WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 71: What Power Needs
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“Sometimes a five-hundred-won tea suits your taste better than a Dragon Well tea worth millions of won.”
“That’s quite the saying.”
Rimon let out a small snort.
After sitting down, he picked up his chopsticks and ate a piece of pork belly.
He then poured makgeolli into a bowl and drained it in one gulp. Setting down the empty bowl, he spoke casually.
“All right, talk.”
“What do you mean, sir?”
“Why you’re treating me so well. You must want something from me.”
“Hehe, why ask something so obvious? I just hope the Sword Duke, who will become a pillar of the clan, will look kindly on me in the future.”
“If that’s nothing but empty flattery, I’m getting up and leaving.”
“Oh, come on. Why won’t you believe my sincerity?”
“Want me to sincerely tear your company apart?”
Rimon smiled as he said it.
But Wang Gi-neung flinched when he saw the golden eyes that held no trace of amusement.
He was quick enough to realize that Rimon meant it.
His eyes rolled for a moment.
Then Wang Gi-neung finally cleared his throat and spoke.
“Ahem. It may be presumptuous to say this, but not everyone in the Black Dragon Clan opposes the princess marrying the Sword Duke.”
“Why?”
“Change is an opportunity, and whenever the Sword Duke does something, you make it big.”
Wang Gi-neung explained with a grin.
The Black Dragon Clan had fallen to rock bottom. No matter what they did, they were in no position to revive on their own.
From that perspective, Li Qing-yu choosing Rimon as her prince consort had been a masterstroke.
“There’s no guarantee that whatever I do will lead to the Black Dragon Clan’s revival.”
“Hehe, but it is certain that the Sword Duke will become far greater than you are now.”
“Hm... So regardless of the clan’s rise or fall, I’ll eventually become a central figure in the Black Dragon Clan, and you want to establish ties with me now?”
“Please think of it as an investment in the clan’s future.”
Wang Gi-neung spoke in a spirited voice, as though he were a loyal retainer from time immemorial.
Yet the cunning practically overflowing from his eyes made it clear to anyone that he was no loyal subject, but a treacherous courtier through and through.
Rimon watched him silently for a moment.
Then he snorted.
“The idea of establishing ties with me isn’t bad, but a few pieces of meat and a bottle of makgeolli seem rather insufficient for that.”
“Oh, don’t take me for someone with no sense of propriety. Of course, I prepared a separate gift.”
As though he had been waiting for the question, Wang Gi-neung swiftly took out a file and presented it.
Rimon opened it, skimmed the documents inside, and narrowed his eyes.
Even a village school dog learns to recite poetry after three years.
He still found paperwork thoroughly unfamiliar, but he had diligently read Weiling’s reports like homework lately. At least, he could roughly grasp their contents.
“What sort of contract is this?”
“It’s what you were looking for. You just established your company, so don’t you need money, work, and results?”
“Oh? So if I sign here, Guardian gets to handle Black Dragon Construction’s security and guard work however we please?”
“Yes, sir. Write down whatever you want for the contract sum and expenses. Not just two or three times the proper amount, we can process up to ten times without any trouble.”
Standing behind Rimon, Weiling’s brow twitched.
That was no different from openly offering a bribe.
Is that why?
At the same time, she realized something.
Rimon had been overturning every Black Dragon Clan subsidiary in sight in order to make people like Wang Gi-neung come forward, kneel voluntarily, and offer bribes.
What a schemer.
Weiling looked at Rimon with cold eyes.
Of course, to the Black Dragon Clan, where intrigue and stratagem were basic coursework, bribery was also an excellent means of negotiation.
In that respect, Rimon’s method was impressive.
With only a minor show of force, he had secured both the work and funding necessary to operate Guardian, as well as supporters. Three gains with one move.
That was why Weiling remained silent.
She was currently Rimon’s attendant.
Regardless of her personal feelings, she was in a position where she should help him, never obstruct him.
“Is it really all right to dump work on us like this? It’ll be a nuisance if the people already doing it start talking behind our backs.”
“Oh, it’s fine. The work listed in the contract I handed over is only for subcontractors and contract employees anyway.”
Unaware of Weiling’s thoughts, Rimon and Wang Gi-neung calmly continued discussing the bribe.
“Besides, I’d feel better entrusting the work to the Sword Duke rather than those random nobodies.”
“Then why not let us handle oversight too? I’m confident we could clean things out thoroughly.”
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly burden the Sword Duke with such trivial work. We’ll handle the internal audit ourselves, so please leave it to us.”
“Oh, really?”
Wang Gi-neung rubbed his palms together as he said that using a cattle-slaughtering knife to kill a chicken would be ridiculous.
Rimon watched him for a moment, then gave a quiet laugh.
The next instant.
Crash!
“Urk?!”
The brazier where the pork belly had been cooking flipped over entirely, and Wang Gi-neung’s face was driven into the table.
The sudden turn of events startled not only Wang Gi-neung, but even Weiling, who had been watching impassively.
Rimon, however, was not surprised.
He was the one who had suddenly grabbed Wang Gi-neung by the collar and slammed him down.
“S-Sword Duke, sir! Why are you doing this all of a sudden?!”
“Why am I doing this?”
Rimon’s eyes flashed.
He grabbed the struggling Wang Gi-neung by the hair, forcing their eyes to meet, and growled.
