Chapter 35: 35

Chapter 35: Gray Eminence

 

As if she wasn’t sure if she had heard Limon correctly,

Or as if she took interest in the absurdity of such a comment…

Li Chingwei had a strange look on her face.

Tilting her head sideways, she blinked,”Are you serious?”

“Sounds crazy, right?” Limon chuckled.

Monarchs were the Absolute Rulers of this Iron Age — superhuman beings who could solo entire armies and had the leaders of countless nations wrapped around their fingers.

To say that such a being was nothing more than a tool?

It wasn’t something one would say sober and sane.

If Yoo Na-kyung were alive, she would have cried out that her boss had finally gone senile.

And while pulverizing her, he would’ve questioned his own sanity as well.

“I don’t know if you know, but that was actually my first time fighting a Monarch.”

“I am sure it is.”

Li Chingwei accepted it as a matter of fact.

Unless war broke out, there was no chance Limon would have had a reason to fight a Monarch.

Limon wasn’t someone who would trample over the growing roots of a new generation, and the Monarchs won’t see any good to fight a hero of the past.

If there were such a reason, the Swordmaster’s status would not have crumbled to the ground as it did.

“I was pretty curious for a while, to be honest. How extraordinary were the Monarchs for me to get treated like a goner?”

Limon didn’t persist in testing the waters as much as he did during his fight with Lee Chun-gi just because he thought the swordsmanship swiping was interesting.

It was an honest curiosity towards the Absolute Rulers of this age.

More specifically, their full power.

He may have been laying low and going along with the new societal flow, but that only made him all the more curious about how strong the Monarchs were, sitting on the throne he once had. 

“So I was shocked after fighting the Infinite Monarch.

At first, he thought that the Monarch was concealing his powers.

But as the fight went on, he felt that something was amiss.

Then finally, he realized it.

“I didn’t know a bitch with a title like ‘Monarch’ could be so damn weak.”

Monarchs were level 100 superbeings who cleared the ‘impenetrable fortress’ that was the lowest floor of the Dungeon. Their powers were at the absolute peak of all players, the rulers of this age.

Oh, how weak they were, to his surprise.

“The Monarch was weak?”

She seemed surprised to hear such an absurd comment as she looked at Limon with wide eyes.

“He was underwhelming, to be exact.”

He might have been impressed if it was a skill that was able to steal not only his swordsmanship, but copied its principles and meanings as well.

He expected it would have been capable of that much, at least.

That was the kind of Monarch Limon was expecting.

That was why he tested Lee Chun-gi again and again, to see if that was all he really had.

But the Monarch never did properly understand the Demon Slaying Sword, instead falling to the ground after overusing his skills.

“Well, objectively speaking, he wasn’t that pathetic…”

Lee Chun-gi was by no means weak.

Without a doubt, the ability to use thousands of skills with total control was like a cheat skill.

Most notably, the thousand skills he unleashed at the end at their exchange was worthy of being as deadly as the Demon Slaying Sword.

But compared to what Limon was expecting…

“Getting called an Absolute Ruler with skills like that really raises some eyebrows, you see.”

The Fairy Queen and Word Wielder, who dominated the Golden Age.

The Great Witch and Saint, who reigned over the Silver Age.

The Seven Dragons, who conquered the Bronze Age.

And the Swordmaster, who soared through the Heroes’ Age.

There had always been people with the title of Absolute Ruler.

Only the ownership of that title changed, along with the times and new emerging powers.

There was one thing all the Absolute Rulers from each era had in common:

Each of them had the ability to overthrow the past generation’s Absolute Ruler!

As a matter of fact, the Seven Dragons proved themselves by devouring the Incarnations. And the Swordmaster, who came next, earned his title by slaying those Seven Dragons.

But alas, Lee Chun-gi did not have the strength to surpass his previous generation.

He would’ve surpassed the Great Witch at most. Maybe even a little bit stronger than the Word Wielder.

It was Limon’s impersonal judgment that Lee Chun-gi wouldn’t even defeat the Seven Dragons, let alone a Swordmaster.

Although, it goes without saying, even that was a great feat in itself.

But compared to the former incontestable Absolute Rulers, the current Monarchs certainly cast a cloud of doubt.

“It’s a mystery how they were even accepted as Absolute Rulers to begin with.”

Something wasn’t right.

It triggered his growing cloud of suspicion.

Even though it was universally accepted as change inevitably brought by time…

Was it really right for the ten Monarchs to reign as Absolute Rulers just because of the passage of time?

In other words, was it really a coincidence that the Monarchs didn’t go through the natural order of overthrowing Limon, the former Absolute Ruler?

“So all of a sudden, I got curious. What was it that these guys believed in so much to be acting like they were all that, and being confident that they were stronger than me?”

It was certainly plausible that Limon simply wasn’t a good match-up for Lee Chun-gi.

He may have thousands of skills to manipulate, but he didn’t have a unique one aside from [Technique Replication]. In that way, Lee Chun-gi was slightly different in nature from the other nine Monarchs.

But there wasn’t a shred of doubt in Limon’s mind that it was just nonsensical for one who couldn’t even get past a mere difference in compatibility to become an Absolute Ruler.

At least, that was what he thought Absolute Rulers were.

Thinking that way, Limon had good reason for his many doubts.

So many doubts, in fact, he had squeezed every last drop of information out of Lee Chun-gi in his dying moments. 

“That little shit didn’t know much either,” Limon chuckled.

To begin with, Lee Chun-gi was born in the Iron Age.

