“Excuse me, Chief. There’s something I’m really curious about.”
“What is it?”
“I can understand you, but why do I have to be suspended as well?”
She looked so sorrowful.
As Yuna Gyeong sipped her soju and asked piteously, Limon Aspelder replied with nonchalance.
“A subordinate is responsible for their superior’s mistakes.”
“Isn’t it usually the other way around?!”
“In your eyes, do you think it’s more common for a boss to cover for their subordinate’s mistakes, or for them to dump their own mess onto their subordinate?”
Yuna Gyeong rolled her eyes.
Then, she answered with a confident voice.
“If that boss has a proper sense of morality, it would obviously be the former, right?”
“Yeah. And because those kind bosses get fired while the bad ones get promoted, the latter becomes more common.”
“What kind of dreamless, hopeless talk is that?!”
“Didn’t you know? Reality doesn’t have dreams or hope to begin with.”
“Wow, how filthy.”
Yuna Gyeong wore a shocked expression, looking like a child who had just been told Santa Claus doesn’t exist.
Limon let out a small chuckle at the sight.
Of course, it was only a joke.
If their boss, Kang Jeong-su, had truly intended to shift the blame, it wouldn’t have ended with a mere suspension.
Similarly, Yuna Gyeong, who couldn’t have been unaware of that fact, muttered blankly.
“It’s quite ironic.”
“What is?”
“The fact that we, who were suspended, are drinking comfortably, while the Director who gave the order is probably working himself to death.”
“Well, what can you do? That’s what a Director is for.”
Limon cackled.
If it were a typical Player, it might be different.
But this was an incident involving the assault of a Monarch’s relative.
Though he didn’t know the details, Kang Jeong-su was likely running around until his forehead broke a sweat to clean up the aftermath.
His head might even become more polished.
‘Should I buy him some good hair restorer next time?’
If Kang Jeong-su knew what Limon was thinking, he would have begged him to forget the restorer and just stop causing trouble.
But that plea would never come true.
If such a thing were possible, Limon, a hero of the nation, would never have been demoted to the rank of Chief in the first place.
“Anyway, it honestly felt refreshing.”
“Did it?”
“Yes. That man was such a jerk. He pretended not to know he almost killed someone until the very end, only talking about his money and compensation.”
“That bastard would have said the same thing even if he had beaten someone to death.”
“No way, he’s still human.”
“People drunk on power tend to stop seeing people as human beings.”
Limon wore a cold smile.
Originally, people only feel the humanity of those who are equal to them.
That is why people seek commonalities in age, region, workplace, or hobbies to mingle with those they perceive as equals.
But those drunk on power cannot do that.
The essence of power is dominance.
It is a force that makes one view even an equal as a target for control rather than a peer.
Having seen countless individuals who were once pure become corrupted by power, Limon knew this fact well.
Furthermore, if it was Seo Yong-chan, who was already a ‘cow-head,’ it wasn’t strange at all if he didn’t see other people as human.
“Hearing you say that makes me curious as to why you left Seo Yong-chan alive, Chief.”
“Why? Was I not supposed to?”
“It’s not that you weren’t supposed to, it’s just strange. I really thought you were going to kill him.”
“Well, I did want to kill him.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
Yuna Gyeong tilted her head as she asked.
It was a question she could only ask because she was drunk, but it was also a sincere curiosity.
At the very least, the Limon she knew wasn’t the type of person to hold back for the sake of someone’s background—even if it was the Monarch himself, let alone his brother-in-law.
Limon’s answer was simple.
“If a civil servant commits murder at will, they get fired.”
“…Is that all?”
“It’s not just ‘all.’ If I get fired from here, where else would a relic like me get rehired?”
“That is a very realistic reason.”
As Yuna Gyeong giggled and emptied her glass, Limon chuckled and poured soju into her empty cup.
***
They continued to exchange drinks at the shabby pojangmacha for a long time.
Finally, when a pile of empty bottles had accumulated, Limon stood up, dropped the drunken Yuna Gyeong off at her home, and walked out into the street.
He looked up at the night sky and suddenly muttered.
“The old days were better.”
Before the Players appeared.
If it were the Heroes Age, he could have killed Seo Yong-chan or sold him into slavery as he pleased.
Back then, a Sword Master was an absolute being.
They were more omnipotent than all ten current Monarchs combined.
Even if they killed an innocent person and claimed they were a monster, everyone would have praised them rather than criticized them.
But that was just an old story.
After the Players appeared, the Sword Masters fell.
Just as battleships that were once called fortresses of the sea came to be treated as scrap metal with the development of aircraft carriers and anti-ship missiles, the standing of Sword Masters crumbled with the rise of Skills and Players.
The Sword Tower, where practitioners once flocked without end, could not withstand the operational deficit and went bankrupt.
Those who used to brag about their connections with him cut ties, and the title of Sword Master eventually became a derogatory term of ridicule.
They were called relics who knew nothing but sword-swinging and were drunk on past glory.
‘Well, I don’t really care about that.’
Limon didn’t feel any particular emotion about the fact itself.
His loss of power and downfall had nothing to do with why he didn’t kill Seo Yong-chan. He left Seo Yong-chan alive for one reason.
