Chapter 41 - The Taste of Blood

"Is there any reason for you to lament, Sword Lord?" Li Qingyu asked with a faint smile, as though she had read his mind. Limon gazed into her beautiful, obsidian-dark eyes before speaking softly.

"You truly are a princess of the Black Dragon Clan." Of the Seven Dragons Society's seven clans, hers was the weakest in a head-on fight. Yet for centuries, it had posed the greatest threat to Limon—an old enemy more formidable than the Demon God in some ways.

"Devious, shrewd, cunning, and meticulous." Of all the descendants of the seven dragons, none were better at intrigue and conspiracy than the Black Dragon Clan (黑龍一族). And at the pinnacle of that shadowy clan stood its princess, whose powerful psionics could even read minds, and who was more adept still at manipulating them.

She understood Limon perfectly, had exploited his nature to the fullest, and had devised a scheme from which he could never escape. Li Qingyu neither grew angry nor looked embarrassed at his accusatory words. Instead, she readily nodded. "Yes. It does run in our blood."

She smiled brightly as she agreed, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. Then, as if that minor detail hardly mattered, she calmly asked, "So, have you made up your mind?"

Looking at her, as innocent as a young girl yet never revealing the depths of her intentions, Limon closed his eyes. 'So this is as far as I go.' The outcome had been decided from the start. A king driven into checkmate was as good as dead. From the moment he met Li Qingyu a few days ago... No, from the moment decades passed without his noticing the Seven Dragons Society's plot, he had already been trapped with no move left. He simply hadn't been able to admit it.

"All right." Knowing that any further insistence would only be obstinacy, Limon slowly nodded. He withdrew the sword whose point had rested against Li Qingyu's chest.

CLANK.

"I lost," he said quietly.

Just two words. A simple admission that Li Qingyu was neither someone from whom he should seek revenge nor a traitor who had turned her back on him. But they carried no small weight. From the Bronze Age, through the Age of Heroes, to the Iron Age, the last Sword Master had fought countless mighty enemies, including the Seven Dragons Society and the Demon God, without losing once in hundreds of years. Now Limon Aspelder had admitted defeat.

It was a remarkable feat. Had her forebears known, they would have wept with joy, declared it a Seven Dragons Society holiday, and passed down the story for generations. "Thank you for showing me such generosity."

Yet Li Qingyu showed no pride. She treated the outcome as something made possible only because Limon had been magnanimous enough to overlook her wrongdoing. She had merely been allowed the victory, she implied, politely preserving his dignity.

"... You really aren't like young people these days, in more ways than one." In an age when victors mocked and trampled the defeated, and mercy was derided as hypocrisy, her courtesy was so rare it almost made Limon nostalgic. He gave a rueful smile. Li Qingyu looked delighted. "Oh? Do I seem that mature to you?" "I'm talking about your attitude, not your looks." "Are you?" She tilted her head as if she couldn't see what was wrong with it, and Limon chuckled.

"For a start, ruining your whole clan just to have me isn't something young people these days would do." This was an age in which money and power were all that mattered. Limon had come to look down on everyone else, even the other princesses and elders who had devised the world-peace plan. Yet she had poured half her clan's vast assets into winning him and offered even the remaining half as a dowry. Frankly, no one had done anything on this scale even in the past, let alone now.

"That's because people don't know your true worth, Sword Lord." "And you do?" Li Qingyu insisted that everyone else was simply foolish, not that there was anything strange about her. At her shameless claim, Limon asked his question with a hint of sarcasm. He was half joking.

"Yes, I do." But Li Qingyu answered at once, without a moment's hesitation and with utter conviction—as though she could never tolerate anyone in the world knowing Limon better than she did. "I've lived until now for this moment alone."

Limon fell silent for a moment, and not merely because of her inexplicable certainty. Li Qingyu's eyes shone as beautifully as obsidian, yet held the dull darkness of night. Something about her gaze was both strange and familiar, stirring a memory. "... Yes. You might know." The moment he realized where he had seen that look before, he began to understand why she had staked everything her clan possessed on having him. And so he asked:

"But Princess of the Black Dragon Clan, can you truly bear it?" He no longer spoke as an avenger seeking to collect a blood debt from the architect of a conspiracy. Whether or not he had known the scheme behind it, he had sworn on his sword to remain with her. This was a warning from the man who had made that vow. "The grudges I carry weigh even more heavily than my power. Especially within the Seven Dragons Society."

