Solo Swordmaster - Chapter 78

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B

Chapter 78: Time to Make a Move

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The penthouse of the Leviathan Hotel.

Among the countless buildings in the world, it ranked near the top in sheer luxury. Hidden within it was a peculiar room.

A sealed chamber with only seven chairs arranged around a round table carved with dragons.

And in one of those seven chairs.

A beautiful girl sat primly in a chair made entirely of black crystal, wearing glasses.

“No.”

Li Qing-yu, the Black Dragon Princess, spoke softly as she turned her gaze slightly.

Looking at the six empty chairs, particularly the one made of pure silver, she continued.

“I told you. I have no ulterior motive.”

It was an abrupt statement.

Anyone listening would have assumed she was talking to herself.

Yet beyond her clear lenses, Li Qing-yu’s obsidian-dark eyes were clearly fixed on someone she was addressing.

“Of course, I understand why you cannot trust me. I am the princess of the Black Dragon Clan, after all.”

Humble, but not servile.

Mysterious, but not suspicious.

Firm, but not rigid.

The face that always smiled sweetly before Rimon now bore a deep, cool smile.

“But aren’t you all forgetting something?”

It was the attitude one took toward equals.

Looking through her glasses at the exceedingly rare people who could be called equals to herself, the princess of the Black Dragon Clan, Li Qing-yu continued.

“From the moment our Black Dragon Clan agreed to bear the burden of the World Peace Plan, this became a rightful privilege granted to me.”

Had she struck a nerve?

Her counterpart fell silent at once.

But the silence only lasted briefly. Li Qing-yu shifted her gaze to the golden seat.

“Are you serious?”

Whatever she heard made her ask in surprise. At that moment, a heavy pressure filled the room.

Even beneath the crushing Intimidation that reached her across space, as heavy as an immense boulder, Li Qing-yu did not lose her composure.

She merely smiled and spoke.

“I see. My apologies. That was certainly an extremely rude question to ask of the Gold Dragon Clan, who knows no falsehood.”

Perhaps that eased their mood.

The pressure filling the room dispersed, and Li Qing-yu continued lightly in the quiet that returned.

“But unfortunately, I have no choice but to refuse that offer.”

...

“The reason? It’s simple.”

...

“I have no intention of selling my rights that cheaply.”

The answer must have been quite unexpected.

As the room fell silent again, Li Qing-yu turned her gaze to the chair made of vividly scarlet rubies.

“Regret?”

Li Qing-yu smiled.

As though she had heard something truly amusing.

Yet whether because of her elegant bearing or the inexplicable shadow within that smile, it did not look like mockery.

“Yes, perhaps I will regret it.”

But she gave her counterpart no time to see through her thoughts. She simply continued calmly.

“So if I do regret it someday, would you make the offer again then?”

That was the end of it.

As though they realized there was no room for further discussion, the unseen people beyond the chairs disappeared one by one. Once the lights came on and the darkness receded, Li Qing-yu removed her glasses.

“They are inconvenient, as expected.”

Setting them on the round table, she finally muttered to herself.

“I understand being wary of my psionics, but there’s no need to waste money on something like a virtual meeting system.”

Li Qing-yu shook her head slightly.

Of course, she knew the Silver Dragon Clan’s intentions in providing the virtual meeting system after installing hacking software on it.

But everyone had already discovered and removed the software. Continuing to stubbornly use the virtual meeting system after that could only be called obstinacy.

‘Of course, the Silver Dragon Clan is not the only troublesome one.’

Recalling the six people who had been visible through the virtual meeting system until a moment ago, Li Qing-yu sighed softly.

Since proposing to Rimon.

She had been frantically busy, occupied with one thing after another.

But the brief conversation that had lasted only a few dozen minutes had exhausted her more than the countless matters she had handled over the past several weeks.

‘As expected, involving the other clans is too much for now.’

Suspicion, greed, anger, indifference.

Li Qing-yu felt regret as she recalled the emotions in those six pairs of eyes, each a different color.

Today, she had managed to get through the situation by keeping them uninvolved, but they had openly revealed their intent to intervene the moment an opportunity arose.

And there was very little chance that such intervention would benefit the Black Dragon Clan, herself, or above all, Rimon.

‘If I could bring in at least one, preferably two, it would be better than this.’

She gave a bitter smile.

She still had not even fully secured the Black Dragon Clan’s support and was receiving Rimon’s help. No one knew better than she did how absurd it was to think of drawing other clans to her side.

That was when she heard a knock.

Knock, knock.

“Hey, Princess. Got a moment?”

Li Qing-yu looked up in puzzlement. Such a knock should not have been possible here. But upon seeing the white-haired man leaning against the doorway, she smiled.

“If the Sword Duke needs me, I should make time even if I have none.”

“No, it’s not anything that important.”

“To me, simply seeing the Sword Duke one more time is more important than anything else.”

“...When you put it like that, you make me sound like some good-for-nothing husband who wanders around outside and never comes home.”

“It is true that the Sword Duke has been traveling often lately, isn’t it?”

She chuckled teasingly for a moment before rising from her seat.

“So what brings you here?”

“Nothing too serious.”

Normally, he would have sent word through Weiling or simply called. Curious why he had come in person, Li Qing-yu looked at him expectantly.

Rimon shrugged.

“I think it’s about time for me to make a move.”

Li Qing-yu’s eyes widened.

* * *

After leaving the sealed room.

