WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 19: Take My Hand
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“...What?”
Rimon stared blankly.
It was far too disgraceful a sight for a Sword Master whose age alone numbered in the hundreds.
Yet it did not seem pathetic, because others were even more horrified than he was.
Thud!
For example, the flowerpot that had been quietly standing behind Li Qing-yu before suddenly toppling sideways.
Crash!
Or Youin, who dropped the tray, smashing the teapot and cups he had been bringing out, then asked in a daze.
“P-Princess? What did you just say?”
But Li Qing-yu did not spare either the flowerpot or Youin a glance.
Keeping her eyes fixed on Rimon, she only smiled sweetly and asked:
“What do you think? Is that enough?”
“Uh, well...”
For a moment, Rimon stumbled over the utterly unexpected words.
Then, after calming himself with a fake cough, he spoke as evenly as he could.
“Ahem. I think I heard something wrong just now. Did you say shares in the Leviathan Hotel?”
“Yes.”
“Forty-nine percent of them?”
“That’s right.”
“And you’re giving all of that to me? As a dowry?”
“That is what I said.”
“...Are you out of your mind?”
They had only met twice.
It was an excessively rude thing to ask a princess of the Seven Dragons Society.
Yet neither Li Qing-yu nor even Youin, whose face had gone pale, could fault Rimon for his rudeness.
Her offer was that absurd.
What the hell is she thinking?
Leviathan was not merely an expensive hotel.
It was one of the seven holding companies that formed the foundation of the Seven Dragon Group, as well as a central institution that held control over the Seven Dragons Society.
And forty-nine percent of its shares?
Their value could not be measured in money.
Whoever possessed them could gain not only immense assets, but also the strength of the Black Dragon Clan and control over the Seven Dragons Society.
Yet she was offering those precious shares as a mere dowry, and to Rimon of all people.
It was enough to make anyone question Li Qing-yu’s sanity.
But she did not waver.
She only smiled and spoke.
“You said it yourself, Sword Duke. If the product changes, then its price must change as well.”
“So you offered forty-nine percent of the Leviathan Hotel’s shares?”
“Yes.”
“...Why?”
“Because, as you said, the product has changed.”
As Rimon looked unimpressed, as though asking what kind of nonsense that was, Li Qing-yu continued without a care.
“I know what situation you are in. You have already become a traitor in this country, and you have an enemy called the Infinite Monarch.”
Rimon was not surprised by that fact itself.
She was the princess of the Black Dragon Clan.
Even within the Seven Dragons Society, Li Qing-yu stood at the peak when it came to gathering information.
There was no way she would fail to learn of an incident in which a building had collapsed and over a hundred high-level Players had been wiped out.
What was unexpected was Li Qing-yu’s response to it.
“Even so, you’re raising my price?”
“That is why I raised your price.”
Having said nearly the same words with an entirely different meaning, Li Qing-yu smiled.
“You said that, as a public servant, you could not enter into an engagement with me because you might someday have to stand against the Seven Dragons Society for your country.”
“So what about it?”
“Yet you came to enter into an engagement with me. That means there is nothing left binding you.”
“...”
Rimon remained silent.
Li Qing-yu asked him lightly:
“If a sword that could only be used for decoration has become a peerless blade that can truly be wielded, shouldn’t an appropriate price be paid?”
She spoke such outrageous words with the calm expression of someone asking about the performance of an item on display.
Rimon reconsidered.
She truly was a princess of the Seven Dragons Society.
Li Qing-yu’s words had struck precisely at the heart of the matter.
If he had not been branded a traitor.
If he had not turned his back on the country.
Then even if he had accepted Li Qing-yu’s offer and entered into an engagement with her, Rimon would never have lifted a finger in any matter involving the Seven Dragons Society.
To Rimon, a man from the old era, the Seven Dragons Society was an enemy that could threaten the country at any time.
He might have caused a scene for them, but he would never have had a reason to help them.
But now things were different.
