WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 81: How About We Do It This Way?
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“So you just came back?”
“Yeah.”
“I can practically see the Wang Family head’s flustered expression.”
Watching Li Qing-yu smile bitterly, Rimon gave her an indifferent look.
“What? Is it that strange that I gave him a few pointers and came back?”
“Yes.”
“...
I felt this way with that Wang bastard too, but what exactly do you people think of me that you find that so unexpected?”
“If I had to put it plainly, perhaps a wastrel son-in-law who doesn’t do a speck of work and only causes trouble?”
“You really aren’t one to say that.”
Rimon was dumbfounded.
After all, Li Qing-yu had proposed to him first, and she had created an organization like Guardian so he could openly wreak havoc.
Yet Li Qing-yu calmly replied.
“I was merely conveying the general opinion of our clan.”
“My reputation is that bad?”
“Yes. People were even more disappointed this time because you left the entire investigation into the attack to the Wang Family head.”
Guardian was, after all, the Black Dragon Clan’s dedicated security contractor, and Rimon was its representative.
Even so, rather than personally taking command of the case, Rimon had abandoned responsibility and stepped back. It was exactly the sort of thing that invited criticism.
“Still, it’s not something you need to worry about too much. Sword Duke’s original reputation was already so poor that it makes little difference even if it falls further.”
Was that meant as comfort?
Or was she making fun of him?
Looking at Li Qing-yu’s calm, unreadable face, Rimon made a dubious expression.
“For someone saying that, you don’t seem all that worried. I thought more people would criticize you for proposing to me if my standing dropped.”
“Thanks to Sword Duke being called a complete bastard so often, I’ve actually gained some sympathy.”
“...
Fine. I suppose there was some value in playing a Dongchang eunuch[1] when it was never in my destiny to do so.”
Rimon swallowed a sigh.
Why does everything keep getting tangled up?
When he had first decided to become the Black Dragon Clan’s live-in son-in-law, Rimon had had a firm plan.
He would seize control of the Black Dragon Clan as quickly as possible, gain their support, and use that foundation to bring the other clans of the Seven Dragons Society under his control as well.
But after delaying that plan somewhat to devote himself to training, his reputation was not merely falling. It was plunging to the point where it could not be restored.
My reputation doesn’t necessarily have to be good, but... if this keeps up, I’ll end up not just as a Dongchang eunuch, but one of the Ten Attendants[2].
As Rimon lamented his increasingly tangled situation, Li Qing-yu suddenly asked him a question.
“By the way, Sword Duke, did you truly need to reject the Wang Family head’s offer? The Shanghai Wang Family’s support would have been a great help to you right now.”
“What help? It would’ve looked good but been useless.”
“Are you saying the Wang Family head had no sincere intention of supporting you?”
“I mean that even if he was sincere, it wouldn’t have been any real help.”
Li Qing-yu looked surprised, and Rimon spoke indifferently.
“I can’t say I bear no responsibility for what happened here in the first place. That bastard was absent from his post because of me, after all.”
Wang Gi-neung might look exactly like a treacherous court official, but Wang Gi-neung was still the head of the Shanghai Wang Family.
If Wang Gi-neung had not been absent while recuperating, there was at least a chance the employees of Black Dragon Construction could have avoided being massacred.
“It would already be infuriating enough that such a disaster happened in the meantime. Now imagine me asking for a promise of support as payment for staying out of it. What would the Wang Family think I was?”
“Hmm... A bandit who causes an illness and then steals even the money for the medicine, perhaps. Or a corrupt official.”
“Exactly. And do you think they’d sincerely want to support me after that?”
People often hate the one who tries to stop a beating more than the one doing the beating.
Much less when the deaths of their relatives were involved. If Rimon stepped in and profited from it, he could earn their resentment for that alone.
“You mean it would be better to let a horse that doesn’t want water roam free than drag it to the river and force it to drink.”
“At least then I won’t get kicked by its hind legs.”
Li Qing-yu wore an odd expression as Rimon shrugged.
“That hits rather close to home.”
“What does?”
“I’ve done my share of things worthy of getting kicked by a horse.”
Li Qing-yu seemed embarrassed by the achievement of ruining Rimon while protecting world peace, then marrying him in the end.
Rimon snorted.
“That’s different. The horse went to the water of its own accord, after all.”
“Did it?”
“You can’t treat dragging a bridled horse somewhere by force the same as climbing onto a wild stallion that’s already running loose.”
“That is quite a sharp remark.”
Li Qing-yu smiled faintly.
If there had been even a trace of doubt in his heart, he would never have accepted her proposal in the first place.
She understood Rimon’s intention. He was reassuring her indirectly.
“Still, it’s a shame. Even surface-level support from the Shanghai Wang Family could have been useful in many ways.”
“You certainly would’ve found a good use for it.”
Rimon readily agreed.
With her talent for manipulating even the Elders, Li Qing-yu would have had countless ways to use even a small pretext.
“Still, it was better not to accept that offer.”
“Why is that?”
“If I accepted that deal now, it’d be difficult for me to intervene later, even if the situation changed.”
Li Qing-yu made an odd expression.
She understood what sort of change in circumstances he meant.
“...
