Chapter 82 - Know a Person by Their Sword

“Do you have a clever solution?”

“I wouldn’t call it clever. It’s a very simple, basic approach.”

“What is it?”

Li Qingyu’s eyes shone as she wondered what solution this Sword Master, who had lived for so many years, had devised. Limon looked at her and scratched his cheek.

“Hmm, it’s complicated to explain... For now, can you get me detailed records on your domestic subsidiaries?”

“Which subsidiaries, and what sort of records?”

“All of them.”

“... All of them?”

“Yep. Headquarters and branch locations, their size, main products, revenue, employee lists, average visitor numbers—every record you’ve got.”

“What are you going to use them for?”

“As you know, I used to be a PAB agent, at least in name. And catching criminals was a PAB agent’s job.”

“...?”

Li Qingyu looked utterly baffled by the connection between those records and Limon’s former job. He gave a small chuckle.

“An investigator’s main job isn’t fighting criminals. It’s preventing crimes and investigating them.”

* * *

“... Princess.”

“Yes, Sword Lord?”

“Well, I did ask you to bring me everything, but... isn’t this a bit much?” Limon asked uneasily.

Li Qingyu tilted her head. “You said to bring every record we had.”

“Sure, but there’s such a thing as going too far. You could stock a small library with these and still have some left over,” Limon said.

The documents piled before him truly formed a mountain. They filled the walls and were stacked across the floor in layers, until the room held more paper than furniture and empty space combined.

“Well, we are the Seven Dragons Society. And we only managed to organize it into this much because Chao worked so hard.”

“Urgh...” Limon groaned.

Then again, he should have expected this. However far it had declined, the Black Dragon Clan was still a pillar of the Seven Dragon Group. Of course its subsidiaries had extensive records. He had simply forgotten that after looking at nothing but the slim summaries Wei Ling had prepared lately.

'I can’t take it back now...'

Limon glanced at the person who had brought the documents. Dark circles stood out beneath Wei Ling’s eyes. Her lips were dry with exhaustion, her skin dull. Gone was the immaculate beauty who usually dressed as a man. One look told him she had stayed up all night preparing the records, and he groaned again.

People might call Limon a mad dog, but even he had enough conscience not to go back on his word just because there was more paperwork than he had expected—not after seeing her face.

'No helping it.'

With a sigh, he picked up a thick sheaf from the nearest pile.

FLIP.

“...?”

“...”

A moment later, Li Qingyu blinked and Wei Ling frowned. Limon had begun repeating the same sequence: pick up a sheaf, flip through it once, then set it down.

“What are you looking for?”

“What do you mean?”

“Aren’t you skimming them like that because you’re looking for something in particular?”

“No, I’m reading all of it.”

“... You’re saying you can read documents at that speed?”

“Why wouldn’t I? It’s a lot easier than seeing a bullet coming and knocking it aside.”

“...”

Wei Ling was speechless. It wasn’t entirely impossible to believe. The Seven Dragons Society itself had several experts who could dodge bullets. But ask whether even they could do what Limon was doing, and the obvious answer was, “Are you insane?”

Dodging a bullet usually meant watching the direction of the gun barrel and moving out of its line of fire at the right moment. Actually seeing a bullet and dodging it was difficult. Reading at Limon’s speed would require eyesight sharp enough to read the letters engraved on a bullet in flight. No human could do that.

“Come to think of it, I suppose it wouldn’t be very difficult for you, Sword Lord.”

Li Qingyu accepted it readily. Watching Limon continue to turn pages without a care, Wei Ling was reminded of two things. First, this white-haired young man was a Sword Master—a true superhuman whom even a whole group of the Seven Dragons Society’s master-level experts could not handle.

And second...

“Then why haven’t you been processing documents at that speed until now?”

Limon had been slacking off. Under Wei Ling’s stare, as though she were looking at human garbage, he cleared his throat.

“Reading something and understanding it are different matters. Reading a specialist textbook a hundred times doesn’t make everyone an expert, does it?”

“Reading something only once when you have time to read it a hundred times is generally called slacking off.”

“That’s because you’re so good at your job, you know-it-all.”

FLIP-FLIP-FLIP.

Employing a capable subordinate and trusting her with the work was excellent management too, after all. Limon brazenly let Wei Ling’s glare roll off him while his faintly vibrating eyes swept over page after page.

Several hours later, he finally put the documents down and rubbed his eyes.

“Ow, my eyes sting.”

“Did you really read all that?”

“If I didn’t, why the hell would I spend hours staring at these scraps of paper?”

Wei Ling looked doubtful. Li Qingyu, on the other hand, watched him expectantly.

“So, did you find anything?”

“No. Nothing at all.”

“... What?”

Li Qingyu blinked blankly, clearly not having expected that answer. Wei Ling challenged him on her behalf.

