Chapter 20: I’ll think about it

“That is a pity.”

“What is?”

“The fact that I cannot call my dear husband my dear husband.”

“I told you not to call me that.”

“I have alternatives like ‘Darling’ or ‘Big Brother’ too.”

“Can you please give it a rest?”

She seemed to be enjoying herself way too much.

Looking at Li Qingwei, who was staring at him with a beaming smile, Limon thought to himself.

She was a princess who was a handful in many ways.

Of course, he had known she wasn’t an ordinary princess from the moment she sought him out to make him her live-in son-in-law, or when she boldly handed over shares of the Leviathan.

Even so, he didn’t expect her to try and cement the marriage as a fait accompli by calling him her husband already.

It was enough to make his head spin.

‘She acts like a sly fox, yet she somehow looks strangely innocent.’

The most peculiar thing was one specific point.

Limon could not read Li Qingwei’s true intentions.

Having lived for a long time, he was fairly confident in his ability to read people.

But even for Limon, Li Qingwei was not easy to measure at all.

Considering her skill at proposals and negotiations while hiding various intentions, she seemed like a deep-thinking strategist.

The problem was that the joyful smile on her face and her strangely friendly attitude didn’t seem fake at all.

‘Exactly why would she have a reason to be friendly with me?’

This was only the second time Li Qingwei and Limon had met.

Since their first meeting was just a few days ago when she proposed, they were practically strangers.

Yet, why was she so happy to see him?

It was something he couldn’t understand at all.

Considering the long-standing grudge between the Seven Dragons Association and Limon, she should have hated him.

There shouldn’t have been even a speck of a reason for her to feel goodwill toward him.

‘Thinking rationally, it’s logical to assume this is all an act…’

“Sword Master? What is the matter?”

Limon stared intently at Li Qingwei.

Seeing the girl look puzzled under his gaze, he muttered flatly.

“Whatever.”

“Pardon?”

“No, I’m just saying I’m going to give up on thinking about it.”

“……??”

Li Qingwei blinked blankly.

But Limon no longer worried about whether it was an act or her true feelings.

It was because it didn’t matter.

He had already sworn on his sword.

As long as she did not turn her back on him, he would not abandon her either.

For Limon, that was enough.

No matter what her inner thoughts were, as long as she didn’t stab him in the back, he didn’t need to care.

If she did betray him, he would just make her pay the price then.

That was why Limon threw the dilemma away.

Instead, he simply asked as he lifted the glass of whiskey Youin had brought.

“More importantly, what are you going to do now?”

“About what?”

“The gnats outside.”

Li Qingwei’s eyes widened.

She knew that the ‘gnats’ he mentioned weren’t actual insects.

“You knew?”

“How could I not know when they’re leaking their presence like that?”

If the ‘gnats’ had heard that, they would have protested that it was impossible.

They were top-tier tracers.

Their stealth, specialized for tracking and infiltration, was not something even a high-level player could easily see through.

“I suppose you would.”

“Indeed, even we were able to sense them.”

However, neither Li Qingwei nor Youin doubted Limon’s words.

They knew better than anyone else in the world how meaningless it was to hide one’s presence from Limon.

“Still, they seem to be hiding fairly well for government half-wits… Or are they from the Infinite Monarch’s side?”

“Yes. To be precise, it seems there is a mix of tracers from other guilds hired by the [Infinity] Guild.”

This was also something that would have terrified the ‘gnats.’

In Li Qingwei’s case, it meant she had not only detected their presence but had even identified the identities of those deployed in the area.

But Limon accepted that fact calmly.

Monitoring the Leviathan Hotel while lying in ambush, of all places.

It was a miracle they had only gotten their identities caught.

In the old days, every single one of them would have vanished without a trace before their identities could even be confirmed.

‘Actually, it wouldn’t be much different now, would it?’

Limon tilted his head.

Even if they had gone legitimate, they were still the Seven Dragons Association.

Especially given the nature of the Leviathan Hotel, it was normally impossible to just leave them be.

“Is it because of the Infinite Monarch? You left them alone even though you knew?”

“Half of it is.”

Li Qingwei readily admitted it.

Although the Seven Dragons Group controlled the world’s economy, the Monarchs were the absolute powers of this era.

Touching the Infinite Monarch’s underlings just because they were nearby was not something even they could do easily.

“And the other half?”

“The man who is to be my husband is here. I can’t exactly go around causing a bloodbath, can I?”

“Ah, I see.”

He wasn’t sure if he should thank her for the consideration or just ignore it.

After seriously contemplating it, Limon just changed the direction of the conversation.

“I thought you weren’t touching them because you were worried about the bastards in the back.”

“Pardon?”

“Huh?”

It was almost simultaneous—the way a question mark appeared over Li Qingwei’s head and the way Limon tilted his.

“The people in the back?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know? Their group is on standby a little further away.”

Li Qingwei couldn’t say a word at Limon’s skeptical question.

She just looked at Youin in confusion.

However, Youin was equally perplexed by the unexpected news.

“We did not find any trace of others within a 10-ri (approx. 4km) radius. At least…”

“Huh? Is that all you guys monitor these days?”

“Times have changed. While we monitor via devices, we only maintain a human perimeter up to that distance.”

“Good grief… The world really has become a comfortable place.”

Limon clicked his tongue.

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand.

Now that the Seven Dragons Association had successfully integrated into legitimate society, the need for high-level security would have decreased.

Still, he hadn’t expected even the Leviathan Hotel to become this soft.

While feeling a strange sense of the generational gap, Limon pointed out the core of the problem.