He had been abandoned by his country and framed as a traitor.
Even his remaining ties had all been severed.
Rimon no longer had either the loyalty or the will to protect this country.
In other words, he could now act as he pleased, without being bound by anything.
Even if that meant helping the princess of the Seven Dragons Society.
It was as though a wrecked car that could only sit in a garage as a showpiece had become a brand-new car she could use freely.
Naturally, Li Qing-yu had raised his price.
...
The problem was that, even taking all that into account, the price she offered was still absurd.
Of course, Rimon could guess the meaning behind that unreasonable price.
“You want me to work for what I receive?”
“No. The conditions are no different from before.”
“So I can just become a live-in son-in-law and loaf around?”
“This is only a dowry.”
A marriage in name only would be enough.
If Rimon did not wish it, she would not force him to do anything.
On the other hand, if he wanted something, the Black Dragon Clan would do everything in its power to help him.
After listing one outrageous thing after another with a bright smile, Li Qing-yu added, as though she had just remembered something.
“If my dowry burdens you, then please promise me just one thing instead.”
“A promise?”
“That you will never abandon me.”
“...Are you worried I’ll take the dowry and run?”
“Of course not. The famed Sword Duke would never do something so utterly contemptible, would he?”
Her words were clearly a denial.
So why did they sound like she was asking whether he was a complete scumbag?
At the peculiar pressure in her words, Rimon made an odd expression and asked:
“Then why make that request?”
“Because I absolutely need you, Sword Duke.”
Li Qing-yu answered immediately.
Then, meeting Rimon’s eyes directly, she continued in a calm voice.
“No matter what happens. I absolutely need you.”
“No matter what happens, huh...”
A girl looked at him with eyes as beautiful as obsidian and as deep as the night.
After considering her words, Rimon let out a short laugh.
“You give away what you do not need, while making sure to keep the most important thing.”
“Do you dislike my conditions?”
“I don’t like them.”
If anyone else had heard Rimon, the first thing they would have called him was crazy.
Marrying a princess of the Seven Dragons Society was something most people could only dream of.
Even an ordinary person could become part of the core of the Seven Dragon Group in an instant, gaining immense wealth and glory. It was a chance to turn their life around.
And freedom was guaranteed on top of that.
She was even offering him shares in Leviathan.
No one in their right mind would refuse such terms.
Especially when the woman he would be marrying was a beautiful girl like Li Qing-yu.
But Rimon was not one of those ordinary people.
“Because I have no interest in your power or wealth.”
Rimon snorted.
Even if he had turned his back on the country, he was still Rimon Aspelder.
He had fought the Seven Dragons Society his entire life and claimed whatever he wanted with his own sword.
He would rather smash through the Seven Dragons Society head-on and take what he wanted than desire such things in exchange for becoming a live-in son-in-law.
“And it’s not as if I could use those shares however I pleased just because I had them.”
Even if he accepted them, problems would pile up like mountains.
Leviathan Hotel’s shares were closely tied to control over the Seven Dragons Society.
Conversely, that meant freely using those shares would require not only the Black Dragon Clan’s approval, but also the acquiescence of the other clans.
Would they really stand by and allow it?
For Rimon, the man who had been the Seven Dragons Society’s greatest enemy for centuries?
He would be lucky if no bombings occurred.
Had he not come as Li Qing-yu’s guest, the Black Dragon Clan, including Youin, would have been trying to devour him already.
In other words, her offer was little more than a bounced check.
“But I’ll accept it.”
“Pardon?”
“I said I’ll accept those terms.”
The moment Rimon answered, Li Qing-yu could only widen her eyes in surprise.
“Are you serious?”
“I told you. I decided to indulge my greed a little.”
It was one thing if he had coveted Leviathan Hotel’s shares.
But he had just explained, in no uncertain terms, how worthless those shares would be, only to say he would accept the offer anyway.
Seeing Li Qing-yu look as though she had heard something impossible, Rimon smirked.