Limon knew that resentment could be buried by time but never erased, and that deep-seated hatred could be passed down through generations. The Seven Dragons Society's grievances against him could have piled up mountains and filled rivers, with enough left over to make mountain ranges and seas. In the past, scarcely a clan had been spared the loss of relatives at his hands. "And accepting me means accepting all those grudges too."

Perhaps it would have been all right in the old days. Everyone then had known his power down to their bones; not having him as an enemy might have been enough to make them swallow their hatred. But now that Limon had fallen from grace? Would the Seven Dragons Society accept him quietly when it still held those grudges but underestimated him?

"They'll call you a traitor who sold out your clan. Even the few clan members you have left will turn their backs on you and offer contempt and blades in place of respect and loyalty." This was no exaggeration. Li Qingyu's standing was already at its worst: she had brought her clan to ruin for what its members would see as the absurd aim of keeping the constellations in check. If they learned that she had offered up her remaining shares as well and taken Limon in, she might become the first princess in the Seven Dragons Society's long history to be killed by her own clan. That was what accepting him meant.

"And if, by some chance, your fears prove justified, the Seven Dragons Society won't be the only enemy I have to face." Limon paused, then continued in a voice graver than ever before. "It'll be the constellations—and the whole world besides."

The Iron Age was taking shape around constellations and players. To oppose the constellations was to defy the course of the age—almost the same as making an enemy of the world itself. If the constellations discovered Limon and Li Qingyu's suspicions and sought to contain or eliminate them, and if they had a means of directing the players, they would face a brutal fight even if the constellations never acted directly. The ten Monarchs alone would be enough. Limon had overwhelmed Lee Cheon-gi only because Limon himself was an anomaly. The power of Monarchs, each commanding a mighty guild and wielding cheat skills that twisted the laws of the world, was not something to dismiss.

"In the worst case, even the Seven Dragons Society will abandon you, and you'll lose everything and spend your life on the run." If luck allowed her to quickly rally the other clans to her side, that would be different. But if she made enemies of the constellations before uniting them, the other clans might well abandon the Black Dragon Clan. They might even be the first to rush in and tear apart what remained of its power. It would be trouble within and without: isolated, fighting fellow clans of the Seven Dragons Society on one side and all the players, including those aligned with the constellations, on the other. Even if the constellations did nothing, the Society's other clans would still oppose the Black Dragon Clan. That was the inescapable burden Li Qingyu would take on by joining forces with Limon. "Are you prepared to bear all that?"

In this age, when strength had lost its value, anyone would call it foolish to shoulder such a burden for a swordsman who knew nothing but fighting. It could prove the worst choice she ever made. Did she still want him? Limon asked as though offering her one last chance. Li Qingyu smiled at him and answered, "Of course."

"... Couldn't you at least think about it before answering?" "I told you, didn't I? I've lived for this moment alone." She would bear any burden if it meant she could have Limon. Without that much resolve, she could never have ruined her clan in the first place. Limon gazed at her smiling face, then slowly nodded. "If you're prepared, then fine."

Limon slowly rose, stepped forward, and stood over Li Qingyu as he reached out. "But let me make one thing clear." "Yes?" She blinked in surprise as his hand gently tipped up her chin. Holding her head so she had no choice but to meet his eyes, Limon said:

"You're not going to have me. You're going to be mine." It was a declaration. "And it won't end with you. To gain the power to face the constellations, I intend to take everything the Black Dragon Clan has left—and devour the Seven Dragons Society too." It was a proclamation.

It was something he would have to do sooner or later if he accepted her proposal. No—once he had resolved to gain money and power, it was inevitable. A declaration of war by one man against a princess of the Seven Dragons Society, the organization that controlled the world from behind the scenes. "So be prepared for that too."

There was no further warning, not even a question to confirm what she thought. Only a one-sided announcement, as if he were mocking a foolish victim who had thrown away her last chance herself. For a moment, Li Qingyu could only stare into the calm golden eyes of an absolute being resolved to reclaim his lost glory. Then she smiled, as though she had been waiting to hear those very words. With a smile of unalloyed happiness, she gently closed her eyes and said, "If that is what you wish."

Without hesitation, she had said she would gladly offer him not only her clan but the entire Seven Dragons Society. Limon was not surprised. As though he had expected nothing less—or would accept no refusal—he drew her chin toward him and kissed her bright red lips. In that moment, two old enemies who should never have been able to coexist, a princess of the Seven Dragons Society and humanity's guardian deity, found themselves in the same boat. And Limon shared a kiss that tasted of blood, something he had rarely experienced even in his long life.