Chapter 34 - What You Must Not Get Wrong

Hotel Leviathan. Despite its reputation as the finest hotel, its entrance was usually quiet. That wasn't simply because it was extremely selective about its guests, leaving it with few visitors. Few guests used the front entrance in the first place.

That made the scene at this moment rather unusual: well past midnight, Leviathan's entrance stood wide open. More unusual still, a beautiful girl had stood guard there like a statue ever since it opened.

"... Your Highness, perhaps you should go inside now?" A masked figure in black martial attire emerged from the darkness, apparently unable to watch any longer. Chao urged her to rest. It was already late at night, after all. Even setting aside the fact that the girl had been out here for over half a day, it was long past time for her to rest.

"I appreciate your concern, Chao, but I'll pass."

"The cold night air isn't good for your health."

"You know this little chill won't hurt me, don't you?"

"..."

Chao fell silent at the smiling, black-haired girl Li Qingyu's question. Agreeing would leave no grounds to urge her to rest, while disagreeing would be a lie.

After chuckling at Chao's earnestness for a moment, Li Qingyu asked as if something had just occurred to her, "Has any information come in yet?"

"I'm sorry, but no."

"It's not your fault, Chao." She gave a slight shake of her head as Chao bowed apologetically. "No one can get information from inside the Blue House right now anyway."

That was no exaggeration. Until a few hours ago, information had been easy to come by. All one had to do was turn on the television to find channels airing stories such as [Sword Master's Hostage Crisis, Live] and [Why Limon Aspelder Turned Traitor].

But after Lee Cheon-gi stepped in, all information about the Blue House dried up. Reporters, the capital defense forces, even support units from major guilds—everyone stationed around the Blue House had withdrawn on Lee's orders, cutting off the flow of information.

Broadcasters and guilds were one thing, but for even the military to obey a mere civilian in an emergency like this was absurd. Yet people accepted it as a matter of course. In this Iron Age, a Monarch's authority far surpassed that of a mere head of state.

"If you give me permission, I'll send the Silent Shadows into the Blue House to gather information."

"Don't. You'd only be throwing lives away."

Chao couldn't deny it. It wasn't a lack of faith in the Silent Shadows. Whether the target was a major guild's vault or a government agency's most secure facility, they could infiltrate anywhere that wasn't physically impossible to reach.

But this time, their opponent was too formidable. With Lee Cheon-gi already inside the Blue House, sending the Silent Shadows there would be tantamount to sending them to their deaths. A monster who wielded thousands of skills, had no openings, and was impossible even to predict—that was Lee Cheon-gi, the Infinite Monarch. Even the Black Dragon Clan's Silent Shadows, who had once plunged the whole world into terror, would have to risk their lives merely to approach him.

That was why Chao finally asked, after some hesitation, "Do you truly think that man can defeat the Infinite Monarch?"

"Why else would I be here?" Li Qingyu replied with a smile. What would be the point of waiting for a corpse? Chao's feelings grew only more complicated. Beneath her joking tone lay an unshakable conviction that Limon would win and return.

"I still don't understand."

"I understand. There are few bets harder to win than a one-on-one fight."

"... I meant that I don't understand why you put so much faith in that man, Your Highness." Chao spoke frankly.

The notion that Limon could defeat Lee Cheon-gi was incomprehensible to Chao to begin with. Strong as Limon had been, that was in the past. A man who knew nothing but how to swing a sword could hardly stand against the Infinite Monarch and his thousands of skills. That was common sense in this era. Still, Chao could understand that much. Perhaps because they had fought him for hundreds of years, the upper ranks of the Seven Dragons Society had a strange tendency to rate Limon highly. But that was also why Chao distrusted him.

"He's our enemy to begin with, isn't he?"

Enemy? That was putting it mildly. Archrival, ancient foe, natural enemy, sworn enemy, mortal enemy—the whole world's vocabulary could scarcely describe the relationship between Limon and the Seven Dragons Society. They had even coined a slang expression for it: "dragon-and-sword feud," a play on the phrase "like cats and dogs" that meant ten thousand times worse. The gulf between them ran that deep.

That was why Chao could not understand Li Qingyu's choice. "We don't know what harm he might do to you, Your Highness. Why would you choose someone like—"

"Chao."

Anxiety about Limon, their longtime enemy. Concern for the princess Chao revered. Doubts about her decision. Chao had been voicing all of it, but fell silent at once. Li Qingyu had interrupted with nothing more than a quiet call. She smiled gently and continued. "I'm always grateful for your loyalty."

Even as a princess of the Black Dragon Clan, Li Qingyu did not command the absolute loyalty of every clan member. That made Chao someone she valued: not only utterly loyal, but willing to speak honestly. Such people were always precious, especially now, when various circumstances had made her standing in the Seven Dragons Society uncertain and cost her a considerable amount of support within the clan as well. That was why she spoke plainly. "But I won't forgive any further insults to the man who will be my husband."

