Chapter 41: 41

Chapter 41: Tasted Like Blood

“Why would the Master of Swords be deplored?” Li Chingwei asked with a light smile. It was as if she had read his mind.

Limon looked into her eyes.

“You truly are the Princess of the Black Dragon Clan, aren’t you?”

The Black Dragon Clan was the weakest when it came to direct combat among the seven clans.

And yet, they had managed to be a constant threat to Limon for the past many centuries. In a way, they were a stronger enemy than even the Demon God.

“You’re cunning, vicious, and precise.”

They had the most intellectual and cunning schemes — a hallmark of the Black Dragon Clan.

At the pinnacle of their darkness, was their princess.

With her potent Psionic abilities, she could read people’s minds and was even more adept at manipulating them.

She had a perfect understanding of who Limon was.

She was the very culprit behind all the schemes that had driven Limon into a corner he could not escape.

However, Li Chingwei was not angry or embarrassed by what Limon said.

In fact, she nodded.

“Yes, those are indeed our traits.”

She smiled, as if it were a matter of fact.

Nonchalant about a remark so miniscule, she asked Limon.

“So, have you decided?”

Limon looked at the girl again — she was naive, but she never showed her own hand.

He closed his eyes. 

‘I guess this is it.’

The end had already been decided.

The king dies when driven into checkmate.

He had been placed into such a situation ever since he met Li Chingwei just a few days ago…

Maybe he had been ever since he failed to notice the Seven Dragons Association’s influence 32 years ago.

He just couldn't bring himself to accept it.

Knowing stubbornness wouldn’t get him anywhere, Limon slowly nodded.

“Yeah.”

Clank—

He put away the sword that was pressed against Li Chingwei’s chest.

“I lose.”

With two words, he had admitted that Li Chingwei was not the subject for his revenge, nor a traitor to him.

But those two words were far from inconsequential.

From the Bronze Age, the Heroes’ Age to the current Iron Age — the last Swordmaster had not once been defeated despite his countless enemies.

And he had just admitted so to the Black Dragon Princess.

A truly remarkable feat.

If her predecessors knew of this, they would have turned it into a holiday to be celebrated, passing it down to their children and those to their children.

“Thank you for your generosity.”

But Li Chingwei did not feel proud.

All this was the result of Limon showing his generosity by letting her get away with her crimes.

She courtly saved Limon’s face by telling him she had only been handed victory.

“…You really aren’t like the kids these days.”

These days, the victors would laugh, trample, and ridicule the loser. 

Showing one mercy would make the victor mocked as a hypocrite.

Limon smiled bitterly at her politeness. It was rare. So rare he had almost missed it.

“Oh? Do I look that mature to you?”

“Not your looks, but your attitude.”

“Is that so?”

Oblivious, Li Chingwei tilted her head sideways.

Limon let out a laugh.

“Screwing over your entire clan just to get me on your side isn’t something kids these days would do, you know.”

Money and political power was more important in this era.

Limon was looked down upon and ignored by everyone, including the other Princesses and Elders of the Seven Dragons Association who planned for world peace.

He couldn’t believe that she was willing to drain half of her clan’s massive fortune, and hand the remaining half to him, all to get a hold of him!

Not even the past generations could have done something like that.

“That is because people do not know the Master of Sword’s true value.”

She wasn’t the oddity, the others were just foolish.

“And you do?”

Limon made a sarcastic jab at her adamancy.

“Yes, I do,” she replied without hesitation, absolute certainty in her voice.

It seemed she was sure no one else in the world knew more about Limon than she did.

“I have lived my entire life just for this moment.”

Limon fell silent.

It wasn’t just because of her baseless certainty.

Her eyes were settled like the night sky. And yet, they still shined. 

They reminded Limon of a memory of an unknown, yet oddly familiar gaze.

“……Yeah, you would know.”

As soon as he remembered where he’d seen that gaze from, Limon was able to vaguely understand the reason she had put everything on the line for him.

And so, he asked, “But Princess, can you handle it?”

 

***

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He was no longer speaking to the very culprit behind his downfall as the avenger of his blood debt anymore.

It didn’t matter if he knew of her hidden intentions or not.

It was simply a warning from the man who swore by his sword that he would stay by her side.

“The resentment towards me is greater than my power — especially from the Seven Dragons Association.”

Enmity might dwindle with time, but it will never truly die.

Resentment will be passed down with each generation.

Limon knew of that fact.

In that sense, the Seven Dragons Association’s resentment towards him was greater than the seas and mountains.

