WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 56: The Bluebird in the Cage
──────
After standing there blankly for a moment, Rimon slowly turned his head.
After taking a full look around, he finally spoke.
“Princess, didn’t you say you needed me for something and asked me to come?”
“I did.”
“Then what is this?”
Rimon looked at Li Qing-yu, the black-haired girl standing beside him, with an even more dubious expression.
“It is an inspection.”
“An inspection?”
“Yes. There are things you cannot learn from paperwork alone.”
“No, I understand that much.”
Rimon scratched his cheek.
He was a man of action rather than theory himself. He believed it was better to swing a sword once than read a swordsmanship manual a hundred times, so he could understand Li Qing-yu’s reasoning.
Even so, there was one reason he could not hide his discomfort.
“But why did you bring me along for an inspection of an amusement park?”
A roller coaster that looked worn beyond repair.
A haunted house that truly resembled an abandoned building.
A magic hall as shabby as a warehouse.
Scattered shops.
Rimon looked dumbfounded as he took in the amusement park, which appeared to have been built at least thirty years ago. It was spacious, certainly, but so antiquated it looked more like ruins.
Then he glanced around and added,
“And you brought the children too.”
That was right.
Li Qing-yu and Rimon had not come here alone.
There were plenty of cheerful companions, or, to put it bluntly, a mountain of unnecessary freeloaders.
“A merry-go-round! A merry-go-round! I’ve never seen one before!”
“Wow, I never thought we’d really get to come to an amusement park.”
“You know this is all thanks to me! We came because my birthday is next month!”
“My birthday is today, though?”
“Huh? It is?”
Those freeloaders were the children.
All twenty-three children from Hanbit Orphanage were running around the amusement park in excitement.
Rimon had come along without much thought, only to be practically kidnapped and hauled here with the children. Of course he could not help feeling uneasy.
Li Qing-yu answered him calmly.
“That is because I came to this amusement park for the Sword Duke and the children.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You told me before, did you not? You asked that the place where Yoo Na-gyeong passed away be made into somewhere the children could come and play.”
“Oh, that? What about it?”
Perhaps because he had said it so casually in passing, only after a brief loading time did Rimon remember that he had been talking about the vacant lot where the Liberation Brigade’s headquarters had once stood. He tilted his head.
Li Qing-yu’s answer was simple.
“After giving it some thought, I decided that an amusement park would be a good place for children to visit.”
The problem was that the idea was anything but simple.
After staring into space with question marks practically floating above his head, Rimon finally made a dumbfounded expression.
“So... you came to inspect another place before building an amusement park there? To use it as a reference?”
“Considering whether a venture is viable before starting it is basic practice.”
“From the moment you decided to build an amusement park in that empty field just because I said one thing, it does not seem remotely viable.”
“It is fine. Making the impossible possible is the policy of the Seven Dragons Society.”
With the Seven Dragons Society’s resources, even a failing venture could easily be made successful.
Li Qing-yu spoke as calmly as ever. Seeing Rimon’s complicated expression at her statement, which sounded like a joke but was entirely sincere, she smiled.
“Of course, I also intended to score points while going on a date with the Sword Duke.”
“That was the real purpose?!”
“It is merely incidental, merely incidental.”
“No matter how I look at it, it seems as though the real purpose and the side benefit have been switched...”
Rimon’s expression became complicated.
He had to go around an amusement park with twenty-three children.
Anyone who had raised even one child could imagine how grueling that would be.
And this was supposed to be an inspection?
No matter how he looked at it, Li Qing-yu’s personal desires seemed to be the only reason for it.
“Then do you dislike it?”
Li Qing-yu asked with a smile, as though she had read his thoughts.
Rimon looked at her quietly for a moment before turning his head.
The children were arguing over what to ride first before eventually settling it with rock-paper-scissors. Rimon let out a small laugh.
“I never said that.”
He would enjoy an amusement park with his bride-to-be and the children.
That was how his schedule for the day was decided, in a plan so domestic that it was downright heartwarming.
Of course, the several-hundred-year age gap between him and his future bride, along with the fact that there were twenty-three children, made it quite different from an ordinary family.
