Chapter 80 - Tragedy

Black Dragon Construction was a major corporation whose revenue ranked among the highest of the Black Dragon Clan’s subsidiaries, surpassed by few apart from the Leviathan Hotel. Its standing was so high that, to members of the clan, working there was practically a mark of success.

But at this moment, no one in the clan envied its employees. The dead were rarely objects of envy, in any age—least of all when they had died so horribly.

“They really made a mess of him.”

“... You can look at this carnage and say that?”

“Someone has to.” Limon studied the body before him, then continued calmly. “The more gruesome the corpse, the more objectively you have to examine it.”

The neck was twisted through a full 360 degrees, a pan was lodged in both eyes, and the intestines had been dragged out through a gaping split in the abdomen. The corpse was the very picture of horror, bearing every trace of a killer who seemed to have gone out of their way to make the death as gruesome as possible. Even Wei Ling, whose expression was usually impassive, could not smooth the frown from her brow.

Limon, in contrast, regarded the corpse with utter composure.

“Hmm... The abdomen was cut first? Then the eyes, once his movements slowed. The neck came last.”

Perhaps it was a Sword Master’s eye. Or perhaps it was the experience of having made so many corpses himself. With no more than a glance, Limon pieced together what had happened in the moments of the killing and nodded. Then, as though he had seen enough, he turned and asked offhandedly:

“Where next?”

“Do you really need me to answer?”

“Come to think of it, no.”

After another nod, Limon followed the bloodstains across the floor to a restroom and began examining a dismembered body stuffed into a toilet. If anything, it was even more horrific than the corpse with the twisted neck.

And that was only the beginning.

A corpse with its neck caught in a doorframe. One whose entire face had been ground away. Another skewered on a sculpture. From the restaurant and the stairs to the offices and lobby, bodies lay throughout the building, not one of them intact.

The elevator was the worst of all. So many bodies had been crammed inside that arms and legs jutted out through the gaps, even though the elevator was spacious. The sight alone was enough to turn the stomach.

“Hmm.”

Even then, Limon did not so much as twitch an eyebrow. He merely examined each wound, compared it against what he knew, and gathered clues about the killers. His composure was so complete that the Black Dragon Clan martial artists standing guard looked offended.

After who knew how long, and after inspecting more than a few hundred bodies from the first floor onward, Limon finally stopped in a room. It was the office where Wang Gi-neung had once entertained him. Lavish then, it was now a hideous wreck, shattered on every side and drenched in blood.

“...”

In the middle of the room, Limon stood before a corpse so battered and bloody its original shape was barely recognizable.

“Director Wang.”

Only at the call did the middle-aged man turn around, revealing the distinctive mustache that swept upward on both sides. Wang Gi-neung looked startled to see Limon.

“Sword Lord, sir? What brings you here?”

“Don’t look so alarmed. I haven’t come to beat you up again.”

“... You’re here to help with the investigation?”

“Guardian handles security for the Black Dragon Clan. I can’t just sit around when the employees of a subsidiary have been slaughtered.”

“Not all of them, sir. The ones who were away on vacation, business trips, or outside assignments are safe.” Wang Gi-neung paused and pointed at himself. “Including me, laid up and recuperating.”

“Lucky you.”

“Indeed. Who would’ve thought the beating you gave me that day would turn out to be a blessing in disguise?”

Wang Gi-neung gave an affable laugh. Then he turned that same finger toward the corpse before him and said with an awkward smile, “Though it did leave my cousin in this state instead.”

Limon studied Wang Gi-neung’s grinning face for a moment, then dipped his head slightly before Wang Gi-seong’s corpse.

“... My condolences.”

“Oh, there’s no need for that, sir. The fellow was my stand-in, yet he died without protecting the employees. I’m grateful enough that you aren’t punishing us.”

“I can hardly punish him. Your cousin fought as hard as he could.”

Unlike the other places, which were merely covered in blood, this office had been smashed to pieces from its furnishings to its walls and ceiling. Wang Gi-seong had plainly fought desperately to the end.

But Wang Gi-neung shook his head. “What matters is the result.”

“You’re saying his effort and struggle mean nothing because he failed to protect anyone?”

“Just thinking about how far our stock price will fall makes my head spin. How could a few words about effort and doing his best make up for that?”

“Well, you have a point.” Limon gave a short laugh as Wang Gi-neung grinned and declared that effort could not buy money.

Even in Limon’s heyday, the Age of Heroes, plenty of people had valued results over the process. Effort without achievements and honor without substance had often been forgotten. All the more so in this Iron Age, when money and power were everything. Wang Gi-seong would be lucky if his determination to fight to the end escaped ridicule, let alone earned recognition.

“On that note, Sword Lord, sir, might I ask you a small favor?”

