WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 36: There’s Only One
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It happened almost simultaneously.
The moment Li Qing-yu answered his question.
A blade flew out of the darkness and swung for Rimon’s neck.
It was a perfect ambush.
A swift, silent, stealthy sword strike that could sever the throat of even a high-level Player before they realized they were dying.
Tap.
“...!”
But just before the blade could cut through his neck, Chao froze.
The masked figure in martial attire had appeared as though emerging from thin air and thrust out their sword, only for its tip to be caught between Rimon’s two outstretched fingers.
“Voidless Advancing Sword Style, huh? A fine sword art. It is also one of the finest techniques among the Seventy-Two Martial Arts Schools when it comes to ambushes.”
Without even shifting his gaze.
Without moving the sword pressed to Li Qing-yu’s throat.
Rimon caught Chao’s sword simply by reaching one hand behind him and spoke lazily.
“But that only applies when the ambush works.”
An ambush only meant something if the target did not notice it.
No matter how excellent the sword art, it was meaningless against an opponent who already knew an ambush was coming.
Unless there was a sure opportunity, it was far better to face the opponent head-on than attempt a clumsy ambush.
As though instructing an inadequate disciple, Rimon pointed out Chao’s mistake before quietly finishing.
“If you want to use the Voidless Advancing Sword Style for ambushes, go train that half-baked stealth technique again first.”
Apparently humiliated by not only failing the ambush but receiving a lecture as well, Chao gritted their teeth and twisted the sword.
It was an attack aimed at Rimon’s fingers gripping the blade.
Unless his fingers were made of iron, he could not avoid having his hand cut, even if it was not severed entirely.
What...!?
But after twisting the sword, Chao could only panic.
Though the sword had moved, the blade was still caught between Rimon’s fingers.
He was not holding on with brute strength and moving along with the sword.
If anything, it was the opposite.
Before Chao could even twist the sword, Rimon had moved his fingers first to avoid being cut.
And that was only the beginning.
Whether Chao pushed, pulled, or swung the sword.
Rimon’s fingers were already positioned wherever the blade would move.
Though Chao was clearly holding the hilt, the strange sensation that Rimon was moving the sword as he pleased while holding its blade made every hair on Chao’s body stand on end.
He is reading my sword trajectory!
As though he did not even need to turn around, Rimon saw through and blocked Chao’s sword while keeping his gaze fixed on Li Qing-yu.
Shuddering at the unimaginable situation, Chao hurriedly changed tactics.
Rather than confronting Rimon through a complicated exchange of moves, they would push their psionic energy to the limit and pour it into the sword.
Surely not even Rimon could withstand their full power with only his fingers.
“Chao.”
But before they could even put strength into the sword, Chao flinched and froze.
It was not merely because they had been overwhelmed by the crushing psionic energy flowing from somewhere.
A voice Chao knew better than any other, yet sounded utterly unfamiliar, cold as ice, froze them in place.
“Who said you could point a sword at my husband?”
With a single sentence, the girl stopped Chao.
Li Qing-yu looked at Chao with eyes as dark and dull as the night.
Then, paying no heed to Rimon’s blade against her neck, she raised her pale, slender hand and lightly flicked her fingertips.
The movement was beauty itself.
It was as graceful as a motion in a play, yet so slow it seemed incapable of catching even an insect.
But its result was anything but graceful.
Boom! Crash! Crunch!
As though struck by an invisible giant, Chao was sent flying backward. They smashed through a display case, slammed into the wall, and vomited blood.
It was beyond merely being knocked unconscious.
The injury was severe enough to endanger their life.
Yet Li Qing-yu did not so much as twitch an eyebrow at the sight.
“This time, you have crossed not only the line, but your station as well.”
Whether he had once been the Seven Dragons Society’s enemy.
Whether he was holding a sword to her neck.
Rimon was the man who would become betrothed to her, the princess of the Black Dragon Clan.
For Chao to ambush him without her permission was an unacceptable overstep and unilateral act.
After explaining that, Li Qing-yu gave her order.
“Chao, from this moment onward, you are dismissed from your post as my guard. Withdraw and reflect on your actions until I summon you again.”
“Prin... cess...”
Apparently more shocked by being dismissed than by being blasted away with Li Qing-yu’s gesture, Chao spoke despite vomiting blood.