But Rimon did not worry about such minor details.
He simply stepped naturally into the group of children and held out his fist.
“Rock, paper, scissors! Rock, paper, scissors! All right, I won, so I get to decide today’s route. Nobody has any complaints, right?”
“What? You can’t just join all of a sudden!”
“Grandpa Rimon, that’s cheating!”
“Grandpa, foul! Foul!”
Tap tap tap!
“Waaah!”
“No complaints now, right? Let me warn you in advance. Anyone who falls behind should be ready to take a hundred smacks on the forehead.”
With experience, brute strength, reflexes, and even shamelessness on his side, Rimon dominated the rock-paper-scissors match in every way. Cackling, he began leading the children around the amusement park.
A few children who wanted to play more freely puffed out their cheeks in complaint.
But only briefly.
As they went around the attractions, their puffed cheeks gradually relaxed, replaced by bright smiles.
It was only natural.
Because Hanbit Orphanage had never been well-off, most of the children were visiting an amusement park for the first time, or for the first time in a long while.
It also helped that Rimon turned out to be far more skilled at guiding them than expected.
“Grandpa, bumper cars! Bumper cars!”
“Bumper cars? Hmm, the line is long right now, so we’d have to wait thirty minutes. Let’s go somewhere else first.”
“But I like bumper cars...”
“I said I’ll take you later. I’ll even get you the red one you like, Eun-su.”
“Really?”
“Would you like me to swear it on my sword?”
Keeping the children happy was only the beginning.
He minimized the time they spent waiting in line while buying them balloons, taking pictures with them and stuffed animals, and getting them ice cream whenever he could.
His guidance was so skillful that it seemed as if he had worked as a guide at this amusement park for ten years.
As they walked around, Rimon glanced at the children’s flushed faces, clapped his hands, and spoke.
“All right, we’ll rest here for thirty minutes.”
“What?”
“Don’t rest! Let’s play more!”
“You brats, stop whining. Old people like me need to rest regularly.”
Of course, Rimon was not tired.
He was merely being considerate of the children, whose stamina was running out.
Li Qing-yu watched him declare a timely break at a cafe and buy drinks for the children, smiling softly.
“You are very good with children.”
“Well, I have some age on me.”
“Not everyone with experience in life is good with children, though.”
“They are not Sword Masters.”
“Does becoming a Sword Master make someone good at raising children?”
“No, but your back doesn’t hurt no matter how much you play with them.”
Rimon cackled.
Li Qing-yu nodded with an impressed expression.
“So masters are different no matter what they do.”
“...Don’t take a joke so seriously. Unlike the masters of your Seven Dragons Society, I’m only a simple sword fighter.”
Rimon looked uncomfortable.
The masters of the Seven Dragons Society were beings who had reached the height of versatility.
Depending on their innate Psionics and the ultimate arts they had trained in, they possessed not only combat abilities rivaling those of high-level Players, but superhuman capabilities in their respective fields.
That was why the Seven Dragons Society had endured for centuries.
There were politicians who could read minds.
Actors who were unusually captivating.
Cooks with astonishing skill.
Businesspeople who could see hidden ore veins.
Veterinarians who could communicate with animals.
Blessed with the supernatural ability known as Psionics, the masters of the Seven Dragons Society stood out in every field.
They did not act openly, but even so, many people sought out the Seven Dragons Society because they coveted its power.
With the foundation it had built over centuries, the Seven Dragons Society had been able to emerge into the open and survive even in this Iron Age.
That was Psionics.
It was the foundation of the power that had once ruled the world, passed down from the Seven Dragons that had even devoured gods.
Hearing such words from the princess of the Seven Dragons Society left Rimon, who knew little beyond wielding a sword, feeling not only dumbfounded but embarrassed.
“Is that really so?”
That was why Rimon looked puzzled when Li Qing-yu tilted her head.
“What do you mean?”
“I was merely wondering whether it is right to call a Sword Master a simple sword fighter.”
“What is so special about a Sword Master? It just means you are a sword fighter who is good at swinging a blade and will not grow old and die.”
“I suppose...”