“What? You want me to make sure I catch the killers?”

“Quite the opposite, sir. If possible, please stay out of this.”

It was an unexpected request, not one Limon would normally hear from a victim’s relative. Rather than looking surprised or confused, however, he narrowed his eyes at Wang Gi-neung.

“You intend to restore your family’s tarnished honor yourselves?”

“As you know, sir, the Seven Dragons Society is a complicated organization. Once we’ve lost face, it’s over if we do nothing about it.”

The Wang family of Shanghai was already in a weak position. Its head, Wang Gi-neung, had been beaten by Limon and confined to bed; now Wang Gi-seong, who had taken his place, had been murdered. The family’s reputation had hit rock bottom.

If Limon caught the culprits as well, the Wang family would become a laughingstock throughout the Seven Dragons Society, not just within the Black Dragon Clan.

“So you intend to catch the killers yourselves?”

“Yes, sir. If we do it right, we might even bring our stock price back up.”

Still grinning, Wang Gi-neung rubbed his palms together and lowered his voice. “Of course, I’m not asking for this favor for free. I know you need accomplishments you can point to as well.”

The slaughter of a subsidiary’s employees and the death of the acting head of a distinguished clan made this a major incident. If Limon took the lead in resolving it, he would earn considerable credit and the clan’s goodwill besides. Wang Gi-neung was not so uncalculating as to expect him to surrender that opportunity for nothing.

“If you leave this matter to us, you’ll have the support of the Wang family of Shanghai in return.”

“You’d help me? Your family?”

“Yes, sir. Our reputation is already poor. If we throw in our lot with you now, there’s hardly any more abuse anyone can heap on us.”

Wang Gi-neung said it without a hint of embarrassment and watched Limon with a broad smile, as if pressing for an answer. “Well, sir? I’d say that makes for a rather good deal.”

He was not bluffing. The Wang family of Shanghai was a distinguished clan, even if it barely clung to a place at the bottom of the ranks. With the strength it had built over centuries in the Seven Dragons Society behind him, anything Limon did from here on would surely become easier.

“No. It’s a terrible deal.”

“... So you mean to get involved after all?”

“I mean I don’t need your paltry payment. Catch the killers, beat them senseless, carve them up and eat them—do whatever you like.”

That was why Wang Gi-neung, whose face had hardened in an instant, now looked dumbfounded.

“Do you truly mean that, sir?”

He clearly could not understand why Limon would give up the chance to win their support. Limon answered calmly.

“Collecting the price of your kinsman’s blood is your right. You don’t need to bring up something as petty as a bargain to do what’s yours to do.”

“...”

A blood debt was sacred. Brutal, lawless revenge that washed away blood with blood was valuable precisely because it had to be pure. Here was a man so out of step with the times that he could say such things without a second thought—things any modern person would call immoral. Yet this was also the Sword Master who had set aside every calculation, overturned a nation, and even faced a Monarch to collect the blood debt owed for his subordinate.

Wang Gi-neung could not decide whether Limon was the world’s greatest fool or simply a madman. In the end, he bowed quietly.

“I, Wang Gi-neung, head of the Wang family of Shanghai, will never forget your kindness, Sword Lord.”

“No need to call it kindness. I was busy anyway, so I’ve just handed you a job. Don’t worry about it.”

Limon spoke dismissively and turned away. He was about to take a step when he stopped, as though something had just occurred to him.

“Oh, and I’m not meddling. Just talking to myself...”

“...?”

“There are three killers.”

“...!”

Wang Gi-neung’s eyes sharpened. Even the Tracers brought in to investigate had only established that there were a few culprits; they did not yet know the exact number.

But Limon was not finished.

“Judging by how they killed, they’re probably criminals experienced in murder, especially players of at least count-class with a record of mass killings.”

“One woman a little over 170 centimeters tall, and two men just under 180.”

“From the way they moved together, the woman fights up close. The other two look to be a special-type and a ranged-type.”

“You’ll probably get results faster if you look for lunatics with military backgrounds or military training.”

The sharp look in Wang Gi-neung’s eyes grew increasingly strange as Limon spoke, until he was staring in astonishment. These were far too many details to glean from a look at the traces left behind. It was as if Limon had witnessed the killers himself.

“How can you know all that, sir?”

“I can tell by looking.” Limon gave a faint laugh and resumed walking. Then he added quietly, “I’ve spent my whole life doing this sort of thing.”

Watching the white-haired man stride away after those parting words, Wang Gi-neung was reminded anew: Limon was humanity’s last Sword Master, an extraordinary hero who had saved the world more times than anyone in history—and a swordsman who had cut down more people than anyone else in history.

“... Her Highness has chosen a truly frightening man for a husband.”