Li Qing-yu poured tea she had brewed herself into Rimon’s cup. Having heard the general situation, she nodded.

“So your training has entered its next stage?”

“It’s closer to having wandered down a side path, if I must say.”

“Either way, it means you’ll have more time now.”

“Yes. At this point, it’s not a problem that can be solved simply by spending more time.”

Rimon shook his head.

If it had merely been a technical problem, things would have been different. But what blocked him now lay beyond technique.

If the right opportunity came, he might attain enlightenment in a day. If it did not, then even playing for ten years would not solve it.

He might gain something if he continued performing with Eugene, but he had no intention of devoting every waking hour to it.

“I plan to keep practicing consistently, but I think I can start prioritizing work now.”

“That is why you came to see me?”

“If I step into the foreground, it’ll have quite an impact in various ways.”

The Black Dragon Clan had been thrown into chaos merely because he had swept through its subsidiaries for a single day.

If Rimon began acting in earnest, no one knew how far the repercussions would reach or what form they would take.

“Besides, the more I act, the greater the pressure you’ll receive from the other clans.”

“Did you hear about it?”

“Hmm? Hear about what?”

Rimon looked as though she had said something completely unrelated.

Realizing from his reaction that he had not heard what had been discussed in the virtual meeting, Li Qing-yu blinked.

“Then how did you know I was under pressure?”

“Because none of the other clans’ assassins, spies, or negotiators have come looking for me yet.”

“...So because what should have come has not come, you realized I must be stopping them.”

“When you reach my age, you can tell when it’ll rain just by the smell.”

How could the Seven Dragons Society possibly leave him alone?

Rimon chuckled as he spoke. Then he drained the tea Li Qing-yu had poured in one gulp and rose from his seat.

“You’ll have a lot to think about, so I’ll be going. I’ll watch how things develop for now, so call me when you’ve sorted out your thoughts.”

“Yes, Sword Duke.”

As Rimon stood, Li Qing-yu rose with him and suddenly asked,

“By the way, Sword Duke, may I ask one thing?”

“What is it?”

“What kind of power is the Constellation power you’ve newly gained the ability to wield?”

After his performance with Eugene.

Li Qing-yu was asking about the power Rimon had gained after fragments of starlight melted away. Rimon made a strange expression for a moment.

After thinking for a while, he answered.

“Chicken ribs.”[1]

“Pardon?”

“You can think of it as a power I have no use for, at least.”

“...?”

After leaving behind only that incomprehensible answer, Rimon departed.

Li Qing-yu politely saw him off, then replayed the conversation she had had with Rimon and gave an unconscious bitter smile.

‘I cannot face Chao.’

It had only been recently that she had told Weiling not to underestimate Rimon.

Reflecting on how she herself had underestimated the experience of an old master, Li Qing-yu considered how to make use of this unexpected stroke of good fortune.

She had moved quietly until now only because she did not wish to disturb Rimon’s training.

Now that he could step into the foreground in earnest, she could proceed more actively.

“Princess, we have a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

Unfortunately, she could not finish her thoughts.

Before Li Qing-yu could devise a new plan, Youin came to see her with a grim expression.

As Leviathan’s general manager, he was not easily shaken. Seeing him so serious, Li Qing-yu looked puzzled.

But after hearing his report.

Her expression became just as stiff as Youin’s.

“One of our subsidiaries has been attacked.”

* * *

“Oh, Brother, honestly. I told you not to mess with a mad dog. Why did you have to get clever and bring disaster down on yourself again?”

At Black Dragon Construction, which Rimon had turned upside down, a man who resembled Wang Gi-neung was suffering from a headache.

Yet without a mustache, he looked far more serious than Wang Gi-neung.

His name was Wang Gi-seong.

He was Wang Gi-neung’s younger cousin, the current acting head in place of the East Asia branch manager of Black Dragon Construction.

“A grandmaster-level martial artist is laid up and cannot even work. What a disgrace.”

Wang Gi-seong sighed repeatedly.

It was certainly not because he pitied his cousin, who lay groaning in a hospital bed.

One reason was the enormous workload he had inherited after unwillingly becoming his cousin’s replacement.

The other was the position of the Shanghai Wang Family, which had not merely sunk to rock bottom over this incident but had drilled all the way to the mantle.

“Our Shanghai Wang Family already has a bad reputation. Are we really going to get kicked out of the prestigious clans?”

The Black Dragon Clan had already fallen into decline.

If they lost even their standing as a prestigious clan, the Shanghai Wang Family would be unable to show their faces anywhere in the Seven Dragons Society.

“Ugh, if only I had married into some family as a live-in son-in-law. Why did I get married so early...?”

Even as he grumbled, Wang Gi-seong diligently processed documents.

Worrying about the future was one thing, but to feed his wife and daughter, he had to keep Black Dragon Construction, where the Wang Family held a large stake, in proper order.

Just as he was about to focus on his work.

Wang Gi-seong stopped his pen.

“...Who’s there?”

It was an abrupt action.

Wang Gi-seong was alone in the office. There was no one to answer his question.

But it was not meaningless.

“Comrade, have we been spotted?”

“If we hadn’t, would that bastard be talking to himself like a lunatic?”

“Hmm, it seems the experts of the Seven Dragons Society truly have extraordinary senses.”

Boom!

A hole suddenly burst through the ceiling. Three people appeared amid the falling debris.

A blond woman carrying a large pack.