WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 72: Better Than I Expected
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Rustle.
The silk dress slipped down, revealing skin smoother than silk.
Li Qing-yu, the doll-like girl now standing naked, removed the jade hairpin holding up her hair and spoke calmly.
“I see. So that happened?”
“Yes.”
“I was wondering why so many clans connected to domestic subsidiaries had suddenly requested audiences. So it was thanks to the Sword Duke taking action.”
Li Qing-yu brushed aside the hair that had fallen loose after she removed her hairpin and stepped forward.
Then, slowly lowering herself into the steaming marble bath, she asked:
“But why are you reporting this to me, Chao?”
Beyond the thin curtain concealing the bathtub, Chao, a woman dressed as a man, remained silently kneeling.
As though she had expected that, Li Qing-yu calmly read Weiling’s thoughts.
“Did you want to confirm it? Whether, as the Sword Duke said, I created Guardian to cause fear and discord and strengthen my authority?”
“Yes.”
Perhaps because the question had struck home.
Or perhaps because she could no longer be disrespectful.
Li Qing-yu quietly nodded after hearing Weiling’s subdued reply.
“In conclusion, yes. I did have that calculation in mind.”
Weiling’s face stiffened at the answer she had already expected, yet could not bring herself to accept.
“But Chao, you are the one who led things in that direction.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean this might not have happened if you had properly done what you were supposed to do.”
“...
Are you saying I should have dealt with it myself before the Sword Duke stepped in? By digging through our clan’s subsidiaries as he did?”
“You do not agree, I see.”
Wei Ling’s expression darkened.
Li Qing-yu sensed both her guilt over her own failure and the doubt that still remained, then smiled softly.
“I have thought this for some time, Chao, but you are truly rigid.”
“...”
“Oh, I am not criticizing you for it. I have always been grateful for your unwavering loyalty, including that rigidity so unlike our clan’s.”
It was not an empty compliment.
From Psionics to martial arts and culture, everything about the Black Dragon Clan was suited to schemes and conspiracies.
Which was why people as rigid as Weiling were rare among the Black Dragon Clan.
Li Qing-yu had deliberately chosen her as a guard because she valued that upright nature more highly than her loyalty or talent.
“But unless you discard that preconception, Chao, you will not help the Sword Duke. You will only get in his way.”
“Are you saying I am unfit to serve the Sword Duke?”
“When it comes to work, you are certainly the most capable. But in other matters... well.”
Weiling clenched her fist.
She knew that Li Qing-yu’s refusal to give a clear answer was effectively an affirmation.
It might have been different with someone else.
But she would be nothing but a hindrance to Rimon, who often merely scratched the back of his head because he could not properly understand a few documents?
To her, renowned since childhood as a genius of the Black Dragon Clan, it was impossible to accept.
“Chao, do not underestimate the Sword Duke.”
At that moment.
An icy voice rang through the air.
“He is certainly a Sword Master, a man who has lived by cutting through everything with his sword rather than using plots and schemes.”
Her voice was sharp, as though she had read Weiling’s inner contempt for Rimon.
“But he is an old hand. He survived the Bronze Age and the Age of Heroes, saved the world several times, and remains humanity’s last Sword Master.”
He had faced dragons that devoured even gods.
He had won wars between Sword Masters.
With a single sword, he had cut down several absolute beings and safeguarded the peace of the world, an immortal guardian deity.
As she spoke of Rimon Aspelder’s past, Li Qing-yu looked at Wei Ling with a gaze so heavy that it could be felt through the curtain.
“Do you truly think all of that was possible through swordsmanship alone?”
“...
Are you saying I should not underestimate the experience of an old hand?”
“I cannot give you a definite answer to that. Even I do not know whether his second blade is wisdom born from experience, or something else entirely.”
Li Qing-yu chuckled, saying that she did not know everything, then dispelled the chill in her voice and spoke lightly.
“But one thing is certain.”
“What is that?”
“If you continue seeing him as nothing but an uncultured swordsman, Chao, you will never become the Sword Duke’s attendant in the truest sense.”
How could someone who looked down on their master become an attendant, practically an extension of their master’s limbs?
At Li Qing-yu’s smiling, almost joking words, Weiling lowered her head.
She understood.
That the light tone concealed a warning.
And that it was advice Li Qing-yu had offered because she sincerely worried about her.
“...
Why?”
“Why I assigned you to serve him?”
“I am asking why, even after making the Sword Duke your prince consort, you intend to give him even greater power by entrusting him with a dangerous organization like Guardian.”
Weiling knew it was disrespectful, yet she had no choice but to ask.
If Rimon was not simply a swordsman, as Li Qing-yu said, then depending on how he used Guardian, he could seize the clan’s entire power structure.
Li Qing-yu was silent for a moment, as though considering whether to answer.
Then, as if she had finally made up her mind, she quietly spoke.