“Anyway, then you might not know. They’re about 12 kilometers out.”

“At a distance of 30-ri?”

“Yeah. The tracers are probably bait. It’s likely the main force waiting for an excuse to move once you guys go out to catch them.”

“I see. That was it.”

Only then did Li Qingwei show a look of realization.

On the other hand, Youin voiced a question he hadn’t resolved yet.

“Sword Master, how did you know they were there?”

“I looked out the window and just saw them.”

“……You’re saying you saw them from here?”

“They were right over there.”

Youin looked out the window, following Limon’s nonchalantly extended finger.

The Leviathan was a super-high-rise hotel befitting its name.

From here on the top floor, one could easily look down on the surrounding dozens of kilometers.

Especially for Youin, a master of psionics, checking for human presence 10 kilometers away wasn’t particularly difficult.

The problem was that having good eyesight and finding suspicious people were two different things.

“I do not see anything particularly suspicious…”

“That’s probably because of the barrier.”

“A barrier?”

“It looks like they set something up to hide. So, look closely at the parts where you feel a sense of dissonance in the atmosphere.”

“……”

Youin was momentarily speechless.

To summarize Limon’s words, it meant he had felt a dissonance in the atmosphere from that far away and found the ambush.

He was talking about people who were most likely high-level players from the Infinity Guild, hiding behind barriers 12 kilometers away.

It was an inhuman feat.

‘……He truly is the Sword Master.’

But even while being astonished, he didn’t doubt Limon’s words.

He only let out a sigh as he recalled the past, when the Seven Dragons Association had tried every desperate measure to catch this monster.

He was a martial artist of the old era.

Unlike the youngsters of today who strangely looked down on Sword Masters, he was someone who knew exactly what kind of existence a Sword Master was.

“If it is as the Sword Master says, we cannot just let them be.”

“Why not just leave them? It’ll be resolved once I go out anyway.”

“We can’t do that.”

“Why, is your pride hurt?”

Limon asked with a smirk.

The Seven Dragons Association was originally an organization whose pride pierced the heavens.

They weren’t the type to tolerate such blatant military provocation.

That was why he was surprised by Li Qingwei’s answer.

“No, it’s because their target might be me.”

“What?”

“Their tails have been stuck to me ever since I entered this country.”

“…They’ve been following you? Why?”

“Well, I wonder why?”

Was she saying she didn’t know the reason herself?

Or was she saying it was difficult to talk about?

Limon didn’t press Li Qingwei, who countered with a beaming smile.

He simply understood.

‘I wondered why she didn’t seem to care that I caused friction with the Infinite Monarch.’

Marrying him now meant making the Monarch an enemy.

No matter how much she needed Limon’s strength, it was something she should have reconsidered.

Despite that, he thought it was strange that Li Qingwei passed over that fact so calmly, but it made sense if she already had issues with Lee Cheon-gi from the start.

Whether the culprit was Lee Cheon-gi himself, or the existence behind him.

Since they had been stalking her, a clash with the Infinite Monarch was inevitable anyway.

“What are you going to do if the reason they’re monitoring this place really is because of you?”

“I’ll have to take the necessary response, right?”

“And I’m asking what that response is.”

Li Qingwei didn’t answer directly to the question Limon posed with a strange expression.

She simply spoke quietly.

“Youin.”

“The Ammil Squad and the Heukyo Squad can move immediately.”

“If possible, please have the Mukryong Squad on standby as well.”

“Will that be alright?”

“The opponent is the Infinity Guild. Rather than touching them halfway, it’s better to be thorough and take a lecture from the Elders later, isn’t it?”

“Indeed, you are right.”

Youin agreed with a serious expression to Li Qingwei’s words, which she said with a grin.

And Limon was left speechless.

“……Are you guys planning to start a full-scale war with the Infinite Monarch?”

“They are the ones who crossed the line first.”

“I’m not exactly trying to defend them, but they probably didn’t even know such a line existed.”

“Just because they didn’t know doesn’t mean what they did disappears, right?”

“Well, that’s true…”

Limon scratched his cheek.

Actually, he didn’t really have any intention of stopping them.

It was because he could understand Li Qingwei’s sharp reaction.

Whether they did it knowingly or unknowingly, Lee Cheon-gi had touched the Seven Dragons Association’s reverse scale, and from their perspective, it was something they could never overlook.

“Still, charging in head-on in this day and age is a bit much. The business losses alone would be massive.”

The reason Limon spoke up was simple.

It was because he didn’t want to cause a ruckus at the Leviathan Hotel.

He had just decided to take the shares, and if the Infinite Monarch and the Black Dragon Clan had a full-scale war here, he didn’t know what would happen to their value.

“Do you have another suggestion?”

“I wouldn’t call it a ‘suggestion’ per se.”

Limon emptied the whiskey he had been sipping in one gulp.

Then, putting down the empty glass, he continued nonchalantly.

“I thought I’d show them why people used to be so terrified of meeting a Sword Master as an enemy.”

“Uh, um……”

“Ummm……”

It was at that moment.

The expressions of Li Qingwei and Youin changed subtly at the same time.

As if they were looking at a puppy rolling around on top of a bomb.

Li Qingwei, who was looking at Limon with a face that was an exquisite mix of sympathy, anxiety, and pity, spoke cautiously.

“……Um, Sword Master?”

“What?”

“You’ll show them at least a little mercy… right?”

Hearing her question, which was filled with sincere worry, Limon fell into thought for a moment.

Then, he replied with a cold smile.

“I’ll think about it.”

Unfortunately, it was an answer that provided no comfort at all.