After all, there were only a few members whose loved ones had not been slaughtered by him in the past.

“Letting me in means that you will have to shoulder all that resentment as well.”

It may have been better if this had happened in the past.

At least back then, people held back their resentment, relieved that they weren’t the Swordmaster’s enemy.

But as Limon fell from grace, the Seven Dragons Association’s hatred towards him had not.

Only now, they looked down on him as well.

Would they really just let him in?

“You will become a traitor who sold out your own people. Your few remaining supporters will turn their backs to you. And the admiration and loyalty will be replaced by contempt at the sharp end of a blade.”

That was no overstatement.

Li Chingwei’s reputation was already at rock bottom for ruining her clan, all for a ridiculous reason like being suspicious of the Constellations.

If they found out she had completely thrown out the rest of her stock and took Limon in, she could very well become the first princess murdered by her own people in the history of the Seven Dragons Association.

That was what taking in Limon meant.

“And if your suspicions end up true, the Seven Dragons Association won’t be the only enemy I’m going up against.”

Limon paused for a brief moment.

“There will be the Constellations and the entire world.”

His voice was a serious one he hadn’t used before.

The Iron Age revolved around players and the Constellations,

Merely being on guard against the Constellations meant going against the generation itself.

If the Constellations found out about the suspicions Limon and Li Chingwei held against them…

If they then tried to restrain or get rid of them…

Fighting all the Monarchs at the same time would have been a brutal battle.

The Constellations would not even have to step in.

Lee Chun-gi was overwhelmed because Limon was an anomaly.

The Monarchs with their cheat skills that redefined the natural order of the world, each masters of powerful guilds, was nothing to look down upon.

“Worst case scenario, you will be abandoned by the Seven Dragons Association and be a fugitive with nothing left.”

Unless another clan gave her support, and without a stroke of good luck, going against the Constellations without enough pretext would have likely made the other clans turn their backs on the Black Dragon Clan. 

It would be trouble from the inside and out.

It meant that they would be in complete isolation, fighting the clans of the Seven Dragons Association internally, while going up against all the players and Constellations externally.

In fact, even if the Constellations did not intervene, the other clans would still oppose the Black Dragon Clan.

That was the inevitable consequence Li Chingwei would have to take on in exchange for holding Limon’s hand.

“Will you be able to bear the weight of that?”

In an age where the value of physical power had gone down, anyone would think it foolish to accept such a challenge. 

And just to get a man who knew of nothing but swinging a sword.

Limon was giving her a final decision on whether she truly desired him.

“Of course I am,” she smiled gleefully.

“…Shouldn’t you think about your answer?”

“Did I not say it already? I have lived my entire life for this moment.”

She was ready to take on any task as long as she had Limon.

She wouldn’t have screwed over her clan in the first place if she hadn’t braced herself for that already.

Limon watched her say with a cheerful smile.

“As long as you’re prepared, I guess.”

He slowly stood up and took a step forward.

Standing directly in front of Li Chingwei, he reached his hand out.

“But let me make one thing clear.”

“Yes?”

Taken aback by having her chin slightly lifted up, she blinked.

Limon raised her head, locking eyes.

“You won’t be getting me in your hands.”

“……”

“You’re the one who’s going to be mine.”

It was a declaration.

“Of course, it won’t end with you. I’m going to take everything that’s left of the Black Dragon Clan if it means getting a hold of the power to go against the Constellations. And I will ravage the Seven Dragons Association with it.”

It was a testament.

A declaration of war to the individual reigning over the shadows of the world, to the Black Dragon Princess of the Seven Dragons Association. 

It was something he should have done when he accepted her proposal— something he was destined to do —as long as he was determined to acquire money and power in his hands.

“So be warned.”

He did not advise her further.

He did not allow her to rethink her decisions.

He simply informed her, as if mocking a foolish scapegoat who kicked her last chance out the window.

Li Chingwei stared into the serene, settled golden eyes of an Absolute Ruler determined to take back his lost honor.

And she beamed, like she had been waiting for him to say those words.

With an ever so gleeful smile, she closed her eyes as she spoke.

“As you wish.”

The Black Dragon Princess had just declared that she would not only denounce her clan, but the entire Seven Dragons Association.

But Limon wasn’t surprised anymore.

It was as if he knew she would say so.

As if he would not accept any other answer.

He gently pulled her head as he pressed her scarlet lips to his.

Two sworn enemies, a princess of the Seven Dragons Association and the Guardian of Humanity, were finally on the same page.

And it was a moment Limon had seldom experienced throughout his long life — a kiss that tasted of blood.

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