It was because he had felt something from the appearance of Seo Yong-chan as he turned into a cow-head.
‘They were definitely overlapped, weren’t they?’
He hadn’t noticed at first.
But after a closer look, Limon realized it.
The sense of heterogeneity he felt from the cow-headed Seo Yong-chan came from two different presences being mixed together.
And hidden subtly within the human presence was a disgusting aura, like watching the squirming of a half-rotten brain.
‘I don’t know if it’s possession, fusion, or a parasite…’
It wasn’t a mere ghost.
It was also different from something like a chimera.
Even for Limon, who had lived a reasonably long life, it was a rare form of overlapping he was seeing for the first time.
If one thing was certain, it was that whatever was layered over Seo Yong-chan was something fundamentally different from a human.
‘It’s not something to touch recklessly.’
What it was, and what its relationship was with Seo Yong-chan.
He couldn’t just kill Seo Yong-chan without knowing anything yet.
He might accidentally alert the enemy, and he could learn more by leaving him alive and watching.
What if it caused trouble?
He could just cut it down then.
It would give him a clean justification to kill Seo Yong-chan anyway.
‘I suppose this kind of thinking is also behind the times.’
Limon chuckled.
It might be unavoidable.
No matter how hard he tried to keep up with the trends of the era, he was ultimately a man of the past.
He was a relic left behind by the times.
『The Back Waves of the Yangtze River Push the Front Waves
The back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves
The front waves die on the sandy shore
How long can the glory of the back waves last?
In the blink of an eye, it all becomes the same』
Perhaps it was because he was recalling unnecessary memories.
Or perhaps he was drunk on the exceptionally clear moonlight tonight.
Limon wandered aimlessly through the dark night streets, muttering to himself with no one to listen.
He was suspended anyway.
Since he had nothing to do tomorrow, he planned to enjoy a leisurely night walk before returning home.
But before he could even take a few steps, Limon came to a dead stop.
『The back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves.
The front waves perish on the sandy shore.
If the front waves do not perish and return to the sea,
They shall revive and become the back waves once more.』
“Hmm?”
Limon narrowed his eyes as he heard the voice echoing through the quiet night sky.
It wasn’t because his monologue had been returned to him.
It wasn’t because of the clear, beautiful voice either.
It was because he had only noticed the person’s approach late.
“Who is it?”
Limon was genuinely curious.
No matter what anyone said, he was a Sword Master.
He possessed senses far more sensitive than any average Tracer.
Of course, if he told this to Tracers, they would be outraged that he was comparing them to a relic, but what could he do when it was the truth?
Very few could deceive Limon’s senses and approach him this closely.
Not even the Monarchs.
Interested to see who had accomplished such a difficult feat, Limon watched as the owner of the voice slowly revealed herself.
“I apologize for my rudeness.”
Sleek black hair held in place by a jade hairpin.
An Oriental-style dress embroidered with silver thread on silk.
And her skin, glowing white under the moonlight.
As if pulling back a curtain of night, the visitor stepped out of the darkness.
Too noble to be called a girl, yet too fresh to be called a woman, she asked Limon politely.
“Excuse me, but are you the Sword Lord?”
“The Sword Lord… I suppose I was called that once.”
Limon wore a peculiar expression.
During the time when Sword Masters were absolute beings, people gave him numerous titles, calling him a hero of the nation or the guardian deity of humanity.
‘Sword Lord’ was one of those titles.
However, Limon hadn’t heard that title in a long time.
Most of his aliases had been forgotten, and there was only one group of people who still called him the Sword Lord.
“And the answer to my question?”
She flinched slightly.
It was as if she were afraid of Limon’s reaction once he learned her identity.
But that was only for a moment.
As if steeled by resolve, she took a short breath and lifted her head.
Looking straight into Limon’s golden eyes, she spoke with a trembling voice.
“Would you recognize the name Li Qingwei of the Black Dragon Clan?”
“There’s no way I wouldn’t.”
Contrary to Li Qingwei’s worries, Limon did not get angry or draw his sword.
He had already guessed her identity from the moment she appeared through the darkness.
It was only natural.
There was no way Limon, of all people, wouldn’t recognize Psionics.
And no matter how wide the world was, there was only one Psionic user capable of deceiving Limon’s eyes and ears.
“So, what business does the Princess of the Seven Dragons Society have with me?”
“I’ve come to ask the Sword Lord for a favor.”
“A favor? You? To me?”
Limon doubted his ears.
He would sooner believe the moon would split in half.
To his knowledge, it was absolutely impossible for a member of the Seven Dragons Society to ask him for anything.
Especially if it was the Princess of the Black Dragon Clan.
“Yes.”
But she denied Limon’s common sense so easily.
After staring blankly at Li Qingwei for a moment, Limon looked up at the moon and thought.
‘The times really have changed.’
Why did common sense have to change so drastically from era to era?
While grumbling inwardly, Limon asked Li Qingwei.
“What exactly are you going to ask for?”
Limon prepared himself.
If the Princess of the Black Dragon Clan had personally sought him out to ask for a favor, it would certainly not be anything ordinary.
He intended not to be surprised no matter what she said.
But the moment he heard the request, Limon couldn’t help but wear a completely dumbfounded expression.
“Please marry me.”
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