But Li Qing-yu did not even give them a chance to make excuses.
She merely looked at Chao with her obsidian-like eyes and asked quietly.
“Will you make me say the same thing twice?”
“...!”
Chao’s body trembled.
But only for a moment.
Though staggering, Chao rose to their feet and sheathed their sword.
Then they placed one fist over their palm in a formal martial salute and spoke in a trembling voice.
“I... obey.”
Swish.
Chao vanished as though melting into the darkness.
Was using a stealth technique to withdraw despite having their internal organs so violently shaken that even moving was difficult their last shred of pride?
Or did they simply not wish to show their revered princess an even more humiliating sight?
Li Qing-yu did not bother considering the reason.
She merely turned to Rimon with an apologetic expression.
“I’m sorry for the trouble. Chao is too rigid and does not know the meaning of flexibility.”
Chao had just withdrawn in a complete mess, and a blade was still pressed to her neck.
Yet as though it had all been a minor incident.
Or as though she could not see Rimon’s sword at all.
Rimon stared at Li Qing-yu’s embarrassed expression, which was hard to reconcile with the cold face with which she had just driven Chao away.
Then he spoke with a dubious look.
“Aren’t you being too harsh on someone close to you? They looked pretty shocked.”
The Seventy-Two Martial Arts Schools were no common martial arts.
They were the greatest secret arts of the Seven Dragons Society, which only those whose natural talent, character, and loyalty had been thoroughly tested could barely earn the right to learn.
If Chao had mastered them at such a young age?
They were one of the Seven Dragons Society’s finest elites.
And if Li Qing-yu had chosen them as a guard, Chao was a trusted retainer to whom she could entrust her life.
Even Rimon, the person who had been ambushed, found it uncomfortable that she had cast aside such talent in an instant.
“Hmm, even I think I may have been a little too harsh.”
She could have talked Chao down.
Nodding as she muttered that hitting them had indeed been excessive, Li Qing-yu seemed strangely agreeable.
“Then why did you do it?”
Rimon was almost dumbfounded by her unexpectedly easy admission.
Li Qing-yu’s answer was simple.
“Because if I had not done that, the Sword Duke would have cut Chao down, would you not?”
It was better to be hurt than dead.
And if Chao could also use this opportunity to correct that rigid personality, would that not kill two birds with one stone?
Rimon scratched his cheek after hearing Li Qing-yu say that with a smile.
“Well, that is true.”
It was no exaggeration.
The moment Chao had tried to raise their psionics, Rimon had subtly adjusted the fingers gripping the sword.
To cut off Chao’s head.
If Li Qing-yu had stepped in even a little later, Chao’s head would have fallen before they could use their full power or anything else.
In that respect, sensing his killing intent was the bare minimum.
Even in Rimon’s eyes, Li Qing-yu’s response, punishing Chao first and sending them away, had been excellent.
If she had merely gone easy on Chao and made a show of rebuking them, Rimon would not have let it pass either.
“But Princess, aren’t you forgetting something?”
“What do you mean?”
The one problem with that response.
The point Li Qing-yu had ignored.
Tapping her white neck with the tip of his sword, Rimon spoke coldly.
“Saving your retainer is all well and good, but you are just as capable of losing your head this instant.”
When Rimon had asked whether she was the mastermind who had plotted to manipulate Lee Cheon-gi into opposing him and driven Yoo Na-gyeong into a corner, Li Qing-yu had calmly admitted it.
To Rimon, who had even stormed the Blue House and fought the Infinite Monarch to collect a blood debt.
That alone was sufficient reason for Rimon to cut her down.
And since he already had a sword to Li Qing-yu’s neck, it was only natural that Chao, as her guard, had ambushed him.
“Before you cut off my head, may I offer a few explanations?”
Yet Li Qing-yu showed no sign of fear.
She merely calmly asked for an opportunity to explain.
“What explanation?”
“I would like to tell you in detail how we brought about the Sword Duke’s downfall.”
For a moment, Rimon was at a loss for words.
She was not some villain from an old tale.
Who offered to explain their methods to the very person they had destroyed?
Especially while a sword was held to her neck, it was truly absurd.
“You think I would listen to that explanation?”
“Yes.”
“...What makes you so certain?”
“Because the Sword Duke has come to collect a blood debt.”
The moment he heard her answer, Rimon had no choice but to frown.
