WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Hydrogen B
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 92: A New Challenge
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Youin’s expression stiffened slightly.
He had realized why she would not ask Rimon for help.
“Princess, are you saying...?”
“Yes. It is not something I should say as the Black Dragon Clan’s princess.”
Li Qing-yu smiled quietly.
If she were thinking only of the Black Dragon Clan, all she had to do was ask Rimon to eliminate the culprits.
That would secure the clan’s safety and profits while further strengthening Li Qing-yu’s own position.
“But it is a question I should naturally ask as the bride who will soon marry the Sword Duke.”
From Rimon’s perspective alone?
He would be better off standing by and watching.
Even if Wang Gi-neung dealt with the culprits as things stood, Rimon could make the Shanghai Wang Family owe him a debt.
And if matters became complicated enough that Rimon had no choice but to step in, he might benefit even more.
“Youin, which do you think I should prioritize, my position as princess or my position as a bride?”
The Black Dragon Clan’s loyalty.
Rimon’s trust.
If she had to place those two incompatible things on a scale and choose only one, which would be wiser to obtain?
Youin watched Li Qing-yu ask so calmly with an odd look for a moment.
Then he gave a bitter smile.
“Of course, the Sword Duke’s trust.”
“That answer is rather unexpected. I thought you would say I should obtain both.”
Li Qing-yu looked at Youin as though genuinely surprised, and he answered evenly.
“If you chase two rabbits, you catch neither. And a great roc that flies ninety thousand li cannot be compared to ten thousand sparrows.”
“How wise.”
Apparently satisfied with the answer, Li Qing-yu smiled softly, picked up the documents again, and spoke in a low voice.
“Still, we cannot simply watch these losses continue. We do need to take measures.”
Li Qing-yu received a call while she was deep in thought over how to stop the culprits.
The moment she heard the ringtone, she completely forgot her earlier concerns and answered with a bright smile.
“Did you call because you wanted to hear your lovely bride-to-be’s voice, Sword Duke?”
“That is unfortunate. I would have been very happy if that were the reason.”
“So, what is it?”
“Yes, yes. ...
What?
Is that really possible?”
“Of course not. I only asked because I was so surprised.”
“Yes, then I will prepare it immediately.”
After ending the call, Li Qing-yu smiled bitterly.
Then she turned to Youin, who had stepped back so as not to interrupt the call.
“It seems measures are no longer necessary.”
* * *
“Hey, Princess. You’re here?”
“I’m sorry I’m late. Have you been waiting long?”
“...You got here less than ten minutes after I called. Is that really something you should be saying?”
“Even half a quarter-hour apart from my beloved future husband feels like three autumns.[1]”
“Isn’t it supposed to be a quarter-hour like three autumns?”
“That just means there isn’t enough love.”
“...At this rate, all that love will turn me into a mummy while I’m still alive.”
Rimon shook his head at Li Qing-yu, who answered without missing a beat despite smiling sweetly.
Then he bluntly asked,
“Did you bring what I asked for?”
“Yes.”
With a brisk nod, Youin gestured, and over a dozen maids and housemen entered carrying boxes. They silently set them down before leaving.
“As requested, Sword Duke, these are commonly available items from that particular category.”
“Hm. That’s more than I expected.”
“I believe it is because we brought duplicates of items with different specifications, even when they belonged to the same category.”
“Is that so?”
“If you think there are too many, we can narrow them down further.”
“No, forget it. It must have been difficult to gather this much in such a short time. There’s no need to go out of your way to sort them.”
Rimon checked the boxes’ contents and nodded in satisfaction.
Youin had said that most were duplicates, but obtaining this many varieties in such a short time had already exceeded expectations.
Li Qing-yu tilted her head as she watched him.
“But why did you ask me to prepare these?”
“Hm? Did I call you while you were busy?”
“No. I have plenty of time. I simply thought you could have asked Chao to handle something like this.”
Youin, who had been helping Li Qing-yu with paperwork until moments ago, silently admired her.
To tell such an obvious lie without so much as changing expression. As expected of our princess!
Whether Rimon did not know the circumstances or knew and ignored them, he spoke casually.
“That half-baked brainiac is running around like mad reviewing your subsidiaries’ security systems. It would be a pain to call her back just to make her do this.”
“You’re right. People should be used where they’re most needed.”
“See? You do understand something.”
[...Isn’t that a completely wrong use of ‘putting people where they’re most needed’?]
What part of making the chairman run an errand because he could not be bothered to call back a secretary who was out on assignment counted as putting people in the right place?
Youin wore an odd expression, while Yoo Na-gyeong openly objected.
But Li Qing-yu paid neither of them any attention.
She only looked intrigued.
“How do you intend to use these to find the culprits?”
“It’s not such an impressive method. I merely took a little inspiration from your advice.”
“My advice?”
Li Qing-yu tilted her head.
She was clever, but she could not recall anything she had said that Rimon might have drawn upon.
After leaving her to ponder that, Rimon lifted one of the boxes.
Clatter!
The moment he turned it over, playing cards, pencils, dice, a roulette wheel, darts, a lottery box, Pop-Up Pirate, and all manner of other items poured out.
It was nothing but a pile of junk.
The other boxes were much the same.