“Then why did you read them?”

“Don’t be so impatient. I’m about to check what I found out.”

Wei Ling looked at him as though he were out of his mind. Limon calmly stood, strode to the middle of the room, and said, “Both of you, stand back by the wall. I need to concentrate now.”

“On what...?”

SHING.

Wei Ling fell silent. It wasn’t just that Limon had suddenly drawn his sword. As he held it and gently closed his eyes, a pressure radiated from him that stopped her words in her throat.

“... Weapons: a knife four chon long, twelve centimeters; an oddly shaped blunt weapon three cheok and one chon long, 930 centimeters; and a ranged-type skill.”

“Primary methods: slashing that avoids vital points to inflict as much pain as possible. Destruction born of madness and overwhelming strength. Cold, thorough crushing with a skill.”

“Then...”

As though searching his memory, Limon muttered to himself for a moment. Then, eyes still closed, he slowly began to move his sword.

At times, as though carving flesh from bone. At times, like a beast gripped by madness. At times, as though moving a massive boulder weighing a thousand geun.

The sword stayed slow, yet shifted between sharpness, violence, and crushing weight. Watching it, Wei Ling felt a chill.

Each change in swordsmanship transformed his bearing so completely that he seemed like another person. Though his blade cut only empty air, she had the dreadful sense that he was butchering someone before her. Goosebumps rose on her skin.

FWOOSH!

Perhaps he was swinging his sword with too much force. Though it touched nothing, the documents piled all around took flight, covering everything in white like a blizzard raging through the night sky. Limon kept moving his sword, unperturbed by the storm of paper.

The sheets rose and whirled through the air as though alive—a whole flock of creatures. Mere scraps of paper became a swarm of butterflies pursuing a flower, fluttering in dazzling patterns after his blade.

'...!'

Wei Ling’s mouth went dry.

It wasn’t only because his sword seemed to control tens of thousands of sheets as freely as his own limbs. She had realized that, of all the pages whirling in the storm, not one had been cut by his blade. It was the pinnacle of technique, a sight only someone who had reached the ultimate heights of the sword could reproduce. As a swordswoman, she could only tremble at it.

SWISH.

How long had it been? At last Limon stopped his sword, and the flying documents fell. On his blade, held straight out horizontally, three different sheets rested lightly, stacked with the precision of a ruler.

CLAP, CLAP, CLAP.

“That’s the Sword Lord for you. To wield a sword so beautifully when you weren’t even performing a sword dance!”

Li Qingyu applauded enthusiastically, as though she had seen a wonderful show. Limon showed no particular pride. He merely gave his sword a slight flick.

“Catch.”

Wei Ling reflexively caught the three sheets that slid through the air toward her. Limon spoke evenly.

“If there’s a next target, it’ll be one of these three. Prepare accordingly. Send roughly one combat unit to each site and you should be able to avoid the worst.”

“... You’re saying the killers will attack one of these three places next?”

“If they attack again.”

“Why?”

Wei Ling’s doubt was plain. Limon’s swordsmanship had been astonishing, but it was still only a display of skill with a sword. Looked at coolly, he had simply swung it around and handed her a few sheets that happened to land on it.

“Ever heard the saying, ‘Know a person by their sword’?”

“Of course I know that common saying.”

“Right. If you can do that much, the rest is simple. You just have to think of the way they killed as swordsmanship.”

Wei Ling studied him. Only after a moment did she understand what he meant, and she frowned.

“... You reinterpreted the marks on the bodies as swordsmanship to deduce a pattern in their attacks?”

“More or less.”

“Do you honestly think that makes sense?”

Wei Ling’s lips curled in derision. His claim was absurd beyond belief. It was like watching swallows fly today and naming the date a typhoon would come next year—nonsense that would put a fraudulent fortune-teller to shame.

“It does make sense.”

But it was Li Qingyu, not Limon, who promptly answered Wei Ling’s objection.

“Because the Sword Lord is a Sword Master.”

He was neither a fortune-teller nor a detective. He could not prophesy, nor could he identify a criminal through deduction. But when it came to swordsmanship, there was nothing Limon did not know and nothing he could not do. He might be a swordsman who knew nothing but the sword, but that was precisely why he was an absolute being—a Master—who had mastered everything about it.

Surely, then, he could tell how many spoons a killer had at home just by looking at the sword wounds on a body.

Li Qingyu said it all with a bright smile. Limon objected uneasily.

“No, even I can’t tell how many spoons a killer has at home from that alone.”

“But you can tell which hand they use to hold a spoon, can’t you?”

“That much, yes, but...”

“Then it amounts to the same thing. You just have to work out their habits, personality, and financial situation, then make a prediction.”

“... Why don’t you just tell me to become a fortune-teller?”