Do you think the Wang Family head won’t catch the culprits?”
“Normally, they should be able to. You’re the Seven Dragons Society, after all.”
Whether as an organization with a long history.
Or as one of the world’s leading corporate groups.
The Seven Dragons Society possessed influence that ordinary police organizations could not begin to compare to.
That influence was why, despite such a massacre having taken place, the police had not stepped in, and it had not appeared on the news even once.
If they seriously set out to find them, they could quickly catch most criminals.
“But I have a feeling these bastards aren’t ordinary.”
“A Sword Master’s intuition?”
“More like a former PAB agent’s intuition.”
Rimon continued, frowning.
“There are plenty of Players who aren’t right in the head, but systematically insane bastards like these are rarely caught without a fight.”
“Can someone be systematically insane?”
“Your Seven Dragons Society is the perfect example.”
“Now that you put it that way, I understand perfectly.”
Li Qing-yu readily agreed.
If faith itself could be called a form of madness, then the Seven Dragons Society truly was a more systematically insane group than even priests.
Considering what the Seven Dragons Society had done in the past, the massacre at Black Dragon Construction was mild by comparison.
“Then, contrary to what the Tracers say, this may not have been indiscriminate terrorism. It may have had a clearer purpose.”
“Or they could have simply been passing by, gotten bored, noticed Black Dragon Construction, and decided to commit a massacre.”
“So it’s only a matter of possibility.”
“You can never know what insane bastards are thinking.”
That was why Rimon had only told Wang Gi-neung about the relatively certain traces he had read at the scene.
If he rashly identified the culprits and caused confusion in the investigation, it would have been better to say nothing at all.
Though the Tracers seem convinced it was indiscriminate terrorism.
『Criminal Psychology Insight』.
『Great Detective’s Deduction』.
『Star’s Answers』.
Several Tracers specializing in investigation and tracking had all agreed.
The culprits were psychopathic indiscriminate murderers, and the Black Dragon Construction massacre was unquestionably an impulsive crime rather than a planned one.
Remembering that testimony, Rimon snorted.
Do they even realize that nothing is less trustworthy than the word indiscriminate?
Whether as a PAB agent.
Or as a Sword Master.
Rimon had faced countless criminals and villains. He knew that even crimes that appeared indiscriminate had their own logic for the criminal.
The only difference was whether that logic was reasonable or unreasonable.
And judging from the scene, which was thorough enough to leave no evidence yet filled with madness in its methods of murder, these culprits had blended both perfectly.
To the point that Rimon called them systematically insane bastards.
If that Wang bastard isn’t an idiot, he should already have narrowed down the culprits with the clues I gave him.
Criminals connected to the military.
Madmen who enjoyed slaughter.
And high-level Players.
As Rimon considered the suspects who naturally came to mind once those conditions were added, he clicked his tongue.
It was still only speculation, but if his guess was correct, there was very little chance their rampage would end here.
I don’t know what they’re after, but if their target is the Black Dragon Clan...
Deep in thought, Rimon suddenly turned to Li Qing-yu.
“Princess, what’s your security status right now?”
“For now, we’ve placed everything on Level 2 Alert.”
“Level 2 Alert.”
Rimon recalled the horrific scene he had inspected firsthand.
In particular, he thought of the signs of resistance Wang Gi-seong had left behind. After quietly calculating something, he frowned.
“Can you raise it to Special Alert?”
“Where?”
“Everywhere.”
“...
Do you mean every subsidiary in the country?”
“Yep.”
It was a completely unexpected request.
Li Qing-yu’s eyes widened at Rimon’s sudden demand, but she soon became serious.
“Do you think the culprits will continue targeting our subsidiaries?”
“I know it’s an old man’s needless worry, but once something happens once, it can happen again.”
If it had been another clan, they would have dismissed it as the useless worry of a senile old man.
They had only been attacked because they were unprepared.
Not even a Monarch in their right mind would attack Black Dragon Clan subsidiaries that were already on guard.
“That... would be difficult.”
But Li Qing-yu did not underestimate the experience of an old hand of the martial world or the instincts of a Sword Master.
That was why she was troubled.
“So it’ll be difficult?”
“Special Alert requires deploying combat units. We could manage two or three places, but we don’t have nearly enough personnel to protect every subsidiary.”
Though it had fallen from its former standing, the Black Dragon Clan was still one of the Seven Dragon Group.
It had countless subsidiaries as a result.
It was realistically impossible to dispatch combat units to guard every single one.
No matter how many martial artists the Seven Dragons Society had, the number of masters was limited. And if they scattered the combat units, they would be inviting the enemy to defeat them one by one.
“Hm. So it comes down to not having enough hands.”
Rimon stroked his chin, considering whether there was any way to protect every subsidiary from the culprits.
Then his eyes suddenly gleamed.
“Then how about we do it this way?”
Footnotes:
[1] Dongchang, or Eastern Depot: A Ming dynasty eunuch-run secret police service, invoked as a symbol of feared and corrupt power.
[2] Ten Attendants: Notorious eunuch officials of the late Han dynasty, associated with corruption.
The Ten Attendants were a notorious group of eunuch officials associated with corruption in late Han China.
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