Their sizes, shapes, and materials differed, but most of the items were similar.
“Let’s see, something suitable... Would this do?”
After emptying all ten boxes, Rimon did not even glance at their contents. Instead, he rummaged through a corner of the rehearsal room for a while.
At last, seemingly having found what he wanted, he took something out and returned.
Then he abruptly handed it around.
“Take one.”
“Yes.”
[...What?]
He gave one to smiling Li Qing-yu, odd-looking Youin, and utterly bewildered Yoo Na-gyeong.
The object Rimon had handed them was a thin beater used to strike a triangle.
Yoo Na-gyeong took it in her beak, blinked, then asked uncertainly.
[Team Leader? Why are you giving me this?]
“Why else would I give you a triangle beater? So you can strike something with it.”
[Putting aside why I have to, there is no triangle here.]
“There are plenty of things to strike instead.”
Yoo Na-gyeong’s beak fell open as she looked at the items Rimon pointed to.
[Wait. So you want us to strike all this junk with these from now on?]
“Right. You can ignore the order and rhythm. Just make sure you strike every item evenly at least once.”
[Why?!]
“Because then we can learn the culprits’ next target.”
[What kind of logic is that? Going to a shrine to donate because you want the answers to this year’s college entrance exam?!]
“That was an incident where a Player with a precognition Skill was running a scam. Thanks to that, there were probably more than a hundred perfect scores that year.”
[There were exactly 307. No, that isn’t the important part right now!]
Yoo Na-gyeong hopped about.
She was accustomed to Rimon doing strange things, but even she could not readily accept this particular madness.
Ting. Ting-ting.
“Would this be all right?”
“Yeah, you’re doing well.”
“I am a well-bred young lady, after all. I know the basics of poetry, calligraphy, music, and painting.”
There was only one problem.
Unlike Yoo Na-gyeong, Li Qing-yu had begun striking the junk without the slightest hesitation.
Perhaps pleased by the praise, she even found a rhythm and lightly tapped the items as though performing.
Tang, tadang.
“I’ve played the drums a few times, but this feels somewhat awkward.”
“You don’t need to try to make pleasant sounds. The more chaotic it is, the better.”
Perhaps out of utmost loyalty, Youin followed Li Qing-yu and began striking the junk as well, even sitting cross-legged on the floor despite his advanced age and neat suit.
“What are you doing? Hurry up and strike something too.”
[...Ah, damn it! I don’t even know anymore!]
Clang! Clang-clang!
Yoo Na-gyeong stared at the two of them in disbelief for a moment.
Then, urged on by Rimon, she finally clamped the beater in her beak and began flailing around wildly.
‘Hmm.’
Li Qing-yu, whose claim to have learned the four arts seemed to be no idle boast, produced fairly convincing sounds even while striking the junk.
Youin, worthy of being an expert from the Seven Dragons Society, made coarse sounds, yet did his best to maintain a heavy rhythm in step with Li Qing-yu.
And Yoo Na-gyeong, either because she could not understand any of this or because it was difficult to strike things with a beater held in her beak, made utterly terrible noises.
Rimon watched them quietly for a while and muttered inwardly.
‘What a mess.’
If Yoo Na-gyeong had heard him, she would have spat out the beater and protested that he was the one who had told them to do it.
‘If I made them strike things without warning, I expected it to become discordant. The problem is that the princess is too talented.’
But the mess Rimon meant was not the chaotic noise.
If anything, it was the opposite.
“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter.”
After considering it for a moment, Rimon lightly shook his head.
Then he opened a box at the back of the rehearsal room, took hold of the Pitch-Black Violin inside, and continued quietly.
“I can make up for what is lacking with this.”
Click, click, click.
The moment he gripped the violin, the curse naturally arranged his body into a playing stance.
Like an arrow nocked against a taut bowstring, he held still at the very instant before music would burst forth.
‘Honestly, I’m not confident.’
When predicting the culprits’ movements, Rimon had been certain.
As a Sword Master, there was no way a prediction made by applying the Sword Principle of Demon-Slaying Dragon-Killing Sword, which pierced the principles of all things in heaven and earth, could be wrong.
But this time?
He was doubtful whether this method would work at all, let alone certain.
‘It can’t be helped. Whether it works or not, I have no choice but to try.’
Even so, Rimon ultimately gripped the violin.
It was not merely because he feared the damage caused by the culprits would grow beyond measure if he did not act somehow.
It was because of a small realization he had gained while playing a haphazard accompaniment to Eugene’s chaotic singing.
He had found a certain possibility within it, and that possibility intrigued him.
Of course, it was merely a possibility.
Closer to a fantasy than an idea.
Something that would fail one hundred times out of one hundred.
Something so foolish that even attempting it felt like a waste of time.
‘The more reckless the challenge, the more enjoyable it is.’
But rather than hesitate beneath the burden of failure, Rimon eagerly drew the bow, motivated by the challenge itself.
And the moment the performance began.
Giiiiing!
Every possibility in the world, given the form of sound, burst forth from the Pitch-Black Violin.
Footnotes:
[1] “Three autumns” is a classical expression for a long separation. Li Qing-yu recasts the usual “a quarter-hour like three autumns” as half a quarter-hour to boast of greater devotion.
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