“Because it is necessary.”
“Necessary...?”
“Yes.”
Leaning back against the bath, Li Qing-yu looked up at the lights shining on the ceiling like stars in the night sky and finished in a low voice.
“It is necessary to entrust the Sword Duke with all the power of our clan, no, of all seven clans within the Seven Dragons Society.”
* * *
After the incident in which Rimon went around overturning subsidiaries, known as the Mad Dog Rampage,
Guardian began to operate.
Whatever the process had been, Rimon had obtained contracts one way or another. Simply choosing which ones to handle gave them several months’ worth of work at once.
Of course, Guardian had only two employees, Rimon and Weiling, so there was a limit to the work they could take on.
But Weiling was, as expected, capable.
She brought in Leviathan employees to fill out their workforce, if only temporarily.
It was half outsourcing, but by taking on and handling jobs that way, Guardian at least took on the form of a security company.
It was clear progress.
Guardian, which had been little more than a nameplate, was finally beginning to function as a proper company.
However, that result was not entirely positive.
“Have you heard? About what that Rimon Aspelder has been doing?”
“Who in the Black Dragon Clan has not? Smashing up subsidiaries and extorting work out of them just because they would not give him jobs... What a crazy bastard.”
“They say more than five people were beaten half to death that day. Including Branch Chief Wang.”
“Branch Chief Wang? You cannot mean Wang Gi-neung, head of the Shanghai Wang Family?”
“That is right. They say he was beaten nearly into a cripple without even being able to put up a proper resistance.”
The rumors of what Rimon had done during the Mad Dog Rampage spread through the Black Dragon Clan like a wildfire through a dry spring forest.
The clan’s reactions were varied.
“Even Wang, the head of a prestigious clan and a grandmaster-level expert, was helpless before him. No matter how much times have changed, the Sword Duke is still the Sword Duke...”
Some feared Rimon’s strength.
“I have no idea what that man is thinking. It is not as if he got angry because they bribed him, or made a fuss because they did not. What kind of person takes the bribes and still wrecks the place?”
Some were uneasy because they could not understand his intentions.
“I hear he dumps all the work on his subordinates, goes out to enjoy himself, and only shows his face at the company from time to time.”
Others despised him for living off others.
They each thought and judged based on what they saw and heard, but their conclusions were generally similar.
“We should ask whether Her Highness can properly control the Sword Duke.”
“In any case, Her Highness is the only one who can stop him.”
“Her Highness needs to be more wary of that man.”
Whether to assess the situation.
To find a breakwater.
Or simply to stay on guard.
The Black Dragon Clan eagerly flocked to Li Qing-yu.
They did not know what might happen if they dealt directly with the mad dog called Rimon. Going through Li Qing-yu was their only relatively safe option.
Li Qing-yu, once scorned as the culprit who had ruined the clan, became the eye of the storm overnight.
Some found the situation suspicious, but that changed nothing.
In any era, the only way to avoid the disaster of an inspection agency armed with power and authority was to make oneself look good in the ruler’s eyes.
There was a reason rulers throughout history had given their personal inspection agencies such overwhelmingly powerful authority.
The problem was that as Li Qing-yu’s support base grew, someone else’s reputation plummeted exponentially.
[The rumors about you have become truly spectacular lately, Team Leader.]
“What kind of rumors?”
[There are plenty. That you are a perverted old lolicon, a thug bastard who finds joy in violence, and a useless kept man who only cares about money.]
“Hm, that sounds fairly mild.”
[...]
[If that is mild, what would not be mild?]
“At least no assassins have come after me.”
[That is certainly a clear standard.]
Rimon snickered.
No matter what slander spread through the Black Dragon Clan, Rimon did not care in the slightest.
He had been the Seven Dragons Society’s sworn enemy from the beginning. His reputation could hardly sink lower, and compared to the many humiliating names he had been called in the past, this was nothing.
What had truly been giving Rimon a headache lately was an entirely different matter.
“Still, this really is not going well.”
[Not going well? What is not?]
“The violin. I feel like I am only just starting to understand it, but my skill will not improve at all.”
[...]
[If another violinist heard you say that, they would probably try to kill you.]
“Why? It is not as if I said anything wrong.”
Rimon replied indifferently.
In truth, the violin lessons that had seemed to be progressing smoothly had recently slowed as though they had run into a wall.
But Yoo Na-gyeong gave Rimon an incredulous look.
[You need room to improve before you can improve. Did you not hear what Julia said? That technically, there is nothing more she can teach you?]
“That only applies to technique. In other areas, I am still behind Julia.”
[Does it not strike you as abnormal to compare your playing with that of a world-class violinist after taking lessons for only one month?]
“It cannot be helped.”
Rimon spoke firmly.
Then he glanced at the case holding the Pitch-Black Violin he had been playing moments earlier and continued.
“To overcome this violin’s curse, I need to improve somehow.”
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