Solo Swordmaster - Chapter 7

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 7: Please Marry Me

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Seven Dragons Society.

The foundations of this organization dated back beyond the Age of Heroes, when Sword Masters were active, all the way to the Bronze Age.

At the end of the Silver Age, when gods and magic were at their height, indiscriminate witch hunts and religious wars had thrown the world into chaos.

That chaos created countless innocent victims, and the gods gradually became objects of resentment rather than faith.

That was when the Seven Dragons appeared.

They were ancient beings that had slumbered to escape disaster, then awakened.

Wielding the mystery known as psionics, the Seven Dragons devoured incarnations with their immense power. Those who had suffered persecution were moved by that feat and became their followers.

The Seven Dragons did not reject their followers.

No, they even taught them psionics, their own power.

As a result, the Seven Dragons' followers multiplied explosively and formed a massive organization. That was the Seven Dragons Society.

It was a religion that revered the Seven Dragons as gods and saviors, and a force that had once conquered and ruled the world.

But that was a story from the Bronze Age.

After the first Sword Master, the Sword Emperor, cut down the Seven Dragons and opened the Age of Heroes, the Seven Dragons Society lost its supremacy and fell into decline.

But who was it that said a rich family lasted three generations even after going under?

Though it had fallen, the Seven Dragons Society did not disappear.

Using the vast assets it had amassed in the past and the power of psionics as its foundation, it rebuilt its shattered organization and sought a return to power.

But it tasted the bitter cup of failure time and again.

Whenever it tried to reclaim supremacy over the world, there were always people stubbornly standing in its way.

And at their head was Rimon Aspelder, the Sword Master called humanity's guardian god.

In short, the Seven Dragons Society and Rimon were irreconcilable enemies.

The passage of time had meant the Seven Dragons Society no longer had reason to fight him, but an old grudge did not disappear so easily.

There had once been a time when Seven Dragons Society assassins came after him as routinely as eating meals.

“This is excellent tea.”

“It’s cheap tea made from supermarket tea bags.”

“To find tea with such depth of flavor so cheaply, you truly must be well respected, Sword Duke.”

“...”

The girl held her teacup and marveled.

That was why Rimon wore an awkward expression as he looked at Li Qing-yu.

Rimon had never thought he would live to hear a Black Dragon Princess say he was well respected.

Of course, he had heard plenty of other things.

A bastard who deserved heaven’s punishment. A son of a bitch a dragon would eat. Things like that.

The Seven Dragons Society had given him new nicknames and appraisals at every opportunity.

The fact that Sword Duke, a relatively harmless title, existed among them was miraculous enough to be inexplicable.

And now he was hearing such praise from the princess of the Black Dragon Clan, the one of the Seven Dragons Society’s seven clans that held the deepest grudge against him.

It was the sort of story that would get him committed if he told anyone.

“Still, this is a little unexpected.”

“What is?”

“I’d heard that you lived simply, Sword Duke, but I didn’t expect you to live in such a shabby place.”

Yellowed wallpaper, worn-out furniture, an old television that even a junk dealer would not buy.

Li Qing-yu looked around the studio apartment, which overflowed not merely with signs of daily life but with poverty, in fascination. Rimon answered indifferently.

“Living simply? I’m just broke, so I live here.”

“Broke...? You, Sword Duke?”

“Yep.”

As though she had heard an absurd joke, Li Qing-yu looked puzzled.

“I was under the impression that you had considerable assets.”

“They all got donated a long time ago.”

“Ah, I see.”

Li Qing-yu smiled as though she finally understood.

“Donating your entire fortune was a noble decision.”

Rimon replied sardonically.

“It wasn’t my decision.”

“...???”

Question marks practically hovered over Li Qing-yu’s head.

She could not understand what it meant to donate something without having made the decision to do so.

Rimon snickered at her.

“I told you. I didn’t donate it. It got donated.”

“Can someone be made to donate?”

“Strange, right? A bunch of lawmakers got together and changed the law, and apparently that’s what happens.”

Rimon chuckled.

It was amusing to see the Black Dragon Princess so bewildered by the state of his finances.

Of course she was surprised.

Rimon had originally possessed quite a bit of wealth.

During the Age of Heroes, when Sword Masters were regarded as absolute beings, there had always been people who considered money a small price to pay to build ties with him. And Rimon was not the sort to refuse money people offered.

The gold, silver, and treasures he received then had filled dozens of warehouses, to the point that he had needed to build more.

But after the Iron Age began, the tax exemptions granted to him by the state disappeared, and his wealth melted away like a mirage.

Special taxes, the Patriotic Act, the Superhuman Donation Act, and more.

One law after another appeared, and an unexpected barrage of taxes wiped out most of his assets in just a few years.

Even the Sword Tower, the sacred ground of Sword Masters, could no longer operate and went bankrupt.

After that, every time he beat someone half to death or damaged property, he paid compensation like water.

There was no way he could have any wealth left.

Maybe I should’ve hidden some money away in advance.

When he had seen rich people bury gold all over the place in the past, he had thought it was something squirrels would do.

Now that he thought about it, it had been a far-sighted choice.

Though most of those rich people had died without leaving behind the locations where they hid their gold.

As a result, searching for ownerless gold had once been one of Rimon’s hobbies.

But no matter how quickly regret came, it was already too late.

Instead of dwelling on wealth he had never had any use for anyway, Rimon turned his attention to a more practical issue.

“Anyway, I’d like an explanation now.”

“An explanation...?”

“The request you made of me earlier.”

“Oh, that?”

Perhaps because the subject had changed so suddenly, Li Qing-yu only belatedly understood what Rimon meant and nodded.

Then, after taking a short breath, she spoke with a serious expression.

“You don’t need to have children with me.”

“...What?”