Chao flinched. It wasn't merely her serious expression and firm words, both rare sights. Her eyes, deep and still as the night, made her meaning clear: this was a serious warning, and even Chao would not be excused for ignoring it.

"... Forgive me for speaking out of turn."

"You weren't speaking out of turn. You simply crossed a line."

"I'll remember that."

Take care not to cross it again. With that faint smile still on Li Qingyu's face, Chao bowed quietly and vanished. Chao understood that any further interference would cross the line she had drawn. Young though she was, and however much support she had lost within the clan, Li Qingyu was its princess. Once she made a decision, Chao's duty was not to complain but to bring about the best possible outcome.

Li Qingyu watched the spot where Chao had seemed to melt away and let out a soft sigh. Then footsteps sounded.

STEP. STEP.

The stars vanished from the night sky, and unfamiliar footfalls echoed through the air. That should have been impossible. Since learning of the Infinity Guild's ambush, the Leviathan Hotel had remained on the highest alert. If someone came close enough for their footsteps to be heard, the guards should have spotted them and reported it first.

"What are you doing out here in the middle of the night?"

Li Qingyu wasn't surprised. She simply answered the figure who emerged leisurely from the darkness, as though returning from a stroll. "Exercising a privilege."

"What privilege?"

Perhaps her answer was so unexpected that it left him at a loss. To the puzzled white-haired man, Limon, she said with a beaming smile, "A bride has the privilege of waiting for her groom to come home from work, doesn't she?"

* * *

"What a shame."

"What is it this time?"

"I didn't get a reward from you, Sword Lord."

On the top floor of Hotel Leviathan, Limon had just washed the dust off himself in the luxurious penthouse. He frowned at Li Qingyu's remark out of nowhere.

"... Why should I give you a reward?"

"Because when a bride does something praiseworthy, it's customary for the groom to reward her with a kiss, isn't it?"

"There isn't a law like that anywhere in the world."

"What? Why not?"

"How would I know? Maybe the lawmakers didn't want to kiss their wives." Li Qingyu stared at him with wide, startled eyes, as if she'd assumed such a law existed, and Limon tossed out the first answer that came to mind. Then, as she tilted her head in bewilderment, he asked, "Anyway, what about the kids? Are they all asleep?"

"If you mean the children you brought here, Sword Lord, I heard all but one are asleep."

"Which one is still up?" Limon frowned. It was well past midnight, and a child still being awake bothered him for several reasons. But the moment he heard her answer, he understood perfectly.

"A girl named Seong Sia."

"Oh, the one with those rotten fish eyes?"

"Rotten fish eyes?"

"There's a little brat whose eyes already look dead."

Limon thought of the girl who had stood out among the children he'd rescued from Hanbit Orphanage and clicked his tongue. Then he turned back to Li Qingyu. "Anyway, nothing else happened?"

"No. They're all physically fine, and much more settled emotionally than they were at first."

"Good. That's enough." He nodded in satisfaction and began drying the rest of the moisture from his hair with the towel around his neck.

Li Qingyu watched for a moment, bright-eyed, as his damp hair and disheveled collar revealed the firm skin beneath. Then, as though remembering something, she asked, "Come to think of it, did things go well while you were out?"

"Things? Oh, you mean collecting the blood debt?"

"Yes. I heard you met the Infinite Monarch." She made no attempt to hide her curiosity. Even though she had never doubted Limon would win, she couldn't help wanting to know exactly what had happened with the Infinite Monarch.

"I met him." Limon nodded calmly, then added in a low voice, "But I didn't collect the blood debt."

"... What?" Li Qingyu's eyes widened, as if she'd just heard someone say they'd been drinking but hadn't driven drunk. Her reaction was only natural. It would be one thing if he had never met the man. But as far as she knew, there was no way Limon Aspelder could meet someone who owed a blood debt and fail to collect it.

Limon asked her as she blinked at him blankly, "Do you know what's most important when collecting a blood debt?"

"Having the strength to collect it?"

"You need that, of course. But the most important thing is not mistaking who owes it."

A blood debt was the price of blood: the right to exact death for death and blood for blood. One could fail to collect it. But one could not afford to make a mistake. Just as demanding repayment from the wrong person and taking their money would be robbery, killing the wrong person to collect a blood debt would be nothing more than slaughter.

"At first, I thought the Infinite Monarch was the one I had to collect the blood debt from." It was an obvious conclusion. Lee Cheon-gi was the cause of all this. "But something felt off about collecting it from that bastard and leaving it at that." It was something Limon had failed to notice before he went back in time. Only after gaining the ability to see what had once been invisible to him, and then meeting Lee, fighting him, and talking with him, had he begun to sense it: a handful of things that didn't add up.

"So before killing the bastard, I asked him a few questions. That's when I found out." Ordinarily, it would have been no more than a hunch, a feeling even Limon himself couldn't be certain of. But after a long life filled with countless experiences, he had finally reached a conclusion. "The Infinite Monarch was just a puppet. There's a real mastermind behind all this."