“Did you not say so yourself? That the most important thing when collecting a blood debt is not mistaking the target?”
Rimon had thoroughly interrogated even the Infinite Monarch to confirm the blood debt. Surely he would not deny her even a chance to explain herself.
Li Qing-yu smiled as if she believed that without the slightest doubt.
Rimon narrowed his eyes at her before finally snapping.
“Talk.”
His words were filled with obvious displeasure.
But at his clear acceptance, Li Qing-yu smiled faintly and began.
“As the Sword Duke knows, our Seven Dragons Society has long strived to spread the teachings of our progenitors.”
That was the purpose of the Seven Dragons Society.
A faith and obsession passed down for centuries, to recreate the ideal world ruled by the Seven Dragons.
“But every time, the Sword Duke stood in our way, and regrettably, we did not possess the strength to surpass you.”
The one who had blocked them was Rimon.
An absolute being who never lost and never compromised.
Bribes, beautiful women, conciliation, persuasion, pressure, negotiations, hostages. Nothing worked on the monster, and he did not even age or die.
To the Seven Dragons Society, Rimon’s existence could only be called a nightmare.
“But when the Constellations appeared thirty-two years ago, someone proposed this. If we cannot defeat the Sword Duke, why not simply refrain from defeating him?”
“...What the hell does that mean?”
Unable to defeat him, so they would not defeat him?
Rimon looked incredulous, as though it were some ridiculous moral victory.
But rather than answer his question, Li Qing-yu smiled and asked one of her own.
“Have you never found it strange, Sword Duke?”
“What?”
“Dungeons involve enormous interests. It would not be strange for international disputes to arise over their ownership.”
“Why are you telling me something so obvious now...?”
“But have any of those disputes ever developed into war?”
At those words, Rimon’s expression stiffened unconsciously.
In this Iron Age, Dungeons were geese that laid golden eggs.
They were limitless treasure mountains, as the number of Players in a country and the quantity of Dungeon byproducts it could extract were determined by the types and number of Dungeons it possessed.
Enough for countries to wage war over a single Dungeon at their border.
Yet just as Li Qing-yu said, not a single war over Dungeons had ever occurred.
As Rimon fell silent after newly realizing that fact, Li Qing-yu continued.
As though this was only the beginning.
“Players are also people easily intoxicated by power.”
“Among them, do you really think there were no ambitious people who wished to establish their own countries, or madmen who wished to cause chaos for no reason?”
Of course not.
Rimon knew from his time as a PAB agent.
He knew how naturally Players who believed themselves to be the protagonists of the world committed outrageous acts.
“After the Sword Duke defeated the Demon God in the past, black mages abandoned their futile ambitions and became accepted into society.”
“But do you truly believe every black mage disappeared? Do you believe none exploited the changes of the era to try to overturn the world again?”
That was just as impossible.
Black mages were those who used magic forbidden by the gods.
Even if they had become accepted, they were people who viewed defying natural order and causing chaos almost as instinct.
“Yet since the Iron Age began, there has not been a single major war in the world.”
People of this era might consider that natural.
Unlike the past, the world had grown prosperous and people had become civilized, so it was only natural that wars did not occur.
But Rimon had seen how ruthlessly civilized people who considered themselves refined slaughtered barbarians.
He had seen how easily those in power started wars to gain minor interests.
He knew how strange it was.
“Do you think all of that was coincidence?”
And so, when Rimon saw Li Qing-yu smiling quietly, he understood everything.
No, he had no choice but to understand.
“...Hey, wait a minute.”
Rimon realized the meaning hidden in Li Qing-yu’s words.
He realized why she was telling him this, and his face filled with shock.
“The method you used to bring me down could not possibly be...!”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Li Qing-yu smiled as she looked at Rimon, whose mouth had fallen open in disbelief.
“To bring down the Sword Duke, there was only one thing we did.”
They could not defeat Rimon.
Then they would not defeat him.
And the method was very simple.
Never give him an opportunity to win in the first place.
It was the single conspiracy they had carried out for the past thirty-two years.
The princess of the Seven Dragons Society, which had once been rejected and even called the Demon Cult because it would not hesitate to commit any massacre in its effort to overturn the world, cheerfully confessed.
“We used all the power of the Seven Dragons Society to preserve world peace.”
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