“I learned that if you do not hold on to even useless things like money and power, you can end up feeling like shit.”
In the past, he would have refused.
Key shares in the Seven Dragon Group would bring him nothing but trouble instead of any benefit.
But from the moment he accepted Li Qing-yu’s proposal to become a live-in son-in-law, it was inevitable that he would become entangled with the Seven Dragons Society.
A little more trouble would make little difference to Rimon.
“...There are few people who would disregard the Sword Duke merely because you lack money or power.”
“Well, it turns out that is not necessarily true.”
Rimon smiled coldly.
Until recently, he too had held some such optimistic belief.
No matter how far the Sword Master’s prestige had fallen, he believed that the things he had done would not disappear.
But after being abandoned by his country for offending the Infinite Monarch and killing Yoo Na-gyeong with his own hands, Rimon realized anew that the times had already changed.
No matter what accomplishments one had achieved in the past.
No matter how honorably one had lived.
There was no one who cared about such things anymore.
This era cared only about who possessed more money and power now.
How the world had become this way, Rimon could not help finding it both lamentable and bewildering.
Even for him, who had lived so long, it was unfamiliar to see the world change so rapidly in only a few decades.
Perhaps the world had always been this way.
Perhaps it only felt new because he had now lost his wealth and power.
“On that note, there is something I would like to confirm.”
“What is it?”
With an unresolved question still in his heart, Rimon looked at Li Qing-yu with cold, sunken eyes.
“Princess, when you proposed to me, you said that marrying you would make a terrifying enemy target me.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Is that enemy human?”
“That is an interesting question.”
Li Qing-yu smiled.
“Do you think I asked for your hand because I feared a being that was not human?”
“...At least, you do not seem like a coward who would fear anyone.”
“Then you know my answer.”
“Yeah.”
Rimon understood perfectly.
He understood why Li Qing-yu had not been shaken in the slightest by his abrupt question.
He understood why she had brushed it off like a joke.
She had merely asked whether she looked frightened.
By neither confirming nor denying whether her enemy was human, she had answered him all the same.
“Anyway, my answer remains the same.”
That was why Rimon did not press further about the enemy Li Qing-yu was wary of.
He merely glanced around at the star-studded night sky and continued casually.
“Because I need money and power.”
Rimon could feel it.
Whether the enemy he had to face was human or not, the age when being skilled with a sword was enough to win any fight had passed.
So he decided that he too would gather this wealth and power everyone was so proud of.
If the strength and honor he possessed as a Sword Master had become meaningless, then he would reclaim his place in a manner suited to this era.
If he could not change the current of the times, then he had no choice but to change himself.
“And once something falls into my hands, whatever it may be, I have no intention of ever handing it over to anyone else.”
It was the declaration of an absolute being.
Proof that the Sword Master, who had held nothing but a sword until now, had decided to grasp things beyond the sword as well.
“So, Li Qing-yu.”
Rimon knew that if he sought power, there would be no shortage of people who would obstruct him.
That would be especially true within the Seven Dragons Society.
When that happened, Li Qing-yu would inevitably be forced to side with either Rimon or the other clans.
But Rimon did not even idly say that he would create such a situation.
“Whatever I do from now on, and whoever I make my enemy, take my hand if you are prepared to never turn your back on me until the end.”
Even if he became an enemy of the Seven Dragons Society.
No, even if he ended up fighting the entire world.
If she was not confident she could remain on his side until the end, she should give up.
With words too calm to be a warning and too cruel to be advice, Rimon held out one hand.
Then, looking straight at Li Qing-yu with his quiet golden eyes, he spoke.
“Then I swear upon my sword that I will never abandon you.”
It was an utterly absurd proposal.
In exchange for offering Leviathan’s shares as a dowry, she would only be taking on an enormous bomb. It was a ridiculous deal.
But she was not disappointed.
As though she had waited a long time for this moment, she placed her hand over Rimon’s without the slightest hesitation and smiled.
“Should I call you husband from now on?”
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