“You little fuck. Do I look easy to you? You think you can throw a little money at me and I’ll shut up and work as some swordsman who just cuts people down?”
“Absolutely not, sir!”
“Then what’s with tossing me a few contracts like scraps from a leftover meal and saying you’d rather not have us do inspections? Huh? You’re telling me a watchdog should know its place and act like a dog?”
“T-That’s not what I meant...”
“What do you mean, it’s not, you bastard!”
Thud!
“Gah!”
That was when it began.
Rimon’s glorious beating of Wang Gi-neung.
Thudthudthudthudthud!
“You X-ing bastard! If I smiled and watched because you were putting on a little show, then you should’ve ended it with that little show! Who do you think you are, getting carried away like this?!”
“Argh, urk, ngh, aaagh, s-save me...! Gack!”
He kicked him, twisted his joints, stomped him into the floor, rolled him around, and shook him out.
Weiling stood frozen as she watched Rimon utterly wreck Wang Gi-neung in dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ways that spoke of long experience.
But whether she was shocked or not did not matter.
Like an artisan carving a Buddhist statue, Rimon painstakingly and earnestly tenderized every inch of Wang Gi-neung’s body.
Only when there was not a single uninjured spot left on Wang Gi-neung, from head to toe, did he finally stop kicking him.
“Phew. Fuck. In the old days, I would’ve just killed you. I’ve really mellowed out.”
At this point, it would probably be kinder to kill him cleanly.
“Hey, sneak. I don’t care whether you grind your teeth and seek revenge on me over this, or bear a grudge. But remember one thing.”
It was a wonder that Wang Gi-neung was even alive.
Still, seemingly certain that he remained conscious, Rimon spoke quietly.
He bent down slightly, pressed his lips close to Wang Gi-neung’s ear, and continued in a voice as cold as a blade.
“Look down on me again, and you die.”
There was no answer.
Only a trembling body.
But that alone was enough to make Rimon turn away with a satisfied expression.
“Oh, and one more thing.”
Rimon opened the door and had been about to leave when he turned back as if he had just remembered something.
He picked up the file lying amid the overturned table, gave it a light shake, and smiled.
“Thanks for the gift. I’ll gladly take it.”
* * *
Rimon did not stop there.
From reasonably successful companies, if not ones on the scale of Black Dragon Construction, to small and medium-sized businesses with only a single office, he overturned every Black Dragon Clan subsidiary he could visit that day.
Each subsidiary reacted differently.
Some were caught without knowing what was happening. Some, like Wang Gi-neung, tried to get through it with bribes. Others had even decided from the beginning to resist.
But the outcome was the same.
Every last one of them was smashed apart and overturned by Rimon.
“Hmm, this was quite profitable.”
After about half a day of going around like that, Rimon returned only after finally ending his rampage, having overturned twenty-two subsidiaries. Looking at the thick stack of documents, he grinned.
“This should keep us from running short on work for about a year, right?”
“I think you’ve lost your mind.”
“...Know-It-All Fool, why are you so desperate to treat me like a patient?”
“Do you think anyone who sees this would consider you sane?”
Weiling ground her teeth.
The thick documents Rimon held.
Having watched the entire process, she knew exactly how the bloodstains scattered across them had gotten there. She genuinely could not see Rimon as sane.
“You caused every bit of trouble imaginable, then brought every bribe back with you. What on earth were you thinking?”
“Why? Is there a problem with that?”
“Of course there is.”
If he had simply accepted the bribes and left, they would have gained quite a lot.
But this ruined everything.
“What crazy clansman would entrust work to Guardian now? We can force work out of these contracts for the time being, but everyone will avoid us from now on.”
“Yes, they will.”
To Weiling’s sharp criticism, Rimon nodded far more readily than expected.
Then he set down the documents he had been reading and spoke casually.
“That’s why I did it.”
“...What nonsense are you talking about?”
Rimon gave a small laugh.
Resting his chin on one hand, he looked at Wei Ling with deeply sunken golden eyes.
“Know-It-All Fool, don’t misunderstand. Your princess gave our company the impressive name Guardian, but what she wants from it isn’t safety or trust.”
“Then what does she want?”
“Fear and anxiety.”
If they had simply established a company dedicated to security and guarding, work would naturally have come in over time.
Yet Li Qing-yu had also granted it the authority to conduct inspections because there was something she sought to gain through Guardian, a company that was merely a shell.
“Don’t be absurd. Why would the princess deliberately sow fear and anxiety among the clan?”
“Well, would she not?”
Rimon wore a cold smile as he looked at Weiling, whose face openly showed distrust.
Unlike her, who firmly believed that her beloved princess would never do anything harmful to the clan, Rimon had understood Li Qing-yu’s intentions from the start.
From emperors to presidents of great powers, there had always been a reason why powerful rulers deliberately created extralegal oversight agencies.
“Suppose there’s a mad dog running wild for reasons no one knows.”
“...”
“Then what do you think people would do to stop that mad dog? Would they protest to its owner? Or would they try however they could to get on the owner’s good side?”
“...!”
Weiling’s cold eyes wavered.
She finally understood why Rimon had deliberately run wild like a mad dog, and what he meant when he said Li Qing-yu wanted fear and anxiety.
“You’d do well to remember this.”
Rimon smiled coldly at her.
“The princess you revere is not some flower raised in a greenhouse. She is a schemer and a wielder of power whom even I acknowledge.”
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