every future she saw in which she attacked Rimon appeared hazy or broken apart in fragments, leaving her unable to discern the outcome.
‘This makes no sense. It is confusing. It is incomprehensible.’
Ainsha could not understand it.
Although her precognition had been unclear, she had at least been able to read Rimon’s future until their date.
But after Rimon took hold of his sword.
From that moment onward, she could no longer see Rimon’s future.
It was as though she had been rejected, as if she did not deserve to see his future.
For her, the greatest prophet of the age, who had freely seen anyone’s future, it was as shocking as encountering an invisible person.
That was also a major reason why she could not attack Tata and the Divine Dragon Corps more aggressively.
Unable to see the future accurately, she had no choice but to hesitate over every choice and action.
‘...This cannot continue.’
But even that hesitation had an end.
Only a few Divine Dragon Corps members remained.
Once Rimon subdued them and Tata, Ainsha would have to face him alone.
Then, before they were all subdued, she had no choice but to settle this while Rimon was busy stopping the attack.
Having finally resolved herself, Ainsha drew up her psionics.
Or rather, she tried to.
Thud!
...If Rimon had not suddenly appeared and subdued Tata before Ainsha could move.
Ainsha froze rigidly, like a white rabbit that had had its tastiest carrot snatched away before its eyes.
Until then, Rimon had targeted the Divine Dragon Corps members first. She had not foreseen him suddenly ambushing Tata like this.
Likewise, the Divine Dragon Corps stopped moving as though they had been waiting for it the instant their commander, Tata, was subdued.
Among them, Rimon calmly spoke with one foot planted on the sprawled Tata.
“Why not give up already? You must understand by now that struggling any further is pointless.”
“Cough, cough cough!”
Perhaps because the blow to her solar plexus had been so severe.
Only after several harsh coughs did Tata speak in a strained voice.
“Yes, I know. It was only a matter of time.”
From the moment Rimon and Ainsha had appeared here so quickly, this ending had been decided.
Yet Tata did not regret the outcome.
She only slowly raised her head.
“But that is enough.”
Ainsha flinched without realizing it.
It was not merely because a faint smile had appeared on Tata’s raised face.
The precognition that Rimon had disrupted corrected itself, and she saw the future for an instant.
Only then did Ainsha realize.
Why Tata and the Divine Dragon Corps had put up this reckless resistance against her and Rimon.
It was not because they believed they could break through them and carry out their mission, but because they wanted to buy even a little time.
What Tata meant by a “decided ending.”
Why this sight felt familiar.
She understood all of it.
“Sword Duke, you are too late.”
But as Tata said, Ainsha’s realization had not come quickly enough.
When Tata smiled, the time bombs that she and the Divine Dragon Corps had placed throughout the filming site before the two arrived were already counting down.
And when the bombs’ timers reached zero.
Kwwwaaaang!
Blazing light and a deafening roar swept through the filming site.
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