Li Qing-yu made a strange expression at those unconvincing words from the man who had cut down even the Demon God and attained the karma of eternal life.
But Rimon did not try to persuade her.
He only looked her over.
“By the way, I didn’t know you wore clothes like that.”
“Does it not suit me?”
“No, it does suit you, if I have to say it. But it is not the sort of outfit a princess would wear, is it?”
Shorts that revealed her slender legs.
An oversized T-shirt.
Even a cap.
Li Qing-yu’s casual outfit, instead of the Eastern-style dresses she usually wore, was so unexpected that she almost looked like a different person.
Did it not suit her?
That was not the case at all.
Her beauty was what it was, and she looked as cute as any popular idol.
Perhaps it was simply the rule that a beautiful person looked good in anything.
“Hehe, sometimes I want to wear different clothes too. It also serves as a disguise, of course.”
“I’m not sure it can count as a disguise when you came here with me...”
Li Qing-yu wore an especially cheerful smile, apparently pleased to hear that the outfit suited her. Just as Rimon scratched his cheek at her words, a girl with eyes as dull as a corpse approached the two of them.
“Are you two done talking?”
“Why? Do you want something else to eat?”
“No. It is almost time for the break to end.”
“Oh, is it?”
At Sia’s words, Rimon looked over the children, scratched the back of his head, and stood up.
Then he unfolded the amusement park map and asked casually,
“Where are we going next again?”
“The place where they catch those with empty heads who look cute, lock them up, sell them to customers, and make them earn money with their bodies.”
“...Just call it a zoo. Don’t make people misunderstand by putting it so strangely.”
“It is the truth.”
“At least it is a truth the children don’t need to know.”
Though he grumbled at Sia’s words, Rimon led the children toward the zoo.
Perhaps because it was so old, the zoo was as shabby as the other aging facilities. Only a few basic animals lay around listlessly inside their cages.
“Wow, a lion! A lion!”
“Lion, look over here!”
“Grandpa, can I give the lion a snack?”
“No, you can’t.”
Yet even those few animals delighted the children.
They argued over whether something was a rat or a squirrel, only to be shocked when they learned it was actually a monkey.
They tried to secretly feed the animals, only to get caught and receive a smack on the forehead.
They frightened the animals by staring at them intently with eyes like rotten fish, without the slightest change in expression.
They were having so much fun that Rimon felt sorry he had not brought them to an amusement park sooner.
If Na-gyeong had been here too, it would have been chaos.
Perhaps because they had all come from the same orphanage.
Or perhaps because they had learned from Yoo Na-gyeong.
As Rimon watched the children, who were so lively that they seemed foolish at times, with a bitter smile, one of them called out.
“Grandpa. Bird, bird.”
“What, do you need to pee?”
“No! Bluebird, bluebird!”
“Hm?”
Rimon followed the child’s outstretched finger and saw a baby bird sitting alone in a nest at the center of a large cage.
Its down was as blue as an autumn sky.
Only a tuft of white feathers stood up on top of its head.
It was small enough to seem like a hatchling.
The baby bird was cute in many ways, so it stood out among the few birds in the zoo.
But that was not why Rimon made a strange expression.
Why does that little thing look so exhausted?
The baby bird had its back turned completely toward the visitors, as though it were already tired of being a spectacle, with both wings hanging limply at its sides.
It looked so lifeless that, if not for its soft down, it could have passed for an old bird that had lived a turbulent life and reached the end of its lifespan.
“Grandpa, I want that one!”
“Hey, animals at a zoo are not for sale.”
Perhaps because the child had spoken so loudly, the baby bird slightly turned its head while keeping its back to them.
It only glanced at Rimon and the children before listlessly trying to turn back around.
Then it froze and spun around again in shock.
It moved so violently that Rimon wondered if its plump neck might snap clean off.
But the baby bird did not care.
As though showing off the flexibility of youth, it whipped its head back and forth, frantically looking over all twenty-three children.
The more faces it checked, the wider its eyes grew.
When it finally looked past Sia to Rimon and opened its beak wide,
Peeeep?!
A cry of shock tore through the air.
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