He was taught that the Monarchs were the Absolute Rulers as common sense.

It would have been impossible to get a straight answer out of someone like him when asked why the Monarchs were so weak.

Though, Lee Chun-gi made quite the face when asked that question. 

That reaction alone let Limon know that it would be hard to hear the answer he was looking for, no matter which Monarch he asked.

They were still just players, after all — people used to taking and using everything they got for granted.

“But thanks to me pestering him with all sorts of questions, I did learn one surprising fact.”

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“What would that be?”

“Starting out, that little shit wasn’t trying to kill me.”

 

***

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***

 

“…After bombing an entire building and sending hundreds of high-level players after you, the Master of Swords?”

“Oh, he did mean to kill me with that. Though he did it in a silly way,” Limon snickered.

Tossing the wet towel behind him, he went on in a carefree voice, “the important thing is, all he was trying to do was make me retire.”

When Limon had destroyed his brother-in-law, Seo Yongchan, he had ordered for action to be taken against Limon.

But that only went as far as pressuring the PAB to fire Limon.

Even up to that point, a plan to kill him by framing him for treason hadn’t yet existed.

He wasn’t warding off Limon.

Rather, it was the opposite.

He didn’t care about goners, and thus he didn’t even feel the need to get rid of Limon.

“He said that a certain incident triggered him to get rid of me more thoroughly.”

“An incident?”

“Yep. That little shit’s been searching far and wide for something, and he just happened to find out I met the person who has that certain thing.”

Lee Chun-gi didn’t know if it had gotten into Limon’s hands or not.

But even if it didn’t, Limon could still get in his way.

With these doubts in his head, Lee Chun-gi felt the need to bring a definite end to the Swordmaster instead of simply getting fired.

“And it looks like his subordinate's excessive fidelity and that bastard Jungsoo’s excessive plans turned the matter a lot bigger… Well, that’s not very important at the end of the day.”

Limon shrugged.

Roughly tidying up his disheveled hair, he continued, “the bottom line is, if it wasn’t for ‘that meeting’, it’s possible the Infinite Monarch and I would never have clashed at all.”

Of course, it was only just a what-if.

He couldn’t be absolutely certain.

He might have crashed the Infinity Guild out of rage for getting fired.

Or Lee Chun-gi might have tried to bring an end to Limon if he changed his mind later.

There can only be one king of the jungle. Inevitably, Lee Chun-gi would have clashed with Limon if he desired to be a true Absolute Ruler.

But… was it really inevitable?

“What an unlikely coincidence.”

Any other person would have just brushed it off as an unfortunate series of events.

But the intuition of someone who had lived as long as the Swordmaster did not overlook even the slightest sensation of incongruity.

“If I hadn’t met my downfall and flushed down the drain like this, there wouldn’t be a single bastard coming at me this recklessly.”

The downfall of the Swordmaster.

Was it really the outcome of passing time?

What if someone had intentionally weakened the Swordmaster’s status?

“That bastard wouldn’t have done something so reckless if people didn’t place him in such high regard for being a Monarch.

Was this generation to blame for the Monarchs’ overconfidence?

What if there was someone who blew a hot air of overconfidence over them that they were Absolute Rulers?

“Not to mention, I just happened to have ‘that meeting’ shortly after my ordeal with the Infinite Monarch.”

It was truly quite the coincidence.

Looking at each event individually, it all just looked like a series of unfortunate events.

“Well, everything definitely could have been just a stroke of extremely bad luck.”

Limon didn’t ignore the possibility of pure misfortune.

There were countless instances of unfortunate events crashing down all at once throughout his long life, after all.

“It’s not something that could have been done purposely, either.”

The fall of the Swordmaster and the rise of the Monarchs were a social phenomenon that spanned over the course of decades.

One couldn’t just orchestrate such a thing, unless it was an entity with enough power to change the world — a very large force who could invest fortune and manpower over a long, long period of time.

“For those reasons, it was my first suspicion that nonhuman beings had interfered…”

Only Limon, with his ability to see Constellations, would have come up with such claims.

The ridicule and apathy he felt when he fell for the trap was more than enough to arouse such suspicions.

The reason Limon got the Constellations’ gaze out of the way when interrogating Lee Chun-gi was because their hostility was too obvious.

What if there really was an entity secretly making the Monarchs Absolute Rulers, one who manipulated Lee Chun-gi into fighting him?

Would they really reveal themselves so easily?

Wouldn’t they try to hide their hostility instead?

“Speaking of which, I know people who are confident in their skills in this kind of chicanery. Not those wishy-washy gods or Constellations.”

Limon smirked.

The association had immense influence throughout society — they were those who were not only skilled in executing these schemes behind one’s back, but also had deep resentment towards Limon.

Limon knew much too well of that association that still managed to survive after fighting him for centuries.

“So let me ask you something.”

Shing—!

Instantaneously, Limon drew his sword.

“Was it you?”

There wasn’t a trace of laughter anymore in his cold, hardened face.

He held his sword against Li Chingwei’s neck.

“I’m asking if you people are the gray eminence behind this matter, Princess of the Black Dragon Clan.”

A cold, murderous aura hung over Limon. 

He looked like he would kill her before she could even blink if she gave him the wrong answer.

The sight of him was so brutal it wouldn’t be surprising for an ordinary girl to piss herself out of fear.

But Li Chingwei did not show even the slightest bit of fear under his blade.

Looking at Limon dead in the eyes, she answered in a crystal clear voice with a small smile on her lips.

“Yes.”

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