“Please become my husband, even if it is only in name. Then the Black Dragon Clan will serve you to the best of our ability, Sword Duke.”

“Excuse me?”

“I won’t ask you to do anything separately. If you simply remain in your position, I’ll grant you anything you desire. And if I am not enough, you may have as many other women as you...”

“Stop right there!”

After opening and closing his mouth like a fish for quite some time, Rimon raised a hand to stop Li Qing-yu.

Then, with a face full of disbelief and exasperation, he said,

“Hey, that’s not the explanation I meant.”

“No? It wasn’t?”

“Right. I don’t want the terms of the marriage. I want to know why you came looking for me.”

Rimon folded his arms.

Then he added, staring steadily at Li Qing-yu.

“I don’t understand why a Black Dragon Princess would go as far as taking in a live-in son-in-law just to make use of a washed-up relic like me.”

“...How did you know?”

“Anyone who heard that much would have to be an idiot not to know.”

He did not need to have children with her. He only needed to become her husband in name and stay put.

She would grant him anything he wanted, and she did not care if he had other women?

Those were not marriage terms, no matter how he looked at them.

They were employment terms.

In other words, Li Qing-yu had not proposed to him.

She had simply been trying to sell herself in order to borrow his strength.

“There are... complicated circumstances.”

“I figured.”

Rimon replied without much interest.

Even if Li Qing-yu was a Black Dragon Princess, marrying Rimon was not something that could simply be overlooked.

It was the kind of outrageous act that would justify not only the other princesses of the Seven Dragons Society, but even the Black Dragon Clan that followed her, rising in revolt.

If she had come to make such a request despite that, the circumstances could not possibly be ordinary.

“You don’t have to tell me what those complicated circumstances are. I’m not curious anyway.”

Perhaps he would have wanted to know in the past.

Enough to seize a few executives and torture the truth out of them.

But times had changed.

Now that the Seven Dragons Society had stepped into the open and he could no longer kill its members as he pleased, Rimon had no interest in its affairs.

“What I want to know is why you’re asking me specifically.”

“Because even if you married me, you would never covet the Black Dragon Clan’s power or wealth.”

“That’s true enough.”

Covet the Black Dragon Clan’s wealth?

He would sooner covet dog shit.

Besides, rather than hand its wealth over to Rimon, the Black Dragon Clan would likely use that money to make bombs and carry out a collective suicide attack.

That was how serious the relationship between Rimon and the Black Dragon Clan was.

“Still, I can’t be the only person like that.”

“No. But nobody else will do.”

“Why not?”

If all she needed was a reasonably suitable live-in son-in-law, she could find plenty of unremarkable men.

Whatever anyone said, she was the Black Dragon Princess.

A girl descended from the most exalted bloodline.

Yet Li Qing-yu hesitated before explaining why she had sought Rimon out in particular.

“Because you are the only person who would not die after marrying me.”

“...Are you saying anyone else who married you would die?”

“Yes. Almost certainly.”

“Why?”

“Because whoever marries me is likely to become the target of a frightening enemy.”

“Who is this enemy?”

“I... cannot tell you that yet.”

“Hmm.”

Rimon made a curious expression.

It really must be serious.

Then again, it was already serious enough that a Seven Dragons Society princess was seeking a fake husband.

The Seven Dragons Society’s princesses were the sort who would rather overturn an entire country to find the husband they wanted than enter a political marriage.

There was no need to say more if she was frightened enough of an enemy she could not name to choose Rimon as her husband, even in name.

“Just curious, what do you think the odds are that I’d die if I married you?”

Li Qing-yu answered Rimon’s calm question about his own risk at once.

“None.”

“I was asking for an answer, not flattery.”

“It is not flattery.”

Li Qing-yu shook her head.

Then she looked at Rimon with deeply solemn eyes.

“There cannot possibly be anyone in the world capable of killing you except us, can there?”

Rimon blinked blankly.

Only after a long moment did he burst into laughter.

“Puhaha! You do know a thing or two!”

After laughing for some time, Rimon finally calmed down. He poured tea into his cup, took a drink, and continued in a low voice.

“Well, it’s not a bad offer. It’s not like I have any honor left to lose by becoming a live-in son-in-law. I could live in comfort, too.”

Becoming the fake husband of a Black Dragon Princess.

It was something he could never have imagined in the past.

But times had already changed.

He was no longer an absolute being.

Now that Rimon was nothing more than a low-ranking civil servant, nobody would care whom he married.

So there was no particular reason for him to refuse the offer.

“It’s tempting enough to make me sorry I have to turn it down.”

“...You do not like me after all?”

“Any man who said he disliked a beauty like you in this day and age would deserve heaven’s punishment.”

“Then why are you refusing?”

“Because I’m a civil servant.”

Rimon shrugged.

Then he set down his teacup and continued lightly.

“I might have to crack down on the Seven Dragons Society again for my country someday. If I married you, that would make things awkward for both of us, wouldn’t it?”

He knew it was foolish.

These days, politicians backed by the Seven Dragons Society were everywhere around the world, while its martial artists enjoyed popularity as movie stars.

There was no reason for Rimon to fight the Seven Dragons Society.

Even if something did happen, people would seek the Monarchs’ help now, not his.

Still, it could not be helped.

No matter how much times changed, he was ultimately a man of the old age who had fought the Seven Dragons Society to protect the world.

“...So you are still humanity’s guardian god, Sword Duke.”

“It’s just an old man’s stubbornness after living too long.”

Rimon shrugged.

Then he spoke to Li Qing-yu with apparent regret.

“Sorry to make you come all this way for nothing.”

“No, it’s all right.”

Despite Rimon’s gaze, indifferent to the point of coldness despite his words, Li Qing-yu showed no disappointment.

She merely wore a bitter smile.